The renovations. It feels like forever since the last time we talked about them so I think it’s time for an update.

We decided that it would be best to take down most of the drywall in the kitchen because 1) a bunch of electrical and gas stuff needs to be installed and 2) the drywall was pretty shitty to begin with. So Mike and Neil came over to help us tear down even more of the kitchen.

We also had to take up 1 of the sub floors in the kitchen and this is where Neil injured himself. He probably should have gotten stitches but instead opted for paper towel and painters tape.

Chad prefers to work with a beer in hand.

Ma and Pa came and helped me paint the basement one Saturday when Chad was working. At first I though the colour came out too dark, but then in different lighting it looks lighter. Either way, I like the colour. It feels very ‘old apartment’.

I also decided that since we aren’t replacing the fireplace right now I should try and make it look presentable. I painted the tiles with a coat of adhesion primer, which worked really well. Then I did two coats of a semi-gloss white, the same paint we are using for all the trim. I was supposed to do 3 coats of sealer before the fireplace was touched but the timing didn’t work out as such, so the paint got scratched in some parts. I tried to touch it up as best I could but its not 100%. As long as you don’t inspect it with a microscope we should be fine. What a pain in the ass this fireplace has been for me. Not to mention the amount of bugs that crawl out of it daily. There is clearly an issue here and we clearly need to fix it before I lose my mind.

The back stairs are a death trap thanks to lack of sunshine and abundance of moss and tree sludge. Papa Rossi power washed them for us and we bought some special paint stuff to put on the steps to make them less slippery.

Ryan spent a couple days at the house last week prepping the basement for the carpet. When I talk about the basement I am only referring to the Media Room and Living Room because everything on the other side of the door is not being touched right now.

Ryan also wanted Chad to pull up the 2nd subfloor so that we could work with the shiplap so this was the disaster that he made before I showed up.

And then I show up and magically everything gets cleaned!

Despite the fact that it was 9pm at night Ryan decided it would be a good time to take out the glass blocks.

One of the blocks exploded making a noise that sounded like a bomb went off. No one was hurt but it scared the hell out of us. Ryan said this was probably the most fun he has had demolishing something.

Power tools to wake the neighbours.

Here is the finished basement – sans carpet. Again, the fireplace doesn’t look too bad when you are this far away ;)

Ryan started a little bit of the tiling, which you can see in the corner under the ladder.

Carpet!

We also had to do another dump run on Saturday. Dump runs are never ending it seems. I did see my dumpster boyfriend for a split second but I don’t think he saw me. He was much to busy yelling about Rob.

Sunday we packed all our stuff into a truck and moved it from our storage locker. Storage lockers are expensive. The one next to us had some note on it because the owners stopped paying for it. Hello storage wars! Anyways, we didn’t have as much stuff as I thought we did, which was good. One move and it was all done.

After moving Dario played in the tree house.

And then everyone sat down for some pizza. Which BTW cost more than the truck rental.

 Our windows arrive this week, so hopefully they can be installed rather quickly. The kitchen has been measure for cabinets, but there are some decisions we need to make with regards to those in the next week or so. Hopefully the basement landing and front door landing can be tiled, and then I really need to get my act together and finalize some damn paint colours.

Slowly but surely things are getting done.