A Reno Tale

Two years in the planning and we have FINALLY started.

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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Week 8 - Day 36

Wednesday
Old house facts.  Things are just going to be wonkie. I am hoping this looks normal when all is said and done.



Friday, December 3, 2010

Week 8 - Day 36

Wednesday
Will taking out the railing for the old stairwell.

Week 8 - Day 36

Wednesday
Pony wall separating my new bedroom and the new stairwell.

Week 8 - Day 36

Wednesday
It is all a blur. I guess yesterday a roofer came by and a gutter guy came by to take a look in order to get ready for bids. The guys worked upstairs  most of yesterday, but I don't have pictures and I didn't take notes and it is all forgotten.
Will was on his own for half of today.  I wasn't here so not sure if he talks to himself. If Will talks to himself in the house and on one is around to hear him, does he make any sounds?
These pics are of the north end of the top floor.  The first picture is my bedroom side, the other is the living room. As per code, I can push the wall back to where the height between the floor and the roof is 48".  Anything beyond that would be considered new space and we already maxed for square footage for our lot.  Hard to tell what is happening here, but when the drywall goes up it will all make sense. 



Thursday, December 2, 2010

Let me in, man.

Week 8 - Day 35

Monday
City inspector came by today. We passed and were given the okay to carry on.  I wasn't here but I was told that his exact words were that he had never ever seen anything like this.  I believe, I hope, he was referring to us living here and not the work being done. hahaha...wimps

Week 8 - Day 35

Monday
Stair treads are in, sort of anti climatic.  But cool.

Week 7 - Weekend

It is all a blur.  Someone asked me how I was handling the commotion.  The work being done around me doesn't bother me too much, distracting for sure. It is all the other stuff I am worried about.  But I will try to keep breathing and we will see.  We spent some time this weekend sourcing a few things, just the start of all that. 
I have put vapour barrier around my corner in the basement, lots of cold air coming through the windows and warm air escaping.  This is a little strange, feels like I am living in a plastic bag.

Lulu

This is what I am being treated to lately. Like it is my fault that it is snowing and cold.

Week 7 - Day 34

Friday
New risers

Comforting to see they have a level

Temp railing around the opening

Starting to look like a deck

Week 7 - Day 34

Thursday
Work on the new stairs have started. The original plan was to have them come up on the right side of the supporting wall in the middle of the floor.  You can see a bit of it in the left corner in the last picture. The stairs have now shifted to the left.   Pros and cons to this.  Main reason was to solve the problem of the stair well taking up too much room in the main floor living room. It also gives me more usable space around the opening, but the stairs now pretty much come up into my bedroom, so still trying to rethink things. As it has been pointed out to me, this will happen in old houses, compromises come up. It will be good, but sure isn't what I had first envisioned 2 years ago.
I will now have one bedroom, but I will still have use of the spare room on the main floor for guests.  With the new entrance they will be able to come upstairs without intruding on Linda's space.



Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Week 7 - Day 34

Thursday
Snow as promised. The tarp collapsed a bit upstairs with the weight of the snow, but I am an old pro at it now.  Since the porch on the main deck has been taken off, the water just comes through the deck, splashes onto the sill of the basement back door and slowly seeps into the basement.  No biggie, just propped some plywood to redirect the flow. 
It is all about the blog after all.  I think I would be disappointed if nothing happened.

Lulu

My cat is getting soooo fat.  He is spending more time in the garage and the house is cold, so his coat is really thick and he has been eating like a porker lately.  Too cute.


GOLF

I just realized that my deck is the perfect spot to check out the weather for golf. Up high and looking south, that is where the good weather comes from. YES!

Week 7 - Day 33

Wednesday
The heater from Will packs a lot of heat but is noisy, so I didn't want to leave it running all night and it was quite nippy in the basement this morning.  Cat isn't too happy about it either. There is nothing like a down quilt, however, and I am not talking about the cheapy ones, but the good stuff from Daniadown.  Grey or white goose down all the way, light weight but warm.  This is one place you get what you pay for.  I don't even notice the cold when I am under that.  Just can't stick out any limbs because haa chacha, it's freezing!
It has tried to snow today, the odd little flake, the forecast is for snow in the morning and then turning to rain. Typical Vancouver weather. I heard we set a record for how cold it was today.  I just realized I am talking about the weather a fair bit, but did I mention it is cold?
The doors are in so at least and that helps.  Power went out in the neighbourhood today around dinner time.  My first thought was 'what now?' as the breakers go frequently.  By chance I was on the phone making arrangements to go out to eat, so good timing and things were back on when got home at 9pm. Oh, and had to reset the boiler again.  

Week 7 - Day 33

Wednesday
They worked on framing the stairs today and Linda's doors are in. Looks like they were always there.

Week 7 - Day 32

Tuesday
Guess what this is going to be?

Week 7 - Day 32

Tuesday
As a wise old friend told me.  You have to break eggs to make an omelet.

Sunny Day

Tuesday
Beautiful sunny day. Where was this for the Olympics?


Week 7 - Day 32

Tuesday
My french patio doors are installed. Like it. 

Week 7 - Day 32

Tuesday
Yowzers, it's cold, -6 or so. Doesn't seem to bother these two, though. They are putting in the patio doors in Linda's kitchen. 


Things that make you go mmmmm

We have come across of tons of these little white cocoon things as the demo continued.  Gabe tells me that they are spiders' eggs.  Aaaah.

Week 7 - Day 31

Monday
They put in my patio door today, first purchase done.  Now just have to figure out the door hardware.  They started to prep the opening for the french door in Linda's kitchen. Gabe only had time to take the back door framing out and to board it up.  We had to reorder the third french door that came, ordered an out swing for Linda's master, when it should be an in swing as there is no deck going there presently, city said no that. So a week or two for that to come. Oops.



Bananas?

I am Yoko Ono. I am pretty much living in my bed.  Eating, sleeping, reading, hanging out.   Cold, cold, cold, well below freezing without the space heaters.


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Week 7 - Weekend

Finally got the fridge from the main floor kitchen moved downstairs.  It's a treat to have everything on one floor.  We have walked the house together to work on what we want for electrical and did some appliance shopping.  Easier to have someone to talk things out with. The temperature has dropped, well below freezing.  The construction heaters really don't keep up in the basement or on the main floor where Linda is. I don't want to leave my cave to venture out!
All right, this all may be stupid, but you didn't hear it from me. 
Another added treat is that the boiler keeps shutting itself off.  The vent outside is sitting sideways and sometimes the wind blows into it that is what happens when there is a problem with the ventilation. One good story after another.

Week 7 - Weekend

Snowed big time Friday night and had another collapse upstairs along with the accompanying leaks through all 3 floors. hahaha...getting good at it now.



Week 7 - Weekend

Ho Ho Ho Snow.

Week 7 - Day 30

Friday
So long to Brandon, as this is his last day.  He gutted my bathroom and cleaned up good before he left.


Week 7 - Day 30

Friday
The patio french doors came today, looking forward to seeing them installed.  We had a 'design' meeting with Will to go over things that we need to get done and the decisions that need to be made.  Particularly the electrical and where we want plugs etc. Need to find stoves as the plumber will need to need to know the specs for installing the gas lines.   Oh, and Will temporarily vented the boiler out the side of the house from the basement, great to have it out of the way. 

Week 7 - Day 30

Friday
Didn't get much sleep last night due to the Niagara Falls coming through the house.  All okay, because excellent blog material.  What would I have to say if nothing happened. Here is my propped up tarp trying to keep the rain out.

Week 7 - Day 30

Friday

Week 7 - Day 29

Thursday
Ahhh,  turns out they disconnected about half of the radiators.  There is still structural in the basement that needs to be done and some of the lines were in the way. The power vent is still back east somewhere and they were unable to find one in town, so the vent still hanging out the window. Some framing here and there was done today, and that's all she wrote.

Week 7 - Day 29

Thursday
Good news, they are putting in the power vent for the boiler today so we won't be gassed during the night.  In the meantime the guys cleaned up the area and pushed the vent up above the window and I can turn the heat back on. 
Plumbers Paul and Brad are here and the whole heating system is being drained, not exactly sure what is going on, wait and see I guess.

Week 7 - Day 28

Wednesday evening.
The boiler has shut itself off again. Ah ha ! I now know where the reset switch is. Went about my business in the basement and came upstairs later and the exhaust is blowing back into the house. That can't be good and Lord it stinks. 
All that can be done at this point is to push the vent farther through the window. This involved getting the oven mitts out, hot to the touch by this time, taking a mallet to it to flatten it a bit so I could close the window more.  Nothing like heating up the great outdoors. Also duck taped the holes along portion of the the vent that is still in the house. Taped vapour barrier over the window to try to help with the cold air and the fumes but it's still coming in.  We have decided to turn the thing off for the night just to be on the safe side.
Now I think he is trying to kill us.

Week 7 - Day 28

Wednesday
Back to the the blustery, rainy weather. Things are starting to pick up for decisions that need to be made. Door hardware, kitchen design, lighting, electrical, radiators, doors, tubs. Yikes. Going to yoga, that might clear my head.
They closed in my deck today and put up a temp railing, yeah.  In order to do that, something had to be done with the boiler vent so it is currently hanging out the kitchen window.



Week 7 - Day 27

Tuesday
Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day. Luck on our side. 
Work has continued on the new roof and my bathroom is no more. Will was somewhat entertaining, knew something was up when I heard him running through the house to shut off the water. Nothing major, just funny. The porch over the back door has been taken down, getting ready for the french doors for the main floor kitchen.


Looking good, like it's always been there.
The porch over the back door. French doors will replace the kitchen window to the right.  All summer I could hear a lot of buzzing in there and Brandon found several nests when he took it down.


The boiler vent isn't holding up very well.  This will be relocated at some point.
Lulu. No worries, he is doing okay.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Week 7 - Day 26

Monday
Terrible, rainy, blustery Vancouver day.  All day. Not sure what has been going on but I got home about 10pm and the tarp had come loose and was dangling off the side of the house.  Unfortunately, no pictures. Wind was still howling, and there I am trying to pull in a 20' tarp back up to secure it somehow, with a flashlight. 
Sometime later, I heard someone pound up the front stairs and back down again.  Assuming it was the neighbour, either to tell us about it or to tell us to stop the noise. Doesn't bother me too much, but I can understand it would be somewhat irritating.  Not much I can do about it, not planning to get up on the roof.  By this time the tarp had slipped again and I managed to secure it a little better by jamming it in one of the windows and securing parts of it down with some electrical wire hanging around.  Looks tight now, what will be. The rain has at least stopped and looks like the sky is clear, so hopefully it doesn't rain through the night as the roof is wide open to the elements now.  I am living the Red Green show.

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