Backyard Renovation: New Garage (Phase 2)
Our existing garage has been in bad shape for many years now. Wood rot and a collapsing roof has made the garage completely unusable. And with some property line issues…
Backyard Renovation: South Fence (Phase 3)
With all of our garage drama, I pushed the neighbour to have the south fence posts installed earlier than we originally planned. The original plan was to install the fence…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 11 – Finishing Touches
Given how massive this project was, many of the tasks that are usually major milestones in a project seemed small in comparison. Painting One of the first finishing touches was…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 9 – Floor Installation
Our kitchen floor will have two surfaces - hardwood floor (extending from our dining room) and tile. The mix of flooring is to address the problem that the door in…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 7 – Plumbing and Electrical
When we were looking for a contractor, we wanted someone who would let us do some of the work ourselves. Not only does it save on costs, but there are…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 6 – Structural Work
The biggest and most transformative part of the kitchen renovation was removing the chimney and installing a new window and door. The back of our house hasn't received much love…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 5 – Demolishing the Kitchen
Once our contractor was finally ready to start (only 3 weeks later than planned...), we had to get the kitchen packed up so it could be demolished. Packing a kitchen…
New Basement Stairs: Part 1 – Opening the Stairs
When we opened the dining room, we wanted to also widen our basement stairs. But at that point we thought that we would have to reroute our radiator pipes, so…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 3 – Materials
Once we had our contractor on board, it was time to advance our kitchen project and start making some big decisions. With our general design nailed down, we could now…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 2 – Hiring a Contractor
So... hiring a contractor in Toronto is a joke. The demand for trades is so high that you can't get anyone decent in less than 12-18 month and that's if…
Load-Bearing Wall: Part 5 – Removing the Wall!
I've had a hate-hate relationship with the wall in our dining room since we moved in. Even though we managed to make it slightly less ugly, my issue was with…