Archive for category kitchen
Before & After Photos
Posted by Brian in bathroom, bedroom, decorating, diy, finished, floor plans, interior, kitchen, living room, photos, renovations, small spaces on May 25, 2012
It’s been a long time since we’ve done some updates, we’ve been living comfortable for over a year now since the major renovations took place. Â In that time we’ve put the house on the market for 2 weeks showed it to 20+ potential buyers, decided not to sell, then put our apartment up for rent on Kijiji, showed it to several potential tenants then decided not to move, and finally decided to do some more renovations. Â We’re sticking it out a while longer and have some smaller renovations to do this coming summer. Â The next couple of weeks will involve building a small backyard, and new deck with roof for the back entrance (our main entrance), this will provide us a bit of outdoor space to relax in the summer. Â Following those renovations we’re planning to finish up the kitchen (backsplash and pot rack). Â Here are some before & after photos of our apartment, not everything is finished, but pretty close. Â Thanks to everyone that helped us get to this!
Kitchen counters!!
Posted by Brian in diy, kitchen, photos, renovations on March 31, 2011
Finally! And we mean finally! Â It’s been over 2 months since we moved in, for our first month, we lived with a bathroom, bedroom and I had my computer desk. Â About a month ago, we started to clean all of the construction materials out of the living room, and got that set up with our new couch and TV. Â We still have wallpaper to put up, a coffee table to purchase and some side tables etc, but that can wait. Â But seriously, 2 months with no kitchen, I never thought I would say that I’m fully tired of eating at restaurants or take out for every meal.. but I actually am!
This past weekend my dad and I put the finishing touches on the support for the bar area, and got the plumbing ready for the washer dryer. Â Speaking of which, while we were in Cuba in February my dad built us a nice custom cabinet around the washer dryer unit, it was a nice surprise to come home to! Â We also picked up these shelves/wine racks from Ikea for under the bar, that helped make bridging the support a little easier, and provided a bit more storage.
Then this morning, the granite finally arrived, the guys worked their magic and got each piece in it’s spot, and was it ever snug! Â They now measure granite with a point and shoot calibrated camera, and a series of “targets” that have bardcodes on them that they place all over your kitchen. Â They shoot all the photos, upload them to a rendering engine, and build a 3d model of your kitchen on a computer, and cut the granite based on that. Â I was a little skeptical at first, especially considering he didn’t even have a tape measurer with him, but the fit is so perfect it’s basically magic. Â Emerald Tile in Ottawa are the company responsible for doing our granite, they gave us a great price and amazing service, everyone we worked with there was so friendly and professional, highly recommended! Â If you’re looking for granite/tiles etc, their showroom on Sheffield road is very impressive.
Anyways that’s enough of a ramble, we’ve still got a ways to go with the baseboards, furniture, installing the taps, and a back splash, but here are some photos of where we’re at right now:
Kitchen floors and a new desk
We moved in exactly a week ago, and have been working away on small projects as we go, trying to tie up all the loose ends. Â The ends.. they’re still pretty loose, but we hit some pretty good milestones this weekend. Â My parents and Ilona put down the kitchen floor, while my friend Colin came over to give me a hand with my desk in the hallway. Â I had wanted to go with a floating desk but it just wasn’t feasible, the butchers block counter top from Ikea that I used as a surface was really heavy. Â I still need to fix up the baseboards under/behind the desk, and stain the desk a couple of times, but for now, I at least have somewhere to work!
The kitchen floor looks amazing, we just have to get the plumbing done for the washer/dryer and build a couple more cabinets, then we should be ready for the granite templaters to come in and measure the counter tops.  Definitely looking forward to it!  We also finished off the bathroom last weekend, with my uncle putting in our robot shower, I have to admit, my showers this week have been about 5-10 minutes longer than normal because it’s just soo cozy, heated floors,  tons of pressure, all kinds of different jets and settings  = awesome shower.
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!
Upper Kitchen Cabinets installed!
Saturday morning our friend Matt (cousin) came over and helped out with the Kitchen cabinets, when Rob told us that installing an Ikea kitchen was easy, I had no idea that it would be this easy. Â If you can build an Ikea coffee table, you can pretty much build an Ikea kitchen. Â Essentially you build all the cabinets, draw a level line on the wall at a certain height, install a horizontal metal bar/rack on that line, then hang the cabinets one at a time. Â The door hardware just snaps into the doors, and attaches right to the cabinets, fully adjustable and they all come with the anti-slam hardware. Â With 2 people it would easily be feasible in a weekend, unfortunately I had to work Sunday morning for a deploy, so I only got a few hours in, but we’ve got all the upper cabinets installed and level.
The largest upper cabinet on the left closest to the living room has glass doors that we probably won’t install until we move in, we also still have to pick out some handles for the doors, we’ll probably pick these up from Lee Valley Tools, they have the biggest (and cheapest) selection we’ve been able to find.
Kitchen colours, custom molding and pot lights!
Posted by Brian in decorating, interior, kitchen, photos on November 7, 2010
It’s been a busy week since the last post, we’ve had lots of help from friends and family, and are finally starting to do some finishing touches. Â Last blog post we had just had the drywallers in, or coming in, to tape, mud and sand the drywall we had put up. Â Since then, last week (for back to back nights) Alex and Danny came and helped us paint, as well as Rob who helped us with painting and installing our own molding along the ceiling.
Since our ceilings and walls are so crooked and the plaster is so old, we’re unable to finish the corners where the walls meet the ceiling. Â Crown molding apparently requires relatively straight ceilings, so we decided to create our own “crown molding” out of 3 different pieces of wood/molding tacked together which allowed us to use slightly more flexible wood, and save some money at the same time.
Sunday afternoon we continued putting up some of the molding, and also installed the potlights in the kitchen, Ilona was definitely much quicker at installing the lights than I was, and it was really nice to finally see some finishing touches being added. Â We still have a long ways to go, but the next update might also be just as colourful.
Kitchen & Living room drywalled!
Posted by Brian in interior, kitchen, photos, renovations on November 1, 2010
It’s been a while since an update, we’ve moved out of our condo off Walkley, into a temporary luxury suite at the Garsons residence, and have been busy working away on the new place.  Last Thursday my dad and Jean rented a drywall jack, and did the ceilings in the kitchen and living room, the following day Ilona and I successfully finished the beam and column between the kitchen and living room.  Saturday Tyler came over and we framed the 2 support columns for the beam and drywalled them as well.  Today we got the good news that our drywall finisher Derek will be done by Thursday and we should be able to paint the kitchen and living room, and start installing the cabinets!
Ilona also picked out a checkered black and white marmoleum click-tile for the kitchen floors that we might be installing soon, after some research we decided to go with marmoleum because of it’s durability and eco-friendliness, she found it at Dynasty Flooring in Ottawa. Â Here are some photos from the living room and kitchen with finished walls and ceilings:
Faucet ordered & Bathroom tiles & vanity purchased
Ilona and I decided to find our kitchen faucet online, since we didn’t like anything under $700 at the local stores. Â It’s pretty incredible that you can purchase a faucet for over $1,000, actually it’s more ridiculous than incredible. Â We went on EBay and found this gem for $160 shipping included.
On Saturday Ilona also headed to Rona with my mom to pick out some tiles for the bathroom and a small vanity (to save space). Â Ilona ended up picking out some white subway tiles for the bathroom and shower walls, a large dark grey square tile for the floors, and small square grey tiles for the bottom of the shower. Â She also purchased these really small cool glass tiles to use as borders.
Since our bathroom is so small, Ilona found this vanity which is less deep than your average one, which should allow us to have a normal sized door on the washroom, and have a bit more wiggle room. Â It will be another couple of weeks to see photos of the ceramics tho, so check back.
Mid weekend update
Posted by Brian in bathroom, bedroom, decorating, interior, kitchen, photos, renovations on October 16, 2010
We’re a little behind schedule, but things are still moving along. Â We had a contractor come in last week to put up a beam to support our tenants kitchen, which was above ours, and was being supported by a wall resting directly on unsupported floor joists beneath our kitchen. Â We took down that extra wall which was the plan all along and it really opened up the space. Â We spent 12 hours at the house today, finished gutting the living room, and we’re finally starting some construction in there. Â At 8pm tonight my dad and I finished putting up roxul sound/fire proof insulation in the ceiling. Â The bathroom is completely gutted and hopefully this week we’ll get to work building that out. Â Really too tired, and still feeling under the weather to have much more to say. Â One nice note is the wood trim around the doors/windows appears to have beautiful wood underneath as you can see from one of the photos in this post. Â Also we ordered our cabinets today, and tomorrow we’ll start wiring the internet/home theatre etc.
Kitchen Floor Plans
Posted by Brian in floor plans, interior, kitchen, renovations on October 4, 2010
Ilona and I came up with a design for our kitchen, and my mom eagerly put it all into the ikea kitchen planner. Â I’ve tried the software out before and just find it too buggy to use, however she managed to get it all put in (minus our column). Â There are a few slight oddities (floating upper cabinets), no counter tops.. but overall it gives you an idea of what it will look like, and the materials necessary to purchase it. Â It’s looking like we’re going to be about $3000 for cabinets, Wednesday we’ll be going to look at granite counter tops to see if the cost will be worth it.
We got the keys!
Posted by Brian in floor plans, kitchen, renovations on October 1, 2010
Well today went really well, after nearly a month of stressing out about financing, insurance, who pays what, who’s parking in our spots so on and so on, we received the keys, and everything is sorted out. So we headed over after work and some terrible all you can eat sushi to assess the situation. I have to say it was slightly overwhelming at first, both Ilona and I almost felt like we were in over our heads, the place is really run down, and not quite as large as we had originally anticipated, not to mention the very gross bathroom. We plowed ahead and measured everything off, and started planning for some renovations for this month. It looks like we’re going to take down a closet under the stairs to build a computer nook for me, as well as the wall separating the kitchen and the living room. We’re hoping it will open up the space, give us a couple of barstools to sit at to eat, and accommodate our 2 in 1 washer dryer combo, a dishwasher and the other usual kitchen amenities. Below you can check out our sketches and measurements we did today, as well as some really quick design ideas. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we have something to work with. October should be a very busy month!
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