Our Big Crazy Renovation

It's Finished!

2010-01-10T13:25:00.001-05:00

Finally, the kitchen is photographed - it's not perfect, and the backsplash isn't even organized yet, let alone scheduled, but it's super!!

The Kitchen - then and now!

2009-12-30T23:17:00.001-05:00

Dining Room...

2009-12-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

The Sunroom!

2009-12-30T22:42:00.000-05:00

Living Room - then and now

2009-12-30T22:32:00.001-05:00

Downstairs Powder Room - then and now

2009-12-30T22:25:00.002-05:00

The Spare Room - The Wave is Gone

2009-12-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

The Office and the Boys' Room

2009-12-30T22:09:00.002-05:00

Master Bedroom - then and now

2009-12-30T21:58:00.001-05:00

The Bathroom - finished!

2009-12-30T21:42:00.001-05:00

Up the stairs - before and after

2009-12-30T21:31:00.001-05:00

Then and Now - the entry hall

2009-12-30T21:26:00.001-05:00

Sunday Brunch

2009-08-23T16:40:00.002-04:00

Not quite unpacked, but Patrick has cooked up some quiche...

Morning Dawns: First Day in the New House

2009-08-21T16:49:00.001-04:00

The Tub gets Reglazed

2009-08-18T16:57:00.002-04:00

Instead of turfing out our cast-iron bathtub, we opted to revive it by reglazing it. You can't really see the places where the finish was peeling off in the first photo, but the second and third photos show the tub in the process of being scraped and reglazed. And, of course a post move-in photo of the kidlets in the new tub!

Nearly There!

2009-08-18T16:53:00.000-04:00

Ceiling fans, kitchen is ready!

The Painting Continues (We Never Want to see Hunter Green ever, ever again)

2009-08-17T17:15:00.003-04:00

The priming has begun! The hunter green is slowly being brushed away. Even the primer looks great - having the green gone really lets us see how the trim will looked painted out white.

Even the doors and closets are getting a lick of paint, too!

The Upstairs Bathroom - toilet AND sink!

2009-08-17T17:09:00.001-04:00

The upstairs sink makes its way from the boys' room into the bathroom...

Grey Lining - Master Bedroom

2009-08-16T17:40:00.000-04:00

The master bedroom ceiling gets a touch of grey...

Finnian Explores the New House

2009-08-15T17:25:00.001-04:00

As good as gold, Finnian does some summer reading while mom washes the upstairs trim, to prepare it for painting.

The Lighting Fixtures are in!

2009-08-15T17:22:00.001-04:00

Granda's Little Helper

2009-08-12T23:59:00.003-04:00

Finnian dropped by on the way home from daycare to check out the renovations.

Granda took on the most evil ceiling on the planet in the office. It's difficult to see them in the bottom photo, but there were big hunks of white something-or-other on the ceiling of the office. It looked like someone threw chunks of stuff up onto the ceiling and it just stayed there.

In the end, after much, much sanding by hand with 40-grit sandpaper, Patrick and Granda unearthed... nothing. The ceiling was more or less smooth when they finished, then Granda proceeded to give it a fresh coat of paint. In the end, we suspect that it was hunks of exterior stucco that is meant to weather the elements, but apparently the 40-grit sandpaper and lots of elbow grease did the trick. Looks great!

We Officially Have Indoor Plumbing!

2009-08-12T17:43:00.001-04:00

Toilet, meet powder room!

This means no more darting across the driveway to ask Hilda if we can use her bathroom.

The Master Bedroom - Painted!

2009-08-12T12:36:00.002-04:00

We are making real progress with the upstairs - the master bedroom is now a pale blue, instead of dark red. Dad was a star - he tackled some humps and bumps on the surface of the wall, smoothing it all out for us.

Kitchen Update

2009-08-12T12:17:00.001-04:00

After much work by our fine kitchen installer, Shawn, we have an enormous block of butcher block! The original kitchen plan we worked out only had butcher block in the corner, to the left of the cooktop. After the kitchen was more or less installed, we opted to change it! We got the kitchen company to order us up a much larger surface of butcher block, and now Patrick has a much larger workspace than if it was nearly all laminate. And, today the kitchen sink made its way in!!!

The Upstairs Bathroom is Transformed!!

2009-08-11T22:26:00.001-04:00

We love Mario. Our bathroom is now stunning, thanks to the addition of hex floor tiles, and subway tiles on the wall. We love it!!

Master Bedroom - Coved Ceiling

2009-08-09T23:57:00.003-04:00

You can't really see it very well in the top photo (taken in March), but the edges of the ceiling were previously painted blood red. We primed it, with the intention of painting it white. However when we saw it primed, it was a bit... stark - too white.

So, after a trip to the local hardware store, we came home with a liter of "flannel" coloured grey paint, which covers the edges of the ceiling nicely.

The Landing - now Grey!

2009-08-08T23:14:00.002-04:00

Here's Dad, likely wondering what the heck he's doing here, when he could be relaxing in his cozy house out east...

And presto - it's now grey! Now, we just need to prime and paint the SIX dark green doorframes to make them "chantilly lace" white. That shouldn't take long at all.

The Boys' Room - Before and After

2009-08-08T23:05:00.001-04:00

Trim is In!

2009-08-08T22:56:00.002-04:00

The trim is making its way on to the walls, and it's looking sensational. The trim replicates the window trim and baseboards found in the rest of the house. Our contractors have been magicians in making new elements look original!

The Ugliest Ceiling in the Universe (It's not easy being green)

2009-08-08T22:44:00.003-04:00

The ceiling in the boys' room had (we think) been flaking paint, and was painted green. This gave the ceiling a reptilian, scaly, cracked-up look. And did we mention it's green?

Dad was visiting from out east, and wouldn't rest until he'd remedied the situation. We bought some stipple at the big box store, and Dad got to experimenting. While swirls in stucco weren't doing the trick, some classic stuccoing looked fantastic!

New Floors!!

2009-08-05T22:22:00.001-04:00

All spiffed up, except for the sunroom floor, which has been replaced with new wood.

The Office - Painted!

2009-08-04T13:02:00.000-04:00

Wave Be Gone!

2009-08-03T20:57:00.001-04:00

After mudding, sanding, priming and painting, the spare room is just about finished. No more wave!!!

The Cabinets are UP!

2009-07-29T12:36:00.001-04:00

Our cabinets are more or less installed! There was a measuring error (or a few), so the upper cabinets near the kitchen windows aren't up because they're being rebuilt (at no cost to us).

In the middle photo, you can also see the gap between the pantry and the glass-front cabinets above the desk area. Due to another pesky measuring error, we have a gap of about 5 inches. The kitchen company is going to put some cubbyholes and a tall shelf for cookbooks in that space. Yay!

The Cabinets have arrived!

2009-07-27T22:32:00.003-04:00

The cabinets are here, and they look great! They'll look even better installed, we believe!

Unfortunately, some of the measurements were a bit.... off. The small window in the kitchen proved to be a bit perplexing - the upper cabinets on either side are the wrong size. Also, there was another measurement error in the sunroom - to correct the problem, we're getting little cubbyholes above the desk in the sunroom. Once it's installed, we'll post photos with the plan, and the reality. It's not the end of the world; the mis-sized cabinets will be re-made, and we'll have cubbyholes!

Patrick's Wolf Cooktop

2009-07-26T22:56:00.002-04:00

The appliances arrived on July 23rd, and have been waiting patiently to be installed.

The most anxiously awaited is Patrick's dream cooktop, the Wolf, currently taking up space on the living room floor. The Wolf is 36 inches wide, and has a grill in the middle of the four burners. Patrick is very, very excited about it.

Our Colour Palette

2009-07-24T20:09:00.001-04:00

At long last, we have settled on the colours!

The top photo has the colours for the downstairs: kitchen, sunroom, powder room, dining room (dark green), the dark grey is for the stairway, and the pale grey/blue is the living room.

The bottom is: the spare bedroom in pale yellow, the boys' room in dark blue, landing in grey, upstairs bathroom in pale lilac, office in green, and our bedroom in light blue. Now, we just need to paint the bloody walls upstairs. Sigh.

Who says that you have to stick with a paint colour once it's on the wall?

2009-07-21T23:50:00.004-04:00

After having the contractors paint the living room "Glazed Green", the inevitable happened. We went to cousin Mary's, and her pale greyish-blue paint colour (which we've seen whenever we go there, for at least a dozen years now) looked sensational, all of a sudden. So, Monday morning dawned with a colossal scramble to the paint store to a) find a new paint colour, b) buy a new gallon of paint, and c) rush it over to the house so as not to cause the reno to fall behind schedule. The new colour is "Silver Cloud", Benjamin Moore 2129-70, and it's quite lovely.

We have a Sunroom!

2009-07-21T23:42:00.003-04:00

After months of calling this back room the "sunroom", it is now a reality. Previously, there was one lovely big window that overlooks the backyard. Now, after uncovering a window that had been covered over, and putting in a glass door, we have wall to wall windows.

Spruced up Radiators

2009-07-21T23:34:00.004-04:00

The contractors lugged these beasts out to the front porch to get them out of the way when the house was gutted. There, they power-washed them, and lugged them back into the house. There, they were painted a white semi-gloss, which will keep them not only fresh-looking, but easier to clean. Now, they have to be lugged back out onto the porch again, then lugged back in. We are very excited not to be doing this work ourselves in our spare time.

New Windows!!!

2009-07-21T23:22:00.001-04:00

The new windows are arriving!! The living room has one new window on the right, and the original on the left. The two kitchen windows are in, and the upstairs bathroom, too. The place looks sensational!

Presto - Steps!!

2009-07-20T23:15:00.000-04:00

One day, no steps, the next day - STEPS!!!

Coming soon - a door!

Kitchen Hardware - and the Kitchen Sink!

2009-07-19T22:45:00.004-04:00

Oh, the horror. After much soul-searching and browsing of catalogues and websites, we have chosen some drawer pulls. We love the shell pull (shown here as "B", in antique nickel finish) from Lee Valley, and the art deco drawer pull, shown here in satin nickel. So, the question is, can these 2 different nickel finishes co-exist in the same kitchen? We love the look of both, and weren't able to find them both in the same finish. So, what now? Do we incorporate them both in our kitchen? Will unmatched cabinet hardware render the kitchen a disaster? Will 2 different kinds of nickel ruin the entire house? Please, advise!!

We have also, at long last (not because we were spending so much time deciding, but more so because we got behind on things) chosen a kitchen sink. We really like this one - it's very pretty and is cast iron. We also really liked the first one we chose, but as it would likely be installed 2 weeks AFTER we moved in to the house, we decided we liked this one best, as it's going to arrive at the house well before we move in - God willing.

Sunroom and Kitchen - Introducing Paint!

2009-07-17T12:00:00.001-04:00

Just as we were getting used to drywall tape, the kitchen and sunroom are given a new look - "Butter Milk" and "Glazed Green"!

The Dining Room - Mossy Green and Getting There

2009-07-16T23:54:00.000-04:00

The dining room is a darker shade of green - right now it houses the main floor's radiators. The rads have been power-washed this week, and will be spray-painted white to match the trim shortly.

The Upstairs Bathroom - Primed

2009-07-16T23:50:00.001-04:00

Ready for paint...

The Painting Begins!

2009-07-16T23:37:00.003-04:00

Suddenly, the house is ready for a lick of paint!! The painters arrived this week, and made short work of painting just about the entire downstairs. They were clearly relieved that they weren't going to be responsible for painting the upstairs bedrooms, all of which require the walls to be sanded, holes patched, and likely several coats to cover up the blood-red paint.

The Living Room - Glazed Green!

2009-07-15T23:58:00.000-04:00

The Most Beautiful Porch... Ever.

2009-07-09T10:58:00.004-04:00

Our foreman, Scott, suggested that the rather ancient siding that covered the porch be taken down.

The first photo shows the whole family in the overgrown backyard back in May - you can see the original white siding on the porch.

It'll be easier to tie in the new steps to more secure siding. Scott figures that the porch is nearly as old as the house itself, which we guess to be nearly 90 years old. Lovely and vintage, to be sure.

We love that those wee wooden sticks that are currently holding up the porch leave so much space for the kids to play. That'd be a great place to put a sandbox or something, to keep the kids nice and shaded when they play outdoors.

And More Drywall - a Feast for the Senses

2009-07-08T10:39:00.003-04:00

The main floor is really coming along - the drywall looks fantastic. If only we could nail some drywall over the technicolour paint on the upstairs bedrooms...

The main floor powder room is coming together nicely, and the upstairs bathroom is progressing nicely.

Ready for Cork!

2009-07-07T21:53:00.001-04:00

The kitchen floor was in rough shape, once the green ceramic floor tiles were pulled up. The old floorboards have given way (not literally) to a fresh new plywood floor, all ready for the cork flooring to be installed.

The word from our contractor is that the floor will be installed after the appliances arrive from the heavens on July 23rd.

Grey Water!

2009-07-06T00:02:00.005-04:00

After much soul-searching, we have decided to put our money where our mouths are, and buy in to a grey water system from Ecoshift.ca. Grey water comprises up to 80% of water waste from homes. It is neither fresh water, nor "black water" (i.e. water with feces, chemicals, etc.). A grey water system diverts the water from your shower, bath and bathroom sinks, filters it, and uses it to flush the toilets. While we won't save any money by doing this - there are no incentive programs just yet - on the bright side, we'll have a lovely 250L tank in the basement, and we'll flush our toilets with water that otherwise would have just gone down the drain. We aim to do our part to avoid wasting water, because we don't want to make David Suzuki cry.

While our contractor Mark admitted that we were the first house that he had outfitted with grey water, it's been a cinch to re-plumb the house in order to make it work. Our plumber has labeled the "grey water" pipes going into the toilet with "do not drink", which should make things clear, right?

A Celebration of Drywall

2009-07-03T21:16:00.001-04:00

We've never been so excited to see drywall! From the sunroom, you get a good view of the front door on the right, and the living room window on the left. The walls and ceilings of the living and dining rooms are just about up - it's starting to look like a real house!!

Keeping the Heat In

2009-07-03T19:41:00.001-04:00

This past weekend Patrick slipped over to the house to wire in some ethernet cable - his last chance to tinker with the exterior walls before the insulation went in. The fact that we're ready for insulation means that anything having to do with the exterior walls is finished - even the venting for Patrick's amazing cooktop is all set and tucked in.

We opted for the non-toxic insulation, even poking holes in the plaster in the mudroom, and spraying insulation through the wall going up the stairs. Even though it looks like we've had a shoot-out in the front hall area, it's going to make things very warm and cozy when the snow flies.

The Walls are Coming Up!

2009-07-03T18:33:00.002-04:00

This week things have sped along with the renovations. The electrical is finished, and the drywall is going up! When you walk in through the side door, you can still see through to the living room, but now there's drywall!

It's a Pre-Existing Window.... Really!

2009-06-24T22:40:00.003-04:00

When José took the plaster down in the sunroom, we were all surprised to see that the room originally had two enormous windows. After some discussion (do we really want to look out over our neighbour's driveway while we're having breakfast? Yes, we do!), we have opted to return the house to its original state. The only hitch is that we'll have to smash out the bricks on the exterior wall. Once you haul down the ivy vines, you can see where someone bricked over the window. It'll really be a sunroom when the new window is installed! If anyone from the Heritage Board is reading this - the pictures clearly show that this is not a new window we're installing, but we're merely restoring the house to its original, former glory! No new construction here.

Requiem for the Sunroom Hardwood Floor

2009-06-23T21:42:00.001-04:00

Sometimes the latest news on the house is good (yay, hidden window potential!), and sometimes it's very, very sad news.

These photos show the state of the sunroom hardwood floors when we bought the house in March. Our contractor, the omniscient Mark, seemed unsure whether it could be salvaged, and we were foolish to have ever dismissed his concern. It's not only going to cost more (always a sad occasion), but we hate to oust something original if we can help it.

Upon closer inspection, Scott has echoed Mark's concerns: it's warped, water damaged, and sadly, it cannot be. Goodbye, original floor - we hardly knew ye.

The View from Here

2009-06-22T23:02:00.002-04:00

Ah, the fresh smell of lumber makes the house feel like a new build. And, without walls, it looks enormous!

The workers have been busy and working hard - they have taken out the Three's Company arched doorways, reinforced weak joists, and the woodstove and bricked chimney in the living room are long gone. The electrical is in in the living room - you can see close to the windows, where the wall sconces will go in.

Beam me up.... Scott

2009-06-22T17:28:00.000-04:00

In order to take down the mystery column of bricks separating the kitchen from the sunroom, our foreman, Scott, co-ordinated a temporary support before putting in a 15-feet long steel beam.

The beam will keep the house from falling down, which is a plus. The second and third photos are taken from the kitchen, facing into the sunroom. The fourth photo is taken from the sunroom, looking into the kitchen. Finally, we have a render of what the kitchen will look like, after adjusting for the steel beam, which apparently won't be hidden in the rafters, as we first thought it would be.

It's Almost like an Ensuite Bathroom

2009-06-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

With the upstairs bathroom under construction, the cast iron tub has been temporarily moved to the master bedroom.

Finnian checks out the cavernous, empty bathroom, complete with a little opening to the master bedroom closet. We presume that's temporary. It's difficult to imagine that someday, perhaps he'll experience successful potty training here. It's all coming together; the subfloor is now down, and the electrical is in.

The Back Porch: Built-in Air Conditioning!

2009-06-19T17:15:00.000-04:00

Finnian: in the sunroom closet (future porch), March 2009.

At the very back of the house, a small porch of sorts is attached to the back, left-hand side of the sunroom. Years ago, it was a closet, when what we call the sunroom was a bedroom. It looks as though someone took some leftover shelving wood, and built the porch onto the back of the house. Our plan is to put a proper door there that will lead to the back yard. Currently, the structure allows for lots of air circulation, and fabulous views of the ivy vines outside, through the holes in the roof.

The Upstairs Bathroom - a Work in Progress

2009-06-15T09:47:00.001-04:00

The only things that are staying are the original medicine cabinet, and the cast-iron tub. The rest is going to be refreshed and replaced!

José, we love you. Please tear apart our house!

2009-06-12T21:30:00.001-04:00

We adore José, who is doing a smashing job tearing down the walls. We're (of course!) finding strange and wonderful things, like this odd frame sort of thing behind the wall of the sunroom. What was this, an old window? Are those barn boards behind it?

Out with the Old

2009-06-12T09:39:00.001-04:00

The plaster walls and ceilings now live in this enormous bin in the driveway. There's no turning back now...

Is Child Labour Still Illegal? ....Really?

2009-06-11T21:36:00.001-04:00

Finnian picks up a hammer to do his part on the demo, before inspecting the kitchen (which admittedly doesn't look very different at all).

The Living Room will never be the same...

2009-06-11T21:08:00.003-04:00

Before..... and now! Finnian takes a look out the front window, in what used to be a living room with white plaster walls.

You can see the front mudroom area is still intact. The 4th and 5th photos look out to the hallway, where the powder room used to be, and will be again. Apparently, there were wall sconces (with the old knob and tube wiring) in the living room walls, that had long been plastered over.

The next photo is taken from the living room - the fridge is in the dining room, with the sunroom in the back, and the kitchen to the far left. The last photo shows the empty space where the woodstove used to be; you can see the window overlooking the front yard to the right.

Renovations have Begun!!!

2009-06-10T21:25:00.003-04:00

And so it begins! The renos have started, and the entire main floor is ripped down to the studs.

The kitchen tile floor is still intact, but not for long. The front hall feels very spacious without the powder room - in fact the entire main floor feels very large and airy. Must be the missing walls.

Ideas for the Upstairs Bathroom Floor - Hex Tile

2009-06-08T21:32:00.002-04:00

After some preliminary research about patterns for the hex tile for the upstairs bathroom floor, we've quickly settled on a "daisy" pattern, inspired by these photos. We're taking ideas from what the house might have looked like when it was built in the 1920s.

Lighting and Ceiling Fans

2009-06-01T09:01:00.000-04:00

Some of our favourites - sadly the lighting fixtures are way, way out of our budget, but the ceiling fan might be a contender.

Ideas for the Upstairs Bathroom

2009-05-07T07:59:00.000-04:00

We're at the "idea" stage for the upstairs bathroom. Right now it's a mish-mash of dark blue tiles, plaid wallpaper, lots of wood on the walls and an enormous, original cast-iron sink that dominates the space.

The first 3 photos are our bathroom - the other photos are just wishful thinking.

We want something that looks like it belongs in the 1920s, and apparently American Standard makes sinks, like the first photo, that resemble the 1920s art deco style.

We also love the look of subway tiles, and the hex tile floors! (Let's hope it's in the budget...)

The 1920s Kitchen (which is better than what we have)

2009-05-07T07:36:00.000-04:00

According to Edic and Edic (1999), our 1920s kitchen, which is now gutted and waiting for us to put it back together, wasn't the greatest plan in its day: "Until the 1920s, most kitchens were inefficiently laid out. Families that could afford cooks had large storage pantries removed from the cooking area. With servants doing the work, there was little attempt made to provide convenience and comfort for the homeowner. In poorer households, the kitchen was a corner of the living area, which often resembled a basement sink area more than it resembled our idea of a kitchen.

In the '20s and '30s, a new kitchen design emerged based on the efficiency methods being employed in industrial assembly lines: separate work areas for washing, preparing, storing and cooking. Unfortunately, the work areas remained on opposing parts of the room, separated by runs of open wall space. The sink might use one wall, the stove another, the pantry would be around the corner, and the ice box would sit near the door for accessibility to the iceman's deliveries. The cook did a lot of walking. (Edic and Edic, 1999. 'Kitchens that Work: The Practical Guide to Creating a Great Kitchen' pp. 8-9)

Yay! Mudroom!

2009-03-11T00:07:00.000-04:00

Definitely a selling feature! We love the little letter box next to the door.

The Living and Dining Rooms

2009-03-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

The living room is dominated by a woodstove, which will find a new place to live. There are two small windows high on the wall on either side of the woodstove. We're not sure what we're going to do with this wall; Patrick wants to put the TV front and centre there.

The living room will eventually be painted "Glazed Green cc-580" from Benjamin Moore.

(Our floorplan is missing a doorway between the dining room and the kitchen.)

The dining room looks out to the backyard, which is lovely; there's a narrow door that leads to the sunroom. We'll put in a sliding pocket door there, and will eventually paint the dining room "Mossy Oak cc-600" from Ben Moore.

The big job in these 2 rooms is to tear down all of the plaster. We need to get at some plumbing that's hidden behind one of the walls. Also, we'll insulate the exterior walls, which will make it feel less like an icebox. This will give us carte blanche to put in new LED wiring, too.

Our Crazy, Mad Kitchen

2009-03-02T21:46:00.000-05:00

Yes, we are crazy. We bought this house, in the state that it's currently in: a construction zone. The previous owner decided to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the "sunroom", the room at the back of the house, adjacent to the kitchen. Apparently it's a load-bearing wall, so the contractors are going to put in a steel beam to hold it all together.

Our plan is to open up the room, and have a peninsula extend out where the studs currently stand. We'll have the eating area in front of the big window in the sunroom.

The Spare Room

2009-03-02T21:30:00.000-05:00

We're not sure what prompted these poor walls to be painted in this fashion. Our plans for this room are to put a murphy bed in it for our many guests to stay as long as they like, and to paint it "Buttermilk cc-216" in Benjamin Moore's collection