Finally a room complete! Or is it...?

I just put the finishing touches on the baby's room. It is complete - or as close to complete as we're going to get for the time being. Ideally, we would like to replace the windows and install new trim and mouldings. Currently we have yet to install the quarter round at the baseboards, but we still have to buy a mitre saw. I am currently planning a mural for the main wall in the baby's room, so I have left this empty for the time being.

Before:

What we did:

We took the old fifties hollow door off and replaced it (including hinges and hardware) with the refinished six-panel solid wood door. We filled in some of the chips and holes in the baseboard and trim, gave it a few coats of paint to brighten the light, and picked a fresh bamboo green for the walls. Some light woods and some shelves, and "ta-da!"

It is amazing what some putty, sandpaper, and paint can do. It is the first room in the house that is complete. Well, almost. A mural is in the concept stage right now, and will be posted as work actually commences.

Grapes and Trenches

Fall has arrived abruptly after an intensely hot summer. One day we were sweltering in cotton dresses and shorts, the next I was searching my still-packed boxes for a sweater. With the change of seasons came the need to finally replace our 35 year old furnace. Here is what a 35 year old furnace looks like:

This one was 120,000 btu's, overload for our square footage, and running at roughly 50% efficiency. We looked into geothermal as an alternative to a natural gas furnace, but the cost is much too prohibitive for us at this time. Maybe, like CD players or VHS, both of which started out costing a fortune, geothermal heating will decrease in price as demand rises. Until that time, we opted for a high efficiency furnace at the appropriate btu's for a house the size of ours. We had our new furnace installed for a very good price, but on the condition that we did some manual labour to offset the labour costs. No problem!

This is what we were left with to complete the trench we were asked to dig in order to install the drain line:

It's a big ol' chip hammer. Lets just say with my newly acquired pipes accustomed to hauling a 20 pound child around all day, even I had a hard time holding it up. So the duty fell to D, who managed to dig this in about two hours:

He did an admirable job, not even tearing up the adjoining tiles. So now we have a 2" deep trench in our basement running from the furnace to the drain pipe, which the HVAC installer will be fitting today (he's on his way as I type).

Meanwhile, the furnace is in, and the installer is also putting in a coil so that once we can afford to install AC, it will be a simple enough process. He will also be removing this thing today - a humidifier - that was attached to the old furnace and had probably never been cleaned in the 35 years since it was installed, as can be noted by the wretched stalagmites of pure poison inside:

It looks even grosser in person. The furnace itself is a Goodman, and I admit, as far as furnaces go, its a beaut! I like the retro industrial look:

Happily, we've got a pretty efficient unit at 85,000 btu's at 92.1% efficiency:

This will do nicely for our house and budget, and once we buy a programmable thermostat, we can save even more energy by making sure the house is set to cooler in the nights and daytimes without having to remember ourselves to lower the temperature twice a day.

Also with the change of season comes the harvesting of our grapes! This is a whole other endeavour, making wine, for a blog in itself. Lets just say for now that our efforts harvesting the red grapes:

went south in a heartbeat with a teaspoon of sulfites. Now we've got the white grapes on the go, and we're on the second racking. Just like the house, it's a trial and error sort of thing, and we're learning from the mistakes we make. Lets hope our future mistakes on the house, like the grapes, will be in teaspoons and not in gallons.

Bathroom reno apparently includes the kitchen?

We were surprised a couple of days ago with this in our kitchen ceiling and down the cupboards:

Our bathroom on the second floor, right above this section of the kitchen, apparently leaks now when one takes a shower. This is due to the DIY reno job the previous owner did in a hurry and with only the sale of the house in mind, I can only assume, since the drywall wasn't sanded before it was painted, among other clues. The bathroom is on our list of projects to tackle (enlarging it into a four-piece, using some of the square footage from the office beside it), but we were looking at a couple of years from now.

We have yet to have a plumber in to look at the situation, but we can't see any way around pulling up the tiles and or the shower itself to get to the problem. We aren't sure either if the bulkhead in the kitchen, where this leak is coming through, will have to be opened up as well. So, our conundrum: do we pay for a fix and putting things back together, only to rip it apart again in a couple of years? Or do we bite the financial bullet and tackle the bathroom while it is already pulled apart?

As it stands, we have cut off use of the shower and are now using the shower in the basement for the time being. An inspection by a plumber will give us an indication of problem, time, and cost and we will have to make a decision from there. Stay tuned.

Eco-Gem

D discovered this amazing gem that has made salvaging these reclaimed doors quite easy and toxin-free.

(I should mention here that we are not representing or endorsing any product on the blog for money, products, or anything at all. These companies have no idea we, our house, or our blog exist, and we like it that way).

That out of the way, we have purchased this product called Soy Gel (not a terribly creative name, but I like to think the creativity went into the thinking behind the product). It is exactly as the name suggests: a gel-like matter made of soy that is intended to strip paint and stains from wood, concrete, metals, etc. We needed to strip the hardware on our doors in order to cut them to size and refinish the brass, and we didn't want to use toxic substances with heavy fumes. Soy Gel really came through, even surpassing our expectations.

You apply it to a surface 1/8 inch thick and let sit. The wait time depends on the amount of paint you have on the surface. Enamel takes longer than regular paint, we found.

Then you simply wipe it off. D used a scraper just to remove the goo quickly and easily, but there was no scraping required. You apparently don't even need gloves for this stuff, but we'd suggest it since it does get all over your hands and can be slippery. Once it is wiped away, you are left with this everywhere the gel touched:

Right down to the raw wood and of course the brass. Easy as pie! Now, if only hanging these doors would be so simple...

In Toronto, we purchased Soy Gel at a shop in the west end called Homestead House Paint Company, but it can be found across Canada if you look up their distributers list on their website (see link in first paragraph). And speaking of Homestead House Paint Company, I think this is where we will be shopping for our paints when it comes time. They have a very interesting product based on an old tradition in painting that is completely non-toxic. Milk paints have a beautiful finish, I've been told, and we may grab a pint to test out on the wall. More about that when the time comes!

Don't get too comfortable in this mess

We've successfully moved in, and though two weeks have officially passed, we are still living amongst more boxes than I would like. It's a matter of not getting too set up knowing we will be taking it down again to paint/wallpaper/cut holes/refinish/etc/etc/etc. The baby's room is the least unpacked, since we are in the middle of refinishing the trim and baseboards for painting.

Yesterday a roofing contractor came by to examine our roof and quote on repairing it, replacing it, and refinishing our front with cedar shingles and trim. This is how the second storey with dormer currently looks:

What the roofer discovered after peeling away the vinyl siding is that there is still the original wood trim underneath a second wood trim treatment around the top edge. We won't know for sure until we remove the siding entirely, but perhaps we can refinish and restore it, which would be ideal. Also, behind the siding covering the entire front was a layer of asphalt shingles, and under that the original (I am guessing) cedar shingles painted a turquoise green. These are not salvageable, but it is nice to know that our idea for redoing the front is in line with how the house was originally finished in 1900. The roofer would remove all three layers and install the cedar over the entire front, estimated at $3400. To repair the roof itself would only cost us a few hundred, but to replace it, which we intend to do in the next couple of years, would cost an estimated $4500.

Also, we were looking at getting crown moulding and new heavier trim for the bedroom which currently has your simple trim. Instead, we discovered "backband", which most renovators and builders will already know about. Tomorrow we go to get a couple pieces to bring home and try out on our trim to get the desired look. I will post photos as soon as we give it a whirl.

This just in...

After all the effort and about 1k in tools and materials, our soundproofing was completed. This is how it looked the morning before we moved in:

That afternoon/evening, we threw on a coat of low-odour primer so that the next day when we arrived with the truckload of stuff, we wouldn't be greeted with a strong paint smell. Normally, I love the smell of a newly painted room, but in fact what I am smelling isn't really good for me (formaldehyde? No thanks).

We did a clean up that evening with the help of family, trying to rid the house of the thick layer of dust. The clumping drywall compound didn't prove any less messy than regular compound as you can see here:

We didn't have time to take a photo of the bare, completed and primed wall before we started hauling boxes into the space. However, two miraculous (or at the very least, stupendous) results of our labours: one, we did a pretty decent job of drywalling, if I may say so. This was our first time doing this, and I'm pleased to report the wall looks mighty fine (photos will come). Two, we haven't heard a PEEP from the neighbours! Not a thing. We tested the noise levels on an evening we knew the neighbours would be having visitors, and we couldn't hear a single voice until we opened the windows and heard them. And upon asking, they reported not having heard the baby cry, which we assured them she has done in spades since soundproofing.

Our conclusion: SUCCESS!

Oh, Drywall.

I typically hate anything to do with drywall. The gritty stuff makes my teeth itch, it breaks so damn easy, and the dust is so fine it sticks around forever. And to show it's contempt for me, I got an edge of a full sheet slammed on the top of my foot.

We got it up and over the newly soundproofed wall.

There was only one hitch. It wasn't clear exactly how much give there should be in the wall, as we were told there should be some. D and I got into an argument over what constitutes "give". To me, I thought there was enough, for when we pushed on the wall we could see the channel move but the wall felt firm. D on the other hand felt there should be a more perceptible give under the hand when pressure applied. The reason for the movement is it indicates the channels are not too snug against a surface and can therefore effectively absorb sound vibrations. The only solution we could come up with was to switch from 1 1/4 inch drywall screws to 1 inch, therefore the screws would not be reaching the panels behind the channels. This didn't appear to make much of a difference, but I can say that so far, we haven't heard anything from next door, so hopefully we've got it right. We'll ask the neighbours to turn up their stereo to really test it out.

We are really under the gun now to get this done, as we move this coming Sunday. We want all three coats of mud to be complete and a coat of primer on before we move so that the baby won't be breathing the dust. Yesterday I applied the first coat of tape and mud while the baby played in her playpen, and despite numerous breaks to feed and play with her, I got it done in relative short order!

The next photo will be of a completed wall. Or so I hope.

Aside: We rented a drywall drill-thingy. Best advice ever, The screws went in neatly and to the perfect depth.

Step Two: Slow Down to Hurry Up

We are under the gun to get this finished in order to move in less than two weeks. Without rushing things and making mistakes that would require ripping down and starting over, we have taken the road of do it right (and slow, if need be) to get it done faster. So, one day off work for D, and the two of us spent the day alternating work and baby. Here is what we got accomplished:

Having finished the framing (which, by the way, was WAAAAY easier and more successful using SPRUCE, not the pine 1x2's. No more splitting!) the next step was to add the Sonopanel. This is a minor (or is it?) deviance from the initial plan of: frame - resilient channel - Sonopanel - drywall. Instead, we cut the panel to sit in between our studs, since it was recommended we have some sort of insulation between studs before the resilient channel went on, and we wouldn't lose that extra 1/2" of floorspace. This should have been easy: cut 16" pieces and fill in the gaps. However, the panels had to be adjusted for each space, since the 1x2's were slightly warped in some cases. The makers of Sonopanel say gloves, masks, and eye protection aren't necessary. However, when you are slicing off bits, you should in fact have a mask and eye protection, since the fibres can get pretty fine and you don't want to breathe that stuff in, toxic or not. Here's how it looked:

The panels have a woody texture, and are quite light. We used a simple blade to cut them. However, they are dimpled on one side; that is the side you direct to the noise. In our case, that meant dimples faced the wall where our neighbour's phone conversation was taking place at the time. No joke, we could hear them talking on the phone.

Here you can see a close up of the panels, plus you can see where little gaps were painstakingly filled in with off cuts. We tried the Acoustic Seal stuff, and after one gooey, sticky, messy, smelly line squirted into a gap, we called it off. Diaper cream is an excellent way to remove the junk from your skin, by the way, since soap and water won't do the trick.

Next, we began installing the resilient channel. This goes on horizontally, with the screws running along the bottom. These went in amazingly fast, considering all the time spent on the framing and the panel installation. Our instructions were to have it begin 2" from the floor, and spaced every 16". We had to begin slightly higher off the floor to accommodate the frame and nails. We used the level to run the length of the channels, not the tape measure, as our floor and ceiling both have some variances and are not perfectly level all the way across. Whether this was a good or bad idea remains to be seen, since when we stepped back and measure some of them, the gaps in between each channel varied from 16" to 16 3/8". Here's how it looked in progress:

We used 1 1/4" number 8 wood screws to affix them to each stud. The close-up shows the resilient channel's provisions for screws:

Once this step is complete and we've gone over it all to reinforce the channels, we begin drywalling. This is the part that has me nervous for two reasons. One: shittily done drywall just looks terrible, seeing the seams and puckering. Two: is resilient channel strong enough to hold our drywall? What happens if I want to put a shelf or a large painting on the wall? The whole purpose of the channel is to create a gap behind the draywall (that, and to capture the vibrations in the channels and dissipate them), so every time I want to hang something, should I be screwing into studs, channel, panel?

Today's aside: We were advised (rightly so) to change the locks on the door after taking possession so that only we would have the keys to our house. Being of the mind that we can do anything ourselves, (but I do have numbers for professionals in my little book in case things go horribly wrong) we bought a new lock and I set to. As soon as I opened the instructions, I had a sinking feeling I'd be reaching for the locksmith's number. But I persevered, took out the old lock, and wouldn't you know it? It was easy as pie! Well, after I chiseled some of the wood away to make room for the slightly bigger locking mechanism, cursed a few times after continually missing the link between the outside and inside locks until I realized I had it upside down, and finally struggled with the last screw to get it in far enough that the inside lock could turn all the way. But easy as pie, really!

Step One: Not So Fast Buster!

The simple part was supposed to be the framing of the wall. Since we aren't reinventing the wheel here, or more aptly: we aren't making a load-bearing wall, we thought this part would be zippy. Affix some 1 x 2's the to wall and PRESTO! We are ready to get into the real soundproofing problem-solving.

Um, no.

So here was our problem. Affixing wood to plaster, mortar, and brick is not as easy as it might seem. We tried e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. We tried the second lowest calibre cartridges (browns, for those in the know) for our cartridge hammer. Some nails would go in, some would stick out a 1/4 to 1/2/ inch from the wood. We ramped it up to the next calibre cartridges, the greens, and they either worked perfectly, blew right through the wood, or split it. More often they split the wood. We tried drilling with our brand spankin' new percussion drill (what a heavy monster!) then screwing our masonry screws with lock washers, and they all pulled out. Yes, we used the right bit with the accompanying screws. In the end, we pulled off about one third of our work and started over. Whether it was the brick, the calibre of cartridge, or the size of the wood pieces that accounted for the problems, we don't know. In the end, a job that should have taken a couple of hours took us all day, and we still have one section to finish. Luckily we had Grandma there to watch the baby for us so the two of us could work through it all. Thanks Grandma!

Here is what a properly nailed board should look like:

Nice and flush, no splitting. Except, here is what a lot of them looked like:

Now, I know all you handy people out there are saying: "If only they'd done _____!" Well, we didn't have that magic trick in our carpet bag, so after some muttered curses and musings, and a phone call to my dad in Alberta, we finally got the wall to look like this:

So next up (after we finish off the last wee bit of wall) we install the Sonopanel and resilient channel. Can I even hope that those parts will go smoothly?

On another aside: We are replacing our hollow old doors from the 50's on the second floor with six panel solid wood doors with original or vintage hardware. D managed to find two doors on Craigslist for $5 a piece that would almost fit two of the three doors (we'll have to cut them in length slightly). Then, on that same night coming home, he discovered another six panel door on the side of the road out for garbage pick up - SCORE! And miraculously, it is the right size too, with a little trimming off the length. So here they wait for some sanding and repainting. All for ten bucks!

Proof is in the Pudding

When it comes to soundproofing, we've got the skinny on all the options after relentless researching. However, whether or not these options will ultimately create the silent oasis we're after is a matter of installing the soundproofing and cranking the music next door to test it all out. An expensive and labour-intensive gamble, but the only way to know for sure.

First, we cut away the plaster and mortar to get straight to the brick. Had there been lathing, we could have worked right over the wall as-is, but alas, there was not. What there was was a layer of mortar mixed with horse hair to keep the wall together, then a layer of paper over that. This indicated we'd need a wood frame to act as our base.

We purchased the following to do the job thoroughly:
1" x 2" wood to make our wood frame overtop the brick and mortar
Resilient channels to affix horizontally to the frame
Sonopan boards to deaden the sound (will go into detail about this and resilient channels)
Drywall sheets
Acoustic sealant

We loaded up the car after 45 minutes of tying down in the 30+ heat and humidity with a very unhappy baby (we aren't engineers, but we figured it out. Lets hope we are faster at our reno's than we are at tying down supplies to our roof rack), and got it all there in one piece. Total cost for the materials: $4 per resilient channel at 12' per piece, $14 per sheet of drywall, $2.50 per 1" x 2", $5 for the acoustic sealant, and $25 per sheet of Sonopan.

Here's how its done: we first affix out wood framing to the existing wall. It was suggested we use a cartridge hammer, which we purchased for about $30, plus the bullet-like cartridges. These sound like gunshots when hammered, and for good reason, as each cartridge contains gunpowder and shoots the nail into the brick and mortar. Since there are just the two of us plus the baby, I took the babe out on the lawn while D got to slam away with the "gun". The frame runs along the top and bottom of the wall with 16" between each stud, just as you would build a wood frame wall.

Next goes on the resilient channel. These are metal channels with a zigzag shape that screw into the studs horizontally starting 2" from the bottom, 6" from the ceiling, and 16" in between each. These channels sit up from the wall 1/2", and work to absorb sound vibrations and dissipate it. We were told and read that this, plus drywall, should do the trick. But to be ultimately successful, we decided to add to this the Sonopan. Sonopan is made by a Quebec company, and is a completely non-toxic fibreboard made with 100% recycled and recyclable materials, using starch, wax, and a natural wood resin as binders. No gloves or masks are apparently necessary to use this material. AND, Sonopan was found in a study to be more effective, acoustically, than Enermax. We were sold.

The Sonopan boards will be installed under the drywall along with the resilient channels to absorb the sound vibrations, at which point we will test it all out before we begin mudding and taping. The acooustic sealant will be used in all the corners and edges, as these are where the sound can escape if overlooked. We're very confident this will cut our noise issue effectively, but we have an expensive but easy back up plan if not. If we find the noise just hasn't reduced enough, we will then add the Quietrock at $100 per sheet. We'd obviously prefer to avoid this, which is why we've added the Sonopan. But as a last resort, the Quietrock can be installed over the drywall, then mudded and taped just as we would the drywall.

We are part way through this installation, and with the help of Grandma watching over the babe, we'll plow through the rest this weekend. Photos will follow of each step, for those of you who may find it helpful.

On an aside: we have also discovered that not all of the previous owners of the house have vacated. See below:

We've found three of these, which are the Brontosauruses of cockroaches. We are looking for non-toxic options of killing these things off, if such a thing exists. We are concerned that fumigation will harm our child, and ourselves. Yet these unwanted residents MUST go. Ugh.

Possession (or Possessed?)

We took possession of our house. We battled the Canada Day long weekend rush hour traffic to get the keys before the lawyer's office closed for four days, and then battled traffic once again to get to "our" house. Except this time we discovered something we didn't know before buying it: we can hear every. single. noise. our neighbours make through the walls. Since I haven't been a fan of Hall and Oates since grade three and couldn't bear to think of what else their playlist had in store, suddenly our To Do List was shuffled to make room for soundproofing as top priority. Anyone who has lived with poor walls and close neighbours knows exactly why this is such an important issue to address.

We were warned about this. You never really possess your house, it possesses you. Like that princess of a cat – you know the one. She has you wrapped around her little paw, scratching her back while she eats, mewing to go out but then standing halfway over the threshold for 45 seconds before deciding to return to her princess pillow for a nap after all. She's not your pet, you're hers. It's the same thing with a house. It's needs are constant and temperamental, and once you've addressed one, another unexpected need pops up. Or so we've been told.

Upon returning home that evening, I googled soundproofing, sound barriers, and acoustic insulation. What I discovered were two viable options for us both price-wise and green-wise.

1. Quietrock 525. At $100-115 per 4x8' sheet, not exactly cost effective, but a very easy fix. One sheet of Quietrock is the equivalent thickness of eight sheets of regular drywall, and acts as a very effective acoustic shield. You can even hang it over your existing drywall, one forum told me. No tearing down the drywall, filling in the wall, putting metal brackets in, and then drywalling all over again. Just hang, tape, mud, sand, and paint. It works by converting sound to heat, which in turn eliminates/muffles sound.

2. Enermax. At $20.99 per 4x8' sheet, this sound block insulation comes in sheets that act as both an insulator, vapour barrier and sound barrier using 98% by-product wood fibre that would otherwise go to the landfill. However, in this instance, we would have to remove all the existing drywall, affix the Enermax on the studs, then stagger the drywall over it to be taped, mudded, sanded and primed. More demo work (think bin rental and landfill waste) and more installation work. Less costly, to be sure, even working in the cost of drywall at $15 per sheet, but more time and work and waste.

Tonight we punch a hole in our wall to see what's going on under the drywall. I will post our findings and photos and our decision to use Quietrock or Enermax, once we've had the chance to ask some expert advice.

First things first

Summer is all about patios, barbeques, and gardens for city dwellers. So why, then, did the person(s) who built the 10' x 10' addition off the back of the house

not put a door to access the back yard? Currently, should you want to have a glass of wine under the grape arbor,

dig around in the garden,

or throw a chop on the barbeque, you either have to go through the basement

and up the steps to the back yard,

or exit the front door and walk around to the back. Not very practical, and definitely not taking advantage of what could be a great feature of the house: a sun room.

This is our very first challenge. We hope to put in a reclaimed french door and some reclaimed windows lining the three walls of the room to give us the light, the view of our small garden, and a place for our daughter to tromp in and out of in her muddy rubber boots one day. We'd like to take out the cheap laminate floor and install a reclaimed hardwood floor. And lastly, we're talking about installing a living roof over this room to create cooler ambient air and a lovely view from the room above it, currently overlooking grey asphalt shingles.

We're hoping to get that old country house or cottage feeling, a place to have a cup of tea in the mornings, sit with a good book in the evenings, and from which we can watch our child play.

So. To do this, we are calling in a contractor to take a look at the condition of the addition, and estimate time and costs. Do we find the right antique door first, and maybe some reclaimed windows? Or do we price some new, energy efficient vinyl-clad (on exterior) wood (on interior) windows?  A visit this weekend to Pollard Windows to see these new windows that are ultra high-efficiency (LEEDS certified) is in order, yet craigslist and kijiji are being scoured for just the right antique windows and door at the same time. A visit to the Door Store will also be on tap, just to get inspiration, even if we cannot afford their prices. Can old doors and windows be installed to have the same efficiency as modern versions made to look old and charming? We'll have to speak with persons representing both options as well as our contractor and take into consideration the costs of both. Check back when we report our findings.

The Journey Begins

Here it is, the first entry of our new blog. 2010 has been a year of firsts: the most dramatic was the birth of our daughter, then followed our first car, and now our first house. In one short year we've gone from renting an apartment and living the life of a young downtown couple – zipping from event to work to party on our bicycles – to a happy little family with a new set of priorities and responsibilities. While we still zip about on bicycles, it is more often to pick up something for the baby or the refrigerator than to attend an art opening or a meal at our favorite restaurant.

So five months after the arrival of our daughter, we have purchased a house. The search for a house had taken us almost a year, and I won't even bother to go into detail about the ups and downs of that experience in Toronto's crazy housing market. Rather, I'll focus on the journey from the moment we got the signed papers proving that we were about to embark on the ups and downs of buying, renovating, and maintaining a home of our own.

So, where are we at this point? Two weeks away from possession of the house, and one of our two allotted visits to the house complete, armed with a camera and measuring tape. No packing done, no contractors called. Just talks after the baby is asleep about what we COULD do, WANT to do, and HAVE to do to the house over the next weeks, months, and years. Starry-eyed like those first months with a new love, we are dreaming of all that could be, and cannot imagine there could be any hiccups to come.

And so it begins...