Semblance of a Real Place

Remember that wetted and warped hardwood floor in the proto-library? It's all fixed now as you can see. The truck is back from Crown Collision looking good as new. Phase II will be to actually put in the library shelving and a small bar/tea station, but, hey this is okay for now.

Remembrance Day

Nov. 11, the scaffolding is down, and for the first time since mid-June, we have been able to park in our driveway. We couldn't be happier with the colour and with the wonderful job that Sunset Stucco has done. Flashings, soffits, and eavestroughs yet to come.

Suddenly a Break in the Weather

Woohoo! A flurry of activity and the stucco-ing is drawing to a close. Look, the green garbage bin is gone. A hit-and-run backed into our red pickup while it was parked on the street, scraping and denting the driver's side door. Sigh... something else to fix. But still, the house looks great.

Oh No! Snow.

October 31, Hallowe'en, and the first snow fall has arrived -- well just a dusting, but still. The weather has turned against us and some days are going by now with little progress on the exterior. The west (left) side of the house has been tarped again to help move things along.

Colour

The stucco guys are working hard. After having spent some time driving about looking at stucco'd houses and painstakingly finally choosing the house colour, the first guys who were going to do the stucco (and didn't) lost the colour chip so we started all over again. There was then some confusion about what colours were 'designer' (and would therefore take a really long time to arrive) and what were 'standard'. We finally went with what we think (but still aren't sure) is a standard colour. Actually, Richard took about 5 seconds looking at two chips that were shown to us on the way to work one day and pointed to the colour that you see. It looks brilliant next to the brightly coloured trees of fall. On-the-fly decisions sometimes work like a charm!

Endless Summer

Well at the suggestion of our friends, Sandra & Juergen, Mary-Lynn & John, in lieu of renaming the blog, summerandautumnrenovation.com, we will just say that we are living in an Endless Summer.
In the mean time, take a look at the gorgeous main floor with painting all done and floor finished. The picture of the outside was taken today (October 17, 2010). The grey `cement' goes on both underneath and overtop of the white styrofoam.

Raindrops keep falling on our heads..

What's wrong with these pictures? The left one, with the hardwood completed under the protective paper, was taken earlier than the one at right. The plumber, unfortunately, did not close off the small hose on the left wall (destined to be a `tea station' -- or `bar', depending on whether you are female or male, respectively). The result was a flood all over the hardwood, which then warped and had to be ripped up again. At the time of writing, we are waiting for new hardwood, since the replacement batch that was sent didn't match exactly.

In the mean time, we can now use the kitchen on the main floor again (woo-hoo!). Slight problem in that the plumber forgot to connect the dishwasher, resulting in a flood -- the indoor rain fell into the downstairs bathroom through the door jamb and the closet ceiling. No permanent harm done (we think) and the dishwasher is now happily connected again.

One Thing leads to Another

The deck, which we thought could be saved, was a little too rickety. Out it goes! Brian, who has been working hard on the renovation, has done a beautiful job on the deck (and plenty of other finishing touches). Today is Thanksgiving, the Sunset Stucco guys are here working, and we have much to be thankful for.

Stucco unstuck!

After many weeks with only plywood on the house, we learned that the original stucco company that had bid on the project was no longer interested in carrying it out. A last minute scramble to find someone else who could do it led to Sunset Stucco (who are awesome and work on weekends even). Check out their rig and the transformation of the house. The house must about R-infinity by the time they finish. Consider the layers on the front from the inside out: drywall, then thick foam insulation, then plywood, then a kind of grey cement layer, then styrofoam, then another layer of grey cement, then (we think but it hasn't happened yet) the layer of colour. Many tiny flecks of styrofoam sprinkle down from above, making it look like it's snowing. There always seems to be someone outside of a window! Well never mind about privacy -- we're thrilled that progress is being made while the weather is still good. The roof railing is up too, except for the glass.

It's an Inside Job

Sept. 24 -- Well it's now officially fall so maybe we should have called this blog renovationfall.blogspot.com! No change to the outside of the house, but the inside is slowly receiving detailed attention. The left picture below is of the main floor looking towards the atrium. This is the dining area, where the white and black checkered floor and mirrored column used to be. What a transformation! On the right is a view of the library in roughly the same direction towards the atrium but one floor up. The dark hardwood had actually already been installed but is covered over by sheets of paper for protection. The trim is in place, the pot lights are installed, and you can see that the painters have started work.

Basement Blues

It's Sept. 12, term starts tomorrow, and we are still living in the basement. This is the point at which it's hard to remember how nice the renovations will look when they are all done. It has now been almost 3 months since they started. The outside of the building looks the same as the last picture in this blog. There has been more interior work, but as the seasons change, we start to worry more about finishing the outside, both for the soundness of the building and for aesthetics. Two nights ago, the metal ramp that we use to prop up the canoe was stolen out of our pick-up while it was parked on the street in front of the house; as a construction site, we are targets. It's hard to keep our living space clean since there is dust everywhere, and it would be nice to have the main kitchen back so that I can stop cooking on a hot plate and we can use the dishwasher again. My fall clothes are in boxes somewhere. Hmm, well as I re-read this, the word 'whiner' comes to mind. Stop it now! Next post will be better -- honest.

Stairway to Heaven

The stairs on the right (east) side of the house are in place now. Take a look at the view from the roof!

September 15, 1951

In the process of cleaning up that rotten beam at the front of the house, we discovered more newspapers from Sept. 1951, both the Kingston Whig-Standard and the Toronto Financial Post.
Here are some photos from those papers.

Drywall too

It's now almost the end of August, two months into the renovation and the drywall is in place. Here's Richard in the new library (left) with the widow's watch behind him. I just threw in the right picture of the new furnace for technical buffs who might want to know.

Windows Even!

With the installation of the windows, the house is becoming really secure (well the one for Judith's office isn't there yet). Check out the atrium on the west (left) side. Isn't it gorgeous? It's really starting to look like the concept drawing.

Insulation

Insulation on the main floor (left) and library (right).

Historical Artifacts

The front wooden beam had some damage over the years, including wasps nests and rot. Andy, one of the workers, discovered that several holes were stuffed with old newspapers. The date: fall of 1951. The papers were not in great shape but we did manage to read some of the classified ads. Telephone numbers were 4 digits long and an apartment was being advertised for $3.50/week.

A Proto-Library

First look at the new library (left) on the upper floor. Richard's office is still there behind the window and the opening to the left front (east side of house) will be to stairs that go up the outside to the flat roof. Our current master bedroom (right) will become Judith's office and will have a new (second) window. The opening with the blue ladder in it will house the new supplementary furnace since the current furnace can't handle all three floors. Both offices will have immediate access to the library.

Not so retro

The main living room is gutted. The black wall paper is still there but that mirrored post at least is gone.

New roof is on

The new roof is on and the exterior front patio (the widow's watch) is taking shape. Notice the siding. There were *three* layers of siding on the house. The aluminum siding is now off the front, underneath is yellow wooden siding and peaking out from under that is white wooden siding. The house has been around in some form or other for a long time.

Like a Cocoon

Still more rain and an attempt to enclose the upper room as best as possible with tarps. It reminds me of a butterfly awaiting its transformation.

Intruder alert!

We forgot to lock the basement door one night and woke around 3 a.m. to hear someone standing between the green bin and the house. He was just walking through the door when Richard confronted him, whereupon he ran away *very* quickly. No pictures here.

Structure taking shape

We are starting to see the front room take on some structure. This will be the new library.

Rain

Well attempts to make the house 'water-tight' weren't entirely successful. We are living in the little basement apartment and one morning Richard woke up to water dripping on his face. Buckets have been pulled out in the middle of the night on more than one occasion!

Roof is gone!

Well back home by July 4. No more roof! But work is proceeding apace. Notice how we are adding class to the neighbourhood? As a neighbour said, 'Will you be keeping the orange element?'. The lime green dumpster says 'Bin there dump that' on its side. The main construction is being done by Britannia Construction.

Off to Winnipeg

This is what the house looked like before we left for holidays, 3rd week in June. We weren't sure what we'd find when we got back.