A Little Here, Some More There…

Work continues at Boo Manor. Things have been happening on many fronts, so it’s difficult to keep track of it all. As well, progress becomes harder to monitor just because everything is moving forward a little bit with each crew, day be day. In the last few weeks, we’ve had painting, flooring installation, flooring refinishing and electrical fixture installation all happening more-or-less at once. With a few side projects for good measure.

Dianne checks out the kitchen. New flooring, first coat of paint, and that lovely, lovely window.

Most of the rooms have now had a coat of paint, and several have had more than one. The front guest bedroom and the great room are essentially done, the kitchen is started, most other rooms have a full coat and the only rooms that have yet to progress much on the painting front are the dining room and Dianne’s den.

The rooms that are finished look gorgeous. The great room is spectacular; the new colour is darker than what was previously there, but in the same relative tone of green, so while painting was happening it was genuinely difficult a couple of times to discern what was new vs. what was old. Now that it is done, the walls make the wood beams in the space glow with a fabulous warmth.

The great room. Painted, cleaned and beautiful.

The floor refinishing has also been done in the last week. After 17 years of traffic, the maple floor was showing signs of wear and tear. A crew of three went at it, and what they have accomplished is impressive. The floor looks brand new. Along with Keelan doing a clean-up of the beams themselves (they had accumulated a few years worth of dust) the overall impression is stunning.

The refinished great room floor. All ready for another 17 years of service.

My den is coming along nicely as well. The paint colour is awesome. It’s the colour that I had in my last den, so I know it will work with the furniture. But even better, it works with the woodwork in the rooms. It sets off the wood framing of the windows, and the flooring, spectacularly. And my manly-but-dangly light fixture is now installed (complete with Edison bulb) and is looking pretty sharp, if I do say so myself.

Mark’s den. New and improved, with no more popcorn ceiling!

Up in the bathroom, the flooring has been installed and Keelan managed to strip and prime both of the cabinets in preparation for painting. The linen tower that we found was a particular challenge, as it had been waxed. Apparently stripping this involved copious amounts of naphtha and wire wool, and Keelan studiously avoiding letting things catch fire. There is little reward without risk, I suppose. They are now ready to be painted and put back together.

Bathroom cabinets stripped and primed, and the floor tiling installed.

While all this was going on, Dianne and I contributed to the process where we could, mostly be pitching in and doing some carpet cleaning. One Saturday morning not too long ago, we headed out at the crack of dawn to rent a carpet cleaner from Sobey’s, and tackle the carpets. There were some stains that stubbornly resist coming out, but are at least no longer noticeable. The carpets, however, gave up an impressive amount of dirt, grit and animal hair. Several hours of manhandling the cleaner and one pair of wet socks later, the bedrooms are at least clean.

Mark, caught in the closet. Time he cleaned up his act.

In the next couple of weeks, the majority of the work will be completed. Cabinets go in next week, and the painters are back on site. Keelan is busy rehanging doors. The tilers are back in the bathroom finishing up the walls. And I have some furniture to build. That, however, is an entirely different story that will be told at a later date.

Taking Shape. And Colour.

Painting is happening. Within the next couple of days, everything should have had at least an initial coat of paint. Some rooms will in fact be finished.

A lot is happening. Parking is getting scarce. And tight.

I had an opportunity to head up to Boo Manor to check on things, as well as deal with a few appointments with suppliers. Without question, progress is being made. A lot of progress. The house was abuzz with contractors when I arrived; in fact, there was barely room to pull into the driveway. All told, there were eight cars when I got there, and Gene subsequently pulled in behind me.

Painting is underway. The master bedroom, nearing completion.

Much work has been done since my last update. Most of the upstairs bedrooms have now been painted, and the final bedroom is underway. When the wallpaper came off in one of the guest bedrooms, much plaster did also; apparently, the walls had never been primed or painted. It sort of makes me wonder about the age of the wallpaper, to be honest, but the result was that there was a lot of damage to the walls, as well as a number of cracks in the plaster from settling. The room needed a full skim coat to repair the damage and prep the room for painting.

The wine room, painted an appropriate colour. With doors that needed to move a little to make way for flooring.

In addition, there have been a number of other creative bits of work going on. The basement is getting proper flooring instead of the linoleum-like surface that is there now. That means that the height of the floor will raise nearly 3/4″. Which means that every door in the basement will no longer function properly. As a consequence, all of the doors need to be raised in their frames to clear the new floors. This has been Keelan’s latest project.

A beam runs through it. Structural yes, but not helpful for projection.

The rest of the basement is now taking shape, as well. The cables have been run for the multimedia (surround sound speakers, as well as video and power for the projector). We’ve figured out how to mount the projector, despite a very large beam bisecting the middle of the basement ceiling. The optimal dimensions of the projection screen (netting out to a very respectable 100″ TV, if we’re going to be comparing size) have been determined.

Dave painting the great room. Ladders? For wimps. We’ve got scaffolding.

All in all, Boo Manor is coming together. By the end of this week, priming and first coats on all the painting will be done. All the holes will have been repaired, including a couple of new ones that I discovered today. Flooring is on deck for installation next week. As well, Keelan will be stripping and prepping the vanity and linen cabinet for installation and painting.

Rock Solid and Gorgeous

We did get some good news recently. The granite place has found our ‘Bora Bora’ granite. It’s time for another field trip to London to scope things out.

At this point, we have largely made our colour selections. At least, we think so. As far as the kitchen goes, a lot will depend upon the colouring of the granite. Because there is a lot of colour variation, there could yet be a change in cabinet and wall colours (particularly depending upon whether the granite has an overall ‘cool’ or ‘warm’ cast to it). Much will depend upon what we see when we get a look at the actual slabs going into our house.

The original plan was to have a look at the slabs a week ago. Sadly, that plan changed when Southern Ontario got hit with an impressive and massive snow storm. Mark was supposed to fly in the night before; his flight got cancelled, and driving anywhere that day was strongly inadvisable. As excited as we were to see the granite, the appointment needed to be rescheduled.

As a result of scheduling commitments with both Gene and ourselves, the first time that we could all get out to London was the following Friday. Fortunately, the day was bright and sunny, if still cold and suffering a hangover of the previous week’s storm.

Getting to see our slabs of granite was an awesome experience. We knew that we loved the granite overall, but there were a lot of questions of how all of the colours of the kitchen would come together. We wanted unique and exciting, and we really didn’t want drab; given that many of our preliminary colour choices were technically ‘grey’ (although a green-grey), this was definitely a risk. Given that the colours we had chosen spilled into the yellow end of the spectrum, slabs that had cooler colour tones would not have worked. We would have then been back to the drawing board.

Bora Bora, in all its glory.

The actual slabs we have secured, however, are definitely towards the warm end of things. And they are absolutely, positively gorgeous. Rather than granite, they resemble a sedimentary rock that has been built up in layers. There are tones of green, grey, brown, orange, black and blue, all depending upon where on the slab you are looking. The overall result should be absolutely stunning.

Checking out the granite for the kitchen. It should look amazing.

Last time we were out in London, we got so excited picking the kitchen granite that we completely neglected the bathroom. So apart from inspecting the ‘Bora Bora,’ we also had to select a stone for the bathroom counter. The overall design is leaning to a traditional, old-world feel, and something in similar to a marble would be ideal. Marble itself, however, is decidedly NOT ideal. It is a very porous stone, and would quickly become stained from water, toothbrushes and the like. A granite is far preferable, but ideally we want a granite that will have the feel of marble.

The granite for the bathroom. Not marble, but you can see it from here.

We looked at a number of potential slabs, but ultimately went with one that has a lot of ‘texture’ to it. While it is far more ‘grey’ than we had in mind, it should be awesome with the vanity that we’ve selected. The vanity itself will be a deep blue (the actual colour is ‘Indie-go-go.’ Really). It should also play off the tiles that we’ve chosen for the floor and wainscotting beautifully.

Slowly Making Progress

It has been a while since we have posted. Not because no work has been happening, because there has been. But January was a month of personal difficulties, which kept us from many trips to Boo Manor. And there weren’t a lot of major decisions to be made, which has kept the updates down some as well.

In the meantime, the various work crews have continued to make steady progress on the house. Much of this work will ultimately not be visible, critical though it is. Keelan, for example, spent several days levelling the bathroom floor. This shouldn’t be a big issue, in a room that is about 8′ by 7′, but it surprisingly was. The rough estimate is that the floor varied by as much as 3″ overall, meaning that some parts of the joist had to be shaved down and others needed to be built up. Along the way, some pipes that were perilously close to the top of the joists (and therefore in jeopardy of screw punctures when the floor gets fastened down) needed to be moved. Invisible, all of it, but critical nonetheless.

This is not a level floor. This is not even close to a level floor. But it will be, before we are done.

As well, the drywallers have been through. The kitchen and bathroom have now been closed up, various ceilings and walls have been repaired, and the other holes that have been punched out along the way have been cleaned up and repaired. All in all, the house is coming together and we are starting to get a sense of what the finished product will look like.

The kitchen takes shape. There are walls now. Real, live, drywalled walls.

Next up is painting and flooring. Can’t wait.

For Want Of A Hinge (Part 3)

For a number of reasons, HingeQuest needed to take a hiatus for a period of time. Upon its resumption, however, I already had a location in mind. The location in Cobourg was still out there (as Cobourg pretty much is, being 1.5 hours the other side of Toronto from our current stomping grounds). In the meantime, however, I had discovered another company specializing in the reclamation and salvage of old buildings.

Artefacts in St. Jacobs. Knowledgeable, friendly, and – even better – with what we were looking for!

Artefacts is a company in St. Jacobs, and has been specializing in architectural salvage for more than 25 years. More particularly, theIr focus runs to the residential end of things. They specialize in reclaiming, refurbishing and restoring pretty much anything that can be extracted from old houses as they are being gutted or torn down. The two principals, Chris and Scott, are extremely hands-on, and – while I have only met Chris – also very knowledgeable about what it is they have, where it came from and why it is useful.

We came looking for hardware, and got distracted along the way by kitties.

The first thing we discovered upon entering Artefacts was that they have an incredible variety of doorknobs available. Actually, that’s not true. The first thing we discovered was that they have an amazing and incredibly affectionate cat. The second thing that we discovered was the doorknobs.

Knobs? Why, yes. We have knobs! What kind of knob would you like, specifically?

Where the doorknobs at Addison’s were relatively new (probably last 20 years, but still porcelain) what Artefacts sells are the real deal. Genuine, vintage, 19th century door hardware – including cross-bars, rosettes and (if you can figure out what kind of latch set you need) latch sets. Within five minutes of walking in the front door, we had three sets of porcelain doorknobs and one very cool latch set. What is wonderful about all of the hardware is that it has been completely refurbished, and is in spectacularly good shape.

One vintage latch set, complete with working lock, key mortise and porcelain knobs in gorgeous condition.

That merely set us up for our next discovery: hinges! First up, some beautiful reproduction hinges — replicating the right period, all in the right size, and with patterns that were similar to what we were looking for. Even better, once I had refocussed on the broader array of what was one offer, is that they also had antique hinges. Best, from our point of view, is that they had the exact antique hinges that we were looking for. Refurbished. And in sufficient quantities. Well, they had four sets of them. We bought the lot.

Hinges, we have hinges! Oh yes we do. HingeQuest is officially over. And Artefacts is out of stock.

We were also finally able to answer the question of where and when these hinges had come from. As it turns out, they were in fact the original article. They are cast iron hinges, manufactured and used largely in the late 1800s, and built to surprisingly specific standards. So the stamping of the dimensions on the back was not in fact evidence of reproductions; it was illustration of the fact that, even in the 1800s, some enterprising ironmongers had their collective bits together.

Our hinges are one of two patterns that were predominantly in use in the area of western Ontario in the late 1800s. The folks at Artefacts call it the ‘3E’ pattern, because that’s roughly what it looks like. There was also a slightly more ornate pattern, with ‘leaves’ branching from the main body of the design, that was also often found in houses of the period.

Wooden brackets, normally used as an architectural detail on Italianate buildings. Just like ours.

The last discovery before we left Artefacts was that they also have roof brackets. It was common in the design of Italianate houses (of which ours is one) that under the eaves of the roof appeared ornate wooden brackets, two at a time, that joined the upper wall and the soffit. At some point in a previous renovation, the brackets on Boo Manor disappeared. Artefacts happens to sell brackets that have been recovered from similar-era houses. While not in the scope of this project (you have to stop somewhere, after all) I have a feeling we will be back in the future to check them out.

For Want Of A Hinge (Part 2)

Given my failure to find any of the hinges that we were looking for at Addison’s, the next stop in my quest was in Waterloo. The Timeless Material Company is another organization specializing in reclaiming materials from older buildings (everything from office buildings to factories to churches) and houses. Situated in a restored barn from the 1840s, they have multiple levels featuring everything from reclaimed flooring (massive amounts, at a surprisingly reasonable per-square-foot costs) to doors, windows, pews and staircases.

The Timeless Material Company in Waterloo. Salvage for sale.

We had first visited the Timeless Material Company with Gene, when we were on the lookout for a potential bathroom vanity. While they didn’t have any candidates at the time, I had filed them away for future possible uses as we proceeded with the renovations. Stock continues to evolve based upon what comes in. A sister company is involved in on-going demolition products, and what can be recovered is either refurbished or sold ‘as is’.

More types of recovered doors than you can possibly imagine. And the hardware to match (sort of).

Having visited twice, I have to say that it is surprisingly impressive what it is possible to salvage. They have the sign from the old ‘Seagram’s Museum’ (one of the first places that I shopped for alcohol in my mis-spent youth), as well as rocks (boulders, really), beams and floorboards. You can get a weathered, 20″ wide piece of lumber in surprisingly good condition (something that, once again, you won’t find at your local hardware store). Although that single piece of wood will also put a surprisingly hefty whole in your wallet. As an example, I saw single boards that were priced at $120. When someone is specifically looking for a wide board as a specific architectural feature, however, I am sure that there are more than a few people that will happily pay the price.

Gorgeous church windows. And boards of a width that you won’t find today. At prices you won’t believe.

The Timeless Material Company also sells hardware, I’m pleased to report (although a surprising amount of it remains attached to salvaged doors). Antique doorknobs, latch sets, mortise locks and the like are all available, although in less selection than Addison’s. This is also an area that they do less work in terms of refurbishment. Much of the hardware is sold ‘as is’, and a good deal of it is going to need a fair bit of sweat equity to bring up to scratch.

From awesome archways to vintage windows, and everything in between.

Sadly, though, there were no hinges of the period that I was looking for. They again had a vast area of tarnished, rusted and well-painted hinges of various eras, but ‘era’ in this context could be defined as ‘seventies’, ‘eighties’ and ‘nineties’ — all firmly in the twentieth century.

They did helpfully suggest a place in Cobourg that specializes in hardware, and is certainly somewhere that I will have to check out. But sadly, I left the Timeless Material Company empty handed, with no material and only an investment of time to show for it.

For Want Of A Hinge (Part 1)

One of the fundamental truths of renovating a very old house is that you never know what you are going to find. Normally, that means that you are going to discover things that you wish you hadn’t (and that will ultimately wind up being far more expensive than you wanted to know). In this case, however, gutting the bathroom resulted in a very pleasant surprise.

It turns out that all of the doors on the upper floor of the original house are original, and are hung on their original hinges. Said hinges have since been painted over many, many times now, of course, but they are – once numerous layers of paint are finally removed – absolutely beautiful. Keelan took the set from the bathroom door to see what he could do with them. After torching them, scrubbing them, brushing them and repainting them, they turned into something pretty spectacular.

I didn’t even know they made hinges like this. Now I need to figure out where I can buy them.

Of course a discovery like this leads to the inevitable comment, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get more of these for the doors downstairs?” So, truth be told, even the positive surprises can wind up getting expensive. The question to be asked in all of this, however, is where one needs to go in order to find such hinges. Certainly they’re not something that you’re going to find in stock in your neighbourhood Home Depot.

There was some question even then about what kind of hinges they were, and whether or not they were in fact antique. The back of the hinges were stamped ‘3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″‘, which even today is a pretty standard size in the way of hinges. The offset pattern for the screws looks pretty similar to modern hinges. And one had to ask the question of whether, back in the late 1800s, they were as organized as all that as to be making standard size hinges, and then taking the time to make impressions in the back specifying just what size they were.

And so, we had a mystery on our hands. One I took it upon myself to attempt to solve as best that I could. Given that there were four doors in the downstairs of the old house (to the basement, to the front hallway, to Dianne’s den and to a new door on my den), the objective was to find four new sets of hinges to match the ones in the rest of the house. And really, how hard could that be?

The first stop in this particular odyssey was Addison’s. For anyone who has renovated anything in Toronto, they will know that Addison’s is the one-stop go-to place for reclaimed hardware of just about any size, shape and colour. It has also been profiled in just about every issue of Toronto Life’s annual “Where To Get Good Stuff Cheap,” for those who are slightly less tuned in. Just off of Sorauren in Toronto’s west end, Addison’s started off as a plumbing company run by Jim Addison, who started off in plumbing and heating in his native Scotland more than 50 years ago.

The entryway to Addison’s. Spectacular, bewildering and awesome in equal measure.

Today, Addison’s is still in the plumbing and heating business – with a three floor warehouse full to the brim of plumbing, electrical, hardware and heating products. They salvage what can be salvaged from houses that are being gutted, renovated or torn down, and sell the results to those who are gutting, renovating or tearing down their houses. If you have a hot water radiator that needs replacing, these are the people to see – they refurbish and restore old ones, as well as selling all the hardware necessary to keep them running.

Radiators are an Addison’s specialty. If you still heat with water, you need these guys.

Addison’s also has an absolutely ridiculous number of plumbing fixtures of every shape, size, purpose, colour and condition imaginable. It is truly spectacular, and organized mostly by category – so there is a reasonable chance of finding what you are looking for, located in proximity to all of the other examples of what you are looking for.

Plumbing fixtures of every size, shape, style, era and usability.

One of the things that they did have, to my surprise and absolute delight, was porcelain door knobs. Apart from replacing the hinges in the lower doors of the house, we are also wanting to replace the door knobs, which are an eclectic mix from several periods, none of which are actually from when the house was built. Briefly distracted, I was able to assemble three full sets of door knobs (at least, I was able to assemble the knobs, if not any of the other hardware I needed). Not knowing what was required in terms of latch sets (and recognizing the bewildering array of latches actually available) I wisely (in my opinion) left that decision for another day.

Door knobs! They have door knobs! Porcelain ones, and many more besides.

After a delightful exploration of a spectacular, if bewildering, array of stuff, we left with our knobs, but sadly not with our hinges. Stock depends upon what is coming out of houses that are being gutted, and most of the hinges they had were slightly worn and tarnished versions of what you would get from your local hardware store. The search would have to continue.

We Have a Window!

For the past few weeks, we have had a very large hole in the wall of our future kitchen. The masons did their work, creating the space for a large picture window where previously there had only been stone and mortar. And polyurethane insulation. Which, surprisingly, was actually stronger than the mortar, and was doing an excellent job of keeping the wall together even when the masons had other plans.

As fall turned to winter, however, the wisdom of a large and gaping hole became increasingly questionable. Yes, there was a sheet of wood keeping the weather out. And yes, we had duct-taped the gaps (for we are nothing if not enterprising, and duct tape is nothing if not useful). But the outside has been getting colder, and as a result so has the inside.

So we were excited to learn on our last visit that the window had been completed. And delivered. And was to be installed the next day.

Our new kitchen window, delivered and waiting to be installed.

During renovations, rooms do funny things. They get bigger. And then they get smaller. The hole in the wall looked a lot smaller than the nine-feet-wide that it was supposed to be. But the window leaning against the wall in the great room looked a whole lot bigger when examined up-close-and-personally.

Still a little rough around the edges. Installation was a challenge.

The actual installation was apparently a little bit of a challenge. Normally, you pop the window into a ready made frame, wedge in a couple of shims to make it level, drive in a few screws to keep it in place and spray-foam around the edges. In this case, however, the window was going into a stone wall that is more than a foot thick. This required some more framing, some delicate balancing and some innovative thinking on Gene’s part to get everything to go together and stay put.

The view from outside. It looks like it has always been there.

But stay put the window did. Everything is bolted firmly in place. We now have a window in our kitchen. A very, very big window. A window that, now that it is installed, looks for all the world like it belongs. And that is a very good thing indeed.

Knob and Tube and Angst No More…

As noted earlier in the process of buying Boo Manor, we had a slight issue regarding the presence of knob-and-tube wiring in the house. Not a lot, mind you, and not in any way a safety hazard, but our insurers chose not to see things the same way.

While the wiring for the kitchen was being done, however, we got a welcome surprise: the knob and tube in the dining room is no more. In its place is shiny new wiring, to its own dedicated circuit. And a lot of small holes in our ceiling.

I certainly understand why the knob-and-tube wiring still remained. While the rest of the house was completely rewired during an earlier renovation, including complete replacement of the panel, the dining room represents a bit of a challenge logistically. Three of its four walls were originally exterior; behind the plaster-and-lathe, there is rock. Thick rock. There is no elegant way to get into the walls (elegant, in the context, being code for ‘non-destructive’).

A tell-tale trail of holes where the knob-and-tube used to be.

The ceiling in the dining room, however, has gotten to the point in its life where it needs to be resurfaced. And the chandelier needs to be taken out back and put out of its misery. Both of these facts create an opportunity – if you are going to be refinishing the ceiling, then no one is going to notice a couple of temporary holes along the way.

The end result is that the scary exterior light is no more, and there is new, modern wiring to an actual, modern junction box above the exterior door. There is also now proper wiring to the ceiling fixture in the dining room. And, just because we could, we also have a switched exterior outlet that can be used for Christmas lights. Boo Manor is now 100% knob-and-tube free. But we’ve still switched insurance companies.

Doing a ‘Mike Holmes’ to Boo Manor

We’ve all seen it. That moment in a Mike Holmes just after he says that he, “really, really doesn’t want to go ripping things apart unless he absolutely has to.” Right before he rips everything apart, generally criticizing the previous contractor along the way.

In the case of Boo Manor, Gene’s son Keelan is our own little Mike Holmes. He and a friend have been busily gutting the various bits of the house that are in the process of being renovated: the kitchen, the guest bathroom and the soon-to-be-wine cellar.

First sign of renovations: the waste disposal bin shows up.

Destruction started with the arrival of a waste disposal bin at the property. After that, it didn’t take long for the drywall to start flying. Those bits that could be reused (the kitchen appliances, cabinets and claw foot bathtub) had already found new homes courtesy of Kijiji (and Keelan’s impressive negotiating skills). Out of the bathroom came the rest of the fixtures, including a hideous 70’s vintage plywood vanity, and a surprising array of different eras of flooring and wallboard. What was left was the bare essence of a room, and an awfully uneven floor. While the overall structure of Boo Manor is surprisingly sound, apparently not all previous renovations have been done to the same exacting standards.

The bathroom, down to the bare walls.

The kitchen floor met largely the same fate. Interestingly, floors seem to have been laid on top of previous floors. A relatively hideous (but apparently fashionable at the time) linoleum peeled back to reveal an equally hideous green tile. It was all coming out.

First there was linoleum. Then there was tile.

Finally, the drywall from the wine cellar needed to be removed anywhere there wasn’t already insulation in place. Building wine cellars is an interesting challenge. In most houses, the goal is a warm house insulated from a cold exterior. This is accomplished by insulation, with vapour barrier between the drywall and insulation to prevent moisture from condensation. For a wine cellar, the process works in reverse: you want a cold room inside of a warm house. Warm walls get lined with vapour barrier, then insulation, and then the wallboard for the interior of the cellar. Or, alternatively, spray-foam the heck out of it the interior and enjoy insulation and vapour barrier combined in one smooshie product.

Out comes the drywall. In goes the insulation.

Removing the drywall, however, also revealed the presence of some previous tenants. Namely, six mice that seemingly engaged in some form of suicide pact and fell into one of the wall cavities. Inevitably, a house this old is going to reveal some surprises. A few of which will unlikely be unexpected pests.

One other unexpected pest that has been discovered is a squirrel that has taken up residence in the eaves above the kitchen. At this point, we have no idea how it is getting in. But there is a hole somewhere, and it is large enough to allow not just squirrel, but also some pretty sizeable walnuts, judging from the detritus that the squirrel has left in its wake. And, given the quantity of walnut remains that the electricians have discovered as they’ve been laying cable for the kitchen lights, this has been going on for a while now. It is a wily squirrel, however; Gene has been trying to set a trap for it, using peanuts as bait. After three attempts, all Gene has to show for it is a small pile of spent peanut shells.

And, beneath it all, there is actually a sub-floor.

All in all, though, Gene and his team have been making awesome progress. The result is that the rooms we are renovating have now been gutted, the mice have been removed and the squirrel is still enjoying a free run of the eaves. From here, the work of rebuilding can commence.