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.
Two years.... Well we appear to be approaching the coveted and elusive finish. We still have endless little things and some pretty massive things at the main house to do but the studio is actually approaching the end. Jeremy spent quite a few hours in the basement at the Studio installing this dead-sexy manifold plumbing system. The water hadn't been turned on for over 10 years, so the town guys (Thanks Rob and Dean) came over and... well turned the crank. Other than a slight leak at the meter everything went surprisingly well.... Jeremy is scowling at my lack of confidence, but it just seemed too good to be true. I mean I don't think anything we have done has actually worked the first time, with the first plan. I mean to come off without a hitch is just fundamentally confusing to me. Then we had to see if the ancient hot water heater would work... and it did. It's actually quite anti-climatic to tell the truth. I'm so used to typing something more like:
"So we downed a couple beer and reassembled our thoughts into a new and more extravagant plan than before that would require twice the amount of materials and two more weeks of knee splitting work."
So yeah, now we have both a working bathroom and kitchenette. Shout out to Clint, thanks for your help with the tub.
I suppose it all wasn't all migraine and fear free finishes. This tub (which I adore because its soooo cute) almost gave Jeremy a coronary when he finally got his gumption up and drilled the holes for that fancy faucet. Just to give a timeline to this renovation project I first posted about working on this bathroom in..... September, which means we probably really started in August, wow. The bathroom still needs a mirror and some art, and that'll be it.... Yeah, that's it. Weird.
Imagine a big bright painting above the sink.
We decided that the most cost-efficient, and by that I mean most labour-intensive solution to a countertop, would be to tile it. I originally wanted to do it in screaming red tile but when my parents arrived bearing Christmas presents I was outnumbered 3 to 1. So large white (ahem, boring) tiles it was. Luckily I was due for some good karma and I found the only 12 white tiles in town and bought them.
Kitchenette complete, I feel the need to devulge our dirty laundry. By that I mean tell you about one of the largest pressure points in our marriage:
Jeremy is an average sized man standing at 5'10", I am a short...ish woman standing at 5'2"3". These counters are 37". Needless to say I was pissed disheartened. Jeremy is angry frustrated. Whenever conversation even drifts toward this topic I swear both our nostrils start flaring............ Seriously we just started arguing about it again just now............. OK done (for now). During my research I discovered average is 36", but my argument is that I only have so many inches to spare, and it's my Studio anyway so I win. I have decided not to force a redo, but like hell I'm going to keep my mouth shut (insert evil laugh).
The rest of the studio is slowly but surely coming together. I need to come up with a couple more storage solutions to really eliminate the clutter but it is functioning at almost optimal capacity. If you care about what happens in this room you could check out my other blog Quilting Curve. Well basically all that needs to be done is some trim work, touch up painting, and transition strips between rooms. I could get all rowdy and get into landscaping plans but I'll save that rant for spring. I really hope this winter helps us keep up the momentum and we can move onto the massive stuff over at the main house. I'm apprehensive to state a start, or for that matter finish date on our next project at the main house, but I'm hoping to get demolition at least started just in time to make Christmas an ordeal. Well I'll leave with a video of the gross water coming out of the pipes for the first time, because that's always fun.
Lately I have been feeling a little dizzy, I'm not sure if it's due to exhaustion or excitement but since all I do is feel dizzy I suppose it really doen't matter. We have been plugging away at the endless number of tasks to bring this renovation hell to a close... we are not even close yet, but closer than last month I suppose. Its time to turn our sights to the floor and get er' done.
Before the floor could be laid Jeremy had to fix a rather large gaping hole in the floor and build a new access to the crawlspace. This ended up working out because our back ordered flooring we purchased never did show up at least not in time for us. We cancelled our order and found some other stuff. To be completely honest I'm really not that picky about the floor... actually I really couldn't have given a darn. Jeremy kept asking me and sending me photos from the stores asking me which one I liked best and in the end it only took me telling him 12 times that "I DON'T CARE! As long as it's not gray, or dark, or cheap, or fake looking...." Hahaha indecisive through and through. In the end it's just laminate, and in a studio to boot, so whatever.
With the flooring stacked in neat little piles, I was excited to get started and use some power tools! I have wrestled with a fear of saws since a kid in my grade 12 year cut off three of his fingers and I saw him running through the school dripping blood and yelling... But I'm also ready to overcome this irrational fear and get sawing. That is when Jeremy dropped the bomb on me... He wanted to do the floor because his OCD would never abate if I messed it up. So after a split second of disappointment I shrugged and went to go read a book and have a cup of tea (I mean if he really wants to do it, who am I to argue? It was a good book).
But as per renovation law things had to snowball... Like building a brick wall, one brick HAS to come before another or it all falls down. So, with financial tap-out looming, we had to purchase both toilet and vanity for the bathroom so a layout could be planned and proper holes for the plumbing drilled. Also we had to purchase interior doors (on back order until who knows when, dammit) for the finishing of trim and transitions between rooms to be properly installed. The finishing sure adds up, little things that seem so insignificant at the beginning of a project, but are vital to a completed one.
I've taken another job here in middle of Nowhere, Saskatchewan...which brings the grand total up to 5. Yep, I have 5 part-time on-call jobs outside the house, renovation hell (studio), and somehow a stay-at-home mom? They include :
Teachers Aid (on call)
School Secretary (on call)
Librarian (on call)
Janitor at the Fitness Gym (free membership! When I can use it is still to be seen)
Bartender (the newest on the list, I mean who needs sleep?)
But all whining aside, I'm very happy with our progress this far and very proud of Jeremy's laminate skills (I still think I could have done it). Upcoming pressing matters include (since I'm in a list-type of mood):
Back porch lino (already got it, just need to clear the area and get it done)
Finish window trims (need more trim, pick up tomorrow)
Base boards (pick up tomorrow with window trim and then paint it...)
Plumbing in toilet, vanity, and outside tap (for the garden I didn't mean to plant)
Rough in plumbing for tub and kitchenette sink
Buy another case of beer and finish writing this list.
Yeah enough lists, it's disheartening. I just noticed my calendar by the computer is still on January... no wonder I forget so much stuff... Well that is all for now.
So what is the colour of insanity, well I did my research and it's orange so nobody can call me on this one. Sorry, I think I may still be a little loopy from painting that studio. As per my previous post I antagonized endlessly over colour (mostly because like hell I'm going paint it again). I went with my instinct which does pay off now and then.
This green is the coolest colour I've ever seen, but I was still apprehensive about splashing it up on the walls that I plan to be surrounded by for most of my coming days. I mean I like ginger too, but that doesn't mean I should put it in my coffee.
The front porch or 'nook' as I like to call it so Jeremy and I stop getting confused about which porch we are talking about, got the 'Seafoam' treatment. Where in approximately one third of the main area received the controversial but aptly named 'Jaunty'
I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
I painted the bedroom/office a generic kind of grey colour and the bathroom is a light lemony colour. Jeremy hopped on board and installed the light fixtures once the ceilings were done.
Whew, what an ungodly job. The building is so small so it felt like I was spinning in circles dripping paint the whole time. I'm insanely pleased with the results so far. Although there is an awfully long way to go, I can't help but feel as though the worst is behind us.
We caught a sale and bought the flooring for the studio last week and we were expecting to have the laminate in our ready and willing hands but unfortunately the materials will not be available to us until the end of May. I am disappointed but glad for a short reprieve where perhaps we can tackle some of the more mundane of the Spring chores... or even just pick up some of the beer cans... So I tidied up the lawn of the studio as to keep the town inspectors off our backs (and subdue the neighborhood grumblings). At the same time we have also emptied out the shop of all our boxes, some of which have not been opened for 9 years. So my clean-up efforts at the studio are basically made void. Soon the 'treasures' that we have been toting around for who knows what reason will be up for sale at the community garage sale in the coming weeks.
The main focus of the renovation hell that is our lives has been on the studio but to a lesser degree Jeremy has been insulating his shop and building (in my opinion) fancy counters, work benches, cupboards and shelves. He has done an exceptional job (keeping the cost hidden from me in the process). The building process in his shop is basically complete, and pretty much relevant to our success when we start the big one in July.
My last little blurb pertains to the discovery of this old trunk in the garden shed. It's pretty beat up and unfortunately loot free. But it's still an interesting piece. I'm going to hang onto it for a while and see if I ever get around to restoring it.
Well I believe I will open this blog post as most Canadian blog posts have been opened for the past month... Can you believe this Spring? I haven't updated the blog in a month mostly due to some spring blues.
Anyhow the snow is mostly gone and the weather is looking warmer (finally). I have been working my tail off trying to force my way through the onerous steps of mudding drywall. It's been a learning curve but I'm more than capable of mudding/taping/sanding the next building.... Although the thought makes me want to cut off my hands. It's done. I will never have to work on drywall in this studio ever again!
Today Jeremy and I started the priming. He's all back on board... I could go into a wifely tale of abandonment and how a woman is the center of the universe, but Jeremy did work on the studio with no insulation or heat all winter... So I'll hold my tongue. We had to rent some scaffold to reach the vaulted ceiling in the main room. While we had the scaffold we (I) decided to get all the tapping/mudding/sanding/repeat/primer/paint and finally the fan hung. Jeremy put the fan up. Priming was fun (sarcasm). Jeremy and I had an on going conversation.
A: "This looks good, do you think it really needs a second coat of primer?"
B: "Well, we should do it right the first time"
Basically every 20 minutes or so we would have this conversation, switching back and forth being Mike Homes.
All drywall aside, it's time to pick out colours! *smack self in head* I really don't like this part. Every time I figure it's going to be awesome to get the colours picked out... but then it snowballs into a second guessing, back and fourth nightmare. Honestly I know exactly what I want, kind of. I need a creative, down to earth, soothing, inspiring, energetic, grown-up, playful, comfortable, place to sew. See easy, lime green... Obviously. I have known pretty much since the beginning that the main colour in the studio had to be lime green. So why am I second guessing that decision? I mean I second guess other decisions all the time (marriage, kids, Saskatchewan), but this one I was sure of. Anyhow as I stare at the computer my mind is changing it's self again so here is the photo of the colours I have picked out.
I have every single paint chip off the rack... seriously like 400 of them and I went through each one, one by one. I totally hate all these colours now... Maybe I should just go paint it orange tomorrow.
Here's Jeremy making fun of my DIY stirstick. I like to stir in comfort, that means with a handful of stick, not 3 measly inches.
Well with paint being a hypothetical done deal in a couple days it's time to turn the think tanks on to flooring. Jeremy informed me that my one and only option is laminate, since he built everything with the mantra "laminate can fix that" in mind. I'm fine with this (although I pretended not to be at first just to see how our marriage was doing, we're still good). Anyhow with this decision made I was sent to take some actual measurements. We had already crunched the guesstimate numbers but we needed something more concrete to go on. Turns out or cleverly named Renovation 600: The Studio was perhaps an exaggeration... by about 200 square feet. Yea, 412 square feet... hmmmm, it seamed so much bigger, but than again I'm short. So I could either mourn the loss of 200 square feet or rejoice in my much reduced flooring estimate, I'm still on the fence on this one.
Here is most recent video of the Studio. I apologize for my carrying on over the corners, but there ARE a lot of corners.
So with Spring in full force and Summer around the corner (fingers crossed eh!), Jeremy and I have been talking about nothing but our impending move... That's right we are moving into this studio. We plan to begin massive renovations at the house in July. I'm so far ahead of myself I'm in the wrong darn race. The projects for the studio go as thus:
Finish paint
Fix hatch to creepy crawl space
Install rough pluming and hook up hot water tank ("before there are too many spiders" -Jeremy)
Flooring (laminate, same throughout)
Paint and clean windows doors
Trim
Fix all the "I'll get that later" stuff.
Deadline: July. OK. Please send all alcoholic donations to:
Crazy Lady and Husband
1234 Middle of Nowhere, Saskatchewan
Canada.
My moment has come. It's my turn to take over the forward momentum of the Studio. Mudding and taping the drywall is the first thing on my list. I would like to bring an important fact to light, I have very little experience when it comes to mudding and taping. But with practice comes competence There are different types of tape, tools, and techniques used by both professionals and 'Do-It-Yourselfers". After a quite a few hours of frustration and YouTube interruptions I can confidently say I don't entirely suck at mudding and taping.
On that note by the time I'm finished with this building I may consider a career change... no I won't, whoever does this for a living is insane.
In quilting we call this a 'Y' seam. In drywall we call it another &$#@ing corner. But I have persevered so far, and I find the swearing has dropped from constant irrational streaming to a calm repetitive s-word every 3 feet.
As I may have mentioned before this is my favorite part of the studio, it is the front door area... what I have yet to mention was the difficulty I had in achieving such a nice seamless taping job here. I would love to go into long fault finding explanations about my husbands poor job of hanging drywall but in all reality it isn't entirely his fault (plus did you see the bubbles in that photo above, I really can't complain too much). I swear the building is twisted, not crooked but twisted (must have been why we liked it at first).
Figure 1.0
This was only the beginning of the taping torture. May I present Figure 1.0, or otherwise known as 'No, I want to keep the post, it's pretty' or 'Why did we keep this stupid... beep, beep, post!'. I know it should come to no ones surprise that we failed to spring for the metal corner pieces that make these outside corners a breeze... although I think I may know some people who make cleaner drywall cuts, not pointing fingers (ahem... Jeremy). Anyhow as messy and uncertain as this appears I have already added the first (extremely thick) coat of mud over this and it looks fine.
Finally I would like to show you where I am now (skill wise) with my mudding.
It may be almost impossible to see or understand but that is one flat looking seam. Anyhow I have an endless number of pressing things to attend to (and a cup of tea to drink) so that is all for the update. I was planning to go into what tape I prefer and why and technique details but I seriously doubt anyone reading this post would ever take my advice.
The lights are on. I don't really know if I'm able to project my happiness across the internet to you, but THE LIGHTS ARE ON!!! A minor paperwork foul up left us waiting for the power for a little longer than expected, but once everything was sorted out SaskPower was at the Studio within a couple hours and 10 minutes after they got here we were in business. It's so much easier to work in the Studio without tripping on extension cords and dealing with work lights in the vast dark Canadian prairies.
Lights are defiantly an improvement of the working conditions but honestly its about to get better as soon as we get the heat on. A couple of things need to be finished before we can turn that thermostat on... like installing the thermostat. But also finishing up the insulation above the bathroom and bedroom ceilings, and installing the exhaust fan for the bathroom at the same time. Putting in a proper door, and building an insulated access door to the attic. There is no point on heating a poorly insulated building. So in a moment of insanity (and also because I knew Jeremy really didn't want to do it) I volunteered to finish insulating the attic and to install the exhaust fan. I give Jeremy a lot of credit for his dismissive shrug, and not showing the panic that must have been going through his mind. An hour or so later I was done, sorry no photos... I was too busy.
Nothing but bills from here on out.
Anyhow while I was busy inhaling fiberglass Jeremy was installing the next exterior door in the back porch. Step one was to measure the door... Step two was to build a new frame on the interior wall to mount the door, and step three was to cut a GIGANTIC hole... Does that hole look too big? That's because it is too big. Luckily this isn't an exact science and nothing a level a whole ton of shims and some spray foam can't fix. Jeremy has also been puttering around finishing off projects here and there getting ready to turn on the heat and set me loose in the Studio with a huge bucket of mud and some tape. I'm optimistic about mudding the Studio alone... but I'm not entirely certain how it's going to pan out with the 15 foot ceilings, and some fairly obnoxious gaps... But I'm up for the challenge plus it'll be warm in there.
We have been living in Eatonia for about a month. When we originally looked at our current home, we couldn't help but notice the cute little house 30ft to the right. The house next door seemed vacant, so we took a little peek through the windows and saw that someone had the interior torn down to the studs. Later that day, we bought our house and have been keeping our eye on the neighboring house ever since. Being the pro-active go-getter that I am (LOL), I took a wander down the street to the town office one day and asked who owned that little house. The lady in the office couldn't give me the name, but said that she would pass on the message. I figured this was a good start... so I continued to flap my big mouth, asking about the house all around town until there came a knock on my door at 8pm one evening. There stood a pretty young woman and her boyfriend asking if we were the people making inquiries about her house. We went and took a look at the house with them by flashlight (as there is no power hooked up) and made an offer...which she accepted almost immediately. She picked up her tools, we signed a single piece of paper, and now we own not one, but two "from the ground up" houses in Eatonia. The house comes with a pile of new 2x4's and some pink insulation that had already been gathered for the renovations. Our yard has gained a nice chunk of grass, a fire pit, and a garden. Our plans for the house are fairly well established... since we have been hoping to get our hands on it from Day One. Basically, the house will become a quilting studio for me, complete with a spare room and bathroom for out-of-town guests...(Jeremy's just counting the days until my mountains of quilting supplies are no longer occupying the majority of his newly aquired garage). Some of the floor plan details are unclear, but it's all coming together nicely. Since we only took possession of it a couple days ago, I think I may be feeling a little optimistic, as my plans seem to be getting a little extravagant for 600 square feet. Well, the jokes could just keep coming but instead, I took a "before clean-up" and "after clean up" video. Enjoy
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