Turning Lemons into Lemonade

This week I got the long awaited call...  our new back door had arrived!

So, H and I headed down on Saturday to pick it up.  We popped it into our Matrix (man that thing has been amazing at dragging all sorts of big things home for us!) and headed back up the hill to our house.

While I was inappropriately fondling it, I had a big rain cloud drop a bucket of cold water on me....... there was a big problem with our new door....

Notice anything? .....    Maybe this might help....

Yup, we only wanted 1 hole for the lock- aaaahhhg!  So, after a frantic call to the door supplier, he confirmed by fear that as a custom order door we were essentially s*#t outta luck, and we'd have to find a work around (lesson learned for next time, entry doors come standard with 2 holes unless specified!).

So, I asked him what he would suggest to get me out of the predicament I had found myself in.  I explained that I really wanted to stick with the square back plated design as it has a nice vintage vibe and matched the square door lites so well, and that I wanted Weiser to keep it compatible with the rest of the doors in the house.

So, we checked out the Weiser website and came up with two options that had matching square back plated levers and deadbolts.

The Standard Collections which I was familiar with:

And, the Metropolitan Boutique collection which I hadn't seen in stores:

Doing some reading on the Metropolitan and finding out that it was in Canada Only (unlike our southern neighbours it's a pretty rare moment when us Canucks can boast that fact), had even cleaner lines, same lifetime warranty.... and, the real kicker that it was about $40 cheaper for the lock and handle set than the Standard Collection (and amazingly, the set worked out over $20 cheaper than the original Verdani keyed lever that I was originally planning to use) I was sold.

So, I've placed my order for Halifax Square and matching deadbolt, which should be arriving in a week or so.  And....yes, I may have done an awkward 8.5 month pregnant dance to celebrate my win ;)

Finding a Pulse

Hi folks,

Yes, I'm still here, just been in a bit of a hibernation being busy getting ready for baby V's impending arrival (less than 1 month to go!).  Lots to tell you about, I promise!

One of the things on my our to do list for the house, was replace the back door.    As we put the front door replacement dream on hold as it was a nice to have vs a need , and at at over $3k we couldn't justify that much money on a nice to have.  So, the compromise H and I agreed on was to spend a bit more in a new back door which is a need to replace.

Other than the freakish smurf colour, it may not look too bad from afar....  But up close it's a whole other story.

Ummm, yeah.  Rotten frame, and milky glass..... what a warm welcome to our casa!  Like I said.... need!

My dream, as you know, is for a Crestview vintage style door.... but as they don't do door lite kits anymore (boo) and there are no suppliers in Canada (double boo).  I spent ages scouring Craigslist hoping to find a real vintage door, but finding good examples and anything close to the right size proved to be unattainable.  My next step was to see what else there was besides Crestview and Vintage, so I spoke to a local door company a few months ago (while getting prices for the front door) about this dream, and they mentioned a new series by Therma Tru, called the Pulse line, but their price was mucho dinero, waay to much for a back door.  So, I thought my dreams for a retro mod door were in the toilet and mentally prepared myself for a boring old normal door.

Then came the lovely Pam at Retro Renovation, who did a profile on Therma Tru's new doors, and it re-lit my door fire and I decided to give it another whirl.  I tracked down a few other local suppliers that carried the door and asked for pricing..... and as the prices started coming in I started to spy a light at the end of my mod door lovin' tunnel.  There was a huuge variance, and in the end I was able to find a company about 5 min from our house that can get me my door at 1/2 the price of the 1st company, and only ~$100 than the boring plain slab door I had been considering - score!

So, long story short, we pulled the trigger and we have a new backdoor on the way....  A Thermatru Echo offset with 4 lites.

To keep with the vintage vibe, I want to go with a non-round backplate (inspired by some local neighborhood and web images (like this,  this, and this).  So, we'll be pairing with the Weiser Verdani lever to keep with the square theme. So, excited!

The big moral of my door hunt story though, is to always get multiple quotations, because your dream design choice may be more financially attainable then you think!

Getting our Tool Time On

Waay back in the summer just after we wrapped up the basement reno, we also finished off another space, our workshop!

With the clean-up of the whole house underway we realized establishing a space for all our DIY and other household items to go was instrumental in re-claiming our house.

So, our workshop space got kitted out, tout de suite.  When we bought the house there was a workshop directly off of our carport. 

The bones were good with double entry doors, and even forced air heating (woopwoop!), but the layout and storage options in the existing space was poor, so we knew with a little thought it could go from good to great.

As you can see from those inspection day pictures, the room itself was "drywalled" when we bought it (by drywalled I mean they used a million little leftover scraps  of drywall on the walls and ceiling!).  With our basement reno we stole some space from this room to create our new shared laundry space (check out the floor plan before and after here and the whole basement reno story here).  With the electrical, plumbing, and insulation going in the neighbouring space needing to carry over somewhat into this space due to the layout changes, we took the opportunity to pump up this indoor/outdoor space with more insulation for those winter projects, as well as brighter cleaner walls to make a cheerier workspace you actually wanna hang out in. 

By bumping the laundry room wall into the workshop space we were a bit worried about the loss of space in the workshop, but in the end a series of serendipitous events meant that we've got a pretty custom looking workshop for not a lot of money.  So, sit back and grab a coffee and I'll show you around our new and improved workshop.  As you enter, to the right you get a sneak peek at H's little pet summer project....

 

Yup, that's a giant blue fridge.  This baby has been in my family longer than I have, in it's former life it was kerosene fridge at my parent's cabin.   It was there when my parents bought the place ~35 years ago and was used every summer to keep our food and bevies cold.  When it was finally retired last summer (when we upgraded to mini fridges powered by solar power) , it was destined for the dump.  H on the other hand had another vision for it so we toted it home on the back of the boat and then in the back of our Matrix, so he could work his magic.

 

H envisioned it in our living room as a storage unit..... I was not too thrilled by this prospect on a few levels- both aesthetic and safety based.  So I persuaded him that the workshop or carport was a better/safer option.  So, we stripped it of it's "guts", kept all the original shelving and used several cans of spray paint later to take this big beast from white/rust/chrome to royal blue & chrome.  With a little bit of elbow grease we now have a fun custom shelving unit.

 

 

Serendipity #1 was that the fridge just happened to fit perfectly in the nook left from the laundry room creation, with only about an inch to spare!  It's almost like it had chosen it's own new home.

Serendipity #2 was finding a desk on the side of the road by our house.... a desk that fit along the wall to the left of the doors.

By adding some extensions to the desk legs, it is now at counter height, perfect for working on small projects.

Next up we wanted to address the rest of the room by maximising storage while minimizing loss of floor space, so we went vertical by recycling the old shelving system, and ran it in a L shape along two walls.

A little organization later, and we have all our tools and DIY supplies tucked away safely in our workshop, ready for our next project.

We still have a few other small ideas for this space, like pegboard under the lowest shelf for setting out screwdrivers etc.  as well as a hanging system for garden tools etc.  But until next summer we are calling it done.... unless we decide that there's no time like the present.

Putting Down Roots

With the garden makeover back in September we also did two other little additions to our garden.

1.  We finally put the wooden "round" that was living on the back deck as a rather precarious bird feeder to a more permanent use-- we figured the new tenant probably wouldn't want the thing in their space.  Partly inspired a random blog post on some random blog somewhere (helpful no?!) and revived by an episode of Design Star Season 7 and, I had the idea to add a bit of whimsy to our garden.

 

Since our round was too thin to make a side table from (as we don't have space for any more outdoor furniture), we went for something more ornamental.  With our 4 inch circle bit to make space for the plants, and a drill to make some drainage, we came up with this:

We raised it off the bark much with some flat rocks to help drain/avoid rotting, and nestled it in our front (south facing) flower bed under the 2nd storey's overhang. This area gets almost no water, so we figure that these succulents should do ok.  And the large wood "planter" adds some nice texture and interest, bonus!

A few months later and it is still going strong... We figure worst case, investing a few bucks in 2 new plants every year - or even harvesting some clippings from our other outdoor succulents means it's no biggie for some character and inhospitable space filling.


2.  We planted our fig tree.  Last summer we had visited the Okanagan with H's mom during her visit, and while at the Penticton Farmer's market we found some baby fig trees for sale by one of the farmers.  As a chef, H loves pretty much anything we can grow that is edible, so we picked one up.  You might have seen it peeking out from the pile of basement reno stuff stored in our living room in this post.

After staying in our living room for the year, it had gotten much bigger (like a gangly teenager!), and according to our research the summer/fall was the time to plant it.   So, a hole, some random bits of scrap wood, twist ties, and some of my trusty black bark mulch later, and we were good to go. 

When we the man folk cleared the tree out of our side yard, we weren't too worried about the exposure to the street, because we had plans to put the fig on that side of the house.  We pulled the fig forward on our lot so it is more in our front yard and had better sun access.  We figured that this way it will provide some visual interest without blocking too much light and  keep our side yard open and better for future little Waffles to play in.

For reference, the old tree was behind the low blue spruces in the middle ground of the above picture (lined up about smack dab in the center of the side of our house). The fig is pulled out into the front (unused) part of our lawn so takes up no play space and should be a nice visual from both the street and the house.

So far so good, it's too bad we will have to cut off most of the new growth before wrapping it up for winter..... H tells me I have to do it, as it'll hurt him too much to cut the limbs off himself. 

Taking it a Step at a Time

When we signed on the dotted line for our house, the view from our front entrance was anything but inspiring.  Think wood panelling, forest green carpet, and tobacco stained walls ... oh yeah, and the lovely (sense my sarcasm?!) blue trim, burgundy carpet and our laundry machine downstairs- just gorg ;)

 

 

Before we even moved in the main carpet was removed to reveal the oak hardwood hiding underneath, and the trim was painted a crisp white.  And there we kinda stopped, leaving us with this view ....

 

Yup, f-ugly forest green strips that don't connect with anything else- boo!  Why you ask did we leave it?  well, we didn't get to it before move-in due to time, and then the basement reno took over... but mostly because we didn't know what was lurking underneath said carpet.  You know, the whole better "the devil you know...." situation.

But, it drove.me.nuts, like I gave it the evil eye and cursed it every time I used those friggin' stairs kinda nuts. The basement reno did the carpet no favours with the contractors, and family labourers trucking up and down them all day with dirty grimy shoes, making the bad situation worse. So, one day after work I got a wild hair and declared today is the day- I don't care what is underneath the green monster it's just gotta go and we'll deal with the consequences.

Luckily my hubs is pretty used to my random thinking process, and even though he couldn't see the vision of what I wanted to achieve, he was game to give a hand.  We agreed that whatever we found would be better than the green carpet (Aaah, unknowing rookie optimism!).

So, H and I suited up slapped on some work gloves, and ripped those groddy bits of carpet (+ padding + tacking strips + nails) up, and were left with this sight...

And then I got a bit nervous.  Yuck, they weren't looking so good- que inner freak out while trying to remain calm for H's sake!  But, I focused on the silver lining, which was:

1. We had wood wood (not plywood) treads
2. Could see that they were once exposed (we could see the shadow of a former  runner).
3. The green carpet was gone and even in this state the wood was better looking

The upper stairs were looking ok, but the lower stairs were in rougher shape... for some reason the overhang of the treads is longer (like freakishly not to code long), resulting in 3 treads having been seriously damaged at some point which there had been some feabile and ugly attempts at repairing - maybe that's why they were carpeted over in the first place?

As we had irrevocably opened this can of worms, we persevered.  Over the weekend while H was at work covering for a sick colleague, I got the next phase of the reno, sanding off the years of gook, grime, and old finish.  Which got me to here...

In hind site wearing flip flops to sand the stairs was probably not the smartest move, but it does illustrate the amount of dust this wee project through around our house.  As our entrance is not double height, sealing it off from the rest of the house was pretty impossible - and if I'm honest, I was so gung ho to get started on it I probably wouldn't have bothered even with a normal height ceiling.

Sanding it down took away the crusty residue and old finish, but there were still a lot of old nicks and gouges.  I guess that's to be expected in 50+ year old softwood stairs.

Luckily, from a regular distance they were a huge improvement.  Much cleaner and more polished then their untouched neighbours.

 

Next up was verathaning the steps with 3 coats of floor verathane, and then onto painting.  I decided to paint the trim and risers white to match the rest of the house's trim.  So, with some filler in the riser's to hide the gouges left from the runner and carpet nails, some painters tape, and primer later things were starting to come together.

Two coats of semi gloss paint (BM Chantilly Lace), and a lap around each stair with regular white paintable silicone to hide the cracks and seams, later and things were looking pretty spiffy!

Ain't that a better first impression?  The stair treads being a different type of wood are a bit more red than our oak floors, but as we are planning long term to replace the stair treads and re-do the landing (the landing wasn't supported properly when the house was originally built which means that the slate tiles are cracking + the old severly damaged wood treads = redo, boo!) means that for us this is a good for now solution.  It was also a great chance to see how I like the wood and white stair look in person.... and, it's love @ first sight!

And, the before and after is a great reminder of how far we've come!

Now to paint the walls and get those pesky baseboards out of our upstairs hallway! Oh yeah, and deal with that problematic downwards set of stairs- ugg!

Getting my Grill on



With Fall and indoor "Fire Season" quickly approaching (vs. outdoor campfire season!), I snuck in a quick fix for our open wood fireplace.

 

You may remember from earlier posts that our fire grill (screen, spark protector...thingy-a-ma-jigy...) was tres shiny and brassy.  With our original brick colour this was probably fine (for the previous owner)... But, it wasn't us, and with our new and improved charcoal brick, the grill it stuck out like a giant brassy beacon.

 

 

So, armed with a can of high heat friendly matt black spray paint, I took that bad boy outside and showed him who was boss.  Lucky for us, the grill part was already black, so it was just the frame I needed to get good coverage on.  After a little light sanding to give the paint something to grip onto, it went from this

 

 

To this simple plain dark loveliness (no, the dark patches in the grass are not over spray, they are moss remover stuff as our West Coast environment breeds that stuff like baby rabbits!) 

 

Mucho better in my books!  With a new fireplace grill thingy setting us back $50 and up, this quick $5 fix was just what the style doctor ordered.  And check it out in action...

It look like it belongs now, no?!  It almost disappears, so the attention is all on the awesome column of dark grey brick... and H's excellent fire making skilz of course!

Little Black Dress

Okay, confession time....  H and I are rookie gardeners.  We have just wrapped up summer #2 in our house (we bought in June last year), and we are still winging it.

Some things that have not been helping us are:

1. We bought the house as an estate sale, the previous owners being on older couple who hired their garden work out to pros! yeah no pressure!
2. The children of the previous owners scalped our garden removing we estimate 10-15 mature plants/shrubs (yeah, nice huh!)
3. We are on a corner lot with mucho exposure to the street (aka nowhere to hide)
4. The most we have had to work with in the past was a planter or two
5. We've been stuck doing our basement reno

With the basement reno coming to close, we realized that the first impressions of our house count a lot when trying to find a renter.  We figure that our house's exterior is a symbol of us, and a sign of how we treat our house and our things.  And that if we want a tenant who will take care of our/their space, then we need to show them we care.  There are a lot of outdoor makeover items on our to do list (like painting the house, new walkways, adding a new patio area with a trellis/awning...), but they are mostly too expensive or would take too much time/energy for us burnt out DIY-ers.  But, there was one 'quick and cheap fix we did decide to tackle......

Our flower beds.

Yup, that's right we whipped those suckers into shape.  From a distance they were not looking too bad....

Probably, helped by our new roof  and getting rid of the big cedars woopwoop!  But up close was another story....  neglect at weeding and general garden maintenance was showing.  It just looked sloppy and kinda uncared for.  Not the best impression to potential tenants as they walked up to our house.

So, we hunkered down and did a big weeding blitz. Which helped a lot, but was still not very polished or welcoming.

Yeah.... I wasn't kidding!  So, I got my thinking cap on... and I pondered our quick fix options.... and then I had a light bulb moment - bark mulch, but not just any bark mulch, ideally black bark mulch!

So I researched our options - from our local transfer station, Home depot, Rona, etc.... and the black stuff was expensive... and we needed a lot so there went the "cheap"check box....

But, I still pined for my black bark mulch.... I scouted it out everywhere we went gazing fondly at the bags every time we were at the home improvement stores... yup, you could say I lusted for it.  But, my frugal finger just couldn't pull the trigger.

That is until I spotted bags at Walmart for $2 per bag (vs $6+ per bag at the other stores), and they even had black- booyah!  So, I loaded up our Matrix with as many as I could fit, and dragged those suckers home to a sceptical husband.

A few trips later and he's sceptical no more... 'cuz now our flower beds look like this!

Crisp and clean, just the way I like it!  So far we bought 18 bags if bark mulch (we cleaned the Greater Vancouver stores out of their remaining stock!), so at $2 each, we spent under $40 with tax, and we were able to do about 1/2 of the flower beds on our whole property.

Guess who's going to be stalking the Walmart garden center next spring for her next fix?!