We're baa-aack, and the counter's look great!

While the Missus and I were away in Toronto for a week, Dale worked on our concrete countertops putting the finishing touches on them on Monday and left this caveat posted upon our return ...


Sarah (a.k.a. "Mudder) gave the work a thorough inspection, envisioning herself in the kitchen once it's completed.

I have to say, as pleased as she was with the counterwork and the colour, she was more anxious to get home to see Stella, the dog. the sink looks great, as does the finish. We think the colour is enough of a different shade of grey to compliment the grey walls, brown ceiling and espresso-flooring.

We walked around the upstairs tonight and as we watched the snowflakes drifting downwards illuminated by the streetlight, we lamented not being upstairs right now, and, most likely, not in time for Christmas.

We had a terrif time in TO and I'll admit that knowing the mountain of work that awaits us, made it a little more difficult to come home. Still need to get an estimate for the railings and stairway, do the finishing work and tiling and then lay down that damn hardward flooring. (sigh)

Ah well, it's just what we need to do and, thinking back to the layout when we moved in, it looks a lot better and I know it will be capable of hosting many episodic dinner parties among friends and family and that makes it all worthwhile.

Cementing our kitchen design or It's a concrete situation at our house or they did everything ... including the kitchen sink

Just a quick hit with a few pics of our concrete kitchen countertops, courtesy of ScottsDale concrete... Nice work guys!




The counter along the kitchen sink ....

And the wine, bevy and glass area ...

Long shot looking inwards ....

This is our kitchen sink, at least the pink-coloured part is our sink and the future nesting and bathing area for pots, pans and an assortment of cooking utensils. Best part is, the cement will be fully set and sealed by the time we return from TO next week.

That's one kitchy kitchen

One week ago today, our kitchen was installed and we're really happy with the way it turned out. This is Adrian putting the finishing touches on it. There were concerns with how the colour scheme would work but the white seems to brighten up the grey walls and brown ceiling, and that should compliment the espresso-coloured flooring.




And this is how it looked first thing in the morning...

Last night I took this pic of the entry into the kitchen from the top of the stairs. By knocking out the old pantry and replacing it with shallower cupboards and drawers, we've gained a lot of room and the light from the window above the doorway really brightens it up.

And a slightly different viewpoint...

Here's an angle showing the work around the fireplace. On the left are the glass cupboards and below where the empty space is, we're putting the wine fridge. To the right is the wine rack.

A straight-on shot of what may end up being my favourite part of the entire kitchen. Once we get the cultured stone started around the fireplace, they'll come back and put in the spice rack, glass for the doors, the crown moulding and the hardware.

Can you smell what the Rock is cookin?

By the time you read this, our kitchen cupboards (See below) will be well on their way to being installed. We've had to postpone the installation for the two previous weeks, so it's kinda hard to believe this is gonna happen. We spent our entire weekend in overdrive taping, mudding, sanding, painting and staining in preparation for the big day.


This is "Mudder" applying a second coat of paint to the west wall of our kitchen following a host of touch ups. We kinda like the grey ... it looks very close to how we'd imagined. Anyone else like to chime in with their two bits? Too grey, or not too grey? Jennifer Grey?

One errant move with the paint roller and you're forced to do a drastic touch up job, and this one - see below - I hate to admit but it'll require additonal touch ups to make the mark "invisible."

THIS is how the west and north walls appeared in between repairs. A little splotchy but the end result looks much better. And, please take note, the cupboards will be consuming a majority of the space you see from this angle.

It turns out that Mudder's talents extend beyond the mudding spatchula; she also stained the wood on our ceiling where we made the repairs. These two are the result of the first coat:

And then after three coats ...

In this out-of-sequence shot, I was busy fastening the drywall to the wood beam after which I began the first of what were three painstakingly difficult mudding jobs. I didn't take a picture of the almost finished product. It really does look much better than the example above.

It's been a difficult undertaking so farr, and tonight, we were bothfeeling a little stressed about the mudding in particular. We're now seeing why people have given us strange looks and comments such as "Doing the drywalling yourself, hey? We never do our own drywalling we hire someone to do that. Too hard. Drywalling? That's the one thing I never do myself.

*sigh*

Well after a quick visit from Handyman Al and a hot and spicy Caesar, we went back to the scene of the crime, and soldiered on, determined to finish the mudding all on our own. We've invested too much time to surrender our work to someone else, in part because we'll end up spending about the same amount of money if we pay someone else to finished the work - (plus all of our hours invested, and trust me, it's a whooole bunch) - at its current stage as we would have if we'd hired someone to do all the work.

Mudder joked that she'll be hugging her cupboards once they're in. That's something we can all look forward to!

I can see clearly now ... or ... Opening the windows and doors to our neighbourhood

It's true. The installers came and put in our windows and our door, and they look great. For instance, take a gander out our new kitchen window (minus the bay, but I think it improves the viewscape dramatically).




The door looks great, and the hardware we got at Rona for the door is exactly what we were looking for. As you see from the picture below, the window above the door allows for more than ample light, and the sidelight (runs alongside the door) with the waterfall-like etching, compliments the entire area. In the next photo, Chris is busy insulating and framing the area while outside, the cold November wind was enough to send a chill down one's spine. Good timing on the installations.

Amazing how much equipment they bring for the job, transforming our carport into a makeshift workshop. Here, Jim works the tablesaw while Chris grabs insulation for the door area.

Meanwhile our electrician, "The Gerry," a.k.a. Gerry, was busy getting us wired for our kitchen installation which we'd already pushed back (or is it ahead?) a week so it would be inspection-ready for Nov. 15. Well, it's now the 16th and unfortunately we still weren't ready. All aboard for next Tuesday (23rd). I hope.

By the time Thursday came, and with numerous wires dangling from the ceiling, The Gerry had made great progress on our pot lights and light switches.

Today, Handyman Al came over and I helped him hang the cement board that goes on the back and side of the fireplace so we can hang our cupboards and lay our cultured stone on it. We also drywalled the open spots on the walls that were exposed during the wiring, and tomorrow we expect to have the wood slats on the ceiling cut and nailed up. Once that's done, we've got some taping, mudding to do, plus slapping on a couple coats of paint, and voila! We'll be kitchen ready.

Then there's the rest of the house that needs painting, the flooring, the stairs and railing, and on it goes...

Pumpkin head, highballs and other things spicy

Our first Halloween in the house and someone wasn't too happy about playing dress up :(

Because our friends Neal and Kelly were in for a visit from Saskatoon, we decided to give them the royal treatment and take a break from the renos. On Friday, we had a few drinks and then headed out for tapas and drinks and while I worked on Saturday, Mudder, Neal and Kelly brushed up on their wine touring skills and Mudder added to our wine inventory. That night, we went to a Halloween party.

MacGruber! and any guesses on Neal's costume? The letters on his cheeks are B-O-O-K

There were shooter girls, sca-a-a-ry good food and, well, cereal killers ...

On Sunday, we stocked up on candy for second time (we ate most of the first bunch already) for the dozens of trick or treaters were expecting. We got 10 :/ And now we've got about 40 bars and 20 bags of chips leftover (BRB) 19 bags of chips.

Our electrician has been able to get the bulk of the wiring done in the kitchen and has our closet lights mounted. I got quite a bit of mudding done in the bedrooms but we won't be able to finish the drywalling until the electrical is finished.

We stopped into Home Depot today and found some glass tile that isn't 20 bucks a square foot and we're settling on a kitchen sink and taps. In the afternoon we bought this creme-white leather sofa and chair that Mudder's been pining about since she first saw it last week. I think we're going to stop by a lighting store on Monday and ask if they can send someone to the house to consult us with the type of lights we should get and I'm hoping to do some more mudding.

Mudding and taping is like icing a cake BUT finding studs in 12-foot drywall? Well ...

My l'il Mudder (*As I'll refer to her in this post) has, I feel, discovered a new calling. After a quick, "how to apply drywall tape and mud 101" Mudder plunged her spreader into the mud and smeared a generous layer across her first seam. Meanwhile, I was busy measuring and cutting drywall to finish up the closet in "The Office."


We've discovered that drywall needn't be the Goliath task it seemed. While mudder - ever the glassy-eyed optimist - joked about taking up another career, I'm just focusing on taking it one step at a time, and keeping the cursing to a minimum.

Mudder's drywalling speed improved dramatically when she began taping and mudding the second closet and as you can see from her expression, she's having a blast...

Handyman Al stopped helped us hang sheets of 12 feet x 4 feet drywall on our bedroom ceiling. In spite of having to trim about a half inch from the first sheet before we could inch it into place, the process went quite well. It's not for the weak of body but as Al and I held the sheet in place (with help from some heavy-duty, super-glue) Mudder fired in the screws. Unfortunately the studs we'd marked so carefully weren't lining up. When that happens, you get this (see below). And that's going to be a bee-itch for Mudder to tape :)

I've been splitting my time before and after work chiselling the lino from the floor, still hoping we won't need to install new sub-flooring. It seems each time we ask someone about the remnants on our floor, we get a different answer: 1) "Instead of trying to lift off the linoleum I think it'd be easiest to put in a new sub." 2) "I wouldn't worry too much about the uneven spots, you can use floor leveller to fix that." 3) ..."I'd be careful using that leveller. It's not cheap and you can end up spending a lot of money on it (as much a new sub-floor? Doubt it) I've heard it's pretty hard to nail through that stuff."

I've got about another eight feet of scraping left and I'll be done the hallway. I'll let you know what we decide to do about the glue used to affix the tiles in the living room but I've got a hunch how that'll turn out. Wish me luck!

Hanging around for Thanksgiving

We chose Thanksgiving as the day to begin putting up our drywall thanks mostly to a guy we'll call "helpful Al" who loaned up his tools, his time and his experience hanging drywall.


It's definitely not as easy as it looks but by the time we drilled in our 100th drywall screw and all the measuring and cutting leading up to it, we were beginning to get the "hang" of things. I'm quite satisfied with how far we got today, with two of the four closets nearly complete and about nine hours of drywall to our credit so that's worth :) about!


Also, it was scratch & save at Rona on Saturday and we managed to get granite tiles for our bathroom at %60 off and the stone for our fireplace & all of our drywall materials for %10 off!



You'll notice from the pics my daughter came to spend the weekend with us and got to spend part of her Saturday at Rona picking out tile, stone and drywall supplies. Call it her initiation into home renos 101.

Well who says you can't have a Thanksgiving dinner without a kitchen? Not me.....I will do anything for turkey! I managed to make stuffing, mashed potatoes and veg & cook the turkey on the on the BBQ! It was pretty good and I even have enough leftover for turkey pot pies and soup!
As for the drywall day it was a good day in learning and I must say that, although I missed my family and friends this holiday, it was well worth learning a new trade!

Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!

Slip, Sliding Away and Dust in the Wind, er ... house

Sunday was one of those days which began with great anticipation, and concluded like the ending of just about any Steven Segal movie, anti-climactic and no payoff for the amount of time investmented.

We rented a couple of machines (not shown) and planned to strip the remaining layer of laminate from our kitchen and sand off the cement left from the wonderful tiles checkering the living room and hallway. After a slight delay in getting started and nearly three hours of piercing loud and horrendously dusty work, the progress was slow-going (also not shown).

Sooo, it looks like we might have to lay down subfloor before we lay our hardwood because our floor may be too uneven ... *Surprise* followed by expletive of your choice ...

I did manage to salvage the day by doing some small, tidy-up work, removing a few brackets and some wood trim from the stairway.

It was with the stairway in mind, we decided to demolish the wall that runs alongside the upstairs and divides the living room. Now, we've begun to look at railings and balusters (or, as I call 'em, "ballbusters") to replace that wall.

On Monday,I met with our electrician to discuss the plans for our lights and outlets. He had some good suggestions and, once we get the framing for the drywall completed we'll be getting wired. (nice).

If we keep chipping away we might actually be upstairs before Christmas which would be great! I know my two girls would love that, and that's what counts :)