Good Bye 2015

I am determined to post at least one more blog post before the end of this year. I will admit I've been remiss in keeping this blog up to date but I will try to bring everyone up to speed before 2016 starts.

Progress on the project has slowed considerably. Our initial end date of November 15 came and went. Then Matt suggested we'd be in by Christmas - didn't happen. And now, even though there is lots going on here almost every day, we are not realistically looking at completion until February. The progress is slow because we are into the details phase of the project and there are many things that are dependent on many other things. The tiler can't do his job until the dry waller is finished and the drywaller can't do his job until the plumber is done and the plumber can't do his job until the electricians are done...and so on.  This is a complicated dance to choreograph when everything goes right but as soon as there is a mistake...that mistake can have repercussions that can set us back for weeks. And we've had more than one mistake.

But, I'm not going to complain because, as soon as I do, I realize that I sound exactly like every other person I've ever talked to who went through a renovation. So, onward and upward. Here are some images that should help bring you up to date to where we are now.

Here are some shots of the new driveway being installed.

In this image you get a real sense of just how much of a grade there is in the back yard.

Here's a before picture of the kitchen (as posted earlier)

And this is where we are now. It doesn't look that different except the floor tiling has been completed and all of the electrical is done. Now we're just waiting for cabinets and the island. Then the electricians will be back to finish up and the plumbers will come back to do their thing.

This photo represents two and a half hours of my life that I'll never get back. You wouldn't think that 7 pieces of ceramic logs would be so difficult to assemble - it was. There were no instructions with it - only a stern warning to make sure the logs were assembled properly or else the fireplace could malfunction. Great. Luckily I found a video on YouTube of this model of fireplace and between printing screen shots and running back and for to the computer was eventually able to assemble them properly.

This is looking a lot better. Matt installed new trim and Jonathan reshingled along the bottom. Harry will be along when the weather allows and will paint the top of the window and have this section looking good again.

This isn't part of the renovation but it represents a whole Saturday shared by me and Angus and Mitchel (Jill's boys) who helped me stack the two cords of firewood that we'd bought.

This is just a shot of the completed barn and carriage house in the snow. As soon as the shingles start to turn grey (it'll take a year or two) this section will really start to come together.

This is our new bathroom vanity and our Turkish style tiles. We wanted to a pseudo Mediterranean theme so we went for the Greek keys on the vanity and some tiles that reminded us of a Turkish Hamam. If you look closely you can see the light fixture electrical boxes that will go on either side of the mirror. The faucet fixtures are in but we're still waiting for the faucets. They arrived once but in the wrong colour so had to be returned.

Here are all the pieces of our mantel uncrated. They arrived from Tararuga Designs in Toronto. Matt hired a brick layer/stone mason  (Wayne) to help with the installation.

Matt applying some of the adhesive to the first column.

Making sure everything is level - first with a laser and then, old school, with a level.

The second column going in.

Wayne applying some grout after the large top piece of the mantel has been installed.

The finished installation (please note the expertly assembled ceramic logs in the fireplace). Unfortunately the grout became mixed with the mortar and dried darker than we wanted. We're going to have the grout removed and reapplied to achieve a better colour match. Given the scale of this particular part of the renovation - that is a relatively small snafu.

November 7 post

We're a week away from our projected completion date. I don't think we're going to make it. |A more realistic "move in" date might be December 15. There has been huge progress made but, again, we're reminded daily of the scope of what we've undertaken. Even when we don't see things happening at the house, we know that we have a crew of people in a workshop working on cupboards and an island for the new kitchen. The heavy equipment arrived yesterday and started carving out a new driveway for us. Again, I'll let the pictures tell the story of what's been happening around here lately:

Bentley supervising the construction of the new pergola. He approves.

We finally have drywall. It's actually starting to look like a room again. You can see the recessed part of the ceiling. That will have tin tiles in it and the kitchen island is positioned directly underneath.

Behind all that cardboard is a fireplace. We're waiting for the stone facade to arrive. The patio doors like nice but they're the wrong ones. They only open on one side and we ordered ones that open on both sides. Unfortunately we never noticed this shortcoming until they were in. So, they have to stay there until the correct door arrives.

This sisters are installed and working away. They look very different than the giant boiler that was their predecessor.

Before the renovation we had two heating zones in the house - the kitchen area and everything else. Now, you can see from the zone valves on the wall, we have ten zones (there's one more to the right that you can't see in this picture).

The tile arrived for the bathroom vanity wall and top. We can't wait to see what that's going to look like when it's in place.

The new driveway is taking shape. You can see the laser leveler to the right of the photo. We didn't realize how much slope there was on the land until they had to level it for the driveway. Aaron (our landscaper) and I are getting all kinds of great ideas with this new perspective.

Oct 18 Post

It's been nearly a month since my last blog post. Things have been moving along but it's beginning to become evident just how extensive this project is. There are days when you can barely get into the driveway because of the cars and trucks that belong to the people who are working here. Since the last update we've done a lot of work to the heating system (new furnace(s), new hot water pipes, and new in-floor heat). There is a heating system industry magazine that has asked to feature our system in their trade magazine. It's not Home and Garden but it's pretty exciting that they want to feature us. Apparently our 2-furnace system is pretty innovative and since it's part of a re-fit I guess we're pretty interesting to anyone who might subscribe to something like that. We're still waiting to have the pipes laid in part of the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. We're currently heating the house with one propane fireplace, one wood fireplace and some space heaters. We're waiting for one part that has been back  ordered. Once that part arrives we'll be able to get heat into the old parts of the house (anywhere with the old cast iron rads). The newer parts (with in-floor heat) will be a while longer.

We've also finished the pergola and the roofing. There will be some lights to go in the pergola but right now we've got to focus on getting the kitchen finished and tight before really cold weather sets in. We have new kitchen windows which look awesome and are larger than the old ones. Between those and the pergola (instead of the roof that was there before), the kitchen will be much brighter. The bathroom is also coming together slowly. It really just looks like a studded in room with no walls and an old shower in the middle of it but a lot has been done with plumbing and electrical that doesn't really look like much yet. We have a heated towel rack to heat the bathroom and the pipes had to be run for that. When the wall go in it will start to take shape quickly. Light fixtures can go in then the in-floor heating elements. Then we're ready for the floor tiles. Unfortunately the floors were in such bad shape, there's going to be quite a bit of work to do to prepare the floors for the tiles.

We installed the propane fireplace in the kitchen area but we neglected to get a vent kit when we got the fireplace. So, even though Matt and his crew have built the chimney outcropping on the deck and the pipes and electrical have been run, we're held up until we get the vent kit.

Here are some more pics of what's been going on around here lately:

The new kitchen window are much larger than the old ones and let a lot more light into the kitchen. The new sink will be under the set on the left.

Here are our good news/bad news new patio doors. Good news because they're finally installed and we really like them. Bad news because they're the wrong doors. We ordered the type of patio doors where both doors open but, just after they were installed Matt went to open the second door and realized that only one door opened. The one you see on the left is stationary. So, it had to stay where it was - otherwise we'd have a huge hole in the wall - until the new one arrives. It will hopefully be here in a week or two.

To give us an idea of what the kitchen would begin to look like (no, that's not where the toilet goes) he used some wood to draw out the outline of the kitchen island. Even though the room looks pretty cavernous right now it's easy to see how it will start to fill up quickly once cabinets and counters and islands all go in.

The chandelier for the laundry room arrived. Mike was very excited to get it installed. The installation was supposed to just take couple hours. Then I started getting phone calls at work from electricians. Apparently laundry rooms are not usually the home of chandeliers so when the wiring was done (months ago) no one anticipated that it would need to carry the amount of electrical load that we were going to ask of it. Our chandelier has 42, 25 watt bulbs in it. That's over 1,000 watts for those of you that are counting. There was no way, with the wiring that was in place, that we'd be able to run anything else in that section of the house if we had that chandelier on too. So, the wiring had to be redone in that section of the house to accommodate our Johnathan Adler Chandelier. The silver lining is that we can turn it on and heat that section of the house pretty efficiently with just the the heat it gives off.

Mike and Bentley in our "kitchen". We're getting frost some nights now so we had to bring the plants inside. The garage has in floor heat that isn't hooked up yet so the plants are now living with us in the kitchen. The pantry door is lying up against the wall in the hallway. It was scheduled to go in a week or so ago but when they tried to install it they discovered that it needed an extra hinge. Not a big deal but time is so metered out around here these days that there simply hasn't been a chance for anyone to get the extra hinge and come and install the door. So, there is rests until there's a bit of a break in some of the mayhem.

This is the outside view of the new fireplace in the kitchen. Actually, this picture was taken a couple weeks ago. Right now all the trim is done and the little roof is shingled. When it's completely done there will be a propane vent coming out through it. This is actually the second time it was built. They built it too short (according to the propane technicians) so they had to remove the roof and raise it up a few feet and then rebuild the roof. I think I like it better at this height anyway.

This view of the new kitchen windows really shows off the increased size and how much light they'll let in.

This is another example of a lot of work that had to happen that you really can't see. Because our new stove has ten burners and two ovens it can potentially generate a lot of heat (108,000 BTUs to be exact). So to be up to code, we were required to install a ventilation system that could move enough air. However, if it were running at full blast in the winter, it would pump every bit of warm air out of the house in minutes. So, we had to install a heater in the intake vent for the system to heat the air that is being circulated back into the house. We were fortunate that the original chimney in the house has 3 flues and we were only using 2 of them. So, now the ventilation system uses the 3rd flue. The top of our chimney now looks very industrial with the wood fireplace top, the oil furnace top and now a large commercial ventilation system all sticking up out of it.

Here is one of the vent for the central vac system. Since we have no walls yet, it was a great time to get these guys in to install all the central vac piping. We also had the alarm guys come in to install all their equipment before the drywall goes up - which is supposed to happen next week.

The new propane fireplace sits patiently as we wait for the vent kit to arrive so they can finish the installation.

Here you can see the electrical box for one of the pot lights in the kitchen. There are several of these around the perimeter of the kitchen.

Here is another picture of "the sisters" in the basement. Our double furnace structure is pretty innovative - especially for a renovation. Matt's people built the wall next to the chimney to accommodate some of the equipment that will allow the furnaces to share the heating job. Although the house certainly has some chilly parts these days we're also noticing how easily the newly renovated parts are to heat and hold their heat. The TV room and laundry area stay very comfortable just with out little propane stove running. We're hopeful that the rest of the renovated areas will be just as efficient once everything is done.

Here's the finished pergola. The plan is to cut some holes in the concrete parking pad and plant some Wisteria that will climb up and over the pergola. We stained it grey (instead of painting it white) so it will never need to be repainted and once the Wisteria has grown over it we'll never need to tear it down to repaint.

Here's the opening for fireplace. You can see the insulation that's been installed and then sealed under plastic. It will make a huge difference in the way this part of the house will retain heat in the winter and stay cool in the summer.

More insulation on this wall surrounding the stained glass windows. This little section will have a desk in it and a book shelf and be a small office space.

This recessed part of the ceiling will be directly above the island. You can see the electrical boxes where the pendant lights that will hang over the island will be installed eventually.

This is an updated picture of the fireplace "chimney" with all the finish and the shingling done. Eventually an exhaust vent will come out through the front of this - about a foot or two from the top.

September 20 update.

More pics:

I suppose it was unrealistic to think we could move ceilings and walls around downstairs as much as we did and not expect that we'd be moving things around upstairs too. Here we see some of the results.

No cracks here but this is the door to our baggage room which is absolutely jammed shut. We can't get it open.

This appeared in the master bedroom. There were also so cracks in the hallway outside the bedroom door. The first day we started jacking things up downstairs out bedroom door would shut all the way any more. A couple days later they jacked up another section downstairs and suddenly the door would open again.

Here is where we straightened out a wall. If you look at the old tiles on the floor you can see the angle of the old wall. We had to straighten the wall to create room for the range (6 ft wide). We also just found out that the ventilation system for the new range is pretty substantial. It moves so much air that we would actually cool off the house in the winter so we have to heat the air that comes into the ventilation system. More on that later.

Here is the new doorway going into the new bathroom.

This is the new vanity and bronze sink that will eventually go into the new bathroom. For now it's still sitting in the garage.

With all the changes upstairs we sometimes neglect to report what's going on in the basement. Here is some of the old heating pipes that have been stripped out to allow for the new water lines that will be installed in the next few weeks.

Here are "the sisters". They're the two new furnaces that will heat the house. Most of the time one furnace or the other will be running (one week on, one week off). But in the coldest months both furnaces will run together to heat the over 6000 square feet of heated space (counting the heated barn) that we now have. We'll have more pics as the furnaces get made more at home.

September 15 - Another update

More photos that I'll let explain our progress so far:

At the top of the picture you can see the i-beam. It has wooden planks fitted and bolted into the sides so that the roof rafters can be attached. The beam weighs over 800 lbs and had to slowly be jacked into place using the "cribs" you see supporting each end of the beam. They would jack the beam up about 8 inches, insert another layer of the crib and then repeat until the beam was in place.

Another angle of the crib under the beam.

Here's a look at the opening for the fireplace.

The wall studs in place for the new bathroom wall and the opening for the French doors leading to the deck.

The i-beam all in place and the cribs removed.