The BIG Catch Up (and Reno-in-law)

I'm not disciplined enough to keep a blog up to date! 2011 was a big year for work work, plus we also took on the demo and reno of Marc's parents apartment. Needless to say, we've not made the progress we'd have liked on our own home. But looking back, we still managed to keep things moving in the right direction. My in-law reno deserves a blog of it's own, as you can see that the extent of the work... Interestingly, in the before pictures, I don't think that the place looks that bad. You'll just have to trust us that the reno was absolutely necessary (and no - that's not parquet flooring that we are in process of replacing - that's plastic sticky faux tiles with parquet printed on them - mmmm, bet you're jealous).

Don't have flash? View the album.

The posts between May 2011 and January 2012 have been written in retrospect. It gives you an idea of what we've been up to with our free time in our little "just two weeks" project. Enjoy...

Feeling Radiant

Our neighbours find the radiator transport team quite hilarious. It's true, I'm sure they are if it doesn't involve your own home. It was yet another major milestone to receive the radiators back in October after their sandblasting and re-painting. But bringing these huge and heavy pieces of cast iron back into the house was no easy task. After much swearing in French, and several dents in our lovely new flooring, they did finally make it in.

Today, the plumbing company was able to hook them up to our gas heating system (also used to heat the water for our radiant floors in the basement).

It's probably worth a reminder of the before picture...


And now we have lovely working radiators, no peeling paint, all in one lovely consistent shade of silver:

From White to Black

While the old white outside railings of our house were getting de-rusted, primed and painted a traditional shiny black (courtesy of student painters), the ground floor and inside of our home was undergoing a transformation, getting plastered professionally. (Reading that last phrase back to myself makes for a very suitable double entendre for getting though this ongoing project!) Our plastering man, Guy, made up for all out little foibles from when we installed the drywall. He did an amazing job, so we used him again for the in-law reno.

Once the plastering was complete, I started helping out with some of the painting, but Marc surged ahead and ended up almost single handedly painting the place over the course of several evenings after work, while I got stuck at the office. We've gone completely white for now. I completely lack inspiration for color and am just so happy to have a clean house with real walls. I have got to apply for one of those design shows like Color Confidential or the like... Need design help!

The finishing touch came with selecting the door and window trims. Marc got to use his favorite cutting saw to make perfect 45° cuts. And then I finally got a go at the painting with semi-gloss white trims. You'd think after all this I'd have taken a ton of pics. But, no! The end of 2011 barely allowed for any breathing room outside of work work. So you'll just have to wait for photos...

Flooring: Done - 2

We're finally there! It took both child and retired labour, but everyone seemed to enjoy the results. It's all done except for 2 planks (the transition between the 2 rooms). I'm sure we'll even get the detail of them finished one day...



It was a big day of work:

In the Corner

While we've been working on the parent-in-law reno, this has allowed us to finally move the unsightly black sewage pipe from the middle of the kitchen ceiling to the corner. One tiny step closer to finishing our kitchen!

Turn Up the Heat

We really wanted to have a see-through gas fireplace that separates the living room from the dining room, also making a wall for the staircase on one side. It adds a heating source in the centre of the house, plus it will look AMAZING! But just because I'd like it there, I'm discovering the logistics are not quite as simple as that. The chimney is over 15 feet away, the first fireplace company I tried (and most well known in the area) doesn't have a model that can be exhausted to a chimney over 10 feet away, flueless fireplaces appear to be illegal in Quebec, but I couldn't find a flueless model that I liked so that was a non-starter.

We started looking at alternative locations for the fireplace, but searching the web came to the rescue! I had had 2 Napolean gas fireplaces installed at a previous home, and I found they had exactly what I was looking for. Plus the full instruction guide was online, which seemed to suggest it was a real possibility that it might work. Foyer Lambert came to estimate the work and feasibility of the job, with positive results.

Marc and his dad got to work building the frame:



Installed!



Do you feel the heat?

Flooring - Started!

I am sooo happy to start removing the huge pile of wood that has been serving as a non-functional kitchen island for several weeks (which has got the wood nice and acclimatized to it's environment - inconvenient but necessary).

We finally settled on wax paper to go underneath the flooring. And found that we could rent a bamboo floor nailer from Home Depot. Interestingly, I've found they're darn near impossible to purchase (at least, not in the same somewhat affordable price range as all other floor nailers). And they're very particular, you need to get exactly the right size and gauge or you'll get horrible results. The one we've rented (Paslode) works really well.