North Glenora Reno

I have been waiting for this day for months. We have drywall!! I don’t just mean piled up on the floor like it has been since last week, I mean actually attached to the freaking walls! This is big, huge, insane! I am just a little excited. I am dreaming of paint colours….I am officially losing my mind or becoming my mother.

I can’t explain what it means to actually see our walls. The drywallers were fantastic, albeit a bit tardy. They were great workers and knew that they had a deadline. The taper comes tomorrow. He will be in and out by Friday and then I really do get to buy paint! I know, I know, I’m losing it for sure. It is not like I am choosing crazy, out there colours either. We are going simple and keeping with the cool, calm feel that we have already tried to establish through the rest of the house. Shades of grey baby, shades of grey and I’m still pumped.

On the trying to outwit the cold weather front, it is really kind of hit and miss. On Saturday, I finally helped R and we sided another small wall near the back door. R also installed the outside wall sconces. They will be awesome. The siding takes forever and the chill was not helping cold fingers work very quickly. None the less, we got one small section done, with the goal of getting another done today. The weather gods felt that we were asking too much and instead it rained today. Not exactly working outside kind of weather. Oh, well.

We pushed on and R decided to replace the dry wall that we removed during demo in the basement bathroom and patched up the holes what were in the ceiling in the kitchen and living room. Other spaces that we will conveniently forget were touched by this reno.

I, well, I have nearly reached the end of my tolerance for the chaos that seems to have invading nearly ever single area of our house. While R was patching the ceiling holes, the mess in those spaces expanded. My mom said that it was the worst it had ever been and that is saying a lot. There is no safe or clean space around here so I sought to make one. I converted the media room back into the media room. Gone is the drying rack of laundry. Gone is the mountain of boxes, wrapping, computers, paper shredder, shoes, paper…need I go on? We officially have our media room back, I mean, I dusted and everything. There is one sane space in this house, I may move there.

So on to a new week, the taper, maybe the finishing of the soffit and the eaves trough company is booked in for Friday. Pretty soon I will go and pick up our flooring and maybe even take a nap!

Hey, did I mention that I’m going to go choose paint!!! Hahahahaha, progress!

I know that I don’t need to say this but we have been crazy busy lately. We are racing to get as much as possible done outside before the weather becomes too cold.

This weekend, we finished the east facing wall of the house. It is amazing!
The soffit and fascia guy (same one who did the roof) came on Saturday and worked like crazy. He brought along this great scaffold that not only made his job easier but also enabled R, his dad and two of our amazing friends J and S to continue to make some significant progress on the cement board. All of our help have been amazing. J and S not only came on Thursday afternoon but Friday and Saturday as well. We didn’t even ask, they just called and said that they were showing up. We have incredible friends. Anyway…

The soffits are great, they are black and done!!! There is a tiny section that needs to be finished off but they are waiting for some metal that had to be ordered in. So, almost done.

The siding is incredible. The panels look amazing and the vision that we had for what our house will look like on the outside simply came to life this weekend.

And now, for they other, big, huge excitement….our insulation/vapor barrier inspection passed!!! This is huge, it now means that we can get drywall and begin (if it is not too risky to put into type) the beginning of the end. Our drywallers come on Saturday and I can’t even begin to describe how great this thought is…

Stayed tuned!

Since I promised and so many have ensured that I didn’t forget…here you go…

Well, here we are at the end of another weekend. I know that you will be shocked, but it was yet another busy and productive week around here.

First, the insulation is finally done! I had no idea that it would take so long. It didn’t help that we have 14 foot ceilings at some points and just maneuvering the ladder took forever. None the less, with that done, we are finally able to start on the vapor barrier. This will undoubtedly be another long and tedious job what with the ceiling heights coming into play yet again. It has however been started with the help of our neighbour and that is really good.

Earlier this week, we went and paid for the cedar for the two panels on the house and for the soffit area under the covered back entry. R & K picked it up on Saturday afternoon and we promptly got to work staining it. By 8:30pm we had all of the cedar stained a beautiful medium warm cedar-y colour. Apparently, we stunk up the whole neighbourhood, oops.

R also installed one more soffit light on Saturday and made sure that all of the others Were properly aligned as the soffit and facia guy (Hache Roofing, same guy who did the shingles) will be here later this week to get that going. It will be really nice to have the black soffit around the entire house. Not only will it look great to get rid of the horrible and trashed white crap on the existing portion of the house and replace it with all black but I am really looking forward a day when I can officially come home without worrying if any F-ing birds are inside. Amazing really what my life has boiled down to, no? Did I mention that since the creature incidents, we have only had three mice total? Small mercies.

Today, we decided to install the first section of the cedar panel and it looks absolutely amazing! The nuances of the wood came out great and up against the black trim of the windows it is really eye catching. Our (somewhat crazy) back alley neighbour even said that we were improving property values in the neighborhood and it even reminded him of some of the custom work found in the expensive areas. High praise indeed!

This week, my parents received our bathroom sink and faucet and this coming week, before they come home, they should also be receiving the bathroom accessories and five blinds. Yeah!

Oh yeah, and finally, if a fit of insanity R and I came across an amazing one day deal on the bed frame that we want to have in our new room and the mattress we want is on sale next week. So needless to say, we bought the bed and will buy the mattress this week. Will the hemorrhage of money ever end? Not at the rate we are going. Shit, shit, shit.

Oh, have a great week.