Getting closer…

To the main floor getting finished!

While waiting to borrow a table saw; I hired a contractor friend for a bit to help finish drywall the stairwell and the upper hallway.

Carmine Manna – top 10 competitor on HGTV’s Handyman Superstar Challenge season 4.

After finishing most of the drywall, we decided to go pick up stone for the kitchen chimney,.. It was around 3pm and wanted to beat rush hour.

There was lots to choose from

We ended up with buying the stone on the right

Thanks to the inlaws, I have a table saw for a few months.
Now I was able to finish the last few sq/ft of flooring.

Why did I need the table saw? Well,… I need to cut a groove on the one side so I can create a stair nose for the top of the basement stairs.

We have 2.5 boxes of flooring left,.. That’s approx 60 sq/ft of flooring. Stored in the basement for when we so upstairs.

With the extra wood, I made toe-kicks for all the kitchen cabinets.

I also felt a little creative; we didn’t know what to do with the cold air return

Just sitting there staring at it and looking at the extra flooring,.. I came up with a good idea.

Next step is prepping the kitchen chimney stack for stone.

We put plywood around (mostly to hide a misc gas line that goes to the 2nd floor)

Then painted it dark gray (to simulate mortar); the stone will be glued to the stack with PL Premium (second strongest construction adhesive on the store shelves, strongest being PL 9000)

And started work on the entrance until I ran out of mdf for making the trim.

After picking up more mdf,.. I lost the motivation to continue.

So we picked up a used/new to us dining room set for $300 off of kijiji.ca

Put the old set on kijiji.ca for free,.. Within 30 mins I had 3 people willing to pick it up right away,.. But not tonight,…. I’m tired!

5 days left and counting….

The new appraisal is being ordered on Friday,.. Need to have the main floor finished and the upper hallway completed.

As of today:

Completed the kitchen floor and as I was working on the bathroom entrance (with approx 3 sq/ft left) my table saw bit the dust.

Also completed: the stairs.

To carry on with work last night and not make too much noise: I completed the stairs.

Painting and adding a carpet runner.

On the last face, you may be able to tell that I pieced parts of the runner together to make it look even as I made the 90* turn.

1 step closer to completion.

Tonight I also finished the wiring for the end bedroom, the hallway and 2 outlets of the 2nd bedroom.

All that is left is the master (4 outlets and a light), the linen closet (1 light – pull switch) and the 2nd bedroom (3 outlets and a light)

5 days left….

New floors!

New floors have been in the plans for a very looooong time,.. To the point that steph talked about new floors every week,.. And then daily.

It was time!

We have been looking at different types of floor and different types of wood; we have kids,.. And now a dog. We have to be very careful on the type of wood and finish.

At first we looked at bamboo. It’s known to be very hard.

On the Janka hardness scale it score a 1450.

To put that into perspective:

Hard-rock Maple scores an 1156
Royal Mahogany scores 1400
Teak – 1075
White Ash – 1320

Bamboo was on our minds for a long time.

While always keeping an eye out for a good deal, I stumbled across a 5.25″ wide oak; hand scraped and wire brushed for that distressed look.

This was at Home Depot – Bruce hardwood floors

White Oak is quite comparable in hardness: 1333

We have a circumstance that requires us to have flooring installed within 10 days (starting 3 days ago) along with other unfinished projects.

I went to order this flooring and there was a 2-3 week wait for product delivery… Uh oh, time for a new hardwood.

Back to searching like a frenzy stephanie spotted Acacia,.. We looked further into where we can buy this and if it was in stock. Found a place called hardwood direct here in Calgary.

Easy guys to deal with and they had what we wanted in stock!

3.5″ wide, solid Acacia – walnut stained; hand scraped prefinished hardwood.

BTW: the Janka hardness for Acacia is 1750!!!
Pretty darn good!

Score!

Right away, we were sold the instant we saw this wood. It was just right, like we were meant to have this wood!

Brought enough to do the main floor and got busy (all the while I’m working real estate in a crazy market!)

After 2.5 days,.. I finished the entrance, living room and dining room.
Just have the kitchen left to do.

You can see, I had to level the floor at the front of the house. In the 102 years of its life. The front settled 3/4″

Now that the front half of the house is mostly complete, I took a look at the very first computer generated plans I had before we even moved into the home.

I’ll repost those pictures here,.. The flooring is surprisingly similar.

And finally before I call it a night:

Steph found a beautiful new chandelier for the dining room.

400 crystals all neatly wrapped in chrome with 7 x 40w G12 bulbs

Pretty and stunning.

Next,.. Kitchen floor!

Front porch part 1

Onto our most recent and most expensive project!!

The front curb appeal!

Coming home was getting depressing. Looking at the front of the house was giving me NO motivation to renovate.

It’s pretty ugly.

First step is to clean out the crap. I was so disturbed by the front I got right into ripping everything down just to start with a clean slate!

With it looking like that, it sort of reminded me of an old picture we found of the house. I had posted this pic in an earlier post, but I’ll post it again here.

With the old crappy porch gone, we are now on thinking mode of what we want the ‘new’ house to look like! What we are planing to do will not only re-vitalize the house, but the neighborhood too!

Here is an original concept I drew up over a year ago

We had scrapped it once we both decided that we wanted a deck off the master. So back to the drawing board.

The next concept is what follows:

Don’t think about the colors, those are yet to be determined.

There is the sketch for our 2 storey porch!

Time to build our most expensive project to date! And biggest!

It starts with a proper foundation.

For a 2 storey deck/porch, a 10″ diameter, 4′ deep concrete pile must be in place. At least 2 of them.

The decks I’ve seen in all my career have been built with 2×8’s with a triple 2×8 beam holding up the deck.

A good friend of mine who is a contractor gave me some fantastic advice.

Dig 3 support holes; use only the top 12-24″ of a concrete form. This way the concrete will form a tight fit to the hole and will “grab” the earth better should lifting from freezing happen.
The frost line here is 3′
He also suggested using a 12″ tube. This way the non-tube part of the pile will end up being the proper 10″ with a tight form to the hole.

I bought a post hole shovel and spent the afternoon digging!

To finish the 3rd hole, I needed to break the 60 yr old concrete sidewalk. Thought it would be easy with a 20lb sledge, but I was wrong. The flipping walk was 8″ thick!!! Thankfully the use of rebar was not practiced back then.

Went to Home Depot and bought more concrete. Thankfully they got another larger order. To be on the safe side, I took extra to finish my rear walk in the back yard.

Each pile took 5 bags of concrete!

I know, I know; some of you might be thinking – “those piles should be out of the ground about 4-6″ so snow doesnt pile up against your main support and rot it out”

Rest assured, the whole deck will be skirted (before winter) so no chance of rotting support.

Once the concrete had cured, its time to start building!

2×10 ledger board is attached to the house with 8″ – 3/8″ galvanized lag bolts (via impact gun).

Then a triple 2×10 main beam on 6×6 supports over the concrete piles I poured.

With joist hangers I frame up the main deck with 2x10s.

The deck will be 8′ deep and a hair over 17′ wide. Steph was worried the deck might be too big, but I had started already and couldn’t change it.

The deck top material we chose is a 1×6 cedar. Smells awesome when its cut and when it’s wet. That wood is beautiful!

Next is stairs!

I measured the hight, divided by 7.5″ and came up with the number of steps I needed. But to be more accurate on rise, I took the number of steps I averaged out and divided that into the height of the deck. Now I had the proper rise (which ended up being approx 8″) for the number of steps we wanted. I also wanted a nice deep tread; so I cut the tread part at 10″ so I can have a 11-12″ step.

I cut 4 stringers from left over 2x10s to make a 5′ wide staircase.

I will have to pull the steps off to skirt the deck later, so they are not completely finished.

Total cost of the front porch at this point is approx $1100 in materials.

This was the end of weekend #2 (first weekend was digging the holes and pouring the concrete piles)

Onto week 2 and weekend #3.
The second level was to start! The neighbors had some hired help the day before. The offered to give me a hand to get started on the second level for just $40 and a case of beer!
Deal!! I took them on!
By the end of day 1, the 2nd level was all framed up!
2×10 ledger lag bolted to the house just like the main deck.
3, 6×6 solid beams and support posts that sit directly on top of the triple 2×10 main beam. ( I had cut out 6×6 squares of the cedar deck to insert the 6×6’s right onto the main beam)

We used 2×4’s to steady the 6×6’s level-straight while we framed up the second level

What an amazingly productive day!

The following day was topping it with cedar deck boards.

The depth of the upper deck is only 7′ as opposed to the lower deck that is 8′.

I’m excited as its now passed the halfway mark and I can start the railings!

Rain….. Changing things quickly!

The following day it rained,.. A lot.
I realized how much a hated water dripping on my head, while under my porch…….

I’m glad it did before I started the upper railings.

I ripped up the deck and made it more waterproof!

It was an additional $300 in material, but well worth it!!

1/2″ pressure treated ply, then an all weather roof underlayment, and cedar decking on top.
The cedar is cut and laid front to back with a small gap (1/16″) as a channel for water to flow.

Both decks I designed with a slight grade away from the house. An approximate 1/2″ slope from back to front.

Railing we kept traditional and simple made with all pressure treated 2x4s and 2×2 pickets. Capped with a 2×6 to rest your drinks on!

And at the end of weekend #3, my blog is up to date, I’m super tired and loving how the deck turned out!!

Tested the deck by hosing it off for 30 mins,… Not a drop seeped through!!

Supposed to have some thunder showers this week,.. Can’t wait to test out the deck and sit outside during!

I cleaned up the yard, mowed the 3 week growth of grass (that wasnt covered with piles of wood, end cuts and empty beer bottles/cans).
Proudly staked out “century home” flag into the ground and called it a day!

Don’t worry the porch isn’t done yet!

I still need to put on a facia piece on the front of the upper deck (to cover the baluster joints – I don’t like the look of the lag bolts, although it does signify strength), the some kind of trim to give a bit of detail.

Trim the bottom of the 6×6’s with a 3.75″ board,.. Not sure if I want to buy trim or cut down some left over deck material.

Skirt all around the deck

Finish the stairs with railings

Wire in pot lights under the deck and steph would like a nice exterior chandelier right over the front door.

I’ve also thought about running another exterior outlet to the upper deck – unfortunately that would be switched with the front porch lights. Or, I could just punch a small hole when i re wire the master during that Reno,…. Sometime later.

We are going to cedar shake the peak (probably top 4 or 5 rows), and cedar shake the main deck area of the front of the house.

Cant forget to mention: install French doors off the master to the upper deck – which I have found on kijiji for $100 and should be picking them up tomorrow!

Next weekend is installing French doors off the master to enjoy the mornings and evenings!

Not sure what to do about a bug screen yet.

FYI: material cost to date is sitting approx. $2700.

I think I need to stop counting as I feel the pain in my wallet just looking at the number I just typed out…..

Just need to keep thinking to myself,.. If I had hired a company to do this,.. I would be well over 10k for the finished porch!

Main floor bathroom

Main Floor Bathroom

It’s about time I catch up on this blog!!

Many distractions have happened during my absence from blogging.

Temporary watch fetish, becoming an uncle again, new puppy, moving up in my career, unrelated health issues with family and etc.

But you guys don’t want to hear about that. In fact, I’m sure you don’t want to read much more than I do. So I’ll get on with pictures!

Starting with framing up to hide the sink and tub plumbing stack.

We got a brand new pedestal sink from a friend, who had never used. He bought it as a discontinued model from a local hardware store.

Unfortunately it must’ve got bumped around a little and the base had split.

For now I used construction adhesive and put it together, just so we have a working bathroom.

Putting up the drywall

Laying down some tile we got for free. We were given just enough to do this floor. I was happy it kinda matched what we put in the upper bath; almost the same color and pattern.

Because of the distractions, the bathroom sits like this today.

Stay tuned,.. More catchup posts to come shortly!

Dining room – finished!

Dining Room = Finished!!!

This long dining room project has come to an end! We are now ready for family dinners!

I believe in the last blog post, I had finished the coffered ceiling.

Next was to finish the walls.

Just a lot of elbow grease – well,… Paint.

And the wall treatment,… Wall paper.

And here is the close up if the wall paper I chose.

It’s nice and subtle,… Kinda too subtle…. Plus,…… I installed it upside down.

Yes, take a close look. The flowers are upside down and the fruits are hanging up.

After a day, I really didn’t like the wall paper, so I asked steph to go out and get something else. I let the woman’s touch prevail. She does have some elegant taste, especially with the wallpaper and the chandelier.

I will finish off this blog post with the finished product!

This house is far from finished so stay tuned for the next project!

In the meantime,… Stay thirsty my friends!!

Dining room part 5

The end is Near!!

The dining room is almost finished!

Been a long haul on this one because of the coffered ceiling.

After finishing up all the trim install, it’s time for primer

After the primer i started working on the ceiling.
The centers of all the boxes got a flat white ceiling paint

All the trim for the coffer got a brilliant gloss white

And now for the final touch for the ceiling,… Accent lighting!

Next step is to finish painting the wainscot and wall/window treatment.
Steph has a crystal chandelier picked out too.

This will have to wait till the final dining room blog post.

In the meantime, I took a trip to invermere, BC, and ran across this old century home. I loved some of the architecture and wanted the post up a couple pictures to remember.

That’s it for now you guys!

Hopefully we should be done the dining room within the next week!

Dining room part 4.5

Just finishing up the wainscot and adding a ledge all around.

Earlier I was trying on different ideas for a ledge.

3″ ledge with crown underneath

Or, 2″ ledge with a quarter round….

We chose the smaller but with only a 1.5″ ledge.
The quarter round I made in the garage and carefully routed the ends.

Next step is to fill the nails and joints; prime and paint!

On a time crunch for the dining room now. Trying to have it finished by Angels birthday; November 12.

Dining room part 4

Trim, trim and more trim.

I don’t have a lot to say, maybe the progress picture can speak for me

Dining room part 3

Back on the coffered ceiling!

Not much for words today, just progress pictures.

Here I’ve finished off all the crown molding inside each of the boxes.

Here I’ve now capped the bottom of the ledger board and started trimming it all out.

I whipped our a string of Christmas rope lights,. To give you all a glimpse of my plan for the coffered ceiling.

Seeing as now I’m almost done with the ceiling. Trimming out the openings and windows will be easy, it’s time to start thinking about wainscoting.

Just pulling out ideas from the net.

This one is my favorite, and likely what I will be doing. Only in white 🙂