Bathroom

The bathroom has always been at the top of our must renovate list. We were hoping to hold off until the end of the year however some leaking into the downstairs bathroom prompted us to reconsider. Then the bathtub stopped draining (even with plunging and several days of draino) so the bathroom has been moved up to 'must be done NOW status. Yeah, just in time for summer! As of today the walls are gone and the bathtub is ready to be cut out. (yup you read that right. Due to a radiator that I suspect was put in after the tub and the old tub being cast iron, there is no way to get the tub out other than cutting). We are hoping to get the tub installed and the walls retiled by the end of June (especially since we are sithout a shower/tub until then, good thing I was a recer!). Then by the end of August we will fix the walls, put in new lights, replace the floor, sink and toilet. Luckily a friend was able to get us a deal on a new toilet and sink which are sitting in our garage right now. We are simply replacing things and not moving any pipes so we are hoping that with a lot of help from family and books we can do most of this ourselves. Thankfully when we pulled the walls out, there apears to be no major water damage (the leaking into the downstairs went into the metal laundry shoot - talk about lucky) What follows is a mass of pictures in different stages of destruction. I can't be bothered to put them in order so you get to figure that out for yourself. I will try to update as we get stuff done.

New pictures

Just some random pictures from around the house.

Looking into the dining room. (check out the amazing curtains that mom bought for us - and hemmed).

Our poor apple tree after the much needed pruning.

We had a lot of blossoms so I am hoping we get some fruit.

From across the street. The plan is to take out the big ceder next year. It is too big to be trimmed and it blocks the paths too much. (you can see our pram by the porch! I tell people to use it to find our house!)

Stairwell

The stariwell leads down to the studio and then the mudroom and basement. It is right off the kitchen and you see it as you walk in the house. Nothing "wrong" with it (besides the carpet) but it was dark and dirty looking. Someday we will replace the ceiling and wall panels and put more lights lin but for now I just wanted to brighten it up am little and make it flow with the kitchen a bit more.

Before

During

After

(the stairs have to be sanded and then they will be painted the same grey as the downstairs)

Mud room/ Laundry room - before and afters (well, partially dones)

Again, like most of the house, rather than a full on renovation of an area (which we can't afford) we are doing a lot of "cover ups". Basic fixes and painting to make the room look better until we can get to the actual renovations. Espceially on areas like this one, where there isn't a need to really renovate for awhile (other than the fact that it looks gross). So the mud room/laundry room got a painted facelift. The bathroom down there and the basement are on the list of major renos and when we do them we will be re drywalling the two rooms. For now I just wanted to paint it and fix the holes to make it a bit nicer looking.
I first wanted to get some of the rust off the pipes so we could paint them. This is what they looked like.


So I start scrubbing and discover that they are not grey as I thought but ... WHITE!!





Lovely. Some more pictures of before for you.

The laundry room

Close up of the laundry sink

looking into the mud room

After spending a holiday weekend freezing because the heat wasn't working and wondering how we would find the money to fix the furnace on the holiday weekend - we found out why there had been tape over the outlet. Yup, it turns off the furnace! Good thing to know when you buy the house.



Ater pictures (okay so these are in progress pictures, the tub and more piping needs to painted, the oh so lovely curtains needs to be taken down and the laundry room has been cleaned but not painted. The floor needs a few more coats as well but we have more pressing renos right now)

Front Entrance - before and afters

The front entrance was a dark redish colour. Since we had extra tiling left over I decided to brighten up the front hall a bit. it was the stick on tiles so I didn't have to pull up the old tiles which thankfully were laying flat (unlike the bathroom ones). The only problem was the layers of dirt that had to be scrubbed off. Once it was cleaned and the closet doors were off (the doors took 2 1/2 hours to get off!! The screws were so rusted that they kept breaking off before I could get them out. Fun times!) Overall though, it was a quick job and makes a big difference when you walk in teh front door.

Close up of before (half cleaned)

Before - half cleaned again

After!

(There is now a metal piece between the tiles and the hardwood)

After again.

The dining room light

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. We have taken a bit of a break as the work has been a bit exhausting. I will try to update later this week with more pictures but i thought I would share this one with you all!

Our dining room light bulbs finally all burnt out so we had to take it apart to replace it and clean it in the process. It was really gross and that is all I am going to say - I think the pictures speak for themselves!

Before

Halfway done

A room for the baby!!

Well, after a lot of hard work, Declans room is done! We were at a point where his being in our room was not a good solution and with Dave sleeping in there during the day and Declan no longer fitting into his cradle, life was not so good :) So we have worked and gotten the room finished. ( I apologize about the photos. The lighting was really bad and I was too tired to adjust my camera or to play with them on photoshop).

So first we had to get the wonderful Brady Bunch wall paper off the walls. This is what I found behind the wallpaper, lots and lots of dirt. (they also wallpapered up and over the crown molding???)

Then we had to clean the rads out. It is not too easy to see, but the left side has been cleaned, the right has not. Yummm - 50 years of dust and dirt!

Finally!!! Done, painted and ready for a little boy to move in.

The end with all the boxes stacked up has a door that covers them. I have yet to finish painting it yet.

A room for Declan - part 2

End of the room, looking from the doorway. (there

is now a full size rocker where the little one is and it is over by the crib)

Close up of the toys and books etc..

Crib area. The stuff on the wall was mine when I was little, the colours match perfectly! (and yes, the baby has a better stereo than us)

The Kitchen

While we were in Thunder Bay my parents came by and took out the awful corner cabinet in the kitchen (which I knew they were doing) but they also painted!! It was great to come home to such a nice kitchen.

The corner that used to be ugly cabients!!

Looking towards the front hall and basement

What, doesn't everyone have bath toys in the kitchen? (no Declan does not bath in our sink, that would mean I would have to actually do the dishes!)

The door is an awful half red because we are trying out different colours on it. However with the bad lighting all you can see is the red. You can also see here where we need to paint the rest of the drawers in front of the sink.

The bathroom

So I was dreading the bathroom while I was in Thunder Bay. I came home to discover Dave had surprised me by painting it! It doesn't look like much and we are nowhere near finished but here are the paint pictures. (the tub area is just all white).

(again, I apologise for the crummy pictures).

living room - done again

We did a bit of rearranging. Hopefully this arangment will work. Again, I apologise for the crummy pictures.

our "tv" viewing area

What you see as you enter the living room

The front hall

We did a bit of rearranging. Hopefully this arangment will work. Again, I apologise for the crummy pictures.