Jan 13 - bath fans, floor tile

Today we installed two bath fans - one in the main bath and one in the ensuite. Before there was only one fan in the main bath. Technically you don't need a fan if you have a window, but honestly, who wants to open the window when it is -20C.

Since there was only one fan before, we had to install a new fan vent. This is the fan exhaust going to the new vent cap. The new vent cap and the two fans took about 5 hrs.

The tile floor for the main bath is laid out.

Jan 11 - door handle, ensuite floor prep, basement insulation

The old front door lock was very finicky and quite difficult to open. I ordered the replacement and fortunately it came in on the same day the the plumber broke the old lock.

The outside.

The inside handle.

Prepared the floor of the ensuite bathroom.
Insulated the basement wall (laundry room area).

Change of strategy

I was trying to write more details about the things that we were doing at the house, but things were too busy so I got behind and was trying to catch up but that was impossible.

So I am going to skip ahead from the last update (landscaping) and catch up to date. The regular posts will not have a lot of writing but will have a few photos.

Landscape cleanup

The yard at this house was really overgrown so we had four dumpsters full of trees and debris carted away.

BEFORE: This is the row of cedars between our house and the house to the right (taken from our neighbour's driveway and looking towards our house).

AFTER: taken from the back of our house looking towards our neighbours driveway. The cedars and a fir tree are cut down, and a trench was dug to help channel any runoff away from our house.

AFTER: Now you can see the neighbour's shed, and about 5 stumps. The big stump just to the right of the white shed was an ugly old Manitoba Maple (weedy tree).

This photo was taken after the surveyor's had done their wor, you can see the stake they put in to mark the corner of the property. The manitoba maple stump will be taken care of next year.

Removing the fakeness

The living had two boxed in beams at the ceiling that sort of defined the living room. I didn't really care for them and took a peek under one to see what it was like, and found it was just fake. These photos are of the one by the front door.

After I took off the beam, I found a 2x4 by the door, where there had obviously been a wall. I took the 2x4 out but that created a hole, and I also discovered a great gale (as my mother would say) was blowing through that hole. So I got out the can of spray foam, and filled in the cracks. I taped some old flyters to the wall and on top of the half wall so that those surfaces wouldn't get wrecked if the spray foam dripped there. (It is like a crazy kind of crazy glue!)

This photo is after I took the taped up papers down and trimmed off the excess spray foam with a knife. I then filled in the hole with a piece of drywall, and started mudding it to blend it in to the rest of the ceiling. Sorry, I just realized that I don't have any photos of that so will have to take one.

Weekend of destruction (part 2)

As the mayhem continued in the basement, we were trying to get the bedrooms upstairs ready for painting.

Freda putting a coat of primer on the ceiling.

...while the mayhem continues in the basement. We piled up the old ceiling tiles and carried them out in stacks. Things like the paneling that we could take out and pile, we did. Loose bits of debris we took out in garbage cans and dumped on top of the panel piles when we ran out of garbage cans. The dumpster people came and loaded it all up on Monday.

One of the hardest workers I have ever seen!

This is the 'green room' after it was primed.

Mayhem aftermath...

This is the result of the first day of mayhem.


In the "bedroom" in the basement, the walls of the closet are taken down, and the ceiling tiles are down. There were also glass tiles glued to the wall, and they are gone too. We took those down carefully so we wouldn't have shards of glass mixed in with the other debris.

The glass tiles are leaning against the wall in back corner (on the right). But this photo shows the mould that was growing on the drywall. First we cut off the bottom two feet of drywall and carefully bagged it. Everyone was wearing respirators during this step. Once the mouldy drywall was taken down, then the rest of the crew could go in and start their demolition.

Removing the wallpaper in the office exposed the various colours that this room has been painted. There were a lot of patches to be done because of all the naill holes from the paneling, but also just because.

The room that was a dark pea soup green also had lots of patches to be done.

Weekend of destruction (part 1)

We took possession of our new house on Thursday. Before we even got the keys, I had cut down the huge shrubs/trees by the post light. On Friday, some friends came over and helped us with start with removing panelling (yesterday's post), drywall repair and painting. On Friday evening, some other friends came over to help us with the demolition in the basement, removing the old panelling, ugly stained and mismatching ceiling tiles, and taking out a non-load-bearing wall that separates the kitchen and dining room.

Here Freda is making the first hole in the wall from the kitchen to the dining room.

Removing the ceiling tiles in the basement. The paneling has already been removed from the wall on the right. It was very dusty so everyone was wearing dust masks.

Here you can see some of the aftermath.

This is an in-progress photo of the "bedroom" that was in the basement.

More later...

The Office transformation... (part 1)

This is the photo of the bedroom that we will use as the office. There was paneling on one wall and part of the adjacent wall.

Freda removed the panelling, which was quite easy since they had just nailed small finishing nails into the drywall. Under that, we discovered wallpaper of some classic sports cars: Mustang convertible, Corvette fastback, Jaguar E-type, and a Valiant. A Valiant??? Go figure.

Of course, we stripped the wallpaper. This picture shows our friend Colette helping us out. The wallpaper came off very easily with just warm water applied with a sponge.

There was a very very bad drywall repair, so I cut out the section to repair it properly.

The Dream continues... a NEW dream house...

My devoted readers have certainly noticed a lack of updates on this blog. I apologize for that and can only say that is a direct result of us selling our previous dream house and purchasing a new dream house. This new dream house is significantly smaller than our old dream house (about the size that the old garage was!), but also needs significant renovations as it was built in 1959 and has never been updated.


The before photo: you can't really see the front door and a good part of the house. This photo is courtesy of Google Maps Streetview.

And after, now you can! This is 6 hours after taking possession. The post light also now can light up the area instead of being totally enveloped in the bushes...

I can't promise that I will make regular updates as to the renovation progress, but I will endeavour to do so. :)