OMG

Or, more accurately, OMHF!

Norm, Rory and I were out running errands today. Because what else should you do on a sunny day off work other than run around dealing with house reno stuff? We went to the counter place to discuss quartz, since counter day is getting closer. Since we were in that neck of the woods, we thought we'd stop in to see how the hood fan was coming along. I'm glad we stopped, because it's finished! I'm sad we didn't have a real camera to do it justice, but Norm's phone did the trick.

 I've posted before about Mike at Hammersmith Custom Metal Crafting - he's the one who built us a stainless and copper radiator cover for the front entrance. They've really outdone themselves. I'm sure it isn't the largest or most elaborate hood fan they've worked on, but I went through all of their photo albums and didn't find what I wanted. Sometimes, custom is the way to go, because this is exactly it.

I'm amazed that you can start with an idea, do a sketch and then get a veritable craftsman to create exactly what you wanted. I wanted to pet it and hug it and squeeze it. The hood fan, not Mike.

One more piece of a very long project that is finally coming together.

Out of the frying pan...

Big day in the House. Range Reveal Day. We spent the weekend doing bits and pieces, but mainly drywalling huge gaps in the kitchen walls that we ended up needing to strip to get at the plumbing. If I ever have to reno a kitchen again, it's going down to the studs first thing. Never mind trying to piece back chunks of drywall - it's all coming out. Anyway after all that, today we (that means Norm and Keelan) brought the stove into the house. We bought the gas stove before we had even moved in to the house almost two years ago. Since then it has been waiting in the garage, unopened. The warranty has of course expired, so here's hoping it's more than just a pretty face.

This isn't where it's actually going to go in the end - there is still some sanding and painting to be done after last week's plumbing and this weekend's gas fitting and drywalling - but we did need to get it out of the garage to make some more work space for cabinet materials. Priorities, you know.

We also moved the fridge. This behemoth has been in a few places, but here`s where it was supposed to end up. When we first bought it we put it in a temporary location on the far side of the kitchen. When renos were seriously underway, we moved it to the dining room. Moving this thing is not a trivial job - it's front heavy and needs to be bolted into the floor via anti-tip brackets. There are 'danger' signs plastered to the sides and the back - moving this thing freaks me out. Today we leveled and plumbed it and bolted it one last time and it's not going anywhere if we can help it. Horking this thing and the stove around also served to test the floor. No matter how many times I install tile, I still worry when it comes to actually living on it. So far so good.

And where's our hero? Doing what he does best. Supervising. Though if pressed to choose, I'd have to say that last week, Nick the plumber was our hero (he's the one on the ball cap, don't let Rory fool you into thinking he's a plumber). Somebody at work gave me Nick's name as a good, reliable plumber. This guy showed up four times, when he said he would and did the work he said he'd do - all in good time with a terrific attitude and a fair bill. Here's his website, which is still under construction (he's a plumber folks, not a website developer) but the phone number is there. http://www.holeshotplumbing.com/

Moving On

It's time to move on to kitchen plumbing. We found out tonight that there IS a solution to what we thought was a large problem or two, so that's good news. Bad news is that it involves tearing out more drywall. Good news is that's tomorrow's job, not tonight's.

Now that the floor has been grouted and sealed, I wanted to post photos stage by stage. Since some of the pictures have already been posted elsewhere and the floor has already had visitors (it's more popular than I am), I'll keep the commentary to a minimum. To decrease the risk of being repetitive but to allow a viewing for those who haven't seen the photos yet here's a quick overview. If you've seen enough of the in-between already, scroll to the bottom for the finished product which hasn't been posted anywhere yet!

Whew! Not gonna lie, I'm happy that's done. Here's to hoping that nothing the City is doing outside with all the crashing and banging is going to disturb the cement or the grout curing.

Shave and a Haircut

A little more road construction before-and-after. Now that the City thinks our hedge has been suitably massacred it's time to oust the trees that separate our lonely little sidewalk from a rather busy street. All in the name of progress. And making sure we have a nice expanse of exposed fence ripe for  budding graffiti artists.

It really opens things up, huh? Yah, yah, it actually does. I'm sure we'll get used to it, and we still have lots of trees and foliage IN the yard. Embrace change, I say. Next step is for what the City folks call a "healthy pruning" of our trees that overhang the fence, so they can get their equipment closer in.

As an aside, the tear-out happened on Monday. It's all still sitting there. I'm sure there's a method to their madness. Somewhere.

Bath Day

I had a bath. My ears are clean, my feet don't stink, and my toenails are trimmed. That's all I'm sayin' about that.

I did feel much springier afterward though.










Besides, after that, we went to the river! The river makes me happy. See?














I met some strangers. That's okay. They liked me. Except when I tried to kiss them (well, seriously, if you sit on the dog beach, you're gonna get kissed). They let me play with their dog. Weird thing had one grey eye and one normal eye. Freaked me out a little, actually.









Ahhhh....warming up in the sun. Funny enough, the river is the best place to dry off after a bath. If you're a Ridgeback. Nothing really gets any wetter, except maybe your feet.

This is the side of the hedge that delineates our front yard - photo taken earlier this summer. I took a bunch of photos because we knew city road and sidewalk construction was imminent, and of course I'd want to track just how much of a muck they made of things.

This is the same hedge when I returned from errands today. Not the tree guy's fault - he has to trim (read: hack) the hedge back a certain distance into the property line so there is room for the forms for the new 2 metre wide sidewalk the city insists is required. Silly, really. Nobody uses the sidewalk on that side of the house. Probably because it ends at the end of our backyard. But I guess they'll remedy that too.

 

Tree guy was nice enough to give me a few pointers on hedge maintenance when I went and introduced myself. I don't expect he's going to be making friends anywhere along that stretch of road over the next couple of months. Wait till he goes to tell our neighbours in back of us that their maple tree has got to go. At least our trees you see at the side of our house (the ones inside the fence) get to stay, with a healthy pruning to make room for the equipment that's coming in.

This is the same sidewalk, taken from almost where the sidewalk ends, looking toward the front. See the nice, secluded little pathway to nowhere? The trees on the right are on city property and have to go to make room for the new bus stop. Most excellent, I say. Expose our long white fence to all the graffiti artists of the world, yeah!

Seriously, although I was pretty bitter a couple of months ago I think I'm over it. Somebody has to stay rational while Norm fumes away about the unjust senselessness of it all.

This Is My Dog

This is my dog.

This is my dog on dru..., uh no, this is my dog on power tools

Really. He's a reno pro. Or a really good foreman. The sounds of tile saws, grinders, drills (and the occasional curse)? He laughs in the face of all of that. Or at least he sleeps. His people, on the other hand, had work to do.

With the exception of the copper inserts, every single tile in this photo required cutting. Every. Single. Tile. And not just one cut. Oh no. The tiles in the border were cut on all four corners. If I didn't find that renovations provide me with a much needed creative outlet, we would have just layed the darn things side by side and been done with it. This is the progress after almost two days of work. The rest should be easier. Should be.

I'm going to BBQ some steak, get the watermelon out of the fridge and call it an afternoon. That's what my dog would do.