10 years ago, it was a white Christmas.
Much poofier jackets and one piece snowsuits.
This photo was taken Nov 26-2005
Fast forward 10 years and it's warm and green like spring.
This photo taken Dec 24-2015.
No more poofy jacket. I think I still have that GAP warm down jacket. But I break it out for shovelling snow.
And there's been no snow, since it saves me the effort and this year has been a lot of effort in terms of renovations. So I don't mind so much the lack of snow.
But I feel for the ski hills.
We had accumulated a lot of cardboard in our garage from all the cardboard boxes from the appliances, flooring, and all the other boxes we flattened and opened up and we put down on the floor to protect it.
I was a little reluctant to toss out some of the boxes because I know the Kieran and Yahvi and Samatva like playing with a humongous box.
But my main concern was that I didn't want to keep it in the garage because you never know what will use the cardboard to build a nest or something to get it through the next few cold winter months. And I didn't want to stumble on it in the spring.
The City of Toronto doesn't put a limit on the cardboard you put on the curb. As long as it's flattened and tied up and more importantly it MUST to be able to fit into the back end of the recycling truck.
This was only about 80% of the cardboard we had in the garage. It seemed like a lot more when it's not flattened and bu
ndled like it is here. There were some boxes and some large flattened boxes that I hadn't put to the curb because I didn't know if they would take it all.
However when you take cardboard to the recycling depot there's a 20kg limit. And I thought there's no way I could go over that and when I went the last time I almost went over that. I was just at 20kg.
So I brought the rest of the cardboard to the edge of the driveway and asked the service guys if they'd take it and they took it. So I saved myself a trip to the depot. And more importantly we cleared up a bunch of space in our already crowded garage. Woo hoo.
This was an epic journey for us. Oddly enough this reno was completed faster than our bathroom one. But then I wasn't the only one working on this. We had a contractor to remove the wall, and I pulled a permit for that structural change. Those things had definite timelines. And then we hired a kitchen designer, after we had exhausted all of our options for kitchen and cabinets, and Tresa didn't like any of them.
By chance, we had been offered tickets to the 2014 ID Fall Show. So she went to check it out, with our friend Gin, and it was there she had found the kitchen cabinets she wanted. I thought - There is a God. And he is good. Tresa discovered our kitchen designer Anastasia and Viktoriya of Andros Kitchen and Bath Design at the show after seeing the kitchen setup they had on display at their booth and it was exactly what she wanted. And guess what colour it was? High Gloss WHITE. White-WHITE.
What we had learned was that there is a difference between a Kitchen Designer vs an Interior Designer. And there are some fundamental design choices that an Interior Designer will do that a Kitchen Designer would not do. I thought they were one in the same, but they are not. But don't ask me what the differences are, because that's all I know. And am I ever glad we had one and so glad we had the one we had.
We lived with a mock kitchen for 1 year now and it wasn't too bad. But since Thanksgiving, we were without a kitchen until the new one was done and it sucks. We didn't have any floors, just sub-floor. I had moved all the temporary counters I had made for our mock up kitchen into the garage as well as the fridge, because I didn't want to have to move the fridge around while installing the floors. It's a bit of a pain going back and forth to the garage for food, but that's not as bad as not having a kitchen sink to wash veggies and dishes in. But we didn't think we'd be without a kitchen for this 6+ weeks.
Our cabinet install was delayed by 1 week, because the cabinet manufacturer did not ship the 2 base cabinets that are needed to start the install. But that was ok, because I had to rewire the electrical for the under cabinet lighting. I was under the assumption that the under cabinet lighting was going to be the traditional valence type (with exposed wires), but it was a nice surprise to find out that our under cabinet lighting was going to hide all the wires.
The uppers have a false bottom so the wires are hidden there and hole is cut into the bottom for the puck lights. It's ultra modern and clean. The fact that the wires are hidden is really nice, so I didn't mind having to re-wire for this. Took another day to get it all done, but it's all good. I had some challenges but I made it happen. The driver for the lights is actually hidden in the microwave cabinet and then the low voltage wires run up in the walls to the upper cabinets. And come out right where the false bottom is so there's no wires visible inside the cabinet either. It's so neat!
The counter is Neolith. After Kieran threw up all over our marble floors in the bathroom and etched it. Her realization that although marble is nice, the reality of it is that it will be affected by anything that spills on it. And can she handle that? I guess not, because she went with this other new product instead. But it looks like marble. And when Tresa first saw it, she could not tell that it wasn't marble. That's pretty good. Also it's from Europe. Where all the good stuff comes from.
The appliances are all new. Never had a dishwasher before. Like ever! So this is my first one. I'm a little excited because, I'm not quite sure whether I'll continue to wash dishes. But I'm guessing that we'll only use it when we have a gathering. And I won't have to disappear into the kitchen to wash dishes. But with the wall now gone between the kitchen and dining room, i won't be disappearing when I have to load the dishwasher and empty it out. And the room seems so much bigger now since it's more open concept and probably because it's all so white too. And not just any white. Has to be Ultra-white (CC10).
The flooring is the same throughout the main floor now. Gone is the linoleum tile in the kitchen (which came up pretty easily in big pieces), and all the old 1" wide honey yellow oak strip flooring. It's been replaced by a 3/4 plywood subfloor (that got rid of all the squeaks) and 1/2" thick engineered walnut planks, the pattern painstakingly laid out by Tresa.
The metal art that had been hidden behind our couch for nearly 2 years finally went up. That art was the phone call I got after the Christmas One-of-a-kind show and I asked if she got tile for our bathroom. Instead she got this. And our bathroom remained unfinished for another year and a half. But it's done now and I'm loving the heated floor and the rain shower head. These were the two items that were my must haves.
We sold our old FLOS Fuscia 3 light that was so fragile and the bulbs needed replacing frequently. We didn't provide the extra bulbs for our old FLOS light in the deal. And those bulbs were hard to find. That's because they're a special bulb that's no longer made. So getting rid of that light was good. The guy got a good deal so if he wanted the bulbs he needs to pay for it or go find it himself. Good luck with that.
But this new light is like a tree branch. And it uses regular bulbs so that's a bonus. And it's not so fragile. So it's good. It came in black and brass. I wasn't crazy about the brass. But our house is looking very black and white. But so what. It is what it is. And this is how it is. At least the floor isn't black. Only the bottom of my socks are black. Well more grey from all the dust and stuff.
The kitchen installer finally came back to install the handles on the fridge panels and some misc cabinet work. So I was able to finally complete the fridge install. But we are finally 98% done (a couple of minor things still outstanding) and a fully functioning kitchen after nearly 20 months.
The two largest projects in our home, are done. The cardboard on our floor finally came up yesterday. So we can finally see our space come together. I feel like I can retire that Toronto Maple Leaf reno shirt and I can have a beer and put up my feet and finally relax and focus on something other than renovations.
Now what are we going to do next? Well we're re-organizing the kitchen, and re-learning how to live with a kitchen again. Take-out was getting to all of us.
Fast forward 10 years and it's warm and green like spring.
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