Welcome to My House | Lifestyle

2019! This is going to be the year where we finish all the outstanding house projects.

I’ve never talked about the house and the renovations we’ve done since we bought the place 3.5 years ago (this September will be 4 years!)

Thank goodness for Facebook otherwise I would have NO photos anymore. But that’s neither here nor there. I feel like I should try and break down each room more? I’ve been meaning to get to this post for so long, and do all the rooms, and have little tours of each. Lots planned but nothing executed!

All of the posts that I’ve written about the house have been less than informative. So let’s get to the nitty-gritty now, shall we?

2015

Andrew and I bought the house in September 2015 (received actual ownership) and straight away started working on it. The original owners smoked for years in the house so it was pretty gross. We also bought it ‘as-is’ so we got all the furniture and owners “stuff” that the family didn’t want. First things first – sorting out all the garbage!

Some of the bedrooms were in pretty rough shape (holes in the walls) which required serious fixing. We tore out all the doors, ripped out a large cabinet in the kitchen, and ripped up all the carpet. There was carpet everywhere (even in the bathrooms – ugh). Our family and friends helped us repaint; Andrew fixed some of the walls (the ones that had holes, and the ones that were “wavy”), and we fixed the floors. We lucked out that underneath the carpet was pristine hardwood floors – never saw the light of day. Completely refinished and sealed they looked brand new.

2016

Andrew, who will never take a bath again, decided to take a bath and the original bath decided to come apart literally at the seams. That prompted a complete gut and reno of the upstairs main bathroom. Once we ripped up the floor we found damage to the underflooring and needed to start from scratch. That meant we decided to just scrap everything in the bathroom and completely go to town.

I have to say – this is the nicest room in the house. Originally very dark, we opened up the one wall to create a knee-wall for the bath and have glass filling to the ceiling so that we don’t block any of the natural light. We did heated flooring, new tile, new floating vanity, and a tiled accent wall. A large rain shower head with tile accents and built-in niche. Taking a bath or shower when it’s neat is just so relaxing.

After we finished putting together the main living areas, I put some art and frames up on the wall. Andrew decided to gut the entire basement and rip down some walls. We found out we were expecting in September, and that kind of put a push on the nursery and the basement.

2017

Andrew decided that we needed more kitchen cabinet and counter space, so ripped out our small pantry cupboard to make room for a whole wall of storage. This, of course, he decides right before the baby is born so it’s not completed in time.

He also decided that because we ripped up all the plumbing etc, in the basement, he wants to make a shed/garage/2nd living space (practically) and puts the basement on hold. As a new mom, I didn’t really care because I didn’t need the basement space to be working right away. It was annoying to not have laundry for like 6 months with a newborn, but I managed. (Barely) (Thanks Mom). I had a literal hole in my basement for the better part of a year, and a hole in the backyard for the same amount of time.

2018

We built the shed/garage; we’ve levelled the backyard; my basement has a concrete floor (not just a dirt hole); I have my laundry room back.

The basement has new windows and insulation. We even have some sub-flooring on the one side. We’re ready to switch over to the new electrical panel. We are ready!

Which brings us back to 2019. And the finishing of the renos! Here’s what needs to be done:

1. Basement
   • Move the electrical panel and finish running all the electrical for the lights
   • Finish insulation of bathroom
   • Frame and Drywall bathroom
   • Drywall entire basement
   • Flooring
   • Build an entertainment unit
2. Kitchen
   • Finish painting trim and wall where cabinet used to be
3. House
   • Repaint window trim that was taken out during window replacement
   • Recreate 2nd bedroom as a toddler room – transitioning from nursery to big boy room!
4. Outside
   • Concrete pad and walkway for outdoor kitchen/patio area
   • Lay some grass
   • Finish driveway

Granted, most of the above stuff I won’t be doing. Before the baby comes in June, I’d like the basement to be mostly finished.

The House stuff is the most important at this point, I’ll need to start getting ready to transition Kaiden pretty soon since new baby comes in about 4 months! I hope we’re ready for that step.

I will be doing a more in-depth post about all the rooms in the house, with more pictures of the “After”. I’m pretty excited how most of the rooms turned out!

I’m just so excited that the list is finally getting smaller! What do you think so far?

J x