Archive for December, 2010
End of year update – bathroom tiling and hallway updates
Posted by Brian in bathroom, photos, renovations on December 31, 2010
It’s been a good year, and we’ve got a lot of work done on the house. Â We both honestly thought we’d be moved in and settled by now, but obviously that is not the case. Â We started the tiling in the bathroom this week, and have pretty much finished up with the drywall in the hallway/desk nook. Â The hardwood floor refinishing starts on January 10th, so we still have a lot of work to do in the next 10 days to get it ready. Â We both wanted to thank everyone that has helped us at the house over the past couple of months, and everyone reading our blog and posting comments. Â Happy new year.
Christmas break update
Not too much has been going on over the holidays, we’ve been out of town for most of it, however we came back for work today (Tuesday) , and I managed to get back to the house around 4 this afternoon to start painting. Â Lucky for us, my dad was able to do a skim coat of the plaster the day before christmas, so today I went over, sanded the bathroom down and did 2 coats of paint on the ceiling and walls, including the cutting. Â We only had to paint halfway up since our subway tiles will be about 5′ up on the wall. Â We’d already primed before the skim coat so there wasn’t a need to prime again. Â Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be starting the tiling on the bathroom and shower floor, then move on to the shower and walls. Â We picked up our granite shelves/sill on Friday the 24th, unfortunately not everything fits, so we need to bring a few pieces back to get them cut a bit more. Â Thats all for now.
End of weekend update
We’ve had a pretty busy week, and got lots of work done on the house. Â Today was a little bit of a milestone, we put up the last piece of drywall, apart from a few sections of the sub-floor that we need to repair before the hardwood guys come in on the 4th of January, we’re pretty much done with construction. Â My uncle Roger gained a lot of ground on the shower this past week, and we should be tiling it just before Christmas. Â We ordered some custom granite, 1 1/4″ Â black titanium for the shelves and sill in the shower, I can’t wait to see it all done! Â Apart from that we’ve started with the taping and mudding, and will hopefully be painting over the Christmas break. Â Here’s some photos from the week:
Bathroom Update
We’ve had a lot of work done on the bathroom over the past couple of weeks, mostly by my uncle Roger. Â Roger started out building up a new raised floor for the shower and toilet area, we had to do this to avoid cutting in to the original cast iron stack. Â Since the stack was being used for all 3 apartments and could potentially be brittle, it was too much risk at this point to risk cutting it. Â So we reused the pipes were the toilet already was, to get the right slope we had to elevate it a bit to place it where we wanted.
After the floors, we ended up framing over all the walls, framing in the shower and making sure everything was very solid. Â If we had tiled over what was there, the swaying walls and squishy floor would have resulted in broken tiles within the first couple of weeks. Â This past weekend my dad and I insulated the washroom, and started installing the cement board and ceiling.
Also we’ve picked out our shower unit, this crazy robot looking thing that steams, and rains and all sorts of fun. Â It’s pretty crazy that the bathroom is around 30 square feet.. tiny! Â Hopefully the next update we have some tiling to show.
Shopping for a new couch
Posted by Brian in furniture, living room on December 11, 2010
Because our living room is going to be considerably smaller than our old place, we sold the massive 12′ wide sectional that we had at Reardon, and are looking for a smaller couch. Â Our major constraint is that it 100% has to be under 95″ but preferably closer to the 80″ wide mark. Â We’ve been checking out different websites, and trying to figure out our floor plan in the living room. Â It looks like a sofa and a single chair will be all that we have room for, so long chaise lounge and sectional!
It’s very apparent after perusing many websites, that the sofas and style of  EQ3 and Van Leeuwen are along the lines of what we’re looking for.  Leons, The Brick are pretty far from what we’re looking for, but you never know, sometimes you can come across a hidden gem where you least expect it.
If you have recommendations of other stores that we could check out please send us a link or post a comment with the store name!
Kitchen & living room updates
Things are/were moving along pretty good at the house, the kitchen has been at a bit of a stand still, we’re waiting for the marmoleum floors to come in and then we’ll start leveling out and attaching the lower cabinets to the walls. Â We had the good fortune of having Matt over again (this time with Meghan) to build our Ikea cabinets for us, I tell you, Ikea is even easier when someone else assembles everything for you! Â The corner cabinet has double lazy susans which are pretty awesome.
In the living room we’ve got the walls painted, and decided to paint the window frame as well (not shown below) we’ve also got all the trim up, with the exception of one piece on the wallpaper wall. Â We had one attempt at papering it, but it didn’t turn out as planned, so we’ll be trying it again.
I should have more updates this weekend, the bathroom is coming along thanks to my uncle Roger, who has built up a new floor, added some extra framing for support, and built out the shower. Â It’s really nice to have a plumber and general contractor in the family! Â Those photos to come in the next post!
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