May 2012 Renovation update

Well,it's been just over a year since we first saw this place (we viewed it on April 5, 2011) and a lot has sure happened since that day. We moved in on August 27. In December we installed an airtight wood burning insert in the fireplace and had cellulose insulation blown in. In February we had the basement sealed - new concrete floor and spray foam insulation - and it's now as dry as a cork down there. We also converted one of the spare room upstairs into dressing room for Mike. There was another spare room downstairs that we were using as an office but decided - because it was connected to the downstairs bathroom - that it would make sense to convert it back into a spare room (since we lost one upstairs for the dressing room) so we renovated that room as well. Today - May 21 - the contractors arrived to begin the transformation of the dining room and living room. They are fixing up all the walls and then putting up wall paper and painting the ceilings and walls. The new light fixtures are already here and waiting to go up as are the draperies. We anticipate that in a couple weeks we will have a finished dining room and living room. I'll keep uploading photos as work progresses. Here are some of the new spare room, the dressing room and the work on the dining room.

The work begins.

Each room is sealed as the work starts.

Window seat overlooking the front yard in the newly renovated downstairs spare room.

The bed in the center of the room with a closet on the left and the bathroom door on the right. One of our Louise Williams watercolours matched perfectly.

The second window - this one overlooks the pool and deck.

Mike's dressing room has an "eyebrow window" which is a great architectural feature that we tried to show to full effect with the wallpaper.

The island has a top made from polished limestone. We found the slab of limestone in the basement and sent it off to be cut to size and then polished. We paid $100 to have it done and later were told that polished limestone counter tops sell for $125/sq foot. Nice surprise. You can see the new quarter-round on the baseboards (that white strip along the bottom). That is going to be painted this week as well so it will match the rest of the baseboard.

Mike's suits and shirts (some of them).

The basement is almost done. The spray foam insulation was put in:

Then the drywall was added:

Now the drywall is all up and the basement is warm and dry:

The New Basement Emerges

Next morning. Jason - the guy who was here to level the concrete - was here all night troweling. The floor is almost set up enough to walk on.

Another angle. Hard to believe the difference a couple days can make.

The Transformation of the Basement Begins

Here's the basement stripped. All the old interior walls are gone and the old wooden beams - many which were beginning to rot at the bottom because of the moisture they'd been "wicking" up over the years - were all replaced with jack posts. Large stone blocks were placed under the jack posts to bring them up the level of where the new cement floor will be.

We found the old coal chute behind the Styrofoam and sheetrock. I got a picture since it was later covered back up again with the Dimple Board.

The new pipes (white) run around the perimeter of the basement and into the drain. The concrete - at this corner of the basement - will be level with the top of the black drain that you see in the foreground.

The black Dimple Board covers all the exterior walls. It guides any water down the wall, into the trenches, into the pipes and then to the drain.

This is below the curved window in the dining room.

Here you can see where the old cement platforms had been on the floor. The partial wall you see above will remain and we'll build a new wall to the floor. There are some electrical switches on the other side so this wall that had to remain.

Here you can see the sand that was spread all over the old concrete floor in order to even it out. Then the plastic was added on top of it to keep the moisture on the other side.

The plastic is all taped together to make it water-tight and Styrofoam is added on top of it to provide the insulation value. We'll use spray foam insulation on the walls.

A better picture of the foam going down over the plastic film that covers the sand.

7:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012, the first cement truck arrives.

The guys ran a sluice down the outside basement stairs to pour the cement. The same technique was used to load all the sand in previous to pouring the cement.

Renovations underway

The first 2 rooms to be overhauled are the dining room and adjacent living room.  We had a meeting with our designers from Mhome in Halifax and came up with a plan.  In the dining room, the plate rail has met its end and wainscoting will be put up in its place, mirroring what already exists in the main hallway and up the stairs.  Then will come wallpaper and paint, new draperies and lighting.  Huge, very sparkly chandelier and wall sconces held up in production in Italy, so waiting on those...  We saw our new dining room table yesterday...HUGE!!  It is 11 feet without the leaves, 15 feet with all 3 leaves in place.  Should be enough room for Sunday dinners without resorting to folding tables.  Antique chairs will be reupholstered and a window seat cushion is being made for, you guessed it, the window seat!  In the living room, just fresh paint and window treatments.  The wall color, however, will be quite a dramatic change.  And the fireplace has a new high efficiency insert, and the tile in the hearth has been replaced.

Dining room wall, stripped of old wallpaper, plate rail gone

Wiring for wall sconces, waiting for wainscoting

New fireplace insert and hearth

Scott sitting at the end of the new dining table (still in the store)

Dogs checking out Mike's soon to be dressing room

The other "little project" underway is converting one of the spare bedrooms upstairs into Mike's dressing room.  Old house, little closets, not enough room for Mike's wardrobe.  So, to that end, the bed is gone and Ken is going to do one whole wall of rods for hanging clothes, built-ins, and an island in the centre of the room for ties, cufflinks, etc.  We found a slab of what we thought was marble in the basement.  Turns out it's limestone.  We are having it cleaned and polished so it can be re-purposed as the island top.  Wallpaper and paint bought for the walls and trim.  Oh, and a sparkly chandelier to hang above the island!