Mel and Brad's do-it-yourself home renovation

2011-02-24T21:57:00.001-05:00

In case you are wondering where we are, we've moved to http://www.brameldevelopments.com

Its been a long time but lots has happened

2008-09-17T20:19:00.006-04:00

By now most people are probably wondering what is going on with our renovation....some may even be expecting it to be done. Well unfortunately we aren't done but we are getting really really close and we have a good excuse or two for not being finished....first off both of us have been very busy with our jobs. Second off we have recently bought a third house which ..ughh yes...we are renovating and renting it out....photos of our Armstrong property to follow soon.

Let's start with our place. We have finished all the drywall and mudding and currently have Denis a good friend of ours coming in to do the tiling in the bathroom....fingers crossed in the next two weeks we will have a full bath. This would leave the bamboo flooring as the last big project to be done.

The new shower...just waterproofed and waiting for tiles

Our nearly finished guest room...walls are even painted

Yes we are still showering in our future office.

Downstairs is getting close!

2007-12-12T22:18:00.000-05:00

Well some things have changed since my last post. I have completely demolished the bathroom. All we have now is some bare studs a lonely toilet and a bathetub that is located in the office.

Downstairs is a different story...my good friend Kevin and his company came over and took out our old stairs and installed a new really amazing stair system. It has completely opened the place up, even more so than before.

Here are some photos...hope you like.

Renovation news coming soon but for now wedding photos

2007-11-23T12:26:00.000-05:00

Some of our wedding photos are up at Byron's blog. He did an amazing job making the fellas look good....a heck of lot of work considering the 10 second attention span we have...the girls well that was easy....judge for yourself...

Byron's Blog

Next stop the bathroom

2007-11-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

Mel and I are now way into our bathroom reno. We have over the past week and a bit completely gutted it. The idea is to expand our incredibly small bathroom into the adjacent bedrooms. Our new bathroom will be much bigger and will have a Zen like spa feel.

First thing is first....anyone need a clawfoot castiron bathtub? We are getting ride of ours as we are just going to put in a shower. The bathtub will need to be re-enameled, which can be done on site.

Here is the view from the door of the bathroom. As you can see we are down to the studs in the wall....hopefully we are insulating before the cold weather really hits.

The plan is to put in the bathroom sink and vanity first then the shower after. This way we will have half a working bathroom at all times. You can see the temporary plumbing I have done so far. I have to recommend IPEX tubing as an easy to install replacement for copper piping...you even get away from soldering as the connectors use compression valves.

Here is the view from the shower. The toilet will either rotate to be parallel to the exterior wall or may go against the wall between the office (the new studs in this photo). This will depend on how easily I can do work on the plumbing stack and if I can work around the floor joists....it's not a good idea to cut into joists to move plumbing, never mess with the structural support of a house.

Here is the view from the office looking towards the shower. The sink is now gone and we are brushing our teeth in the kitchen. Where the sink is might be the new location for our toilet....beats peeing infront of the window I guess. Unfortunately it means I may have to rip open my nicely finished living room pillar to gain access. This would be the first time in this reno that we have had to tear something apart after it was complete...which in most renos is the usual instead of the norm.

We are not likely to get much done this weekend as we are headed to Niagara on the Lake to hang with my cousins, do some wine tasting and maybe check out Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House in Buffalo.

Honeymoon photos

2007-10-27T15:33:00.000-04:00

I have finally taken the time to upload our honeymoon photos...rather than put them in the blog I have put them up on my Flickr site.

Here they are.....click here

I hope you enjoy them.

Hintonburg gets new slumlords :-)

2007-10-26T11:28:00.001-04:00

Well it has once again been a while since we have posted nay new info regarding our renovation. Can you really blame us...first off we got married then we took a 3 week honeymoon and then upon our return the weather has been perfect. In fact I have not seen an October like this in my entire life. Who says global warming is bad....just kidding.

We also have some good news especially for those who have not heard yet. Mel and I just purchased our first income property. It's a triplex located down the road on Stirling from us. We are very excited and are extremely happy as we got a great deal on a place that needs minimal work for the time being....I guess we are going to be the latest 'slumlords' in Hintonburg...actually I am just kidding. We plan on starting work on the exterior next summer turning the place into one of the cooler buildings in the neighbourhood. We will also modernize the apartments as they become empty.

I should also give 'props' where 'props' are due. We would like to thank Andy Morrissey our Agent for helping us navigate an income property purchase....if anyone is looking for a great, energetic agent who lives in and knows in detail the Hintoburg community this is your guy....any kickbacks are appreciated Andy :-).

The good news is that we have started the next phases of the reno. We are currently removing all the old lath and plaster in the bathroom and will be taking out our old cast iron tub to replace it with a nice new and modern shower all very Zen like.

I also took some time last weekend to build a bookcase which will be a built in the living room as well as two new concrete countertop forms....I can't wait to see how they look. The top of the bookcase will be covered by a concrete countertop with built in planters.

We're back

2007-09-18T21:12:00.000-04:00

Well it's now time to get back to reality. Mel and I arrived back in Ottawa yesterday afternoon.

We spent the last 4 days of our trip in Paris where we spent most of our time checking out museums and some sights.

We got to visit the Louvre and even got to see the Mona Lisa....I guess the readers of the DaVinci Code sleep late. It is amazing at all the art and artifacts the louvre has. They come from all over the world and were likely accumulated a long time ago....likely during Napolean's conquests. The Louvre has a great Egyptian section.

We also got to see the Pompidou where they have a large modern art collection including paints or scultptures from Pollack, Dali, Picasso, Munch and many more.

On our last day we visited the Rodin museum and got to see most of all of his great works...including The Thinker, The kiss, Hells Gates, and much much more.

We also visited the Pere Lachasse cemetary where we visited the graves of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Delacroix.

We also visited the Eiffel Tour, The Arc of Triumph and the Champs D'Elysee. Most of which was by foot...I think we lost some weight on the trip despite all the food.

Mel and I took a night bus tour of Paris were we got some great photos of the more famous Paris landmarks...look for photos shortly

Paris was alive with people from all over the world coming for the rugby tournament. Heck on Wednesday Britain played South Africa in Paris and the place swelled up with British.

I will be posting...hopefully soon....some photos....the good ones of the over 1800 I took.

I will also post a link to my flickr account where all the photos will be posted.

Now it's back to reality, work and renovations.

Italy

2007-09-13T08:12:00.000-04:00

Well Mel and I have been in Italy for around a week and a half and are loving it. Great food, great wine and great people.

Our first stop was Cinque Terra....5 little towns on the meditteranean. What a gorgeous area, we stayed in the middle town of the 5 called Corniglia. The nice part about these towns is they are all linked by trails and train access. Corniglia is the quitest and most remote of them all. The only issue is that if you dont want to wait for the shuttle bus from the train station it is quite a hike up to town....some 382 steps to be precise....no wonder Italians are in great shape they climb stairs all the time.

We ended up staying for 5 nights as it was the perfect place ot relax and to get to know Italian culture. We quickly made friends with the owner of the local wine shop (Mario or Merlo Blanco"white Mockingbird) as well as his two closet friends Folco and Renaldo (El Gatacho "wildcat". The shop had a great vibe and seemed to draw in travelers constantly. Folco is well known Italian folk musiican with a very tom waite like voice and style...he was always playing the guitar. El Gatacho was a retired boat radioman...you would never guess he was 78. They were harvesting during the day but would hang with us all night...heck i even got to hang out with them asd they started to make wine. This little wine shop has alos played host to Jack Johnson as he was there 5 or 6 years ago....it has a kind of magic in drawing people in.

We met lots of great people while there including a retired couple (Mike and Deana) from Seattle who are on a 4 month vacation and had just dropped their daughter off at school in Europe. A great couple from Michigan as well as an Aussie couple who were on their honeymoon as well. He owns Redmen Wines in Koownaharra Valley...so we got chatting about wine a fair bit. We also had the pleasure of watching the France - Italy Soccer game with all the locals...they put out a tv in front of the wine bar for all to enjoy.

Mel and I have been enjoying the train trips as we get to see the country side, meet new people and eat well. We buy bread, meat and cheese for the road and wash it down with a bottle of wine.

After Corniglia we arrived in Rome....what a crazy city.....tourists everywhere....but what history as there are Roman Ruins everywhere. Soem highlights from Rome so far are:
- Dinner at the Embassadors house - Thanks Fiona, your parents where fantastic.
- Seeing all the sites of old rome including the emperors palace and the coloseum
- seeing the parthenon
- visiting and seeing the enormous wealth of the vatican....how they could not come up with 13 million to restore the sistine chapel frescos is unbelieveable.
- watching Scotland beat France in the Eurocup qualifier at a irish pub....what a great game and monumental win....almost makes up for the loss to Brazil in the 2000 world cup.

Well we are off to Paris tonight by plane. I am hoping to catch a rugby game while there as they are hosting the rugby worldcup.

One of these days I will post photos but be warned we have over 1200 so far....some real good shots though.

a quick update

2007-09-03T09:13:00.000-04:00

Mel and I have been having a great time. Normandie was very nice, the people great and the food good.

However Burgundy was a different story. The people are just as nice and helpful. The food was fantastic, some of the best ever. Every meal out did the previous one. Finally the wine was insane. Every bottle was fantastic and was the equivalent of a $100 bottle back home.

On Friday, August 30th we did some private wine tours of the vineyards of Burgundy's second biggest producer...Jean Claude Boisset....thanks to my cousin Del for setting this up. It was incredible to see these wineries from such an intimate side. We visited Jean Claude Boisset, the Imaginarium, Domaine de Vougeraie and Bouchard aine et fils. The Domaine Vougeraie is at the high end of wineries and we were lucky enough to taste all of their wines...including their Grande Cru...$200+

On Saturday we took the afternoon train to the town of Frejus. Frejus is next to St Rapheal a very touristy beach town on the cote d'azur. Frejus is nice but small and built on an old Roman city. We had originally planned to stay for 3 nights but decided the touristy crap was not our style.

Today, August 3rd we left Frejus for Menton on the east side of Monaco. What an amazing town built into the surrounding mountains and right on the ocean. Lots of old medieval buildings to go with a modern feel. Lots of seafood on the menus as well.

Tomorrow we will daytrip to Monaco, after that it will likely be Italy and Cinque Terre. After that it is Rome where we are having dinner at Fiona's parents place....her father happens to be the Canadian Ambassador to the Vatican.

We have made sure to take lots of photos and will post them on our return.

We hope everyone is doing well and the weather is staying warm

Nous sommes arrives

2007-08-30T07:48:00.000-04:00

Well we made it. It was a long evening of travel but we finaly got to Bayeux by 3. Our biggest problem so far is using the french designed computer keyboards to type.

Bayeux is a town with some incredible history, it has been around since the 10th century where it was a key town in the Duchy of William the Conqueror as well as an important piece of D-day.

It has been really neat going around to the different villages that were a part of William the Conqueror's history. We have been to Caen, Falaise and Bayeux. All these towns have buildings and primarily churches that are over a 1000 years old. In Caen we went to one of the abbey's William had built to appease the pope as he married his cousin - 5th cousin Mathilde. In Falaise we visited his castle. It is quite amazing to see the history of the Rollo's and we have some nice photos to prove it.

On Wednesday we visited the D-day beaches. Our first stop was the Canadian landing at Juno. There we visited the canadian museum. It was quite a moving experience, on our exit we ran into a bunch of canadian ww2 vets, which made it even more emotional being there. Our next stop was Omaha beach where the americans came ashore. It is quite incredible imaginaing the dificulty they had in getting up the beach to the German positions.

We are now in Dijon and on aour way to Beaune where we will do some wine tour.....arranged thru Del before heading further south around Nice and Monaco.

I hope to post some pictures but there is so much to see that I may not get much of a chance.

take care all and see you in a few more weeks....a bientot

Last touches before the big day

2007-08-20T19:26:00.001-04:00

We have been getting some last minute stuff done around the house before our big day. For those who haven't heard Mel and I are getting hitched this saturday. After that we will be off on our honeymoon....stay tuned right here for photos.

The other week we had some labourers in too remove the lath and plaster from the second floor hall and our guest bedroom. We are now very close to finishing all the demolition. All that remains is the inside of the bathroom and some of the office.

We are once again building up quite the garbage pile in the backyard.

This past weekend finally let me start work on our new entertainment centre. We bought a couple of simple units from Ikea and mounted them on 2x6 bases which will eventually be covered in stainless steel...similar to our kitchen. Next I will add a concrete top to it and finish off some other finishing details.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend and having quite the party.

More press for Hintonburg...International Press that is!!

2007-06-11T23:02:00.000-04:00

As originally posted in the Financial Times of London

The personal touch

By Daina Lawrence

Published: June 8 2007 16:02 | Last updated: June 8 2007 16:02

Hintonburg is one of Ottawa’s oldest neighbourhoods, established in the mid-1800s and annexed as an official part of the city in 1907. In the past few decades historic charm has given way to depressing dilapidation, with cracked pavements, dirty façades and rusting store signs. Very recently, however, the area has begun to show signs of thriving again.

One big factor is its mixed citizenry and perception as a welcoming place. Along Wellington Street are small businesses, pawn shops and chain stores catering for all points on the economic and social spectrum. There are pubs that sell both high-end whiskies and quart bottles of domestic beer, plenty of ethnic restaurants, including Italian, Thai and Ethiopian, and the popular Parkdale fruit and vegetable market, frequented in the summer by people from around Ottawa.

Add to this some affordable housing in need of renovation and you can see why Hintonburg is starting to pique the interest of city home buyers. “In areas like this where there are some nice Victorian homes and the houses are not all the same, people can be creative and put their own touches on homes,” says Steve Brouse of Coldwell Banker Real Estate.

Prices are starting to climb in Hintonburg but there are still some bargains to be found. Most small “starter” homes in the neighbourhood are selling for C$250,000-C$300,000 (£110,000- £130,000) and buyers willing to hunt around might find a property for C$175,000-C$200,000.

Many parts of Hintonburg are still “working class” in character and in the past there have been occasional problems with drug dens and prostitution but residents say this shouldn’t deter investors. “It goes with the territory,” says Linda Hoad, president of the Hintonburg Neighbourhood Association. “It’s an area where cheap housing is available and it attracts people who need cheap housing, which is a good and a bad thing.”

The problems have pushed residents to band together and work on solutions, creating a greater sense of community. “This is a great place to live and it is a stable place for the most part,” Hoad says. “It’s not in your face and it’s not dangerous. [Crime can be] disruptive but it is controllable if people are willing to work together.”

Stefan Matiation agrees. He bought a house in Hintonburg in 2004 for C$300,000 and, since moving to the area with his wife and two small children, the family has really become a part of the neighbourhood. “We like it a lot. We find that it’s very friendly and there are a lot of young families around, so it’s great for the kids and [we like] the diversity.”

There are several schools within walking distance, local parks, galleries and a library. “You’ll get a pretty low-key, relaxed feel [here] if that’s what you are looking for,” Matiation says.

Although Hintonburg has in recent years been the preserve of the DIY remodeller (“There is plenty of opportunity for people who are interested in renovating and shaping a house the way they want,” Matiation says), developers are now starting to eye up the area.

The Regional Group, for example, is preparing for its first development in Hintonburg, which will involve converting an old school into 11 one- and two-storey lofts with 14ft ceilings, large windows and visible overhead heating systems to create an industrial feel. Townhouses, reflecting the style of the original building, will also be built at the back. David Kardish, a vice-president at the company, refers to the site as a “gem” because it overlooks a local park and has an old stone wall surrounding the grounds. “To me it’s a form of green technology because you are basically working with what you have. It’s a type of smart growth that the city likes. We had no problems with approvals from the Hintonburg community or the city.”

He thinks buyers will be attracted to the neighbourhood’s proximity to downtown and its relative affordability. The group expects loft prices to range from C$300-C$325 per sq ft, while the townhouses should go for about C$250 per sq ft. That compares with C$350-C$425 per sq ft in fashionable Westboro, just a few blocks away.

Hintonburg residents also have access to several forms of city transportation. On the edge of the neighbourhood is one of the city’s main commuter bus stops as well tracks for the O-Train, an 8km light-rail transit system that runs north to south through Ottawa. For car-driving commuters, the Queensway, the city’s main highway, is also nearby.

Salem MacDonald, a property developer for Sage Urban Developments, acknowledges that Hintonburg is no secret among Ottawans any more but he thinks there is still room for the market to grow. “It’s really taken off in the last three to four years. People enjoy that they can walk everywhere and don’t have to take their car, especially with the rising price of fuel,” he says. Yet “you can still pick up singles in the high C$200,000s and low C$300,000s. It changes so much – you can have a huge variation of housing stock from one side of the street to the other – but there are a lot of affordable places. And there are a lot [more] young people who want to be downtown and are not afraid to put the paint on and put in some work fixing up these homes.”

The types of properties most in demand now are duplexes and triplexes, he says. Buyers tend to live in one residence and rent the second or third to subsidise their mortgages.

Melina Craig is a local architect who, along with her fiancé, Brad, bought a three-bedroom, semi-detached brick home in Hintonburg in February last year for C$163,000. “One thing we were looking for was something affordable and we ended up getting a fixer-upper,” she says. The couple has renovated the kitchen and will move on to the bathroom later this year. They plan to spend approximately C$20,000-C$25,000 on the refurbishment.

“Structurally and electrically everything was fine and we are working on the cosmetics but it’s an investment here,” Craig says. In fact, the couple is so encouraged by the progress they have made on the first house that they plan to buy another, renovate it and sell it for a profit. Several couples on their street are working on similar projects. “There are lots of homes that have good guts and just need a little TLC,” Craig says.

Local agents

Coldwell Banker Real Estate, tel; +1 613-722 3555; www.coldwellbanker.ca

Regional Group, tel: +1 613-230 2100; www.regionalgroup.com

Sage Urban Developments,tel: +1 613-850 7653

What a difference - loving the bamboo

2007-05-13T19:39:00.000-04:00

So over the last couple of weeks I managed to get lots of stuff done....in fact we now have our bamboo floor down in the living/dining room. I must say it looks unbelievable.

This weekend also marked Mel's birthday so what better time to celebrate both her birthday and us finishing a major step in our reno.

Here is our nearly finished kitchen with our new barstools (Mel's birthday gift from me). I have some painting left and a few minor details.

Check out the bamboo flooring, it looks even better in person. A bunch more finishing details and we are all done. We are also looking at getting a custom made steel staircase made.

A photo of the finished dining room area, in fact we had our first dinner at the table since we moved in.

Lots and lots of changes...now that I have some free time

2007-04-30T15:43:00.001-04:00

I have had the last couple of weeks off while I switch jobs so rather than laying around I decided to get the house moving along a little quicker.

Here are the latest photos. We should be adding bamboo flooring to the first floor in the next week or two leaving us with some small finishing items.

We have decided to open up our shared wall and insulate it with Roxul...giving us a safer fire barrier and an excellent sound barrier. Lots of dust though.

Here I have started building a bench in our front foyer, I have cantilevered it out of the wall. It gives us a place to sit down and tie our shoes.

Here is the finished bench, I have clad it with bamboo flooring and added some lighting under it.

We have added strips of MDF (medium density fiberboard) around our pillar. It gives it a cool look and style. This idea we got out of Dwell, its definitely the best magazine our there for modern style living.

In the last couple of days I have put down a new plywood subfloor in order to smooth things out for the bamboo flooring.

And finally we have finished painting the first floor (ceilings and walls)...well mostly finished. Cate (a friend of ours) was kind enough to come over and help us get it all done this past Sunday.

Making news

2007-04-03T19:54:00.000-04:00

So our up and coming neighbourhood has been getting a little attention lately. The Financial Times of London recently interviewed Melina about Hintonburg, the article should be out in another couple of weeks.

In another recent article Westboro, the neighbourhood next to us has been named the most desireable neighbourhood in Canada....good news as those who can't afford the most desireable neighbourhood in Canada may want to live next door to it....and I might add even closer to downtown Ottawa.

For those of you who fly Air Canada, make sure you pick up enRoute. The magazine has recently featured the hottest neighbourhoods in Canada and to toot our own horn, Hintonburg made the list.

Here is the section on Hintonburg (here is the link to the rest of the article www.enroutemag.com/e/april07/cover_a.html). Helen's is at the end of our street the Carleton is a few blocks away and one of our favourte watering holes, the Cube is also around the corner and is the location of our wedding reception.

Hintonbourg, Ottawa

Named after Joseph Hinton – the guy who secured the first post office here in the mid-1800s – this former down-market district has gotten an upmarket comb-over.

By Fateema Sayani

7:00 With heirloom tomatoes, purple beans and micro-greens from the Bryson Farms stall at the Ottawa Parkdale Market in hand, early birds head north to Remic Rapids Park to watch the sun rise over John-Félice Ceprano’s freestanding rock sculptures. Mind the joggers and dog walkers.

10:00 Shoppers drop the best friend at Dogz, a place for pup pampering and daycare, then head over to Ravensara for collectible tin toys. A Fine Thing has antiques galore, including mid-century favourite Fiestaware.

12:00 The back of the Melrose Groceteria houses Helen’s Cuisine, a lunch counter serving shawarma, tabouli, delicious baklava – and pot roast.

15:00 Upstart galleries abound. Cube Gallery is home to locally established modern artists. The space – an old soda factory – is perfect for lingering. James Robinson, the owner of nearby Parkdale Gallery, paints on-site, while the one-room Pukka Gallery, housed inside artist co-op the Engine Room, changes exhibitions monthly.

17:00 While occasionally reclaimed as a hipster hovel for rock shows, the Carleton Tavern is a good old dive with decor to match.

18:00 Visiting cookbook authors teach the fundamentals of Slow Food or molecular gastronomy at the Urban Element, a retrofitted fire hall with an industrial kitchen. Bonus: Eat your work with your new pals and take recipes home. Don’t want to do the work? Sail over to Hino Restaurant for fine Asian-fusion cuisine.

“If Hintonburg were a person, it would be someone who’s a lot of fun and a great laugh but goes to bed early.”

– Don Monet, curator of Cube Gallery

Just the finishing touches left

2007-02-14T19:29:00.000-05:00

The kitchen is nearly done now, all that is left is some of the finishing touches. This past weekend we put in the backsplash and I built a small bookcase to house our cookbooks and a large wine rack.

This coming weekend we will grout the tiles and I will put in the trim around the window.

After that we will have some painting to do, install some stainless steel trim in several areas and finish off a bit of the electrical.

Here are a some photos, they don't quite do the kitchen justice it looks way better in real life.

We have lots of room for wine bottles now.....Del any suggestions?

In some ways I am glad it's winter outside

2006-12-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Now that the cold weather has arrived things seem to be progressing on the house. Summer is great and we love the weather but it is really hard to get motivated to do inside work. Heck I even have time to blog again....hopefully we will be able to update everyone more often in the coming months.

Kitchen update:

Everyday there is less and less to do. Right now the kitchen is 90% finished with some small details left. Over the weekend we finished the tiling and grouted the entire floor. I also replaced a large section in our maid drain pipe as it is old cast iron that had cracked.

To do:

- touch up some of my dents and dings in the drywall
- install the backsplash....which incidentially are a very nice glass subway style tile....hopefully over Christmas.
- paint ceilings and walls
- install door, window and baseboard trim
- build built in wine rack and bookshelf
- buy and install new kitchen stove...our Christmas present to each other.
- some more drywall and mudding....this is mostly connected with finishing the living room.

Living room

My current project is now the living room, I have spent the last week ripping up the old tile floor and subfloor exposing the original softwood flooring. We are about halfway done that. I have also installed our new dining room casement window, reframed the wall around it and insulated it as well. The pillar containing the mechanical for the second floor has also been framed and is ready to be drywalled.

The house has now been almost completely rewired, I have one bedroom with an old wire feeding it and one bedroom with old wires in the circuit both of which will be fixed when we begin expanding the bathroom.

To do:

- tear up rest of old floor
- patch drwall holes
- mud all new drywall (ceiling and walls, way too much)
- re-work the heating ducts to the second floor and living room
- tear down old stairs
- build new stairs
- lay down new plywood on the living/dining room floor
- install tiles in front foyer
- install bamboo flooring
- install railing and banister system
- lots and lots of little finishing details

Here are some additionla photos you might find interesting:

The beginning of the tiling process. I had to work around an opening in the floor which allowed me access to our drain pipe.

The finished product. All done tiling and grouting....I still love our stainless steel kickplate.

Here is a photo of our shared wall under the stairs to the second floor. We have added sound and fireproofing and are about ready to drywall and mud it.

One thing we are waiting on, is that we are now planning on building a trapdoor over the stairs to the basement. this would give us some more useable floor space as well as take car of any railing issues. One idea we are currently working on is to have the trapdoor lower and raise electrically with an actuator. If any one knows anything about motors and actuators as well as hydraulics please drop me a line (theroltz 'AT' yahoo 'DOT' com). We have gotten one price but it is a little out of our ballpark, we are now looking at used motors as well as other suppliers.

Kitchen - almost done

2006-11-20T22:57:00.000-05:00

So here are some more long, long awaited photos.

The kitchen is nearing completion. Pretty much all that is left is tiling the floor and the walls/backsplash.

The concrete countertops have been lacquered now and boy did they come out nice. It really highlighted the textures and their indsutrial look.

We even are now cooking with gas. Out gas fitter came in last week and hooked us up.

All the doors are done as is all the main drywalling and mudding. A little electrical is sill left to do. We have two pendant lights that will hang over the cooktop.

Notice the kickplate? We got brushed stainless steel pieces machined to fit our cabinet base and boy do they rock.
We'd love to hear your thoughts...more photos to follow shortly, I promise.

2 countertop down and one to go

2006-09-25T20:04:00.000-04:00

Well now that fall is here and the weather is getting colder, we are a little more motivated to get things done. We are hoping that the kitchen will be done by mid October but then again I'm fairly busy with work and Ultimate.

We have nearly finished building the concrete countertops. After that we will need to do some finishing work to them such as; filling the air gaps with a dark black slurry and then covering the countertops with several coats of a natural epoxy. The epoxy is used to protect the countertops from water stains.

I am very thankful for the help I got from Robin and his son, Brent (my neighbour) and my Ultimate team. Each piece probably weights around 350 pounds.

Things left to do in the kitchen:

- countertops
- cabinet doors
- put down 3/4 inch sub-flooring
- tile and grout kitchen floor
- tile kitchen wall
- install gas for cooktop (hiring a professional)

The concrete countertop form - reinforced

The pour - its upside down

The finished product with the cooktop

The kitchen sink section

Summer brings to many distractions

2006-07-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts again. Unfortunately things are moving slowly as there are so many distractions in July.

Here are some photos.

Lots of photos today

2006-06-11T21:37:00.000-04:00

Today (Sunday) turned out to be very productive. Mel's parents came over and lent us a hand with our front garden and cleaning up our backyard. I spent the day putting in our new French garden doors and boy does it look great.

We ordered the doors last Tuesday from Home Depot and scheduled the delivery for Friday. On Friday I opened up the door cavity expecting that the door would arrive at any point. Boy was I wrong, in fact in never showed. I spent most of the late afternoon on the phone trying to get the issue resolved, one guy even told me that they would send it out on Saturday. Lucky for me I had some plywood here so I could board up the opening.

Saturday morning I called early to check on the door as we would be out all day playing frisbee. Well guess what, they knew nothing of it. I finally demanded to speak with the store manager. Thankfully he resolved the issue and got us the door later that afternoon and he refunded us our delivery fee.

So with the door delivered, I spent the morning installing it. The installation went very easy as I have done this sort of thing a few times. The kitchen is really taking shape now. I also spent some time sanding my 2nd coat of mud. That means this week I will do a 3rd coat, some more sanding and maybe a 4th coat to make sure it all looks great.

Mel and her parents really did a great job with the garden. Her mom Jacqueline is great with plants and brought a bunch of flowers for us from her own garden. We finally have a very respectable front yard which should make our neighbours much happier. It beats the junkyard that used to be there. Mel's dad Don filled our garbage bin up as well. In fact our 30 yard bin is completely filled and we still have a shed full of garbage bags. Looks like we will need another bin but a least the yard doesn't look like the set from Sanford and Son.

We have also ordered our cedar for the deck the we will be doing. It should be in sometime next week. I am hoping to get the undercarriage done this week and/or weekend. The undercarriage will be done with pressure treated lumber as it will not be seen by anyone and the PT helps prevents rot as these areas have little air flow.

sorry, sorry for the lack of posts.

2006-06-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Not a lot has changed, the house is still under construction. One good thing is that Mel has finished her last exam (Architecture). She managed to do 10 exams in about 10 months. Pretty soon she'll be a full blown architect, she should be getting her final results in August or September.

Well the kitchen is still a work in progress. The drywall is all up and I am in the midst of mudding it. Once again I owe Robin big for coming over to help. Tonight I finished the second coat, however I am really taking my time so that it all comes out looking great.

A while back I got bored and tore down our little cold room (off the kitchen). So it's now gone and will soon be replaced by a new deck. The plan is to build a wrap around deck (L shaped). I even ordered the cedar today. In fact I think our priority might be to get the deck done. Who needs a kitchen in the summer when you can BBQ.

Tomorrow we take delivery of our new French garden door. I can't wait to see how the kitchen will look with it in.

We have also finally gotten a garbage bin in. Now we can start cleaning up our yard and keep the neighbours happy.

Hopefully I will get back into posting again and be able to show you some finished work for a change.

Ready for the ceiling drywall

2006-05-23T20:31:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update tonight and no photos....sorry.

We have pretty much everyhting done in the kitchen except for drywal on the ceiling. Once I get some help with the 4 sheets I have to put up I will be able to start mudding.

I spent the weekend finishing the strapping and the drywall on the walls. Nothing to exciting here.

Mel and I sorted out our lighting plan for the kitchen. I have a bit of electrical still to do. We are installing pot lights so I will pre-wire the ceiling to make everything easier after the ceiling drywall is up.

I also built the bases for our kitchen cabinets. I am using 2 x 6 as a base in order to support the weight of the concrete countertops. One good thing about getting the bases done is it allows us to easily visualize the layout of the kitchen.

Hopefully later this week I can sucker...err...get a friend over to help with the remaining drywall.

No big changes from yesterday...just a bit closer to being done

2006-05-16T20:33:00.000-04:00

Today I managed to get a fair bit done despite a very sore back. The weird thing is that sitting at my desk hurts far more than actually doing physical work.

I managed to get most of the drywall done, except for a small section where I ran out of insulation and the pillar by the framed in chimney, there I have to install a heating duct to the second floor. Hopefully tomorrow I will pick up some more insulation and will then finish off drywalling the 3 walls.

I also started putting the strapping on the ceiling. I am using 2 x 4 as they are the right thickness allowing the kitchen ceiling to now match up with the living and dining room ceiling. It will be a nice continuous flow.

Derl stopped by and we think we have a plan to fix some of the plumbing and to remove a pipe or two. See the top picture, it's the pipe that is currently emptying into the yellow bucket in the right hand corner.

By fixing the plumbing this will allow me to have a pillar that is narrower and thus allows a better view into the kitchen from the living room. The pillar will also balance nicely with the pillar in the half wall near the front door. We will paint them both with a colour that accents them well.

My biggest concern in building a pillar around the chimney is that it would protrude into the kitchen to much and throw of the look a bit. In order to minimize the depth of the pillar I turned the 2 x 4 studs flat and 'tapconed' them into the actual chimney.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get the chance to pick up some more supplies and get most or the remaining drywall and insulating done. Hopefully on the weekend Robin will be able to swing by and help me install the ceiling drywall. After that it's mud time. Wait till you see what we are going to do with the backsplash and end wall.

An unproductive weekend

2006-05-15T19:53:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't quite get as much done this weekend as I would have liked. At least I have a good excuse, or at least a reasonably good one. This weekend marked Mel's 30th birthday so a bunch of us went out for dinner on Friday and then we hit the town. For some strange reason I was very unmotivated to get anything done on Saturday and Sunday was not much better.

Monday evening proved to be pretty productive and the kitchen has taken another big step towards being done.

I built a new pillar that now encloses our chimney and hosts a new heating duct for one of the second floor bedrooms. Unfortunately the bricks from the fireplace are in poor condition as they have been nailed into many times during the life of the house and have crumbled a bit. That and the fact that we want to keep the amount of finish material (bamboo, black tile and concrete) to a minimum has forced us to cover the chimney with drywall.

I also managed to insulate the 2 exterior walls with fiberglass pink insulation and then added a vapour barrier and some accoustic sealant. The rest of the house may not be insulated but at least the kitchen will be warm.

In the above photo (showing the insulated and vapour barriered shared wall) you can see some additional bracing I installed in order to handle the weight of our Ikea kitchen cabinets.

Next I started drywalling. I can install two horizontal sheets before I drywall the ceiling which means I can get most of the kitchen done on my own. I am hoping that by the end of the upcoming long weekend I will have the ceiling drywalled as well.

Tomorrow Derl comes over to inspect our plumbing. I am hoping he will have the time to do some work for us. We need to reroute the bathroom sink vent, remove another pipe (fingers crossed that it is not being used any longer) and get the kitchen sink plumbing ready for the new sink and fridge.

It's taking shape...sort of.

2006-05-10T21:21:00.000-04:00

The last two days have been tough, the weather has been so nice that it's hard to get motivated to work inside. The good news at least for me being productive is that the weather is supposed to be ugly for the next 3 or 4 days.

Tuesday I started to frame in the rough opening for the new French doors. The plan will be to drywall up to the edge of the door for now. In another week or two we will start the demo of the cold room and that is when I will install the new door. Once again I put in a header to deal with transferring the weight from the wall above. On both of the exterior walls I also screwed the existing exterior sheeting into the studs. This has helped ensure a much stronger and more rigid structure....my walls no longer flex. I also now know why our windows don't lock well, they have been bent by the weight of the house and are now curved so the locks no longer align...exactly the reason why the header is so important.

Wednesday I built a bulkhead around the plumbing that is exposed in the ceiling of the kitchen, this plumbing is for the bathroom up stairs. The bulkhead will also house the electrical for both the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom.

I now have to deal with a plumbing vent that runs the length of the kitchen ceiling. This pipe tied into the plumbing vent for the kitchen sink. I am hoping that Derl, my plumber can get redo the vent. There are also a couple of other pipes that need to be moved.

I haven't gotten around to insulating the walls yet, maybe tomorrow. I will also need to frame around the chimney and add some 2 x 6 supports for the cabinetry.

On another note, I have just found out I have to approve the comments for them to be posted. I will keep an eye on them so feel free to post.

Baby steps

2006-05-08T21:08:00.000-04:00

Mel and I got a good start tonight and managed to get a lot done. Hopefully if we get a few more productive evenings like this one, we might be drywalling the kitchen on the weekend.

Mel spent the evening putting in the sound and fire barrier. We are noticing a bit of difference in the amount of sound the barrier absorbs. The plan will be to hang plastic as well to help prevent the kitchen smells from next door getting into our space.

I spent the evening framing in our new window. Although it isn't here yet I framed out the rough opening so that I can just pull out the old and insert the new one. The plan is to do the same for the door as well. The new window will be much bigger, in fact it is 52" wide and 44" high. It will be at the same height as the current one but will go all the way up to the header.

Thank goodness I installed a header and framed in a proper window opening, our exterior wall was flexing in and out almost 3 inches. Now the wall is very solid and the weight of the upstairs wall and the roof is now distributed along the header.

I also managed to finish off the electrical. I installed 3 GFI outlets that will run along the countertop. That's pretty much it for the electrical all that will remain is wiring the pot lights and installing Mel's cool Erco Starpoint lights. Our pot lights are from Eureka Lighting (they are the ones with the red inset). Both of the lines are available through our buddy Dan's company Flux Lighting. Now it's up to Mel to do a lighting plan for the kitchen.

Tomorrow we frame in the door and insulate the exterior walls. If there is time I will also add some extra supports for the kitchen cabinets.

Slowly but surely

2006-05-07T19:26:00.000-04:00

The kitchen is slowly but surely getting there. Mel and I spent the weekend finishing the demo and cleaning the place up.

We had some issues with the floor, first layer was linoleum, under that was vinyl tiles on top of very well nailed down plywood. The guys who did the work sure didn't take any short cuts. They made sure the plywood was down and not moving, they had about 3 inch spacing between the 2 inch long nails. The problem was that below the plywood was an old oak floor. Really too bad as it would have been nice to sand and reuse the flooring but since this was the only place in the house it was used and we have already gone with bamboo, we had to rip it out. So unfortunately the ripping out of the floor took longer than expected.

After that I managed to get most of the electrical in the kitchen done. I will add some GFI outlets to the backsplash area tomorrow and that will do it for the wiring.

On Thursday I got our old fuse box removed and replaced with a new breaker panel. With the new breaker panel I can easily add new circuits myself. If anyone is looking for a good electrician, let me know and I will get you in contact with mine.

This week I am hoping that I can get the rest of the framing done, I have to add two headers (window and door) and frame out the new openings as well. The windows are ordered and should be here soon. I will also try and frame the new bulk head for the plumbing. Then it will be time to insulate and put on the vapour barrier. Once all that is done then I can start the drywalling.

Kitchen, part deux

2006-05-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry that I don't have any photos to share, hopefully tomorrow or the next day. The last few days have seen me demo the kitchen. Still a good piece left to do.

I am gutting all 3 walls right down to the studs, the good thing is that there is no lathe and plaster just old planks on top of planks with drywall on top of it all. This has made things relatively easy and clean. There has also been a lot of cardboard, this is what they used a long time ago for soundproofing....I guess, makes sense to me. We did find a newspaper in the wall, it was an old Ottawa Citizen from September 14, 1933. If I get a chance I will scan a section of it and post it. It has some great headlines in it.

It was also nice to get rid of the horribly disgusting cabinets. You have never seen anything so gross, well actually, what was under them was far more disgusting. The end wall is also pretty flimsy and the window that is installed was done poorly. Its looking like I will have to come up with a way of strengthening the wall by redoing a lot of the framing. We have also ordered a new much bigger window, that along with the new double doors will really give the kitchen an airy feel. All the sunlight will also serve to open the kitchen up as well.

One good thing was that the water pipes to the kitchen sink have shut off valves in the basement. This let me demo the sink and the counter top by cutting away the pipes. It also means I won't have to call in a plumber until all the drywall and the new Ikea cabinets are installed.

I have been mentioning that I am building concrete countertops, for those who don't know what they look like or who want to learn more check out this gallery.www.concreteexchange.com This guy makes the nicest stuff around. He has even written a couple of how-to books, of which I now own one and highly recommend it. For his regular site see the side bar links. If all goes well here I might start making custom countertops on the side.

Before I go, I should also mention that we no longer have a functional kitchen. The fridge is in the dining area. The sink is gone and if we dirty dishes we now have to wash them in the bathtub...anyone want to do a dinner party this weekend?

PS. If anyone is interested in a stove, we have one for sale. The stove is a few years old and could use a little work on the enamel and one burner needs replacing, other that that it is nearly new. So if you are looking for a cheap working stove give us a shout...seriously.

Kitchen

2006-04-30T19:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I took some time off from the renovation. Last week we were in Texas for Jane and Louie's wedding and well this week I just didn't really feel like doing much.

Texas was great, nice people and great weather. Our first day there the thermometer hit 99 degrees. Mel and I had a great time hanging out with Jane and Louie. They definitely do things big there, we ended up eating so much food. We also got to do some sightseeing we went into Dallas one day and hit Fort Worth the next. Fort Worth is quite interesting, here is a town that embraces its' cowboy heritage yet has one of the best art galleries in North America, the Kimball Art Museum. The Kimball was designed by Louis Kahn and its made completely out of concrete. It is perhaps his best piece of work, I think. If you get a chance check out more on Louis Kahn or watch the documentary 'My Architect'. The art it housed was also amazing, who'd have thought that there'd be Picassos, Rodins, Monets, Mondrians and Gaugains in Texas!

Now that I have the master mostly done I am a little more relaxed and don't feel the urgency to get something done. Today (Sunday) I started gutting the kitchen. I managed to put a good dent in and got a lot more done than I thought I could. Based on what we did today, the change is amazing the kitchen is now a whole foot wider than before and a foot taller as well. I am hoping that by the end of the week I will have it completely gutted. Once that is done I'll be working on:

- the electrical... lots of wiring to do
- insulating and soundproofing
- installing new double exterior french door.
- drywall and mudding

Once all that is done we'll start building and installing the new Ikea kitchen cabinets. After that I get to start my next fun project...building concrete countertops.

Well, keep checking back as I am once again motivated and will try to post regularly again.

More photos

2006-04-17T15:23:00.000-04:00

A good picture showing the new floor with the new bed

Dan's work....wow

The finished post (2nd floor)...next step powder coating

Done - one master bedroom

2006-04-17T11:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, I just realized that it has been a week since I last posted. Well there is lots to share and talk about and Ieven managed to get the Master bedroom finished.

Thursday (April 13):

I finished the 3rd coat of mud and did some sanding and some touch ups. The room is now ready for painting. I also spent the better part of the evening vacuuming up all the dust in the room. There was almost 2 inches in parts. I highly recommend keeping the room sealed off when dealing with sanding the drywall joints.

Friday (April 14):

Thanks goodness it was a holiday...well at least a day that I don't have to work at my paying job not really much of a rest. The plan of attack is to get the master primed and ready for painting.

In between waiting for the layers of paint to dry, Mel and I cleaned up our front yard and moved all the wood to the backyard.

By 9 PM we managed to get the room primed with 2 coats and the first coat of colour done as well. This meant we only had 1 more coat to add and then the room would be ready for the flooring to be installed.

Saturday (April 15):

We woke up early to finish the painting and before heading off to see Dan and the work he has done on our super cool new banister and railing. Stay tuned for the latest photos of Dan's work, you are guaranteed to be impressed. After finishing up at Dan's it was off to Home Depot to rent the flooring nailer. One word of advice, stay away from Home Depot on Saturday especially on a spring holiday weekend. Luckily for us we were there to only get a few supplies.

Once we got back home it was time to rip up the old vinyl tile floor. Thank goodness they had put in on 4x4 sheets of 1/4 plywood so everything came up in large chunks.

Later in the afternoon I got to start the installation of the bamboo flooring. The set up takes a fair bit of time as you need to make sure your first row is straight and square with the rest of the room. You also have to ensure that the first row is installed securely so that as you hammer the floor nailer it does not move the first row. You do this by installing wedges and hand nailing the areas of the flooring that will eventually be hidden by the trim. By quitting time I had 3 or 4 rows in.

Sunday (April 16):

I woke up early again so that I could get a good start on the flooring, thank goodness I did as it took me nearly the whole day to finish the floor. However it was definitely worth while as the floor looks incredible, I highly recommend going with Bamboo floors not just because of the environmental positives but also because of the aesthetics.

After the floor was done it was time to build our new king size bed. The bed took me a good three hours to put together but based on the end result it was well worth it. The photo to the right doesn't really do the room justice, remember the wall is 13' long.

Well as you can see a lot has changed since my last post, we now have a room that is our little oasis amidst the chaos of our reno. I still have some little finishing details to do but nothing major

- hang closet doors
- install closet organizer
- finish baseboard and window trim
- build bookcase for space next to the closet and outdoor wall
- install bedroom door
- reverse (flip) door to balcony

The last point will be interesting. As the door stands now it opens the wrong way not to mention it looks like complete crap, its style does not fit what we are trying to accomplish. The plan will be to take it out and flip it over so that it opens to the shared wall.

While at home depot we shopped for new doors (front door, bedroom and kitchen). With each of them coming in around $600 each we decided to look for a work around. The bedroom and the front doors will have their middles cut out and replace with sealed low-e glass panes and then trimmed up. This work around will save us over a $1000. The kitchen door will need to be a new one as we are adding a double door (a la french style). Amazingly they are the same price as a single door.

Well that's it for now.

Mud everywhere

2006-04-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

Well we are almost there....at least the master is nearly ready. I spent the weekend mudding the master bedroom and managed to get the second and third coats done. Because of my lack of proficiency in regards to mudding its looking like Tuesday will be spent sanding and touching up the deficiencies in the drywall.

We are targeting Wednesday as the day we start painting. I have already ordered some super heavy duty primer/sealer. I want a paint that is forgivable especially because of my mudding skills. We also want to make sure its a good sealent as we don't want to deal with mould later. We have no vapour barrier or even isulation so we want a good seal on our interior walls.

Our buddy Dan Emond has been kind enough to volunteer his time, he is building our stair banister and railing. He is custom fabricating it and welding all the pieces together. Here are some cool photos of his work and the process involved.

The left shows Dan's set up. You would not believe the set up he has in his garage...quite something.

The photo to the right shows Dan making sure each of the pieces is square...maybe I should have done the same for our closet.

The pieces clamped in place and ready for welding.

Seven pieces down, only seven left to go...nice work Dan

This photo gives you an idea of what the pillars will look like. We will be installing lights in the bottom of these, they will be pointed to the ceiling and will light the interior of the pillars up for a nice effect.

We really want to thank Dan for the work he is doing, it will be quite an amazing piece when it's done. For those who are interested Dan is starting up a small custom light and metal fabrication shop called FLUXWORX. The idea is to create custom metal projects with light incorporated into the mix. So stay tuned to this page for a link to his site, probably not soon as he is a little busy on this project right now.

A few moments of anxiety

2006-04-07T09:42:00.000-04:00

Well not really much to post. The taping and the first coat of mud for the master are done now. I am hoping to finish the next two coats over the weekend. I din't get as much work done this week as I would have like but I was stuck at a large defence contractors tradeshow Wednesday and Thursday and got home both nights completley exhausted.

Last night (thursday) was a little nerve wracking, for those that remember what happened to me in 2000 will find this funny. I was driving home around 5 pm, as I approached the intersection of Bayswater and Scott there was a Police barricade preventing me from going farther down Scott to get home. This definitely go my interest peaked, what heck was going on? I managed to get on some of the side streets and was qucikly driving down Ladouceur (which is the cross street near our place). Well as I am getting closer to our place I see another police barricade which looks like it is blocking off my street, not to mention a few fire trucks. Now I am really starting to sweat, police and fire trucks blocking off my street mixed with my history and the fact that I did the wiring in our place....oh crap what is going on. Luckily as I got closer the barricade was the next street over....phew.

As it turns out a Hydro transfer station caught fire which in turn left our area powerless until around 6 am this morning. The outing according to the media reports left 2000 people in Westboro without power, so I guess the good news is that I am no longer am in Hintonburg but actually in the more desireable neighbourhood of Westboro...that's great news for our property value.

For those who are not familiar with my history, particularily 2000 "this is the rest of the story" (imagine my best Paul Harvey voice). In Feburary of that year I had an apartment fire that destroyed everything that I owed and completely destroyed the old row house apartement I was living in. Luckily I had insurance so I ended up ok. So you can imagine the anxiety I feel when I see firetrucks near my house.

Time to mud

2006-04-02T19:03:00.000-04:00

Mel and I got a great weekend of work in. We spent the enitre weekend drywalling the master bedroom. We are very happy to say that the drywall is now done. This week we will concentrate on taping and mudding the room, hopefully that will be done by the end of the week and we can start painting next weekend. Once that is done its time to install our sweet bamboo flooring and a few little touch ups and details that will make it one sweet bedroom. Here are three different views of the master.

The main floor is waiting for me to build out a pillar that will hold the electrical, heating and plumbing. The pipe that is holding everything back should get moved this week. Hopefully soon enough we will get power back to the bathroom and one of the guest bedrooms.

We also ordered a kitchen last week from Ikea, which we have been told will arrive in a week or two. So very shortly I will be tearing apart the kitchen as well.

I have decided that with nice weather finally arriving that it's time to demo the little cold room the old owners built off the kitchen and put in a nice deck. So it looks like we will need to get a garbage bin in so we can get rid of all the crap we have laying around.

More surprises

2006-03-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

Today I spent the evening finishing the drywall on the inside of our closet. this leaves me with just the walls in the room to do. Unfortunately that will need to wail till Saturday as I am out of drywall and am going away as well.

This evening Mel and I decided that we are going to renovate the kitchen next, which means we are headed to Ikea to order the cabinets. Based on our measurements we have an excellent idea of what we need. Since we are shelling out a fair bit of money on the cabinets I figured it would be a good idea to measure the room again. Our current measurements have the kitchen at 16' long and 9'10" wide. On the shared wall there is a little jig because of the chimney, what is weird is that it starts near the entry into the kitchen and runs the entire wall. On the second floor the chimney is only 36" long...so what's up?

Well I decided since we can easily hide any holes with the cabinets, that I should make a few...holes that is. Well much to my surprise I found that behind our kitchen wall is at least 6" but more likely closer to 8" of wasted space. It seems that they just built overtop of the original wall. So in the 60s they dropped the ceiling by almost a foot wasting that space as well as the wasted wall space. Also to my surprise we found 60s style soundproofing, layers of cardboard. I was worried that the cardboard was nailed to more lath and plaster which would mean that we would be instore for another huge mess as I also plan to expose the studs and add soundproofing and fire protection. Lucky for us there is old cottage style boards left over from the original kitchen on the old walls.

Despite the added work I am happy to find this wasted space in the kitchen as it will really allow us to build a nice U shaped kitchen. Our original plans were looking a little cramped but now that we gain 6 to 8 inches it will really open everything up.

This house never stops amazing me I can't wait to see what is burried behind the wall, maybe someone left behind their inheritance...

Getting there...slowly

2006-03-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days since I last posted, not a lot has changed. The last few days have seen us work on some of the minor deficiencies in our bedroom, ones that had to get done before we could start drywalling the room.

We spent the afternoon drywalling the ceiling in the master. After a good days work we managed to get it all done. Things went well and have to give Mel credit for putting up with me. she did an excellent job even learned how to use a drill...kidding.

Hopefully tomorrow after work I can get the rest of the walls done. Once that is done I will start mudding. Once that is done we willl start painting, unfortunately I am headed to Toronto for business on Wednesday and won't have a chance to get much of the mudding done before. So it looks like it'll be at least 2 weeks before the master will be move in ready.

Heard on Saturday that our bed has been shipped and is on its way, so we ordered our mattress and are now trying to get the bedroom done ASAP! We'll be ordering the kitchen cabinets this week, and hope to receive them late April. There is so much to do!

1 closet down, drywall to go

2006-03-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

We are really starting to move along. We have decided to concentrate our attention once again on the master bedroom in order to get it done as quickly as possible. The reason we have decided to do this is because we have decided to completely renovate our kitchen in April and figured we may as well save our bamboo floors from all the potential damage from that renovation.

I spent my evening working on the electrical and cleaning up the master. The master turned out to be the most intricate electrical work I've had to do so far. I must say that I am getting pretty good at this electrical thing. All the wiring worked out perfectly and passed all my circuit tests. The master got all new wiring which was also nice, anytime I can get ride of the older 2 wire wiring it's all good.

After the wiring I cleaned and cleaned the room. I want to get rid of as much of the dust as possible before I start drywalling the room tomorrow.

So now that the closet is completely done and all the wiring in the room is done, I can start on the drywall and fixing up a couple deficiencies. I will need to make sure I have the proper backings in corners to ensure that the drywall has something to be nailed to. I will also have to put up a few more strips of strapping (which holds the ceiling drywall).

I have some areas where the lath and plaster has been removed I will have to put in shims to bring that area out level with the rest of the lath and plaster so that when I drywall over it, it all comes out even.

Closet time

2006-03-20T19:49:00.000-05:00

Since most of the first floor work is dependant on moving some plumbing and mudding the drywall, Mel and I decided to move up to the master.

Today was one of the first days Mel really got a chance to do some serious carpentry because she has been stuck studying her butt off for her Architecture exams.

First thing we did was install the sound and fire barrier between the two houses and boy does it make a difference, you can't hear a thing through the stuff. As you can see in the above photo.

Next we started on building the closet. The closet will measure 10 wide and 2 feet deep and top out at just over 7 feet. We had a good day of work and managed to get the entire closet framed today.

Tomorrow we get to work on the electrical and finalize it before moving onto drywalling on Wednesday...fingers crossed. One issue I am having is that I have no clue why we do not have electricity in our bathroom and spare room. I thought the power for those rooms came from the master but that is not the case. So one of these days I will need to dig around the basement and find out exactly why there is no electricity in those rooms. Until then we have a flashlight as our primary lighting source.

PS-If anyone is interested our old refridgerator is available, surprisingly our neighbours have not swooped up the beast yet.

Items for sale

2006-03-19T18:07:00.000-05:00

For sale - 1 shed
We are willing to part with this beautiful well constructed back shed. Its an 8x12 shed made of lovely particle board. For those who act now we will throw in over 40 garbage bags filled with lath and plaster.

We are willing to barter, heck we'd even except 'one red paperclip'.

Note: shipping is at the buyers expense.

For sale - 1 fridge

Now that we have a new fridge we are willing to part with the old one. Act now as this is an offer that will go quickly, one of our neighbours will pick it up this evening guranteed.

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY

2006-03-17T08:56:00.000-05:00

Just a quick Happy St. Patty's day wish.

I probably won't have a chance to post again today as my hands will likely be busy holding and tipping back the occasional green beer. For those of you who are in Ottawa, we'll be in the Hintonburg/Westboro area today, give me a shout on my cell or email me.

New photos and a new fridge

2006-03-15T20:33:00.000-05:00

I spent most of my evening working on finishing small tasks. We will shortly be mostly finished with the living room, leaving only the mudding of the drywall, the painting, tiling the foyer floor and installing the bamboo flooring...oh yeah and some little finishing touches. We also got our new and very needed fridge today, it is quite something. Now I have to drag our old piece of crap out to the curb. Maybe I will host a competition on how long it lasts before one of my neighbours grabs it.

I am mostly done drwyalling the half-wall and pillar just waiting on cutting a new heating vent in the master and hooking up the heating. Once that is done I will be able to close off the pillar. I also put on some drywall edge tape.

I hung the last big sheet of drywall on the ground floor, the one around the window in the dining area.

I also spent the evening getting ride of the last bit of garbage in the master as well as sweeping and moping the room. It is ready to be worked on now. The next few days will likely mean a break from renovating as the NCAA basketball tourney starts (Thursday) and its St. Patty's day on Friday. I am hoping on Saturday to insulate the master, build the new closet, redo all the electrical and maybe get some drywall hung.

As promised here are some new (colour) photos of the master.

Here is a photo looking at the front wall of the master, it's 15' in length. We will eventually replace the door to the front balcony. I will also drywall over the existing plaster rather than trying to patch the holes and bumps in it.

This photo is looking from the north wall where the headboard of our bed will be. This wall is 13' in length. As you can see I have exposed the studs of the shared wall.

This view is from the north-east corner of the room and shows the entrance to the room. The shared wall will soon be insulated noise reduction and fire protection. After that I will build a new closet that will be about 10' in length and 24" deep. The wall of the closet closest to the door will house the electrical switches for the room. I will also add several new recepticles to the room as well.

One last picture showing the entrance from the coner of the front wall and the shared wall. You can still see the door to an old closet from the adjacent bedroom. I will drywall over the door closing it off and leaving the adjacent room with no closet but we now have a huge master.

Dust and more dust

2006-03-13T21:28:00.000-05:00

Here are some new photos, I am not sure why some came out in black and white the next ones will hopefully show how the master is progressing.

This photo is of The Bish and I putting up the first of many drywall sheets. I'm obviously displaying my supervisory skills. I am very thankful Robin was able to help and we are now a major step closer to finishing. If you look carefully you will see some wood nailed into the existing walls, these help support the sheet and make it a heck of a lot easier on us (good idea Robin).

The next photo shows the almost finished ceiling, we are getting a professional mudder to finish the drywall joints correctly.

Well the lazy garbage men didn't take our 20+ bags of garbage...go figure. It looks like we will end up renting a bin and get rid of the garbage then.

Today I tore down the lath and plaster shared wall exposing the studs. After working at that for an hour and getting completely covered in dust I decided to leave the clean up till tomorrow. Once everything is cleaned up I will then be able to insulate the wall, build the new closet, wire the electrical, extend the heating to the master and then finally drywall the walls and ceiling....look out Robin.

After that I started drywalling the half-wall, my initial worry was that the wall would not being steady enough, but that worry was quickly alleviated. I built in as much support as possible and figured that along with the drywall, would make it pretty solid. It sure did, the wall doesn't move an inch when shook.

Tomorrow will be a clean up in the master followed by finishing the drywall on the half-wall and maybe even the end wall in the dining area.

Drywall and the Master Bedroom

2006-03-12T18:21:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted and boy a lot has gone on in the last four days.

I've spent most of the time tinkering with the electrical. I have been replacing the old wiring whenever possible. At one point the basement was quite a mess of wires, I have since drilled holes and strung the wires giving the basement a much better sense of order. I am adding a lot of new circuits as the house was poorly wired. We will be replacing our old fuse panel towards the end of the month with a new breaker panel.

On Saturday my buddy 'The Bish' (Robin) came over and helped me drywall the ground floor ceiling. The original ceiling was an ugly stucco and because of the demo had a lot of holes in it. So we just decided to drywall over it. Things went really well and we managed to get to the Elmdale Tavern in abut 3 1/2 hours for a pint or two.

I do have some advice for other DIY home renovators if you are planning on drywalling a ceiling and don't have an army to help you out, make sure you go with 8 foot sheets. I ordered 12 and 10 footers and we were forced to cut them as they would have been completely unmanageable by two people.

The other piece of advice is don't go with Manotick Building Supplies, as they are completely inept. I placed an order with them on Wednesday, requesting that it be delivered by 1 on Friday. They never even showed leaving us to scramble and try and find someone to deliver with one days notice. Thank goodness for Rona, heck they even gave us a $30 gift card.

Today (Sunday) we tackled the master bedroom as it needed some cleaning and some more demo. We filled 20 garbage bags of plaster and wood, now my fingers are crossed that our garbage guys will take it all away tomorrow. We have basically put out over 30 bags of garbage in the last 2 weeks.

The master is looking great now and boy is it huge. Tomorrow we will finish tearing down lath and plaster on the shared wall, the plan will be to put in a noise barrier since there is nothing but lath and plaster between the two homes. Then one last clean up and the room will be ready for the next step.

Check back tomorrow as I will post some new pictures of the living room as well as the master so you can get a better idea of what we have done.

Just to let everyone know I have changed the settings on the blog, anyone can now post comments without registering.

On my way to being an electrician...not quite

2006-03-07T19:23:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update tonight. I managed to get all the electrical hooked up without having a fire or even blowing a fuse. I am however getting a weird reading with one of my testers, it is telling me that my neutral and hot wires are reversed but the receptacles work just fine. I did try the tester out on an original receptacle and got the same issue. The good news is a buddy of mine who is an electrician is swinging by tomorrow night, I will get him to take a look at it.

I also managed to get our new thermostat installed, now I can trash the old mercury one which is straight from the 60s. I guess I better call the city to ask them how I should dispose of a mercury switch.

Next steps are:

- clean up the master bedroom.
- finish some minor demo in the master.
- redo electrical in master
- redo the heating
- build a new much bigger closet
- drywall the ceiling

Good news, my buddy the electrician just swung by. For the most part my wiring was correct I just had the wrong switches, I was using a 3-way switch when only a 2-way was required. All I know is that the lights go on when I turn on the switch and nothing catches fire.

Some carpentry and electrical

2006-03-06T12:14:00.000-05:00

Now that all the major demolition is done it's time to focus my attention on the rebuilding. We have changed plans a bit and are starting with the downstairs living area as the first place to get finished, the Master bedroom can wait.

I spent yesterday afternoon building our new half wall separating the living room and the front entrance. I built a pillar against the wall that will house the heating and electrical for the master bedroom. I was a little worried that the foundation of the house would run past the exterior wall into the house making my 1 foot by 6 in pillar mostly useless for the heating duct. I was right, the foundation (old stone) runs at least a foot into the house. I did however come up with a great work around.

I decided to build a smaller pillar that is the height of the half-wall and the same 1 foot width of the pillar. It is attached to the pillar as well. This will allow me to easily get the mechanical to the 2nd floor bedroom without any negative effect on the openness of the room. Not to mention it also provides us with a great place to put a sculpture or plant.

Today I am working on the electrical, this should be interesting. The plan is to put in a 3 gang outlet box on the living room side of the half-wall as this is where my TV and Stereo equipment will be located. The outlet box will then connect to a 3 gang box of switches and will power the foyer light. One of the switches will control the ceiling light in the living room, which shortly will be a ceiling fan while the other switch will control the outdoor light. During my demo I accidentally cut the power cable to the outdoor light, lucky for me that the switch was off. We are also adding a new exterior light, one that better reflects our tastes and it only cost $14.

Well the wiring went well, I managed to get all the wire in place and even some of them connected. The best part is the house is still standing. I still have some of the complexities to get down and have bought some books to help. I will hopefully finish up the wiring tomorrow as well as install the new thermostat.

On a side note our bamboo floors are now here and boy do they look sweet. I can't wait to get the ceiling drywalled and painted, once that is done we will be installing the floor.

It's great to be home

2006-03-04T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well we are all moved in, the final move was done on Friday. Thankfully I hired movers as we have lots of stuff I never want to lift them again. If you are looking for a mover I suggest, actually I recommend Checker Movers. We were done in 2 hours with me helping, although I did take over 10 or so carloads during the day.

Today (saturday) we ran some early errands and cleaned the place. First thing this morning we went by the old apartement to pick up a few things left behind, including our alarm clock which I had set to go off ealry as loud as it could ring...trying to pay back our upstairs neighbour for her inconsideration.

After that I ran off to Home Depot to pick up some materials and electrical...I hate that place on a saturday, it's almost as bad as Ikea. I am hoping to build the half-wall, do some re-wiring as well as install the heating duct to the master bedroom tomorrow. Since we are going out tonight..to the Carleton Tavern the wall may look like Homer Simpson built it as I may have a slight hangover.

Mel spent the day cleaning the kitchen, she did a fantastic job we can almost last a month before we have to tear it apart. It was such a disgusting mess but I will let her tell you.

.... that was one of the most disgusting things I ever had to deal with! I honestly don't know how those people are still alive today after eating food that was sitting in that fridge! I started with the freezer, which wasn't too bad other than the fact that the rubber gasketing around the door was sticking to the freezer and I had to used two hands to pry it open... eeewww! So I cleaned out the freezer, with bleach, might I add, and put our forzen foods into it before tackling the refrigerator part.

So it smelled awful... I started by pulling out the metal shelves and cleaning the inner walls before pulling out the vegetable crispers... as I pulled one out, the entire shelf above it came out and fell to the floor... It left a thick line of black gooo on the walls of the fridge, and a huge puddle of brown water at the bottom... have I mentioned how disgusting it was?? So I made the mistake of flipping the bottom shelf over... the top of it was white.... the underside of it was a dark grey... it was covered in fuzzy black mold... completely covered. eeeeewww!!! By this time, I was seriously considering heading out and buying a new fridge and forgetting about this one... I ended up soaking the shelf in pure bleach for about 15 minutes, then scrubbing it before it finally came off... Tell me how can people eat vegetables with 20 years of mold hanging inches above their vegetable crisper? And below the crisper... a pool of brown, disgusting water... sheesh! To top it off, the rubber gasketing is so dried up and cracked that holding your hand beside the closed door, you feel all the cold air coming out... maybe it doubles as an air conditioner in the summertime...

So, all this to say that when Brad came back from running his errands, we headed out to Direct Buy to get a new fridge. So in a couple of weeks, we've got 26 cubic feet of clean, stainless steel refrigerating power... and energy savings to top it off. Man, that thing can't arrive soo enough. I've used a whole bottle of bleach on that fridge and it still grosses me out!

That's it for now...hopefully tomorrow will go well and I will have all my fingers to type.

As promised photos and oh what a difference

2006-03-02T21:38:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the late posting of pictures. Here is how the place looks now that we have finished all the major demolition work on the first floor. Tonight we spent the evening getting ready to move in tomorrow, lots and lots of cleaning.

As you can see the place has really opened up, in fact we get great sunlight in the afternoon. The photo on the left shows the view from the kitchen looking at the dining room. On the left is a pillar where the mechanical (electrical and plumbing) are located. We are hoping to move the venting (furthest to the right) in to the dining room. There is also a pipe in the way, which means we will need a plumber. The other option would be to just box it in as it is, however I think the extra foot really makes a huge difference. Hopefully it doesn't cost too much....its good to know a plumber.

This photos shows the view from the door way. I have left the pillar supporting the 2nd floor, it's probably not a good Idea to remove it quite yet....at least till we have a replacement for it. To the right of the picture is some dangling electrical at the front foyer that will be relocated into a half wall we are building. I guess I get to try my hand at the electrical as well.

This is my favourite photo so far, it really shows off the openness of the space. As you can see the heating duct really needs to go, it opens up the space even more.

Also notice how nice the stairwell looks exposed. We have some interesting ideas in how we are going to finish it. The wall under the stairwell will be covered in tile. We are going to try and keep two main themes through out the place, tile and bamboo flooring. The tile we have chosen is quite amazing...its a black tile from Emerald Flooring called "Master Plan African". I wish I had a picture of it, but soon enough we will have it installed.

So this weekend means some more clean-up, particularily in the master bedroom. There is a closet to remove as well as a bit of wall to take out. After the clean-up is done Mel and I will need to decide where in the master our new shared closet will go but more on that in a bit. I will also have to start the construction of the half-wall at the front of the house.

So much to do, at least its fun.

For now that is.

I declare an end to all major demolition

2006-03-01T21:07:00.000-05:00

At least I hope so. I will likey have some small bits left to demolish mostly in the master. At least with the master the mess is contained in the room.

I'd post some photos but I forgot to take pictures, I blame Mel. Check back tomorrow for photos of the new and very open first floor. Today I spent my time exposing the stairwell and removing the kitchen wall. We then spent a fair bit of time cleaning as we officially move in on Friday.

Well its off to bed, I'm getting a little tired working 14 hours a day doing two jobs.

A big day of destruction

2006-02-28T20:18:00.000-05:00

Today I started on the Living/dining room. One of the owners before us had build in a front foyer with a small closet. We have decided to rip it out in order to really open up the room.

Luckily for me the construction was relatively new and thus had been drywalled not the really messy lath and plaster. I will have to do a little re-wiring and moving of a heating duct. The plan will be to build a bulkhead at the front wall which will contain all the wiring and duct work. It'll be about a foot by a foot, although I have not settled on that, it could be as narrow as a 2x4.

After about 3 or 3 1/2 hours of work, I managed to get ride of everything except the wiring. Next up here will be to remove the ugly ancient vinyl tiles. Actually the whole place is covered with them. Once they are gone I can begin building the bulkhead and a half wall that will extend 3 feet from the end of the bulkhead.

Obviously there will be some touch ups as well. In one area there is drywall that sits out further than the original lath and plaster; I am not sure what I will do. Maybe remove the drywall and patch it. I can't put drywall over the plaster as it goes all the way up the stairs. I guess we will play it by ear.

After the demo of the foyer I took apart the temporary room that the previous owner had built in our dining room. That went well, I even managed to get most of the garbage boxed up and stored in our backyard entrance area(that's a whole other post).

After finishing all that I was pretty close to calling it but then I turned around and looked at the awful fake wood panelling which was right out of the part of the 70s everyone is trying to forget. Maybe I just have an aversion to it...sorry Mom and Dad.

After removing the fake wood panelling and not knowing what to expect I was frightened yet relieved to find more fake wood panelling. I was relieved to find it, as it most likely meant lath and plaster. I spent the next bit exposing both the stairwell and the kitchen wall.

The kitchen wall had wood panelling on both sides which should make tomorrows demo quick and tolerable. With the stairs I found some lath and plaster which was providing the wall for the basement stairs. One of the previous owners had closed in the stairs to the second floor with drywall thank goodness.

So hopefully tomorrow I will get the demo on the ground floor done and most of the cleanup as well. I still need to tear down the beams supporting the second floor at the stair opening, I will be temporarily supporting it with braces. These will be replaced by custom made posts that are part of our new banister. Wait till you see it, it will most definitely be a conversation piece but more on that shortly.

We own a house.....I think I broke it.

2006-02-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

Today was our closing day...wooohoooo finally get away from the idiots living upstairs. You'd think after 6 months of us complaining and almost kicking in their door they'd learn to walk gently or at least go on a diet. So if you head to the Clocktower for some food or a beer, don't tip the bartender.

Luckily for us our new neighbour seems to be great, she doesn't even mind the huge demolition racket we are making. We have promised to quite banging and cutting by 9 in the evening.

I picked the keys up at 4 and was off to the house to start the demolition. Our plan of attack is to start with the master bedroom first. We are ripping out the wall that seperates the bedroom from the hallway to the deck. We are also tearing out an small closet that is shared by the master and the other bedroom just west of the room. Mel decided to not study tonight and take out her stress on some walls.

The walls in the room are a combination of lath and plaster (what a mess) and drywall. As you cans see lots of lath and plaster. There is also a combination of new and old wiring in the wall. I bought a spool of 14-2 wire so I can rewire the place as we go.

You would not believe the amout of dust and garbage the lath and plaster create. Its going to be quite the clean up. Luckily the downstairs demo is all drywall. I gave the downstair walls a quick kick test.

So after the first day in our place I managed to get almost all the demo done in the master bedroom. There is still a small closet by the enterance to demo. After that we will have one heck of a clean-up before starting to dry wall and patch the remaining walls.

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow I start on the living/dining room, we decided this would be best as we are moving in on Friday and want all the major demo to be done so our stuff won't get totally covered in dust. With the bedroom we have it cover off nicely and it seems to be containing the dust.

President's Choice Insurance Sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-02-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

Here we are a little over a week from our closing date of February 27th, which we moved up from March 1st in order to give us a little time to remove walls and do some general demolition before we move in. In order to make sure that we were protected in case we accidentally burned our house down before March 1st (it has happened before) we decided to move up our insurance to the same day as we took possession. Mel called our insurance company PC Financial Insurance to make the arrangements. Of course nothing is easy, they lost our policy but suggested we call back on Thursday in case it arrived by mail in the mean time.

Well it’s now Thursday and guess what, nothing has arrived. Time to give them a call and make the necessary arrangements. We figured going into this we would have to regurgitate all the info we already gave them and boy did we have to do it all over again. I should have known we were dealing with idiots the first time when they couldn’t understand what a flat roof was. This evening was the same, we once again hit that dreaded question about the roof. Here is how that conversation went:

PC: what kind of roof is on the house?
US: it's a flat roof.
PC: is the roof in the shape of an A?
US: no, it's a flat roof.
PC: ok, what kind of shingles are on it?
US: it's a flat roof, it has a tar roof.
PC: are the shingles asphalt, clay or wood?
US: no, it's a flat roof. Flat roofs are usually made of tar.
PC: oh, is it a metal roof?
US: no, its a tar roof. its a flat membrane roof.
PC: ok, I don't have that option.

I'm not kidding, that is verbatim of our conversation with PC and it happend twice.

We then spent another twenty minutes answering many, many more questions. After they got all the answers they needed, the idiot at the other end of the phone then says "sorry we can't insure your house because it has a flat roof". WTF, half the roofs in our area of Ottawa are flat not to mention this is the second time we told them it was flat. What a bunch of incompetent idiots...stay away from PC Insurance.

This, as you can imagine caused us a little stress. As with most people we made getting insurance a condition of our home purchase, which we waived a month ago because PC told us we were insured.

Luckily for us we called Bel-Air Direct and they were great, staffed by knowledgeable people...who even knew what a flat roof was. Even better was that we save $20 per month on our insurance. So my recommendation to everyone reading this is stay away from PC Financial and/or Insurance and go with Bel-Air Direct, who I believe are now owned by ING.

Well that's about it, boy did I need to vent. Boy I wish I could sue those idiots at Presidents Choice.

I promise that I will get back to posting about the renovations next time. Stay tuned we demo Monday, February 27th.

The details and more

2006-02-13T09:09:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the details our home:

Location:Hintonburg
Type: Semi-detached (3 Bdrm, 1 Bath, Kitchen, Living/Dining Room, Basement)
Coverage: 950 Sq. Ft. (approx)

Living/Dining - 15' x 22'6"
Kitchen - 9'10" x 15'
Master Bedroom - 15' x 13'
2nd Bedroom - 9'5" x 9'5"
3rd Bedroom - 9'10" x 9'10"
Bathroom - 5'10" x 5'

Age: 80 Years old (approx)
Foundation: Stone
Lot size:
Facade: Red Brick (front) and siding (side and rear)
Windows: New Low-E Argon
Electrical: 100 Amp
Roof: Tar roof (flat)
Existing flooring: Vinyl tiles and linoleum

We have chosen our flooring. Our plan is to cover the living/dining room, stairs, 2nd floor hallway and the master bedroom with Bamboo flooring. We have chosen the Vertical Carbonized style .

The Plan

2006-02-12T14:56:00.001-05:00

Welcome to our modern home renovation blog. Mel and I (brad) recently bought a house in what we hope is the next up and coming area of Ottawa, ON, Canada. We were pretty lucky that we found a place with great potential. I think that most people were scared away by the fact that the previous owners had built a freestanding bedroom into the current living room, which really gave you the impression that the place needed an awful lot of work.

Mel and I have an ultra modern taste when it comes to the style of home we want. This house has the potential with a lot of sweat and hopefully a little bit of money to become the place we'd like. It should be quite interesting as we both have experience in building as she is an architect and I was a carpenter, the biggest challenges will be finding the time as we both have day jobs and living through the mess.

First Floor

The first floor has so much potential. We plan on opening up the main floor by removing several walls and exposing the staircase to the second floor. By removing the walls we will turn our place into more of a loft and a very open concept. We are also planning on installing Bamboo flooring everywhere but the foyer and the kitchen.

See below for some photos and more details.

2nd Floor

Lots of work to do up here, we debated about removing a bedroom and creating two ensuite bathrooms but decided against it because of resale issues in the future. We plan on making the master bedroom into a fairly good sized bedroom (15' x 13') by removing a wall. The master bedroom will also feature Bamboo hardwood flooring as will the hallway.

We are also planning on borrowing room from the other two bedrooms in order to make the bathroom a little bigger.

See below for more details and some photos.

Check back often

We will hopefully be updating this blog weekly or bi-weekly during the renovations. Feel free to let us hear your opinions all good suggestions are welcome but I can't guarantee we will undertake every suggestion we get.

Our Floor Plans and some photos of the house

This drawing shows the layout of the ground floor. The door on the far left is the main entrance to the house (facing east) while the room to the far right is the kitchen (facing west). The plan so far is to remove the wall separating the kitchen from the dinning room. We will also be opening up the stairwell and removing the little foyer and closet at the entrance.

This drawing shows the second floor and is aligned the same as the ground floor drawing above. We are planning on tearing out the wall in the master bedroom (East end of drawing) and remvoing the small closet as well. A new closet will be built along the shared wall (South or top). We are also looking at expanding the bathroom by stealing 1 foot from each of the other two bedrooms.

Ground Floor photos

This photo shows the living room as seen from the stairwell. Say goodbye to the separating wall between the living room and the foyer.

Here is a photo from next to the TV set in the living room showing the stairwell as well as the temporary room the previous owners built.

As you can see this is a photo of our kitchen (taken from door way to the dining/living room. It will be gone soon and replaced likely with high gloss red cabinetry from Ikea. I have to admit it is hard to beat their prices and the kitchens are of excellent quality.

This photo is looking back at the wall separating the kitchen from the dining/living room. We are ripping it out entirely and even exposing the stairwell to the basement (far right of photo). We will leave a small column on the far left for the houses 2nd floor mechanical.

The view from the top of the stairwell looking to the front of the house and the master bedroom. The bathroom is immediately to the left as is the 2nd bedroom.

The bathroom as seen from the doorway. As you can see it is relatively small, in order to make it bigger we will steal a foot from each of the two adjacent bedrooms. In the near future we will be removing the old clawfoot tub and replacing it with a new modern one that can more easily accommodate a shower. So if you're looking for a clawfoot tub in good shape, drop us a line.

The master bedroom as seen from the doorway and aiming east towards the front of the house. To the right of the computer desk is a wall that creates a hall way where a door to our front balcony is. This wall is going, giving us a new large master bedroom of 15'x13'.

The Outside Views

Coming soon, the front of the house...I forgot to take a photo.

As you can see this is the back of the house. The small vestibule entrance on the left will be removed and replace with an deck. The deck will then lower onto another back deck.