Trim is In!

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)

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!!

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

The Office - Painted!

Wave Be Gone!

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

The Cabinets are UP!

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!

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

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

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?

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!

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

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!!!

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!!

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



Coming soon - a door!