Wainscoting?

Could it be that the tongue and groove wood on the photos in the previous post is wainscoting? I have to admit, I don't know anything about it, but I looked around the internet and I found some pictures and descriptions that suggest it could be.

A couple more questions, to add to my list: Should I try insulate the gap between the old exterior wall and the new exterior wall before I drywall over it? And do I need to add any waterproof membrane or lining behind or below the new drywall that will touch the baseboards? The wall is behind the toilet and below a window, so it could get slightly damp, but it doesn't appear to have any current water damage.

Houston, We Have a Problem!

Remember me saying yesterday about the weird vertical wooden slats? Well I decided to take one out to see what lies beneath. It wasn't what I expected. I thought that maybe I would see studs, but instead, there is a wall of horizontally-laid wood. Looking closer, I see what appears to be studs behind that, and further back still is presumably the exterior wall (you can see part of the stud in the picture below).


I don't know what to make of it, except that maybe what I'm seeing is the old exterior wall, which means the studs and beyond (which look newer and cleaner) were added in a more recent renovation.


The problem I have is deciding what to do now. I cut out a small section of the plasterboard and as you can see in the photo, the top half is plasterboard (or drywall?) over horizontal straps. If I take out the lower part down to studs, I'll be almost 2 inch deeper than the straps above, so I may have to take out the whole "old wall", top to bottom. Then I'll also have to refit the window, or at least get a new frame.

My current thought is to stop at this point instead and to add straps (either horizontally or vertically) over the bottom half, so that the surface of the new straps on the bottom is level with the old straps on the top half. Then I'll leave the top half of the wall untouched (except for sanding and filling the old plasterboard), but I'll cut out a strip of the old plasterboard (so I have an opening the length of the wall (7'7") and 4' high and then I'll fit a sheet of drywall in the gap, horizontally, and screwed to the new straps. This board will butt against the old plasterboard on the top half and I can join them like regular drywall. Right?

Can I do that? Leave the plasterboard at the top and add drywall at the bottom? Are they the same thing? Will they "bond" together? Should I take out the whole wall instead?

Time left: 58 hours.

Jobs left:

• Cut off water supply and remove fixtures (toilet, sink, bath and surround)
• Remove tiles
• Remove subfloor down to floorboards
• Remove wooden slat-type things on lower half of wall
• Remove any rotten drywall behind bath and surround
• Add straps to wall
• Fit subfloor (5/8" spruce 4'x8')
• Fit drywall
• Fit cement board
• Tape and paste drywall and cement board
• Sand drywall
• Fit bath
• Fit surround
• Tile floor
• Wait 24 hours for tiles to dry
• Grout
• Wait for grout to dry
• Wash grout off tiles
• Fit toilet
• Fit sink
• Seal bath, surround, sink and toilet
• Paint walls
• Add fixtures

I think we may have (and need) some grace in the timescale. This could take another week at this rate, maybe more. I'm exhausted and I already have enough plasterboard dust in my nose and throat to plaster a whole extension on the house! (Yes, I am wearing a mask and goggles when I remember, but that dust gets everywhere!

Please post a comment with your ideas. I'm stumped!

Demolition Man

Nothing makes a guy feel more masculine than swinging a hammer at things and breaking them into little pieces. Yesterday evening I got the opportunity to do just that as I started the demolition of the old bathroom, ready for a full update later in the week.

The budget is set, the timescale is limited (finished by Thursday???) and I'm the cheapest labourer we could find! Perhaps this is an understatement, but it's not as easy as it looks. I don't know how far to take the demolition. I didn't really want to demolish right down to the wall studs, but if I don't get it right this time, I might be forced to do it all again if mold develops.
There were a few interesting "finds" last night. The first was a very unique and unusual walpaper with cartoon type pictures of different toilets.
Another surprise was the walls behind the fake-tile-look on the walls. I expected drywall or concrete board, but instead I found wooden beam. Not studs, but strips of side-by-side tongue and groove hardwood (old hardwood flooring perhaps, ...but on the wall?).
The last frustrating surprise was that the drywall and fake-tile is from a previous bathroom fitting, which originally went behind the bath and shower. Sadly, when the bath surround was added, they put it over the fake-tiles, so now I have to fight with the bath surround to get the old walls out.
We had the phone, cable tv and internet hooked up today at the new place, but the cable guy said that there were problems with the connection box on the street, so it may not work properly until they return to replace it later this week.
So I'll try post more updates tonight, unless the internet is down.

A House Story (the blog)

I started a new blog for anyone who might be interested in our house renovations. I'm sure most of you would be bored silly by a blog about me making a mess of renovating, but if you want to check it out, the web site address is ahousestory.blogspot.com
There will be a permanent link to this new blog from the list of blogs on the right of this page.

Cleaning Day

We went to the house at 9:00am this morning and found it vacant and clear except for a few items of furniture, which will probably remain unclaimed. We checked the house over and figured out which switches control which lights and how to work the ceiling fan in the kitchen! Gabriel sat in his basket for most of the morning with a few trips into the back garden to keep him entertained. Gabe loves the open air and was fascinated with the birds, squirrels and flies he saw, along with all the sounds.
After 3 and a half hours of sweeping, mopping and vacuuming (including vacuuming the cobweb-covered walls and dog-hair-covered end-tables that were left behind), whilst entertaining Gabe in shifts, we took a lunch break.

After lunch we finished cleaning and spent some time brainstorming the bathroom design. We're rushing the bathroom as it's barely usable in its current state. If we can finish it before Thursday (the official date for vacating our old apartment) that would be ideal. We spent some time in Home Depot with a very helpful guide and priced up the whole bathroom. It seems that a corner tub is out of the question, due to the smaller size of our bathroom and an all-in-one bath/shower is also out, due to the $900 price tag.
I'll take some photos of the bathroom tomorrow, but for today, here's a peek at our house from back in the winter, when we took our first look around.

More Shots

I just took Gabe in for his 6 month shots and check up. He now weighs 17lb 11oz so he has doubled his birth weight at long last! He measures 27inches long again so that's clearly not a very precise measurement! He's definitely gotten longer in the last month because his sleep suits are too short for him now.
The heat here is ridiculous we've been up to 31C this week, so getting into the car was like stepping into the microwave. We're surrounded by boxes in the apartment because our time in the apartment is drawing to an end, we got the house keys on Friday. For those of you who may be interested we'll be keeping the same phone number so you can still contact us. It's still weird thinking we actually own a house!
We started cleaning today and it felt really good because the place had a layer of dirt and pet hair everywhere so the transformation was very satisfying. Now that the place is empty we can see that a fair bit more work needs to be done than we first realised. Ryan will have enough projects to keep him occupied for a couple of years. We're so happy to have a backyard to enjoy the summer in, Gabriel loved it out there so every chance we got we stood out back with him and he just loved it. There was a gentle shower and he was fascinated by the sound of the rain tinkling on the porch roof (I'm not sure what it's called but it's a canopy attached to the house). It was a great moment watching him enjoy seeing the wildlife and new surroundings and we were treated to some very cute babbling.
Here's a couple of pictures of Gabe in the new house:

Closing Day (an update)

It's 10:05pm and I just got back from a brief visit to our still-occupied home. It looks like they underestimated the time it would take to move all the furniture, as it's still not empty and there was no-one around to offer to help, so once again I left slightly dejected.
So much for moving in on May 25!
To be continued...

Closing Day

Today is Closing Day.
At 3:00pm, the lawyer's office calls and we're told "Congratulations, you are now officially proud house-owners. Your keys are here and waiting for you to collect them."
Our first house. It's so exciting. So much waiting, but now we can move in and start our new adventure.
I go for the keys and then we buy a vacuum cleaner to celebrate.
We drive to our new address and prepare for our happy entrance with fanfares and beaming smiles.
As we approach the door, we see a cat sat in the window. Then a dog barks somewhere inside the house. Confused, we peek through the window and see a house still full of furniture... someone else's furniture! We knock on the door...OUR door and there's no answer. We leave angry.
Closing Day...ruined.
So we go back to our apartment, make some phonecalls, get more angry, decide to go back to the house. This time someone answers.
They're really nice, very apologetic and promise to be out by 10pm tonight. We leave less angry, and only slightly disappointed.
We'll see what happens.

25 years ago...

So for the debate of who Gabriel looks like, I found some evidence for looking like his daddy. These pictures are of myself between 6 and 12(?) months old with my older sister Claire. Well ok, it's not conclusive evidence, but I definitely see some resemblances to Gabe in the first picture. I'll try dig up some photos of Tasha at about 6 months and then you can check out the evidence for him being a mummy-clone! If he does look like me, I'll be very proud, but I'll give him plenty of sympathy too!

(Thanks for the photos, Claire...xxx)

Pearly Whites

We've had an interesting week this week with lots of little stories to tell and a couple of bigger ones too. Today was probably the highlight so I'll fill you in on the fun bits. Gabe and I started off the day in our usual way with some nice early cartoons and then we dropped daddy off at work so that we could have the car. We went grocery shopping and Gabriel was a star he sat up in one of those kiddy seats rather than lying reclined in a baby shopping cart - never done that before. He really loved being able to see what I was putting in the trolley and testing the packages with his teeth! He spent a large portion of the time talking to him self, he just started saying bahbahbah yesterday so he was still experimenting with that sound today. He charmed several shop workers and old ladies with his smile - nothing new there!

We returned to the apartment to find the emergency lighting on because the electricity had gone out. Auntie Jenn came round and explained that the transformer at the back of the building had blown and a new one needed to be put in - this involved cranes and lots of London Hydro guys. When the emergency lighting went out our side of the building was so dark Jenn could barely find us and some lady who lives on the second floor tried opening our door with her key cause she thought she was at her door! We had plenty of light inside the apartment because we have four huge windows on the sunny side of the building. Gabriel had a lovely long afternoon playing with auntie Jenn and I, he just sucked up all the attention and silly songs! He learnt to drink from his sippy cup (after we removed the spill proof thingy) he also showered himself with it for fun! We found two more teeth in his mouth that were poking through at the top! He'll have quite a bite on him soon so we'll probably start weaning him in the coming weeks. We were starting to wonder if the power would be back on in time for his bath at 6.30, then low and behold 6.29 everything started beeping and blinking again.

I just had a lovely afternoon with a good friend my little man and no electricity!

This one fits me mum!

You just fold this bit in like this and get the tape....

May 13, 2007

Today is a significant day for a few reasons. Gabriel turned 7 months old today and it was Tasha's first Mother's Day as a mother. Last year, she was pregnant on Mother's Day, so she was given a flower at church, but today was quite special and we all had a great day.
Today also marks exactly 2 years since I arrived to work in Canada, although Tasha followed later in June. It's hard to believe it's been that long and yet a lot has happened. We're about to change to our fourth address since arriving (and hopefully the last address for a few years), I'm almost a full year into my second job since moving to Canada and then throwing in Tasha's pregnancy, Gabriel's birth, my sister Helen's wedding and a whole bunch of other changes, this really has been a busy two-years.
This week, we have also celebrated 7 years since Tasha and I started dating. To celebrate these milestones, we took a brief visit over to the States and stayed in a hotel overnight. It also gave us an opportunity to pick up some things that Dad had left behind in Michigan when he moved home to England. The journey was fun, and largely uneventful, but considering the amount of driving we did (6 hours each way, including stops), Gabriel was well-behaved. Here's a couple of photos from the weekend.

125 Years of Salvation Army in Canada

They needed two authentic Londoners to play the roles of Addie and Ludgate; the two Englishmen who introduced The Salvation Army to Canada in 1882; and the best they could find was a northerner and a Newfie!

See you at the Oscars!

Gabe take's after his daddy

Well more and more people have commented that Gabriel looks like me but I'm afraid his personality is much more like his dad's than mine. He's been expressing his feelings a bit more clearly lately so his mini personality has become evident. While shopping he moans / cries / squirms like he's trying to find something more interesting to do...I take him into the electronics section and suddenly he's happy. He likes to make loud rambunctious noises - usually in response to his dad's loud ramblings and squeals. I kid you not, after a day at work Ryan comes home and they're both so excited to see each other there is much arm waving, feet wiggling and squealing involved! Gabriel has an opinion about pretty much everything we do and he's usually very smiley and sociable with people - remind you of anyone?
I'm afraid I am out of comparisons but I'm sure there are many more that I just can't think of right now. I'm just going to post some cute pics and you should check out my mate Jenn's blog (the link is at the side of our page) cause she has some sweet pictures of us on there right now.

Jenn sporting the heavily pregnant stance!

Is that a camera I see?

I'll just start turning and crack a huge smile

Oh no, I see something far more interesting...what was I doing again?

Look very carefully and you might see someone eating his tasty toes