New Windows
When we renovated our first and second floors, we talked about replacing our windows but decided we didn’t want to spend the money. Windows are expensive and not as exciting…
primer
Christmas 2023
For several years now, we have taken scrambled to complete major renovation projects in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Christmas seems to be a hard and fast deadline that…
Bookshelf Revisited
A couple of years ago, I build a new staircase and wall to the basement which included a built-in bookshelf in the wall. At the time, I chose to stain…
Basement Family Room Renovation: Framing, Drywalling and Painting – Part 2
Last winter we finished the first half of the basement family room because I was returning to work after my maternity leave and I needed a relatively clean space to…
Building a Planter Box
Little by little, we’ve been trying to make our backyard a bit nicer. While perusing the internet at all hours of the night, I came across a really nice planter…
Basement Family Room Renovation: Framing, Drywalling and Painting
Because our basement bathroom renovation project was so delayed, we decided to shift gears and make progress on the family room – basically a second living room in the basement…
Kitchen Renovation: Part 8 – Framing and Drywall
Once the window and doors were installed, it was time to frame the interior and install the subfloor. This was probably one of the most exciting steps in the process…
New Basement Stairs: Part 3 – The Railing
Once the stairs themselves were finished, I still had to sort out how to build the handrail. I knew that I wanted it to match the style of what I…
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…
Front Door Face-Lift
I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but we’ve spent so much time on the inside of our house that we’ve really failed to care much about the…
Learning Tower
Now that Adam is older and starting to be interested in, well, EVERYTHING, I wanted to build him a little stool so he could stand at the counter on his…
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…
Stair Upgrade: Part 2
Once the floors were finished, we were ready to finish our stair upgrade. Handrail During our design, we determined that both the handrail and baserail would be exactly 2½” wide.…
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…
Building Access to the Attic: Part 2
Installing the Attic Hatch A couple of months ago we installed our new attic ladder. We then had to install an attic hatch. This was probably the most complicated part…
Painting the First Floor
Once the subfloor was installed and the load-bearing wall was finished, it was time to paint! Choosing a Paint Brand There are a lot of paints to choose from: Benjamin…