Day 41

Yay - we bought our new sectional today!  The layout of the living room really relies on us having a sectional, so although I felt a tiny bit guilty buying our 3rd new couch in 7 years (that's a lot isn't it?), it was something that will really pull our ideas for the living room together.

It's such an oddly spaced room, and I think we need to create two seperate areas in the space.  The sectional will create the space for the TV area, and then an area rug and an accent chair or two by the fireplace will create the second space....I hope!  Regardless, buying the sectional was a must so I don't really feel guilty, just excited...it will be here April 8...perfect timing!

The couch color is slightly off, it looks charcoal gray (that's it's name actually) in some lights, and kind of browny in others.  The pillows have a small stripe in them that is a yellowy beige color.  Hopefully it will all look good together with everything else.

So, it's now a few hours after purchasing the couch, and I just got back from purchasing two chairs!  I feel they are important to the space, so back I went to see if I could find something I wanted, and yep, sure did!

This is the main accent chair, but in a totally different pattern that is a chocolate brown with a red and orange and green pattern on it.  It's quite wide and very comfortable.  I even took my shoes off and curled up in it just to make sure!  Eventually I will order a footstool to go with it.  This will be by the fireplace, close to the window.

This is the second chair exactly.  It will be on the other side of the fireplace.  My Auntie crotched me an afghan that I already know will look great draped over it!

End of day 40

Wow, what a great way to end the week!  A new ceiling and new flooring...and they both look great!

The cabinet install didn't start today as planned, but that's ok.  It will begin on Tuesday for sure, and I found out today that the cabinet maker - Alex - has almost everything built, and the install should go fairly quickly, so I'm really pumped for next week...I should have a new kitchen by the end of it!  We have added extra tasks to Alex's list, so overall it will take a bit longer to get our bedroom closet done, as well as another closet or two, but again, that's ok.  We picked out a mantle that we only sorta liked, and it was going to take a while to come in, and also it would have been made of maple, so instead Alex will build it.  This is great because then it will match everything exactly.  Plus, we weren't going to do our little bathroom originally, but now we are, and we weren't going to do Cam's closet, but now we are, so he has those to contend with too.  Lots of work for the cabinet maker...

Monday of next week the new lighting may get installed, as well as the electrical switches and outlets changed out.  The new inside doors, the trim, and the baseboards are supposed to be done too.  It will be nice to see the effect those have on the overall look...I think it will be pretty drastic.  Plus, once those are done, we can move back into our bedroom!  The closet won't be done, or our bathroom I don't think, but the toilet is still in there and at least we could be sleeping up there...I'll take it!

Not much longer now.  I'm hoping the weather is nice this weekend so we can get all the windows washed, which is making me realize that we really are getting close.  Being able to start to clean because the major dirty work is done is a good thing!

I took pics of the new ceiling, but you really can't see anything in them unless you are looking at it full screen, so I didn't post any, but I of course took some of the new flooring!  There's a good story behind this lino first though...

We redid our little bathroom about 2 years ago.  When we went to choose the flooring, I picked out what I wanted, but of course it was the expensive lino, and Kev said no way because we would have to buy a way bigger piece than we needed for that little bathroom.  Well, he had to go to the city soon after and he went to the casino and won, so he called me up and said I could have my lino...yay for me!!!  We knew our main bathroom had to be redone, so we figured we'd save the extra piece for when the time came, completely not knowing we'd be doing a whole home reno eventually!  Anyway, when the time came to pick flooring for this reno, I knew I wanted the same lino (there was a pretty big allowance for flooring in the budget this time!), but I was afraid that because we were going to a different dealer, and because we didn't know the brand or anything, we wouldn't be able to find the same stuff.  We went and looked, but after about 5 minutes realized we could be there for hours, so Kev went and got the extra piece and brought it to the store.  The guy probably spent half an hour going thru the samples while we were going thru tile for the backsplash.  We had finally picked the tile and I was standing looking at our piece thinking it was hopeless when suddenly he yanked a sample out, threw it on top of our piece, and it was a match!  I literally teared up and wanted to hug him!  I was so happy, and now that I see it I love it!  My only concern is that I wonder if our wood laminate floor looks too red next to it...we'll have to see once it's all complete, but right now it's picking at me ever so slightly....

Very neutral carpet in my scrapbook room and our bedroom.

Eventually the sides of the stairs will be carpeted with whatever we pick for carpet in the basement.  Once the upstairs is done and we are moved up, the basement portion of the renos will begin...I don't think that will be near as stressful!

Back porch.

Kitchen.

See what I'm gettin' at here...a little too much red maybe?  Maybe not...hmmm.  Regardless, I love the lino.  The laminate will have to go before the lino does!

Main bathroom.

End of Day 30

1 month already!  It has gone by pretty fast really, considering there was delay of 2 weeks.  I haven't blogged lately because there really hasn't been much to say.  I could have bitched and whined about the hold up, but really, who wants to come here and experience negativity (you got enough of that in my last blog)?!  I'm just grateful we are past that stage and are now moving on....rapidly I hope!

The few things accomplished in the past 2 weeks were the mudding/taping/sanding of the walls and ceiling was completed, the gas fireplace was installed and the new screen doors were installed.  Yesterday, the painters began and that should be complete by the end of tomorrow.  Thursday the new interior doors are to be installed.

Things have to move somewhat quickly thru the end of next week because the cabinet maker doesn't have any more room in his shop.  All of the cabinet boxes and doors are built already and are in the process of being stained.  He needs to get them out of his way so he can start doing the countertop.  Before he can start his install, the kitchen floor has to be installed...and that makes me super excited!  The changes will start to be drastic again, and I can't wait to see it start to come together.  There are still a ton of things left to do though, so patience is still the number one focus!

I love how the gas fireplace is turning out so far.  The old brick was so dark, having wall space above the mantle will brighten the room I think.  

I was hoping to get a better pic of the old paint against the new, but this is the best I could get...they did the first coat of the entire upstairs in 1 day!  The old color is at the bottom of the wall.  Taylor said the new color looks like a white where we have smoked in the place for 10 years!  Too bad, I love it!

 It has a slight yellow tinge to it, but only in certain lights, and that's ok...

I was surprised at how one coat of paint made such a positive impact on the look and feel of the space.

More of a browny tinge in this light, and that's ok too!

This screen door in the back porch is so cool!  The screen is retracted at the top of the window, and when you pull the window down, the screen rolls down too, and then retracts back up when you roll the window up!  It was too cold to bother getting a shot of it down :)  The front door now has a phantom screen, and there are no pics of that either!

End of Day 15

15 days - half a month.  It feels like it's been longer.  I'm missing the light that windows allow in during the day.  This is definitely affecting my mood.  It's hard to be motivated - not that I'm usually extra motivated, but I literally have to force myself to move.

Never mind that my bed has always been my favorite place to hang out (there's just something about all that room to spread out on with pillows around you and softness beneath you), but now it's just right there, smack dab in the middle of the room, waiting for me - how can I not climb on and sit back and enjoy?  Plus, 1 of the TV's is set up at the end of it.  Kev has his usual spot on the couch (he is used to hanging out down here),  and he watches the other TV.  Even if we are watching the same show, I still sit in bed and just turn down the volume on my TV!  I'm going to have to learn to kick this habit pretty quickly - it's sucking the life out of me!

And it doesn't help that to move around down here you either have to move something out of your way, or ask someone to move.  It's really bad when the kids are here!  It used to be funny to watch the cat and dog chase each other around - now I'm just worried one of them is going to give themselves a concussion by hitting one of the many pieces of furniture!

But, I will have to suck it up and find some reasons to get up and out and moving (like the snowshoeing course I'm signed up for but missed this last Saturday for example!  Yes, I was in bed.).  I'm thinking we have at least another 6 weeks of this, if not more.  Most of the mudding and taping looks like it was completed today.  The cable guys were in here and they wired the two bedrooms and moved the living room outlet to the corner where the built in TV stand will be.  The frame for the new gas fireplace was built in preparation for the install tomorrow (hopefully).  And that's pretty much it.  I was hoping we would be ready for paint by the end of this week, and it could still happen, but I'm not going to count on it.  All the mudding and sanding will have to be done a couple of times and today was only the first round :(

End of Day 11

So not too much has happened since the end of day 4, but today there was finally more progress!  Our front window and both outside doors have been replaced!  I'm so excited for this!  The front window we had was so old that there was dirt between the panes - try cleaning that!  The old outside doors were just hideous!  They were a beat up brown color and the front door didn't even have any windows in it.  The new doors are the same style for both front and back, and I'm amazed at how much light is filtering in thru the front now!  And the doors being white automatically brighten things up too.  Here are the pics...I do have before pics of the front of the outside, but I'll have to post those later for comparison's sake - they are in storage right now!

New front window.

New front door.

New back door.

The front of the house looks so fresh!

End of Day 4

It seems to me things are moving slower, but maybe that's because the changes aren't as drastic as they were the first couple of days.  Kev thinks things are moving along well, so what do I know?!

The back porch closet had all the framing around it removed and it was opened up more to the ceiling to allow for upper cabinets and shelves.  There will be a built in bench installed too.  The entire upstairs ceiling is now boarded, with the exception of the back porch.  Part of the wall in the kitchen has been replaced, due to the drywall being destroyed when the tile backsplash got ripped out.  The bathroom is now boarded and the tub is installed, but no taps and shower head yet.  Lastly, from what I can tell, the gaps in the walls from the old bedroom closets have been filled.  Oh, and I'm thinking an electrician must have been here because there was a hole with a whole bunch of wires in it behind the microwave that was over the stove and there was a concern that they were live wires.  The hole has been boarded up and one wire is sticking out, so we must be good there, thank goodness!  I guess there has been quite a bit done!

And I'm glad the weather has warmed up, that's for sure.  The workers turn the heat off and open the windows while they are here, and let me tell ya, it was COLD in here the first 2 days when we got home!  The first day (when it was almost minus 30 outside) I laid on the couch with a blanket and both the animals on me to keep me warm!  It wasn't so bad yesterday and today though.

Back porch.

I can't wait to see the new smooth ceiling!

The bedroom looks so much bigger like this, and it's only an extra 2 feet wide!  It won't last long though - I hope the new built ins don't make the room feel smaller...

End of Day 2

Well, today wasn't as disconcerting as yesterday was, for me anyway.  The animals are still having a hard time with the whole situation, especially Chloe.  She won't go up or down the basement steps...not sure if that is because the old flooring is gone or because she snuck up them on day 1 while the spiky things were still sticking up.  If she thinks I'll carry her for the next couple of months she's sadly mistaken - at least she has her Kevi for that stuff!

I learned today that a roast pork dinner will only work if I put the potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker with the roast.  I thought I could manage doing the veggies once I got home, but it is not at all easy to cook a meal in what we have set up.  No running water in the 'kitchen' means running to the bathroom often, and a hot plate burner takes a lot more time to generate enough heat to bring water to a boil.  Needless to say, Cam was late for hockey practice and probably got cramps from eating right before he left.  On top of that, it sucks to have to haul the dishes to the laundry sink in the bathroom to wash them.  We are using paper plates and bowls, and plastic cups and cutlery, but that obviously doesn't cover all the tools required to create a meal.  If it's not one pot from here on in, I ain't cookin' it!!!  Anyway, some pics of today's progress...

I thought I had taken a before pic of the fireplace, but didn't.  It was ugly brick, floor to ceiling.  This wood burning unit will be replaced with a gas one.

Although when I first saw this tub I immediately said 'no way', we have no choice due to the fact that our bathroom is so small.  Although I will gladly sit in this, I don't like that it only has one shelf - we'll have to find something to rectify that, 'cause one shelf isn't enough for just my bath items, never mind 3 other people's!!!

About half of the upstairs ceiling is now boarded.  Goodbye popcorn!