Dad Stuff

Let the demo begin!

My house has been on this earth for 100+ years, had countless owners and has definitely seen some shit so ripping down walls is very exciting and nerve racking at the same time. With a house this old you are always almost guaranteed to find something interesting. In the kitchen I found a spot for an old window which i knew would have been there (our neighbours house is a mirror of ours) so that wasn’t super exciting but I also found a gas pipe leading upstairs. I wasn’t quite sure what it was but according to some reputable sources (a friend told me) it was probably a gas line for the gas lighting the houses use to have. Super dope!

The electrician we hired, in addition to wiring our new kitchen also converted our fuse box to breakers! Best thing ever. I was so sick of fuses. He would also later come back and move all the outlets on the main floor out of the baseboard and onto the wall. The old knob and tube wiring always put the outlets in the baseboard. This is a dead give away if you ever view an old home. Outlets in the baseboard = Knob and tube. (weather or not its hooked up)   

I also bought some Roxul to insulate the kitchen a bit better. That was my first time insulating anything. I thought i knew enough from all the Roxul ad’s I’ve worked on and honestly it was pretty easy. (I think it did it right! lol)

First things first. The Door!

Look at how much space is wasted by the original basement door being where it is. Sure we could have just put like a cart there and moved it every time we went down in the basement but who wants to live like that. 

Our solution was to put the door in the hallway so we could build a wall where it use to be and push the fridge right up against it freeing up a lot of space. I knew this was going to be quite tricky because of the basement stairs. The last thing we wanted was to open a door and have to jump down onto two different level steps. This was sort of a good thing because we need a new staircase in the basement as well as we needed to reinforce our main staircase. So we had multiple contractors come through to quote us on the job.

We ended up hiring a gentleman who did a good job on the basement steps and door but was the worlds messy person EVER. This guy never cleaned up any mess and He also went throw my fridge snacking on left overs. This was very apparent from all the drywall mud finger prints on everything which was pretty hilarious.  

Let’s go shopping! 

Pro Tip! if you are ever going to build an Ikea kitchen make sure you wait for a Kitchen Event. You get a percentages back in gift cards based on how many appliance you buy. We bought a double oven, dishwasher, a gas range and microwave hood fan and got about $1700 back in gift cards. So dope!

Also get them to deliver it. Look at how many boxes and items there are. No way i was lugging all of this home by myself. 

If you have a toddler they will help prep your old kitchen for demos and colour in the instructions for the new cabinets so it’s not super ugly, plain drawings. 

Kitchen before 

When my wife and I first bought the house we knew the kitchen would need to be redone. It had little to no counter space with awful dated countertops, broken taps, a horrible lazy susan cupboard thing, hardly any place to put food and a giant waste of space beside the fridge for the basement door. The lack of cupboards was due to the fact that at some point a previous owner had knocked down a wall between the dining room and kitchen and although I am grateful for the open concept, having little cupboard space is a pain in the ass.  Our first solution to make the space bearable was to paint. This has been my go to with every new space I have gotten in my life. A can of paint really can change a space, unfortunately it wasn’t enough so we spent a little more money on a butcher block island and some bar stools from ikea (Black STENSTORP). This was definitely the saving grace for our horrible kitchen and would have to do until we were in a position where we had the money and the know how for a major kitchen reno. 

Attic master bedroom is starting to come together. 

After getting the drywall all tapped up I spent a good weekend priming and painting and getting ready for the custom bookshelf knee wall. The structor was built by a friend (well he actually had to rebuild someone else's mess). He also put together the final touches on the windows, the bookshelf and the wood beams. He did an amazing job and it really felt like it was getting done. 

The carpet was just recently put in. my wife’s uncle Jimmy is an amazing floor guy and he had the whole room done in about 2 hours. Belle was helping me vacuum and definitely approves this new space which i’m sure she will spend a lot of time in. 

When we bought the house the roof had just been re-done but once I started ripping down walls I realized almost all of the insulation was gone or mouldy and from the 50′s. 

At some point there was a leak in the roof and it ruined all the insulation in the attic room. The previous owners didn’t really use the space or if they did never bothered checking the damage. Like a fool i thought i would take on the task of ripping out all the old insulation. Thankfully I never did ran into any asbestos but I would not recommend doing this task. It was awful. If you have the money this would be a good place to spend it.

Once it was gutted we had spray foam insulation done, the front window replaced and we also ripped up the floor and had an electrician updated all the electrical on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Never do your own electrical.

Attic Renovations - Pre-Demo stage.