Tag: DIY

Draining our resources

2 Comments

From my recent update a few days ago, I shared a very important lesson learned:

concrete + pipes = BAD

Our house seems to have a love-hate relationship with water.  The majority of things that have gone wrong in this house relate to water, so I suppose it’s become some sort of sick joke.  From the major roof leaks in our guest bedroom and office, to a burst pipe leaving water pouring out of the ceiling in our basement laundry room, to a backed up clean-out that had to be replaced in late 2009…with our latest little endeavour, I’d have to estimate that we have spent close to $5,000 in water-related “incidents”.  Oh, the joys of home ownership.

So, to summarize our recent adventure, here’s what happened: as Christian and I tackled the latest of our reno projects (most recently, the front porch reno), Christian was busy mixing mortar for our tiles, and, although dating farther back but still having impact on this story, Christian had also been doing some concrete work on our back steps. 

Well, with our built-in-the-1930s 3-inch diameter pipes that twisted and turned under the floor of the basement apartment, concrete and mortar “bits” don’t fare too well when it comes to those small nooks and crannies.  What had happened over the past year or so, is that bits of concrete and mortar had gone down the drain and had found a new home in which to expand = our pipes.

What ensued was that every time it would rain, the water would come down the steps towards the basement door, and instead of going down the trench drain that Christian had put in, or even down the drain in the downstairs laundry room, it basically pooled and overflowed. 

So we called our friend Neil at Drainforce (they don’t have a site, but we’ve used them twice and they’ve been fair and reliable so wanted to provide a number for y’all) to come on down.  The conrete in our pipes was so bad, that he couldn’t even get his scope through to “scope out” the situation (get my joke?  Scope out? Yep, barrel o’ laughs over here…)

Neil and his team were great, although Christian and I were super depressed to learn that the problem extended through our newly finished floor.  All in all, the team had to break up about 30 square feet of concrete and tile, replace the pipe, and re-pour the concrete.  Here’s a “drying-stage” photo….I love the added drama of the CAUTION tape:

And here’s another angle of the damage – you can see the big trench drain I was talking about.  Please, try not to focus on the ugly conrete steps…there on the “down the road” list, we promise:

While Christian typically chooses to do this type of work himself, time was of the essence, and it turned out we fixed this in the nick of time, as Toronto and surrounding areas were hit was a serious storm on Sunday.  This was the ultimate test.  Christian and I were actually in the downstairs laundry room when the heavens opened and Noah’s flood came down the stairs…well, our $$$ were well spent – not a drop flowed onto the floor!  Everything went down the shiny, new, non-concrete filled pipe!  VICTORY!  Thanks Neil!!!

The hardest part for us was trying to match the floor tile.  Seriously, has anyone tried to do this before?  Impossible.  We were lucky enough to find about 9 tiles leftover in the garage that the previous home-owners had left us, but we needed about 29.  So off to Lowe’s and Rona we went, sample tile in tow.

I wish I had a picture of this, but it was such a work-night rush to get what we needed that I forgot the camera.  I was litterally on all fours in the middle of the aisle, comparing and contrasting 6 different tiles.  Good rule of thumb that I learned: go for the overall colour tones of the tile and try not to get too caught up with the pattern.  When it comes to grout, go darker than you think, espeically when replacing new tiles within an old floor – the older grout will always look less clean (it took me two trips to Home Depot to figure that one out).

And thus concludes our water-logged drama….and the basement has returned to normal (mis-matched yet barely noticeable tiles and all):

I sincerely hope that we are done with water drama for the next several years….and you know what, Madonna, I do not want to sing about rain right now, or think about any more water in or around our house.  At all.  Thank you, and good night.

The Great Craigslist Challenge!

Leave a comment

I write this post while sitting on my living room couch, with my back to the massive hole in the wall behind me (on purpose; I can’t stand to look at it).  Yep, we’re mid project, dust and dirt everywhere.  Christian decided to tackle our “2nd” front door, which is one of the remaining key parts of our almost-complete front porch reno.  So this is a bit of a we’re-in-between projects post, however, it is related to MY current project: the home office!

Our third bedroom, or “office” has been somewhat of a catch-all since we moved in.  Over the past few months, I’ve been tackling it bit by bit, finding new homes for things and giving away/ throwing away things we no longer need.  A few weeks back, I posted a few items on Craigslist: a love seat from my bachelorette days in my basement apartment (woo!), striped area rug, and a swivel office chair.  All were in pretty good shape and we felt we could get a decent buck from the items – here are a few of the goods:

Christian and I agreed on the room make-over terms before we posted our pre-loved goodies on line: whatever we make off of these items will become our budget for the office makeover.

Well, I love a good challenge and Christian loves to be thrifty, so this little project was a match made in heaven!

And it just so happens that today marked the day that my make-over budget would be revealed!  $215….whoop!  Not too shabby.

We’re going for a sort of a 60’s inspired look with some modern pops.  I’ll be suing the fab peacok blue and chartreuse green fabric that I recently picked up and shared with y’all in this post on DIY inspiration. Here’s another little bit of inspiration to help me stay focused, found here:

Gorgous.  I love the modern look, the bright blue sofa and chairs, and that funky lamp!  $215 will certainly not get me this room, but I’m excited to see what I can do!

In terms of great feature items for the room, we’re off to a good start.  We scored a cool teak desk off of Craigslist (where else?) last year for $100, and inherited a lovely teak chair from Christian’s grandmother (here’s a sneak peak of our new desk chair…the recovering will be coming soon to a DIY post near you!):

Here’s what we plan on accomplishing within the room:

  • window coverings – fun fabric panels in a colourful print or solid textured material
  • covered bulletin board
  • black and white photo wall/ collage
  • recovered office chair
  • new handles for the Craigslist desk
  • recovered lamp shade
  • pillows for the amazing FREE arm chair that we scored on Craigslist a few months back
  • throw blanket for some extra colour
  • area rug to replace my striped friend that we recently sold
  • backing of existing bookcase with shelf paper/ wrapping paper for an added pop of colour behind our book collection

Good heavens this is a longer list than I thought!  And I only have $215 to do it!  Ah well, I’ll get crafty.

So I leave you with this challenge:  what room are you looking to update?  What “not perfect” or unused items do you have that you could sell to free up some cash for your project?  How creative can you get?!

Bring it!

The Power of Paint

2 Comments

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!

Inspiration all around us!

1 Comment

Sometimes, it’s hard to get started on a project.  You just aren’t sure what colour to work into a room, and walking into decor stores or even big-box stores can be extremely overwhelming, and cause you to spend 45 minutes considering the life and times of mailboxes (yes, I’ve done this…more on that another time).

So, where do we find inspiration for a room, design, or project?  Well, everywhere. Start taking notes of things that make you go “Hey, I really like that!”  If you see something you love, nab a picture on your phone and make a place to file your ideas and inspirations…it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match anything right now, or perfectly fit into the guest bedroom you’re dying to dress up…just keep it….you never know when that idea or inspiration will come in handy!  Here are a few quick examples:

I nabbed this fabric during a recent trip to Fabricland (during their down-town location closing-out sale…*sniff*) and was immediately drawn to the colours.  I’m pretty certain it is going to be the inspiration for our office make-over project. So pumped!

This next one is all things funky.  I was out for dinner last night with some girl-friends at Southern BBQ style restaurant, Harlem, on Queen West in Toronto.

Near our table was an array of funky prints, and this one caught my eye immediately.  Welcome to DIY-ville, population: YOU!  (or me).  It’s a really cool twist on a large picture frame, involving what seemed to be an old window, handle and all, with distress marks for good measure.  The classic print that is framed just met its match with this one!  This is the kind of thing you can create with awesome garage sale, antique or auction finds.

Finally, a little vay-cay inspiration.  Christian and I recently went on a little road-trip to Essex County, Ontario.  En route, we stopped at the WindJammer Inn, in Port Stanley, ON, an adorable B&B with out-of-this-world food.  Our room was cozy, and had a great rustic-cottage-meets-contemporary vibe to it.  Right away I was drawn to the curtain head-board.  I apologize that I don’t have an amazing picture of it, but here’s this one from their own website (they have since changed the cover to crisp white and light blue strip rather than this busy guy, which looks really awesome):And here’s one of me shortly after launching myself onto the giant king-sized bed (we have a Queen at home, and it never ceases to amaze me just how big King beds are).  So for the quality…our camera was really acting up.  But you get the idea, plus, who doesn’t love dorky pictures like this one on a Friday?:

Finally, here is a waaaaay better version to help with your headboard inspiration from (where else) Apartment Therapy:

Love the yellow-teal-chocolate brown combo!

So, there you have it – go out this weekend and get INSPIRED!

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

7 Comments

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

Leave a comment

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?

One year later….a garden full of blooms!

Leave a comment

For those of you who have checked out my first post, you’ll know that my husband and I have nearly two years of renovation, decorating and DIY stories to share (not to mention the whole planning-a-wedding in between thing…more on that another time).  The most difficult part for me right now is deciding which stories to share…and in what order!  So, if you’re reading this, and you have specific DIY questions or are starting (or in the process of) a renovation of your own and would love to hear more about the renovation perils of me and my dear husband Christian, please let me know.  I’ll do my best to share!  Until then, you are stuck hearing stories from whichever way the wind blows me!

And speaking of the wind blowing, and the lovely outdoors, I think I will share with you the story of our garden.  Oh, the garden.  It was a sight when we first took possession of our home.  You could barely even call it a garden, really.  It was a bunch of pinkish-terracotta coloured patio tiles with some wood beams thrown in for good measure, to create, I suppose, some sort of “stone garden” (?).  Add to that overgrown shrubs and the piece de resistance, the massive aquarium (yes, I said aquarium) painted BRIGHT teal blue with (wait for it) a smiley face painted on the front, being used as make-shift planter at the front of the house.  So awesome.

After our “garden” spent an entire fall and winter buried under a massive waste bin that became somewhat of a lawn ornament for us, it finally felt like time to give it the attention it deserved last spring.  I took a day off work and hauled out all of those big patio stones, dug up the plants (salvaging what I could, of course) and added some fresh soil, hoping that our little garden would be soon ready to accept new plants!  We promised to be loving parents!

Of course, being the budget-savvy gal that I am (ahem, correction, my awesomely frugal husband as taught me how to hone in on my thrifty skills that we knew were in there somewhere), I started brainstorming ways for us to find money to plant an entirely new garden.  It is not cheap.  Well, who would have thought that Sheridan Nurseries would have a garden gift registry!? They helped us plan out our garden (however, I would be in remiss to not mention Christian’s dear landscape architect friend who was lured over via glasses of wine to share her professional landscaping opinions with us), set up a “wish list” and communicated it out to all locations so that eager gift-givers could go to any location.  With our upcoming wedding only two months away, it was an excellent addition to the wedding gift-giving option pool.  By early June, we were ready to plant!

Awww!  Look at those little guys!  If you are wondering what we planted:

– 2 varieties of hostas (can’t remember the names right now, but I believe the two-toned ones are “Blaze of Glory”

– Speedwell (the tall white stuff on the right)

– Lavender

– 4x Hydrangeas (2 each of “Blushing Bride” and “All Summer Beauty”)

– Periwinkle smattered throughout (blue and white)

 

A very brief ode: to our lovely solar lights on the right.  We loved you, You shone so brightly in the night, and guided the way for our vistors.

And then you were stolen by some jerks.

Honestly, who steals solar lights?

 

The solution?  Buy new ones during an end of season sale, wrap the bases with heavy duty wire, and then extend the wire to your wooden garden edge and nail that sucker down.

How do you them them apples, light stealers!!??

 

Okay, enough talking…time for the grand reveal…my how our garden has GROWN in just one year!

 

Final thoughts – we were not yet acquanited with the wonders of the East End Garden Centre when we planted this masterpiece.  We now, of course,know of the greatness of our green friends down the road.  Also for those a little north, Bill’s Garden & Design is pretty awesome, too.  Helpful staff and beautiful plants.  Hooray for gardening!

 

What are you guys planting?  Any tips to share?

 

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

1 Comment

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