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.