Garage Drywalled

Well after an extremely stressful 4 days of waiting for the bank appraisal of our house plans, I can finally take a deep breath and relax.  All is well and the garage is coming along nicely.  Drywall is done now, just need to wait for the mudding and taping then it'll be my turn to get in there to paint and lay the floor then the electrician comes back to hang the fixtures and voila, interior is complete.  Siding will go up too in a couple of weeks.  It's only been 3 so we're pretty happy.  The kids have adapted to the giant pile of rubble that is now our back yard and know now to wear shoes out there at all times when making their way to the trampoline...their last bit of fun.  


My job while I wait for my labour intensive job is to begin to empty out the portion of the house that is to be lopped off.  I've bagged all my winter and dressy clothes and am trying to for see what I might want to be wearing in coming months.  Not easy, but at least it'll be summer so it's all more compact clothing and easy to move around.  


I'm learning to just relax my shoulders and talk out loud to myself (yes I really do) that everything is going well and just to let the mess be and it will all be paradise soon.   We told the builder my husband would hang the garage light fixtures, he questioned why?  I said well because he can.  The response to that was that "all that sort of thing is already priced out, it will take the electrician minutes to hang them and for him (hubby) to sit back and relax with a beer and just watch it happen."  Good idea, time to let others do things for us.  Hmmm, a taste of how the other half live, I could get used to that!

 No, our window isn't a foot tall, it just hasn't been cut out yet

Eep, imagine trying to install drywall without one of these!

Two Weeks In

Just when you think it's never going to happen, wham-o, two weeks have gone by, along with heaps of progress.  What a transformation the garage has undergone, love it.  I can totally vision a large craft room/kids fun zone when this is all done.  As well, a nice house for the Mini and motorcycle.  I also thought today we'll have a great place to store bulk of things like toilet paper, and whatever is on sale that we can buy by the mass.    We'll also look into a chest freezer.  I'm a vegetarian, but I know it'd be handy for the rest of the household to have frozen meat handy, I can store waffles and fake meat.


Today my sister came over to help me paint the Hardie Plank, 22 boards in we decided it was a hugely ridiculous thing to be lifting these 12 foot boards over to the spot to paint, then onto the drying rack, then onto the spot to store them again.  I reckon total 45 have been painted out of the 150 that were delivered.  The job will be much easier when they're installed then I can just take a compressor to it and spray it all on.  Maybe I'll hand roll the garage, but the larger area of the house can have a spray...I'm still not going up a high ladder to get the tall bits.  We'll hire someone for that or hubby can take on the challenge if he chooses.  Sometimes you need to give in and hire someone to make life easier...tricky for a frugal gal.

 The system, paint then move to drying racks (see below).  We ended up painting on the patio table to save our back today though.

Well my back hurts so I think I'll call it a day and start packing up some things in the house so we'll be ready for rear demolition day in a few weeks.  Bits at a time will make life easier rather than a big panic when it's time.

 Looky, new doors are in!  

Nice big heap of garbage that I don't have to clean up!!!!

I just love coming across little bits of a house's history - the bottom right shows a minty green colour the shingles were once painted, would've been cute back in the day.  

My cat sure likes to squeeze into that space to get under the house, along with all the other critters in the neighbourhood too I bet.

First of the Light Fixture Purchases

Here are a few of my first light fixture buys, lots more to come!

 For the garage bathroom, but may end up in the main house upstairs

Ikea, "Sivern" $29.99

 Master bedroom ceiling

Ikea, "Alang" $39.99 (large)

Master bedroom readers

Ikea, "Alang" $24.99

My World is Crumbling (or Drive, to be less dramatic)

Well this is the scene outside after 1 1/2 weeks into the project.  Plumbing, electrical, framing, stucco removal and excavating all done.  Building portion seems to be going great, but a few issues with the inspector are causing us some upsets, but we'll get through it.


My wonderful neighbours also came over Saturday to help me get a jump on painting the Hardie Board siding.  A big job for one person as each piece is 12' long and about 10" wide.  I can move one at a time, but with their help we could do a 5 piece move at a time.  


Made it to Ikea yesterday so managed to spend a few bucks there for some light fixtures and other necessities. Island living makes Ikea trips and all day affair - up at 6am to catch a 9am ferry, drive for 1/2 hr, shop for a few hours then hop back onto the 5pm ferry to get home for 7:30, phew.  Worth it for the savings.

Pretty sure the house was going to fall apart with the excavator booming away then the chunks being dumped into their trucks...I ended up leaving the house because it was a bit much on the nerves.

View from the back of the garage

New window boxes are in (hope I don't break these ones with flinging rocks from the lawn mower).  Note the patchwork wood project from a previous owner

Patio is gone as well as part of the steps - watch out, that first one is a doozy! 

Middle two gray colours on the wall there are the paint choices

A woman would've moved the recycling boxes BEFORE this was dug up

Some goodies - more on the way when I place an order for furniture - unlike their commercial, strapping wardrobes and dressers onto our car was not an option :)

Garage Progress

We're into day 5 now and wow, what progress.  Framing is all done, electrical done and the digging of the concrete to ready for plumbing is done.  At the rate it's going I would imagine just a couple of more weeks.  We still need to paint the interior and exterior and to lay the floor in the living area.  We reckon we'll keep the front garage portion as just concrete.  No need for completely finished look in there and it saves a heap too $$$.  We'll just use carpet bits to cushion it a bit while we sleep in there for the next few months...fun!  


Here are the photos after today's work...

 Rubble from the floor dig up and a big pile of Hardie Board ready for me to paint

 Looking at the bathroom

 Old windows are out and framed new ones are ready

New window opening which will make it so much brighter in there

Garage Demolition Day

Bright and early at 7:30 am, the first delivery of materials rolled in.  I was still in my jammies!  Still no permits, blah, but ripping out the walls and windows is something that can be started without. Our municipality's Chief Planner recently stepped down from his position leaving our permit in the dust, just our luck, but onward and upward!  I can't expect everything to work how I want it to so I must be accepting of these things I can't control.


Wow, they worked fast!  After about 10 min most of the random panelling was in a heap on the drive, by days end it was empty with just a few windows to still be removed and all the garbage gone.  I did need to swoop in and rescue a few plants that I thought I'd have another day to save, but I managed alright to find them a safe home.  I was warned by family that they likely wouldn't want to be tiptoeing around my babies so I had a place in mind to put them so the job wasn't to hard.


We're pleased so far!  Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Boys' Cool Light

Found some pretty cool light fixtures for the boys room today at 'Seeing is Believing' so we picked up the large green size orb.  Sounds like it can be put together in various ways too, but I like the circular shape best.  One boy wanted blue, the other red so to comprise they could choose between orange, white or green.  Green was the winner, but  I was hoping for white.  Other colours were violet, pink and yellow.   I do want one for myself, but it may look silly if we've a couple of the same "unique" style lights happening so close to one another.  


I was thinking for a small child's room a yellow orb would be interesting to act as the sun, then you could use one of those leaf canopy's from Ikea as an interesting outdoorsy theme...maybe with a child's climbing wall too.


Happy with our find on this rainy Victoria Day!

Jigsaw Puzzle Lamp

$49.99

Nothing electrical comes with the kit, but we plan on having it as a ceiling pendant.

Floor Delivery!

Well my forearms are black, blue and all scratched up, but at least these 56 boxes of vinyl plank got into the house from the heap on the drive (did my husband arrange the time knowing he'd be at work???? nah).  Ordered from Home Depot these were to arrive on Tuesday, but due to a miss-communication with them, as they were short boxes and had to have some transferred in, they were two days late.  Worked out well in the end for us as they refunded our $60 delivery charge, as suggested they do by my husband.  Fine by us.  Still didn't like that I waited an entire day for them to show up, but money back makes up for it.  When I saw these two palettes on the back of their big truck I felt the messy house tension growing.  That's a whole lotta space to be taken up for the next few months.  I'll have to suck it up and just let it be.  I've decided one of the 3 piles can also hold all my other things I'm collecting for the house.  The kids, on the other hand, think they are their new play towers (I rescued one heap from being demolished into slide ramps + plus those suckers are heavy and I hate to think of little toes getting squished).


{I'm not going shopping crazy, honest, but flooring was 10% off at HD only until the 16th so we had to act.}


Well it has begun so I must roll with it, BUT still no permits!!!  Geez, don't they know we're waiting, phft!


Also, keep your fingers crossed for an Ikea run on Saturday if my sister is well enough to go :{

These piles hold...

26 boxes of "Allure, Sapelli" vinyl plank $1.99 sq ft or $47 per 24 sq ft box for the garage

(hmm, looking for the image I see the US Home Depot sells them for 99 cents a sq ft :/)

and 30 boxes of "Allure, Cherry" vinyl plank (same price) for the living room - also is the same flooring we have throughout the house now.  Super durable and water resistant, although we've found it's held up extremely well to spills

This can be one of the "treasures" to live atop of the heap until it can be hung.  Another wonderful birthday gift, a dinner bell for the back porch.  "DIIIINNNNEEEEER!"

Dining Room

Well while we wait and wait and wait on permits I might as well focus on the fun bits for a while.  We were warned it might take up to six weeks to get them through and we're nearing that now, nice to know that everyone is ready as soon as we get the OK though.


I've had my fabric selected for ages now so I'll start to mentally put each room together.  I reckon while I'm down one daycare child this month I can start to do some sewing and since the now living room will be staying in tact I could be starting there.  The living room will become a nice sized dining room once we're all done.  It'll be quite nice in there as it's a South facing window so it's cheery on a sunny day plus we have a wood burning stove in there so makes it cosy on colder days.   I dream of actually having our family over for a meal without turning the house upside to accommodate everyone.  We don't entertain much now for this reason.


This is such a lovely print from Tonic Living and since I've very generous parents who gave me a gift card to them for my birthday, I can go ahead and purchase the yardage necessary to do the four panels for the, soon to be, dining room drapes!  (ooh goody, my husband just gave me a gift card to them too!)  I am not a great sewer, but I can manage a straight line alright, I also trust that no one ever looks at ones seams close enough to judge anyway...right? Riiiiiight?

Tonic Living's "Gazebo"  $22/yard

"Ingolf" dining chair from Ikea will someday make it's way into the fold, our current ones are being beaten into the ground by children!  @ $79.99 they're affordable and sturdy

The paint selection will be General Paint's "Juan de Fuca, CH060" which I'm having trouble getting an image of.  It's a shade of green that picks up on the gray tone on the fabric.  I'll also show the before of the "dining" room once it's tidied up a bit!  Our little one is sick today so the sofa is strewn with sicky supplies.

There it is, all tidy again and getting more and more cluttered as we need to find homes to put things as we go  

These current drapes will head on up to the boys' bedroom

Here it sits...waiting to become something useful, other than a storage space.  Picture this...foreground will be a bedroom, then a bathroom, then kitchenette, then living space.

Mini looks a little lonely :(

Hazmat

Good  news, bad news, but the good news is better.  The hazmat test came back with no findings of anything to serious other than a lead paint.  That means no pesky asbestos, so, phew.  Bad news is it cost a small fortune for them to tell us this news we pretty much knew already.  Houses aged prior to 1990 must have an asbestos test (among other hazardous materials) done on the portion of the house being removed.  We had determined ourselves this was highly unlikely, but just guessing isn't knowing so had to get 'er done.  


Hopefully, that's the last piece of the puzzle the municipal planner needs to finalise the permits so we can get rolling on the garage and to settle our financing.

Glad we don't need this sign up!

Wicked!

Wow, it only took up about 3 months of my thoughts, but I've decided on an exterior paint colour.  13 colours tested which I'm very glad I did as what you see on a paint chip can be very different in reality.  Last week walking the kids to school there was a newly renovated house on the different route we took, what a beauty!  I went up and rang their doorbell on Friday to see if they would mind me holding my paint deck up, but no one was home.  The colour I had pre-selected that I thought was it turned out to be darned close so I didn't need to stand there giving myself a colour consultation.  Good match, I was happy.


Went to General Paint yesterday and got a test pot of "Wicket" a lovely greenish gray or grayish green, depends how you see it.  I plan on doing that with white trim and a sill detail in either darkest colour from that shade or with a British Racing Green - hey it'll match our Austin Mini :)  hmmm, with our white wagon and our green Mini I wonder if we'll look like we're matching our house to our cars.  Give your head a shake Essy, that's a bad road for you to go down!


So here it is, what do you think?  


Oh and with any luck the garage interior demolition will commence tomorrow!  That means we have to bust it out and finish emptying it.  So close now just those few bits we don't know where to put left.

Left chip is a British Racing Green and the right is chocolate brown which might be nice as detail

The rest is General Paint's "wicket"  

Wicked!

Garage and Colour!

It's darn real now... handed over a pretty sizable cheque today for the go ahead of our garage conversion.  We are reluctant to sign off for the house since the hazardous materials test and permits haven't been completed yet, so we've got an amended contract which basically says we're going ahead with the garage now, but will go ahead with the house when those items are settled.  We're finding our Contractor and Designer to be very willing to make things work for all parties, couldn't be happier.


Now the fun part is to completely empty our garage and get rid of any bits laying about by Monday (should happen then or abouts).  Since we nixed the U-pak idea the kept contents of the garage have been moved to the sun room, shed and the kids playhouse!  Still some big items to go, but we'll make room...someplace.


Boy, we should build a bigger house :)


Oh yes, I also found the house colour combo of my dreams today so I'll head out once again to get some sample tins finalise it.  So excited now as that's been really weighing on my mind.


My only disappointed lately is that I went to head over to Ikea on the weekend (4 hr trip away including ferry ride), but a friend luckily noticed their add that they were moving locations.  Phoned to see what kind of stock they had and she said they were down to liquidation.  As hugely fun as that would be to poke through deals, I really did want some particular items.  Try again next month.  Boo.


This post looks lonely so I'll add some photos of my colour choice as soon as I can.  

...Testing

Still at it.


This time I headed to Home Depot for their Behr sample pots and brought home six new ones including the 'Tea Bag' colour I thought I wanted, now not so much.


I am really liking 'Granite Boulder', 'Pewter Grey', 'Ashwood' and still 'Gray Horse' from Benjamin Moore.

First is 'Gray Horse', fourth is 'Pewter Grey', sixth is 'Ashwood' and seventh is 'Granite Boulder'

That second one is 'Tea Bag' is very straw coloured

Nothing to do with anything, but our Magnolia, although giving me wicked allergy attacks, is looking so stunning right now.

Testing

Well I'm zeroing in on a exterior paint colour.  Went and purchased six sample pots from Benjamin Moore to try out, two of which I liked.  I also tried out the trim colour we currently have which is a dark army green.  I think I'll have to nix that idea as when I looked over at the shed painted in the same colour I noticed that it was quite faded compared to what I freshly tried out.  No good.


I really think I'm heading in the gray direction now.  My husband says the gray I like looks like concrete, but done correctly it will look very classy with white trim and black details such as wrought iron here and there and planters.  I would love a glossy black front door, but I don't have the heart to paint over our fairly nice oak door  we currently have.  I can be a bit of a purist in those respects - I like original woods and brick.  


I'm going to head over and pick up a sample of Behr's Tea Bag just in case though and I still haven't excluded the thought of keeping it the same colour we have now - very practical if we're only doing stucco patch work on the garage conversion rather than siding.  It's a constant!

The inspiration...

Photo taken from blog site www.theimpatientgardener.com

I really like the idea of that whole porch window detail being in white, as well as all other trim then the body painted gray

Could one of these be the winner?

The testers

I like the end one and the darker gray (I do really like some of these for the garage interior paint though)

The 'Gray Horse' on the left is pretty good, picture it all with white trim and black accents.

The greenish gray on the right is reminding me a of a McDonald's Shamrock Shake so that simply won't do

...or do we just go with the Montana Tan we're currently sporting, but with white trim, that's a must!

The Kid Test

Boo, another surprise cost - a hazardous material test for the portion of the house coming off.  They'll need to take samples from the walls, floor and structure at the point where the section will be removed.  Here's hoping for no asbestos :/  Doubtful, but with these things you never know, safety for all comes first!  The front half was built in 1912 and the second half (that's coming off) is circa 1980 so it's hard to say what will be found.

In other developments...
I've decided on a carpet for the stairs and second floor!  The best one seems to be Fabrica's 'Denali' in colour 'Ovation'.

I had all my carpet samples out and matched up the right one to all the other selections I made for finishings so far, then narrowed it down to two, then decided on this colour solely for it's kid resistant factor.  It's remained the exact same colour all week while I had it lying in the most highly kid trampled spot in the house.  I'm happy - not that I won't vacuum and clean just as often, but it's nice to know that if I miss a day when company is coming, I don't have to be embarrassed!

Thanks Fabrica!

Fabrica Denali in Ovation DN12

I'm at it AGAIN!

Update - still waiting on permits...still trying to pick exterior paint colour.

I had every intention of going to the paint store today to get some sample colour paints tins, really I did.  Instead I walked by the wall of colours and found myself, once again, looking through them all to see if I like one just that much better.  Well I guess I did as I walked away with another hand full of chips.  Now I know why people hire decorators (like myself) to choose for them.  I can choose a colour for another person in a heartbeat and they turn our very successful, but picking for myself has proven to be very tricky.  I think my problem is that I like so many colours but at the same time find it hard to commit since an exterior paint colour is not something you can't easily change once a year.   This needs to be a 10 year commitment so it better be good!  My husband keeps saying just go with the colour we have now but I'm finding it just too tan, needs to go either a bit more gray or a bit more green. 

While I do have several brands of paint decks I seem to have better success choosing from a store's wall of colour....well maybe I have more success, we'll have to see about that.

The ones I don't really like

The ones that I  like...today.

I use a white sheet of paper to represent the trim since I'll be going white for that for sure

The two above the white piece of paper are looking pretty good to me, below is the 'tea bag' that I liked last week, but now it's looking tan! 

Headache...oh, I mean Headboard

Since the fabric wasn't wide enough to go the width of the board I had to do some match up and sew together work.  All was going so well and I had thought to myself that everything was going so swimmingly then...RATS!  I had cut to size the wrong chunk of fabric.  I didn't have enough extra to correct the problem and I'm too cheap to buy more so I just went with it and decided that I would really be the only one to care about my mistake.  I may always think of that mistake every single time I look at it forever on out, but hey, worse things can happen.

Overall though I think it looks pretty nice and around about October I'll be able to install in onto the bed rails.  No point doing that now as our bedroom is slowly becoming storage space for all that's being moved around for this project.  I'll just wrap it up and store it someplace.

Another day I'll post about the master plan for the Master, but today is just too nice and sunny out to be thinking about that. 

Hope I don't have wrongly cut bird upholstery nightmares tonight :/

1984 Glam Headboard

Sort out where the fabric should go

(those birds really fought with me)

 Remember, I'm frugal so this is an old mattress pad I saw peaking out of the cupboard that I used for some padding for just a little comfort and poofiness

The mistake. 

That wrong side is the piece I should've cut, but I did the main bit underneath by accident.  Anyway, whatever, I sewed these together - one panel on each side

Staple, staple, staple then voila, done!

I reckon those two off center birds will be covered up by shams so I'm not too worried about their position (normally that would make me crazy).  When I've decided on wall colour then I'll paint out the legs so they disappear a bit or else just let the skirt and nightstands hide them.



Headboard Idea

I'm thinking to maintain my sanity while I wait for things to get going I should really start on some projects that will be used in the new house. 

I have this dream of a bedroom retreat that the kids will only be allowed in with strict rules applied to their visit.  With our house being so tiny right now, our master seems to be the destination hiding spot for hide 'n seek.  Makes me nuts.  Especially when the freshly washed laundry is in a pile to be folded.  Somehow that pile ends up in a mass on the floor once they're done.  Grr.  Anyway, the new master will be a grown up woman's oasis (my husband will be allowed in, but it'll be all ME).  I see fabrics of all sorts of patterns and textures, real furniture (not random hand me downs that we just have just cause), soothing paint and white where ever it can go.  I need to be practical and know that may not all happen right off the bat, but I'll see what we can do about that!

I've had my parents circa 1985 headboard for a while now.  It's been with us for a while, then a friend used it, now it's back to us as of today.  I reckon tomorrow's job will be to head to the fabric store for some batting so I can reupholster it.  I ordered the fabric from Tonic Living some time ago so now is a good of time as any to ger 'er done. 

It's a pretty simple job, but I'll do a before, during and after shot so you get the idea.  I'll post that once complete, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Here's a teaser of the fabric I'll use.  Too bad it'll have to wait about 5 months to show itself off. 

Tonic Living's 'Vintage Blossom in Jade'

$20.95 USD/YD