Running Water IS Essential

Well the bathroom renovation (complete gut and rebuild) came along well.  It shouldn't but it always surprises me how much work goes into such a small room.  Arguably the most important room the bathroom really does need to be great.  We put a lot of thought (long drawn out exhausting conversations at 2 am after way too many beers...) into the layout and composition of the bathroom. After all that hoopla we decided to only change small things, like the f*#%ing walls!  But just to keep this rant under control I'll just dish it out bullet style.

• Rip out everything in the bathroom... including whatever is nailed down
• Drywall
• Ceiling boards
• Endless blown-in insulation 
• Illegally hidden junction boxes....
• Sink, tub, and other bathroom fixtures
• Annoying walls
• Scary trap door to the basement (obviously leaving the drop of death open to any unsuspecting victim)
• Layers of flooring, yes layers...

The demolition took a lot longer than it should have mostly because I was working on my own while Jeremy was trying to keep up with seeding here in Saskatchewan.

Now this bathroom being the second to last room to renovate has taken us this long to get to because of all the previous mentioned discussions (aka: arguments).  Although we only decided to make minor changes and keep the existing foot print there is a lot of behind the walls work here.  So here is the bullet version... hahaha, bullets are my thing today.

•  Bury gigantic heavier than hell cast iron vent stack in the wall instead of having it in the middle of the room.  (I had to be on spark watch when Jeremy cut that sucker).
• Move tub and shower plumbing to the other wall, to allow for easier tap access.  
• Re-plumb sink and toilet with bright shiny new pex. 
• Install a fan that actually vents....
• Rebuild trap door 

Now of course without fail I make all kinds of crazy decisions that stretch a simple bathroom drywall job into a freaking Sistine Chapel style job.  But in truth I didn't find it so arduous as there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.  

Once the walls were smooth, perfect, (hahaha) and painted it is time to install the wiring for the heated tile.  It is a lot of work, installing the tile over top of the delicate wiring.  Mostly because I have Jeremy over my shoulder reminding me every tile not to mess up the wires.... But that's over now and I really should move on.

When we installed the tiles in the kitchen we used 1/4 inch spacers that were kinda cheap and not horribly ideal to work with.  Jeremy threw them all away in a fit of rage after we were finished.  I asked him to keep some of them, you know, "just incase".  And of course he didn't. 

Sure enough we decided to start tiling on Canada day when everyone is enjoying a cool beverage near or on a beautiful stretch of water, and every hardware store is closed.  I called everyone in town looking desperately for some spacers and was able to gather a grand total of approximately 40 spacers.  Well if you've never tiled before that just isn't really enough....  Unless your super motivated to get this floor finished!  So working carefully and robbing spacers from one area to the next we made it happen. 

With a couple base boards, and other various finishing touches we completed the bathroom (rebuild) in about two weeks.  I'm very happy with the results and even got to have a shower in the new tub the day before I left on holidays. 

Before

After

 Completion is such a sweet sweet word.  I'm absolutely in love with this bathroom, it is so much better.  If you notice the rug on the bottom right, it covers the trap door and I have another small rolling vanity there with it's own mirror, outlet and light.  The bathroom is functional and pretty, my favourite combination.

With this room done there is only the porch to go.  There is a lot happening in there but for now I'm taking the summer to do my favourite summertime things (essentially finding water and drinking beer next to it).

The Author

The Time Suckers.  I mean adventure seeking hooligans.

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.

Perfect Timing

 Well, it's done.  Yep almost everything is done.  More or less we are done.... At least enough to move back into the big house.  It took us exactly 3 months and two days.  This past month has been almost entirely dedicated to the wood floors, well that and cabinets, counter tops, and a whole bunch of other little things.  Ever since the beginning of this massive renovation endeavor I have imagined these floors redone.  I knew we would get here but actually tackling the project that I've had on my mind for two years was very rewarding.

But like anything else it had to go in stages.  The idea has always been to try and make it look like the staircase was always there so it also had to get refinished at the same time.

Step One: Clear away all the crap that is stored in the bedroom and the endless amounts of stray tools and beer cans.

Step Two: Rent big sanding machine.... Return said machine and get the bigger one.


Step Three: Use 60 grit paper to really get down under the 70 year old stain.

Step Four: Break the machine, return, repeat.

Step Five: Repeat step three using different grits of paper til you get that smoothish rustic floor look.

Step Six: Put new treds on the staircase and sand the crap out of them with the handheld, including but not limited to the sides and underneath taking care not to sand all the edges off the steps.... not as easy as you would think.

Step Seven: Clear away beer cans.

Step Eight: Bring home the smaller corner sander, proceed to sand the corners and all the other little stuff you missed.

Step Nine/Ten: Vacuum. Clean. Vacuum.

So the floors were ready to take some stain!  Both an exciting and terrifying moment.  It's not like paint where you could just slap another colour over it if you don't like it.  After all that work sanding I wasn't about to restart.... So with a deep breath it was go time....

Oh. My. God. It's f-ing red!!!!! 

I panicked.... I'm not proud of that moment but I cried.... Hard.  My devastation couldn't be seen by the world, I kept it to myself and cried harder.  We had done so many tests, and it still wasn't the right colour I was dumbfounded, but I couldn't stop either.  I had to dig deep and just 'keep swimming' (in my ocean of sawdusty tears, hahaha).

• Wipe away tears
• Rally
• Stain Staircase
• Continue throughout the rest of the project with a beer fueled rage

The next day it was time to start the first of three coats of polyurethane.  I remember walking into the room of my crushed renovation dreams... as I hadn't slept all night I teared up right away, but this time in relief.  They weren't red anymore they were exactly what they were supposed to be!  Thank you stain gods and colour fairies!  Days later I finished the floors and finally it was time to start getting organized for countertops and kitchen plumbing.

Before we could really get going on the finishing of the kitchen I had to clean the house.  Seriously clean, that dust from sanding the floors got into everything!  We did our best to keep it controlled but it was impossible. If I've learned anything about renovation I've learned that cleaning is half the job.

It took a day but it got done and we moved back in on March 31st, 2015.  Many things still need to be completed including baseboards, trim, the island countertop, bathroom door... etc...  Finding a place for everything is my next goal, so pinterest has become my favorite time waster recently.  Reclaiming the house doesn't just give us all our privacy back but I get my studio back and Jeremy gets his shop back.  Now if the snow would just stop coming down there is a whole list of things to do in the yard too.  Including but not limited to: New roofs for all three buildings, a deck, flower beds, garden beds, fire pit reno, blah, blah, blah.

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

Blizzard of Demolition

Just when I thought it was over it is actually only just beginning.  Happy New Year to all, by the way.  It's new years day today and we kicked off 2015 with a sledge hammer.  December was no joke either.  between Christmas concerts, dinners and decorations we started the main floor demo and floor plan.  First we had to remove the door and build the new walkway between the stairwell (our old bedroom) and the living room.  I must mention now that the layers of this house must make up for half the damn insulation!  Seriously once we started to take off the layers it became abundantly clear that this demolition was going to be the biggest of all.

Door into stairwell: before

• Layer One: Panel board
• Layer Two: 1/4 inch plywood
• Layer Three: Weird textured 'wallpaper'
• Layer Four: Old crumbly dusty dirty drywall.

We are gaining an inch to the whole room just by taking down all this crap.  I haven't even told you about the ceiling (about as bad as the walls...).  

The Onion House

Completed Walkthrough

The fun continued when we invited some friends over for dinner, with ulterior motives of hanging a particularly painful piece of drywall... So how many men does it take, three.  Yep three.

Jeremy, Bryce, and Clint

It may have been the wine, but damn did I laugh.

 So Christmas went of without too much drywall dust getting into the chip dip, but there is no rest for the DIY renovators.  The time had come.  It was time to throw in the towel get out of the mess and get er' done.  Time to move.

 As you may have noticed I'm gung ho and ready to rip in the video ( I actually had to do another take because the first was a bunch of whooping and swearing).  Now what I didn't film were the tears of loss as I packed up my beautiful and peaceful studio.  All sewing and tranquility has left the building.  We had been preparing for this day pretty much as soon as the ink was dry on the ownership papers.  But nothing could really prepare us for the reality of living in a house of 400 square feet with 2 adults (who both really enjoy their space, hence the house, studio, shop setup we've been working on for two f-ing years), and 2 kids (little whirl winds of crumbs and any projectile toy they can find or build).  But the food is drywall free... even if it is cooked in a microwave.

Living in such a small space is challenging but also strangely satisfying.  Everything is always clean and tidy.  There are no doors to close or corners to hide things in.  It took a couple days to get everything in it's place to really make everything run smoothly, but so far so good.  That said I can't wait to have the big house back.

Half a kitchen.

The day after we moved we took a trip to Edmonton, Alberta in search of most of the makings for a new kitchen... During boxing week.  I can't even start to tell the horror stories of shopping, it's just too fresh.  Yet we came out with a good deal and half a kitchen.  The other half is on order and will be here within the month. 

We have accepted a challenge from our friends back in B.C. (Steve and Robyn).  They are also ripping out their kitchen and a wall (or two, I'm not positive of the details), So its a race to the finish.  I doubt we will win because our demo is becoming more and more complicated as we 'progress' (blown in insulation in particular in the entire ceiling). 

But for now I'll let the photos tell the tale.

The layers are unbelievable.

After the cabnets were removed we finally had confirmation of the wood floors under the entire kitchen.  This was thrilling to say the least since we had planned the entire renovation around this one unknown.

• Layer One: Lino
• Layer Two: Sub floor
• Layer Three: More lino
• Layer Four: Back breaking scarping of the floor to remove ground in glue while somehow preserving the existing wood floors.  Ugh.

So all in all the demolition is in full swing and the blizzard outside is a nightmare but the dump is open and weather waits for no one.

The Lost Summer

Summer is over.  Harvest and school time (as if life couldn't get busier).  I haven't posted all summer mostly because... <insert believable excuse here>.  Well, we haven't been entirely idle, but most of the projects have been little ones.  You know, those type of things that need to get done but never really do.  This whole summer of painstakingly simple and eye-twitchingly annoying jobs began in late spring.  We were sitting outside having morning coffee under the tree when "The Deck" conversation came up.  You know the one...  "We could wrap it around here, under this tree, the bbq could go here, and we can leave a space here for a hot tub."  "Oh, but the railing has to be perfect beer height for evenings (or afternoons)."  "Yeah, and the planters could go here, here, and here."  So with much arm waving and endless enthusiasm we had a plan.  Jeremy priced out materials and called me a day or so later from work with his estimate for the most awesome deck EVER!  After I got off the phone, I started to tidy up the house... and the glaring unfinished-ness of this renovation nightmare became starkly real.  We have been living here for almost a year and a half, and I swear not one room or job is actually "finished".  So with a heavy heart (and a little snicker) I sent him "The List" via email.  It contained everything from base boards to unfinished plumbing, touch-up paint to uninstalled doors; all of which we have most of the materials to complete, just perhaps not the motivation.  Jeremy took it like a champ and came home with the printed out list (still hanging on the fridge) and some paint.

I kicked it off by breaking out some power tools and a pile of 2x4s, and fixed the front and back steps of the studio.  I also painted the steps and all the outside window trim.  Much more work has to go into the curb appeal of the studio (flowers and all the frilly crap) but it looks a lot cleaner and you won't trip and die if you try and knock on the door.

Last Fall

 While I was working so diligently to get the studio looking nice I had a number of neighbors come by commenting on how much nicer it looked, and also how ugly our other house was...  I'm not even kidding! One guy actually said we had the ugly house on the street!  So, with my biggest polite smile, and my sarcasm-free tone of voice, I said that maybe he was right.  Then I took a look, it wasn't even a long or hard look... he really WAS right.  Ugh.

Yeah it's a jungle.

 Well that just wouldn't do.  So I called Jeremy at work and told him to bring home a chainsaw... Great minds think alike, or perhaps he was already aware of the ugly stamp we had, the chainsaw was already in the truck (he bought a BC chainsaw... way overkill for any wood we'll find here in the prairies)

 So with much manic laughter Jeremy got er' done.

Oh, hey look, there is a house!  I promptly ran out and bought curtains.  Turns out we don't need a deck to get morning sunshine! Yeah, it's not the same, but "The List" reigns supreme around here.

Other bits and pieces have been started and some finished.  Jeremy finally plumbed in the sink and toilet in the studio, but the water still isn't on... waiting on a tub so hopefully next week.

Baseboards for one of the kids rooms are painted and almost installed (ahem).

Jeremy buckled down to his most hated job, finishing carpentry.  He can do it but he just likes sledge hammers and chainsaws better... don't we all.  So the inside of the upstairs windows are done as are other tedious jobs hardly worth mentioning.  The types of jobs where it takes longer to assemble your tools than to actually do the work.

But summer wasn't all just hair raising deck battles and paint spattered bikinis.

Sam: "Should there be a caption here?"
Jeremy: " I don't know what you could possibly say..."

It was also an amazing trip home to Prince George, B.C.  Rivers and lakes galore, with beer, great friends and family.

But why not check out a great B.C. music festival?  Like the one my brother puts together just outside of Chetwynd, B.C.
Awaking Music Festival 

 Jeremy had an accident in B.C. He and his brother took a plunge into the lake off a tube and Jeremy's brother ended up putting his front teeth through his lip and into Jeremy's elbow.  10 days later Jeremy is on a take home IV drip for a fairly massive infection... hahaha.  I told him to go to the hospital... it was a great "I told you so" moment! (Jeremy still swears it was the most "wickedest-awesome-tubing-wreck" ever).


But now it's fall, and life begins to pick up it's pace again.  We didn't quite finish "The List" actually we didn't even get close (Jeremy figures I'm sabotaging him by scribbling more chores onto it daily).  But once Harvest is over we will get right into it again.  Winter renovation sucks, but at least you don't get distracted by sunshine and camping.

Payton (7) grade 2 and Jordan (8) grade 3 first day of school photo.