Visions of Sugar plums...

I had a lovely sleep last night in our bed in our BEDROOM! I do beleive it has been fourteen weeks since that last happened. So much has changed since then, on so many levels - all for the better.

Right now the kids are running in circles around the main floor. Circles!

I still have a disaster of a house, more or less, but things are moving towards normal - or is a disaster 'normal' for us...? Anyways, we have more storage now and are poised for another round of purging, so hopefully the new year will see us in a much more functional and tidy house. The bathroom is almost completely ready - it's missing a door and we still haven't caulked the tiles or sink yet - but as of last night it became the main bathroom again. And I think everything fits without cluttering up the place.
The kids room is shaping up. Two beds makes for a bit more crowding but, once we get all the stuff on the walls moved about and the toys and clothes sorted into storage, it should be a fun place to hang out. The kids like their new beds and bedding anyways! Although, it did take Liam a while to be ready to give up his old bed. He decided we should give it to the little girl downstairs - that would be ok with him. Now, do they want a new bed...?

My only regrets about this taking so long is that we really haven't had much opportunity to decorate for Christmas. I had hoped to get us moved upstairs, do a bit of cleaning and then decorate. There doesn't seem much point now though. Once I'm done cleaning I'll have to start packing. Most of the decorations we do have up are ones Liam made at pre-school. Thankfully his preschool does frequent structured crafts for the whole class or we would have nothing. Liam isn't big on self-directed free-form art exploration, but give him a task with rules and tools and supplies and a specific final goal and he'll happily join in. I did find the stockings too, so they are up.
Liam can't decide whether to be worried Santa won't know we are in Priddis for Christmas, or to hope that He'll fill our stockings here as well and we'll get double gifts!!

We still have a lot of work to do when we get back but come the new year we will be able to relax in our newly renovated house and just enjoy...

...while we plan the kitchen reno.

T'was The Week Before Christmas, And All Through The House...

...All the creatures were stirring and cleaning the house!

It's finally here. We are moving back upstairs THIS WEEK. Despite a nasty head/chest cold I have managed to get our bedroom in order and I am slowly working on the kids room (it has become a complete disaster in the last few weeks). But even more amazing is the fact that last night, Steve removed all of the big power tools from the front room! It is a work room no longer and is starting to look like our office again. I was beginning to think I'd never see this day!
Of course cleaning up the work room is no small task. We have already shop-vacced the room once, and then gone over pretty much everything with the miele and hepa filter. Now I am wiping things down and every wipe still comes away with a coating of sawdust. Yuck!

Soon enough the bathroom will be up to 'Reveal' status and I'll post some photos later this week. In the meantime I'll continue to battle a sinus headache and clean the upstairs. All I know for sure is that one night this week will officially be the last on the living room floor!

Knock Knock...

The 'Joke', as interpreted by a four+ year old, has entered our household.
Namely the 'Knock, Knock Joke' and 'Why did the _____ cross the road?'

I gather Liam learned these from his preschool - perhaps one of his 'gang' introduced the concept of the 'joke'. However it came to his attention, Liam loves telling jokes. It's really too bad they don't make any sense at all. He thinks they are hilarious mind you. And it is pretty funny when he laughs at his most recent competely random version of the classic banana knock knock joke series, or when he conjures up an image of some odd thing or creature crossing the road for often unrelated or incomprehensible reasons. Not really funny - but definately Fun!

Zoe has really taken to the Knock Knock joke since Liam introduced it to her, especially when we are driving somewhere. Unlike her brother, she pretty much sticks to the same joke;

Mom..?
Yes Zoe
Knock knock
Who's there?
Anana (her word for banana)
(B)Anana who?
Anana and Chok-lit

Most recently this has evolved into:

Mom..?
Yes Zoe
Knock knock
Who's there?
Chok-lit
Chocolate who?
CHOK-LIT COOKIES!!!!
(which sends us both into fits of giggles for some reason)

Yeah, She's my daughter all right.

Zoe is TWO!!

It was Zoe's Birthday on Saturday. She's two. And such a little princess.
Or so she tells me:

I'm a Beautiful Princess, Mom
- my limited experience with linguistics does not qualify me to attempt to render her exact pronunciation mind you
Mama, I'm Belle
Mama, I'm Ariel
Mommy, I'm a Beautiful Fairy Princess
- usually announced as she prances about on tip toe.

To those who knew me as a small child, this behaviour probably sounds familiar. Except I was Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty, or Wonder Woman, or Isis...

Given her fascination with princesses it seemed fairly obvious that the Thrifties Cake of choice be the 'Four Princesses' (Belle, Ariel, Aurora & Cinderella). I have been known to bake a cake and even decorate it now and then, but with the ongoing state of our house it seemed prudent to order a cake. Besides, I have tendinitis in my right pinky finger (long story), which means that cake decorating is OUT for at least a few more weeks (hell, writing long hand is a killer these days).

I decided - oh, probably close to a month ago now - that there would be no big party. Even back then I had a feeling the house would be in no shape for it, and mentally, the thought of planning a party elsewhere, inviting people, getting together party bags - it was just too overwhelming with all the renovation stuff still left to do. It's a good thing I didn't because we ended up at Otter Point this past weekend, escaping the fumes of the floor varnish for the upstairs hall and stairs (something that was planned for the previous weekend, but a sick house does not renovate!).

There is something to be said for low-key stress-free family-only birthday parties. Zoe still had all the party trimmings; hats (she wore hers almost all day), party plates and napkins, a big foil princess balloon, a fabulous princess cake, 'Happy Birthday,' and of course a slew of presents! The whole day was Her day and she revelled in it! She kept telling me and Steve and Nana (on the phone) "It's my Birthday." She also kept asking - um, telling - me to call daddy and tell him to bring her her "happy cake" now - please (he had to pick it up when he was in town doing another floor coat).

I'm sure next year will involve new found preschool friends and maybe a few others, but this year we all enjoyed our little home-grown celebration of Zoe's second birthday.

L - I - A - M

I've always said that Liam was the sort of kid who will just one day, out of the blue, pick up a book and astonish us by reading it. In the meantime he fosters the illusion of complete disinterest in the art of reading and writing.

He and I have talked about his lack of interest in reading, as well as his assertions that either reading is for adults or something he'll learn to do when he is six or seven, or maybe eight, but definately he is too young now to even bother trying. I suggested that maybe he was afraid that if he learned to read we would no longer read books to him, and spend that kind of quality time with him. He admitted that yes, that was one of his fears (in fact I think the fear of us not being around if he becomes too independant is one of the big ones that drives his behaviours). So I pointed out that if he actively started wanting to learn to read we would HAVE to spend even more time reading with him so that we could help him learn. He's been pondering this idea for a few weeks now.
The other thing about Liam, he wants to do things right, and he want to do it right the FIRST time, and he never wants to be seen in public as less than a model child. Unless, of course, Steve or I are there to take the blame for all his whining, crying and complaining, which he will do, shamelessly, at the top of his lungs, pretty much anywhere.

Given the aforementioned aspects of my first born, I really wasn't all that surprised today when I picked him up from Preschool, and Troni (his teacher) told me that he wrote his name for the first time, yesterday, in his book. She was amazed. Prior to yesterday she had no idea it was something he was even interested in doing.

That's our Liam!

Liam Can Sleep Through Anything

WARNING: references to vomiting below (this means you Dad)

As if we needed any more obstacles to completing the renovation. It's not really 'the bathroom renovation' any more, it's more like the upstairs-mess-that-requires-a-lot-of work-to-clean-up-and-put-everything-back-in-order. The actual bathroom is fully functional again as of last night - toilet, sink, and tub all installed and working. But it's not like the TV shows where someone (ie. a crew of 12 or so) takes care of all the little details, such as installing hooks and doors and caulking everything that needs it, and cleans up the mess and sets everything up for 'The Reveal.' No, it's more like, you finish installing the toilet just in time for your two year old to wake up and puke all over her sleeping brother - his hair and half the bed the whole family shares. At least there is a tub to hose everyone off in.

It's a good thing pressures have changed and we had already decided not to try and make the weekend deadline for floor refinishing. Life just keeps getting in the way of us finally putting this renovation to rest. Still we soldier on - we do have a bathroom again afterall! And that's pretty exciting. There have been a few showers and even two baths (in the last 12 hours) - but it won't be photographed till the latest dust barriers come down. Oh, and I finish dealing with the non-stop laundry that has suddenly been thrust apon me. Sigh.

It's looking to be a long day. The only one who slept through the night - through the puking (even on his head), the screaming, the sheet changing, the screaming, the bath, the screaming, the frantic removal and replacement of towels, the screaming, and so on - was Liam.


Post Script:
On the bright side, Zoe is officially potty trained - day and night. She's be dry through the night for over a week now and last night - between dry heaves - she choked out "me have to pee mommy" and insisted on using her potty. Liam has been inspired by his little sisters dry nights and has had started waking dry more often than not. This could spell the end of diapers in this house for good!!

Our Tub Runneth Over

We started off Friday evening discussing the plan, 'the timeline,' for getting the reno completed in the next week. And I mean complete. No pansy-assed half-measures for this tribe of weekend warriors!
So of course Liam woke up at 6am on Saturday with a case of the 24 hour flu - the kind that requires laundry, as well as dry toast and apple juice for a day. The day was off to a slow, if early, start, but all we had planned was plumbing in all the bathroom fixtures - a day should be enough shouldn't it? let's just say by Saturday night we had the tub plumbed in - and now that it's Monday morning, well, we have the tub plumbed in. I think it's that whole 'Don't Fuck It Up' rule that breeds procrastination when there is plumbing to be done. Of all the trades that we have tackled in this reno, plumbing is definately the scariest to take on.

Actually by Saturday night Steve had all the shut-offs installed, as well as the drain, supply lines, faucet and shower heads for the tub installed. In order to reach that point though, he needed to level the tub with shims and then cut all the VERY EXPENSIVE chromed tubing to fit our tub (or maybe it's the cost of our footed tub hardware that breeds procrastination). The biggest stumbling block was the drain since the height of the tub meant that there wasn't exactly enough room for the escutchion that covers the compression fitting on the floor. Hmmmm..... Steve was toying with the idea of grinding that down when I suggested we raise the whole tub - I mean we're shimming two feet anyways, why not shim them all? So Steve made cute little coasters out of old growth fir (the crazy hard stuff from the interior of the house) for all the feet and voila (as Liam says these days) we had a tub hooked up to a drain.

Riding the crest of accomplishment, and finding that the rest of the tub plumbing was going quickly and smoothly, we started to fantasize about having a bath after the kids went to sleep. Two problems with this idea; One, Zoe had a two hour nap in the afternoon so she wasn't likely to go to bed anytime before 10:30pm, even though she was up with the rest of us at 6am. And, two, more importantly, it had been a long day already and, even though it was only 8:30pm, reflexes were slowing down. Once we had the plumbing essentially in we grabbed the hardware for the shower curtain ring and started holding up bits to get a feel for the finished product. Unfortunately, one of the chrome pipes slipped and went crashing onto the newly refinished surface of the tub. The surface we have protected so diligently over the past few weeks of contruction. The surface that we had only minutes before uncovered so that we could run water through the newly installed fixtures. The surface that we paid Big Bucks for... The Tub Doctor will be by on Thursday to fix the chip.

It actually took half of Sunday to get the shower ring installed. You see, we have a sloped ceiling now, and the hardware isn't exactly designed for our situation. And then the sink. Don't get me or Steve started on the sink. Let's just say I have to go buy a plumbers tool today so we can install the thing tonight.

So all our Friday night planning is pretty much out the window. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and we will have a bathroom by the end of the week - or before. But right now the priority is getting the hallway prepped for refinishing the floors - long story. This means I have a LOT of cleaning to do upstairs, Steve has a LOT of sanding to do, and the dust barriers are going back up! But after the weekend there will be little keeping us from moving back upstairs. Zoe might even get to sleep in her new bed for her birthday!

Snippets

TO THE TUNE OF 'YELLOW SUBMARINE:'

"I'm a knight
I'm a knight,
On a horse that's really good"

CONVERSATION ON THE STAIRS:

Liam:
No, Zoe, you shouldn't go upstairs
You could get a sliver

Zoe:
No, I'm a princess

Liam:
No, Zoe, you can still get a sliver
Princess's skin isn't magic, just their dresses.

The Gang

Liam on his 'Gang' at preschool:

A gang is a group of kids all stuck together with someone who likes them.

A gang loves each other in the group.

A gang is about each person that loves each other.

Girls can be in the gang but there aren't any in Liam's gang.

When you are in the gang you can do whatever you want to do.
And you can take turns and share with them.

The Gang:
Liam
Zach (he has a 'Z' in his name just like Zoe)
Owen P
Owen C
Merlin
Oh, and Sophia - I guess there is one girl in the gang
Zoe too - I guess there are two girls in the gang
Liam wants to invite Lexie into his gang tomorrow - that's three girls now.
And Liam just decided tomorrow he also wants to invite the new little girl who just joined the class but he can't remember her name.

Liam says, "I love you Gang"

The Malls Are Already On Christmas Hours And We Still Don't Have A Bathroom

I did get a bathroom for my birthday - just not ours. I also got to go on a date till MIDNIGHT with my husband!! So as birthdays go these days it was pretty awesome.

Given the weekend's activities, even though we moved the tub into the bathroom last Thursday evening, we haven't had a chance to plumb it, or any other fixtures, in. That won't happen till the weekend now. Still, the room is coming together and looks amazing. Steve completed the electrical and all the lights are in working order - even the sconces, which are on a dimmer and provide both bright make-up and dim mood lighting. Pretty much all the finicky bits are done - except attaching the built-in doors. And the towels I picked out... ooh la-la! This all means that we are back to that nasty bear... the plumbing! But that's another story.

As you might imagine, there is a great deal of procrastinating going on around here these days. At least I am moving forward with the paint prepping for the hall/stariway. Steve even got some in after the kids went to sleep last night. It's amazing, really, how nearly everything we touch in this house reveals the incompetence of the former owners. The paint on our bannister, door trim, and base boards, has always chipped easily - and now we know why. There is no need to use fancy heat guns or chemicals to strip this paint, a scraper will do a whole door frame in a matter of minutes. Underneath you will find a darkly stained wood with patches of varnish still intact, and not a flake of primer in sight. At this rate the paint stripping should be complete this week.

At least the malls are open late now. We won't have to waste precious reno time on Christmas shopping.

Potty Talk

BACKGROUND: Zoe is currently potty training herself. Essentially, this whole thing is her Idea and I am merely an assistant in the process. There is absolutely no doubt she is the one in charge. She no longer needs my help - much. She decides she has to pee, gets herself to the potty, pulls down her panties, sits down on her own, and pulls them up again. She even puts her panties on herself. I am only allowed to interfere when things go horribly wrong - like when she puts both legs in one hole and then it hurts when she gets them up to her thighs. It doesn't happen as often as you might think.
She has her potty rituals. We suggested the sing-along princess book, and now she insists on getting the book and all her mega-block princesses in order before sitting down to business.

This morning she couldn't find her Ariel princess and I was tasked with finding it for her while she was busy peeing. I looked everywhere but I couldn't find her. Zoe was done, but not ready to leave the potty, so she jumped up, ran across the room, grabbed a toy phone, ran back to the potty and proceded to have the following conversation (as best as I can remember):

Hello
Hello, Ariel?
Ariel, we lookin for you.
Where are you Ariel?
we lookin for you, Ariel.
Ok
Bye bye

Did Ariel tell you where she was? - I asked her

No, Mommy
All done, Mommy

Home Stretch

Y'know the latter part of this reno is kind of like driving through the prairies - you can see that barn burning in the distance... and an hour later you can still see that barn burning in the distance, but now it's a little to the left.

The title of day 28 was 'So Close We Can Taste It' and, even though it has been more than 20 days since then, the end really did feel that close after days of bare studs and joists. We are moving forward in little steps these days, partly due to time constraints and partly due to the nature of what-still-needs-doing. Our work day is also divided into the noisy day-time/before bed-time stuff and the quiet night-time stuff, not simple charge-ahead-full-bore-get-it-all-done-as-fast-as-you-can. When we entered this phase of the reno we had forgotten how time consuming and meticulous finishing work is, but it is worth every effort. Afterall, we are working on the visual aspects of the bathroom that you will see everyday, and there is a great deal of pride in making this bathroom look as good as it can - dotting the i's and crossing the t's as it were.

On day 28 that feeling of 'almost there' was due in part to a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Tomorrow night, if all goes well, we will be painting the trim and the cabinets, and we are definitely looking forward to that empowering fresh-paint feeling. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a new bathroom for my birthday.

Review... It Can't Be The End Of Week Seven Can It?

Grout
Grout
Get it all out
These are the things we could do without...

Yah, that's what we did this week. Grout.
First there was the baseboard tiles. That sucked. Not even knee pads can help you. You gotta lie on your belly and cram it in with a spatula. Looks cool though.
Then we did the walls. That wouldn't have been so bad if the only thing that went awry was running out of the stuff with half of the smallest wall left to do. But alas, we suffered a touch of Hamlet's fate and hesitated a bit too long before beginning the wiping phase. DON'T EVER DO THAT! Especially if you are grouting in a small room, well heated by forced air from a furnace set above 70 degrees. So instead of a 10 minute wipe job, we found ourselves engaged in a 3 hour gouge-out-the-dry-grout-and-hope-it-looks-ok torture session. We gave up sometime after 1am. The room looks amazing - as long as you don't look too close.
So that's done now. It's been kinda hard to get motivated to finish though. Steve has a lot of finicky wood-working left to do in the bathroom, and other stuff in the office, before we can shut down the work-shop and put the bathroom back together. It's too bad he can't be in two places at one time - like some have suggested he did the other night. Oh well.
Given all that's left to do, and how close we are to finishing, you'd think we would buckle down and work hard all weekend. That's why we started the day with coffee and a pillow fight. And then Steve and I took the afternoon off to just hang out together (Heidi is TOTALLY AWESOME!!). We shopped for vintage guitars - where I got to reprise my groupie-girlfriend role while Steve tried out an $18,000 1946 Martin - and then went to the mall for some soul-sucking. Thankfully we bumped into our friend Wendy who kicked us in the keester and sent us off to do 'adult' stuff like wile away the afternoon drinking beer at the pub.

There's always tomorrow, right?

A Bit More

Zoe's favourite phrase these days is "a bit more, Mommy"

A bit more bagel mommy
A bit more chicken mommy
A bit more nummies mommy
Tiny bit nummies mommy?
A bit more wa-wee mommy
How do you ask?
PEEEEEEEEZ!
A bit more lip gloss mommy
This is usually followed by a kiss from me
And then another "A little bit more Mommy"
And more kisses
And so on

She is also partial to "You're Welcome" which she uses in place of 'Thankyou' due to an unfortunate misunderstanding early on in the manners learning curve. You see, she started saying 'Thankyou' so promptly and correctly that I found myself automatically saying 'You're welcome' - which she took as me correcting her. Ever eager to please, she had 'corrected' herself within a day. It's been weeks now and I can't seem to get her back to saying 'thankyou.' We often find ourselves in good-natured mini verbal battles;
"You're Welcome"
No, you're welcome Zoe
No, you're welcome Mommy
No, you're welcome
No, you're welcome
And so on...

Week Six in Review - Because We Can't Bear the Thought of 'Day 43'

Week Six has been all about the subway tiles. Every night this week saw another wall completed. Well, except for Thursday - we are allowed at least one night a week off aren't we? Otherwise we have been working till about 1am. Ok, I admit it, we are nuts! Even we see that now.

We have found that life has an odd kind of rhythm to it these days, even though this really has gone on long past the time we allotted. Still it will be nice to get back to some kind of normal with, say, regular showers and actual beds. At least Steve and I have managed to cut TV out of our lives - except for one guilty pleasure which shall remain nameless. We truly hope we can continue that aspect of this altered lifestyle once the bathroom and office are back in regular use. Past experience has shown us that TV can suck the life out of you and takes away the time you could be investing in your relationship and in your personal growth and fulfillment. The kids certainly have watched more than their fair share during this renovation process. Maybe we'll just toss the thing out the window when we're done. Hmmmmnnnn....?

I feel like a broken record talking about the 'last few things we need to do before we get our bathroom back' - so I won't. There isn't much, but with lowered motivation and less time, our hopes of a bathroom in the next 4-5 days may be yet another pipe dream. There are other projects that need finishing before life gets back to normal as well. Such as the extra storage area off the office (Steve's job today), Steve's new desk in the office, our new front door (that project is months old now!) and of course painting the hall and refinishing the floor - both of which have taken a huge beating over the last few weeks. We could put a couple of these items off for later - but let's be realistic shall we, if we don't do them now, they'll NEVER get done. So perhaps we'll get some 'normal' for Christmas this year - "Dear Santa..."

On a lighter note, my internet shopping excursion paid off and the supply tubes etc, arrived yesterday, Fedex ground, from California! Maybe we should have done all our shopping online. Now, for the shower curtain rod - the LAST item. Soon we'll be rounding up all our returns and getting a bit of money back instead of shelling out $$$ almost everyday. My AMEX is getting worn out before it's time - at least we get airmiles!

You know, if this whole ordeal was a 'Survivor' series, by now one of us would have won a million bucks.

Footnote

November 3rd is an important date.
It is the anniversary of our taking possion of our home. So it's only fitting that we be immersed in renovations - and that we took the night off.
But even more importantly, yesterday - November 3rd, 2005 - was the first day Zoe used the POTTY! Sporting her new Dora panties - after only one accident earlier in the day - she had her first potty poop with her princess sing-along-book and her daddy modifying the lyrics to encourage her endeavours ("the more we poop together, together..."). Later that evening she had her first pee, and today continues the trend.

It was not my intention to start potty training in the midst of our renovation chaos, but our little girl has her own ideas and when we ran out of 'princess diapers' (pull-ups from the no-washing-machine-or-dryer phase of the reno) the only thing she would concede to wear was the Dora panties her Nana bought her. Now she has four pairs and from the look of things so far, potty training should be short work. Oh my.

Happy Halloween - Blessed Samhain

Tonight is Halloween and tomorrow The Day of the Dead.
It's a time to remember the dearly departed and think upon the turning of the year, what is past and what is to come. It is also a time to make merry and play tricks on one another and the haunted souls roaming the earth this one night of the year.

Our Jack-O-Laterns are carved and waiting to light the night and welcome the trick-or-treaters to our door. Liam is excited about the night to come, excited about wandering the streets with his friend Zach in search of treats and possibly a few tricks. He proudly wore his knight costume to Preschool today and gallantly gave up his sword at the door (that took a long discussion on the laws of hospitality to convince him). All Zoe knows is that all the shows on Treehouse are scary today. She has a purple fairy costume and a purple dress but I've only managed to get her into the dress. The fairy stuff is of no interest today but she has decided that the fancy dress requires a pair of MY high heels and refuses all other shoe options. Was I this stubborn and opinionated this early?

My usual decorations at the door are lacking this year since the house is still in chaos, and there hasn't been time to plan for an elaborate scheme. Maybe one day I'll make the paper, but not this year. After the tricking and treating dies down, Steve and I will be back upstairs to start on the second wall of subway tiles. I think it's a good way to usher in the turning of the year - building something new together. And laying the tiles is SO satisfying.

The room is really starting to come together and we are beginning to get a sense of the finished space. It's very exciting. When we look back at all the work we've done it is truly amazing. I know a lot of people think we are crazy for doing it all ourselves. We certainly couldn't do the kind of indepth reno that we have if it weren't for the fact that Steve has a knack for this kind of thing, and the perfectionist streak to make it look really good. My job is to reign him in whenever he gets too picky or obsessed - that and being 'the beautiful assistent.' Still, what I do to help is very important for the overall project (research, shopping, organizing, general backup, cleaning, finding lost tools...) but Steve has put in the hours and done the heavy labour to make this all possible. Four weeks - his entire vacation allotment - has gone to this renovation, and we're still working on it. We all deserve a real vacation when this is over!

P.S. We're off to the upstairs with the pop and bang of fireworks in the background. The children are all tucked in the bed after a night of terrorizing the neighbourhood with Liam's buddy Zach. Zoe was timid at first - hiding her face behind both hands or tucking her face into her daddy's shoulder - but by the end she was charging up stairs and growling her Halloween chants with the big boys.

Week Five in Review

It's been an 'interesting' week - the kind of 'interesting' one uses to curse one's enemies.

Steve was back at work this week. This meant an adjustment period and a whole new schedule for pretty much every aspect of our lives. And then there has been the never ending saga of the baseboard tiles. A saga which was supposed to end last night but continues nonetheless due to various complications in the process itself as well as unforseen events outside of the renovation.

First of all we thought we were going to have it done on, um, Monday was it? But then, at 10:30 at night, we realized we didn't have the faintest clue how to work with the capping strip; how to cut it, how to install it, what mortar to use, how big a grout line and where. So we focused on prep work for the door frame and cleaning things up for future tiling instead. On Tuesday I made yet another trip to Tile Town for more advice (they also know Zoe and I by name and want photos of this bathroom when we finally finish it). This should have meant that we began the process Tuesday night but the disruptive influence of unwelcome and unsolicited phone calls to Steve at work, by a certain female we have cut out of our lives, made tiling less of a priority than it would otherwise have been. Wednesday night, after a day without further intrusions on our lives, we began the process of installing the capping strip, only to have the plastic innards of our staple gun disintigrate about twenty staples in. Once again, as this occurred at about 10pm at night, there was nothing to be done until the next night. Thursday brought us a new, heavy duty staple gun from Sears, but also more intrusions in the form of emails and more implied invitations for Steve to meet with the aforementioned person. For this reason - just to stave off any rumours that this confrontation was unprovoked - we BOTH met with her and told her to leave us alone for now and forever. Maybe this time she got the message. Whatever the outcome of that event, we did get the capping strip installed Thursday night. And Last night should have seen the last of the base board tile saga. But alas, we ran out of mortar with only 6 tiles left to install. So today we go to see just how small an amount of mortar one can buy. Perhaps we'll take a yogurt container to a job site and scoop a bit in - that's how little we need. It's so frustrating!!

To top it all off I finally got some answers as to the fate of our supply tubes, shut offs and shower curtain rod from 'TransAtlantic' - ordered three weeks ago with a $20 expedite fee to get them here in three days. Apparently the tubes and shut-offs DON'T actually work together. So instead of trying to contact Splashes, the supplier put the order on hold indefinately until somebody called with the right questions. And there are no other options through that supplier - their only suggestion was definately NOT workable given our plumbing. So Thank The Goddess for the internet! Two hours later I had supply tubes, shut-offs, and escutchions ordered and today I had confirmation that they should be arriving next week by fed-ex to our door!!! We're not exactly sure what use Splashes has been to us in this whole process actually.

Hopefully this weekend will see a goodly amount of subway tile installed because after that there is very little standing in the way of plumbing in the fixtures and getting a functioning bathroom back. Stay tuned for the next update - who knows what will happen between now and then. Anything is possible!!

The Galvanizing Power of Adversity

Try turning all aspects of your life completely upside down for a few weeks and just see how well you know your partner, and find out just how compatible you are.

We have essentially cut our house in half and, even though we move more freely between the upstairs work area and the downstairs living areas, we are still living in a small space. But it's not so bad. As much as we dream of having a larger house - or even making this one larger one day - we could live quite easily in this small space. Of course if we were to do it long term, instead of 'temporarily,' I would have to make a few changes to the layout and composition of furniture. Oh, and a bath or shower would be a nice addition.

After an eventful day that had nothing to do with the renovation, Steve and I have decided to take the evening off from the constant reno-schedule and just reflect on all the things we've been through in the last few weeks - or is it months now? My mom asked me today 'And you and Steve are still speaking? I couldn't put up with all the chaos - I'd go crazy' (paraphrasing here mom). When I think about it I guess it would be understandable if the air was tense around here and tempers were short. But for the most part this whole thing has been a bonding experience for all of us. Committed as we are to an open and honest relationship, Steve and I have grown closer than ever, and learned more about each other - our needs, wants and desires - than we have in years. And we are more receptive and responsive to the needs of our children, who always seem to let us know when we've gotten a little too self-absorbed in life's other realities. When it comes right down to it, as nice as it will be to have a fabulous new bathroom, what really matters in life are the people you love. And when you GET that - when it resonates with the very core of you - then a little inconvenience like a house turned upside down is just another experience you can learn and grow from. Best of all you can have a little fun - and maybe get a little dirty - while you're there.

Day Twenty Nine: Tub Day Revisited

The thing about 'Tub Day' is that even though it is a Big Deal, the actual moving of the tub takes very little time and the rest of the day feels like a bonus. At least it does until you find yourself trying to drive the kids to sleep at 10pm at night and you realize that there has been very little progress despite the fact that there is a big beautiful footed tub sitting in the middle of the hall and blocking pretty much every doorway in the upstairs hallway...

We want to start tiling. We really do. Nevertheless, with the tub having been delivered and moved upstairs, but NOT into a bathroom ready to receive it, there really isn't any reason to rush the rest of the finishing work. And so we may be sleeping in our living room for weeks to come. Not that we haven't started moving back upstairs mind you. The entrance way is sans sheets now and functioning once again as a repository for coats and shoes. And the duffle bags full of clothes are upstairs, soon to be unpacked. But the thing is, we get SO MUCH more work done when the kids are asleep - as long as they are asleep DOWNSTAIRS. And so, until all cast iron and porcelain fixtures are installed and functioning, we will be taking advantage of the witching hours to complete our bathroom - and sleeping in the living room. It's not that bad really. It is our bed afterall, the exact one we sleep on upstairs, just downstairs on the floor.

I suppose we could rush things and try to get it all done this week. But we have taken so long making all the hidden aspects of the bathroom just right - it would be a bit backward to start rushing things and cutting corners now. After all that we've gone through, and the amount of time this whole renovation has consumed, it would be a shame if it just came out looking like a shoddy home job and not the professional transformation we have envisioned and are striving for. So instead of rushing into tiling today we decided that we needed to know where the door trim would be for the tile termination and that meant we might as well reframe the door since we had to rip it out to remove the tub.
I know, I know, the tub isn't in there yet so why are we doing this NOW? Well, when we removed the tub it was just me and Steve and putting that baby up on end was NOT an option. Now we know that on-end really is the best way to move it - and it will fit through the door, framed and all. We just need to line up some stronger help than l'il ol' me. So anyways, the door frame has proven to be a bit trickier than expected. Firstly the old one was a bit chewed up so Steve had to fabricate a new one, and secondly 'plumb' and 'square' are concepts that rarely manifest in this house without a great deal of blood, sweat and tears - and praying to the 'bubble god' that things are going to come out level.

People keep asking if we're going to have a party at the end of all this... We'd like to but I keep asking myself, 'What kind of party does one throw for the unveiling of a bathroom?' Should make for some interesting photos!

Day Twenty Eight: So Close We Can Almost Taste It!

These posts seem to be getting farther and farther apart, don't they? There is a LOT of good news, just not THE good news that the bathroom will be finished any time soon.

Lack of blogging this week has been due to the fact that most nights I have been able to get the kids to bed at home around 8:30pm and then we have been heading back upstairs to work on the more quiet tasks till about midnight or so. This means NO SHOWERS and NO BLOGGING for days. As you can imagine, by yesterday you really wanted to stay up-wind of us. So, for the sake of both ourselves and others, we took an enforced shower trip last night. We were still back upstairs to finish the floor tiling and do some clean up when we got back.

Yes I said "finish the floor tiling." At one point on Thursday we thought we'd get it done after the kids went to bed but all we managed was laying out the tiles and cutting as many as we could on our own - laying out tiles on a perfectly level and flat surface is so much nicer than most situations! Friday I took a few trips to Tile town for the the rest of them and the floor is now TILED and setting. This is good news. The not-so-good-news is that we still need to finish and install the built-in, frame the window and door, and install the medicine cabinet, and seal the drywall, BEFORE we can do the wall tiles. And the wall tiles have to be laid and the grout for both floor and wall completed, PLUS all the painting, BEFORE we can install the tub. And we have to install the tub BEFORE we can install the sink or toilet because having large porcelain objects in the path of a very large and awkward three-hundred-plus-pound item is a recipe for disaster. We have definately reached the portion of the renovation where TIIMING is EVERYTHING and the littlest things can take so much time.

Given all that still needs to be done, today has been fairly productive. There is something about a fresh coat of paint that serves to lighten the spirit and make everything seem just a little bit better than it did before. Besides, I was feeling a bit daunted by the idea of having to do all the painting AFTER the tiles were in. As it turned out, with all the construction Steve still needed to complete, it was fairly easy for me fit in a coat of drywall sealer here and there, and then the actual wall colour. An extension pole is just the thing to make painting fly! I don't know how we ever painted without one! By bedtime, the window frame was nearly complete (just some finishing that will wait till after tiling), the built-in has been installed (also a little bit more finishing left), as well as the fan cover, light cover, medicine cabinet (sort of).
More good news in that now that the bathroom is a 'clean room' we should be able to start moving back upstairs tomorrow later in the day. The upstairs plastic barriers have been removed and the hall has even been swept and tidied awaiting the arrival of the footed tub.

Oh yes, the tub. How could I forget the tub? It was delivered by the very talkative Bathtub Doctor earlier in the day (and looks AMAZING!) and then camoflaged under a pile of blankets and rubble at the side of our house. We will be moving it upstairs in the morning - but only into the hallway. The bathroom is still probably days away from completion now that we won't have full days any more. Although we have completed or nearly completed a large number of jobs we still have the daunting task of all those subway tiles. There are a lot of subway tiles! At least a lot of the little things are almost completely out of the way. So close we can almost taste it!

Day Twenty Four: What is 'Normal' Anyway?

I wasn't even sure if I was going to write today. Not that it's been a bad day or anything. I guess it is just that with us having been at this so long it just felt like another day - a good one - but another day.

I'm not sure what 'normal' is around here anymore. These days it is normal that there is a king size bed on the floor of our living room - a great place for sword fights, or wrestling matches, or lounging and watching TV. It is normal that under our front window are duffle bags full of clothes and a couple of plastic containers with pj's and underwear. It is normal that there is a large bin of laundry in the middle of the kitchen that we roll out of our way here and there. It is normal that the back door has pushed in front of it a laundry basket full of work clothes, another full of coats, and a pile of shoes behind those. It is normal that you get into these parts of the house by passing through a large plastic hanging barrier where the hall table has been pushed across the hall to ensure the bathroom is contained in the 'clean' area. It is normal for me to put on the TV for the kids and head upstairs whenever I can to help Steve with whatever his latest task is. It is normal to pile the kids into the car at the end of the day and drive over to Auntie Heidi's for a shower and a bedtime story and then pile back into the car for a drive until the kids are asleep.
It will be strange when we move back upstairs and can do our laundry whenever we want, and stranger still when we have our own bathroom again. And what a bathroom it will be!

We have drywall now - at long last. Looking back over this record it seems I was already thinking wistfully of drywall by day ten - a mere two weeks later it is a reality. Steve also picked up a whole bunch of tiles today so we're ready for that when the time comes. Tomorrow we need to track down the cement board for the floor and finish the drywall. And we had good news when I called Splashes - I believe only one final item is outstanding on our order. Given all this, I'd like to say that we are past our last stumbling block but we do have this built-in shelf at the end of the tub - a replacement for the one that was there before - that has proven to be elusive in its' design. Tomorrow we have to start building it so Steve is currently trying to get something workable down on paper so that he can make a list of material for tomorrow's shopping excursions.

A good day, a 'normal' day, in an otherwise strange existence.

Day... Ahh... Whatever

Like I said before, there isn't much point or desire to write when things aren't moving forward or at any great pace. This last weekend was a low point on the forward momentum and over all luck scale so we just abandoned the whole blogging effort till there was something worthwhile and uplifting to write about.

Strangely enough I think one of the major things that has been holding up this whole process and keeping us from moving ahead with the drywalling has been the Damn Ceiling Fan. Over the last week we have spent endless hours of procrastination, brain power, fiddling and a few bucks here and there trying to make our old fan with it's 3" vent hole connect to the 6" roof vent. Previous to vaulting the ceiling the two orifaces were about 3-4 feet apart and there was plenty of room to make the transition with various ducting do-das and thingy-ma-jigs. Now we have about 12 inches and a 90 degree turn with the 3" hole being flush to the ceiling drywall. It may be hard to imagine but trust me, THE GEOMETRY DOES NOT WORK!! So late last night we drove the kids up to Home Depot for a half hour of torturing anyone withing 50 feet of us with the shrieks of miserable children, and decided that we could either spend more money and brain power on the problem by buying a medium priced fan with a 4" vent and yet more ducting whoozits, or we could just bite the bullet and buy the most expensive deluxe super quiet damn bathroom ceiling fan Home Depot sells - the ONLY one with a 6" vent - and install the thing before bed and forget about it. So we did.

No drywall by the weekend - again - but today Steve has been shoving insulation into all the nooks and crannies and the vapour barrier is going up (yes, vapour barrier - a concept foreign to the 1912 construction or 1950's renovation mind set). WE HAVE A REAL ROOM AGAIN. It is truly all downhill from here. Drywall will go up tomorrow and once the sanding is complete the barriers in the rest of the house come down and we move back upstairs!! Then tiles and.... well, perhaps the rest of the fixtures - if they ever show up. Most of them are coming from, ahem, the Southern US. Y'know, that area wracked by endless tropical storms? Sigh.

Day Eighteen: Ok, Let's Screw!

I have to admit, we are a tad behind schedule these days. Drywalling by the weekend? Oh, you thought we meant LAST weekend...No, no. This weekend. For sure. Honest.

We knew that it was likely we would fall behind schedule, and we prepared for that in our time budgeting, but it is still a bit demoralizing when you realize that time is getting away from you. It's hard to get inspired to write about a day where you haven't achieved any concrete goals or, like yesterday, where you do but you are so exhausted that you can't find a spark of inspiration or energy to write about it all. We - well Steve - did successfully finish the feed lines for the plumbing yesterday. It's just that the whole plumbing process took two long days and in the end it was a real crunch at the end of the day just so we could get the water back on in time for dinner. As it turned out we skipped swimming lessons and I relied on foods that didn't require any washing or water added to them (we had drank all our excess during the day), so the water was on in time for us to EAT dinner anyways. Tempers were certainly short around here last night.

They say 'It's always darkest before the dawn.' And so I believe today saw a turning point in this whole renovation process/experience. With the copper lines completed and capped, waiting for fixtures, we could turn our attentions to the problem of the toilet drain (and more trips to the DO-IT Centre - they know me and Zoe by name now I think) which ultimately meant that it was time to start installing the FLOOR! I never thought I'd be turned on by the sight of plywood cut to fit and laid over meticulously levelled joists (that floor is going NOWHERE), but I can't deny that my excitement was beyond the norm for that sort of thing. The actual installation of the first slab of plywood took place after dinner with the kids plugged into a DORA DVD. Steve just looked at me and said, "ok, let's screw" and so we did!
Actually, when the shows ended Liam was asleep and Zoe found us upstairs, so she helped me with placing the screws for Steve to screw in with the power drill. With Liam asleep and Zoe charged up from a late afternoon nap, Steve is taking the opportunity to work late tonight and maybe even FINISH the floor. Or perhaps he's working on blocking in the walls where fixtures will be, well, fixed. Either way it feels pretty good to be firmly established in the reconstruction phase of the renovation and anything he does tonight will be a bonus for tomorrow. The last thing to be 'deconstructed' will be the window, and we need a floor to do that. From then on the focus is building our new bathroom. Now if the toilet would just get here. And the supply lines and drain unit for the tub, and the shroud for the sink...

Day Sixteen: A Hot Flushing Toilet . . . . Why Not?

Yesterday was a well deserved rest - and turkey dinner! - but today we were up bright and early so that we could make it into town for a full days work before the kids arrived at 5pm-ish. We weren't up nearly as early as the poor sots at Home Depot who had to open the store for 6am. Who shops at Home Depot at 6am on Thanksgiving Monday?? I mean 8:45am is early enough! So yes, we were back at Home Depot. Steve was right, plumbing jobs (by amateurs anyways) always result in multiple trips to the store - three to DO-IT and one to Home Depot on Saturday, one each today.

Plumbing isn't exactly hard but it's VERY important and you can't afford to fuck it up. And I do mean 'fuck' and not 'mess' because water is the most relentless and destructive force on the earth and having a leak in your wall would result in plenty of obscenities in the long run that could be avoided by sticking to the simple guideline 'don't fuck it up.' Unfortunately, trying not to fuck it up means taking a long time to figure out the plan and get efficient at prepping the pipe and then there is soldering, plus trying not to burn down the house while you're at it. Oh yah, and then HOPEFULLY nothing leaks. So by the end of today we were pretty sure we were finally good enough to get it all done in the four or five hours we originally had today... As it is we are about halfway done; the pipes in Heik's Hole have been cut and replaced with rigid copper, the cold line is almost complete - minus the tub feed - and the hot line has been started. And we seem to have restored Heik's shoddy craftsmanship (ie. the kitchen cupboards) to it's previous "glory".

I have to say, shiny new rigid copper pipes custom fit to your needs are a sight to behold. There is something truly satisfying about creating a brand new line. As we sat there on the sliver filled planks laid out across the floor joists and prepped our pipes we felt a bit more like craftsmen than construction workers. The quiet camaraderie of sitting and working together while music played in the background was a nice change from the banging of hammers and the whirr of power tools. You can take a certain amount of pride in filing the ends smooth and in creating a perfect tidy solder joint - not to mention your finished sculpture. Just make sure you know which line is hot and which is cold because if you 'fuck' that up you'll have to tear apart your masterpiece or make do with switched hot/cold taps and a Hot flushing toilet. We didn't make that mistake. OK, it was close.

Day Fifteen: Onward . . . . to an Unsuspecting Kitchen!

When we first decided to undertake renovating the bathroom, well it wasn't actually the bathroom at all. You see, back in the early days of spring after a long winter of looking at the walls, it turned out we had a hankering to gut the kitchen!
Now, to those who first walk into our spacious kitchen and say "wow", we usually say "LOOK CLOSER". The glued-down laminate floor has voids in the glue (which squeak), the cabinets are cheap and falling apart, the walls wobble due to being nothing more than poorly wallpapered wood panelling that has been (barely) tacked over the uninsulated studs, and the layout . . . well . . . blows.
Ah, yes. Another classic Heik room.
But it was not meant to be! When we took a step back, we realized that while we were tuned in to every SINGLE flaw of the kitchen, we were seriously overlooking the fact that our bathroom was disgusting. And so here we are.
Or are we?
As you might recall (or see while reading the back issues of this here blog), the plumbing supply lines for the bathroom were a "dog's breakfast". (In laymans' terms, that means shite.) Actually, the ORIGINAL supply lines were some pretty fantastic (and tidy) 3/4" galvanized steel which for some reason were abandoned in favour of cheap bum loser FLEXIBLE copper tubing. What makes this stuff bad is that it doesn't mesh well with rigid copper because out of 360 possible angles it might splay out at, chances are it won't be one you can work with.
OK, but it's FLEXIBLE right? Maybe not after fifty years. To make a long story short, the first attempt to "straighten it out" had more of a kinking effect. And the only way out of that particular jam was to cut in below the kink, which led us downstairs . . . . . to the KITCHEN!!
So there we were, emptying and pulling down our lovely MDF cabinets over the stove. It turned out to be quite an easy task, as Heik (the idiot) used very little of what people call FASTENERS. In fact, one fine piece was held on by nothing more than edges of wallpaper. Seriously. It didn't take long to spot the copper pipes, though, as he had so cleverly run the range hood's galvanized venting through the wall directly against the copper. Have I said "copper" and "galvanized" enough? That's because putting copper and pretty much any other metal together is a No-No (see "leaks"). Not to mention the fact that the venting was poorly done, and explains the draft we've always had in that corner of the kitchen.
But maybe this rant is just a way to 'vent' because we now see that renovating the kitchen would have been much easier, at least in the destruction, and salvaging of cabinetry (such as they are). We had Heik's shitty handiwork down in minutes. The hard part will be putting it back . . . . without giving into the temptation to rip it ALL down and do it right!
So that's the feature moment from today. Between yesterday's cataclysms and today's Heikysms, we've earned our day off and turkey dinner.

Day Fourteen: Just When You Thought Nothing Else Could Go Wrong, Shannon Spills the Rootbeer

Ever have one of those days where absolutely nothing seems to go right? Or . . . . . more like all the obvious things that could go wrong, don't - for example, the plumbing seems to be on track, the floor joists are level, it was a lovely sunny day, and so on -but, somehow, all those little unexpected things go disastrously wrong.

For instance, this is the second attempt at todays Blog entry because MY COMPUTER CRASHED this evening and it looks like the hard drive is F-U-C-K-E-D! (so no photos today) That was only the second last major bad event of the day mind you. The first was probably when Steve realized he had forgotten to pick up screws from his trip to Home Depot and decided to stop off at Lumberworld. Seemingly innocent enough - they had the screws afterall, and we had a special account price on them - until he tried to back out of the parking stall and was smashed into by a really BIG FORD TRUCK who was also backing up. Of course the parking lot was devoid of potential witnesses - not that it mattered anyways. So, I got to spend a couple of hours on the phone with our private insurance company and ICBC and Steve had to keep interrupting work to give the details so we could get various claim numbers. We're REALLY glad we have private insurance through ING mind you - they treat you like real people!

The thing that really pushed Steve over the edge was when I spilled his Biggie Root Beer all over his feet and turned the driver's side floor into a small sugary puddle - just as we were about to begin the drive out to Otter Point. It's a wonder we made it here in one piece, especially since we can't signal left turns at the moment.

It's past midnight now. Hopefully we're in the clear.

Day Thirteen: Six Inches Forward, Five Inches Back?

Another day, another dump run, and another pile of garbage.

We finally destroyed the bathroom floor. We now officially have a completely denuded room bare to studs, joists and rafters. Therefore, we can no longer put off redoing the plumbing. Not if we are going to rebuild the floor and be drywalling by the weekend. Plumbing. The one thing we are both just a little bit nervous about. I guess tonight, when the kids are asleep, we'll be reading our plumbing and bathroom books, cramming for the big exam. And of course we have a footed tub - the one thing you don't find covered in the books or online. Most sources say 'hire a licensed plumber' and leave it at that. I have found a few obscure tips pages online but nothing exhaustive. So we can only hope that we've made the correct measurements and get all the lines and drains in the right place. There is NO WAY we're going to cover up the plumbing with a surround again!!

The thing about removing a 90-odd year old floor is that you never know what you are going to find underneath. Like the fact that the south wall is not supported by a joist - that was a real 'Holmes on Homes' moment. Hopefully our makeshift sistering support does the trick. And of course it's always a pleasure to discover EVEN MORE LIVE KNOB-AND-TUBE going to our kitchen fan. We're just going to pretend like we didn't see that. And then there is the old plumbing... We knew our old toilet was at least 3 inches too far out from the wall so we plan to move the new one back to the proper 12" rough in. Unfortunately, this will possibly bring it too close the the side wall since the drain pipe comes in at an angle. And the P-trap for the tub is pretty much toast. We now know why our kitchen has a lower ceiling than other parts of the house. Someone, at some point, decided to rip out parts of the old plaster ceiling to get at the plumbing, and then opted to do nothing. Maybe it was Heik, deciding not to do anything about the bathroom afterall, or maybe it was from before when the newer copper plumbing was ultimately routed ABOVE the floor and then boxed in. It's a dog's breakfast in there anyways.

Of course the whole reason why we could rip up the floor today is the fact that Nana and Panda took Zoe for the afternoon while Liam was at preschool. And then they bought us Chinese Food for dinner! Yum!
Thanks a bunch - we really appreciate all the help with the kids. It makes this whole process possible!

Day Twelve: Dump Load Number One

We decided to take yesterday off - from blogging anyways. We are currently immersed in all the nit-picky details of prepping the framing and electrical so we can drywall by the weekend. This translates into a lot of talking about what should go where and then what needs to be done to achieve that, and then deciding what should be done first, and then actually doing it. It also means that there has been very little visible progress in the last couple of days and not much to write about. I mean how many more photos of the framing can we post do you think?

We slept in today - which was pure luxury! With the TV at the foot of the bed it means that the kids can easily be engaged without our having to wake up more than to grab blindly for the remote. After a leisurely breakfast, Steve loaded up the Jeep with Dump Load Number One and he and Liam set off for Hartland Landfill. Liam was in charge of the camera...

This afternoon saw a couple of firsts! Steve tackled his first plumbing task; capping the lines and ripping out the old plumbing - both cast iron and more recent flexible copper lines (more fun with the reciprocating saw!). This also meant he got his first burn of the reno from a hot pipe. Let's see... he's got a fair number of cuts on his head from nails, a big scratch up his back from the table saw (not the blade, the corner of the table), a big blood blister from gripping various tools, asbestos/dust inhalation... Not bad considering his track record at work. Maybe we need our own WCB report book. After capping the lines Steve decided to stick to electrical and do a bit more reading on plumbing before we tackle that task, so the bathroom is basically wired with all required recepticles - light switches, GFI outlet, pot light, etc - and THAT means we are officially out of the attic! Or so we hope.

Tomorrow we rip out the floor!!

Day Ten: Last Day in the Attic??

The whole family is back in the house for the week so we're back to a half man-power schedule for the next few days. Thankfully Steve has a one-man system worked out for framing the ceiling and only needs my help once in a while - like helping to feed the 16 foot rafters through the window and into the attic. The TV does make an ok babysitter, for short jobs, despite the fact that once long ago I swore I'd never do that.

As we get more into construction, and begin thinking about removing the floor and redoing the plumbing, we need to map out things like where the supply lines for the tub will come out of the floor and so on. So I set out to research supply line installation on the web and discovered that the supply lines we have are the wrong ones! Thankfully this oversight is not our fault as the sales lady picked them out for us, but we also ordered the wrong size shower curtain ring and have been waiting for a return call from Splashes for a week now. So another failed attempt at a phone-call (sales people were all too busy) meant that a visit to the store was in order and NOW! The tub is due back in a week! Unfortunately, Zoe was in full-on teething misery and I couldn't quite envision how I would communicate with the sales people at Splashes with her clinging and screeching, so I convinced Steve to come downstairs, clean up, and off we went.

An hour and a half later Steve and Zoe had explored the entire two floors of the Splashes show room and I had managed to get the right shower ring, supply lines and shut off valves ordered with a promise that SOMEONE would get back to us about returning the wrong items. We also had our sink basin in tow, which means we can determine where and how high we are installing it, finish bracing the wall, and start on the plumbing. Phew! Now we just have to avoid the plague that seems to be making it's way about the city - staff at the DO-IT Centre, Splashes, and our friend Heidi, were all sick today. And Liam and I are feeling a bit yucky too...

At least we now have a framed vaulted ceiling complete with extended wall framing above the door. Now we just need to install and wire the pot light and fan and then DRYWALL! Or do we redo the plumbing and floor first? Or frame in the medicine cabinet and shelves? Or maybe we should...

Day Nine: Weekend Warriors

Another day, another drive in from Otter Point... another later than optimal start. Oh well, hot showers and a kids-free day are worth it.

Today was the first real day of CONSTRUCTION, rather than destruction (although we still have the floor and old plumbing to dismantle). The focus was rafters and associated framing for vaulting the ceiling. Part of the idea behind vaulting the bathroom ceiling is to create a new and more accessible entrance into our attice. Previously our only way in was a little square above our dryer which was just plain problematic no matter how you sliced it. So we are building a mini clean storage space in the attic above the door to the bathroom - with drywall and everything. Kind of a 'panic room' for when the Americans eventually invade - I guess. From there you will be able to enter the messy attic area to service the electrical, chimney (?) or whatever. Come to think of it, neither of us ever want to go up there again so who knows what use that room will find. Since we are also creating storage off the front room I can't see what I would want to actually store up there.

Anyways, other events of the day included me adding a woman's touch to the front work room by tiding up and organizing everything - much to Steve's annoyance. Well, actually, he appreciated it but wished I would leave his square on the floor where he left it rather than putting it back in the 'small tools' bin. I also set up the shop vac so we can actually CLEAN something whenever we get in the mood. I also made nice with the reciprocating saw and hammered nails into the roof from the attic, just to feel useful and spend my own time in attic purgatory (I think I was up there for about 10 minutes - not quite the same as 3+ days).

The day ended with the return of the children and Thai food - Thanks PANDA!!. After reading over this entry we began to wonder why exactly we were dry-walling a mini-room in the attic and decided it was a bit over-the-top (pardon the pun). So tomorrow we will finish framing the vaulted ceiling and be done with it. All we really need is the plywood floor that Steve installed at the end of the day anyways.

P.S. Whomever keeps going to check out the flickr! photo of Steve in the tub YOU'RE CREEPING US OUT!!

Day Eight: Sistering Studs

Our morning started bright and early... at Otter Point. With the kids spending the weekend with my folks we are opting to join them for the evenings. A bit of a drive after a long day but there are hot showers at the end, and we get to drive the Sunfire which corners MUCH better than the Jeep and shaves about 30 minutes off the commute. We did drive the Jeep in today since we needed to stop off at Home Depot to pick up our new bathroom window, plumbing supplies and some lumber for the framing we began today. Home Depot without kids is much preferable to the alternative!

We were looking forward to a highly productive day, even with a late start (11am), when we had a bit of a nasty surprise that put at damper on my day at least. Our new tenant (and her aunt) arrived as I was about to begin the final coat of paint on our ceiling patches and were present to discover the fact that our previous tenant HAD NOT CLEANED THE APARTMENT! When I left the apartment around 2pm yesterday she had moved out and was vaccuuming, so I assumed she would complete the job before she left. Alas, no. The bathroom sink was caked in layers of toothpaste, the kitchen sink still had food bits in it, the floor was filthy with cat food, every surface was covered in cat paw marks, all the floors hadn't been swept or mopped and so forth. And to top it all off the AUNT was being mother hen and giving US attitude like WE hadn't cleaned the place when we gave them the option of waiting for a maid service, getting rent break if they did it themselves, or having us clean it (not our 1st choice). So I was pissed off that the first part of my day had to be spent playing Molly Maid - I charge $50/hr by the way.

Steve, on the other hand, spent the day happily framing away; Adding headers, sistering studs, blocking, cleaning, hammering, screwing, kicking up dust and so on.

Once I was done with cleaning, making lunch, pulling a few nails and taking Liam to a birthday party (Panda brought him in), I came back and was given a tutorial on the compound mitre saw. I figure if all those gals on 'Trading Spaces' can do it so can I. So I made nice with the big nasty power tool and didn't even hurt myself! Unfortunately Steve's back received a bit of a, ahem, three inch scrape on the table saw when he stood up to make room for me. Oops. With me on the compound mitre saw and Steve up the ladder with hammer nails, screw and power drill, we finished up the blocking required to vault the ceiling before we called it quits for the day.

Day Seven: Appetite for Destruction

(note: Blogger was down all last night so we're a bit late on this one)

We finally made it back into the bathroom today! At 2:30pm to be exact. And MAN did we wreck havoc on the walls!!! We had them all down and the rubble cleared to the side of the house by 6pm. It was liberating to finally be done with the electrical and finally get down to making some progress that FELT like progress.

The electrical renovation was basically four days of attic purgatory for Steve. But it's worth it. And the washing machine situation was taken care of in-wall so there was no removal of the dryer afterall.

And as for exposing the secrets within our walls, what DID we find? A stack of Action Comics #1's? A few bricks of Nazi gold? The loot of a thousand worlds? Hmmmmmm . . . . . well aside from a bit of mould and some 1950's news print, we discovered that in 1912 interior walls were framed in 2x3's, and outside walls were 2x4. Hard as nails old growth 2x4's mind you. They also didn't know anything about double plates, window trimmers, blocking or bracing. These walls are framed, and that's about it. It looks like adding some framing to the outside wall will job #1 tomorrow, so that it can take the load of the vaulted ceiling.

Day Six: Word of the day; "Motherfucker"

It never rains but it pours - metaphorically and in real life.

We have been reassured by at least two professionals, who SHOULD know these things (our building inspector and the roofing guys), that our crappy fluffy insulation is harmless cellufibre - not the scary asbestos stuff. So today Steve stumbles across a left over bag of ZONOLITE. Give it a Google and just see how many nasty scary asbestos, cancer, class action suit, etc. sites you can come up with. All with the associated warning that home renovators should avoid DISTURBING the stuff and have professionals handle it and if possible, replace it. GREAT. So that put a damper on the day's already overwhelming amount of electrical mishaps to correct. The only silver lining is that apparently not all Zonolite products contain asbestos. Just to be safe we are taking the stuff we've already bagged and removed to the dump and replacing it with Pink or something else. Steve has been using the mask everytime he's up there, and has most times in the past, so we're hoping exposure has been limited. The rest of the house is pretty well sealed off, and so far renovation dust free, but we're hoping to get this business over AND FAST.

Unfortunately, the more electrical Steve uncovered today the more mistakes he discovered! And then the fish-tape broke as we were attempting to pull out some old knob-and-tube from our hall light switch. The favourite tools of the day are the lineman's pliers and wire-strippers. Steve will curse/cry whenever he misplaces them, which happens periodically in the death trap attice insulation. For one reason or another throughout the day a muffled "cocksucker" or "motherfucker" would drift down from above. Steve's personal revelation of the day is that he has finally become the cursing father character from the movie 'The Christmas Story.'

Was there any actual progress today? Let's see... I got the suite ceiling one step closer to painting. But more importantly, finally all the knob-and-tube has been replaced!! Unfortunately the washing machine situation has yet to be tackled so we move into electrical day four tomorrow. The good news is that after that we resume actual BATHROOM renovating! With the kids in Sooke with Nana and Panda this weekend we should make some serious progress.

Day Five: "Cocksucker Asshole wiring Bullshit!"

We knew our good weather luck couldn't hold and so it didn't. We awoke to fog this morning and a much cooler day with rain forcast for the rest of the week. This meant that the debris pile in our front yard, which has been on hold for the last few days, had to be either hauled to the dump or put under cover (can you imagine the horrible soupy mess that would be created by a mixture of rain and a pile of lath and plaster debris? Not to mention the cost of dumping the heavy load - if you could even get it into the back of our jeep.) So we opted for a lean-to tarp rig off of our front steps - my job - and Steve went back up into the attic for the day.

The thing about fog and cloudy weather is that it makes for a much more pleasant attic environment - relatively speaking. A good thing for Steve since it looks like he'll be spending AT LEAST another day up there, perhaps more, due to all of the Asshole Wiring buried up there. It's not just the old knob-and-tube that is a pain. In particular, it's the bullshit wiring the previous owner attempted when wiring up the washing machine upstairs. Not only did he put a washing machine on an already overloaded circuit but he did it without a GROUND!! And he apparently forgot to screw the outlet box to a stud. So tomorrow we remove the dryer - something we were hoping to avoid ever having to do again by creating a new attic access in the bathroom - and cut into the wall. Have we ever mentioned what a cocksucker Heik (the 'contractor' we bought the house from) is?

It hasn't been all bad though. Zoe had a nap today... ;)

Day Four: Aren't we renovating our BATHROOM???

When we were planning this renovation I had this idea in my head that the first couple of days would be some kind of insane chaotic destruct-o-rama with flying insulation particles and lath and plaster strewn about the work areas of the house. I figured when the dust settled we would clean up and start all the rebuilding, and it was pretty much as simple as that - in concept. Reality is different - and better, actually. The planning that has gone into this renovation means that there really is time for all these important side projects - like rewiring the entire upstairs. I've mentioned before that we had only ONE breaker for that floor? One breaker for 21 outlets of one kind or another, including the washer! And all of it is some combination of bare wire knob-and-tube resting in a bed of dry cedar chips with past inexpert renovation splices here and there. Most of those lacking junction boxes. S-C-A-R-Y.
So Steve has basically spent the day sweating his 'bag' off in the attic. (It's been a delightfully sunny and warm September - perfect for attic torture) Scooping more insulation, drilling holes, running wires, wiring up outlets and light fixtures. The reciprocating saw has definitely earned it's right to be here and the sliding compound mitre saw has finally made its' way upstairs from its rather distant previous locale in the shed. This morning saw the first power to the upstairs that was completely devoid of knob-and-tube wiring and two of the four new circuits for the upstairs are up and running power in the office/work area.
There hasn't been much for me to do today other than be the girl-friday. Zoe and I mudded the drywall patches in the suite and hopefully we'll finish that up tomorrow. I have run a few errands to Canadian Tire and the DO-IT Centre - Gotta love the DO-IT Centre!! And tried to sneak upstairs while the kids were watching TV to clean up some of the mess created in rewiring the light fixtures in the bedrooms - rooms previously sealed off from all renovation dust and debris intended to emerge clean and fresh once the upstairs was rendered livible again. Alas, it was not to be.

So why exactly are we doing all of this? Where has the destruction/construction of the bathroom gone? It might feel/seem like we're off track but this stuff is HUGE and by gutting the bathroom we make all of this possible - and in the end we get a safer house and a new bathroom to boot. Don't worry (like I'm sure you all are) there will be plenty more destruction later in the week. Besides, the toilet and sink aren't here yet and the tub won't be ready for another week and a half - so what's the rush??

Day Three: Ring that Bell like it's 1999!

Today has seemingly been a bit of a slow day with none of the destruction and showy maneuvers of the last two days. Still there has been progress. In fact huge progress has been made with regards to projects long in need of attention.

Since Carlos wired us up yesterday it seemed prudent to get all the electrical projects out of the way and patch up the suite ceiling from all the wire fishing last week. We do have tenants after all, and a new one moving in on the weekend. The first project of the day was to finally provide the shed with its' own power - Yeah! But even more importantly, the doorbell actually works now. And if anything goes wrong with it we KNOW where the transformer is because Steve was lucky enough to find the original in his wire pulling explorations and has moved the %$$#*&% thing to an accessible spot! Since both of those projects have been completed the ceiling drywall patches are started and should be completly invisible by the weekend.

So come and ring our bell anytime. Even if we're not home, just ring it. It's long overdue.

Day Two: Bathtub Day!!

Steve's arms are falling off. And it hasn't much to do with moving the 300lb tub. That happened earlier in the day with a crew of four (uh five?), and I almost missed photographing it since it happened so quickly and with so little fuss. Still, it was the most photogenic event of the day. That and the kids using the 'bed' as a pirate ship.

The really hard work was moving all the drywall and plywood upstairs. (Thanks Rory!) It was definitely a good choice not to have me be the other party for that task! And apparently pulling wire in a tight space through a really long PVC conduit with three bends in it really tasks your triceps.


Other events included Carlos wiring up the panel so we can finally have more than ONE breaker for the ENTIRE UPSTAIRS, as well as having real power in the shed, not just an exposed extension cord running across the lawn. The tub also made it all the way out to the Tub Doctor for a well deserved refinishing - first time in 93 years!!

If we learned anything today it was that BEER is both very nice and very necessary - for ourselves and our volunteers! Anyone? Anyone?

P.S. There are always a few more daily pics of the reno at my Flickr! site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheriagogo/

Day One

Holy S-H-I-T!!

After spending our first night in the living room, the day started bright and early with the arrival of the lumber - which was probably the highlight of the day for the kids. Auntie Heidi arrived somewhat later than planned (ah, the life of a single gal - sleeping in!) and the kids were ushered out the door for the day just as we were finishing up the sealing of the living area from the work areas of the house. Then the real work began.

First thing we discovered is that moving the drywall etc. upstairs is probably not the best use of my limited strength so we moved into full-on destruction mode. In relatively short order our front lawn was littered with cracked and stained porcelain parts and a bright blue tarp ready to receive ceiling, wall and floor rubble. Destroying the tub surround was satisfying in the extreme. But who wallpapers the INSIDE of a tub surround with flowered paper and news paper? Someone living in 1959 apparently. We actually moved the tub out of the bathroom - just the two of us! But we had to remove the doorframe COMPLETELY to do so.


The next phase of destruction involved the controversial but completely justified RECIPROCATING SAW!! Steve went to work on the ceiling while I tried to salvage the door frame moldings by removing nails. The trouble with removing our ceiling is the damn messy stuff used to insulate it. That and the still functioning knob and tube wiring. The rest of the day was a slow scoop and cut and smash and scoop and cut and smash - with a couple of breaker switch flips thrown in for good measure. And REALLY LOUD music (when there was power). At some point during the day the beer supply for the reno arrived so it was all good.

Auntie Heidi had just turned our thoroughly exhausted kids back over to me at the end of the day (Undersea gardens, Whitespot, Finding Nemo) and I had began the tidying up of our hastily contrived living area (living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom) when Steve called out that he needed SALINE and NOW! A quick muscle relaxing beer later we were all in the car and off to the clinic where they froze Steve's eye, dyed it orangy-yellow and fished out a bit of renovation-something-or-other. As we sat around the table consuming greasy KFC we agreed that it was better to work smart and safe than cut inconvenient corners - goggles from now on!

The day ended with showers at Heidi's - we owe that girl a spa day or something!! - and the kids falling asleep in the car on the way home. Tomorrow, one way or another, that damn tub has to make it down the stairs and out to Langford... It has begun!!

The Ugliest Bathroom Ever!!

The Ugliest Bathroom Ever!!
Originally uploaded by Sheriagogo.

It's hard to beleive that we have lived with this awful room for eight years now! Oh, it wasn't always 'crocus' and 'tangerine' (or 'spray cheese' as a paint fume stoned Christine called it). When we bought the house it was a putrid sponged green, yellow and white - essentially all the colours the previous owners had used in their renovations - with a black floral ruffle skirt around the sink and a matching ruffle above the window. Believe me, the new colours at least made it a cheerful place to be.

But there is only so much a fresh coat of paint can do. It doesn't take away the cracked and stained porcelain or the scratched tub surface that is stained beyond the capabilitiesof all cleaning products imaginable. It only hides the mould on the ceiling for a couple of years. And really, paint doesn't quite do the job of protecting PLYWOOD around the footed tub from WATER!!

A few months back I walked into this frightful place and actually saw it the way our guests do - and it scared the hell out of me. Or at least gave me the creepy crawlies and made me wonder how did we ever live with it so long. Thus began the planning of the BATHROOM RENOVATION which is scheduled to begin this Saturday!

As Steve pointed out, this is the first project we have started in this house that has had so much planning behind it - he can't just wake up to the fact of all the work that needs to be done on day three. This is one daunting renovation since past experience has made us decide that all future renovations must begin with a complete gutting of a given room - down to studs and joists. So this is our first full on 'Holmes on Holmes' style LET'S DO IT RIGHT attempt at renovating. Needless to say, the stress is building!!

Stay tuned to this blog for the latest in our renovation adventures over the coming weeks... And wish us LUCK - we're gonna need it!!!

The Healing Power of Sand

Last week, the kids and I spent an afternoon at a beach we hadn't been to before. Warm fine soft white sand and plenty of drift wood washed ashore and piled into structures here and there. Liam dubbed it 'Bone Land; the desert island of dinosaur bones' and proceded to mount an expedition. We found all kinds of bones from all kinds of dinosaurs and even some Coprolites (my word of course, 'dinosaur poop' to Liam) which were usually large pieces of bark. Zoe followed Liam around - whom she now, on occassion, calls 'Leelum' - picking up recently dropped 'bones' and reciting Liam's previous identification. Or just stating 'dinosaur bone mommy' (with far less diction than writing indicates).

As I sat there watching the sand shift and flow between my toes I did a lot of thinking about Life, The Universe, and Everything. It has been a long summer filled with pain and overwhelming personal revelations. When you become a new parent your life is changed forever and though there is much opportunity for great joy and love - like you have never felt before - you can also tap into new sources of pain and fear. I love my children, both of them, with all my heart. But these last four years haven't been easy for us. When you read in books about 'High Needs' children you read about what they need from you and how to deal with them, and you are reassured that with your love and caring they will be ok. They don't tell you how to keep yourself whole and healthy and sane while you cope with this new life that you love so completely and selflessly.
The books also tell you to take care of your marraige and take time for yourselves. And you try. You really try. But it's still easy to hide the difficulties you are having from each other. It's easy to drift apart as you settle into your new roles as mother and father.

Somewhere on the highway in Northern Alberta I came to the sudden realization that I didn't know who I was anymore. Deep rooted emotions welled up and burst out of me with such force that I had to get out of the car, convulsing with tears on the side of the highway. In my pain, I began to realize that in the company I was keeping I had been doing myself a disservice. Over the following weeks I have come to the realization that I have allowed my self esteem to be compromised by another's insecurities and insinuating competitiveness, and I was capitulating; I was a bad wife, a disastrous cook, a poor housekeeper, an average mother. I found myself trapped within a circle of gossip, shopping, and ultimately betrayal, that was damaging to my soul. The bitter woman consumed by the anxiety of a clean home was whom I had become. And I was all alone because the strong partnership that Steve and I have spent so many years building had crumbled around us and we hadn't even noticed.

The thing is, I am an amazing wife and a wonderful mother. My cooking is just fine on its own and even better when Steve and I work together. My housekeeping is prone to clutter but I have always preferred a lived-in home to the pristine showcase of other places. I am a writer and an intellectual. I have never before in my life been a woman prone to gossip and shopping as a common past time - and I never will be again. I have been for many years part of an amazing team with my best friend, my life, my love, my husband, and we will continue in that partnership till the end of our days.

I beleive that you get to where you are in life by the choices you make. As an adult you have to take responsibilty for those choices and accept the consequences. There is no use in pointing fingers or laying blame, there is only recognition of the truth and a willingness to change.

As I sat there on the beach, identifying dinosaur bones, sifting sand, and basking in the heat of a September sun, I finally felt like life was on track again. It's not easy. But neither Steve nor I are alone anymore. We are once again aware of each others demons and together we fight our battles. We are rediscovering how to be a team - rather than dividing the roles we play as parents - and our children are a part of that new and stronger team. There are fewer people in our lives now, but the ones who remain are the ones that really matter. This Life of ours is full.