I drafted this post in 2020 and didn’t get around to adding a photo. So, I’ve added the photo and will post it, but you should know we have finished the bathroom and I’ll add a post about that soon.
The original bathroom in the house, upstairs, was quite small. I’ve seen photos of smaller bathrooms, but this one was small enough. One couldn’t sit on the toilet without bumping knees on the bathtub. It had a pocket door, a small pedestal sink, cabinet above the toilet, and a 5′ clawfoot tub.
The bathroom was at the end of the hall. To the left was the main bedroom and to the right was a spare room. I used that spare room as a wood refinishing room. Prior to that it was my home office.
To get into the spare room, there was a 3′ ‘tunnel’. Along the west wall was small closet, which earlier owners of the house had built a closet extension feature, making it possible to actually hang clothes in it.
That closet wall was shared by the other bedroom upstairs, my son’s room. He too had a small closet, with a custom built closet extender. So, between the spare room and my son’s room was a double wall, permitting closets for each bedroom.
We have now removed the spare bedroom closet wall, gaining about 2 feet in that room. We have also closed off the original entrance to that room and added that space to the bathroom. The bathroom door is now extended at an angle across the hallway. The bathroom is significantly larger. Here’s a picture of it in its gutted state:
Bathroom gutted and expanded
The plan now is, once taping is done, to:
The window stool (what most people call the window sill) was broken when the exterior siding was put on last summer. I”m not sure how that happened but they obviously pulled or nailed so hard that it cracked the stool. And I damaged one of the window casings when I pulled it out. So, I have to re-do the window trim for the bathroom. I’ll leave the window as it is – vinyl casement – for now, and hope to find money in the next few years to replace with a more appropriate window.
prime and paint (a light sea-foam green)
install in-floor heat
install rectangular floor tiles, reminiscent of marble
install wall panelling about 3′ up and leave it a creamy white
install a traditional medicine cabinet
install a larger pedestal sink, already purchased- here’s a stock photo:
Install new toilet, already purchased – here’s a stock photo:
refinish exterior of claw foot tub and paint black
have interior of tub refinished
install new light fixture, already purchased- here’s a photo:
install linen cupboard in newly created space. Not sure where I’ll purchase that from.
So, lots to do, but it’s amazing how quickly some things can get done. The reconstruction of the space upstairs (which included changes to my son’s old room and the stair case, to be covered in another post) took just a week. Drywall hanging took a couple of days. Taping seems to be taking forever. We’re on week two of that, I think. But it can all come together pretty quickly. Or not. we’ll see.
Soooo, it’s been a while. I’m sure you’ve been on the edge of your seats all winter, wondering what is up with my house. And the answer is, not much really. But, I’ve got a few things done and there’s some progress and I’ve got some help, and my intention is to be ‘done’ by the end of August 2020. There will always be things to do, because that’s the way it is with home ownership, but my renovation will be done.
That’s lofty, given how many times I’ve said that kind of thing over the years. For a renovation that was supposed to take 5 months, to still be at it 4 years later is crazy, actually. But I can see the end of the tunnel and there appears to be a light there.
I’ll fill in the details in some upcoming posts, but I’ve done a few things since last summer:
grading from front to back is done
stone driveway done
balcony done
fence at back done
back patio done
deck for garbage and recycling bins done
main floor and upstairs joists sistered supported
teleposts for supporting staircase put in, and floor cranked mostly level
basement stairwell gutted (plaster slumped after asshat builder let it rain in my house)
new drywall in basement stairwell
header at bottom of basement stairs moved, can now go down without knocking one’s head
some new electrical switches in basement
closet at back door done
original living and dining room ceilings taken down (lath & plaster)
confirmation no knob & tube in house that is still connected
upgrading of some electrical outlets and switches
house grounded (grounding was disturbed when new furnace put in and no new grounding put in) – no more shock treatment at my house
stripping of trim begun
stairway to upstairs now without a turn, with landing in new open area (was a bedroom)
entrance way to spare room moved
spare room enlarged
bathroom enlarged
plumbing for bathroom moved
new fan in bathroom
bathroom wired for in-floor heat
drywall stripped from exterior walls on spare room and new open area, insulation on those walls, redrywalled
That’s a lot, when it’s noted down like that. I’ll post some pictures when I have time.
So after what amounts to 3 full years of being ‘under renovation’, and an additional year before that spent negotiating with a contractor who turned out to be an extreme idiot, my nerves are pretty frayed and I probably have an unreasonably low tolerance for mistakes and crappy workmanship. I’ll admit to that.
But as a consumer who is paying and has paid big bucks for work, should I not feel entitled to:
Get what I want;
Have good results; and
Have it done in a timely manner, as promised?
I’m not sure I have the perspective necessary to see whether what I continue to experience is truly crappy or whether I’m suffering from clouded judgment or something worse.
In any event, here’s the most recent story: I hired a sprinkler repair guy. Sole practitioner. Website says he likes solving problems in existing sprinkler systems, rather than installing new. Sounded perfect for me. I made an appointment with him, for $75.
I only wanted the front sprinkler sorted out, as the backyard is a construction wasteland this year. Scheduling a time when he could make it over was difficult, and that should have been my heads up. But I really didn’t want to hire the big companies with huge overhead and that wouldn’t repair my tiny sprinkler system, but would rather argue to reinstall. I was on my holidays anyway, so if he came one day or the next, it didn’t really matter. He eventually came. He diagnosed. He said he would be back in two weeks, as he had a job to finish and then was away for a week.
He kept in touch. That’s the good news. But he didn’t come in two weeks. He didn’t come for six weeks. By this time my front yard was a desert and the landscaping that I had planned to do during my holidays was put off, waiting for the sprinklers to be done first. This allowed the weeds that I had spent hours pulling to regrow in triple force. My front yard is a weed bed.
Then, when he did come he didn’t have parts etc. and the job took two days, and the bill came in at twice the price estimated. And he wanted the bill paid immediately. I paid it and silently said good riddance.
I haven’t been able to use the sprinklers because the week after he was done, the landscapers came and promptly drove over one of my brand new sprinkler heads with a Bobcat, breaking it.
Why was the Bobcat on my dessicated lawn? Because the landscaper thought I wanted gravel in that spot, and they were preparing it by scraping the lawn off. Unfortunately for both of us, that wasn’t the plan and never was.
So, here’s really where the overreaction came in. I happened to be working upstairs on my stupid walnut floor which is taking forever to install, and I looked out the window when I heard them with the Bobcat. I saw it happen and I was appalled. My brand new sprinkler, which I paid a stupid amount of money for! Wah!
I ran out to the front and exclaimed at the worker and then ran inside again. I was embarrassed I’d done that. We straightened it out after, but I was that easily reduced to fury and impotent rage. I feel like I might have construction PTSD.
Blood, sweat, and tears. But only a few hundred dollars to refinish the family room floor myself, instead of $1700 by a professional*. Was it worth it? The jury is still out.
As a recap, this floor was one I installed myself, from reclaimed Douglas fir. I knew the floor would never look ‘new’, and that was what I was looking for.
From the farm:
Beautiful old growth Douglas fir floors
To my house in the City (installed but not sanded and finished):
I am not happy with the new colour (see photos below), but I can’t change it unless I’m prepared to re-sand it, and let me tell you, sanding it was tough and I won’t take a re-sanding decision lightly.
It was tough only because I did not have the right sander at the outset. Because it is a softwood (fir), I used a random orbital sander. My understanding was that a belt sander would be too aggressive and I would wreck the floor, particularly in my amateur hands. So, I rented a random orbital sander – one that uses four 6″ round sanding discs. I’m sorry that I didn’t take a picture of that sander, but it was a Cherry Hill U-Sander, rented from my local Rent-it store.
I started with 36 grit. I couldn’t get a 20 grit. I sanded for four days, maybe 18 hours total. Then I went to rent a drum sander and handheld edge sander, but the rental store talked me out of it and rented me a random orbital plate sander. Essentially, the same device as the random orbital disc sander, but using a single large sandpaper instead of four discs. I spent another 2 days sanding with that. I preferred the plate sander over the four disc sander, but it was also very slow.
You’ll notice in the photo above that there are what appear to be barbells attached to the sander. Yes, I tied on 40 pounds of barbells, so that I would get better friction/sanding, because otherwise the machine was entirely useless. For the hours and hours and hours I spent sanding, I had comparatively little sawdust. So, on the next floor it will definitely be the drum sander to start.
Anyway, after the plate sander, I got on my hands and knees and used my own handheld Festool random orbital sander for two days, until I noticed that it was so aggressive that it was leaving marks of its own. So I got out my handheld finish sander and spent another day on my knees sanding out the Festool marks.
I could have kept sanding, but I finally had to call it quits. My holidays were coming to a close and my knees were bleeding. But the floor looked gorgeous. Not brand-new perfect, but stunning to me.
I had to patch two spots before I finished sanding. I used sawdust and glue to mix a matching patch compound.
I ordered a finish called Rubio Monocoat. You can see in the photo below that I ordered cinnamon brown.
I read about Rubio on other blogs and did some brief research and decided that it was suitable for amateur use and would give me the finish look that I was going for – a rubbed oil look, in a single coat! I think another way to describe it is ‘hard-wax oil’.
It is oil – linseed oil. And that is the only smell. No other chemical smell, and while the linseed smell lingered lightly for 2-3 days, it is not an offensive smell.
The product goes on in a wipe on/wipe off fashion. Youtube videos recommended using a floor buffer/polisher for application. Use a red scrub pad to wipe on, a white pad to wipe off, and then a soft cloth wrapped around the white pad to buff and remove any remaining product. I tried that but it was far from easy and I hated doing it. Really hated it. I’ll never use that machine again.
Floor polisher
I ended up on my hands and knees again (occasionally wiping my blood and sweat off the floor), and did it that way for half the floor. It was labour intensive, but I liked the result better than the machine. In fact, you can see where I applied by hand and where I applied by machine, and in my view, the hand applied coat is much nicer. Unfortunately, the camera can’t pick up the difference.
Unfortunately, I don’t like the colour. It is too red. I should have stopped at this point and ordered a different colour:
What I loved about using Rubio:
No overlap or streak marks. The way that Rubio works (in my layman terms) is that the top wood cells absorb only as much of the oil as they can hold and no more. Once the cells are saturated, any extra that is put on top will not be absorbed, it will just be wiped off. So, as you wipe on and wipe off, there are no streaks or overlaps. Perfect for an amateur.
One coat only!! Really!
You can walk on it within 24 hours, and it is ‘cured’ in a week.
As I noted above, there is no offensive odour. In fact, I’ve read that some people like the smell. I can’t say that I liked it, but it was just fine, was very light, and dissipated entirely in 3 days.
It appears to be an environmentally friendly product – being linseed based. It’s low VOC.
The oil produces a glow in the wood. There is wonderful glowing depth.
The patches (made with sawdust and glue) are not noticeable as patches, per se, but as colour differentials. But since there are wide colour variations in the floor already, the patched ones don’t stand out in any way. The board in the photo above, just under the electrical socket, is one of the patched boards.
What I was less enamoured with:
I picked the wrong colour. Because where I live it is online ordering only and because I had only a week to get the entire project done and the sanding took far longer than I thought it would, I did not order samples and try out a few first, and I didn’t stop and re-order once I saw that it was too red/dark. This is entirely on me. But the lack of local dealer was a problem, and had there been a local dealer I would have stopped and reconsidered.
I got the product on my skin and it does not come out easily. I scrubbed with steel wool and got nowhere. Now, a week later, most of it is off, but my nails are still stained. I called the Canadian company to ask for their recommendation on removal, but got a response that suggests they’d never turned their minds to the possibility that someone might get it on their skin. Their suggestion for removal was soap and water.
The buffer process was problematic for me. I don’t know how other non-professionals managed that, but I didn’t. I did not get the best out of the product because of the buffer.
Because it is linseed oil, there are high flammability risks in used cloths/towels. I went through an entire old cotton bedsheet for wiping on/wiping off, and each fabric piece had to be laid out flat to dry before I put them in the bin.
So, the finished product, right? Let’s see it. I just want to warn that the photos don’t do justice to it. It truly glows. But it’s also really red.
It looks like an old-world finish to me, and just what I wanted.
So, walnut floor upstairs is next. Definitely starting with a drum sander, and not wasting time being gentle. Will use a ‘pure’ coat of Rubio, because I still like the product. I hope to get to that floor in the next few weeks.
*I had an estimate from a professional for almost $7000 for four similar-sized rooms, about 200 square feet each. The professional also told me that hard-wax oil finishes were not available in Canada because they were banned by Health Canada. Not true. So, he wasn’t going to give me the finish I wanted.
My house had a cute Juliet balcony. It was quite small, one Juliet only. But water got behind the stucco and rotted the original siding and sheathing. Made it unsafe. So, off it came, and was to be rebuilt just like it was. But, that would be a simpleton’s understanding of old houses. What was discovered is that it would have to be re-engineered because it would not meet any Code requirements if it was simply rebuilt in the same way.
How far we’ve come.Rotted sheathing and exposed wood-chip insulation.
What it had supporting it before was corbels. A small deck with corbels. Fit the profile of the house. In an interesting twist, I suspect this particular balcony was not original to the house. I have this view because, first, under the corbels, where they fit on the house, was siding. Now, it’s possible the original builder didn’t think ahead and sided before he built the balcony, but I doubt that. Siding would be one of the very last things done on the exterior, after everything structural was already built.
Second, the way the porch was fitted to the house was inappropriate for bearing weight. It was mounted with the corbels and then had about 6″ of roof joist slotted in between the floor joists of the house. I can’t believe I ever stood on it.
Third, the corbels themselves only had one surface coating and that was the stucco. They did not appear to have been painted or covered in any manner prior to the stucco.
In any event, I wanted it rebuilt so that it would be safe, and the builder offered me two options. One was where an engineer was retained to provide instructions (in 4-6 weeks) that would make a similar corbel type balcony code-compliant. The second option was to skip the engineered corbels and use pillars instead. I went with the second option.
I can hear all the upset voices from restoration-focused readers in my head. I know. I know.
I know.
The builder told me this: He would build a ‘draft’ that could be changed once I had a look at it, and it would look fine.
I had a look at it and didn’t like it. It was just bulky and in your face. Not the feeling the previous balcony projected.
Look at my pillars!
The pillars are giant and for unknown reasons, are set on the bottom step of the concrete and inset some four inches. Makes the entry unnecessarily narrow, and where am I to put the hand rail?
I hadn’t had any time to consider what a porch/balcony with pillars for a house of my vintage should look like, so didn’t know what to suggest instead. I looked across the street at the house of the same era, which has a front porch. It has elegant tapered square pillars. There’s probably a specific name for that type, but I don’t know it. But I knew the builder wouldn’t be able to give me that in short order.
So I settled on moving the pillars onto the landing and flush with the edge (but for where the ‘trim-out’ needs another ½”). It’s not perfect, but looks slightly more in tune with the house.
Slightly less obnoxious.
While I’m excited for slick new siding and having the exterior finished, I am extremely sorry that I have changed the entire exterior essence of this house. It looks like a Georgian manor, not a modest foursquare. I’d say it doesn’t fit with the street anymore, but since we have almost completely modern infill, it doesn’t matter anymore.
The new basement floor was poured almost three years ago, by asshat builder. I posted earlier about being promised a 7′ basement, but receiving something less – more like 6’8″. Since my son is 6’4″ and possibly still growing, every inch down there counts, as it is supposed to be a play area for him.
Drywall/taping/mudding was finished last week and it’s ready to be painted and finished. And this week, since I’m on vacation, I went down there to do that. That is when I noticed that the floor is nowhere close to level. I don’t know why I never noticed before, or maybe I noticed but did not understand the consequence, because I’m not an effing builder. I’m only trying to pick up the pieces and staunch the copious flow of cash out my door by doing some work myself. Live and learn baby (I’m listening to Nina Simone as I write).
When I think back to when it was being poured, I recall seeing one of the asshat’s assistants levelling it with a 2×4, which I have seen being done on TV. Since there are dips in the floor greater than two inches, I can only surmise that the massive dips were installed on purpose.
Like, I can’t understand how something other than a reasonably level floor could have been installed.
In any event, after years of being shocked and dismayed by the work of the asshat builder and his asshat associates, I understood that there was nothing to be done except to fix it, since no sub-floor would sit on it properly. So, I undertook to use a self-levelling cement . I’ve never done this before and have zero experience with working with cement, but I’ve seen it on TV. Not unexpectedly, like it was for Goldilocks, it’s been a bit of a disaster for me.
The good news is that my son helped me and I never once had to pick up or carry any of the bags and bags of 50lb cement.
Other good news is that I figured out that you can’t believe what you read on a label. The label on the cement said to use about 5L of water per 50lb bag, and that for my roughly 150 square feet I would need four bags of the stuff.
But after mixing four bags with roughly 20L of water, I was left with a substance that wouldn’t really pour/self-level (it required pushing around with the handy squeegee I bought) and only covered one corner of the space.
So, we had to let that dry and went back to the hardware store to buy four more bags. This time I Googled reviews of this product and added more water as was recommended by some users. Unfortunately, too much, and it probably won’t set properly. But it still didn’t cover the entire floor.
So, copy and paste, we had to let that dry (as much as it will) and went back to the hardware store to buy four more bags. Like I said, the good news is that I had my son to carry the cement. I’m an old lady now and my hands and wrists don’t like 50lb bags of dead weight. And he liked learning how *not* to pour cement.
And, four days later, I’ve decided we’re close enough, and once we have concrete, I will wipe up the water soup left over and we will shim the heck out of the subfloor and proceed as if everything is “just right.”
Who doesn’t love reclaimed wood?! I’m one of those people who gets extra joy out of reusing something historical and/or beautiful. Saving some cash is nice too. And knowing my own labour went into it makes me feel good too. So, three really good reasons to reuse! And that’s not even mentioning the environmental savings. No boatload of wood taken to the dump. No need to purchase additionally harvested wood. I can feel good about that too.
The main bedroom has walnut flooring, harvested from the living and dining rooms.
From here:
Out of the living room …
To here:
Stll not finsihed…. when the builder cleared out from doing trim work in this room, he took my mallet. Has not yet been returned.
What was notable when I took up the walnut floor is how many really short pieces went into it. The majority of pieces are 28-30″, with the shortest being 9″ and the longest being about 45.” In comparison, the fir taken from my grandma’s house ranged from 48″-180.” Much easier to install longer boards.
But, the walnut is nice too.
It still needs to be sanded and refinished, but I’m going to go for a similar natural finish.
Removal of the stucco revealed signatories in the cedar, along the east side of the house.
“VEH”?“SW”“GR”“JW”“VD”“LW”
My theory is that the stucco went on to the house either in the 1930s or the 1940s. Maybe the neighbourhood kids got together to immortalize themselves when they found out the stucco would go on.
I bit the bullet and agreed to new siding. I am a sell-out in that regard. My good intention was to remove all the stucco and restore the original bevelled cedar siding. But when it came down to it, after years of living in a construction nightmare and being beat down and overwhelmed with the scope of work, I decided to tear it all off and start new.
The profile of the new siding will look fairly close to the original. It is fibre cement board and will never need painting, unless it is damaged or I want to change it. It will come in the colour scheme that I chose when I was planning to paint. It will be all done in about 6 weeks. And the original part of the house will have the addition of 1″ rigid insulation on the outside. Also, I’ve seen the work of this siding company on a show home and it looks awesome.
So, those are the pros.
The cons are as I mentioned. My good intention was to restore what I had. It is a real loss to have torn away the cedar siding and put it in the dump. I had considered keeping it for siding a large shed I eventually want in the backyard, but there is no more room back there for piles of reclaimed wood. Honestly. The backyard runneth over and there is very little space for my dog to even do his business, let alone play. So into the dumpster it has gone. Along with the orange stucco. The stucco I have no qualms about and am pleased that I got rid of that dead weight on the house. But the cedar siding makes me sad.
Another con is the cost. OMG. But I have to accept it and move on.
So, the actual process is underway. I’m very happy so far with the installation company. The guy said he would start Monday and Monday he was here with a team of four people, cutting away the stucco. Today is Thursday and they have completed removing all the stucco, the cedar siding and tar paper, and are half-way through gluing on the rigid insulation. Then they’ll add house wrap and it will sit that way for about a month until the siding arrives. I expect the siding to take about 2 weeks to install.
The guy keeps a clean site and he and his workers are friendly and seem sympathetic to my old house and take care of it. For example, cutting stucco is very dusty work. They have covered my air conditioner and my plants and are stopped and cleaned up by the time I get home at 5:30. The guy has expressed his sympathy regarding my being hosed by the first builder and says he will help “make it right”.
So, that’s promising.
What I can show you so far:
Just starting on the front.Naked.Beautiful cedar. A/C protected from dust.Just something very impressive about this.You can see where a double window used to exist.1″ rigid foam. Will go a long way to insulate, as all there is otherwise is wood chip.Back of the house. They are not doing the kitchen bumpout at this time, as it will be getting a new roof and walls, maybe next year.Cross hatch cut with circular saw. Lots of dust.
And today is raining, so I’m not sure what will be done today. It wouldn’t surprise me if they continued on.
Last Tuesday I met with the Second Reputable Builder. I greatly reduced his chore list and asked him to focus on finishing what is started and one new thing: Rebuild my Juliet balcony. And then close out the plumbing ticket and the building permit and begone.
He said he would do that, except that the building permit can’t be closed until the siding is on. I said fine, get an extension on the permit and I’ll deal with siding later.
He said he would be done and out in two weeks.
Over the last week I have had a single drywaller here, taping and sanding the few seams in my basement. Probably spending 6 hours in total doing work. Nobody else has turned up.
I suppose if a couple of guys turned up and worked full days for the next 5 days, then they could conceivably get everything still on the list finished. But is that going to happen?
This building industry needs regulation. Standards. Enforcement. What I’ve seen is bullshit.
Dining room full of too much stuff
A reminder of my current living environment. Very stressful.
