Finally

It would be completely untrue to say that the reno has take until today to finish. Of course there will always be a few little things here and there that we need to fine tune, but we have been "done" (in my mind) since sometime in September - I think it was the day the sinks were installed in the master bathroom - followed soon after by the mirrors. There was a dark time when I thought we would be in the running for the world record of longest renovation in human history (that reference is for the media groups that like to use that term).

A few weeks ago we had small open house for some clients, as well as a few of the trades who worked on the house (the ones we're still speaking to). It was great to be able to finally use the large front room for entertaining. Instead of hanging out in the kitchen (hard to do with the caterers there), a large number of people seemed to take turns hanging out in our ensuite - it might have had something to do with heated tile floors.

The day before the party we were moving pieces of art around the various rooms trying to find the best place. There are still a few walls that need a punch of colour - primarily over the sofa in the living room.

The night before the party I was finding and printing prints of photos from various cities we've visited over the years. These three pictures found their home (for now) over our bed.
We have now pictures of the new storage room or Spence's bedroom in the basement. Since they were finished they have fully evolved into the intended purposes and not fit to share broadly.

Admittedly, it was nice to be able to sit on our new sofa and watch the occasional show on a TV larger than the 15-inch one in the kitchen. If I never sit on the barstools in the kitchen again, it will be too soon.

We are excited to finally have a place where friends and family can stay if they are visiting or have had too much wine with dinner. We've got a top-of-the-line mattress, guest robes and slippers. What are y'all waiting for??




And here is where we hang out - this is what made it all worth it:

Home stretch

The doors are in (all 17 of them). The bathrooms are tiled.

We are at the stage now where things are beginning to look amazing - the tile work in both bathrooms is something to behold. Rather that put in pictures, you will have to wait until the grand reveal. For those of you who aren't able to stop by when things are done, we will create a virtual tour of the new spaces. Stay tuned.

We are going to be away for the last part of the renos. When we return (around June 6) we should have hardwood floors and everything should be fully painted. The outside of the house should also be fully stucco'd. I expected that by the end of June we should have the furniture in place and ready to show the place off.

Moving along

All the drywall is up and the bulk of the mudding and taping is done. The crew is set to come back Tuesday to do the final sanding (we are preparing for the dust). We have the painter lined up for later in the week to do the priming, followed by the final touch-ups on the drywall. Once the drywall is done we can get the electricians back to install the lights.
Later next week, the storage room will be ready so we can move much of the furniture piled high in the basement and get back to some semblance of order.
The dumpster arrived shortly after the last post and the backyard is clean and tidy.
Not much to show in the way of pictures, other than drywall in the rooms. I'll post some pictures once everything has been primed.

What a difference a week makes

Things have ramped up. Electrical and gas work finished and passed inspection. Hooray!
Drywall installed in two day. Attic insulation blown in (R60 - we are toasty now). The forecast is for a bit of snow this weekend, but we don't care. Our ears are pleased with the silence of not having the furnace running non-stop.

Next week, the mudders and tapers will arrive to prepare the walls and ceiling for paint. The painter was here yesterday to look over the project and give us a quote. The stucco guy was also here to gather what he needs to quote on doing something with the exterior.

We remain hopeful that a dumpster is delivered soon because the backyard is a mess with all the scrap drywall pieces and other bits of construction material.

Long time, no blog...

...and very little activity to speak of - but now we are on a role.

We had a large setback in February with the original plumber we were using on our project. It turns out he was/is inept. After taking what seemed like forever to get the plumbing installed, his "handy-work" failed the plumbing inspection, TWICE. And he didn't seem to be in any kind of hurry to fix it. Worried that we were likely to have more problems down the road, we fired the plumber and hired a new guy - the veritable "Mike Holmes" of plumbers. The new plumber saw fit to rip out what was installed to start from scratch. Fingers crossed, that the plumbing inspection planned for tomorrow passes.

On other positive notes, over this past week, the electrical and insulation is finished enough to drywall. The drywall is set to be delivered on Wednesday and I should have more to report with pictures next weekend. We expect to have two full weeks of drywall work (including the mudding and taping).

There are a few walls that already have drywall because that was necessary to contain the soundproofing insulation for all the bathroom walls. We expect our place to be extra toasty warm next winter given the spray-foam insulation in all of the new exterior walls.

Stay tuned for more next weekend.

All systems go

Since jackhammering open the wall for the heating ducts, things have been running quite smoothly with the reno. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, rabbit foot in pocket, and salt over right shoulder (or is it the left).

Now, we have heat in every area of this house - old and new. Next week, if good luck prevails, we will have insulation to hold the heat in. The past week has been a real test of the furnace. It has been running 24/7. Thankfully it isn't our electricity bill that has been spiking or the authorities might have thought we have a hydroponic operation going on inside.

It is hard to show the heat in pictures, but you'll just have to take my word for it. In fact, I wake up at night and it seems so hot to what we've had that I feel like I'm in a desert.

This weekend we have had a very talented guy here cleaning up the loose ends before the insulation and drywall. He is reinforcing the walls that will hold the giant folding wall. And, as it turns out, the ceiling in what was the old master bedroom was made 60+ years ago with two by fours and didn't take kindly to the added weight of the new roof - nothing that a new beam can't fix (cha-ching).

The electrical work has past inspection and the plumbing just needs a few quick fixes to comply with the eagle eye of the plumbing inspector.

On Tuesday, we will be rolling out the red carpet for the king of insulators. Some of the pictures show that a few walls have been drywalled. We needed to do this so the insulator can spray the foam insulation on these walls, which will provide a high-level of sound proofing in the rooms that have shared walls with the two new bathrooms.

After insulation, we will expect to have the drywaller - we're expecting him a week after the insulator arrives.

Some of these pictures were taken with a wide-angle so they are a bit distorted - but then again, so are we. (If you hold your mouse over the picture, there is a description of what you are looking at.)

Turn up the heat

Let's begin with the hard work of the weekend, and the photo to prove it! After lamenting about having to create an opening in the wall for the new heat ducts, we now have the opening. We started with a concrete saw that weighted about 30 pounds. We blew the breaker several times, leaving us in the dark as the spinning blade came to a rest. That adventure was short-lived.

Our second attempt was more successful... a handheld jackhammer. Not quite as heavy as the saw, but a whole lot safer. After an hour and a half of "rat-a-tat-tat," we have an opening sufficient for the ducts (I hope!). On the back side of the hole is the existing basement bathroom. This hole comes in right above the mirror. When the heating guys return, they will run the ducts across the ceiling in the bathroom, through the hole in the wall to all the necessary points that will heat the addition.

At the risk of being optimistic, the insulation guy is booked for the week of February 12.

Day 264

We heard from the heating guys last week that they were primed and ready for the project. The only "but" was that there might be just one other job that they would have to do in tandem with ours. They were all teed up to start earlier this week, which they did.

For them to balance the heat evenly throughout the house (old and new) they have to adjust the ducts that currently provide heat to the existing parts of the house. How do they do that? Well, first you have to expose the main heating ducts. Then they replace all of those ducts, making sure that the size of the ducts allow just the right amount of airflow. More information than you probably need, but it explains the photo in this entry. We had to remove a portion of the ceiling in the basement (one of our only places of refuge from this ongoing renovation saga). That required moving all the furniture in the basement to the middle of the room, rendering the space unusable. We are now relegated to kitchen and half of the living room (the other half is covered in plastic from when we moved the windows about four or five months ago.) The upside: sleeping just steps from the fridge makes it very easy to satisfy those late night cravings.




With less than a quarter of the project complete, the heating guys returned this morning to pick up their materials. There is some concrete that needs to be removed before they can continue to carry the new ducts to the new parts of the house. Let's recap... They have, thus far, reworked the exiting heating lines. You know, the ones that were already providing heat to the existing part of the house. That's it. They say they will call on Monday, which means sometime next week - if we're lucky. In the meantime, we need to cut through a six-inch concrete wall. Many factors at play - in a few months we won't need heat. At least that is something to look forward to.





I'm beginning to plan the one-year anniversary (May) of the start of this project. You are all invited. BYOI (bring your own insulation). Even when we get the heating sorted out, we don't currently have a line on the expanding spray foam insulation that we will need to keep the much coveted heat in the house.



Signing off for now from the table in the kitchen/living room/dining room/den/bedroom.