Sunday 10 August 2014

Lessons Learned: Lesson #2

I was hoping to write a "bathroom reveal" post today, but we hit a snag in the progress of the bathroom last night.  After assembling the new vanity that we had purchased (it was worse than putting together a piece of IKEA furniture!) we went to put it into place only to discover that it's too tall and the electrical outlet will have to be moved.  Unfortunately that means the beadboard will have to come off and we will have some more drywall to patch before we can put it all back together.  So no bathroom reveal today.

And that brings me to lesson #2.  When we started this bathroom reno (just a few days before our wedding, what were we thinking?) we thought it would take just a few days.  We purchased the new fixtures, started ripping wallpaper, and thought we could have it all back together in about three days.  It's now been five weeks.  Yes, we took some time in there to get married and go on a honeymoon, but one thing we have definitely learned is that it will always take longer than expected.  Whether it's because we find eight layers of wallpaper to strip, or because an outlet needs to be moved, or the floor needs to be painted, we have learned that in a 130 year old house you can't set timelines.  The house will dictate how long each of our projects will take, not us.  The good thing is that we're in no rush.  We're not doing this because we want to flip this house and sell it in a year.  We love this house and plan on being here for many, many years to come.

Last week I mentioned that we had a visit from the great-great nephew of Samuel Jeffrey.  While we were talking with him, he mentioned that there was a plaque in downtown Port Perry that marks the spot where the Courtice and Jeffrey Harness Factory was located.  Thomas Courtice was the man who built our house, and his business partner and son in law Samuel Jeffrey later purchased it from him.

The plaque is located at the entrance to Petite Images Dollhouse Shop on Queen St. in Port Perry

Queen Street, before and after the 1884 fire - you can see the T. Courtice building on the left side

Above photos courtesy of Heritage Scugog
Another interesting fact that we learned is that Samuel Jeffrey was the first person to own a car in Port Perry.  It's pretty cool to think that we park in the same driveway that also had our town's first car parked in it!


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