So Far Behind I'm Ahead

Yes before I get anymore phone calls or e-mails I know I'm exceedingly slow on writing up this post (three months).  So what goes on around here in three months well....

April 2015 the month of money

Before stain and endless coats of poly

April turned out to be the most frustrating of the renovation (as proven by my blogging absence).  It wasn't exhausting or even heart wrenching it was just calling ourselves out and putting on a couple new roofs that we never planned for nor budgeted for.  We had our buddy Jim do the work, and damn did he do a good job, but double damn it still set us back.  Other finishes have been happening around here too.  Things like staining the bathroom and bedroom doors and other miscellaneous tedious things.  The counters went onto the cabinets in April as well and all the hardware, plumbing and a couple fixtures went up.  Things are finding their place more and more everyday.

After

My pretty sink (the colour is truffle if anyone cares)

Putting the new (extremely fancy) sink into the new countertops was one of the most nerve racking moments I've had during this impossible renovation task.  I chose to go all out and buy the granite sink because it's so pretty.  Holy shit it wasn't that big when I picked it out.  See those little white dots those are the knock outs for your taps or whatever you decide to add onto the sink.  The way you make those holes is to hold a dowel on them and smash it with a hammer.... it says in the instructions that no matter if you follow them, if you break it it is not the sinks fault.... well shit.  Luckily for us Jeremy is a super genious with a hammer so we are good.

May 2015 the month of lost time and that feeling of helplessness you just can't shake

May was just a black hole.  Working for real money really blows.  Jeremy got swamped by seeding and left the majority of the bathroom (almost the last room!) in my hands.  Now I'm not adverse to a chunk of demo but as anyone who has ever read this blog before may remember the layers here are just phenomenally incomprehensible.  Layers of plywood, lino, blown in insulation, ship lap, batting insulation, drywall, extra walls, and built in cabinets.  Add the thickest layer of nails (I'm not joking I had a layer of nails) as thick as my wrist (that is an exaggeration) and yeah it was super fun.  Now I could be just a little disillusioned with demolition....  OK fine I'm just tired of it all.  But with that in mind it did get done.

Finished Roof of the Studio

Here is a clean photo of the kitchen

Although we have had a rough month I am loving the new kitchen.  When we first installed the cabinets and doors we did have one really big problem, they were pink.  Not bright pink but just pink enough to make you look twice.  After a long deliberation we decided that pink wasn't the end of the world and if it really got to us we could just wait for summer and paint them.  So we bit the bullet and put the counters on.  Once the counters were there it's like the cosmos came together and my cabinets didn't even have an iota of pink.  I know it's there but luckily enough no one else seems to see it....  If you do I really don't want to hear about it.

Missing from the above photo is my new custom built (by Jeremy) island countertop.

June 2015 just another month to loose the mind

So that brings me to June, another black hole if I don't say so myself (and I do).  It has only just begun but now with the rebuild in full swing I'm hoping we start to feel that high of accomplishment.  It just keeps looming everyday as I step over more boxes and more building supplies just to get in the fridge I can't help but feel the desire to just break for the boarder.

The bathroom progress although slow is coming on daily now.  We have all of our materials so hopefully we can stop bleeding money (for a while at least).  With mudding and taping drywall around the corner I should really wrap this gigantic update up and get at it.

Oh and just because I thought it was so funny.

Spring Heartbeat

Tile Heating System

 It can be felt in the air!  Yes that's right Spring is coming.  Along with a hard hitting Spring we appear to be moving with leaps and bounds.

I finally finished the mudding and taping after quite a few hair raising moments where I was sure the whole f**king wall had to come down to fix a crack 3 inches long.  The depths of my drywall insanity were becoming perilous to say the least.  So with the primer up and a couple of deep breathing exercises it was time to get on to flooring.

The tile we picked out for the kitchen is really random and super interesting but I suck at picking colours at the best of times and Jeremy just refuses to do it, So I decided to wait until I could see the floor before committing eggshell finish related suicide.

Drywall and Primer Done

We have tackled some new projects over the last few weeks.  Things like installing a heated tile floor in the kitchen.  It was relatively simple to do.  It wasn't an easy decision as the heating systems can be quite expensive but we caught a sale one day, and pulled the trigger.  Everyone who has heated tile said we would regret it if we didn't do it.  I believed them.  The only part of the process that really held us up was a tiny little step in the directions which stated that we needed to use a hot glue gun to place the sensors down... Well... Do you know where your glue gun is?  We didn't either and apparently neither did half the bloody town.  I called and messaged everyone I kinda sorta knew and finally was able to locate an ex-co-workers mother who is super crafty and not only knew where her glue gun was but actually had glue for said gun, whew.  So about 30 seconds of hot gluing and we were ready to lay some tile.  Note: Wet saws and -15C are not a great mix.

 We had a nice day in February (well not as cold or windy as most at least) and Jeremy tackled the installation of the new front door.  Shockingly everything went as planned and the door looks great.

After a lot of elbow grease we got the tile all done and I finally picked a colour for the walls, Scroll Beige... Sounds boring... Looks boring.   But, throw some white cabnets and all the other frilly stuff in there and I'm sure it will be a great back drop.

Walls and Floors Complete

More Floor... I really love the floor :)

 I finally feel like we are making headway.  We are in a place where every hour spent in the house is manifested into a visual difference.  So it's easy to find the effort within to push just a little harder or longer.

Some of the cabinets

I suppose my good mood may be encouraged by the looming of Spring.  Time to bust out the gum boots, spring coats, and bikes.

Bike riding March 2015

Resignation

Chimney Sheeted in

 I uploaded the photos for this blog post and promptly told Jeremy I had no idea what to rant about... Things are moving quickly around here,  At least in weekend warrior reno time.

Jeremy sheeted in the chimney (I know it would have been awesome to keep it Jenny, but the marriage came first).  Once the final finishing materials are decided upon we will pick some stacked stone to cover it with.

My lovely (if not necessarily compromising) husband has also been throwing hours into wiring... the entire house.

left to right: chimney, built in pantry (barn board door?), bump out for fridge. 

A year and a half ago (July 2013) we stared the attic renovation on the big house, and the electrical has all kind of been.... temporarily wired into the grid.  It's all properly done but hasn't been properly run into it's own circuit breaker.  And this theme pretty much sums up the rest of the electrical.  I would love to have met our 1950's counterparts just to ask them what the hell they were thinking...  Pushing bafflement aside Jeremy keeps plowing through old junction box spiders and is almost finished  What a relief it will be to know that all the electricity in the house is running though proper channels, also not showering in the dark will be a bonus.  Living in Canada can be a real pain during winter when the electricity isn't working, it gets too dark too fast to get anything done!

So as Jeremy wrestles with drilling holes in seriously old hard wood, I start to pull up the floor in the kitchen... dun dun dun, the defining moment!  We have planned this renovation since day one when we pulled the carpet from the living room and found extremely well preserved gorgeous wood floors.  We knew they would carry throughout  the house, and damn were we stoked.  So with a heart full of optimism and a mind full of 'shabby sheak country kitchen'  the battle for the floor began....

• Layer one: lino circa 1990's 
• Layer two: particle board circa 1990's
• Layer three: lino circa 1945 - 1950
• Layer four: sticky glue possibly made of tar
• Layer five: a lot of black crap
• Layer six: ENDLESS BLACK SH*T!

One of many spots filled with plaster, averaging a quarter inch deep

I spent 4 hours on hands and knees scraping with a 4 inch metal drywall knife one of these past days (so far the best tool, and yes I even tried an attachement for the resiprocating saw, too sticky).   Jeremy came home from work and asked what I had done all day... I didn't stop ranting for a good 20 minutes, it went something like this: 

"LOOK AT THIS! No, come and look.  See. See. Hahaha, I think I may be loosing my mind to this floor.  Damnit get down here and look.  I've been in this spot for 4 bloody hours and this is it!  Oh my gosh, I totally zoned out I haven't even cleared off 5 square feet! This is ridiculous (tool throw)!  Ugh, well maybe I'll just try another spot..... Ahhhhhhhhhhh (explicit swear words telling a floor where to go and how to get there)"

How we found the living room floors

Floors in the kitchen after 14 hours of labour.

So it is with a heavy heart I regret to say I have decided to scrap the original kitchen floor.  My heart is literally breaking, I wanted this so badly.  This renovation has been completed in my mind for over a year and I always saw these floors.... I based all my design decisions up to this point on the restoration of these floors.  But it just cannot be done, not because I haven't the tenacity but because the floors themselves are in just too poor of condition, so many broken boards and splintered holes.  Spending another week on hands and knees is a waste of time and effort (snif).  We didn't even really have a plan B for this eventuality.  Every time I walk into the room I take a look at the floor and start thinking... maybe just if I... But it must end here, not everything is going to work out the way we want but damn I'm sad.  Tonight we are going to yank out the boards and start prepping for tile.

In other news we had a friend of ours come in and texture the ceiling in the living room and kitchen.  He did a great job and we learned a lot from him (don't you just hate it when you learn that you have been doing something the hard way for years?).  The kitchen should have enough light in it, 1 light above the sink, 2 pendents over the island, and 4 pot lights.  Well I suppose if the floor can't go the whole way at least the ceiling does.

The race has been on since just after Christmas!  We have been racing to the renovation 'finish' with some friends of ours back in B.C.  So just over a month and here is where Steve and Robyn find themselves:

They decided to remove two walls on their main floor and turn their U shaped (extremely small) kitchen into a open concept living space.

As with any renovation they had some surprises.  No insulation, construction garbage in the walls, and general head scratching WTF moments.  Both Steve and Robyn work and they have two kids, and they had to live in the construction....   How the heck did they get so far so fast!  I have a couple of theroys but so not to appear as a bitter cow I'll keep them to myself hahaha.

I's a huge difference and a great reno.  I'm so beyond jealous I should really just end this damn post.

Window Phobia

Living Room Before

 So, basically when I finished writing my last post Jeremy put a 2x4 through the back window of his new truck... Hahaha, it's funny now but at the time his devastation was morbid.  I'm so happy it wasn't me who did it because I would probably be divorced or dead in a ditch.  Long story short he was able to locate a replacement and get it installed promptly, which was good considering the raging blizzard.  Accidents are bound to happen when you take on such massive demolition.  One window is not too bad since we took 14 loads to the dump.  Although it has made Jeremy extremely window shy.  Seriously he won't let me load the truck, and I didn't even do it!

Living room before.

Nothing is ever simple.  I remember when we first bought the house, the conversation was so positive and optimistic.

"We could remove this wall and extend the kitchen, it would really be simple and so effective".

Translation: "We need to move this wiring, oh hey look we have a built in vacuum here, oh sh*t the chimney sticks out here, hmmm, I don't think that wire goes anywhere, OUCH, damn it's live.... well... We should crack a beer and think about this a little more.  This thermostat has five wires coming out of it, but there are only three in the basement, wonder where those went?"

"Oh yeah, all new drywall completely fresh start.  Green for sure would work awesome with this room!"

Translation: "I hate drywall... Hey there used to be a window here, wonder if they... nope no insulation,  No wonder that draft was so bad, hey look no insulation here either.  Another random wire... Awe f*ck it's live too!"

"We could put in a great ceiling here with a beam and some natural stone, Ohhhh and some pendant lighting above an island".

Translation: "More blown in insulation! Ugh *beep* *beeping* mother *beeper*".

Kitchen wall into living room, before.

Kitchen... 

In all reality we knew there would be issues, it just never seams like a huge deal until your elbows deep in a sea of insulation, and more stuff needs to be done before the next thing.  A 'simple' kitchen renovation turns into a raging storm of demotion and a reallocation of energy into projects you didn't even knew existed.  But with endless tenacity and an insurmountable extenuation of stick-to-itve-ness we completed the demolition.

Wall gone between kitchen and living room.

Living room to kitchen.

I swear Jeremy has almost reached the end of his sanity.  I took 3 videos of him running wire, playing with floor demo, and scooping blown in.  None of them are fit for the public.  But he seems to persevere (that's why I love this guy).  The kids are coping well enough parenting themselves.  Payton came to the construction area the other day and sat in my lap for a good half hour... poor kid, I gave her a chocolate and sent her on her way.

New insulation... drywall ready... I think so.

So the list of things to do is neither shrinking nor growing we're just switching things out.  But the inevitability of completion is a looming reality.

We are having a race with some friends of ours back home in B.C. and everyday I shake my head at our optimism at the beginning of these endeavors.  We won't even be in the same month as them.  There are too many jobs to list at this point, but we are making progress daily.