I am Home! - Renovation

I am finally home to stay after being away and living in temporary accommodation for nearly 2 months. Big Smile!

I moved out November 28th and I am back on January 25th. That is 58 days. Of course, I have been back often managing the decisions, roadblocks, and challenges that come with this size of restoration.  But with no bathroom the visits were interesting. Thank goodness there was one working toilet in the exercise room downstairs which made it manageable. 

This is the bathroom with the new vanity. Turns out I needed a new faucet which I found out when the plumbers were in to restore the water to my place on Thursday. With a bit of research, I made a decision, purchased it, and had it installed Friday morning. It did leak which required the plumber to return in the afternoon and tighten the drain just enough.  It was good to go.

Here's the updated kitchen with the new floor.  More details will be coming.

I brought home my dry goods box, 2 coolers, my winter clothes bag and my plants from the temporary  accommodations.  I also had an overnight bag and a larger suitcase. A few craft supplies.

All the clothes which were washed while I was away needed to be rewashed as the detergent they provided was heavily perfumed.That took 4 loads of laundry to get the task done.

Needed to have a cup of tea!

First meal home.  Frozen pasta dinner with added veggies. Lit with diecutting corner light, eating on camping dishes but on a table in it's place with placemats and table cloth.

A good book.

I met a friend for breakfast today as we missed her birthday in December as well as our Christmas get together.

She gave me flowers as a welcome home gift.

I have a great book to read.

The TV is still buried behind boxes so that will be still a few days.

There a few jobs of fixing to do.

Some updating to kitchen cupboards.

Rethinking the color scheme now that the cupboards are grey. Removing the RAM board from the living room floor but it is fine! And a deep clean of  everything to remove construction dust. It has been quite a renovation.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 My plants are doing well in temporary accommodations.  They still have an east window like they did at home. 

The African Violets bloomed so it was happy.

There was a good dining room light which kept them company.

It was bitterly cold this Sunday so I stayed in and watched TV.

I had access to Youtube so I was able to watch my regular Sunday posters.

The scope of work for the kitchen did not include anything other than the front of the cupboards.  

Of course, the bottom edges were brown to match the previous color.  Once the restoration project was finished I used the leftover paint to do the those edges to match the fronts.

Really helped the look of the kitchen.

The plumbers were in on Thursday to reconnect all the water related items.  Kitchen sink, dishwasher, bathroom sink, toilet, and the laundry center.

This was the message left by the plumbers.

Would I still be able to move home when I planned?  

This experience has taught me to roll with the punches and keep moving.  

I talked to the carpenter for his opinion, then my brother in law and then headed out to buy a new faucet. I then called our building plumbing company and I was able to get the faucet installed on Friday.  Yes. 

Bright and early the plumber was there to install the faucet.

At the same time the company hired by my insurance was there to put in place the fridge, stove, the freezer and the pine cabinets on either side.  Busy time!

I thought I would get the bathroom set up first and then at 11:30 am or so I opened the vanity in the bathroom to this!  A leak!

I called the was given a site visit in the next few hours.

What to do now?

I chose to be productive and painted the bottom of the cabinet under the sink.

It is just particle board and over the years it had lost it's finish.

I used semi gloss in the same color as the walls in the place.  

It really brighten up the space to match the rest of the kitchen.

The plumber returned about 1:30pm and gave the drain just a bit of a turn.   Then tested the drain with 3 full sinks of water and all was dry!

So at 2 pm it was confirmed that I could move home.  I brought most of my stuff back home but stayed one more night because check out time was 11 am and at that time I still did not know if everything was going to be okay to move back.

I was checked out by 8 am and headed home with my overnight bag and my back pack.

I started cleaning.

I headed out for brunch with my friend which I have not seen since the fall.

We had a great visit, great food, and a relaxing time.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 
I was treated to seeing the kitchen cupboards painted on Dec 31st!   I am very happy with the color.

I picked up the 30 hinges I needed to replace the bronze ones that were on the brown cupboards.

These are chrome and will go much better with the grey color of the cabinets.

I managed to get a better price of $2.00 each at another supplier than the big box store.

Another great read from Patrick Taylor.  An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea.

This was a great book.  The story alternated with Dr. Fingal O'Reilly's earlier medical career and a more modern time where new doctors are joining the practice and Dr. Barry Laverty is a partner in the practice.

We finally find out what happened to his first wife. How they met, their love affair, their married life and how he loses her.  There have been vague mentions of her in past books and here we find out a lot more about Deirdre.

Donal is up to his antics as usual.

Loved the book!

New Year's Eve was a quiet night with the TV running the fireplace video.

My last glass of egg nog.

It was an early night as things have been hectic between the renovations and family celebrations.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Finally, the restoration of the kitchen is moving forward. 

The bottom cupboards are back in the kitchen.

They are being reinforced where damage occurred during the removal process. 

There will be plastering, sanding, painting happening here for a little a little bit.

The carpenter is very generous to spend an hour with me going over ideas about paint, finishes, and much more.  

I left feeling that we were on the same page about the renovation.

I watched this Christmas movie this week.

An angel tree topper comes to life to return a Christmas spirit to this town.

One of the residents of this small town has a very poor attitude and she brings woe to those around her.

The angel and the girls vow to bring a brighter spirit to those around them.  They bake cookies, give away gifts, paint rocks with encouraging sayings andhelp out neighbours including Mrs. Grouchy. 

Turns out she used to be Mrs. Christmas in this town till her daughter eloped against her wishes then her attitude soured.

A Christmas spirit is returned at the of the movie and Mrs. Grouchy gets to meet her grandchildren for the first time.

I spend a lot of time with my sister on Christmas day trying to decide which color scheme to paint the cupboards after they were damaged during the asbestos abatement process. 

The white is the walls, the yellows are the frame on the cupboard doors and the grey is for the face of the cabinets. The second yellow represents the butcher block counter top.

I am happy to report that painting was the solution chosen and that project is moving forward

I went to my sister's for Christmas day and we attended this church's Christmas morning service.  It was very good.  I am so grateful that roads were so good for driving.  I returned to the hotel on Boxing Day.  We were joined by their neighbors.

We attended a community turkey lunch with a few hundred people.  I understand 214 plates were served.

We sat with a gentlemen who had recently loss his wife and this was the first time he attended on his own.

The turkey with all the trimmings was excellent though it took a while to serve that many people.

Another visit with Kinsey Milhone in Sue Grafton's X book.

Kinsey helps a widow with investigating the death of her husband which was someone Kinsey worked with.

I have read this book before but I did not have it blogged so I am including it here.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Wet floors this Sunday morning.  All plans went out the window.  

Waited for someone to come and investigate and by noon fans and dehumidifiers were set up.

Baseboards torn out.

Later, the floor was unceremoniously broken and torn out with no consideration of keeping the floor to be reinstalled.  

Life has pivoted 180 degrees and this will take over my life for the next several months.

These huge machines and fans ran 24/7 for 2 weeks. 

The dehumidifiers also heat the space to help with the drying process so it was like Florida in my house.

Earplugs and closed captions were necessary to live in my space for that time.

Drywall was torn out in the front hall and storage room.  No wetness was found thank goodness.

Several insurance adjusters have visited several times and then contractors bidding on the job have been by.  

It is a waiting game.

Took some time out of the crazy to visit with my aunt at her art show on Friday.

Lovely work including paintings, glass pieces, mosaic pieces, collage work, and a bit more.

Had supper with her and her husband and it was a lovely break.

The Exile of Sara Stevenson by Darci Hannah was the book I read this week in the semi quiet of my bedroom with the door closed.

Set in 1814 Scotland, Sara Stevenson is in love and plans to defy her father and marry the man. Thomas Crichton does not come to meet Sara at the arranged place for their elopement. She returns to her father's house and is transported to Cape Wrath, a lonely island which has a lighthouse and a keeper William Campbell.  She is accompanied by a woman servant and her husband who will replace the assistant lighthouse keeper who recently passed.

Sara is pregnant so things will get interesting.  These 4 people live in a small cottage near the lighthouse. Things are tense in the house with 2 women being added to mix. 

Sara settles into life on the island, discovers other folks who live on the island.  William Campbell has not encouraged community during his time so making friends with these has it's challenges.

She still hopes that Thomas will return and they can have a happy family.

A mysterious package arrives at the island from an Oxford antiquarian which begins the process of finding out what happened to Thomas, meanwhile Sara is developing a friendship with the distant William Campbell.   Interesting times.

This was a great book.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Nice to have a cool Christmas story in the middle of a summer heat wave.

A Baxter Family Christmas by Karen Kingsbury.

I am not familiar with the family but there is a very good summary at the beginning of the book.  

John the patriarch of the family has invited the recipient of his precious Erin's heart, Kendra Bryant for Christmas Eve dinner.  Erin, her husband and 3 of their 4 children were killed in a car accident. Some of the siblings don't want to meet her and make different plans.  It will be a different Christmas than the one everybody has celebrated in the past.

Flanigans are friends of the Baxters but due to changes which have taken place in the last few years they have not recently joined the family for the traditional Christmas Eve dessert and Pictionary evening.

Maddie West a granddaugther has been helping with the Christmsas children's play organized by Bailey and Brandon. Connor Flannigan has been asked to judge the auditions for this years show by his sister Bailey.  There is instant chemistry between Maddie and Connor but there will be some trials between Thanksgiving and Christmas that they will need to navigate.

I packed up the bookcases this week in preparation for the removal of the carpet later this week.

The bedroom is getting pretty full of stuff from the living room and dining room.

The heat wave has started and it was HOT all week!

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George is a book I read this week.

Monsieur Perdu runs a book shop on a refurbished barge docked in Paris on the river Seine.  He lives in a house with several other residents.  Catherine Le P. as recently moved after separating from her husband.  She has very little and the owner of the house is asking for donations, in particular a table. Monsieur Perdu has an extra table which has not seen in 20 years as it was closed off in a room when his love left him.

Catherine finds a letter in the drawer of the table which Monsieur Perdu received when Manon his love left.  He has not opened it.  He was afraid and has lived his life hiding for a long time.

After some persuasion, he reads the letter and it was not as he expected.  He has wasted 20 years and now he must find her.  He releases the barge and heads south on the Seine.

Many adventures are had.  It was a very easy read and delightful to travel France.

I was very grateful when my sister and brother-in-law agreed to come help remove the carpet.

The temperatures were soaring and it was hot and sweaty work.

I had most of the dining room done when they arrived.  We worked from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm to get the carpet and tack strips put into rolls.

We washed up, changed clothes and headed to Boston Pizza for lunch in air conditioning.  We had great food, conversation and rested for a couple of hours.

There was a lot of rubber cement and areas of adhesive that needed to scraped down with blades to make sure the surface was smooth.

The underlay was just a mishmash of different colors and remnants all just patchworked together. All the seams had been glued.  Not exactly wonderful.  They took away the 11 rolls of carpet so that was one less job for me.  Thanks so much!

The installation of the new flooring has been put on hold.

Plans to start on Monday are postponed until approval has been granted.

YUCK!

I decided to paint the dining room.

In the top left hand corner of the collage you can see how the place was painted before I moved in.

The electrical plates were not removed and the paint did not even go to the edges.

It was a very hot and sweaty job.  The paint was drying fast so I had to take it a little bit at a time to get it covered well.

It was a full afternoon of up and down the step stool and my arms were tired by the end of the afternoon.

It looks fabulous!  Worth it.

I got my COVID shot this week.

It was not like the old days, I walked into my pharmacy with my updated prescriptions and asked whether I could schedule a shot and was told we can do right away.

Filled out the paper work, got the shot and waited my 15 minutes and it was done!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found this bee on a cornflower in a neighbour's front yard.

It is an Orange Belted Bumble Bee.  This is a first for me.

I am grateful for those who have wonderful flowers in their front yards. I am happy to show from the sidewalk on my morning walks.

I found a bag full of empty gold David's Tea tins at ReUse Center this week.  I was not supposed to be bringing anything home with the renovations but I just had to.

I have a David's Tea Advent Calendar which had it's tin's missing so I filled it with solid lid ones.

I needed to clear lid ones to finish.

I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet.  Christmas is a ways away.

The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert.  What a great story.  Another WWII story which starts out in Poland near the end of the war. Jakob Kowalski is part of the Polish resistance and his group plan to bomb a bridge to destroy a German Troop transport.  Gretl Schmidt is a 6 year old German Jew on a train headed to Auschwitz. 

The bomb destroys the train headed to the death camp and Gretl is the only survivor. Jakob finds her and feels responsible and she comes to live with his Catholic family.  She must hid her German Jew history to live in Poland.  Over the next 3 years they share the secret and develop a close bond.  When the time comes for Grelt to move on she is sent to South Africa as a part of a program to relocate German Jew orphans. It is unlikely they will ever meet again but she will be safe.

Through unseen circumstances Jakob is offered a job with an international company who has position in South Africa.  While there, he makes inquiries to see if he can contact her, hoping she has had a good life.  Wonderful read.

The clearing of the dining room and living room of furniture has begun.  

The black shelving unit filled with those drawers was unpacked then moved to the bedroom and the drawers wer all put back in their place.

Of course, the process will be reversed when the new floor has been put in.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I met a friend at the St. Albert Botanic Park for a walk through nature and the blooming flowers. 

I love the peachy blushy rose and the shot came out nice.

After the walk, we headed to Timmy's for a tea and a visit.

It was a great afternoon after my dental cleaning in the morning.

The Detective's Secret by Lesley Thomson

The second book in a series.  I have not read the first one but I don't think it impacted the story much.  We get some history of some of the characters in the late 1980 when they were teenagers.  Then we move on to 2013 in the present day.

Jack Harmon drives trains for the metro, does detective work and sometimes pitches in at Stella's cleaning business.  Stella Darnell is a detective's daughter and her father has passed away.  Stella has a few employees in her business and all is going very well.

Palmyra Tower is almost a character in this story as well.  Formerly known as Chiswick Tower it is a water tower used for trains in the old days. It has history in relation the main characters. 

The past comes back to the fore when a man dies at an underground station on the metro.  The connections are not clear as names have changed over the years but grudges are still being held.  This was a great read.

I had an opportunity to try out a Sony RX10 camera for a couple of weeks.  I thought with this great zoom it should be wonderful!

It turned out not the be the easy peasy camera I thought it would be.  

It often did it's own thing when focusing, my photo editing software could not read it's RAW files so I had to delete 300 files an start over. I was met with the "function is not available" quite a few times and could not figure out what was preventing my changing the setting I wanted.

I am glad I did not invest in this camera as it was complicated for me to use.

One of the challenges this week was utility knives and blades.  The blue knife on the right lives in my sewing center and I use it disassembled second hand fabric.  It was on it's last point on the blade. No problem I have some in the cupboard which I use in the orange knife and it lives in the craft corner. No way the blades don't fit!

I headed to a big box store to buy a replacement and while there I invested in blades as well.  I tried the Olfa blades in the blue one and they fit so I will put the Olfa in the tools cupboard and I will have blades for a long time.  

Later, I was a ReStore and I could have saved myself some $ if I bought a utility knife there.  Ah well!

The prepping process is starting to move the furniture from the dining room and eventually the living room so that new vinyl floor can be installed.

I have made a selection so I will be ordering the flooring in the next few days and getting it delivered.

It will be a challenge to find hidey holes in the rest of the place for all that has to be moved.

On top of that most of it has to be emptied, moved then refilled.  Went the floor is done then the reverse process will take place.

I have put the IVAR cupboard ontop of the TROFAST in the front hall. I am filling the storage room where the STEN was taken away last week to be sold.  Thanks sister!

The sewing machine as been put away.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

My sister and I were treated to lunch by her children along with celebrating Father's day for each of the 3 families.  My sister's birthday treat is sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream and mine was ice cream bars.  I used to get ice cream cake but that is just too much sugar these days.

I prepared lunch for my sister and brother-in-law was they were in town for shopping and helping me get the laundry room ready with a dryer vent connector.

I roasted chicken along with veggie salad and T&T Organic Mixed Thai Rice.

There was fresh strawberries and Greek yogurt for dessert.

Then the work began. The connector was installed and the room was ready to paint.

I was up early and put a coat of primer on the wood around the dryer vent connector.

A couple hours later I painted the second half of the laundry room now that the dryer and wood shelving unit had been removed.

The green tape is to make where the shelving unit ends so that laundry center is placed to ensure that the unit can go back into the closet.

I am grateful that there is still paint from when I bought 2 years ago so that went well.

I did paint the other half while the washer was out of the closet.

While shopping for improvements to the laundry closet I found a pair of black jeans to for a great price.

The picture on the left is the mending I did on the left knee to my regular pair of jeans. With my slow stitch experience I was more comfortable just getting it done.

There have been several repairs to these jeans so it was time for a better pair.

And all this preparation and waiting has finally resulted in the arrival of the new laundry center.  Yeah!

The other set was over 20 years old and it had not been happy about being moved in early May for building leak repair work.

It was moved out on May 6th and was finally returned to the laundry closet on a very temporary basis May 31st.

I am a believer in signs so I heeded the one I got and ordered a replacement.  It was 20 day wait for it to arrive and be delivered.

I spent a lot of time measuring, going to appliance stores, researching details on line. Plugs, drain hoses, drain stacks, and more.  Thank goodness for the amount information available on line these days as there was not a physical example in store for me to see, measure to help in the decision making process.

The laundry closet is back together but that will be a separate post.

Laundry Closet Update

Now that the Laundry Center was installed I was excited to get the shelving back in and get its stuff that has lived in the living room since May 4th.  This is the shelf that the old dryer sat on for a very long time. I added the 2 shelves I had removed from above the old washer into this unit.  I added the cross bar now that there was not another unit to support it. Now will it fit?  I only realized after I had the shelving unit in that I should run the washer and dryer to ensure there are no leaks.  Fortunately, no leaks!  So I carried on with the rest of the job.

I knew that the green tape on the floor indicated that the shelf was suppose to fit. The extension cord for the light had to be plug in before the shelf when in. It was a perfect fit!  I guess the time invested in planning paid off.  With the built in space at the back of the closet - the dryer vent, the electric plug 240V, and the extension cord in the 100V outlet all fit comfortably. The unit only uses the 240V plug.

The closet doors were hung back up on May 14th but had been sitting to one side because the old washing machine was sitting in the hall because of it leaking water.  The rails in which the closet doors slide had large headed screws which made it difficult to slide the doors back in place.  I purchased some lower profile head screws and replaced those to make life easier the next time the doors need to be moved.  I do need a stool to see to the bottom of the dryer so I will borrow the one from the kitchen.

Putting the pretty things back in! I put the Trofast organizer, the front hall mirror that my Mom made for me and art on the photo shelf above.   Now the front hall feels back to normal.

The dryer door just clears the closet doors.  It is close but it works!

The fact that the laundry center only uses the 240V outlet meant I could plug in a light for the closet.  Before I had to use the front hall closet to light the space.

I put in a bright pink extension cord in the 100V outlet before the shelves went in.  I zipped tied it to the shelf standard so it will keep the cord off the floor and easily accessible.

I purchased a light fixture at the thrift store which I could secure with screws to the shelf.  I replaced the light bulb with a small compact fluorescent which does not get hot.

With the short goose neck the light easily moves from the shelf side to the laundry center side.  Like it was made to sit the situation. Means I don't have to have the front hall light on as often. 

The pop crates were part of the storage solution in the previous laundry closet set up.  Now I had to reconfigure things to work with new set up.

I gained 2 shelves where the dryer sat before.  All the necessary contents were returned to the closet.

*Laundry Supplies - detergent & dryer balls

*Bathroom Supplies - TP, Kleenex, towels and facecloths, 

*Paint Supplies - brushes, rollers, trays, paint cans, drop cloths

*Planting supplies - gloves, small pots, plant food, etc.

*Electrical Supplies - light bulbs, extension cords 

*Plasticware - casserole carriers, popcorn bowls, Tupperware trays, etc.

*Soda water

The bathroom supplies are much closer at hand than before, the casserole carriers are up high because I don't use them often.

Hand towel hangs on dryer with suction cup hanger.