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

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

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

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

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

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.