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”:

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