House progress, in door form

It's been a long, long time since I had anything to update on the house front.  But, behold!  We have new front doors.

The original doors of our house (in the 1800's) were a set of tall, arched doors.  In the 1960's, the former owner switched them out for insulation reasons.  (A bit breezy, I hear).  He used the original opening to create space for a single door, with sidelight and transom.  It was serviceable, but not very becoming of a grand house.

Remember when the Stanley Cup was here last week?  That was awesome.  You can also kind of see the old door.


As of yesterday, we have replace the single door with a set of new, custom doors that were made to match the originals.  And they have double glazing and weather stripping!  Woot!

I really was so excited to see them going in.  The are wood, but primed and ready for their paint.  We have a big decision ahead as to which colour to go with.  I've got a short list.  No turquoise/teal on it.

 Chris, on Sunday, ripping out the old door and glass.

On Sunday we had a lovely tarp to protect us from critters, weather and intruders.  Did the trick!

 New doors!  There is still a matching set of hardware to come on the other door, but time just ran out yesterday.

That's a big, big difference.  You can see where Chris started to strip the paint off the wood and brick.  Big job to come.

I'm leaning towards a really dark green on the doors.  Dark greens look great with our orangey-red brick.  This colour is in the running:

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Compliments?

Phew!

We survived our stint on the house tour!  There were 1100 people through our doors on the weekend and it doesn't seem any worse for the wear.  As participating members, we got a private tour of the houses on Sunday and it was fun to see inside some of the fancy houses of our town.

Ours is very much a work in progress, but people seem to enjoy seeing a mid-point project.  Many insisted we put it on again in the next few years so that they can see it accomplished, but we'll see if I recover from this one first!

While the house was tidy I took a few shots so that I could remember that it once looked like that.  Ha!

At long last, here are some pictures for you.  I'm calling it the Half-Way House.  All the buried and hidden stuff is done and now it's time for the pretty.

Here's where we're at:

 Formal Living room.  With porter's chairs!!

 Kitchen - west wall

 Kitchen - East wall

 Charley's room - I made him the 'bus blind' sign, as you'll see from the last stop on the list.

 Sam's room - Still haven't made it out to buy him a single mattress, so he doesn't have his big boy bed yet.

 Detail in Sam's room - Vintage, from Dad's childhood room!

 Closets, built by Chris, in progress in the master bedroom

Third floor library, with new stove in place.

Obviously, there's many rooms not shown here, but I thought I'd give you a small taste.  We're happy with the developments, but boy-oh-boy are we ready for a break from house stuff for a short while.  Nothing like 13 months of house renos to make you long to lie on the couch.  Very, very still.  Maybe with eyes closed.  zzzzzzzzz...

Because I'm crazy-loco

It's going to be a light post kinda week around here.  A year ago, before we knew exactly how long it was going to take to get into this house, we agreed to be on this year's house tour.  It's a big deal around these parts and this is it's 46th year.

Now, would I have agreed to be on it if I'd known I was going to move into my house a month before the tour?  No way!  But, that is life and it's highly motivating to get through all those moving boxes, etc. to get the place looking a little less like a construction site.

There's always next year for looking cute, right?  Gotta go scrub windows now...

Soooo many windows...

House warming?

Okay, so the posts have been scarce and few. 

I'm not going to lie to you... the first week into the house has been less than great.  We knew we wouldn't have a fully functioning bathroom (ie: no shower) right away and we knew that the rest of the house is just white drywall, but we had some hopes of our kitchen.  It's been a long, sad story.  I planned this kitchen down to the last little knob and toekick.  The custom kitchen builder has been sloooooooooow installing it, had to take down parts to fix mistakes, and now, it appears, he has to take apart the WHOLE kitchen to repaint it.  The finish on the cupboards is proving to be sub par and it can't see how we fix it without a total re-start.  I think Chris' brain really, really came close to exploding when we realized this.

Add to this the fact that our road looks like this:

 

...due to a new water main.  The 'packing down' process has felt like an 8 hour long earthquake everyday.

More?  You want more?  

Okay, so since we moved in Charley's had tonsillitis (with bonus body rash!) and Sam's had the chicken pox.

I know it will get better.  I know my food won't always be in boxes.  I know that we have lots of time for finishing up all the other rooms of the house.  I know I'll get to have a shower again someday.  I really know that these are 'first-world problems'.  Like, c'mon!  We've got shelter, water and (improving) health.  

And we've got kids who don't give an iota of a crap whether the house is done or not.  They just care about play, food, fun and romping around.  And Toopy and Binoo. 

 (Yes, this is my one cute corner of the house.  The only one...)

We really made it!

The posts have been scarce this week.  I'd love to tell you it's because we're all sitting around basking in the glory of our new digs, but really it's because we're still working hard everyday to finish things like, oh... a bathroom and other basic needs like that.

That being said, I really couldn't be any happier to be here.  Nothing like waiting 370 days for something to make it that much sweeter.  (Doesn't hurt that our rental was an absolute dump either.  The contrast is amazing!)

So, tonight we sat on the front porch and ate ice cream together.  The boys experienced their first Dilly Bars and Chris and I just soaked in the fact that we were sitting on our front porch.  Finally!  Yep, it needs some paint and love, just like all the other parts of the house, but it's all ours, baby.

 Happy family

 Sam tours the 'grounds'.  Pantless, of course.

Mmmm, ice cream

Stay tuned for more update shots.  It's going to be ah-may-zing!

Gasp... shriek... breathe...

Almost there...
Well, okay...  not quite.  But almost there to moving in.

Yeah, we'll have lots of work left to do (mostly painting) but the parts that are done are exactly as we wanted them.  It's worth the wait for the house of your dreams, right?!

Library - Before and After

No more burlap on the walls, painted orange floorboards or lethal wiring.  Oh, no ping pong either.  Well, you can't have it all!

Another before and after for you:  Kitchen arch with new floors.  Hey!  There's no longer a closet in the middle of the main hall!  That's a good thing.

And just for fun, here's what my new kitchen looks like today:

Okay, so it needs a little work.  And it needs to not be in the den.  Fingers crossed the kitchen dude gets it all in for Friday's arrival time!  Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I'm so, so delirious after the last week, month and year.  Chris is too, but x10.  Soon enough we'll have sanity, a few moments of peace and rest and a severely bitchin' house!!

Sorry

I hope I can be forgiven for the long delay between posts.  Life is a bit hectic at the moment.  We have 11 days left to make the house livable... and that's a big task.  There is still no hint of a kitchen, no shower, no sinks, no fully finished floors, etc.

Yep, I'm pretty much freaking out.

No new shots, per say.  Here's a few that you may or many not have seen on facebook last week.  It's looking beautiful in the places that are more complete, that's for sure.  At least the drywall is done!  No more Ben and Harley though... that's too bad.

More updates this week, I promise.  You had better believe that when I see my custom, picked-by-me kitchen going in, there is going to be a large grin on my face.  Very, very large.

House of light

We're creeping slowly towards our goal of moving into the new house.  Seeing rooms get to this point is almost more than I can bear, and I find myself getting downright teary over the last week.  Nothing like a year-long renovation to turn one into a bit of a basket case.

Sigh.  It's really going to happen, you know?  I really can't believe it.

Almost a year ago

I'm flabbergasted that it's been 11 months since we took possession of our dream house. That's a long 11 months of not living there, but working hard to make it happen. When I look a this above picture, it seems like I don't even remember those kids. They have both changed dramatically since that day. I think it's time for me to get them over there and do an updated nook-shot, right? Makes me miss Sam's curls a little bit...

I want to marry my floors

I thought that the drywall was a quick and dramatic thing... well move over walls!  Here come the floors.  We have a great company bringing the home's original floors back to life.  They've never really been finished as they've been under many, many layers of carpet/tile/etc for many, many years and before that they were just painted.  They are beautiful old red pine, the likes of which you don't see anymore.

I seriously almost swooned (I know! How Victorian!) when I saw the guys doing the first pass.  I mean, there is no faster and more dramatic way to change a room.  We've had the kitchen guy, the electricians and the mason all there as well this week.  It's all systems go.  (Really... we've got a month.  Anyone else wanna get their hands dirty?)

Here are some shots of the floor after it's first of four sandings.  I can't believe it's going to get even more beautiful.

 The hallway with the edges done.  Nice to see the contrast!

 They're using what you would call a 'coarse grit' paper.  (Read: gravel grade)  There's a lot of old paint on them there floors!

 Here, Chris gives the one finger salute to the boards he personally pieced in.  With white pine.  Ooopsy!  Not quite a match.  Oh well... it's a character floor, right?

 The library was the first room they worked on.  The boss did a quick application of the finish to show us what it will look like.  Dreeeeeamy.  Lots of nail holes and cracks and history, you know?

The main stairs have had the carpet and glue removed.  What a huge difference.  And, yes, there's still a wall of that tree wallpaper, but not for long.  The plaster underneath needs attention, so I'm afraid the retro-greatness is no more.

Tomorrow marks the start of "Panic-Go-Time".  On month to go.  We can do it!! (??)

Roof

I got me a new roof!  Yeah, so it cost as much as a small cottage... it's be-oooooooo-ti-ful!  And we won't have to do a thing after this for, say... 40 years?  Sweet.

That's cedar and copper, peeps.  Windows still need some love, but otherwise the upper-outer parts of the house are ready to rock!  It's quite a change from the turquoise that was there.  People in town are certainly taking note.

The third shot down shows the view from the third floor.  Across the roofs of Englishtown (why such a small town has neighborhood names, I do not know) you can catch a glimpse of Lake Ontario.

Progress is my friend.

Electrifying!

This picture will not be exciting for you.  But, you see those wires right there?  That's about the best thing I've seen all month.  Wiring half completed, plumbing shipment arrived, kitchen drawings approved. 

I am very, very happy with the progress. 

House progress!

This week we've had the insulation team in and the heating guys are half-way through their work.  I really couldn't be more excited.   There's something so uplifting about getting to the point of adding to the house, instead of just taking away.  The place is already less 'windy' with the spray foam in, and the furnace is working much more efficiently now that the pipes are connected properly.

All this forward motion inspired me to write up this "great-stuff-to-come" post.

Here are a few of the bits and pieces we've purchased for the place:

Obvs, these are all for the bathroom. Chris is quite excited about the high-tank toilet.  I'm sure the kids will be too.  (They'll need a little stool to be able to flush though...).  Don't worry, I'm not going to re-create the wooden seat/border effect in my powder room.  (Unless you think that look is coming back?  Jules, thoughts?)

The kitchen designer is working away on drawings for the most important room.  Here are two of the pictures I sent him as guidance/inspiration:

I'm really excited about the apothecary/industrial look we're working on.  And I'm getting the apron front sink from the first kitchen picture!  Yay!


We don't have much furniture that will make the transition into the new house, but we do have art, like our beautiful Andrew King pieces, including this one:

And we just found an antique bread rack, not unlike this one:

I'm really, really, really getting excited now!  I know, I know... months to go.  But it's starting to feel like a home to me.  Sigh.  Can't wait.