Tag: homeowners

makinghousetoronto – Volume 2!

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Yes friends, we’ve got some exciting news to share!  After 4 long years of never-ending renovations, stories to share, pictures to post and general ups and downs, we’ve taken to plunge and bought a new home!

I have to be honest that this happened VERY FAST.  It was about a week from the time that we started seriously looking at places, visited the bank for financing, and put an offer in on our dream home.  We’re still in shock, and can’t actually comprehend that this baby is ours:

Screenshot 2013-11-19 22.14.56Yes, that’s a brand new build. In Toronto.  We are over the moon excited.  We have plans to put in a basement suite for rental income, however, that project is a whole lot of nothing compared to what we’ve been through at our original home in Leslieville.

We’re moving a bit north from where we are now, and will absolutely miss the charm the comes with our street and neighborhood, however, we’re so jazzed to start exploring our new ‘hood.

And what do I keep dreaming about, every single night?  This. Kitchen.

Screenshot 2013-11-19 22.14.14There are no words.  I think I’m going to have to become a professional chef.  Watch out, Jamie Oliver.

So, with just a more sleeps until moving day, we are frantically packing and prepping.  So stay tuned.  While the DIY stories might be slowing down, we’ll still have lots to share when it comes to design, decor, entertaining, decorating for the holidays and beautifying our new (and much larger!) back yard.

Stay tuned!

Melissa

The Flooring Saga

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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:

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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:

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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.

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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!

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

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