Curb Appeal Improvements

While waiting on various bathroom items to come to completion, it was hard to keep from making some outdoor improvements in the beautiful Winnipeg summer weather! 

New Front Doors

Our old doors were drafty, and left some security to be desired. They had bathroom door knobs, the kind you push in and turn to lock. Not only was this less than the security offered by a dead bolt, it left us locking ourselves out of the house more than we'd like to admit. No keys were needed to lock up, so we'd end up outside with no way back. 

We had planned to get doors from our local Home Depot, and even asked for a quote on installation, after hearing from multiple sources that installing doors yourself isn't as easy as you'd think. The installer ended up calling us back, and promptly informed us that we should order doors from somewhere else that has better quality. Great sales pitch from someone who's contracted to by Home Depot, they should probably check on their installers more often. Anyway, this lead us to get back in touch with our window supplier, who had quoted us a lot more than we were planning, but half the price of the Home Depot install company. 

The new back door in all its beautiful windowed glory. 

The front door doesn't have a window,
but will hopefully be sporting a colorful and welcoming wreath soon enough.

The doors took a few months, but they're in and they're beautiful! Plus they protect us from exterior threats like elements and intruders, which is about as much as you can ask from a door. Success!

We hope to paint them at some point, but just waiting to get a feel for what we'd like best.

New Door Hardware

In preparation for the new doors, we went to select some hardware. Our door supplier suggested Schlage or Weiser, so we stuck to those brands, which can sometimes be nice when there are so many options out there.

We ended up with a sleek and modern set for the front door, and some basic levers on the back. Exactly like you see below. We're super happy with them! 

We also did quite a bit of gardening but we'll have to talk about that another time! Do you think next we should update our banner to reflect the weather outside? Christmas in August anyone?

Many Steps Closer to Bathroom Launch Success

Since we haven't blogged in so long, this post has been ongoing for a month or two, it has made it hard to post because every time I have time to work on it there's more to add! We don't have a lot of pictures, blogging hasn't been top of mind and so when we were doing boring things like putting up insulation, the camera wasn't always at hand. Today I'm posting this thing, even though it isn't perfect. Our main computer is having issues, so I'm also doing this post on my super old laptop which has a faulty space bar and no photo editing software. These pictures are grainy at best. Let's call them "artsy." It's time to get you caught up on how our bathroom went from this...

To how it looks today...

We left off having our roof inspected and we've been given the go-ahead that our roof should be water-free in the future. That left us to continue making progress in the bathroom, and hopefully one day it will be usable.

Bathrooms have been a major part of life lately, with our renovation in the evenings and at work I was designing 7 bathrooms for one home. Definitely having lots of bathroomspiration, and the occasional bathroom related nightmare. I can't even imagine having a finished bathroom, but we're getting close!

Philip reinsulated our exterior wall, and it proved to be one of our best DIY projects to date, in my opinion. Everything went smoothly, it wasn't too difficult to figure out, and it made a big difference! We started out by removing the old insulation, they had actually spray foamed from the outside from what we could tell, but we didn't really know that going in so it was still good to get it freshened up. Also because the spray foam didn't extend all the way to the edges and had a lot of places for cold air to leak in. Next up we measured the width between studs and cut the insulation to size. After that it's just a matter of sliding the insulation easily into place. 

Philip also put up the vapor barrier, we weren't really sure how to do any of this but we spent the morning watching You Tube videos of people putting up insulation and vapor barriers, and then we just worked away! You Tube and Google are definitely great resources when you want to try and tackle something yourself, there are a lot of great tutorials out there that can help you get an idea of what you're doing.

Next up, the plumber came in and worked at installing our bathtub, as well as reconfiguring plumbing and improving some of the plumbing that was there before since it's all exposed anyway and we may as well do it right. We have a new stack, and a brand new bathtub. 

Our electrician came one evening and roughed in all of the wiring for 3 brand new GFCI's - in the old bathroom there was one plug, which only worked for 60s razors. He also hung our vent fan, which we ducted ourselves. We still have to drill the hole to vent it outside, but the ducting is all ready to go.

We purchased a light fixture last week online, crossing our fingers that it doesn't get back-ordered like crazy and that it looks okay in real life. It's a sleek fixture, that we hope will look great in the end. It's hard to choose these things when the room just looks like a gutted box! 

Finding flooring that met our criteria was a challenge. We didn't want tile because it's cold on the feet, hard to install yourself without some know-how, and would make a big ridge from our wood floor = stubbed toe central. We ended up with a vinyl tile from A&R Carpet Barn, they're big and rectangular and the installation sounded very user friendly. Basically each tile can be glued in place, and cut to fit with a utility knife. The tiles are a grey/white with a linear pattern. 

We've had to reframe the linen closet wall 2 times now, but hopefully we did it for the last time now. The main reason was to make the vent fan fit inside the wall, and we're actually kind of loving the wider 2 x 8 wall next to the shower giving it a more built in look. 

Once everything was framed, and electrical and plumbing were completed, we were ready for drywall. We called our friends to book it, right under the wire too as a couple days later one of them had a baby! Philip took the day off that they were coming so we could finish up with sound insulating and ducting, but a twist came when we realized the night before that the tub surround needed to go up before the drywall! 

After calling a number of friends/family who seemed handy to us, my aunt & uncle came over in the morning to give us a hand. It was terrifying drilling the holes through acrylic side walls, but it all went okay! Basically it was just a matter of putting silicone in a groove, putting each wall into the silicone, and drilling screws all along the top for extra support. 

As we were finishing up sound insulation our friends showed up and drywalled everything in an hour and a half. It looks awesome to have a bathroom with walls again!! First time since January!

Mudders & Tapers are almost done, one more coat to go, we delayed them a bit by going on vacation (we just got back from Minneapolis on Wednesday night). 

Next Steps:
- Choose paint color
- Prime
- Paint
- Install Flooring
- Casings & Trim
- Think of a Linen Closet Solution
- ....start our kitchen?

House Update - Finally

Since we've been behind on posting, we might be abandoning our regularly scheduled programming for some house updates. We've been getting back to work since warmer weather has arrived, and it's been going great! We'll do our best to keep you in the loop! We've been jumping around between rooms/projects, working outside, bathroom, garage, exterior doors, and some Spring cleaning. 

As we'd mentioned in passing a couple of times, we ice dammed this year. This happens a lot in Winnipeg (although being the handy woman that I am, I had never heard of it), and our house was no exception, as it resulted in water coming into our unfinished bathroom. We weren't exactly sure what to do at first, which is why we've had a huge delay in our bathroom renovation. It helped make the decision to wait for warmer weather to continue, just so that we'd have a chance to check out the roof, make sure everything was okay, and deal with insulation to prevent it from happening in the future. We took the first step in that paragraph recently, and called the original roofer who did the roof two years ago for the previous homeowner. He was so nice and helpful, if anyone is looking for a roofer in Winnipeg, let us know and we'll give you his number! He came over one afternoon, climbed up on the roof, took up a vent so that he could see how the roof looked, checked that it was all fine, and didn't charge us anything. Definitely went the extra mile to make some homeowners happy, and we felt reassured about our roofing situation. Next year, we'll probably buy a roof rake and just keep the snow situation under control as much as possible. So this was the first step in getting back into motion when it comes to our bathrooms, next up dealing with plumbing and electrical, and having our attic reinsulated!

What else is in the forecast for our June-August Summer 2013 to-do list? Obviously we're really behind on our March-May list, so we'll do what we can here (Spoiler Alert: We've finished a few of these items and we're just behind on sharing them!). A few of these items are also going to be relocated to next Summer, because we just know we won't get to them this year, and they aren't really a priority anymore (sorry raised beds). 

Spring 2013 (March-May) 

Upstairs Bathroom

Reinsulate Attic

Reinsulate exterior wall

Sound insulate interior walls
Install new shower/tub

Install new lighting

Install new flooring

Paint/tile

Re-install toilet

Install new cabinets

Install new sink

Install new mirror

Reconnect plumbing

Lower Yard Maintenance

Plough in garden, unwanted flower beds

Sod remaining open spaces

Build raised beds

Reshape right side flower bed to be curvier

Replace bricks on right side flower bed with rubber trim, or other edging that is more aesthetically pleasing

Replace petunias with perennials

Plant hydrangeas in front flowerbed

Move peony to somewhere else away from the house
Repair front steps

Cut Insurance Rates
Have electrician address electrical issues

Correct other inspection issues

Present evidence of repairs
Brace basement stairway
Plans Plans Plans
Design/quote kitchen
Design/quote deck
Design/quote basement
Design/quote upstairs ensuite/walk-in closet
Design/quote landscaping and outdoors
Interior Doors
Remove bedroom/bathroom doors
Paint
Rehang bedroom/bathroom doors

Summer 2013 (June-August) 

Exterior Doors

Get new exterior doors

Alarm system

Paint exterior doors

Garage and Shed

Remove garage shed

Sod empty space

Replace garage windows

Paint garage floor

Put up shelving/cabinets in the garage

Backyard Safety and Fun

Build a gate to close off the white fence for safety

Build/Purchase a fire pit with a proper cover to meet code

Lighting solution around fire pit entertainment area

Plant privacy bushes at back of yard

Remove clothes line

Buy a barbecue

What are your Summer tasks? Anyone been outside gardening? (We have!) We'll have to update our banner also, getting a bit tired of the snowy background!

Window Shopping Wednesday: EQ3 Warehouse Sale

As you may have noticed, we've disappeared. My mom even sent me a text to ask if Grandpa Joe died. I've been working a fair amount, and our evenings have been getting filled right up! We'll keep trying to blog as much as we can, but forgive us if we miss a day - or fifteen - now and then. We do have a bunch of exciting posts planned and during our busy evenings we've started moving forward some of our renovation projects so we'll finally have some updates for you. 

First off, Window Shopping Wednesday. While taking a break from some of our other projects, we got a chance to hit up the EQ3 Warehouse Sale on opening day. It's open through June and we'd definitely recommend it! There's a lot of stuff, and some pretty decent discounts. 

Here's a look at what we saw while we were there (excuse the cellphone quality photos with no editing):

Philip's Photos

At some point we need a new bed frame, ours can probably never be taken apart and put back together again, it's pretty done. Screws are stripped, this last time we had to improvise a bit. Here's a bed frame Philip liked as a replacement. It would look great with our green and ivory duvet!

These chairs are really fun and they have tons of patterns!

We could really use a new living room rug. Ours could be vacuumed every day and still look gross.

These pendant lights were interesting, they have a barrel style in this light that I love!

We thought about buying this dining room table, because it actually shrinks to be a decent size for our basically non-existent dining area. We thought it'd be better to wait till our kitchen is done though and we know how much room we have. 

Cassy's Photos

I am loving this cobalt blue wheely desk. I'd use it as my office console table, 

but I'm aiming for a dresser in that spot for storage.

I loved this light, except for the fact that the light bulb gets put in on the side so it's not as clean looking. It definitely tempted me for the guest room though. 

We've wanted the Boom bookshelf forever, and have never seen it at this sale. This time it was there, along with a new walnut version that we liked even more!

We almost bought this couch, except for the left hand side was slightly darker coloured. No good. It was a neat shape though and would look beautiful in our living room. 

I'd love to lounge on this and read a book. 

We'd recommend you stop in at the EQ3 Warehouse Sale this month, even just for a browse. It's off of Gateway by the MPI, and there are great deals to be had. Let us know if you find anything to take home!

Head to Head: Birthday Edition

What's the coolest gift you've ever received?

Cass: By far, the vow art Philip made for Christmas this year. A homemade gift that will be treasured in our home forever.

Philip: When I was in my teens I got the Adobe Creative Suite of design programs, which set me on a pretty solid path of design and creativity. I used to design logos and jerseys, and now I still use it when planning out plans for our home, creating our blog banner (don't worry, I'll try and produce a June one this time), I even designed our wedding stationary. 

What's your favourite birthday dessert?

Cass: Ice cream cake! Hands down. The most refreshing and delicious cake, can be made in a bajillion flavours, and even shapes! Mm I want a heartshaped strawberry ice cream cake right now. Never had it but picturing it is beautiful in my head. 

Philip: Cheesecake is my answer, no matter what the occasion. 

Invent a party game and explain how it works.

Cass: For our Christmas gift exchange one year we had to make homemade gifts. I crafted a family trivia game, which is a great idea for anyone on a budget who needs a neat birthday/Christmas/other event gift. Think up some categories, questions, and print them out on cards to play at your next family gathering.

Philip: Pin the insulation in our ceiling. It's like pin the tail on the donkey, except you take down old insulation and reinsulate our attic while blindfolded. Great for all ages.