Bathroom Upgrades

Its been almost a year and a half since we started our bathroom reno's

This involved ripping everything except the bathtub and surround out. Luckily we have a second full bathroom on the main floor.

The original bathroom when we got the house about 8 years ago had an avocado tub and toilet, dark green wall paper border and sliding glass shower doors. I can't remember 100% but I think it was painted baby blue. (unfortunately I don't have any pictures)

Back in 2007, I removed the glass shower doors, removed the wallpaper and painted the room yellow. This satisfied me for a while. (I couldn't even find pics from this either)

Then in 2008, we replaced the bathtub and surround. (still no pics.....)

Finally in 2011,
- we replaced the vinyl flooring to heated faux slate tiles (heated floors are amazing)
- replaced the green avocado coloured toilet to a dual flush white model
- replaced the light fixture and added a second light to the shower area.
- added an exhaust fan
- upgraded the window
- we designed and had the mirror built
- we designed and had a new vanity custom built for maximum storage and for our new 'wetstyle' double faucet sink.

The room has been so close to being finished for about 6 months now. In March we finished installing the trim and last month I finally caulked it.

We have plans to do a tile backsplash, we have even bought the tile. I guess this is probably a project we should do before the kitchen is started.......perhaps this will motivate me (us).

Does it take anyone else this long to finally finish stuff?

- Lauren

Kitchen Progress

So I've been thinking about kitchen layouts for about 6 months now and finally thinking I had figured out the best one.  I even marked the floor with masking tape to see where things would move and to be able to see the distance between moved items.  However, I am once again not 100% convinced that its the best for the space.......

In the mean time, I have started painting the walls, since we plan to open up the space to the living room, and since I never loved the orange colour I painted 5 years ago.  I used leftover living room paint to get me in the right direction.  I just did a quick coat for a general vibe.  I don't love the colour, I think its too plain.  It looks pretty good with the white trim, but not great with the wood cabinets or ugly backsplash - both which are going to eventually be replaced.  My next painting project is to paint the adjacent basement stairs area charcoal grey to see if I like the two colour combo.

Also in kitchen reno baby steps, we replaced the light.  The lighting in the kitchen was awful.  You couldn't tell if it was even on or off during the day.  At night it created all sorts of weird shadows and never fully lit the room.  We choose an inexpensive one from Home Depot.  Even if we don't keep it, I won't feel like we wasted any money (plus it could move rooms or we could sell it on kijiji).

Finally we replaced our leaky Kohler faucet.  We debated trying to fix it or get it replaced since apparently it has a lifetime warranty.  I knew I wanted a new faucet in our 'new' kitchen one day, so this seemed like a good time to upgrade. I wanted something with a higher faucet. And my husband wanted a pullout, instead of the side pullout.  We bought a Grohe which was almost 50% on sale (we still plan to fix the Kohler, it seems to have been leaky due to a lot of hard water buildup and it might get put into the laundry room but maybe its too nice to go there).

And finally, I have a new kitchen layout.  It's just a rough sketch but it has some improvements from the previous one.  It has more prep space.  It has a small moveable island/cart plus a table.  It would mean opening up the existing window into the living room instead of fully removing the load bearing wall (this seems cheaper.....).  I am not sure if the table would impede the traffic flow in and out of the doors too much or if it would be fine as long as the chairs were tucked into the table.

I know that I need to finish some other projects before diving into this one, but I think there might be some cabinet removal or bulk head investigation soon (I want to see if there is something in there or if it will be possible to remove them) - I just need to convince my husband to help!

- Lauren

Kitchen Plans

I spend alot of time day-dreaming about our kitchen possibilities. I am trying hard to keep the focus on finishing other projects before starting any new ones, but we all know that one day there is gonna be something drastic done during nap time. Cabinet removal? Fridge moving? Who knows what its gonna be.

The first step was figuring out the new layout. Here is the current state:
(yes, done on graph paper, each square is one foot)

Some good things about the kitchen is the storage.

Some things that could be improved:
- counter prep space
- lightening
- space for a table without hitting the fridge
- room to open the door to the basement
- more open-ness to the rest of the house so that you aren't stuck in the kitchen when people are visiting.
- take advantage of the unused front entrance space behind the kitchen.

After many attempts, this is what we came up with.

Open up the wall behind the stove and take advantage of the unused front entrance. Although this means you are walking right into the kitchen, since we don't use this entrance we are treating it more of getting more window light. (this is not a load bearing wall)

Currently there is a small window opening in the wall to the living room, we plan to open this up quite a bit - this will be more work involved since it is a load bearing wall.

We plan to have no upper cabinets along the sink/dishwasher/stove wall. This should make it open, especially with all the windows (yes, there was a window in the front door closet - weird).

Basically we are switching the 'pantry' wall from the first sketch with the fridge&cupboard.
And then taking the stove section and swinging it 90 degrees to be inline with the sink.

This means that we are approx same cupboard space. More useable counters (no corners which are pretty much wasted - same as counter cupboards, currently ours is pretty sparse)

Since the front door is going to open into the kitchen, I think its good to have a coat closet there - as I said we don't plan to use the entrance or store coats there but for resale somewhere down the line, we will use this as a huge pantry.

People always say you need your fridge, sink and stove within such and such a distance, I don't think our plan quite meets those rules, but this is almost the same distance/layout of appliances as my parents, so I feel good about it.

So what do you think about the layout? anything I am overlooking/forgetting something?
All Opinions are wanted - this is a big project, I don't want to have overlooked something.

- Lauren

Good-bye Milk Box

As convenient as it to have a milk box, leaving things for people to pick up if I am not home or having a place for delivery of a package. And it would have been ultra-convenient to have milk delivered (when did that stop?) But currently its very drafty. We are participating is the Government of Canada ecoENERGY program and for part of insulating the house we are also sealing holes etc.

Here are some before pics of the milk box (both from the inside of the house)

and now the work to seal it off

1) cut the dividing shelf (it allowed for mail to be dropped in and only accessed from the inside - but now if the slot is used, we want the mail to still be accessible from the outside since it will be the only access point)

2) Cut a piece of wood to size, I used my new Kreg jig (which I got for Christmas) to drill pocket holes. Then I screwed a screw into the middle to use as a handle. and then screwed it in place. (removing the screw in the middle when done)

3) remove the trim from the inside - ideally with less damage than what occurred......

4) caulk from the outside (maybe i will paint it next summer currently its too cold for exterior painting even if it does feel like spring)

5) patch with drywall and paint with primer.......probably won't get around to painting until we finish the basement and stairway. Patching was a little more work than I think it should have been, my drywall skills are poor, so it took me 4 times, hopefully I improve fast if I am going to help drywall the basement!

One more project that has been completed in 15 minute intervals, sometimes that's all the time you get.

- Lauren

Laundry Room Before and After

The furnace room of our house is huge (almost 12 by 16 feet), so we decided to move our laundry into that space to allow for more livable space in the rest of the basement. The room started with furnace, water heater, water softener in an un-insulated room.

These before pics show the dryer moved approximately into place, and the water softener didn't move, and a new furnace replaced the old one. Otherwise everything else is pretty much changed/new. (note to self : take better 'before' pictures).

First picture: Looking into the room, furnace on the right and then the water heater (just made it into the pic) and then there is a door past there leading to the cold cellar. On the left there is the water softener, then exhaust going up the chimney and then the dryer.

Second pic is taken standing in front of the cold cellar door looking out of the room (you can see the water heater/furnace exhaust and the water softener in the corner.

So now what we did with the room

When we got the new furnace, we had the water heater moved next to the water softener (under the big water rust stain - I believe this was a result of a old damaged chimney liner, we have a new one so no more damage will continue). This also got rid of the exhaust pipe that went across the room which makes the room instantly feel MUCH bigger.

We used the furnace install as an opportunity to  put down a piece of vinyl flooring. Its cheap, washable, and has no seams to deal with for install. We choose a in store option from Home Depot, the pattern looks like tiles.  We might have been able to get something awesome if we special ordered it but we wanted to take it home with us right away and its fine. Sometimes less choice is better because then you can make a decision faster based on the two available options.

We framed and insulated the two exterior walls. We left the two interior concrete walls as is.  We choose not to finish the ceiling since its a utility room and then we still have access to plumbing/gas/etc.

This could still be done at a later date.

New plumbing was added for the laundry and relocated water heater. This allowed us to slowly start replacing some of the old steel water lines and replace them with copper. They were pretty corroded and we have been told that by replacing them we should be able to improve our water pressure (once the pipes aren't full of gunk).

New electrical was also added for the laundry, dryer and some regular outlets.

While we were doing the work in the laundry room, the rest of the partially finished basement was being demolished. The room had 1inch white styrofoam 'insulation' behind wood paneling. I took this opportunity to put some sweet wood panelling in the laundry room.

1) It was free. 

2) It prevented it from going to the dump. 

3) It was essentially already cut to size.

4) It was easier than drywall since we wouldn't have to tape/mud/sand. 

5) I was going to paint it.

6) Its a laundry room so it doesn't have to be a show room

Result - I love the painted panelling!

I have decided to paint the main part of the basement (currently under construction) a charcoal grey. So I painted the laundry room a nice light warm grey. The two colours are 'revere pewter' and 'kendall charcoal' from Benjamin Moore - and then colour matched and mixed at Home Depot.

The cold cellar door - was doctors office green, now charcoal grey. Love it.

The baseboards are wood, and not mdf, just since there is potential for flooding since its a basement and a laundry room. Once mdf gets wet its over. We bought primed finger joint pine and it seemed in the comparable price range although I can't remember the prices and might have just convinced myself. Buying primed was so much easier. Its pretty substantial baseboards but we are trying to match with the era of the house and the original woodwork on the main floor. (the new stuff is just 1 x 6 's with a quarter round along the floor but its pretty close).

Currently there is a square folding table with some boards on it. Still not totally sure where a table should go in the room. where it is or as a continuation to the sink. So thats still in process. I plan to build some table something with the wood - which matches the shelves on the wall.

We hung some shelves on the far wall. They were in the pile of stuff to potentially be thrown out and so I used them. They have a nice warmth to the stain and work perfectly. The brackets seemed kinda expensive for free shelves but probably still cheaper than buying the whole assembly. (I think they were $9 each).

The stuff on the shelves doesn't look too pretty, maybe I should have opted for closed storage, then again this is a utility room. I plan to get a few more boxes/baskets for organization and appearance.

Hung the ironing board - kinda looks like art. Not a whole lot of ironing gets done in our house but when it does, it will happen in here.

 We used our old dirty laundry sink. We thought about buying a new one but since the laundry room is for messy things like washing paint brushed and etching mirrors. There was no need for a shiny new one that we might be mad at ourselves once we make the first stain. I don't think I have ever soaked clothes in it - which I assume was a previous use. I just put something right in the washing machine if I am worried about a stain setting in.

You probably notice that there is no faucet on the laundry sink. Its not a priority yet, so nothing has been done. I don't want a basic utility one and the thought is to use the one from our current kitchen when we upgrade it. Yes I love re-using thing.

The window should be replaced in the near future, complete with window ledge and trim.

And of course my new etched mirror is hung.

So there is no door yet, we haven't made a final decision about what we will put there, re-use a door from the main floor? buy a new door? make our own barn style sliding door? 

There is still some finessing that needs to be done, but if I waited until it was perfect then you would probably never see it!

- Lauren

Help me win a new $25K kitchen makeover from House&Home and IKEA

I am going to enter a contest with House & Home magazine to win a $25K kitchen makeover from IKEA

I have always wanted to redo our kitchen - but its such a massive undertaking that it still hasn't happened yet. We are getting closer now - at least in the talking sense of what we want, possible layout options etc and now with this magazine contest........I know that I have to sell my house and my story to them since they are looking for more than a kitchen - they need a great magazine article.


Here are my pictures and entry - any comments are helpful as I still have a week or so before I have to send in my info.

Our 130 sqft kitchen is old, I am not sure when it was redone (I assume its not the original kitchen to our 1964 home) but it needs help, there is still sections of the walls that were not plastered properly and I have just painted over for the quick fix. The cabinets had faux hinges that I removed but the marks still remain in permanent grime on the cabinet doors. The floor is a whole other story as you can’t ever tell if its dirty which may seem like a good thing but its not,  not to mention that it’s green. The lighting is bad and there isn’t enough counter space for prep. Our kitchen has great storage but isn’t quite big enough for a table. So it always feels awkward getting stuff out of cupboards/fridge if you are also planning on a sit down meal at the table. Our latest family member is 8 weeks old and we want a more functional space for when she starts to join us at the table for meals. Our wishlist for the kitchen include better lighting, a new layout with island that we can eat at, wall/window opened up to the living room and also to the front entry. A gas stove and convection oven (I love to bake!).

- Lauren