here is a teaser: the guest bathroom:
Monday, February 28, 2011
bathroom
we have been so busy trying to finish up the painting before my reading week was over that i have been majorly neglecting taking pictures of the progress.
here is a teaser: the guest bathroom:
* i love it. the shower curtain is from urban outfitters.
here is a teaser: the guest bathroom:
painting, cleaning, moving
from the lack of entries over the weekend i am sure it is pretty obvious that we have been very busy. friday we finished almost all the painting of the walls, minus the kitchen. i know i have said this a million times before but 2500 sq feet is so much bigger than you originally think; regardless, the walls are done. now, all we have left to do is touch up the ceilings, the baseboards, the door frames, the window frames, reseal the cedar ceiling (yes, it already is bleeding through), repaint the cedar ceiling, put back all the light fixtures and switch plates and move everything in. for some reason i think i subconsciously believed that once the painting was done we were finished for a while. i was subconsciously wrong. although the new paint on the walls makes it livable to me, we still have sooooo much to do.
on friday the furnace people came and on saturday the carpets were cleaned; i can not believe how much of a difference that made in the tobacco smell. the furnace lady seemed pretty disgusted by the state of our furnace filters and ducts; apparently they were beyond brown from tobacco. she suggested that we send some expensive chemical deodorizer but since we were already payin her about 2x's as much as we had expected, we are going to wait and see how well the basic cleaning works before we resort to that. i think i was most impressed by how quick the carpet cleaner man was. he whizzed about wearing his little plastic bootie covers, sprinkling all 2000 sq feet of carpet with cleaner and deodorizer using his cute cleaning hose then sucking away all the smoke smells. i was surprised by how expensive the furnace cleaning was (over 300 dollars) and how inexpensive the carpet cleaning was (under 500 dollars for almost 2000 sq feet of carpet cleaning with a deodorizer). he was in and out in less than an hour. my major advice from this experience is as follows: never smoke in your house - its incredibly expensive to get the smell out.
our amazing friends and families helped us move in. it was definitely weird seeing a completely empty room where your bedroom used to be. thankfully, our friends and families were more than helpful when it came to lugging our lives from old home to new home, regardless of how many trips it took. today i do feel sad though. i know that i will always be allowed to go back to my parents home when ever i want, but it is weird to think i do not have a room of my own. although duncan moved out about 4 years ago, his room is still relatively intact. he has a room in his saskatoon house and a room at my parents. my room will become vicky's room in a matter of days, she is already picking out paint. for some reason, this makes me sad. i am happy that she finally gets a bigger room, but i am sad i no longer have a place of my own at my parents. i'm sure this will get less weird as time passes, but right now, it makes me kind of sad.
our first night in the house was definitely eventful. we ended up accomplishing a lot; we set up our bedroom, our closet, the guest bedroom, the living room, half of my office and jesse's computer room. the only major issue we had was the internet connection. jesse spent a good 3 hours on hold with shaw trying to get the wireless internet working with his pc. my mac didnt seem to have an issue at all though.... mac 1, pc 0? (there is definitely an on going mac vs pc battle in our household). apparently, after spending hours on hold and talking to various computer people, it turns out that the cable guy simply screwed up during the installation. i think that it is all getting sorted out today, but i am not completely sure.
the only other weird thing that happened was that wendy, the voice of the honeywell security system that the previous owner so kindly left installed for us, decided to take vengeance on jesse for removing her door sensors by declaring that the "front door [was] open" all night, every hour, on the hour, repeatedly. since i am the lightest sleeper in the world, wendy kept me up all night and i had a horrible first sleep in the house. jesse, who could sleep through WWIII, didn't seem to hear wendy as she constantly warned us against non existence inturders all night, informed me he had a wonderful sleep.
when i left for work and school this morning i left jesse with one single job before he goes back to work tomorrow. call honeywell and kill wendy - i've had enough of her.
on friday the furnace people came and on saturday the carpets were cleaned; i can not believe how much of a difference that made in the tobacco smell. the furnace lady seemed pretty disgusted by the state of our furnace filters and ducts; apparently they were beyond brown from tobacco. she suggested that we send some expensive chemical deodorizer but since we were already payin her about 2x's as much as we had expected, we are going to wait and see how well the basic cleaning works before we resort to that. i think i was most impressed by how quick the carpet cleaner man was. he whizzed about wearing his little plastic bootie covers, sprinkling all 2000 sq feet of carpet with cleaner and deodorizer using his cute cleaning hose then sucking away all the smoke smells. i was surprised by how expensive the furnace cleaning was (over 300 dollars) and how inexpensive the carpet cleaning was (under 500 dollars for almost 2000 sq feet of carpet cleaning with a deodorizer). he was in and out in less than an hour. my major advice from this experience is as follows: never smoke in your house - its incredibly expensive to get the smell out.
our amazing friends and families helped us move in. it was definitely weird seeing a completely empty room where your bedroom used to be. thankfully, our friends and families were more than helpful when it came to lugging our lives from old home to new home, regardless of how many trips it took. today i do feel sad though. i know that i will always be allowed to go back to my parents home when ever i want, but it is weird to think i do not have a room of my own. although duncan moved out about 4 years ago, his room is still relatively intact. he has a room in his saskatoon house and a room at my parents. my room will become vicky's room in a matter of days, she is already picking out paint. for some reason, this makes me sad. i am happy that she finally gets a bigger room, but i am sad i no longer have a place of my own at my parents. i'm sure this will get less weird as time passes, but right now, it makes me kind of sad.
our first night in the house was definitely eventful. we ended up accomplishing a lot; we set up our bedroom, our closet, the guest bedroom, the living room, half of my office and jesse's computer room. the only major issue we had was the internet connection. jesse spent a good 3 hours on hold with shaw trying to get the wireless internet working with his pc. my mac didnt seem to have an issue at all though.... mac 1, pc 0? (there is definitely an on going mac vs pc battle in our household). apparently, after spending hours on hold and talking to various computer people, it turns out that the cable guy simply screwed up during the installation. i think that it is all getting sorted out today, but i am not completely sure.
the only other weird thing that happened was that wendy, the voice of the honeywell security system that the previous owner so kindly left installed for us, decided to take vengeance on jesse for removing her door sensors by declaring that the "front door [was] open" all night, every hour, on the hour, repeatedly. since i am the lightest sleeper in the world, wendy kept me up all night and i had a horrible first sleep in the house. jesse, who could sleep through WWIII, didn't seem to hear wendy as she constantly warned us against non existence inturders all night, informed me he had a wonderful sleep.
when i left for work and school this morning i left jesse with one single job before he goes back to work tomorrow. call honeywell and kill wendy - i've had enough of her.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
sense of accomplishment
i feel like we have accomplished so much since my last blog entry.
not only have we finished spraying the stipple ceilings, we are almost done the wood slatted ceilings, a project that has been much more work than i had originally anticipated. as of yesterday afternoon we had sanded, mudded and tsp'd the entire house; finally, the majority of the grunt work is done! last night we began to paint the walls and thanks to our amazing familes and a couple equally as great friends, last i heard, we had completely finished the upstairs and the living room - the key lime green, pomagranet pink, sky blue, forest green and salmon are officially gone, replaced by a neutral, warm beige. i cannot say they will be missed. now, if only the bright yellow and orange disappear...
for the most part, we are on track. i would be lieing if i said we haven't had a few blips along the way. the vacuflow, for example, just does not want to work for us. it has been broken, fixed, rebroken, refixed and so on... it just will not cooperate. kevin has been fiddling with it on and off and it seems that every time we think we have it, something else goes wrong. i am seriously starting to worry about it. i was definitely looking forward to the convenience of a vacuflow seeing as i have had one as long as i can remember, maybe this is someones way of telling me i'm too spoilt, or that i could use the added exertion of lugging an awkward old school vacuum up and down the stairs of my 4 level split? possibly, the vacuum itself is objecting to the sudden use, since it is fairly obvious from the state of her carpets that it spent most of its time coiled up in her cleaning closet with the rest of her household supplies? either way, it looks as though this is going to be an ongoing battle.
another thing that hasn't seemed to go our way is the carpet cleaning. since it was a balmy -25 degrees this morning they canceled on us last minute; apparently, the waterlines in the truck mounted system tends to freeze when it drops below -15. i still haven't decided how i feel about this. in one sense, i was relieved because it gave us added time to paint and prepare for them, on the other hand, i was completely annoyed since we had this planned for over two weeks and i am getting incredibly tired of smelling smoke and mothballs every morning when i open the front door. i think i would have been less annoyed if the lady that we spoke to on the phone wasn't as obnoxious. in all honesty, it probably worked out to our benefit for them to reschedule to saturday, but the fact that she wasn't the slightest bit apologetic and didn't offer us any sort of compensation for the last minute cancellation really rubbed me the wrong way. i completely understand that they cannot control the weather but they can control their customer service and quiet frankly, theirs is atrocious. in my opinion, if you cancel on a customer last minute, whether or not it is because of circumstances with in or out of your control, you should offer them some sort of compensation; they could have offered us a discount, or to do our furnace or fireplace, or even a bonus room? but they didn't. regardless, if it wasn't for the fact that we wouldn't have been able to get in anywhere else for over a week, i would have told her to stuff it. so saturday it is.
enough complaining. this morning when i left for work i was so incredibly pleased with our progress and that is what i am going to concentrate on. i absolutely adore the colour we chose for the walls, biscotti by benjamin moore. since we had to preorder the paint in large quantities we went with a colour we had already used in jesse's room at his parents house (just to be safe) and now that its on the walls in this house it looks completely different. i, personally, am not completely convinced that who ever mixed the paint did not make a mistake since it is much darker, but either way, i don't mind because i love colour regardless.
hopefully tonight and tomorrow we will be able finish the lower level and the man cave then we will only have the one wall we left in the kitchen and cabinets for saturday during the day while the carpet cleaners are doing their thing.
pictures of the new paint to come!
not only have we finished spraying the stipple ceilings, we are almost done the wood slatted ceilings, a project that has been much more work than i had originally anticipated. as of yesterday afternoon we had sanded, mudded and tsp'd the entire house; finally, the majority of the grunt work is done! last night we began to paint the walls and thanks to our amazing familes and a couple equally as great friends, last i heard, we had completely finished the upstairs and the living room - the key lime green, pomagranet pink, sky blue, forest green and salmon are officially gone, replaced by a neutral, warm beige. i cannot say they will be missed. now, if only the bright yellow and orange disappear...
for the most part, we are on track. i would be lieing if i said we haven't had a few blips along the way. the vacuflow, for example, just does not want to work for us. it has been broken, fixed, rebroken, refixed and so on... it just will not cooperate. kevin has been fiddling with it on and off and it seems that every time we think we have it, something else goes wrong. i am seriously starting to worry about it. i was definitely looking forward to the convenience of a vacuflow seeing as i have had one as long as i can remember, maybe this is someones way of telling me i'm too spoilt, or that i could use the added exertion of lugging an awkward old school vacuum up and down the stairs of my 4 level split? possibly, the vacuum itself is objecting to the sudden use, since it is fairly obvious from the state of her carpets that it spent most of its time coiled up in her cleaning closet with the rest of her household supplies? either way, it looks as though this is going to be an ongoing battle.
another thing that hasn't seemed to go our way is the carpet cleaning. since it was a balmy -25 degrees this morning they canceled on us last minute; apparently, the waterlines in the truck mounted system tends to freeze when it drops below -15. i still haven't decided how i feel about this. in one sense, i was relieved because it gave us added time to paint and prepare for them, on the other hand, i was completely annoyed since we had this planned for over two weeks and i am getting incredibly tired of smelling smoke and mothballs every morning when i open the front door. i think i would have been less annoyed if the lady that we spoke to on the phone wasn't as obnoxious. in all honesty, it probably worked out to our benefit for them to reschedule to saturday, but the fact that she wasn't the slightest bit apologetic and didn't offer us any sort of compensation for the last minute cancellation really rubbed me the wrong way. i completely understand that they cannot control the weather but they can control their customer service and quiet frankly, theirs is atrocious. in my opinion, if you cancel on a customer last minute, whether or not it is because of circumstances with in or out of your control, you should offer them some sort of compensation; they could have offered us a discount, or to do our furnace or fireplace, or even a bonus room? but they didn't. regardless, if it wasn't for the fact that we wouldn't have been able to get in anywhere else for over a week, i would have told her to stuff it. so saturday it is.
enough complaining. this morning when i left for work i was so incredibly pleased with our progress and that is what i am going to concentrate on. i absolutely adore the colour we chose for the walls, biscotti by benjamin moore. since we had to preorder the paint in large quantities we went with a colour we had already used in jesse's room at his parents house (just to be safe) and now that its on the walls in this house it looks completely different. i, personally, am not completely convinced that who ever mixed the paint did not make a mistake since it is much darker, but either way, i don't mind because i love colour regardless.
hopefully tonight and tomorrow we will be able finish the lower level and the man cave then we will only have the one wall we left in the kitchen and cabinets for saturday during the day while the carpet cleaners are doing their thing.
pictures of the new paint to come!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
thank yous
so, i wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you for some of the house warming gifts we have been lucky enough to receive so far. plus, when everything at the house is disgusting and dirty i need to take a minute to appreciate the beautiful things...
frieda glasses and matching serving tray - both from crate&barrel:
water cooler:
kitchen and kitchen aid mixer:
monogrammed coffee mugs and floral measuring cups - both from anthropologie
frieda glasses and matching serving tray - both from crate&barrel:
 | |||||
| ask and you shall receive. thank you so much to two of our best friends, maddy and brian, for the Frieda glasses that satisfied my incredibly overpriced appetite for create&barrel. also, thank you to maddy's mom, mamma c, for the matching serving tray - i love them. |
 |
| i just love the blown glass |
 | |||
| thank you thank you thank you. this water cooler, from jesse's parents, definitely came in handy. plus, since jesse is too big of a baby to drink tap water, its a must in our household haha |
 | |
| really, i should have photographed everything in my kitchen for this thank you but, since that may have bored you, i settled for the big ticket item - the kitchen aid mixer in onyx. thank you, thank you, thank you mom - i appreciate everything you have gotten us, especially this mixer! xo |
 |
| thank you so much to our wonderful friend sammie. i have an obsession with anthropologie but unfortunately, it is far above my price point. needless to say, these J and B mugs make me incredibly happy when i open my cabinets. |
 |
| i have been wanting these measuring cups for months and luckily sammie listened. love, love, love them! |
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
sealing the ceilings
when you buy a 2500 square foot home the last thing you think of is the fact that there are 2500 square feet of ceilings that come with it - we came to this overwhelming realization today, that is for sure. today we prepped and painted almost all of the ceilings in the house. luckily we are fortunate enough to know a painter who was generous enough to lend us his professional spray gun for the stipple ceilings; since it took about four hours to spray them i cannot even imagine how long it would have taken to hand roll and cut them, especially the vaulted ceiling on the main floor. it was absolutely disgusting to see the difference between the new, freshly sprayed white ceiling and the old, brown, second hand smoke stained ceiling.
 |
| Jesse spraying the ceiling |
 |
| my attempt to capture the disgustingly different shades of the ceiling.... not too sure it worked? haha |
while jesse and kev did the ceilings on the upper, main and basement (aka man cave) levels, i worked on the cedar slatted ceilings and walls - i hadn't anticipated this would be as big of a job as it is turning out to be. apparently, cedar is one of the worst woods to paint since it continually gives off some sort of resin that can continually seep through paint, making it look all discoloured and splotchy after you have painted it unless it is prepped and sealed properly. this prep coat is taking forever, i am hoping that its worth it in the end.
 |
| cutting between the slats on the roof |
 |
| sealing the ceiling complete |
we accomplished a lot today, hopefully we will be able to sand down all the walls and begin painting them as well. i have my fingers crossed that when i stop by tomorrow morning and open the front door i will smell paint instead of stale cigarette smoke.
Monday, February 21, 2011
before pics
as promised here are the before shots of the house. after 12 long hours at the house we called it quits for the day - poor jesse was sick and suffering the entire day but still managed to accomplish a ton. thanks so much to our amazing families who helped us out more than we can explain. we will update pictures as the renovations progress and the rooms begin to come together. enjoy.
 |
| the lovely flowers and card the previous owner left for us |
 |
| kitchen, view from dining area |
 |
| kitchen, view from dining area |
 |
| our massive pantry - pictures do not do justice to its actual size |
 |
| view of dining area from main floor living area |
 |
| main floor living area |
 |
| front entrance |
 |
| upstairs bath |
 |
| spare room - soon to be office |
 |
| guest bedroom - these pics are confusing since the room is three different colours |
 |
| master bedroom |
 |
| master bedroom walk-in closet - yay for walk-in closets |
 |
| master bath |
 |
| den / lower level living room |
 |
| lower level living room - possibly poker table? possible computer area? |
 |
| the amazing lower level powder room |
 |
| yes, if you were wondering, that is metallic gold wallpaper - yikes |
 |
| lowest level storage nook |
 |
| beginning of the man cave |
 |
| wet bar / man cave |
 |
| laundry and deep freeze |
Sunday, February 20, 2011
first housewarming gift
less than 12 hours until we get possession of our house and we already got our first housewarming gift - thank you to the future in-law's! The Lost Art of Being a Man: How to Keep House is full of practical advice and a bit of humor, were definitely excited to read it. hopefully it has an entire chapter devoted to doing laundry, jesse definitely needs it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)