Nursery Makeover
When we found out we were having twins, we were in the middle of a major kitchen renovation and I didn't have hours on end to look at nursery ideas.…
Second Floor Final Reveal
It's been two years since we bought our house and it's amazing how much has changed. In addition to our downstairs renovation, we have now completed our upstairs renovation. We replaced…
Replacing Baseboards on the Second Floor
One of the final steps in finishing our second floor renovation was installing the baseboards. Our floors were installed and finished, our walls were painted and we were ready to be done with renovations! Luckily…
Bathroom Face-Lift
Now that we've pretty much renovated our entire house, the parts that are unrenovated (our kitchen and bathroom) look pretty sad in comparison. Our plan is to renovate the kitchen…
Master Bedroom Closet Renovation
The major change (or one of the major changes) in our upstairs renovation was the installation of a new closet in the master bedroom. The reason we started this project is really because the original…
Replacing Hardwood Upstairs: Part 4 – Installation and Finishing
We waited until the middle of October to start installing the hardwood on the second floor. Not only is the humidity level great in the Fall (somewhere between the extreme…
Reinstalling the Subfloor on the Second Floor
We decided to make our lives a bit more complicated by deciding to change our heating system from forced air to a boiler with rads. Since the pipes need to run through…
Hallway Closet Renovation
We have a tiny little closet on the second floor and we wanted to turn it into a linen closet. It's a very narrow but deep space, measuring only 20½"…
Painting the Second Floor
When we painted our living room and dining room, we did a lot of research on the brand of paint to buy and the type of finish. We wrestled with which…
Drywall Nightmares: Part 3 – Back Bedroom Demolition
We're now all set up in the master bedroom, so it's time to deal with the back bedroom. When we went to get the back bedroom walls ready for paint,…
Replacing Hardwood Upstairs: Part 3 – Subfloor Installation
Once the original subfloor was clean of all its dog hair and dirt debris, we were ready to start installing the subfloor. Shimming Just like last time, we checked to…
Replacing Hardwood Upstairs: Part 2 – Demolition of Back Bedroom and Hallway
Once the master and middle bedrooms had subfloors installed and were painted, we moved into those rooms and started demolishing the hardwood floor in the back bedroom and hallway. Removing…
Exposing Brick
One of the walls in our bedroom is uneven because the chimney juts out. It's also in an awkward spot because we want to put our bed against that wall,…
Drywall Nightmares: Part 2 – The “Professionals”
Once we finished our demo work, it was time to find a drywaller. We learned a very valuable lesson: Drywallers are not the most reliable tradespeople. We had three separate…
Replacing Hardwood Upstairs: Part 1 – Master and Middle Bedroom Demolition
The upstairs floors were generally in better shape than they were downstairs. There were, however, a few problem areas that looked like they fell victim to water damage. Given how…
Drywall Nightmares: Part 1 – Master and Middle Bedroom Demolition
Before we could start painting, we had some drywalling to do. We wanted a new wall flush with the exposed brick, we wanted a closet opening that would fit an IKEA…
Renovating the Second Floor: Let the Fun Begin!
It's been almost a year since we completed our living room/dining room renovation. We finally have a social life again, we can relax in the evenings and on weekends and we…
Replacing Baseboards: Part 1 – Cutting
We started our living room renovation about 10 months ago and we are now working on the finishing touches: baseboards! Since our house is over 100 years old, it came…
How to build a wall: Part 2
We're getting there. It's not pretty, but we're getting there... We've been working for about a week straight, and we're getting cranky about it. We let dad take Friday night…
How to build a wall: Part 1
Once the washer and dryer were put back together, I started a new project: building a wall. Our bedroom is quite large, but has a slightly awkward layout: the doors,…