Category Archives: Renovating

Home Goals 2016 mid-year report

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Six months ago, I shared my Home Goals for 2016. We just crossed the halfway point of the year, so it’s time for my mid-term report.

Beyond sharing my Home Goals, I also started the year by sharing some of my ideas for the major renovation that we want to do… someday. And the first goal on the list was to get an idea of how much the reno is going to cost to help us figure out when that someday might be.

We consulted with a contractor, got some feedback on our plans and got some numbers. They’re big numbers… as in not any time soon numbers… but it was helpful to give us an idea of where we’re at.

In terms of specific projects, here are the rest of our goals.

Guest room

Robin's egg blue country guest room

The guest room was our first project of the year, and I’ve already done the official “reveal,” so I’m feeling pretty good about crossing this project off. However, there’s one task left on my original to-do list, which has also made it onto my summer to-do list.

  • Paint the walls and trim
  • Replace the light fixture
  • Make window treatments
  • Refinish the desk chair
  • Strip the paint off the metal bedframe (and maybe repaint)
  • Decorate and personalize

Finish the basement

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

The basement was essentially finished a looong time ago. However, those niggly finishing details are still hanging around. Plus, we have two new summer projects, one that you know about and one that you don’t yet. (I’ll be talking more next week about things that are going to affect our basement progress).

  • Trim around the cold cellar doorway
  • Finish the built-in storage area in Matt’s bathroom
  • Make/buy art to finish off the space
  • Build shelving in the closet under the stairs
  • NEW Build a new closet in the basement
  • NEW Mystery project (more to come next week)

Furniture

Vintage china cabinet

I’m always on the hunt for a few key pieces of furniture. So far this year, I’ve found one piece–the china cabinet for my office–but it’s still awaiting its makeover.

Vegetable garden

Centre axis of a round vegetable garden

My all-consuming summer project every year has become the vegetable garden. Thanks to Dueling DIY this spring, the garden is in really good shape.

  • Hang the gate
  • Edge the garden
  • Build raised beds around the perimeter
  • Build trellises for the raspberries, tomatoes and squashes
  • Plant perennials: grapes, asparagus, rhubarb, more raspberries
  • Run a waterline out to the garden
  • NEW Spread hay mulch over the garden

Outdoor clean-up

I ambitiously added another outdoor goal to the list, although I realized I’d have to pick my battles in terms of which area I chose to clean up.

Thanks to a bit of distraction at the start of the garden Dueling DIY, I’ve cleaned up the large lumber pile on the north side of the centre field and burned the long grass and weeds on the south side of the garden. Matt’s been mowing the burn, and it almost looks like a real lawn already.

Burned lawn

I’m feeling pretty good about what we’ve accomplished so far. Work on a farm never ends, but I love seeing the progress we’ve made.

How are things going at your house? Do you feel like you’re making progress on your goals?

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Summer to-do list

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Summer officially arrives this evening. While I have grand plans of sunshine and hammocks and hikes and gardens and lots of time outdoors, I also have a handful of projects that I’ve been saving up for my favourite season.

Build a closet in the basement

Enamel basins and infant sleepers hanging in the laundry room

Our house has fabulous storage. However, none of it is a match for my husband. I’m not sure Matt’s office ever successfully contained all of his stuff. Over the winter I had a brainwave. Remove some of the cabinets that are tucked between the dryer and the freezer in the laundry room (they’re already filled with his stuff anyway) and replace them with a full height closet. I think I can just about triple his storage space. And it should be a pretty simple build with some basic framing, drywall, bi-fold doors and shelves.

Sand scrabble tiles

Scrabble art for the basement

Source: insideways

One of my Home Goals for 2016 is adding some art to the basement. Going with our fun and games theme, I want to DIY some Scrabble tiles. I’ve had the wood cut for months. Months, I tell you. I just need to sand them and then paint the letters. Sanding sounds like a good way to enjoy some time outside in the sunshine, doesn’t it?

Strip paint off the guest room bed

Robin's egg blue country guest room

The only thing missing from our beautiful guest room makeover is a proper bedframe. I have a great rustic metal frame in the barn, but the finish isn’t the greatest. I’m planning to strip it back to bare metal and see what it looks like. Paint stripping is an outdoor job IMO, so another good way to enjoy the outdoors.

Makeover office cabinet

Vintage china cabinet

Last week, you saw the china cabinet I’ve bought for my office and heard about my plans to rebuild the upper hutch. I’m so excited to have my office organized that I can’t wait to get started on this project. However, I have to put this lower down on the list, as other projects have been hanging around much longer. So this one’s a maybe summer project.

Puttering on some projects, keeping up with the gardens and relaxing on the farm. That’s my recipe for a good summer.

What’s your recipe? Do you have a summer to-do list? What are you looking forward to this season?

Hardboard and six favourite projects

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There’s one material that I go to over and over for DIY projects: hardboard.

Hardboard

Hardboard is an engineered wood product also known as high-density fibreboard. Wikipedia says that it’s “made out of exploded wood fibers that have been highly compressed.” I’m not sure what exploded wood fibres are. By the time hardboard gets to the store, it has little resemblance to wood. It’s more like a super heavy-duty, super smooth cardboard. The main resemblance to typical construction materials is that hardboard comes in 4×8-foot sheets.

It’s less than a quarter inch thick, fairly light-weight, and cuts and bends easily. Sometimes it’s cut to other sizes than 4×8, finished with white on one side, or it’s also the material for pegboards.

Pegboard

Here are some of my favourite projects with hardboard:

Living room bookshelves – Hardboard makes a very sturdy back for shelves and bookcases. But it’s thin and fairly lightweight, so it doesn’t add bulk to furniture.

Monograms – Letters and words are popular decor trends. Hardboard is easy to cut with a jigsaw, won’t break or crack like solid wood, and is light enough to hang on a wall or sit on a shelf. I’ve found a quick pass of fine sandpaper can be helpful to smooth cut edges.

Ampersand monogram made out of hardboard

Ampersand monogram made out of hardboard

Doors and cabinet makeovers – Faced with boring slab doors in the basement and on the laundry room cabinets, I used strips of hardboard to transform them into barn doors and shaker-style cabinets. I was blown away by how successful the transformation was. I still love these doors. Plus the makeover saved us from spending money on new doors.

Making slab doors into barn doors

Score-keeping chalkboard – Hardboard is super smooth, and with a good primer and a foam roller, it takes paint very well. So I gave a sheet of hardboard a coat of chalkboard paint for a 6-foot tall, but very lightweight and easy to move chalkboard. Much lighter than actual chalkboard.

Cabinet door repair – Our kitchen needs a renovation, but until that day, we’re trying to hold things together however we can. Hardboard to the rescue once again. The cabinet door under the sink was separating from its frame. Backing it with hardboard has seen us through the last three years.

Holding a kitchen cabinet together with hardboard

Nightstand to dresser makeover – This dresser is one of my all-time favourite projects. Combining two nightstands into one dresser worked very well, but the join was very ugly. A panel of hardboard covered the seam and didn’t add much bulk to my narrow dresser.

I continue to find more uses for hardboard. And I’d love to hear if you’ve used it yourself. Any projects to share? What’s your go-to construction material?

Solar panels two years later

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Two years ago we flipped the switch on our solar panels. It’s hard to believe we’ve had them that long. They’re still a bit of a novelty for us, and we check often to see how much power we’re generating.

Solar panel array

Last year, I took a look back at our first year, remembering some of the highs and lows, and calculating how much we’d made and how long it would be until we’d made as much money as we invested in the panels.

I’ve been waiting to do the same thing again and see what progress we’ve made.

Last year, my calculations were only based on part of the year. While the panels were live as of the end of April, we didn’t receive our first cheque from the hydro company until July. This year is the first time we have a full 12 months of payments.

Just in case you’re new to our solar saga or don’t remember all the details, we’re part of Ontario’s microFIT program. Under this program, we install solar panels, and then the power that we generate goes back into the provincial grid. The province pays us $0.396/kWh. You can read about the whole saga of Going Solar here.

But now onto this year’s report.

The grand total that we made on the solar panels last year was $4,473.91–up just a bit more than $850 over the year before.

So what does this look like? Something like this. The golden yellow is this year and bright yellow is last year.

Bar graph of income from solar panels

We had a better fall and winter this year compared to last year. Everybody knows it was a much milder winter, but it was also sunnier.

I was often amazed when Matt told me at the end of the day how much we’d made. When the sun’s in the southern hemisphere, it sometimes doesn’t matter how bright it gets during the day. The angle of the sun is just so bad that there’s no way our panels produce at their max. But even in the depths of winter we had days where we were making double digits, which was a huge win.

The other huge win this year was finally getting our HST refund. This is the 13% sales tax we pay in Ontario on pretty much everything–including the labour and materials to install our panels. Because we run the solar almost like our own small business, we’re able to claim a portion of the tax–in the amount of more than $4,000.

Our other big numbers were finally setting a new daily record when we finally broke the $28 mark and making $831 more than we spent on electricity for the whole year.

Because it was such a mild winter, we didn’t have any issues with snow on the panels like we did last year. Even the ice storm wasn’t a big deal.

In fact, now that we have them, we really don’t have to do anything–except count the deposits to our bank account.

Solar panels

Last year, I estimated that it would take about 9 years and 4 months before our income equaled the investment we made in the panels. When the panels were first installed, I thought 8 1/2 years was a realistic estimate. Using this year’s numbers, the payback period would be just over 9 years.

This is definitely a long term investment, but the money is only part of the equation for me. I really feel alternative energies like solar are something we need more in the world. And I feel like I have a personal responsibility to support these alternatives as I can.

At the farm, we rely on our own well for water and our septic for sewage, we have geothermal for heat and air conditioning, and we generate power for the grid through these solar panels. Plus we’re preserving 129 acres, doing our best to be responsible stewards of our own little chunk of the earth.

Looking for sawzall suggestions

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One of the major perks of being a daughter of a contractor is the tools. Not only do I have access to all of my Dad’s tools, he also gives me tools when he upgrades.

That is the case with my hand-me-down vintage Sawzall.

Vintage Milwaukee Sawzall

Now I appreciate this saw. It’s come in very handy. But I think it’s time that I upgraded for myself.

My biggest complaint with this saw is the cord.

Cord and plug

I would love to have a cordless sawzall. But I have no experience with cordless sawzalls. Even the one that my Dad uses currently has a cord. So I’m looking for advice. Any suggestions of what to look for when I go shopping? What do you think is the best brand? Is a battery powered sawzall actually powerful enough to saw all?

Spring cleaning

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Sarah in Illinois is here to start off the week. Sarah’s looking ahead to spring–and beyond–and has a great tool to share with us.

I am the type of person that likes to be organized, have a plan, make lists, etc. It makes me feel more focused on the job at hand, and I am more comfortable when I feel I have direction. One thing I did to feel more organized this year was to sign up for a daily email from Spring Cleaning 365. Each day I get an email with one small job to focus on for the day.

Obviously I don’t need anyone to tell me that I need to clean my toilet, or put a load of laundry in, but these emails remind me of some tasks that get overlooked.

When was the last time you took out the bottom drawers of your refrigerator and cleaned underneath? Or the last time you disinfected your TV remote? If you’re anything like me, it has probably been a while!

So I like the emails because they remind me of the areas that I usually overlook. The goal from the website is to do one small task a day and then you won’t spend much time on it, but I find it is usually works out that I do one or two a week and use the weekends to catch up.

Tupperware

This weekend one of the projects I tackled was to sort my plastic storage containers. Between using them for leftovers and taking my lunch to work every day, we have a lot of containers. But over time many have lost their mates. So I took all pieces out of my cabinets and drawers and made matches.

Tupperware

Why did we have so many lids and so few bottoms!?

I couldn’t believe how many tops and bottoms had lost their mates. We had all of these extras left over. I am going to take the extras to my mom to see if she can make any matches with hers and then all the rest are going to be recycled. And now my cabinets and drawers close much easier.

I did do a little work on our home improvement projects this week. Steve installed baseboard and door trim in our hallway last week and I finally took an evening and primed them. Next, I need to prime and paint the walls and put a coat of paint on the trim.

Hallway before

Before

Hallway after

After

The hallway will lead to the addition on the house. So the drywall you see at the end of the hall is where we will extend the hallway to two new bedrooms.

I have drawn out the floorplan and started my list of materials, so I can prepare an estimate for us and for the bank. As I think I have mentioned before, we are doing all of the work ourselves, so we will be our own estimators, designers, builders and coordinators. I am nervous and excited all at once.

What have you been working on in your home? Have you started any spring cleaning? Have you ever tackled a large home improvement project on your own? Does anyone have any advice for us on being our own project manager?

Spring Cleaning 365 sounds really neat, Sarah. Thanks for sharing it. Funnily enough, Matt and I did a tupperware cleanout ourselves last weekend. Although I cannot remember when I last cleaned under the fridge drawers, and I don’t think I’ve ever disinfected the remote.

Lunch with a side of architectural salvage

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We had a couple of birthdays on my staff at the start of the year, so one of my team booked a lunch to celebrate. My staff always pick the restaurant, and this time they let me know I was in for something special.

They were right.

The thing was–and this is what my team knew–it wasn’t actually the restaurant that I liked best (although the food was very, very good). It was what it was attached to–a giant salvage yard.

Salvage yard

The yard was full of beams and bricks and who knows what else. We didn’t explore outside and instead prowled through one of the barns.

It was four floors, but we only took time for two (it was a work day after all).

There was a floor full of doors. All kinds. All sizes.

Salvage doors

There were barn doors too, and I was sure to snap pictures for Matt.

Salvaged barn door

Although I more wanted him to see the price tags as opposed to the doors themselves. We have an assortment of barn doors at the farm, and I think this is a reason to take care of them.

Barndoor price tag

I loved seeing all of the options for reclaimed flooring. Lots and lots of really cool floors. This is just a small sample of the selection.

Reclaimed flooring

This one was particularly cool. Flooring from the floor of an old gym–complete with the original paint lines. Aren’t the colours neat?

Reclaimed wood floor from an old gymnasium

Beyond the wood, there were tubs, sinks, hardware and all kinds of other things I barely had time to glance at.

Architectural salvage

My team knows me well. I could have spent a whole day there, and I’m excited to go back to really explore.

If you ever find yourself in Waterloo, Ontario, make sure to check out Timeless Material Co. (and be sure to visit the cafe too).

Do you have a salvage yard near you? Have you ever bought architectural salvage? Would you use gym flooring in your house?

If you can’t stand the heat

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Normally, the second half of that phrase above goes: “get out of the kitchen.” However, in this case, it’s “call a plumber.”

I mentioned awhile ago that we were having some issues with the cold water tap in my bathroom. As in it didn’t like to turn. As in hope you like scalding showers.

Old taps in the tub

A consult in the Home Depot plumbing aisle suggested that the cartridge on the tap might be worn. We needed to figure out the brand of tap so that we could buy the right replacement cartridge. As there was no logo or maker’s mark anywhere on our taps, we turned off the water (to the whole house), took the tap apart, removed the cartridge and went back to HD to find a new cartridge that matched the old.

We found what we thought was the right one, but upon our return home, Matt and I could not get the cartridge properly installed. We screwed it in–repeatedly, cautiously turned on the water, and then quickly shut off the water as it sprayed and dribbled from all of the wrong places.

Eventually, we gave up and reinstalled the old cartridge.

Old tap cartridge

Over time, the tap got stiffer and stiffer. Turning it hurt my hand. I resorted to covering the tap with facecloths and towels to cushion my grip. I started to worry that one day I wouldn’t be able to turn the water off.

Plus the tap would only turn so far, and showers were approaching boiled alive territory. I like a hot shower, but there’s a fine line between hot and cooked.

We called the plumber.

In less than a half an hour, he installed the new cartridge–the very one that we had bought–with absolutely no problem.

Old tap cartridge

My next shower was like something out of the 20th century. Warm water at the turn of a knob. Temperature adjustments as needed. Wondrous.

Except it’s getting a little hot again. Turn the knob. Oh isn’t that wonderful how easily it turns.

Splish-splash.

Okay that’s still a little hot. Adjust again.

Rub-a-dub-dub.

Getting hot again. What’s going on?

About every 30 seconds, I had to adjust the temperature. Thanks to our new cartridge, I could adjust the temperature fairly easily, but constantly playing with the faucet wasn’t what I had in mind.

I tried turning on just the cold water. It ran for a little while, but gradually the flow decreased to a trickle. Turn it on a little bit more, and the same thing happened.

Old taps in the tub

We called the plumber again, and he thought that the cartridge might be a bit too lubricated and might be slipping. So before we were too tight and now we’re too loose. It’s like the Goldilocks of bathroom faucets.

We’re leaving it alone and the faucet does seem to be tightening up on its own. However, this bathroom reno can’t come soon enough–in case you can’t tell from the cracked mildewy tile you’ve seen all through this post.

Have you ever replaced a tap cartridge? Any tips in case we ever have to do this again? Why do you think the cold tap is turning itself off? What’s the worst idiosyncrasy in your bathroom?

Floorplan #3 – Master suite on the edge of the forest

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This month, I’m sharing some of the floorplans I’ve worked through in the four years since we’ve owned the farm.

Just a reminder, here is our current layout.

Current floorplan

Last week you saw my second idea–adding a garage off the living room and turning the pool room into our master bedroom–which has been the plan for most of the time we’ve lived here. But all the way along, I struggled with losing the lawn on the south side of the house to the garage.

Matt has advocated pretty much since day 1 for the pool room becoming the garage. I could stomach the south lawn being a driveway better than I could handle it being garage. So that became the basis for floorplan #3.

Floorplan #3

Highlights:

  • The pool room becomes the garage. I’m pretty sure we’re going to need a mini-extension on the garage in order to fit two cars. Basically, the width of the mudroom gets tacked on the end.
  • Like in all of my plans, the current mudroom comes off and the front entrance shifts so that my office becomes the front foyer. Again, I think I can deal with the first view as you come into the house being the bathroom.
  • The back door in the kitchen is closed in, the window is expanded, and the wall pushes out about 5 feet.
  • The hallway is extended through the closets in the two bedrooms and the master suite (along with new closets) is added on the north side of the house. (And as I look at this, I realize it may make sense to switch the bathroom and closet… although I think this very not-to-scale floorplan is skewing the proportions).
  • The new mudroom and back door are still about 6 steps down from the kitchen.
  • We would still upgrade all of the doors and trim and add a metal roof.

Pros:

  • This reno could likely be done in phases.
  • The kitchen expansion gives us a bit more counter space, room for bigger appliances, more natural light and my coveted view down to the pond.
  • There is direct access from the mudroom to the outside, so we don’t have to walk through the garage.
  • Bedrooms 1 and 2 still have good closets, added along with the master.
  • The bedrooms are all together at the end of the house. The master bedroom is nestled up to the forest and still has a pretty good view of the pond.
  • We keep the lawn on the south side of the house.

Cons:

  • This is a bigger renovation with three separate additions: the garage, the kitchen and the master suite.
  • Running plumbing, electrical and HVAC to the master bedroom addition is a long way from the utility room under the living room fireplace.
  • This reno disrupts pretty much every room in the house.
  • Bedrooms 1 and 2 lose the windows they currently have on the north wall.
  • The pool room–one of the best rooms in the house in terms of size and windows–becomes the garage. Not a room you typically visit to enjoy the view.
  • We’ll lose a few trees, and we might have to fill in part of the small ravine on the edge of the north lawn.

Here’s the view of the north lawn. Pretty much this whole lawn would be taken over by the addition. The ground drops off right at the tree line on the right side of the picture. To be able to walk around the extended house on this side, we’d have to take out a few trees and level the ground a bit.

North lawn

Right now, this plan is the front-runner for me. I’m willing to sacrifice the north lawn as opposed to the south. I still get everything I want–better kitchen, front porch, master suite, attached garage, farmy-country appearance. Plus I get to keep the quality of the property around the house.

This is the last plan that I have to share. Going back to the home goals that I shared at the start of the week, my next step is to meet with a contractor or two and start to get some idea of costs of plans #2 and #3. The contractor I have in mind has experience with big renovations like this, and I think he might have some good suggestions for the best layout too.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your suggestions.

What do you think about this plan? Do you like all the bedrooms to be together? What adjustments would you make?

Home Goals 2016

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I really enjoy the process every January of setting my home goals for the coming year. (If I’m being honest, I start thinking about them in December or even earlier). I’m not big on resolutions on the personal front, but on the home front my annual plan helps me stay focused.

This year, I’m going to try to continue last year’s plan of striking a balance between productivity and a bit of relaxation. There’s still lots to do, of course. But it’s been four years since we bought the farm. Obviously, our renovation pace is not even close to breakneck.

We are approaching the point where we have either really big projects (kitchen, bathroom, garage, master suite) or small stuff (paint the guest room, dining room, my office). For now, I’m keeping the focus on the small stuff.

Which will help me to continue another theme from last year: frugality. We did pretty well on that front in 2015. You’ve seen some of my long-term renovation plans already, so continuing to save money in 2016 will be helpful.

And that’s the first goal on the list: get an idea of how much the Big Reno is going to cost.

Beyond that, the focus is going to be on small, frugal things.

Guest room

Matt and I got a start on this at the tail end of last year by scraping the stippled ceiling. We have more to go to make it match the picture in my mind.

  • Paint the walls and trim
  • Replace the light fixture
  • Make window treatments (ugh… I really don’t want to sew curtains again)
  • Refinish the desk chair
  • Strip the paint off the metal bedframe (and maybe repaint)
  • Decorate and personalize

Finish the basement

Scrabble art for the basement

Source: insideways

The basement was our very first project when we moved to the farm. But the nit-picky finishing bits are still hanging around. I just need to get my butt in gear and get it done.

  • Trim around the cold cellar doorway
  • Finish the built-in storage area in Matt’s bathroom
  • Make/buy art to finish off the space (this one’s a carry-over from the 2015 home goals)
  • Build shelving in the closet under the stairs

Furniture

My list of wanted furniture is getting shorter and shorter.

  • China cabinet for my office
  • Coffee table for the living room
  • Reupholster slipper chair for my office (in the same beautiful Brissac Jewel by P Kaufmann that I used for my bulletin board)

Vegetable garden

Last year’s top home goal returns. There’s still more to do to make my dream vegetable garden.

  • Hang the gate
  • Edge the garden
  • Build raised beds around the perimeter
  • Build trellises for the raspberries, tomatoes and squashes (we can’t have the squashes running rampant again this year)
  • Plant perennials: grapes, asparagus, rhubarb, more raspberries
  • Run a waterline out to the garden

Outdoor clean-up

Manicured meadow

Source: LandVest

I’m going to be a bit ambitious this year and add a second outdoor task to the list. The task of cleaning up this property could be a full year project for a full team of people. It’s a job of picking up rocks, extracting weeds (fire worked well last year), grading (and maybe adding a bit more topsoil), seeding grass, mowing. And it’s a matter of picking my spot… and being satisfied with a spot, not all of them. Here are my options:

  • North side of the house
  • West side of the house
  • On the edge of the woods at the north side of the house
  • Around the barn (all points of the compass)
  • Behind the driveshed and around the garden
  • At the foot of the driveway
  • Along the shore of the pond (oh how I want to clear the shore so that I can get close to my pond)

Six goals for 2016. I feel like there’s a bit of symmetry in that. Most important I feel like these goals should be relatively achievable.

In fact, the year is already off to a pretty good start.

The guest room is well underway, and I’ve started a few projects for the basement too.

You’ll see some of those soon.

Are you setting goals for 2016? What projects do you hope to complete this year?