Slacker!

Haven't I been a slacker in posting blog entries!  you know what's happened since i last wrote?
-we drywalled (well -- when i say we -- i mean they)
    -- for the most part sebastian and co did a good job.  a few places that could have been a bit more thought out -- and will take a little creativity to frame on our (or ben's part).  cost for labour for this part (drywalling and mudding and sanding) was about 3x the cost of drywall.  hopefully that sounds reasonable.

-we mudded and sanded (again, they)

-we primed and painted (really we -- and it freakin' hurts to paint ceilings!) - first a white primer coat and then a coat of chantilly lace -- at andi's insistance

-we floored - first ikea laminate
      -- at $1.49 a square foot, it was a deal.  i think it looks amazing.  the floor wasn't as level as we would have liked -- but we couldn't afford to lose the head space  -- so we couldn't level it all to the highest part.  so we just went with what we had and hoped for the best.  we were laying over vinyl.  we used a foam layer of underpadding from ikea (which really takes the cost over $1.49 a sq ft - but i'm ignoring that for now :}) and used some flooring itself as well as cardboard and gravel to fix local unevenness.  sounds crazy -- but it seems to have worked out.  that being said -- it's only been down there for 2 weeks with barely any traffic.  i'll let you know in a year!

-we floored again - marble tile for the entrance way.  i'm not totally sure what we were thinking.  but we got some discount marble tile from tilemart (i think that's where we went) and isaac went ahead and laid them.  looks pretty snazzy if you ask me!

-we made the last layer of the shower pan.  the shower pan has been a complicated story.  i'll write it up the next time (when i include more pics of these last steps!).  but let it be said that we just did the deck mud layer -- meaning, we can tile next!  and isaac's getting to be a pretty good tiler .....

Drywall!

Yea for drywall! Sebastian and his buddy (Robert?) were here to get the board up. it looks amazing now that it's done! we still need to mud and tape and sand (which they're doing next week) but it's really starting to come together :} now we gotta start thinking about finishing touches --- floor (i think ikea tundra), trim, kitchen (we got it at ikea at the kitchen sale!), doors interior and exterior) and bathroom -- tile, fixtures and floor. oh, and appliances. that'll make a big dent in the budget. i'm ready to declare that we're officially overbudget on this one. yep. we are. at least it's a renovation project that will come with some income.

Pex plumbing rules.

i'm just sayin'. seriously -- it's easy. pex refers to the plastic tubing that some people now use instead of copper pipes. it's nice 'cause they're flexible (but still sometimes a pain to maneuvre in all honesty) and you don't need any fire to join them. so maybe safer. and then there are the fittings. there's the pex-for-dummies sharkbite fittings that we started using at the beginning. they're expensive (but waaaay cheaper than a plumber!) and simple. you just have to push them onto the pipe and they lock into place. we're since graduated to a compression system. you need a $40 tool and you squeeze a metal ring around the joint between the pipe and the fitting. we graduate 'cause a/ it's 99 cents a fitting instead of $4-$7 and b/ shark bite didn't have as large a variety of fittings as the compression system did. anyway -- we're happy with how things worked out and we'd definitely do more plumbing ourselves in the future.

ps -- it's not actually leaking .. it just got a bit wet when we emptied the pipes

Pot filler

soooo --- we're not particularly good at focusing. you may realize this as you read. we jump around a lot. in our defense ... there were a lotta things to do at the beginning -- bathroom, kitchen, everything (haha) .... so we had to jump around to get running water in the kitchen and a place to pee. and a place to shower, come to think of it! so i'll be posting bits and pieces wherever. anyway -- while the basement ceiling was still open (someone once described the basement ceiling as the main artery of the house .... once you close it up, it's hard to make any more changes) we decided to put a pot filler in the kitchen over the stove. it's mostly for show seeing as the sink is approximately 4 steps away ... but it looks cool. and it had better 'cause it was a huge pain in the ass. in the end (after it had already leaked a zillion times and then water had poured all over the kitchen floor when we once turned the water on while to pot filler was running and didn't realize it!) it turned out that we weren't tightening the last 2 bits of pipe enough. so we figured it out and are now in the process of patching up the wall. it's not totally leve at the moment either -- we gotta play with that a bit. we're not sure if it's us or if it's the filler. we'll let you know how it goes :}

Electrical Inspection, Drywall delivery and Insulation

putting insulation in the ceiling blows! it's so hard. and it gets in your eyes. even when you're wearing googles. and you gotta wear long sleeve stuff so that it doesn't get you too itchy -- but then you get all hot! we used roxul safe and sound insulation for the ceiling. it seems pretty sound proof. either that or isaac was ignoring me a whole lot more today :} it's not too too hard to cut (we used a bread knife). it was a pain when the joist spaces weren't all the same -- so we had to cut some and not others. in all, i think that insulation costs were $500 or so? we only did the exterior walls (since we're a row house) and the ceiling. Electrical inspector came by for about 0.78 seconds yesterday morning and passed our rough-in inspection. so that was good. we've been running around to get ready for the drywall to go in. it was delivered yesterday and drywallers come tomorrow! yea! it's impossible to do work down there while they're drywalling -- so we get a break! there are actually a few things that we're not totally done (don't tell the drywallers!) but i think we're ok. we gotta frame in one side of the shower still (should be easy -- maybe take half an hour). and put in the shower liner. but we're thinking that they'll do the ceilings tomorrow and then start the walls on sat. so we should have time. we're using sebastian from taping excellence -- the material cost for the drywall job is about $1000 and the labour is about 3 times that. it sounds a bit pricey to me - but they're good and i like them. and we're already over budget on this so i'm caring less. plus -- once a tenant is in, we'll be able to pay back that overage. hopefully :}

Dehumidifier and pot lights

this will be short -- we got a dehumidifier from CanTire today. we need the basement to be undamp for the spray foam on tues. and the electrician came by to make sure that the basement electrical will pass inspections on tues. i was kinda a pain in the ass. at first i was thinking that we wouldn't have an electrical inspection -- but then i changed my mind. for 40+ elements (lights, switches, plugs) it's $148 if a certified electrician gets the license and $248 if the home owner does. the home owner is allowed to do the electrical even if they're not certified. but you're not allowed to hire any uncertified person. weird, eh? also -- we came up with a solution for a tricky ceiling situ. we wanted to put pots in the ceiling in the basement to save on height. and we also want to insulate the hell out of it for sound proofing purposes. in some places where it's tough to insulate -- like under the furnace -- we're gonna put quietrock sound proof drywall. it's expensive -- $100 a sheet for 5/8" (and 5/8" is what you're supposed to have in basement ceiling for fire ratings) ... but we figure one sheet will do the sketchy parts and it'll be worth it in terms of soundproofness down the road. but back to the pots. we have a gazillion jillion wires running through the basement joists. so it was hard to find a place to put the pot lights. and in the end -- the electrician though that those big bulky metal pre-construction pot light boxes wouldn't fit. he's going to use the L-shaped renovation pot light. but that caused us a problem. 'cause we really want to insulate. so he suggested that we build boxes around the pot lights before we put the drywall up. we're building them out of drywall and putting them between the future light and future insulation. there will be some wires running inside the boxes -- but insulation won't be touching hot lights. i'll post some pictures. but that's the deal. next sequence of events: weekend - deal with shower pan, vent fan, finish some framing. tuesday spray foam and electrical inspection. wed drywall delivery and then we're almost good to go!

Spray Foam saves the day -- i think

well - i looked into the spray foam thing today. it's lookin' good. it IS on the pricey side. but fortunately we don't have that many exterior walls and we get an insulation rebate in the energy audit program for it. so we might even make money on it -- but more about the energy stuff another day. i talked to a couple of companies. i got 2 ~$850 quotes for a 20 foot by 6.5 foot wall and 1 $3000 quote! in the end we went with foam comfort. jen seemed pretty cool -- although she did ask to talk to my husband at one point -- i didn't know what cross-bracing was for the metal studs, although in retrospect, i suppose that i could have guessed. i told her that i did the framing (which is half true) - i think that i made my point. some things to know about spray foam:

1/ it sprays directly on the brick/foundation wall

2/ it's a closed cell polyurethane (this particular foam is, anyway)

3/ walls need to be dry for it to adhere (dehumidifier, here we come)

4/ the truck is big - you need space in front of your house to park it

5/ you or your pets shouldn't be in the home for 24 hours afterwards

6/ foam comfort will be able to book a time for you in 3-4 days .... other people might not be able to

7/ foam has some waterproof qualities!

that's all i know. and now you know.

an update: we got the foam -- we only did the exterior walls and it seems to be keeping the water out! we did also find a crack along the edge of the house -- so we filled it with concrete grout. foam comfort were great, quick, nice, organized and we could book 3 days in advance.

Boxed in pot lights, metal framing and spray foam

i should make some things clear here:

1/ i'm trying to tell the story of our renovations - not teach you how to renovate. i'll describe some things that we've done .. but they might be horribly bad descriptions full of lots of rookie mistakes. but you gotta start somewhere. to learn stuff we generally do the following:

a/ consult the home depot book and decide that it's not detailed enough

b/ look stuff up on the internet and get frustrated that everyone does everything differently

c/ check out home depot and harass the employees for everything that they know - the caledonia home depot tends to be less busy easier to get an employee's attention. if it's plumbing we hit up tino at downtown lumber (the home hardware on ossington). he's in the plumbing centre and knows everything. he deals with tons of unsquare, unplumb toronto-type situations. he's great and willing to walk you though things and get you all the right bits for the job.

d/ ask any trades people that we come across for their thoughts on our problems

e/ ask our friends

f/ make it up as we go along

2/ provide a forum for people to ask questions about silly things that you normally don't encounter when you're renovating. but when you're faced with a renovation in an old house -- you gotta work with what you've got.

3/ provide inspiration for how you can turn an old house into something cooler and more you

4/ to give myself a place to bitch :}

nothing is rocket science. and as isaac says -- no one's going to care as much about the job that they do on your house as you do. so maybe it'll take us a few tries to learn the tricks and get it right .... but by the time that we're done -- it'll be right.

this post is about some decisions we made in the basement. we're setting it up for a tenant with a galley kitchen, bathroom, big closet and washer and dryer. it's a bachelor -- but a pretty big one. the ceiling height isn't great in all parts -- but it's not terrible either. we decided to do some metal framing for a few reasons. first -- when we first hired some framers to do the work -- they used metal frames. they did a pretty good job. they were kinda hoodlum-y ... but they framed some great bulkheads in our kitchen on the double. however. now that we're more educated on how tough framing is (for simple walls -- not that hard at all) - i can honestly say that we waaaaay overpaid them. here's the gist of metal frames - there are 2 different kinda of pieces for basic framing. a/ top and bottom tracks and b/ up and down bits. directions -- attach the top and bottom tracks to the floor and ceiling with screws (we used tapcons to go into the floor. i think that isaac drilled holes first and then put in the screws). the top and bottom tracks should be

a/ directly on top of each other

b/ parallel to the wall.

once the top and bottom bits are screwed in it's time for the up and down bits. cut the up and down bits so that they fit into the tracks that you just made. if the top and bottom bits are right on top of each other (which they should be or else your wall will be wonky) the up and down bits will be parallel to the wall and plumb. cutting the top and bottom bits : you want them to fit in the track (too long is a bigger pain than too short) but you want them to overlap with each of the tracks so that you can put screws horizontally into the track and the uprights (up and down bits). is that as clear as mud? we have a bulkhead in the basement -- but we didn't attempt that one.

for lighting, we decided that pot were the way to go. but our electrician for some reason decided that pre-construction pots (ones that you can use if you're insulating the ceiling) wouldn't fit. he was far more concerned with the esthetics that practicality. which is nice in some ways -- but a pain in the ass in others. he told us that we could build our own boxes around the lights out of drywall. and that it would pass the ESA inspection. so that's the plan and that's what we've been working on.

finally -- i mentioned that the basement was kinda puddly from the super rains. i was talking to a tradesguy today who suggested that we consider spray foam for the few exterior basement walls. we're a row house ... so it's only about 15 linear feet at the back ... but that's the dampest part and apparently spray foam has some waterproof properties. i'll check it out on homestars tomorrow and get back to you.

Freakshow of a rain storm

so this is the first post -- and i thought that i'd start it of on a bitching note. we have a puddle - actually 3 - in our basement. we live in an old house in toronto - built in 1880 according to the toronto archives. and in the past 9 months or so that we've had it -- it has proven to be remarkably well built. sturdy (even though every joe or larry who ever saw the joists in the last 100 years seems to have cut a hole in one), cool (at least this summer) and waterproof. or so we thought. we've never really has a water problem until this weekend. and so i ask ... can i ignore it? we're hoping to get the basement finished relatively soon -- ie. drywall and the works. since:

1/ we've never seen water down there before
2/ it's really close to the drains
3/ it rained a LOT over the past few days
4/ the laneway across the street was kinda flooded

i'm hoping that this was a freak one-off situation - never to be dealt with again. thoughts anyone?