The Bathroom

I realize it has been a while since I posted, and to my two readers, I apologize.

In our defence, Alex and I have been furiously travelling from house to house, living like hobos, for the sake of our project house. A HUGE thank-you to the various friends and family that took us in last week, they were wonderful to us during a particularly stressful time.

So, on to the house. I don't know if I ever mentioned the dreaded bathroom before, but she was a real treat. At a whopping 26-ish square feet, the lone bathroom in our little house was a force to be reckoned with. Original floor and wall tile, steel tub, ancient sink, and...the piece de resistance, the leaky toilet that was hooked up to a lead and cast iron stack. Every time we flushed, half of the toilet water decorated the floor of our basement. Luckily, that portion of the basement is unfinished so we got to witness the loveliness that is a toilet overflowing on a regular basis.

This was our first major renovation, and so I wanted to do it right. We realized rather quickly that in terms of doing the heavy construction, that we were in way over our heads. So we called in the experts aka some professional contractors (who also happened to be family so a discount was applied to our final total :). The bathroom was completely demo'd down to the studs, and a new subfloor was installed, framing was re-done, insulation, drywall, the works.

We picked and purchased all the main fixtures, which saved our contractors a lot of time and effort (and us money!), and allowed us to get exactly what we want. However, we also had to hire plumbers to do extensive plumbing work in our basement, which turned out to be more expensive than we thought.

All in all, our bathroom cost us double what we originally budgeted. I want to say "it was all worth it" and mean it, but I do admit it is painful to see the final cost. Our solace is that the bathroom was done correctly, the plumbing is excellent, and we have forged some great relationships with wonderful contractors who we will certainly use again.

And if we ever want to add another bathroom. We know who to call.

On to the photos!

The washroom is not fully finished, we still have to paint and have the boiler guy come back to put in the new radiator, but all the big stuff is done. 

Sink, shelving and tap are all from ikea, toilet, light fixtures and medicine cabinet are home depot. 

Shower curtain from Home Outfitters. 

 Tile is porcelain, from Savoia tile.

That toilet took us two hours to find. Alex's main contribution to the renovation, which turned out to be the inspiration behind the modern vibe we're going for.

Bathtub, showerhead and shower tile are all from Home Depot. 

Naturally I chose the most time-consuming application of tile.

 But it looks amazing eh?

We literally had 13 inches of clearance when the door opened, so a traditional vanity was out of the question. Luckily ikea makes fantastic vanities and sinks for small bathrooms. 

So this is the finished product, but I'm sure you're wondering what we started out with. Well, ask and you shall receive. Behold, the most disgusting washroom you've ever seen:

I DARE YOU to find a dumber washroom layout. 

There was about an inch and a half of mortar on the wall with that tile. 

Lovely non-matching shower tile (installed incorrectly I might add).

Try sitting on this toilet. 

Illustration of the lack of clearance space.

Obviously, we're thrilled with how our bathroom turned out, and will certainly update once we're done painting. 

What we got ourselves into

With the help of our fantastic agent Brett Perchaluk (real estate agent extraordinare and general source of knowledge on all things 'old house') who we must confess is not only our agent but also a good friend and the husband of one of Alison's best friends, we saw over 35 houses. We're going to use this opportunity to plug Brett's real estate business, because he is awesome. If you're looking for an agent, particularly in the Burlington/Hamilton area, look no further. Click here: http://www.bp-homes.ca/BP-Homes/Welcome.html.

Now that the shameless plug is out of the way, onto the house:

We closed in April and upon unlocking the door, we walked into a world of disappointment. We have since learned an awful lot of terrible information about the previous owners, but the most interesting item was the fact that they were hoarders (go figure). If they left the house like this, I can only imagine how disgusting it was while they lived there.

The pictures give a pretty good depiction, so we'll just end with this: if you're selling your home, on the day you move out, NEVER leave your house jn this state. It's selfish and disgusting and insulting to the new owners. Not to mention, it's a violation of your contract and they can sue you in small claims court for any costs incurred from the removal of all your old garbage.

We didn't have to go that far, but were prepared, to if necessary. Now that the shock of that first night has worn off, life in the new house feels better since we scrubbed away all remnants of the previous owners.

We've done a significant amount of work since then, and over the next few days we'll update you on our progress!

Well...we bought a house!

The five people who read this blog probably know the backstory. But to any newcomers (ie. my mom's friends...thanks mom!) the short version is this: we met, fell in love, moved to Ottawa, got married, and all the while pined for the smog, traffic and general melting-pot congestion of Toronto.

So, after about 50 job applications, countless months spent waiting and even more trips back and forth along that dreaded highway of doom, I got a job in Toronto. Then it was hurry up and wait...for Alex to join me. This past May, he officially moved to Toronto and we were able to get our lives back.

In the meantime I figured I'd fill my time by looking for places to live. I'm sure anyone who has rented in Toronto (or hunted for a place to rent) can tell you what a disappointment it is. 2 bedroom places in decent neighbourhoods (ie. non-crackhead) start at $1800.00 and go up from there. Given the dearth of decent properties at realistic prices, we decided to buy (insert smug snort here...you know you want to). Between open houses and agent showings, I viewed at least 35 properties. We offered on three and lost two in bidding wars, and wound up with our darling little project house. She's a 2 bedroom (sort of three...but we'll get to that in a future post), 1 bathroom, tiny- kitchened, sloped-porch, weed-gardened, original-windowed mess of a 1930s bungalow, and we're planning on using elbow grease, our limited knowledge of home renovations, my design savvy (honed through years of trial and error and a severe addiction to HGTV and in particular Sarah Richardson) and a LOVE of seeing houses go from ugly duckling to stately swan, to make our home beautiful.

Thus, the journey begins. Over the next two years we plan to do the following (not necessarily in chronological order):

Paint EVERY room (living room is already done and office is being painted as I write this!)
Renovate the bathroom down to the studs
Change the lead and cast iron plumbing stack to ABS
Renovate the kitchen (possibly down to the studs, we don't know yet)
Drywall the closet between the bedroom and office/guest room (I know, I know. You'll see what I mean eventually)
Remove the carpet from the master bedroom and lay new hardwood
Change all closet doors
New doors
Renovate the entire basement, including new windows, masonry, framing, insulation, drywall, and new concrete floor (and remove the sauna-yes, we have a sauna)
In said basement, install a new bathroom and laundry room
New stairs
New lighting in all rooms
Paint and re-shingle the garage
Roto-till the backyard
Install a deck
Install a fence
New siding/stucco
Mudjack/slabjack our front cement steps and re-mortar
New soffits, fascia and eavestroughs

Trust me, more will be added to this list.

Things we have already done:

Sand, stain and varnish the original wood floors
Paint the living room
Change the very dangerous improperly installed boiler to a high efficiency natural gas boiler and hot water on demand.

So...stick with us if you want to follow the fun, tears and general frustration that involves living in a virtual construction site for two years.

We have each other. And our project house.