Saying Farewell to our First Home.

August 31, 2016September 12, 20161 Comment

Today is the day we officially close a foundational chapter in our lives as “Christian & Melissa”.

Christian and I purchased our first home in summer of 2009. We were 3 months engaged, eager home-buyers looking for that “potential-unlocking” fixer-upper. The up-and-coming neighbourhood of Leslieville still had the grit of the city, but was showing signs of a changing landscape. New restaurants were popping up, families were moving in, and the residents had successfully fended off the terror that is Wal-Mart just one year prior. Movement was afoot.

We put in our bid just before the August long weekend and went to the nearby McDonald’s to assess what we had just done. I distinctly remember the acute need to throw up. Not from the smell of the aforementioned McDonald’s, but from the sheer panic about the decision we had just made. In just a few moments, we made the decision to incur the biggest debt we had ever seen, all hanging on the small nest egg that my uber-responsible husband had scrounged and saved into RRSP’s during the previous few years. Me? I had nothing but additional student loans to throw into the mix. We were betting it all on a desperately sad-looking fixer-upper.

But boy, did we have gumption. That, and a strong sense of purpose: we were going to turn that tiny sum of money into a home, and a life together. Throw in some major DIY skills from Christian and my early exposure to all things design (as a child, we didn’t go to the zoo….we went to Living Lighting and the Kitchen Cabinet store. Not kidding. I could tell you what wainscotting was by age 8) and we could NOT be stopped.

It was, by most respects, the ugliest house on the street. But it was OURS. We were going to turn it into our future.

I will never forget the day we got the keys. We drove to our new home and opened the door. The smell of mould, must and rotten fish was still strong…but it didn’t matter. We were home. We wandered down Queen Street East, bought some fish n’ chips served in styrofoam as our celebratory meal, and popped the mini bottle of bubbly that I had bought just for the occasion.

At 7am the next morning, we would begin.

And so unfolded four years of nearly never-ending renovations. Weekend after weekend after weekend of work. 14 hour days. Aching backs. Bloody knuckles. Loss of sleep. Living in dust and dirt. Saying no to most social events because we had to “work on the house”. Avoiding trips and costly outings because that money could go to a sink or a fixture or some other coveted item at Home Depot. Always the house. Room by room and space by space, we slowly made it our own. Together. I’ve often said that renovating a house with your spouse is like marriage counselling 101. The joy, the tears; pushing you to the brink and then just a little but further. Yelling. Fighting. Laughing. Crying.

“It’s your fault we got into this in the first place!!” I would exclaim to my tireless worker of a husband.

And here I am, 7 years later, writing an ode to that place.

I’ll never forget our first Christmas together at Larchmount Ave. It was early December, and we were scrambling to finish a few final touches on our first (of many) rounds of renovations. Not only was it Christian’s birthday celebration, it was also our first Huggett Christmas Party (which is now an annual ‘do, 7 years later), and a big open house to welcome our friends and family to come see what we had been tirelessly been working on for months on end (and why we had been so darned anti-social). The debutant ball for our home.

It’s 11pm and we are racing to finish in preparation for the party the following day.

“We have to put up the tree”, I said. “It’s the best part…we can’t have a Christmas party in our new home without a Christmas tree!”

I had lovingly picked out ornaments and determined a colour scheme for our very first Christmas tree. We put on Mariah Carey’s Christmas album (what else?), made Bailey’s and hot chocolate, and got to it. At approximately midnight, we were ready to move onto to final part: ornaments!!

I excitedly unwrapped all of our new, sparkling, ornaments from their packaging, only to realize that I had forgotten to buy ornament hangers. It was a real pine Christmas tree, and the ornaments simply would not stay on the tree without hangers.

My eyes welled with tears and my lip trembled.

It wasn’t about the tree, the ornaments, or even Christmas. It was about the fact that we had reached that moment of the JOY of decorating together, in our first home, after months of painstaking renovations, only to realize that we couldn’t finish.

Christian looked at my face and knew that we had to complete the tree.

He ran out back to where our growing junk pile of renovation debris was, and came back with an arm-load of old electrical wire that we had removed from the house. Without missing a beat, he pulled out his wire cutters, pried back the plastic casing, and started fashioning copper-based Christmas ornament hooks from the electrical wire.

Through my tear-filled eyes, I realized what he was doing, and broke into a huge smile. We hung all our ornaments that night with those quirky, mis-matched copper-wire & plastic hand-made ornament hangers.

Still to this day, we proudly point out the remaining copper-wire ornament hangers on our Christmas tree and tell that story. It’s just one reminder of all the experiences we shared together in those years at Larchmount.

The truth is, I could write for hours about that house.

The creak of the floorboards. The sound of kids playing across street at the school. Getting ready for our wedding in the living room with my sister, mom and closet friends. Sitting in the backyard with friends on hot summer nights. Warding off raccoons. My sister’s “injury incident” on our back steps. Welcoming our first basement tenants. Meeting our amazing neighbours. Watching Leslieville grow and evolve. Welcoming friends into our home for parties, dinners, drinks. Hosting the Larchmount-Caroline laneway sale. Countless Pho dinners at Hainoi. Leaking ceilings, shattered glass tables, halloween haunted “porches”, laughing, crying. So much life. So much love.

[Photo Credit: Claudia Hung Weddings]

Although we moved out nearly three years ago into our new home, a part of us always remained there. Our renters took care of it as though it were there own, and in one of those amazing circumstances in life where things just simply fall into place, they are now the official new owners of our very first home on Larchmount Ave, and we couldn’t be happier.

(Bonus: its actually my colleague, so we get to continue to see the evolution of little Larchmount Ave as they create their own memories and home).

It’s the easiest way for me to say goodbye to a place that meant to much to Christian and I.

Growing up in a family where moving was essentially a hobby, I was surprised by how much that home meant to me. I cried the day we moved out, looking back at our empty living room and family room, and thinking back to all those moments we shared together. I could still see the renovation debris all over the floor from the first demo. I could still see that first quirky Christmas Tree in the corner. Our first hideous Craigslist couches in the living room.

So now we look forward to new places, new moments and new memories together…and all with our son, Harrison. 4 years felt like a lifetime in the midst of those renovations, but it’s just a blip in the history of the Happy Healthy Huggetts!

So…cheers to you, Larchmount Ave. We toast in your honour tonight. May you continue to provide life, love and happiness to your very lucky new owners.

Dream Bathroom: Revealed!

April 18, 2013January 22, 20167 Comments

It feels like we’ve been sidetracked with all of this flooring drama. Actually, no, not “feels like”…we really have! We’ve had the bathroom about 85% done for several weeks, but all this flooring nonsense stopped us in our tracks.

This past weekend, we managed to get a lot accomplished. There’s nothing like the impending arrival of my parents from Vancouver to cross things off the to-do list. Oh yes, we have been busy bees. We can proudly say that our bathroom is now 95% done. A few finishing touches, along with the much-anticipated arrival of our bathroom art (really? 2 weeks at customs? For art posters!!??), and we’ll be able to bump that number up to 100% finito.

But I can’t wait. Must. Share. Progress. Photos.

First of all, remember this picture?

This has got to be one of my favourite renovation-related photos of all time. Anyhoo, back in this post of yore, I shared all the challenges that we had with our tiny, oh-so-narrow bathroom: we couldn’t physically be in there at the same time, the sink literally overlapped with the toilet, the shower head hit Christian in the chest (I think I forgot to mention that one), etc etc. It really boiled down to a non-functional layout for us.

So we changed it. A lot.

Before – view as you walked into the bathroom (sorry it’s so stretched…my SnapFish album went a little crazy):

This photo does not do the narrowness justice: the entrance was just 24″….Christian and I had to do the Tango every time we passed by each other in here. So, onto the money shot:

Yes, our bathroom is now a VERY happy place.

Let’s zoom in on a few fabulous things! First, the toilet. Yep, I’m leading with the crapper. Honestly, I never thought I’d be someone who got excited about a toilet but this thing is seriously gorgeous. And comfortable! I was kind of against the square at first but I’m so glad that Christian got me on-side. It’s a conversation piece. Yep, my toilet is a real conversation starter….what can I say?

The floor tile is from the store that never ceases to make me chuckle at the simplicity of the store name, The Tile Store. Soapbox moment warning! If there is one thing you take away from this post, let it be this: do not go to big box stores for your tiles without shopping around. The tile options that are available in this world will blow your mind! We have been so surprised at all the options that are out there, many at very reasonable prices. Yes, you can get lovely tiles at Big Box stores, but if you have a specific “vision”, shop around. Go to the mom & pop shops that only sell tile…you’ll be glad you did. Don’t compromise your vision just because Home Depot doesn’t sell it.

Moving on…..we opted for a teak-look vanity. Originally, I was really feeling the ash-grey look vanity (which this very same one comes in, by the way) but again, points for Christian for convincing me of the “warmth” of teak (I love that my husband actually cares about these decisions):

We picked up both the toilet and the vanity at Toronto Vanity, where Miguel was super helpful and responsive. If you’re into a bit more of a contemporary/ modern look, this is the place to be. Most vanities come with the sink top, faucet (see photo below for a close up of the faucet), AND medicine cabinet for around $1,000. Even IKEA vanities have a hard time beating that price…trust us…we did our research. What’s great is that there are about 8 different faucets you can choose from, all for the same all-in price. Customization without all the “I love this faucet more but it’s twice the price” drama. Cuz you know I’m always the one who wants the more expensive one. Always.

Now for a zoom-in on the backsplash, which matches the tile in the shower surround. It’s a beautiful ice-blue frosted square glass tile. Again, we shopped around and had a hard time finding anything like this for under $8.00/ sq foot….on a whim, we hit up Ceramic Tile World in the east end of Toronto, and there she was…on sale for $5.00/ sq foot. It was destiny! And I’m in love with my marble soap pump with a hint of sparkle that I picked up at the Bay…it’s so glam-squad.

Finally, the shower head. Christian loves the square look so I let him run with this one. We went to Bath City in the Beach and they were amazing. Honestly, if you want to learn everything you ever wanted to know about plumbing on a Saturday afternoon, go here. Their hours are awesome and the staff are super knowledgeable. We picked up the shower system and glass shower door from them. A+

The best part is? The shower head doesn’t even come close to hitting Christian in the chest…or head! It’s so tall! Yay! It’s a beautiful chrome finish rainfall shower and again, I’m in love. And yes, I *might* sometimes sing into the wand that you see in the photo, as it totally resembles some kind of futuristic microphone. Whatever.

What’s cool is that we really stuck to our “vision” board and things really came together! What the heck did people do before Pinterest?

So, there you have it! Our 95% complete bathroom! More to come on artwork, towel bars and other riveting finishing touches. But we’ll save that for later…too much excitement already for just one post!

xo M

The Carpets are IN!

April 16, 2013August 31, 2015Leave a comment

Yes, shout it from the rooftops and sound the gong: we have carpets! It was a looooooong wait, but last week, the carpets went in, and they are beautiful.

We decided on the Martha Stewart carpet collection at Home Depot, in “Gull”, which is a grey-ish off white. Very neutral….and so CLEAN. My heart does a little flip flop everytime I get upstairs. Let’s bask in the glory of before and after photos, shall we?

Main hallway facing the bedroom BEFORE:

And the same view AFTER:

Here’s a view of our master bedroom, just after Christian put down the plywood (following the extremely drawn-out flooring saga) in preparation of the carpet:

And a “progess” photo, just after the underlay went down:

But before we get to the final reveal, let’s take a trip back in time to 2009, from photos that we took on our very first day of official home ownership. Wowee:

Yeah, we’ve come a long way, baby…..

It’s beautiful. And our house totally smells like new car! Now it’s time to slowly put things back together….

The Flooring Saga

April 1, 2013November 19, 20131 Comment

On Thursday, the carpet was supposed to go in upstairs. This would have marked a huge step towards the finish line in our upstairs renovation. Notice I said “supposed to”….

Let’s rewind for a minute: two Saturday’s ago we put out the plea to our wonderful friends: Give us a few hours of your time, we will provide pizza and beer, and our floor will go bye-bye. Two bedrooms with laminate flooring + bedroom/ hallway with wood parquet….four hours of work, max. Progress was happening:

As the floor rip-up party continued, we kept running into sections of excessive glue and nails….someone never wanted this flooring to be removed! Then we got to the master bedroom. As Christian and his brother began pulling up the laminate, they realized that for some ridiculous make-us-want-to-egg-their-house reason, the previous home owners of our place decided to GLUE down the wood laminate flooring in our bedroom.

Yep, glue.

For those of you who haven’t worked with wood laminate, it is designed to “float” over the subfloor or old flooring. Nowhere is there ever any mention of glue.

Less than half of it came up, leaving us with this mess:

Some google searching provided several ideas on how to pull it up: we bought a heat gun and slowly melted the glue inch by inch so we could scrape it up (the most painfully frustrating method), we rented a pneumatic
chisel from Home Depot (which is the LOUDEST thing I have ever heard) to try to chisel it up, poured hot water on it (didn’t help), shoveled it (too hard on the back), yelled at it….and then I cried. 40 square feet of laminate flooring was not budging.

We were told the carpet installation company would “assess” the floor and offer suggestions on how to remove it. Didn’t happen. The carpet installers took one look at that stubborn floor and left. We were totally defeated, and stuck with our chaotic mess for at least another week.

On Good Friday, Christian decided to give the floor one last shot. He got his circular saw, set it to a shallow setting, and literally cut out the floor.

It worked. My amazingly patient and persevering husband tried everything, even after I had given up and admitted defeat, and he found a solution.

A few sheets of plywood to level the floor with the rest of the room, an we were set for carpet installation….and a relaxing Easter weekend!

Okay, now there’s REALLY nowhere but up from here…

March 8, 2013March 20, 20161 Comment

We thought we had hit rock bottom in the renovation. That night where everything was going wrong, and then our coffee table broke? Yeah, we were pretty sure we were movin’ up and movin’ on. Nope.

The tub is in (yay!) but not draining properly. Christian first assumed that he’d made an error in connecting the bathtub to the drain. We had a plumber help with the rough in and then Christian did the rest. So, off to Home Depot for another drain kit and another $25 down the drain (no pun intended. Okay, maybe it was). After hours of work and more failed attempts, it was clear that this wasn’t the core problem. A few inches of water would take an hour to drain. Not exactly our dream bathtub.

So, we called another plumber and he was at our place within an hour. He quickly found the culprit: someone had done a handy-man special to our drain in the past. And by handy-man special, I mean literally plugging the larger pipe with some sort of goop in order to affix the smaller pipe arm to it. Check it out:

A plumbing professional I am not, but I can tell you pretty quickly what is wrong with this picture….doesn’t it look like chewing gum was used to seal this? We learned that this was linked back even to our old shower not draining properly. We’re starting to se an unfortunate theme based on the five-elbows-to-make-a-pipe situation that we uncovered a few weeks back.

So, out it came. We are so happy to report that the new tub is draining perfectly, however, our powder room and only other bathroom in the house (well, toilet and sink at least) looks like this:

We have now added to our list the need to re-drywall the back wall of the powder room. Currently, we have no light or mirror in there….so I’m doing hair an make-up at work this week. Or not at all. I’m kind of over it.

And our spirits? Shall we NOW tentatively say: “there’s no where but up from here?”. Better not jinx it.

Nowhere but up from here

February 21, 2013April 18, 20135 Comments

Embarking on a renovation requires some mental preparation. In addition to thinking about the end result, “the vision”, you also need to consider the dark side: living in a war zone, and knowing that something will go wrong.

This reality hit us in the face on Tuesday night. Christian came straight home from work to finish attaching the new plumbing pipes to our shower fixtures. It’s always those time sensitive jobs that never go right.

After hours of attempts, it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to turn the water back on. The tub was still sitting in the living room, we hadn’t eaten dinner, it was 10pm, and we wouldn’t have running water until the next day.

So, after an emergency water run to Loblaws at 10:20, we settled in for a late dinner of leftover lasagne. After an intensely frustrating evening, sitting down to relax for a few minutes went a long way. As we cleared up the dinner dishes, ready to head off to bed and leave the day far behind us, a knife slipped off the plate and landed on our 3-month-old glass coffee table….and in a nano-second, our beautiful table turned from this:

To this….

We were too stunned/ shocked / tired / overwhelmed to react. After ensuring that each wasn’t injured (we weren’t), there was only one thing we could do = go to bed. Yep, we took our crumpled spirits and left our smashed coffee table on the floor. I didn’t even have the energy to shed a tear of frustration.

Oh, and we did clean up the mess last night. Of course, Christian took the opportunity to show me some love….

See, it’s all about perspective 🙂

The not-so-glamorous life of DIY

February 17, 2013April 16, 20132 Comments

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:

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

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:

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:

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!

February 15, 2013April 1, 20134 Comments

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:

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:

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….

Water = 4
Christian & Melissa = 0

(Un)cramping our (bathroom) style

February 8, 2013March 8, 20132 Comments

Over our 3+ years of home ownership, there is one question that we continually here:

“So…what project are you guys working on!?”

We declared that 2012 would be a year for us – no major projects. Hence, my quiet blog 🙂 But, come 2013 we found ourselves itching to tackle the next big thing in our little home. From 2009-2010, we tackled the entire basement, re-wired the house, knocked out walls to open up our living room and basically gave everything else a face-lift. In 2011, we knocked out our front porch and re-built a proper, covered porch/ mud-room area. Our most major project for 2012? Christian installed potlights in our living room. Exciting? Yes! Large scale overload of a project? No.

After our much deserved, year long break from renovations, our upstairs main bathroom was calling our name. And, as you imagine from the title of this post, it was about time that we re-arranged things.

Do you see what’s wrong with this picture? Notice that the top of the toilet tank actually had to be shifted to allow for the lip of the sink to actually fit.

Here is my personal fave:
Christian and I demonstrating the close quarters: me brushing my teeth, and him….er….on the toilet (he’s not actually going people, this is just a frame of reference for y’all:

His face in this picture kills me….always has to ham it up.

Here’s a picture capturing the narrow entrance into the bathroom. I’m trying to illustrate just how impossible it is for us to be in there at the same time (it totally drives me nuts):