Reno Blog

Almost there...

2008-10-06T19:10:00.001-04:00

The mess is still evident as we are sorting through boxes and putting things in their place (a whole lot of dishwashing going on!)

The plumbers are here, the plumbers are here!

2008-09-27T11:29:00.002-04:00

I don't think I have ever been so happy to see a plumber in my life. They are here to do all the final hook ups (toilet,DISHWASHER, sink etc). Did I mention they are hooking up the dishwasher?? And our ground floor powder room. Oh, and the dishwasher.

The counters are here!

2008-09-25T09:01:00.002-04:00

T-3 hours and counting before our counters are installed. Photos to follow. We are excited beyond words. I miss my dishwasher... a lot.

And the counters are in. They are gorgeous.

We have a backyard again

2008-09-21T09:03:00.002-04:00

In one day we went from a garbage and concrete strewn backyard to a garbage free, levelled and graded sod filled yard. The contractors were in jack hammering some concrete left over from years gone by and pouring/grading a new slope. Toddler heaven as heavy machinery, a cement truck and multiple shovels were all easily viewable from the back door. Rolling out sod also appears to wear little ones out.
Our appliances were also delivered yesterday, they look incredible and now we impatiently wait for our counters to go in so we can actually USE the new kitchen!

Floors are done!

2008-09-13T09:40:00.001-04:00

Kitchen Install complete

2008-08-30T08:30:00.002-04:00

The kitchen install is largely complete save for the toe kicks which will go on after the floor is stained.
This is the worst part of the renovation- our finished kitchen is mocking us as we cannot use it quite yet. The counters need to go in and the floor stained. Then the appliances can be installed.

The cabinets are here

2008-08-25T08:43:00.003-04:00

The day we have long awaited has finally arrived. Our kitchen cabinets have arrived on site.
The space has been primed, sanded and the ceiling painted. Our sink, cooktop and taps have been selected and are onsite (minus the tap which is on order).

Light at the end of the tunnel

2008-08-11T08:18:00.003-04:00

Back to reality. A cottage escape (with a functioning kitchen)does wonders but also points out the bare reality of living in a space without a kitchen.
We do have progress, the floors are in and the fireplace surround is completed. Some of the taping of the drywall has begun. We are counting the days (14 to be exact) until the kitchen install. We cannot wait.

Getting there

2008-07-22T18:46:00.003-04:00

A lot of work went on this week and we can really start to see that the end is sort of in sight. More insulation went in (the batt kind)and we can already notice the difference in sound levels.
Our cherished ground floor powder room is now walled in. We are hoping it will make toilet training a toddler a little bit easier.

Attack of the blue foam

2008-07-22T07:18:00.002-04:00

The insulation went in and our house currently looks like it belongs on the set of the blue man group. The insulation is called Walltite and sticks to just about anything.

A whole bunch of trades...

2008-07-19T15:29:00.004-04:00

Invaded the house this week. Plumbers, electricians, HVAC, siding, window and fireplace workers roughed in their work.
The siding on the house (cement fibre board) looks great, we used Hardie Plank in Monterey taupe, far better than the aging stucco that used to be up.

More weekend work...

2008-07-12T12:07:00.003-04:00

Boy, all the trades must be really busy, or just hate working on the smaller reno jobs. There was no work on the house this week, well except for the 4 hours the plumber was here on Tuesday night.

The HVAC guys showed up this morning (Saturday) happy that they get to work on the weekend and that it is going to be one of the hotter days of the year. Hopefully they finish the whole job today as the upstairs bathroom and our son's room have had no direct A/C for about two months now.

Also, the plumber is scheduled to return on Sunday to finish what he started on Tuesday. That will leave the electrical as the next job to complete.

Watch for more HVAC and plumbing pictures soon!

Speak of the devil...

2008-07-05T13:05:00.003-04:00

As I have been working getting my last post out, the plumbers arrived to replace the old cast iron sewer stack. They will be working on Saturday (today) replacing it, and roughing in the water and drainage lines. They plan to be back on Tuesday to finish all the roughed in plumbing.

Also, it looks like the roof will be done today. If this happens, then the siding (delivered last Monday) can be put up.

I think that getting all the trades to work on our type of smaller job is hard. The roofers and plumbers are working on a Saturday. I guess that they spend the week on the larger jobs and leave the smaller ones for their 'free' time.

I hope this recent progress is a sign of things to come...

Another week of no work...

2008-07-05T13:03:00.003-04:00

We are now three weeks behind schedule. There was no work done on the house this week. So far, this doesn't impact us too much as the kitchen installation was pushed back to the third week of Aug.

Here's hoping that the work starts again soon...

:-)

The chimney is gone...

2008-06-26T09:50:00.002-04:00

The original chimney from the kitchen is now residing in pieces in our backyard along with all the stucco and insulbrick from the back bedroom. The contractors put plywood and then tyvek over it yesterday. It looks loads better (which wasn't difficult). Now we are onto the electrical plan and the fireplace.

Second Floor...

2008-06-22T11:21:00.003-04:00

We were trying to avoid work on the second floor, but given that the stucco is in such bad shape we need to remove it and put the Hardie plank siding on it instead. The second floor will also be receiving a much needed new window- the current one is a salvage (I am using this term lightly) from an old home and in absolutely decrepit condition.

Now I have to decide on countertops for the kitchen. While I love the idea of silestone (engineered quartz), the cost is pretty prohibitive and we are leaning back towards natural stone... carrara marble is what we both love but I am wary of the upkeep.

The Walls are Up!!!

2008-06-17T19:50:00.001-04:00

Windows and doors arrived...

2008-06-14T06:42:00.003-04:00

The windows and door arrived for the back bay window and door. The crew made some good progress this week on getting the framing started. They needed to as we are having the final kitchen measuring on Monday. Then we get to plunk down the down payment on the kitchen....

Today is the first day that I can really see how everything is going to fit together. I can imagine sitting on the couch looking out the window at the kids playing in the backyard. It's going to be great!

Starting to look like a house again

2008-06-11T19:54:00.002-04:00

The framing is going well and we have the layout for the worlds smallest powder room. However we get the benefit of a ground floor bathroom, we cannot wait!
The chimney that was causing us potential grief (aka money) appears to no longer be an issue as from what I can tell the thing is currently laid to waste in our backyard.
Portugal won the game today, I am guessing this must have inspired our carpenters!

Back to the studs...

2008-06-08T09:28:00.003-04:00

The drywall is gone and we are back to the original studs (well original for the most part). More wonderful knob and tube and no insulation on the common wall. We will be taking care of the knob and tube and insulating the heck out of the common wall.
The old subfloor is in pretty good shape and is beautiful random width pine, amazing that such nice wood was used as a subfloor.
Framing should start soon.

Foundation!

2008-05-27T13:30:00.001-04:00

WFI- Waiting for Inspectors

2008-05-22T08:43:00.002-04:00

We are back to waiting-for-inspector mode. In order to move ahead with the foundation and then the framing, the city has to sign off that the foundation is not going to come crumbling down around us in the future. Our previous foundation managed to last 120+ years (sort of) before producing a very noticeable slant where our fridge used to be. On the fridge note we need to make a final visit to Caplan's to pick out our appliances. What a wonderful store!

2008-05-16T16:57:00.001-04:00

And the foundation is going in. Concrete blocks are not exactly exciting photos, I will be more enthused when the framing starts, well and when the kitchen is DONE.

Footings

2008-05-15T12:54:00.003-04:00

The large pile of sand that appeared yesterday is currently being put to good use as our footings are being laid today.

Waiting for Inspection

2008-05-14T20:03:00.002-04:00

Not much happening these days- an inspector had to drop by to okay how the foundation will proceed. These things get interesting when you are dealing with 100 year old "foundations" if they can be called that. Given that the house is still standing they must have done something right once upon a time, I wonder if the same could be said of todays foundations and whether they will last 100+ years.
Things should start up again tomorrow as long as the weather holds as the inspector gave the go ahead.

Excavation

2008-05-09T19:56:00.000-04:00

Day 4... revealing what lies beneath

2008-05-08T12:23:00.002-04:00

This is the interesting portion of the demo- the scariness that lies beneath the walls/gaping holes of the common wall. This neatly explains why we could hear the neighbours so easily. Insulation would appear to have been optional in the various renos. Well unless you count newspaper...the chimney might be a problem, we were hoping to remove it completely. But I rely on our very able contractors advice on that one!

Day 3 May 7 2008

2008-05-07T11:36:00.001-04:00

It has begun.... No going back.

2008-05-06T08:29:00.000-04:00

All of a sudden I am feeling nervous. Did you take a look a the pictures posted earlier. It looks pretty 'old'. The side boards look like the original boards used when the house was built in the 1880's. They are a full 12 X 2 inches. They don't make boards like that anymore.

Also, it looked like there was blown-in insulation in the walls. One good thing, there didn't seem to be any water damage, although it looked like the roof had leaked at one point.

Not bad for a day's worth of work.

F1fan

Day 1 May 5 2008 Photos

2008-05-06T07:57:00.001-04:00

House all packed up

2008-05-05T08:53:00.000-04:00

T-3 Days and counting...

2008-05-02T07:48:00.000-04:00

The house is almost packed… we’re about 80% done. I really thought that the packing was going to go much faster. I spent all day packing the yard, kitchen and dining room stuff in the basement. Luckily the boxes were packed for me.

What I have left is to move the fridge into the living room (don’t know where I am going to put it…)

I will post some more before-reno pictures this weekend.

Oh. By the way, did I mention that we will be moving out for 4 - 6 weeks. We found a really nice (read expensive) condo right down town.

F1Fan

Decisions

2008-04-19T07:47:00.000-04:00

The reason we are doing this reno is to get a new kitchen! With kids now, we just can’t live with the old ‘1960’s’ kitchen. Our back room (kitchen) was probably added on as a summer kitchen a long time ago. You can see from the pictures in gallery that it really wasn’t functional anymore.

Our plan is to move the kitchen into the centre of the house, where the dining room is, and move the family room to the back of the house. That way we can get more light into the family room and watch the kids more easily in the backyard. The dining room will move to the front of the house and include a small siting area in the front bay window.

One thing that I found was that places like Home Depot and Ikea were not as cheap as I thought they would be. Also, their design options just don’t fit our old Victorian style home. The designs are too modern for it to make sense in our home.

We’ll be making our kitchen design decision soon so keep posted. We need to finalise our design and order by mid-May to make our early August install date.

F1Fan

Taking the plunge

2008-04-13T07:39:00.000-04:00

This blog will document the adventure of our kitchen renovation. We live in an old Victorian style home with a really OLD kitchen.

We will be sharing pictures (hopefully daily) and discussing (venting) our feelings and thoughts on this blog. The reno is scheduled to start early May and last 4-5 months.

Wish us luck… and hope to see you here.

F1Fan.