Category: DIY

The not-so-glamorous life of DIY

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As we near the “it’s only going to get better from here” point of the Reno, it felt appropriate to share a sneak peek behind the home renovation curtain. While I love to share the before and after shots, and tell the story of the latest curve in our project plans, it’s the daily ins and outs of renovating that perhaps get overlooked.

For example, the “dust check” that happens every time we leave the house. Both Christian and I are working professionals, and rolling into a client meeting with drywall dust all over the legs of your dress pants just doesn’t fly.

Or…this lovely shot, where somewhere under that pile, is our guest room:

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Here’s another similar look, however this time, it’s our living/ dining room:

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And the dust…there is NO escaping the dust. On walls, in glassware, cupboards….can’t wait to do a deep clean, but we are at least 3 weeks away from that.

Oh, another personal favorite: things need to temporarily go in odd places, because there really isn’t anywhere else to put them:

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Yep, that’s our old toilet and sink, sitting proudly in our master bedroom. I was getting ready to go out for a birthday dinner on Friday night and couldn’t help but giggle as I tried to do the “do these shoes go with this dress?” check with a toilet in the way.

Speaking of style, here’s my hot new look for spring:

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Finally, especially when ripping out your only full bathroom, there’s the issue of hygiene. Lets just say that my shower at the community center on Friday was cold….and….err….public.

What about you…..have any funny behind-the-scenes stories to share?

H-2-Ooooooo…Crap!

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The bathroom Reno saga continues. The past few days, we’ve been feeling like we are on one of those HGTV shows where drama comes at every turn, and the home owners continue to find problems behind every wall….or floor board.

To fill you in on the back-story: in addition to gutting the bathroom at our place, we’ve also ripped out the entire upstairs hallway including ceilings and closet. Our house is nearly 100, so age-old plaster and lathe, plus who knows how many layers of paint on the walls, were starting to take their toll. The walls were peeling and cracking, and the ceiling uneven. It was the perfect “well, while we’re at it….” scenario – it was time for it to come down.

After dealing with some not so good news with our roof earlier this week, we got the call yesterday that I had been dreading: our bathroom tub drain had been leaking for….years? Yep, water in the floor of the second floor and better still, funneling down into the powder room walls and ceiling below. Allow me to explain the photo below: there is a larger Tupperware basin in the floor that is attempting to catch the leak:

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Can we also pause for a moment to consider how this ENTIRE pipe is made of smaller pipe elbow?  I am the farthest thing from a plumber and I can tell you right away what is wrong with this picture.  NO WONDER the pipes were leaking!?  Unbelievable.

We had to send Christian is to start bailing:

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It was a nerve-wracking 48 hours to say the least. Thank goodness for a phenomenal contractor. Yes, all previous projects have been 100% DIY, however, this one was biting off more than we could chew so we brought in help on the demo and drywall side. Rob, owner of Rob’s Renos, was at our place until 10:30pm the other night ensuring that things were taken care of. It was pretty impressive and we’re relieved that things are looking up.  Thanks Rob 🙂

As for the main floor powder room…..?  An who knows what’s behind THAT wall….

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Water = 4
Christian & Melissa = 0

Good rule of thumb: Pipes + Concrete Don’t Mix

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Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA for several days – there’s a good story behind it, I promise!  It seems that we’re having a little bit of…er….water drama. Christian and I have managed to avoid major house melt-down for some time since our initial massive overhaul way back in the fall /winter of 2009 (we don’t miss those repeat moments of leaking ceilings in multiple rooms, flooding basements and so on).

Well, our lucky streak is over and we have learned a good lesson: concrete + pipes = BAD.

To keep it short and sweet for now: do not, I repeat, DO NOT rinse anything that has mortar or concrete in your laundry sink.  Even if you think “hey, this is just a little bit at the bottom of the pail…no bigge”.  It’s a biggie.  Don’t do it!!!!

More to come on this, (with some photos, of course), but let’s just say there is some serious upheaval happening in the basement and we are not happy campers.

Water has continued to be our #1 enemy when it comes to our happy little home. All will be fine in a few days, we’re certain, and I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the dramatic details soon!

Stay dry!

 

The Power of Paint

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A few weekends ago, Christian and I decided that it was time. It was time to deal with the unfortunate disaster that is commonly referred to as “the garage”. 

Now, let me fill you in on something: in downtown Toronto, if you have a garage, that is pretty awesome.  When our area was built in the 30s, the houses were made to back onto a laneway, and little free-standing garages face said laneway.  Over the years, some garages started to…well….desinigrate.  And the rule is, if your garage falls down, there’s no rebuilding it.  It’s a by-law.  So, I will just reiterate how excited we are to actually HAVE a garage, however, we were over it being a disaster zone, both inside and out.  We actually do have plans to restructure the garage in the future: new siding, replace the rusted out eavestroughs, put in an electric door opener, and one day actually park our car in there (what a concept).  We park on the street.

Baby steps, people. It’s all about baby steps (side note: I think that is the 3rd time this week that I’ve quoted “What About Bob“)

First of all, we tackled the inside.  Unfortunately, we decided to do this on one of the hottest days of the summer, but not to worry – we forged on!  I will spare you with the organizational details, however, here is one snap shot of a newly reclaimed shelf for all of my gardening supplies and our lovely (and properly labeled) seasonal storage bins!  Yes, it’s the little things that make me excited:

You also might notice some stereo receivers on the upper right-hand shelf.  This was Christian’s little project.  He picked these up at our Annual Lane-way sale for about $15, re-worked the wire, integrated some old speakers, and voila!  We can plug in our I-Pod and rock out in our back-yard.  It’s amazing what $15 and an hour can do.

Once our interior organizational overhaul was complete, we (well, I) decided that the exterior wall of our garage wasn’t very inspiring when sitting at our backyard patio set.  So, until we have the budget to do the massive overhaul, I decided that a little coat of paint could go a long way.  First, I cleaned the surface:

And pulled out my trusty rollers and some leftover paint…

While cleaning and organizing the garage, we came across some cute butterfly iron outdoor decorations that had been stored in the garage for “when things looked a little prettier” – well, we found a home for them!  And I used a Groupon I had scored for a garden centre to purchase some beautiful hanging baskets….so, $20 later (the amount we spent on the Groupon about 2 months ago), our backyard went from this:

To this….

It’s not a super dramatic before-and-after, but the point is that a few hours, some elbow grease and a can of paint can really make a big improvement.  We have a long way to go in order to achieve that backyard city oasis that we dream of, however, this mini-makeover, coupled with a string of Christmas lights and recycled Chinese paper lanterns from our wedding day, strung on the clothesline, helped to create a welcoming outdoor space for a BBQ with friends last weekend. 

And, oh yeah, we were certain to rock out all night under the stars thanks to Christian’s McGruber-ed outdoor stereo.  Three cheers for my crafty husband: hip-hip hooray!

To enclose, or not to enclose: PART 2, the Grand Finale!

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For those of you who had the chance to read my recent blog on our flip-flopping decision relating to our porch enclosure, you will be pleased to know that it’s time for the grand reveal.  There are, of course, several tweaks, finishing touches and final projects to be completed (it’s the renovation that keeps on giving, remember?), but you will get the overall gist of our latest renovation experience momentarily.

 

Before I get to the grand reveal, let’s review the stages of progress, shall we?  As I’ve already shared with you, Christian and I would consider ourselves to be renovation vets, having already tackled a complete basement overhaul, re-wiring of our old knob-and-tube electrical (NOTE: we didn’t do the wiring, but cleaned up the massive mess afterward by patching and painting all the walls!), giving our kitchen a serious facelift, removing walls on the main floor, installing flooring and refinishing our stairs (oh, the blog stories to come!).  Now, Christian and I decided to work on the porch enclosure and front-of-house over our main upstairs bathroom for two key reasons:

1) it would be faster, and,

2) it would be cheaper.

 

Turns out, we were pretty much wrong on both fronts.

 

Weekend #1: May Long Weekend

– Friday afternoon: demolition of old front porch enclosure

– Friday evening: start framing and replace front window on original exterior house wall

NOTE: Christian basically drills into his own thumb at this point; we probably should have gone to the hospital but he’s too darned stubborn so tough and manly that he forged ahead.

– Saturday all day: more framing, thanks to our friend Merv and neighbor Mike for the extra hands!

– Sunday all day: ply wood up and wrapping started, windows in!  Christian’s brother shows up just in time to help install the double front doors

– Monday: finishing up framing, wrapping and starting on the electrical (again, get a pro to do this!)

 

NOTE: wondering where I am during all this?  Oh, I remember, I was chiseling out all the old ceramic tiles and mortar that once was the floor of the enclosure.  Worst. Job. Ever.  Seriously, right up there with taring (water-proofing) our basement walls…more on that another time.

Yep, this was me.  All weekend long.  chip chip chip ow. chip chip chip ow. ow. ow. chip bang. bang bang chip chip.

 

What I learned later was that there is a power tool that does this job.  In just hours (honestly I’m guessing I spent a good 20+ hours on this).  One of our contractor friends said we “could have borrowed it”.  Or, we could have even gone the Home Depot Tool Rental route. I can’t help but wonder if Christian was with-holding this information in order to keep me completely occupied for the weekend and out of his hair. I’m still laughing about this one.  ha. ha. ha.

 

With weekend #1 behind us, we were already feeling behind.  The siding wasn’t in yet (it was on special order).  I was still chipping away at the tiles.  We had clearly forgotten what it felt like to work 10+ hour days on weekends.  The little projects were adding up to one massive to-do list.

 

Weekend #2: May 28-29th

Getting the siding up on the exterior (woo! the vision is coming alive!)

Insulation (another one of my not-so-favourite jobs),dry-walling and more dry-walling.

Let’s not even talk about the experience we had installing the ceiling dry-wall.  Honestly, either get poles for extra support or hire a professional….that was not one of our finer renovating moments.

Weekend #3: June 4-5th

 

Finish drywall, followed by extreme muding and taping

 

Weekend #4: June 11-12th

We. Are. Over. This. Renovation.

How much time can a 200 square foot space to renovation? Too long.  The little jobs just kept coming, and poor Christian was taking extra days off of work to help push our *little* project along.

Accomplishments:

– building the cedar landing and stairs at the front

– sanding the drywall

– priming and painting the walls

 

Weekend #5: June 18-19th

Ironically, June 18th marked the first year of marriage for us.  We should take a break, right?  Wrong.  It was pretty fitting for us that we should spend our anniversary working on our house.  Instead we:

– installed lights, finished electrical

– cleaned tiles and grout

– put baseboards in, windows trimmed

*We did indulge in a much-deserved dinner at the 360 restaurant that night…a 9pm reservation.  We were literally falling asleep at the table after a full day of work.  Ah, marital bliss….allow me to take a minute to share one of our favouriate wedding pics that I know you will all love and appreciate:

Photo Credit: Claudia Hung Weddings

*sigh* the good ol’ days.

 

Back to renovation-reality: The most rewarding moment of the entire process?  Arriving home after our dinner in the sky at the CN Tower and seeing our newly installed lights, shining like a beacon in the night!  Although it was a lot of work and not our first choice on how to spend our anniversary, we felt a sense of pride when we arrived homed, walked up our newly-built, cedar-smelling stairs and used our new front door for the first time!  Kind of a touching moment, isn’t it?  All together now: “awwwwwwww”:

Thanks for reading – share your comments below!


 

Starting small: a little bit of DIY inspiration

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My husband and I are often asked: “How do you learn the ways of DIY?”, and for those of you who are well-versed in this past-time, you will know that it is purely trial and error.  Christian is Mr. Handy, and was fortunate enough to learn many of the tricks of the trade from working with his dad growing up.  Me on the other hand, well, my mother likes to shop at Ethan Allan and Restoration Hardware – HA!  Yeah, not in the budget for us.

The problem: “I want pretty things in my home, but should really put my money towards renovations/ fixing broken pipes/ leaky roofs/ etc!”

The solution: Furniture DIY.  I’m addicted.  It’s my new-found favourite past-time and it is sooooo satisfying.

Allow me to share with you some wonderful before-and-after shots of various items that we have spruced up for next-to-nothing.  Who doesn’t LOVE before-and-after shots!?

First up, the dresser.  Well, it was a dresser, passed on to Christian waaay back in University.  Then is was repurposed into a bar for him and his roommate for another 3 years (glass ring stains and all!) and found it’s way into our Leslieville home.  I hated it.  But, we needed it and again the little-dresser-that-could found itself in the starring role of: entry-way table!  Time for a face-lift. Here’s our over-loved friend before:

I used some left over grey paint (from our Master Bedroom walls), white trim paint, and knobs from Lee Valley Tools (the best location in the city for knobs, pulls and handles, in my opinion).  Total cost for the project?  One long weekend and 40 bucks.  Voila – my masterpiece:

Well, I was on a bit of a roll after this.

Next up, we have our rescued-by-the-roadside night stands.  Yep, we were driving somewhere near Gerrard-ish and Christian hit the breaks and started backing up.  It was like the heavens had opened and revealed two night-stands, just waiting for some TLC and a new home!  It was love at first sight…well, almost.  We had a vision.  I actually wrote a quick thank you note for the previous home-owners because I felt it was good karma to share my joy…

Here are the orphan night-stands before (well one of two – they looked the same!)

Remember: we had a vision. A vision of glossy pops of red in our bedroom….BAM!  Here is the after:

Total cost for these babies?  About $35 on paint + $10 on knobs (these ones are from Central Fairbank Lumber).  We splurged and bought High-Gloss red paint and a can of Varathane.  TIP: do not, I repeat, DO NOT use anything but foam rollers for this stuff.  We used a sort of synthetic roller and got little bits of plasticy-fluff in the paint. So frustrating.

Now onto my vanity bench.  Yes, I LOVE my vanity.  Ladies, for those of you with the my-house-was-built-in-the-30’s sized bathroom, the in-room vanity table is your best friend.  We picked ours up at IKEA for about $200 and it looks pretty awesome (no one believes it’s from IKEA).  But, when it came to a seat for said vanity, I felt that it needed a bit of flair (on a budget, of course).

Here is a before(ish) – I didn’t actually take a before…isn’t that sad?  But you get the idea…the legs are a different style, but this is pretty much what it looked like: Grandma’s old sewing bench (which is what it was, so it was free):

And the after – yes, it’s all about the pops of red in this room!

Cost?  Can of spray paint @ $6.00 and a steal of a deal on this bold-striped Marimekko fabric from a bin at Crate&Barrel.  For those of you who aren’t family with Marimekko fabric, it’s very bold, fun and pretty mod…and also pricey!  Crate&Barrel collaborates with Marimekko on a bunch of stuff in the store and what’s cool is that the fabric ends and extra yards are available for sale at a super low cost (I think I paid $10 for 2 yards of this stuff).  I. LOVE. DEALS.

And finally, the most simple face-lift of all – recovering a chair seat.  We picked up this adorable diner-inspired kitchen set off of Craigslist for $25:

It sat happily in our kitchen for about a year, but I was inspired while on a recent trip to Fabricland during their closing sale (*sniff* the only downtown location is CLOSING!) and found this killer black-and-white geometric, very durable, indoor/outdoor fabric for a steal.   The best part? They had an end that was more than enough for this project, but not quite a yard, so I paid $4.00 – whoop!  Here’s a close-up of the new seat cushion:

I completed this project in under an hour, seated on the living room floor whilst watching Ashely cry her way through another *heartbreak* on the bachelor.  All you need are scissors and a staple gun.

Here that?  That’s the sound of my heart singing.  It’s a sickness, people.

Next up on the furniture DIY hit-list?  Upholstered headboard for our master bedroom – stay tuned!

What are you guys working on?  Any quick and easy DIY projects that you’ve tackled recently?

Looking Back: Our first night in Leslieville (let the demolition begin)

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Ah, memories.

I still vividly remember the evening my husband and I took possession of our first home.  It was a Friday night in late September, 2009.  A BEAUTIFUL night.   We scurried around town all afternoon finalizing the close, heading to the lawyers office to pick up the keys, until we finally found ourselves excitedly driving up our street at about 6pm for the first time as new home-owners.  And we weren’t just home owners.  We were home-owners in Leslieville. We were in love.

 

Of course, shortly after walking through our new home for perhaps the 4th time since we had first seen it, we immediately realized that

a) we were absolutely famished, and

b) that we signed ourselves up for a lot of work.  Like, a tonne of work. I’m talking never-ending renovations here.

 

Well, it’s all about tackling one problem at a time, so we decided to venture down Queen St to savour our first local meal as Leslieviller’s.  Reliable Fish and Chips was smelling mighty good, so we brought our grub home in styrofoam containers, popped the champagne, and sat on our kitchen floor to enjoy our first meal.  (No furniture yet….remember, we are starting renovations….this is the sole purpose for my blog…I’m just building context here….work with me…)

Yes, I brought glass champagne glasses specifically for this event (and yes, it goes well with styrofoam, fish and chips!)

Yes, those are our gorgeous blush-pink counter tops with coordinating blush-pink and white ceramic tiles in the background.

Yes, this kitchen is about to be destroyed.

 

But before we get there, let’s move back outside, where our perfect little street heard the first smashes of the sledge hammer emanating from our house: “BAMMM!!”  “SMACKKK” BASH!!

Time: 7:48 pm

We’ve had possession for almost two hours.  Let the games begin.

 

And so begins our story: two new homeowners + one quiet street in Leslieville + one very old house + Melissa’s obsession with all things decor, design and reno = GREAT idea for a regular blog on the Leslieviller!

 

Enjoy.

Comment.

Relate.

Share.

 

More to come,

Melissa