Right - I’ve been wanting to start this thread for a while, but the big milestone (for me, anyway.) was when the piano moved in. There’s still lots to be done, but for me, this really feels like I live here now.
I have actually been writing this thread for most of the morning, but it started to look like I was using the message board for my personal blog, so instead, I started a personal blog - the detailed story, to be written over the next few days, can be found here.
Quick and dirty version - my wife and I bought a three storey, fully detached house in our favourite neighbourhood in Toronto in January of 2007, taking possession March of 2007. It was divided into five apartments - one each on the above ground floors and two apartments in the basement. The original plan was to live in our old house while we took the new house back to a single family dwelling, then move in when the new house was completely finished, renovate the old house and sell it for as much as we could.
After many changes of plans, setbacks, lots of hard work, we moved into the new house December 21st of 2008, when it was at the bare minimum stage of completion for occupancy. Since then, many milestones have passed. We are still not done, but with the piano moved in last Thursday, I’m really feeling like this is my home now.
And that’s what I wanted to share with all of you…
I’m giving this a friendly bump to see if there’s anyone else out there who feels the need to share renovation stories.
I did about 95% of the demolition myself, which was an interesting process. Especially taking the plaster and lathe off the ceilings, which caused me to coin the term ‘having a coyote day’ - rather like the term ‘having a salmon day’ for the days where it feels like you’re swimming against the current for no certain purpose. ‘Having a coyote day’ is when it seems to be your destiny to poke at things until they fall on your head.
The hardest slog was the second floor middle bedroom, which was directly under the third floor bathroom. From the joists down, there was a layer of lathe and plaster, followed by a layer of metal lathe and plaste, followed by a layer of original gyprock that came in 2’ x 4’ sheets, followed by a layer of modern drywall, a layer of plastic, a layer of drywall and a coat of stucco. I couldn’t figure out, at first, why so many layers - and Lordy, that was some hard to take down. After a morning of thumping away and getting the odd glimpse of what was up there, I finally realized that every time someone had overfilled the bathtub or let the toilet overflow upstairs, someone had repaired it by covering it up, rather than taking the old stuff down! That was a long couple of days!!
If anyone is interested, I’ve put up some pictures at PhotoBucket. These are shots of the kitchen as it goes from the kitchen of the 1st floor apartment to being demolished to being rebuilt.
More than anything else, though, I’m really interested in hearing other people’s renovation stories - disasters or (I hope!) successes.
‘Having a coyote day’ - I’m going to have to steal that.
My SO and I bought a house with an attached home office, and are working on converting the office space into an apartment for my parents.
First, you poke at the wall (which you have been studying for weeks) until you can take it down. When the studs and frame finally come down, you get covered in a shower of paint chips, plaster bits, a few random nails, and some drifting insulation. Then you spend the next couple of weeks measuring how far it is from the floor to the ceiling, because you are sure the wall wasn’t load bearing, there is still that tiny little doubt.
YES! Our contractor specifically told me not to take out any framing members until we could get the finger pinchers, I mean, the teleposts under the joists. Even on the third floor, where I could point out the plaster and lathe trapped between the top of the framing members and the joists that proved the ceiling had been plastered before the wall was put up, I was told “This framing was put up in around 1940. Whether it was a bearing wall then or not, 65 years later, it’s probably bearing something.”
We sistered the entire roof, and sistered everything where the piano would go. Just in case.