What do you think?

The first thing to officially break at the house was the garage door. It looks like it has been welded a few times in the same spot, so it's time for a new one. I am having the hardest time choosing a door though. It's right on the front of the house, so if I make the wrong choice, it will bug me every time I drive up to the house!

I really like this garage door:


But I think in this style instead of the diagonal:


Do you think it would look good on our house?? I think I am afraid that it is the wrong style of door for the house. The more traditional doors everyone else has in the neighborhood are pretty boring. I would like something a little different. Leave me a comment, I need some feedback!!!

Here is the house:



Here is my artists rendition. Please ignore the colors...that is a whole other ballgame of decisions!

Small things can make a big difference

I couldn't wait to get rid of the old exterior lights. The new ones are such an improvement.

BEFORE:



AFTER:


And the new house number I ordered, it is made of slate and hand carved by a guy in Toronto. I got it with white letters. How could a geologist say no to a slate house number sign ?!?

How much work can be done in 3 days?

Who says you need a crew of men to demolish a house in 3 days? On TV, they always have 20 guys ripping down walls. Brent and I, with the help of Jim managed to have a very productive 3 days. I'll try and post the readers digest version here. We managed to rip out the subfloor and the trillion (I am not exaggerating here) fastners holding it in place, take down the remaining studs, rip out a pantry (where the new fridge will be), take out the remaining cabinets and plumbing, started on some of the wallpaper removal, patched most of the holes in the walls we want to keep, change the exterior lights, and even got started on the basement!

Doug, the kitchen designer came over again, and we re-positioned the island. Now that it is one big open space, he could really see how much room we had available. We got a first glimpse at the design, and it's looking awesome. If things go smoothly, the design should be done next week, then we can order the cabinets first week in April. Somehow..now our island is twice as big AND we are getting bookshelves/built in's made. How did that happen?

We are both back to work tomorrow. Sunday is moving day (ACK!!) We are very behiend in the packing department. Luckily we have all of Saturday to pack last minute. The plan is to move into the basement while we reno the upstairs. But, there will be no dishwasher, or stove. Hopefully, the BBQ and patio furniture weather is on it's way.


Brent removing the subfloor...don't worry, it gets worse before it gets better. It came up in fairly good sized chunks. Much easier than that darn linoleum (which, as it turns out, I didn't have to remove!!!!!)

Under the subfloor was this brown paper

The shiplapping under the particle board subfloor. It has a few squeeks in the hall, which I fixed.

Jim removing nails that were holding down the subfloor. In the end, there were large nails, small nails, screws, fat staples and skinny staples ALL holding down that floor.

My tool, Brent's tool, Jim's tool

Goodbye Walls! It looks sooooo much bigger now.

My dad came over to help Brent with the final wall removal. He was worried because the whole ceiling was moving when he tried to pry the 2x4's off the roof. Turn's out it's not a big deal, but we now have a bit more ceiling repair to do.

Two bin's full...a third is being delivered tomorrow AM.


Yikes, look's like someone had a leak under the kitchen faucet. Brent removed the plumbing and man...that was nasty. There was stagnant water from at least 1980 that came out of that thing.

No more cabinets or plumbing. Note that the stairs to the basement were hidden in the old cabinetry. We'll have to hide that in the new design.

Our four legged spectators.


A close up of the wall of wood



Goodbye Wall of wood!!!

Mega Birthday Week

Happy Birthday to Cheyenne (last week) Margaret Letwin(Monday), Nancy Chmilar(Tuesday), David Marques(Tuesday) and Jon Batchelor (Thursday)!! Hope you all have great birthdays this week.

Congratulations Burdine and Brian!

We were away for the weekend in Canmore for Burdine and Brian's Wedding. They lucked out and had great weather and it was a really fun wedding. Of course, in the hectic hours leading up to the wedding, Brent and I forgot our camera. But, there were lots of other people taking photo's. Hopefully, I can get a few emailed to me to post! We were both in the Wedding party, and I think my cheeks were frozen in smile position after having such a good time.

A big thank you to Mom, Michael and Ellen for dog-sitting our "fur babies" for the weekend.

Brent and I both took off the next few days to work on the house. So, we should have a lot of progress to post in short order.

I hate linoleum

We had a very productive 2 days. Almost all of the pink carpet and underlay is gone. We discovered some lovely linoleum under the pink carpet in the old dining room. My new nemesis is linoleum flooring. Brent managed to demolish 3 walls while I removed 2 square feet of stick down linoleum. The main floor walls we are removing are down to the studs, and just waiting on my dad's final OK before they come out (and the building permit..which Brent is getting tomorrow). It's much easier to picture what the main floor will look like now that those walls are opened up, I'm so glad we decided to go for it!

Thanks to Nnamdi, Kevin, Rich, Michelle, Bam, and Bryce for helping move the hardwood over on Sat. That stuff is HEAVY!?!

Some more photo's and a spontaneous musical interlude by Brent for your enjoyment:

A Before Photo


The Beginning of the demolition


Some drywall down


The final result for the weekend


The linoleum we found under the carpet


Me taking off the first baseboard

Time flies when you are having fun...

We got the house and it survived Brian's stag. Alot better than some of the guys did by the sounds of it. The result is that we have enough beer and pop left over I think we are stocked up for at least 6 months. Burdine's stagette was a blast, she looked hilarious in the outfit we chose for her. I'm glad she had such a good time (I did too!).

Brent and I have been so busy between appointments and shopping and working in the house. Doug, the kitchen designer came over and shocked us with his design idea. We were originally planning on removing one wall (between the kitchen and dining room) and the new plan we will be removing 3.5 walls. After his ideas sunk it, we loved them!! My dad came over a couple times to help Brent determine if the walls were structural, and luckily they arn't.(THANKS DAD!) Now it will be one open space between the kitchen and living area.

I met with Melinda, the interior designer and chose paint colors. We picked greens for the main level with an accent of this grey/brown color. And the basement is more tan and brown since we had to work with the existing carpet down there.

The plan for this weekend is to pick up the new subfloor, remove all of the carpet, take down the kitchen cupboards and perhaps get at least one wall down. We already have gotten rid of all the easy stuff like baseboards and interior doors and the nasty curtains. They must have been there since 1975 because the amount of dust in those curtains was disgusting. How the old owners lived with those..I can't understand.

Our new interior doors:





More photo's to come!