June Progress Report

I hang my head in shame that June is now gone and we don't have any new projects completed. We have friends getting married this summer, and we've been busy with wedding events 3 out of 4 weekends this month.That isn't to say we haven't been working on things, there just isn't much to show. It's definitely not looking pretty around here.

How about a progress report instead?

The front yard and the front of our house is pretty bare - I liken it to a face without eyebrows. So we took a trip to our local garden center to see what we could see. We decided on two cherry trees, a dark purple lilac, and a smoke bush.

We planted the cherry trees along the front edge of the property where we will also eventually have a low fence. Here is a rough drawing of our plans:

The lilac went over on the property line at the edge of the driveway, and the smoke bush was planted in the garden by the corner of the house. It will eventually disguise the downspout that's in that corner.

I adore smoke bushes. We had a huge one at our first house - planted by the previous owners - and it would grow to over 10 feet tall each year. You cut it down each winter and it all just comes right back the following year. Then in the fall all of the flowers go to seed and turn into soft purple cotton candy-like fluff. That's the only way to describe it - fluff.

We now have an abundance of purple trees (these, along with another cherry tree and a beech tree), so we're thinking about adding in some white to break it up. Sounds like another trip to the garden center is in the cards - though that's not a hardship at all.

The front yard slopes down towards the house and the basement windows. We're always worried when it rains that water is going to leak into the house. A couple of weekends ago, Tom rented a mini excavator and dug a trench across the front of the house and down the far side of the driveway.

He ran corrugated perforated pipe along the driveway and in front of the parking pad, and connected it to a 12 foot "rain drain" that runs along the front of the house in front of the basement window.

The front downspout connects to the drain at one end so that the water from the roof runs through the drain and out the pipe. As well, any water that lands on the sidewalk and runs towards the house runs directly into the grate, through the drain, and to the runoff pipe. All of the bricks are back in place, we just need to cut some odd-shaped ones to fit around the downspout.

We're also doing some more work in the basement getting the drywall up. Tom's helper had to cancel a couple of times, but they did manage to get two of the outer walls done in one night.

And that's where we are right now. Hopping around here and there, hopefully moving forward all the time.

Basement Renovation Progress Report - Subfloor

Believe it or not, we're still chipping away at the basement renovation. We always seem to have other things going on each weekend that keep us from putting in a good day's (or 2 days') work. Sometimes Tom mentions taking on a house flip, and I think, "We can't even get ours renovated in a reasonable time - how could we do two?"

So most of the subfloor is in now. There is still an area in the workshop that we're holding off on completing until the window is replaced. It's on order now so, fingers crossed, it'll be in by the end of June.

The subfloor we decided on was AmDry insulated flooring in 2 ft x 4 ft panels. Along with the plywood and foam insulation, the panels have a "waffled" vapour barrier underside that allows moisture and air to flow beneath. If there's ever a water problem, the water will flow under the floor to the sump in the corner.

The panels fit together with plastic connectors rather than connecting directly to each other. It's still tongue and groove, but the boards are all "groove" and the connectors are all "tongue" so you never have to think about which way to place the board; it always fits.

It was a little more expensive than the other subflooring available, but it also has a higher R value (R-5 vs. R-1.7), meaning that our basement will stay toasty warm in winter.

I say "we", but Tom did most of it. I had fun banging some of the panels into place, but I left all of the cutting to him. The floor is laid in a staggered pattern to minimize long joints and flexing, with shims placed along the wall all the way around the room. This small extra space created by the shim allows for expansion and contraction of the panels over time/temperature changes.

We're both really happy with how it looks and how easy it was to install. I like that it looks like the panels are grouted. The dogs were a little wary of walking on it, but once we moved some furniture and a dog bed into the area, they decided it wasn't so bad after all.

And there you have it. Not the most exciting update - but some progress has been made.

Main Bathroom - Mini-Makeover

We have a rough schedule in our heads of when certain projects will be done. The main bathroom renovation is a long way down the list, definitely after the basement and the kitchen. The bathroom is going to be a "to the studs" gut, and as it's the only bathroom with a shower in it right now, it's going to have to wait until we at least have a shower in the ensuite.

Buuuuut....Tom was getting really frustrated with the vessel sinks. He's not a fan of them to begin with, and to make it worse there were two - in this tiny space. Completely unnecessary. This is where he gets ready in the morning, so he had to look at them every day. He didn't think he could stand them much longer, let alone for a year or two, so he decided to do a mini-makeover - a Phase 1 renovation if you will.

If you remember from the new house tour, this was the original bathroom:

And this is how it looks now:

Since this was only an intermediate makeover, we didn't want to spend too much money - after all, it was just going to be done all over again later. Tom found a granite-topped vanity with a single sink (single sink!) for $125 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The top, sink, and tap were all in excellent shape, and the cabinet was just missing a drawer and the toe-kick trim (the other drawers and door are out of frame).

The new vanity was a little bit wide for the space, so we had the top cut down on each side by a contractor friend. The sections that were removed were large enough to become side splashes - our friend even polished the edges for us.

The base cabinet also had to be cut down and so we lost the side drawers. But we might just build new, narrower ones or add some shelves instead. Tom was even able to reuse the doors - they just had to be cut down, repainted, and have new hinges attached. Once the vanity was in I gave the room a fresh coat of paint - in BM Collingwood. It's the same colour I painted the kitchen and living room, and I still had 3/4 of a gallon left over.

The final change was to take out the two medicine cabinets/mirrors and replace them with a single larger, wood-framed mirror. We already had a large mirror just languishing in a closet, and Tom built the frame from scrap wood - the same wood I used for the coat rack/shelf in the front entryway actually.

I added two framed photos that were previously hanging in the computer room at our old house, a wicker basket to hold Tom's toiletries, and one of our beloved wooden sea turtles.

If you're keeping track, the costs were:
vanity - $125
granite cutting - $0
paint - $0
mirror - $0
frame - $0
decorations - $0

That's it, that's all. $125 makeover. I think it might be a new record. And Tom's happy, so I'm happy - even if he does spend more time in the bathroom than he did before.