Knob & Tube

May 23, 2006
David, along with Alex and Slovak arrive bright and early to start on the electrical work. They begin in the kitchen and upstairs bathrooms. All is well until they stumble upon the dreaded live knob and tube wiring in the main floor living room/dining room, which likely feeds the 2nd and 3rd floors. Depending on how many circuits this wiring is on, the cost will be from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. (We will keep our fingers crossed for the lower end of the scale.) Knob and tube must be replaced as it is considered a fire hazard and most insurance companies will not cover homes with it.

Bathroom Walls

May 20, 2006
The bathroom wall tiles are all gone exposing drywall that needs to be replaced. Interestingly, the wall between the bathroom and former 2nd floor kitchen is insulated. Some of the outside walls aren't insulated, but this one is - go figure!


The wooden lath on the former second floor kitchen should be off by the end of today. David is coming on Monday to begin the electrical work.

Tough Tiles

May 15, 2006
Deb continues with the removal of floor tiles from the 2nd floor bathroom. They are tough to get up and the metal mesh underneath is anchored by large nails. Eventually, they are all cleared out except for the area around the toilet and tub, which will be taken up later on once everything else is removed.

Our plumber James is confirmed to start work next week. We also speak with our electrician David and email him our requests.

Slow Sunday

May 14, 2006
We are wiped after our busy day yesterday, and get off to a slow start. We finish putting together the bedroom wardrobe cabinets. We then start clearing out the second floor bathroom. The floor tiles were laid well, so they are very difficult to get up, especially with the claw-foot tub in the way. We have a lot of tile removal to get through as the walls were also tiled.

Andrew’s Dad (Fred) comes by to help out. He puts up the towel rack, toilet paper holder, and bath towel hooks in a snap. We’re now all off to celebrate Mother’s Day with the rest of the family.

The Help Brigade

May 13, 2006
Our second dumpster was delivered without a hitch. We must say that Fairlight Disposal (www.fairlightdisposal.com) have been fantastic - on time, friendly and professional. If you are ever in need of a dumpster bin in the Toronto area, we highly recommend them.

We then met with Michael re: gas/duct-work which will begin in a week or two. Most of this work will be fairly straight-forward with the exception of the duct that currently resides in the kitchen/dining room wall (which we plan to tear down). This duct originates in a brick load-bearing wall in the basement, so re-routing on the second floor is our only option. We will need special fittings for the duct, but it is doable.

We have been dealing with phone problems over the last week. The phone lines in the house were split into four separate lines (one per floor) as the previous owner rented out a few rooms. The main floor had a couple of functioning phone jacks when we moved in, but with the renos and old fraying wires, we soon lost our dial tone. Rogers was supposed to come and replair this issue and transfer the phone line over to their service yesterday. However, this wasn't done, and any internal re-wiring of phone jacks would cost an arm and a leg. So Deb's Dad (Athol) came to the rescue, fixed the problem and our phones are now functioning. We'll deal with the Rogers transfer on Monday.

We remove the kitchen cabinets, counter top and sink fairly easily (amazed they are only held in by a few screws). We then start ripping up metal mesh and concrete left over from Thursday's tile removal.

Deb's sister (Cindi) , Andrew's Aunt (Irit) and his sister (Amy) come by to help out. They take on all sorts of tasks including bashing in the wall to expose the fire place, removing the wodden lath from the walls, removing staples from the kitchen floor, and major clean-up which involved numerous trips to the dumpster.

Later on in the afternoon we start to dismantle the 2nd floor kitchen. Smashing down the built-in cabinets we discover some unusual-looking long screws protruding through the floor. We soon realize the main floor kitchen ceiling fan has been anchored into the 2nd floor kitchen flooring via these screws. Needless to say, this ceiling fan was removed in a hurry.

While Deb & Cindi put together some cabinets for the bedroom, Amy, Irit and Andrew work on the daunting task of lifting up the vinyl flooring in the 2nd floor kitchen. The vinyl is in two layers on top of plywood. They remove everything to expose the original floor boards. This soon-to-be bathroom is now ready for plumbing, electrical and gas/duct work installation.

We can't thank all our helpers enough for all their hard work. We had a very efficient day, and we got a lot done. We appreciate your time, effort and diligence. Amy, you really came through and unanimously win the suprisingly helpful award!

Kitchen Kayos

May 11, 2006
Deb works at removing the existing kitchen floor tiles, and after about 2 hrs the job is almost done. With the tiles gone, we'll need to rip up the metal mesh underneath the tile mortar and lay a new layer of plywood. This will ensure a smooth even surface to lay new tiles. This job (along with many others) will be left for the weekend. The tiles now sit piled up until the next dumpster bin delivery on Saturday morning.


May 10, 2006
As per our designer's suggestion, we head to Ikea for armoirs to put along one wall in the master bedroom. We chose simple tall cabinets with mirror doors. Although in pieces, we soon realize these cabinets are VERY heavy and even struggle to get them into the van. We unload everything into the front hallway too tired and weak to get them upstairs.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday Happy Days

May 9, 2006
We meet with Lindsay Anacleto, Interior Designer. She gives us some good ideas for our present and potential future reno projects. We discuss the layout and some colour ideas for the living/dining rooms, bathrooms and master bedroom. She will get us in contact with a structural engineer re: load bearing walls, a contractor, and her tile supplier for kitchen flooring.

Enbridge comes to disconnect the second floor gas stove that is leaking gas. We arrange to have the dumpster picked up tomorrow morning, and schedule the duct/gas re-routing contractor to come by for an estimate on Saturday morning.

May 8, 2006
Jackie and Paul stop by for a visit during the day and trample through all the dust. Andrew cleans out the garage tossing non-essential items in the dumpster and continues removing the wooden lath.

May 7, 2006
We had the first dumpster bin delivered on our front lawn at 9 am on Sunday morning (even our neighbours were impressed!). We started the day lugging buckets and recycling bins full of plaster and other deconstructed wall materials from the house into the dumpster. We were now able to move around a bit easier and continue on our quest of wall bashing.

Johanne stopped by and helped out by removing some of the wooden lath pieces. She deligently hammered out all the nails so we could keep the wood for use in the fire place. The fire place has been covered over, but we are hoping that once exposed we can get it in working order.

Heidi and Aaron come by for a peek in the late afternoon. Our neighbour Kelly (from across the street) stops by with homemade cookies (this doesn't only happen in the movies/on TV). Excited to taste these goodies, Deb opens up the tin they fly out all over the sidewalk. All hysterical, we pick them up and dig in - they are delicious!

By the end of the day (except for the fire place) all the plaster is gone. We are now left with exposed studs and are that much closer to invisioning the end result. We shower just in time for Brett & Erica to stop in. Brett, as per your request, you're on deck for drywalling!

Dust Day

May 6, 2006
After more wall bashing we see the builders/renovators of the house were very fond of plaster. We have just about every combination of wall construction - wood lath/drywal/plaster, wood lath/metal mesh/plaster, wood lath/metal mesh/drywall/plaster, drywall/plaster (kudos to whoever came up with the flimsy wall construction of just plain drywall!).



Mark came over to give us a helping hand earlier in the afternoon. He banged, snipped, and pulled off most of the metal mesh on the living room-dining room divider wall (not an easy task to say the least). We then let him go home to his wife and newborn child.

Aaron arrived later in the afternoon excited about his first wall bashing experience. He suited up and went at it on the dining room-kitchen divider wall. When he was done with that, he started to tackle removing the existing kitchen floor tiles. What a trooper!

Andrew and I reached our threshold of banging and dust inhalation (despite wearing masks) after about 7-8 hours. We arranged the first dumpster to arrive the next morning. We'll likely load up about two tons of material in the bin for the first round.

The dust is everywhere and travels far. We even had to swiffer our cat Lilu who was safe and sound protected in our bedroom. Ohhhh the dust!

Demolition Derby

May 4, 2006
We suit up and start bashing the walls. Yes it's a great way of taking out all your frustrations! The plaster creates a ton of dust so full eyeware and a mask are a must. We break apart the plaster layer, cut through the metal mesh, and then remove all the drywall. We complete one side of a wall (we're now about 1/6th of the way done).

We then reward ourselves with a treat from the ice cream truck that drives up our street daily.

May 3, 2006

After a quick bash of the wall we see they are made of plaster, over top of metal mesh, over top of drywall. We then head off to Home Depot for some sledge hammers, crow bars, snips, work gloves, googles, masks etc. We're now ready to tear down some walls.

The Move, Settling In and More...

Thursday April 27, 2006
After getting the keys and borrowing the minivan from Marty & Judi, we began loading boxes for our first trip over to the house. Along with the help of the Paquet sisters and their monster-sized Lincoln, we managed to fit a ton of stuff in the vehicles.

Upon first inspection, the house was left in good condition, fairly clean and still smelling of moth balls! While bringing in all the boxes we started to realize that this move was going to be a tough one. Trying to keep the main floor clear for renos, we trucked up/down one to three flights of stairs with numerous (heavy) boxes. Needless to say we were getting a good workout.

Since we're re-doing the main floor kitchen, and second floor bathroom, we've unloaded all our kitchen and bathroom supplies in the basement apartment. We will be sleeping in our intended bedroom on the second floor, but will use the bathroom and kitchen in the basement for now.


Friday April 28, 2006
The box lugging continued in the morning, this time with the very-much-appreciated help of HJS. We schlepped up and down the stairs too many times to count, but by about 1pm we were pretty well done moving boxes.

Rogers came to install the cable and internet. The house had no cable previously installed, so this job took around four hours. Athol (Deb's Dad) came by, fixed the noisy fridge and set up the computer network. Later that afternoon, the locksmith re-keyed all the locks, and Marsha (Andrew's Mom) unpacked and set us up with the kitchen essentials. Fred (Andrew's Dad) secured the basement stairs by installing extra screws. By that time we were all wiped and ready for some grub. So in the company of Barbara (Deb's Mom), Cindi (Deb's Sis) and Michael (a friend of ours), we headed for sushi.

Saturday April 29, 2006
Fredericks moving company came right on time to move all the furniture. In two hours they were done without any major issues. Unforutnatley, some shelving indended for our offices on the third floor didn't fit up the stairs so we juggled things around a bit and all is well.

Sunday April 30, 2006
Our first of many trips to Home Depot to load up on supplies for the renos, as well as more unpacking and setting up Deb's home office form work on Monday.

Tuesday May 2, 2006
David comes by to check out the place for electrical work. All our ideas are doable, but we've got a lot of work ahead of us.