Sunroom - in December

We have installed all of the windows in the sun room as well as a small shed window in the area below the sun room. This will allow light to fill the shed which will help in finding items as well as possible allow the shed to serve as a winter storage ares for plants.

Cedar shingles

We have started applying shingles to the exterior of the sun room.
The windows we ordered will be available to be picked up in 3 days.

Sun Room update

We have been moving forward with the renovations on the sun room. We have removed the old windows and the exterior door. We ordered new windows and installed a new door. The porch has been constructed and part of the railing has been installed. The old siding has been removed in preparation for the installation of new cedar shingles. Wed decided to install a window to allow some natural light into the shed area below the sun room.

Sun room renovation

We have decided to renovate and repair the sun room which is just off the kitchen. Here are some of the before photos.

The stairs have already been removed, the entire sun room will be stabilized and we will be updating it with new windows and new siding.

Just for Fun!

I was browsing the House and Home magazine's website and I came across this link... Vote For Your All-Time Favourite H&H Room.

I voted for this room, it feels beachy to me and I am a sucker for anything that reminds me of the beach.

 

Basement mini bar

We have finished painting the brick wall in the basement (behind the art) white. It was white before but a really dirty looking white. Now it is brighter and cleaner looking. We purchased this piece of art from Home Sense. The colours in it match our color scheme perfectly. The rest of the items in this photo we had prior to renovating our basement, we have just move them around. We will continue to complete this are by setting up a few bar items on the counter top.

Splurge vs. Steal

Yesterday we took a trip to Costco to purchase a new trash can for the kitchen. This model came with a smaller version as well for the bathroom. This trash can has a sensor which opens when you place your hand above the lid. I am very happy with this product as we no longer have to deal with the lid hitting the wall each time throw something in the garbage. This trash can set was $55.00 plus tax.

Simple Human has a similar trash can but with more features. This product sells for $250.00. I will admit that the trash can from Costco is not the same quality as the Simple Human trash can but I am happy with the lower price.

Trim n things

We have installed the majority of the trim around the windows and doors. I have also started painting the trim. You can see evidence of this due to the blue painters tape that is still around the window in the powder room. The vanity has been installed along with the mirror. There are a few minor adjustments needed to line up the mirror correctly. We have hooked up the plumbing to the sink in the powder room. The next step is to install the towel holder, toilet paper holder and coat hook.

I installed the faux wood blinds in the powder room over the weekend. They should just call these "plastic", there is nothing faux wood about them. Don't get me wrong, I am pleased with how they look, just wished they could have tried harder to make them look a bit more like wood.

Lock set installation

Today we spent more time than anticipated to drill and install the lockset for the pocket door in the powder room. We used this lock set drilling template and this pocket door lock set. It was a bit tricky to install due to the fact that the pocket door is hollow. The template was very helpful. It came with the hole saws and router bits required to install the lock set. In these photos you may also notice that we have installed some trim to cover the exposed plumbing.

Tiling continued...

The tiling of the floor continues. Ryan has laid all of the solid pieces of tile and now he is cutting and installing the smaller cut pieces. This is the reason he is wearing his rain gear, cutting tile can get a bit messy with the wet saw.

The next step in our project will be to build an enclosure around the exposed pipe in the bathroom. Once that is completed we can install the sink, vanity and faucet.

Time for tile

We have finally finished painting the walls and ceilings of the laundry room, powder room and the hallway. A few weeks ago we purchased the ceramic tile to finish flooring the basement. We had a hard time finding beige ceramic tile to match the tile we installed in the laundry room a few years ago. Finally we found a similar tile at Rona. We purchased the tile for $0.99 per foot. This allowed us to keep our project on budget.

We have paint on the walls!

I am excited to say that we have paint on the walls, real paint, not just boring primer. Once the primer and ceiling paint had been applied we painted one coat of paint on the walls of the powder room and surrounding areas. The laundry room has not yet been painted but it has been partially primed. We placed the vanity in the powder room to see how it would look with the wall sconces and the newly painted walls. So far, so good. We still have to install the floor tiles before permanently installing the vanity and faucet.

In the prime of its life...

I have just completed applying one coat of drywall primer to the walls of the basement and powder room. The ceiling will be a job for tomorrow. This week we purchased the paint for the walls of the entire basement. We decided on the color Muslin by Benjamin Moore, but instead of buying it at Benjamin Moore we had Home Depot match the colour in Behr paint. The reason we did this was for two reasons, cost and quality. I will agree that Benjamin Moore is a premium paint but we have had a lot of success with Behr paint as well.

Up to our ears in "dust control" drywall compound

We are at the stage of our renovation I like to call drywall hell. This is the stage after the drywall compound has been applied and is ready for sanding. The sanding is not as bad as it could have been if we were not using dust control drywall compound. This product is worth the extra money. It still creates dust, but the dusts seems to fall straight to the ground rather than floating around in the air and attaching itself to everything in your home.

We recently purchased a new Rigid vacuum. The key is to make sure that the filter and the bags are always clean. We discovered this the hard way when the motor on our last vacuum died due to the sheer volume of drywall dust we were cleaning up on previous projects.

I think the sanding of the drywall compound will be done bythis weekend and the I can start priming and painting the walls.

BC Home & Garden Show

www.vancouverhomeshow.com

I am really excited to visit the BC Home and Garden show next month. From March 2 - 6, 2011 there will be 425+ exhibitors where you can find the latest in new products for your home. This is going to give me so many ideas for our house, hopefully we can DIY most of them so we can stay on budget. The next project we want to attempt is renovating and repairing our sunroom.

Hunting for tile

We spent a good portion of our day trying to find some reasonably priced tile to match the beige ceramic 12" tiles we already have in our laundry room.

We did not have any luck today locating the tile which is alright since we are not at the tiling stage yet. We did have luck purchasing the lock set for the pocket door in our powder room. We purchased the King Star lock set from Home depot as well as the Irwin door lock installation kit.


www.irwin.com

Paint colors

I have decided the Grant Beige by Benjamin Moore may be a bit too green-ish for my taste. It is also a bit darker than I thought when looking at photos online.











From left to right: Grant Beige, Barely Beige, Muslin

Now that I have looked at these 3 colors I think I am leaning more towards Muslin by Benjamin Moore.

Time for some drywall compound

Now that all ofthe drywall has been installed we have started applying the drywall compound to the walls and ceilings.













I have also started painting all of the closet doors including the pocket door. I am using Ultra Pure White Semi-Gloss paint by Behr from Home Depot.

Drywall goes up in the basement

Today is the first day that dryall is being placed trough the rest of the basement. The walls have been completed and now the ceiling will be completed.











Once the drywall has been installed and finished we will pain the walls a color called Grant Beige by Benjamin Moore.

The toilet is in

We have now installed the toilet as well as the wall sconces. We have just purchased this mirror. It will be hung between the wall sconces which are on the opposite wall of the toilet.













This is the style of bathroom hardware we purchased today for the bathroom. The Zen line from Umbra fits in with the other items in the bathroom. The light fixtures, faucet and hardware on the vanity are all polished chrome.
We purchased the hand towel ring, toilet paper holder and the single hook.

Drywall is up

All of the drywall has been installed throughout the entire bathrroom. The electrical and plumbing has also been installed. Once we finish mudding the dryall and laying the ceramic tile we can install the sink and vanity.














This is a photo of the bifold doors that hide the furnace and hot water tank on the other side of the hallway.

Mirror mirror on the wall

We have not purchased a mirror yet for the bathroom but I have my eye on this one. It is 24" wide and 36" high. It is the perfect size for this bathroom and I love the beveled edge. This mirror is a bit above our budget but we saved money on other items such as the basic chrome faucet. See below.

Mix n match insulation

The interior and exterior walls of this room have had some insulation installed. We are using leftover insulation from other projects from around our house.

The electrical portion of the project has also been started. There has been an electrical outlet installed behind the wall which supports the wall hung macerating toilet. This is to supply power to the toilet.

There are two junction boxes installed where we will have wall sconce lighting fixtures installed on each side of the mirror. The vanity will be below.

Framing the bathroom

Most of the framing has been completed and the frame for the toilet has been hung.

The frame for the pocket door has also been installed. We will be using a 24 inch wide pocket door to save space.

This is how the toilet will look once the room has been completed. The toilet will have to be removed again to hook up the plumbing and install the drywall.