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.