Reno
Lets hope the price is right
Last modified on 2008-11-13 22:05:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Late last week we had a meeting with our designer on the kitchen reno and formalized the plan. She brought in a Richlieu catalog with all sorts of organization devices so we could go through it and pick the things that we thought would be useful. Its pretty seductive to look at all the “labour-saving” products, but as we are sure to find out, they really can inflate the price of the job!
After the meeting we ran out to get a sense of what fixtures would be (sink, faucet). I had no idea that these things were pricier than rhinestones at an Elvis convention. (And just as flashy too!) We took a look at some tiles for the backsplash and got some pictures so we could get some direction from Carol. So far, the elevations show a recessed niche in the wall which would be highlighted with feature tiles and would be for oils, pepper grinder etc. The field tile would be simple and not too busy as the space is too small for a lot of detail.
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Backsplash tile v1.0. |
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or maybe this one? Backsplash tile v1.1. |
The next step is to get high level pricing on the boxes and doors so we can see if we are in the ballpark. Then we can estimate on the cost for the construction elements (electrical, structural, HVAC etc.). I am crossing my fingers!
New shed… (why you ask?)
Last modified on 2008-11-03 20:25:27 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Well because people kept running into it…as you can see from this post, I just last year spent a bunch of time replacing the old one which had the same problem.
Its not like it is in the middle of the road or even really that close to it. It just seemed to be a magnet for car bumpers and the like.
I think people use our parking area as a turn around because this old shed got more and more dented up over this summer.
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…And I didn’t even paint a target on it. |
In fact our neighbor is doing a big reno on his house and seems like one of his contractors backed into it by mistake a few months ago. No real problem, because he left a note that it was his fault and a phone number so it just took a while to get things arranged so I could take down the old one and put up the new one.
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Taking it down took only about an hour. |
The new one was really easy to put together and I’d really recommend it to anyone looking for a 6×6 shed. I even put it together 99% by myself; the only time I needed my wife’s help was to put in the window on the last step which was good because it was pretty cold yesterday and I wanted to get inside!
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The new shed went together really well. (Pardon the makeshift nature of the sign.. ahem.) |
Now next task is to put up a more permanent barrier in front of it quick to protect it from anyone else. (The one that is there I put together pretty much in the dark from whatever I had on hand.)
Kitchen plans and priorities
Last modified on 2008-10-27 18:59:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Late last week we had our second real meeting with our designer Carol and we got to see the plans she drew up based on the output of our first meeting.
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Design at the early stage is fun. The budget prioritization comes later. |
One reason that a designer is a real solid addition to a renovation project is their perspective as an “impartial” outside observer (in addition to their skills in assembling trades, know how about the process, design sense… I could go on.) During that first meeting Carol was quite detailed in her approach to finding out how we use our current kitchen and what we’d like to see in an improved one especially what some of our priorities are. This really helped as I think when you live with a situation for a while you overlook some of the big moves you could undertake that would help out further down the line.
One thing I mentioned was currently the fridge sits almost right in front of the rear door, so even though we put in a full glass door (see this post for more on that!) the bulk of the appliance blocks out a fair amount of light from coming into the kitchen. Now normally this wouldn’t be too much of an issue, but given that our house is so narrow and close to our neighbours, we don’t have any side lighting. (We have a narrow window on the dining room, but after about 12:30pm the sun moves around the rear of the house and that area goes into shadow.) The predominant light source is the back of the house since it faces south.
But one of my top 3 frustrations with the current layout is that when all of us come in the back door it is a traffic nightmare with boots, coats, dogs, bags flying everywhere, especially if it is cold or raining out. But I understand that because of the size of the space adding more program to a “kitchen” would be even more of a challenge. But there are always tradeoffs in any type of design job; so rare are those optimum conditions where all the stars align and things work out perfectly. So how are we doing so far?
Carol brought over two sketches: one moved the sink to the extreme south end of the kitchen and moved the range to the opposite end of the counter run. The big move in this one was closing up the existing window (what?) and replacing it with two thinner ones on either side of the HVAC duct. Did I mention there is a duct which supplies the second floor right smack dab in the middle of the rear wall?
The second one moves the fridge pretty much diagonally opposite to where it is now and the sink moves to the west wall. Now it becomes interesting! We took this concept and tweaked it a bit on the weekend so that maybe if we can move that HVAC duct a foot or so to the right, we can have a larger window.
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Very rough sketch but you can see that the west wall is alot cleaner as the fridge is now tucked away behind the stub wall. |
We are now trying to figure out how to maximize the amount of counter run on the east wall by putting the microwave into the uppers and maybe putting the sink into the corner on a diagonal, but I am not convinced of the diagonal sink and if we did this we’d have to swap the range over to the other side and figure out how to duct the range hood.
Next stage when we see if all this fits is to get preliminary costing on a scheme. Never the fun part because it usually means really getting down to what is important and what is only a nice to have because like everything else, it will come down to priorities and tradeoffs.
Ever had a diagonal sink? Let me know your thoughts!
Starting at the beginning
Last modified on 2008-10-10 00:43:36 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
Those of you with a sharp memory will remember that when I did the basement reno, I neglected to document it until I was a few weeks in. Not to make that same mistake again, I decided to bring you all the details (at least as many as I care to put pixel to screen) in our upcoming kitchen renovation.
Yes that’s right; I said kitchen renovation. The two words that strike fear into any man. Because there are issues with the kitchen. That’s right issues. In our case its a distinct lack of storage and organization on the surface. But of course it goes deeper than that and maybe over the next 6 months or so, we can start to get into how we address those issues.
But for now we’ve brought in a specialist; an Interior Designer who has done many kitchens. So after our first meeting and a long questionaire that we went over, she is putting together a plan to address our ‘wish list.’ I think that our list is so long we’d have to have a kitchen 10 times the size to fit it all in but I am hopeful she can prioritize what we need versus what we want. Tall order yes, but its still the beginning of the project!
Don’t go look at Custom Kitchens
Last modified on 2008-02-22 01:58:27 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
We made the mistake of going to look at a fantastic high-end custom kitchen store called DOM which sells Valcucine kitchens imported from Italy. The sample kitchens are all beautifully put together and everything fits perfectly. In fact, the way the Valcucine product goes together reminds me of an airplane: everything has a machined quality and uses just enough (not excessive) amounts of material to get a cohesive look.
We ended up in the store by accident; we were down in a certain area of town that has funky cafes and galleries and wandered into the store just to quickly take a look. Well once you’re in, its hard to leave because its like being at the premier of a Hollywood movie. You can see the stars and it looks like you could reach out and shake their hand but you know that you’ll get in really big trouble if you do. Which means in this case that it seems perfectly logical to spend that amount on a kitchen, but if we do, we’ll end up having to do a whole bunch of other stuff to make sure that it all goes together properly.
Things like making sure all the walls are square (yeah, right) or the floor is level (ha!) or that all the appliances match the design (how much is that integrated double oven?) Because the way I see it, something this nice requires total committment to making it look as good as it does in the showroom. They even have one show kitchen in the store with a tempered acid-etched glass countertop!
But after getting home (and back to reality) we realized that in our pretty small house a kitchen this good would require us to upgrade everything else in the house, including furniture and other fixtures. (Just look at some of the pictures on the site to see what it looks like.) So really you have to commit to the whole package before you plunk down the chequebook.
Renovating- how far is too far
Last modified on 2008-02-03 02:55:15 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
One of the things I think about often is the level of finish and overall look that would be appropriate with our house.
You see our house is small, rather old (1920s or so) and in a nice (although, not ultra fancy) neighborhood of the city. So in looking at for instance, redoing the kitchen, would granite be out of place? How about a 6 burner commercial-look gas range? (not that we could fit one in anyway…)
Friends of ours have a house of approximately the same vintage that was renovated just before they bought it about 5 years ago. They have a fantastic kitchen with heated floors, commercial style range and awesome Sub-Zero fridge. Every time I go over there I want to come back and get the crowbar out to take on our kitchen. But as I have been told before, the kitchen will take weeks and I want to at least have a plan or end up as part of one of those HGTV reno-rescue candidates!
Doors and locks
Last modified on 2008-01-12 17:53:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
A couple of weeks ago I had to install new locks/deadbolts on the house (don’t ask).
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was compared to the original ones I installed when we bought the place 4 years ago.
At that time, I really had to move / jiggle the locks around to get one to fit our pretty standard metal front door. We kept the low security passage set on the back door (just changed the actual lock) because we knew eventually we’d be replacing that door as it was original to the house and looked like it might fall apart at any time. It just took a lot longer to get a new one as we went through a few options before we settled on the full glass door that we (the Home Depot installer) put in.
Now that I’ve been thinking about doors and locks, I’m looking at the front door and starting to hate the way it looks. It was put in by the previous owners and while it is a pretty run-of-the-mill metal door, it doesn’t let in much light, which is at a premium in the house. We did our best to make it look better by painting it inside and out because at the time we bought the house it just had primer on it on both sides, so you can imagine how bad it looked when we got it.
I wonder if getting a new one would be worth it?
What was that noise outside?
Last modified on 2008-01-12 17:54:19 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
OK this isn’t truly a post about renovations, or even about our house, but just a week ago we were up north at a cottage for a few weeks and heard a strange noise at night. Thinking is was the dog getting into something we said something out loud about getting out of the garbage, but then looked over and saw the dog in the chair right next to us. So what was it making that noise?
When we went to the screen door on the cottage the dog barked and this huge black shape took off from right in front of us. Yup, you guessed it; a bear!
And what do bears like the most? That’s right; garbage and he was really bent on getting into ours.
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Bears are strong and have strange dining preferences. |
As you can see the garbage enclosure is secured to the side of the cottage and has a really heavy lid to prevent less determined wildlife from getting in. But this was one determined bear.
After the first time he took off, he came back again to check out the situation. I had my car keys and remotely set off the car alarm which didn’t really faze him too much but he sauntered away for a little while.
At this point I got the number for the Government “Bear Hotline” thinking that they’d be able to give me something concrete to do about the situation. They took my name address phone number and then told me that really there’s very little you could do except make sure that the doors were locked (check) and everyone was inside (check). They did say to call the local police if it was threatening, but really, I couldn’t see the bear sticking around to welcome the officers with some banana peels and coffee grounds when they showed up.
So we kinda let the bear come back and do his thing and instead of lifting the lid, he ripped right into the side of the box. Gives you a little more respect for nature.
Kitchen’s done, at least this project
Last modified on 2008-01-12 17:55:03 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
Well, I finished the $100 kitchen reno and as you can see in this earlier post, we managed to stay under $100 even including some other items, like the mirror I put up and the ‘blackboard’ I created by painting the end of one of the cabinets (just out of view in the foreground).
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The new counters and floors make the kitchen feel more included in the rest of the house. |
Lets start with the floor: it took a lot longer than I thought (but of course you knew that by now!) I put the tiles on the diagonal for more interest and it also seems to make the space bigger. Even though it is way more graphic than the original, it seems less busy since the pattern is more simple.
It took a lot longer because of the diagonal the number of cuts required on the tiles sometimes 3 cuts per tile to get around all of the various angles in the room. Even though I included some waste in my calculations, I ended up with just one black and 7 white tiles left! (These tiles by the way, were really hard to come by. In fact I had to go to 4 Home Depots (no luck there) and 3 Ronas to finally find them and I think I got the last package of white tiles in the city.) There was a lot of selection for $2-3 per square foot, but I couldn’t do it for this budget.
Knobs were from Lee Valley, a package of 20 for $5.95 on close out sale! They are actually metal (not plastic) so hope they hold up better than the plastic that were originally on the door.
I think the countertop makes the most difference in the feel as it really brightens the room up and makes it appear less busy, although we have started to clean up the kitchen more!
The mirror came from IKEA and had a really thin frame which I built up with chair rail trim from the Depot which I cut on the mitre saw and glued up, before painting the whole frame to match the rest of the trim in the house.
So there we are and I hope it ties us over for the next few years as we save money and ideas for what we really want to do. It may end up being longer than that if past experience is any indication!
Just for a laugh, I dug up a picture of the original kitchen
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The orignal color has the space looking like a hospital waiting room. |
Progress on the Kitchen Makeover
Last modified on 2008-01-12 17:56:42 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Here are the latest numbers as I am getting into actually doing the work on
the kitchen makeover.
| Knobs (bulk Pack of 20!, Lee Valley) |
$5.95 |
| Sandpaper (leftover from another job) |
$0 |
| Primer (leftover from another job) |
$0 |
| Floor Tiles (Black and White, Vinyl, Rona) |
$45.00 |
| Melamine Paint (leftover from another job) |
$0 |
| PaintBrushes, tape etc. | $8.99 |
| Blackboard Paint (1 can, Benjamin Moore Store) |
$19.99 |
| Mirror (IKEA) | $7.99 |
| Trim for Mirror (Home Depot) | $8.00 |
| Trim for Blackboard section (leftover from another job) |
$0 |
| Total | $95.92 |
OK, so I was over 100, but we added in a couple of things to spruce it up on top
of the things that we were originally planning. Like for instance the Blackboard
and the mirror. The blackboard paint is really thin and has a strange
consistency so it was hard to apply smoothly. The melamine paint on the counter
in contrast was like painting with glue; very thick, but hard to apply even
though I sanded the counter to rough it up. Definitely requires two coats to
cover well.
Now the good news is that we are back under $100 (even with the other items) as
we have decided to get rid of the backsplash wallpaper and paint, so when I
brought all that stuff back, it saved us like $40!
Its taken a fair bit more time because we were travelling 2 weeks ago and I have
waited until we got some nice days where we could have the windows open to do
the counter paint. It really brightens things up and streamlines the look of the
small (10′ x 9′) kitchen.
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The paint brightens up the space. (The cake is courtesy of our good friend JS).
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I have also taken some extra time to go back and fish some wire up from the
basement for the eventual under counter lighting which took a bit more time, but
fortunately I could use the holes that the original electrician put in the wall
to feed up the rewire of the kitchen. I decided to do this now as I am going to
patch up the holes as its been over 2 years since they put them in and we are
starting to get tired of them!
The $100 Kitchen Reno (taxes not included)
Last modified on 2008-01-12 17:57:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
What do you think it takes to make a kitchen more livable? That’s what we’re trying to find out as the cost for really doing it right is quickly spiralling out of control.
By ‘right’ I mean that in addition to new cabinets, countertop, backsplash in the kitchen itself the floor needs to be leveled. Since this will make the rest of the floor look funny (and we can’t match the old worn out floors in the rest of the house) we want to carry new flooring front to back.
Now it is open concept, but a very small space as you can see in other pictures here, so it isn’t out of consideration, but kinda out of reach for now.
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The current state of the kitchen. I have taken off the old plastic handles and started patching the holes, ready for paint touch ups. |
So we are planning a bit of paint, some new knobs, maybe some cheap and cheerful tile and patching up some, ummm, holes left over from some wiring done at the same time as the basement. We’ll see how close we get to $100, but as always, I will be providing the “free” labour.
Finished the Shed
Last modified on 2008-01-12 17:58:24 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
Shed’s done. Not much more to say; its a shed.
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This is what the new shed looks like. Hmm, better looking, but still a metal shed. |
(Wish it were a bit better looking though.)
Loading up at the Depot
Last modified on 2008-01-12 18:00:49 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
We finally got a chance to go to the Depot (after trying to arrange this for about two weeks). What was the hold-up? I needed to have 2 people to help load the plywood sheet (actually it ended up being Exterior Grade OSB) on top of the car. And, with Tom (who is 22 months and running, really running around), this would prove rather difficult.
So on Saturday, my mother-in-law and Aunt came over and helped us out at home while we jumped in the car for the short ride over to the Depot. We split up and I took the lumber side and my wife the garden side of the store. We also picked up one of those Kitchen Design magazines just for kicks (more on that later).
I got the associate to cut up the sheet so it would fit the base and we put it on top of a blanket we have in the trunk and strapped it down. Good thing it is a short ride home!
When we got home the plywood fit perfectly (probably because I obsessed about the size and repeated the measurements three times before we left for the store.) Then I spent time getting the corners, bracing and walls up.
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This is the shed with a “moonroof”. |
Finally the next day I got the roof on and this weekend I’ll get the doors on so that we can start putting stuff back in. Not sure what will go back in there in addition to the garden stuff (shovels, mower, wheelbarrow) but the basement could sure use some cleaning up so maybe we’ll see if anything from there is suitable to go outside.
Shed- by Necessity
Last modified on 2008-01-12 18:02:53 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Warning: for those hardcore reno viewers out there, this might not make your standards, but I’m posting it anyway.
So even though I asked what to do around the house, I ended up out of necessity having to take down our old storage shed (actually located beside our parking spot behind the fence off the lane). This is because the old shed was a POS (no, not “point of sale”…).
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This is what the old shed looked like. Now you can understand why I described it as POS.. |
It was rusted and really bashed up from repeated denting from cars, bobcats and feet. None of this was our fault, because as cars used to use our parking area for a turn around, they inevitably got a bit sloppy and ran into the shed. Don’t ask me how the boot marks got into it; it was before our time in this house.
So I waited for a sale at the Canadian Tire and eagerly waited for their weekly flyer to show up with the details. These things usually only go on once, maybe twice a season as they know they can flog them at regular price for most of the year and people will happily pay and endure their (mostly crappy) customer service. I was pleasantly surprised by the service from the store I ended up using (as my local store, with the crappy service) was of course out of stock of this advertised item, and probably never got them in anyway. I showed up with the flyer, ordered it and after a couple of terse exchanges with the “delivery service” (actually only an employee who has a truck and makes some money on the side doing deliveries) it showed up.
Taking down the old one actually wasn’t that bad an effort as instead of using the Sawzall to cut it up, I tried the drill to unscrew it and it mostly came apart. I did have to take the crowbar to a few bits for some extra persuasion, but it only took about 2 hours to get the whole thing apart. And best of all I called the City and arranged to get the scrap taken away.
I’ve put in the base and have got the bottom rails fixed down. Now the challenge is getting the plywood from the Depot back home in the Mazda. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
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Here is the base with the rails attached. The plastic is to keep the moisture from getting to the floor. |
What to do, what to do….
Last modified on 2008-01-12 18:05:49 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
So here it is mid-April and I was talking with friends last weekend and chatting about the fact that this was the first year that I did not have any sort of Reno activity planned and felt strangely odd. No it wasn’t that I was gloating that we had finished all the stuff we have planned to do on the house (whole kitchen and main bathroom, two jobs which I am loath to start) but that I felt sort of…. lazy.
Even as the words, “No, we are just going to enjoy the work I did on the backyard by sitting on the patio,” rolled off my tongue I thought of all the other stuff that I’d like to tackle. Apart from the aforementioned kitchen and bathroom (both of which require more disposable cash than we have at the moment, not to mention other potential pitfalls) there are a few other things which I might do. Like redo the trim on the upstairs doors and windows. Or how about build a new overhang on top of the back door. What about redoing the front porch which needs a bit of sprucing up?
These are all potential things which might get done this year (or not).
I have a question for you: given what you have read here so far, if this was your house, what would you do next?