After 10 years, the La-Z-boy sofa that Tresa never really liked is gone to a new home. Actually to a young lady with an Aussie boyfriend who is studying engineering. What a coincidence.
Getting this sofa out of our home took some engineering. It's not like we have double doors and a foyer. Our main floor is 500sqft with 30" wide door openings. I'd gotten the sofa out once, to put it into the garage as I installed the floor. But I couldn't remember how Helen, my brother and I did it and was frustrated until I tried the only version of getting out I hadn't tried. And voila! It was out in the driveway ready for pickup, minutes before the rains came.
When the young couple came to check out the couch I had put up for sale I wasn't sure if they'd take it or not.
It didn't really matter to me since we'd have nothing and something is better than nothing, but if we're going to renovate the entire main floor, might as well go all out. Plus the sofa back cushions were no longer supportive kind of like those flat pillows I had as a kid.
We sold our FLOS Fuscia 3 light, which we got from Michigan about 8 years ago. Then I sold our KitchenAid gas range last year, that I thought had no chance of being sold because it only had 1 or 2 burners working. But that went in the same day. The only thing so far I couldn't sell was our 40 year old washer and dryer. That ended up going to the scrap yard for recycling.
I had put up our sofa 1 month to the day it was sold. I had a few enquiries. Mostly tire kickers. The people asking if I deliver, I don't even bother replying. But I figured if it sold then it's one less thing to keep moving around as I finished things.
I didn't realize the U-Haul was close by. And when they arrived in the pickup truck, I wasn't sure if it would fit. It's a 91" wide sofa. But it fit.
I've been selling stuff left right and centre. Kijiji has been my good friend helping me clear out our space and we get to pocket a bit of cash. Stuff I didn't think would sell has been sold. I've been doing it mostly to clear out space. And I didn't want to just toss it in the land fill because the stuff was still useful and in really good condition. I just needed to find the right person. And so far, I've been able to.
I ended selling this battery grip that I came as part of a kit with my XSi DSLR and never used. It's at least 5 years old and is only good with the XSi and T1i, so when it sold relatively quickly I was surprised and it went to a good person. I also got rid of my lean-to bike storage rack, but that went to a fellow club rider. And these Expedit plastic cubes that had been sitting in the garage for about 5 years. Or however long ago it was since we renovated the basement. Those all went and I got what I asked for.
It was Yahvi's 11th birthday at Boulderz climbing gym and I got to try out the head cam mount for my SJCAM. I needed it farther above Kieran's head to show more of his face and perspective. It's a little too close to really see much. But fun all the same.
I set the time-lapse videos to take photos at 2sec intervals. In review I should have made it 1sec intervals. In the flooring videos I had set it to 5sec intervals.
If I had taken regular video, the files would have been 20x larger than the 15mb ones for the time lapse versions.
This was Kieran's school project. He came to me a week or so ago that he was working on a new project. It was about James Cook's Endeavour. And he wanted to build his ship.
This is what it looks like.
I said. "You want to build that!"
It's a little complicated, but i can build something and then you can put all the little details.
Actually I first said "Let's talk to Uncle Mel" since he has access to a workshop with the tools I would need to do something like this.
Well most 10yo wouldn't be able to make something exactly like this. I wouldn't be able to build something like this. I just don't have all the tools.
But a resemblance, sure, maybe. Ah let's give'er a go.
So I got to thinking. How could I do this relatively easily and what do I have in the garage that would work.
So I could use some scrap 2x4's that could become the hull, and repurpose the flag pole from his Germany flag (from soccer camp) to use as the masts and whatever that part is sticking out at the front.
And so I drew out my plan and explained it to him and Kieran said he didn't think it would turn out. So I left it at that. And I explained my ideas to my brother, but he was sick so nothing was going to be happening until he got better.
Then the other day, Kieran asked "When are we going to do my HMS Endeavor project?"
I said "When is it due?"
"Next week or this Friday." Kieran replied.
Oh man. Anyways. This is what I/we did. I tried to do the stuff that Kieran wouldn't be able to do. It's a little rough, but I mainly used my table saw to cut and shape the hull from three pieces of 2x4s that I laminated together. I then used a file and planer to smooth it out a bit, but I had little time to make it look nicer than this.
When I showed Kieran the hull when he got home yesterday, it got a thumbs up.
And we worked together to decide on the mast heights and whatever that thing is on the bow of the ship.
It kind of looks more like a Chinese Junk ship right now. And I'm hoping he puts in his details to make it more like an HMS vs HMJ (Her Majesty's Junk). Haha.
It even has a rudder. Which was a scrap piece from the hull.
There's a little groove that I cut and slid it in and glued.
So this was my contribution.
I got the primer out so that he could put a coat on so that when he goes to paint it, it'll have a base to stick to.
The rest is up to him to detail it and make it look like the H.M.S. Endeavor for his project. He said he's been working on the written report part, and he wanted the ship as a supplement to his project.
Not sure why he squats like that.
And in my flip flops too.
We got sample paint from Home Depot for $3.
The rest was dollar store stuff.
Hot glue.
Skewers.
Black twine from Michael's that Tereza found.
So this is where it's at.
Not sure why he's frowning.
But usually that face is reserved for School Day photos.
All that's left is to put on the canons and the life boat.
Which Uncle Mel made.
Well on to the kitchen. This was a 2 year preparation for this one.
We actually started this project before the bathroom. So go back to Fall of 2012.
The kitchen was way past it's prime. It was past it's prime when we bought the house in 2002. But we were just married and had no money. Plus we didn't even know how much it was going to be.
In Fall of 2012 we started asking questions we paid for a structural engineer to let us know what we needed to open up the wall between the kitchen and dining room, then calling in contractors to estimate the job.
I called a total of 6 contractors to give me a quote. Actually 7 if you include my buddy Mike. He gave me a ball park for how much it would cost and what it would take. He told me to hire a couple of Mexicans to help with the heavy lifting.
So the quotes ranged from $5K to over $40K (plus taxes). One contractor I ran into at Loblaws. He quoted me over $40K, and it was for removing the wall, doing the floor, rough in for kitchen, lighting, new drywall and he said I could cross things out that I didn't want him to do, that I would do myself. So I knocked off quite a bit my first go. And got it down to $8K. Then I learned how to do the permit and drawings myself. And that would have knocked off another $4K. After that he never called me back.
One thing I learned was that if someone takes a long time to return your call, then when you have a problem, they will NEVER return your call. So move on to the next guy. You are probably better off calling Lowe's or Home Depot or Rona, because they will send a different crew to fix whatever the first crew did. I know someone that went through this. One with an individual contractor and one with Rona. The individual never came back to fix his work, and Rona kept sending people back to get it right.
That was a problem, that never occurred to us. Contractors not calling us back. The reason was that they want big jobs. They wanted to do our entire main floor. Not jobs that last 3-4 days. They want a job that will be minimum of 4-8 weeks. Out of the 6 that I called. The contractor that came with the 1st structural engineer. He never returned any of my calls. Not one. 5 returned my call, only 4 came to the house to look at the job and only 3 actually got back to me with a quote.
And the quotes were varying.
1st guy that we really liked, quoted us $10K which included the structural engineer and permits to take down the wall and install supports.
2nd guy, I got him down to $3800 to take down wall and install new supports. But he never called back once I got him down to that price. I guess he'd be losing money at that point. But what it did was validate how much the job is actually worth. So the ball park of $5k was right.
3rd guy who was the company that we ended up with quoted $5K to do the job. I ended up using my own structural engineer and I did permit part myself.
None of the quotes include any plumbing or electrical changes. These are add ons.
I ended up getting a new panel because the 5 that we had were old and there was no more space to add circuits. This was an additional $1300. But it was worth it. It cleaned up the fuse box. We can now upgrade our service if we needed to without doing any more work inside the house. 95% of it would be external to the house and inside would be to reconnect the wires to the new panel and remove the old Frankenstein main switch, that I want to keep cuz it's so cool.
The wall removal and install of new header and post only took 3 days to complete. And they didn't crack our plaster ceiling in the dining room. I did have to fix the laundry, because they needed to move duct work and plumbing. In any case Before I could do anything in the kitchen I had to fix the laundry, but before I could do any of that. I had to call the building inspector to sign off on the structural. Actually he doesn't sign off, the structural engineer does that. The building inspector does other things that I can't quite figure out. Most of it is plumbing. They are just checking to see you are not doing anything more than what your permit says you are doing. Like adding on a new bathroom or addition to the back half of the house.
He only requested that I reconnect the drain back to the vent. Then once I had everything closed up, to take pics and send to him and I could have my permit closed. It was actually quite easy.
And getting the permit only took 5 days to get. Navigating the waters of the City permits department and knowing what, where, when, why and how's is the tough part.
So once initial inspection was done. I got to work. 2 weeks to put the laundry room back in order. And then to the kitchen. Gutting the remainder of the kitchen walls and ceiling, installing new lights in the ceiling and bulkhead, additional circuits for each appliance, for lighting. Relocating the drain and plumbing, installing new supply lines. Bricking up the old vent hood hole. Framing and insulating. Ripping up the old flooring for the entire main floor and laying down a new subfloor and prepping it for new flooring.
So we started this project on April 14-2014.
And I started working on the subfloor in mid-October.
Surprisingly we had selected all of our appliances. It was final. Deposit was made. I'm not quite sure how it happened so quickly. But I think by then I was already broken down so resistance was futile. I needed to get back to work on removing all the old boards and getting the subfloor down for the whole main floor before it got really cold.
By mid-Nov the subfloor was laid down and the first snow of the year was coming down. It meant that I was done until spring. That was my goal. To get the subfloor down and wait till early spring to put down the new floor.
Because we had given our kitchen company an ETA to have the kitchen cabinets in by end of May 2015. I had sent a list of wants and needs. So now we wait until the ice thaws.
But I needed to dump all the old boards and drywall and wood and stuff that I no longer needed and return the trailer to my sister.
People often ask me if I work. How do I find the time to do all this.
The answer is. Yes I do work. And I sacrifice all my personal time. ie. hockey, cycling, all the play time so that I can get in time to work on this. Sometimes it's a few hours, sometimes it's the entire weekend. But it's a sacrifice. While others are going out for dinners, going cross boarder shopping or going to the cottage. I'll be at home with a hammer, saw, drill, torch and my two hands and my reno clothes working on our place.
I don't wish to NOT be doing it. I just wish there were more
hours in the day or more days in the weekend for me to do it. So I can do everything else.
I like creating stuff. And it feels pretty darn good to be proud of something you made with your own two hands. Anyone can pay someone else to design and build something. But when you put your stamp on it and it's all your sweat and ideas. That means so much more. Plus you have the knowledge that if you need to change it. You can do it, because you did it.
Money can't buy accomplishments and achievements.
And if you did. You're a cheat and you know it.
July 2015 Update: Kitchen cabinets are being finalized and we are looking at Oct 2015. That's still 6+ months sooner than we had expected after realizing we didn't have enough money to finish the kitchen at Spring time. Flooring still to be selected.
Today is Oct 23 2015. And we've nearly completed the flooring install. The critical area was to have the kitchen flooring in place so that the cabinets can be installed. That's done.
The only thing that remains is 1/3rd of the flooring in the hallway. I basically have to rent the nailer for less than 1 hr, cuz I can only use it for 1 more row. After that it's too close to the wall and I have to use a brad nailer. That'll be done by this weekend.
We moved our temporary kitchen into the garage. Those 2x4's and plywood tops sure made the last year easily survivable when you don't have a kitchen. I sold our stove in August. I was surprised to see it go so quickly. As soon as I posted it, I got a response within 30mins. And by the end of the day it was on it's way to a new home. Kijiji is my friend.
The last big item was the fridge. I moved it into the garage because I didn't want to be working around it, like I was with the stove. And I didn't want to be moving it around on the new flooring. It's now sitting in the garage in it's new home, ready to take the overflow from our new incoming fridge. It's now my beer fridge.
We received most of our kitchen cabinets this week, but not all, and not the corner base cabinet that was essential to start the install. It's now delayed by a week, but we are happy that the kitchen cabinet company has high QC standards to not ship us something that was substandard.
But from what we have seen so far, it looks amazing.
I've been playing with the time lapse capability on my action cam. So I used it on the flooring install.
Glad it doesn't have sound or there'd be lots of BLEEPS.
I had put up our sofa 1 month to the day it was sold. I had a few enquiries. Mostly tire kickers. The people asking if I deliver, I don't even bother replying. But I figured if it sold then it's one less thing to keep moving around as I finished things.
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