Cute pregnant lady

I've gotten complaints from some of our fans that I've only been posting reno pix and have been neglecting to put up cute pictures of Rachel or Jeanette. Well here you go!! 

More McKenzie King Estate

Rachel. Cute picture. 

Rachel at the McKenzie King estate

We took advantage of the glorious morning we had today to visit the Gatineaus and see some early Fall colours. Rachel had fun crunching through the leaves. 

Basement reno - day 15

This shot shows the doorways for the furnace room and the office -- the latter which will feature double french doors.
You can also see one of the windows. Unfortunately, these are still the old ones for now. The new ones were delayed by a week, so they'll have to wait until after drywall. 

Basement reno - day 15

This is the frame for the multimedia unit we built under the stairs. This allows us to use the space for something productive, while also keeping the corner open. 

Basement renovation - Day 15

Everything's ready for drywalling, which starts on Monday. In this angle looking toward the meeting/ TV room, you can see the new stair railing, as well as the insulated walls with vapour barrier, and the ceiling strapping. 

Busy day in the basement with new stairs, washer / dryer, vents for the dryer and bathroom, and completed electrical wiring. The boys also finished putting up tar paper between the sealed walls and the studs.

The new washer and dryer installed in the laundry room. I tried them. They work!

Basement Renovation - Day 11

Here are the shiny new stairs. Today, when the boys finally took the old ones out, one side actually crumbled due to the carpenter ant damage...

Basement Renovation - Day 9

The stringers for the new stairs are in the foreground, with the decrepit old stairs in the background. 

Basement renovation - Day 8 - Sept 21

Framing of the main rooms is mostly done. This shot is looking from the stairs toward the office. You can also see the doorway for the laundry / furnace room on the left. 

Porch painting

Meanwhile, painting continues on the porch. Here you see the ceiling stain, siding, and overall primer are finished. I'm particularly pleased that the siding colour matches the stucco so well (phew!). 

Basement Renovation - Day 7 - Sept 19

After a couple of days of finicky leveling and adjusting, the sub-floor was finished today, and more walls started going up -- with more plumbing in the wall that divides the bathroom from the laundry room.
This shot is looking toward the bathroom. You can see the plumber still working, and the base for the shower. 

Basement Renovation - Day 5

A close-up of the flooring. In the foreground, you can see where the leveling compund meets the existing concrete floor. You can also see the dimpled, rubberized material that serves as a vapour barrier, but also allows any seeping water to dissipate under the floors. The next layer is the particle board sub-floor, and over that, we'll have our laminate floors.

Basement Renovation - Day 5 - Sept 15

Today they applied the leveling compund (the grey puddle in the foreground) to level out the dip where the old floor drain had been, and they began framing the office. 

Final Porch - unpainted and paint mock-up

Our painter arrives on Monday to begin applying some colour to our porch. Here's an image of the porch as it looks today (above), and my mock-up of where the colours go (below). 

Basement Renovation - Day 3 - Sept 13

The concrete was poured today, and they started to install the sub-floor. 

Basement Renovation - Day 2 - Sept 12

This is the pile of rubble and rusted out pipes after the guys cleared the basement. In several places, the pipes were either rusted through already, or fell apart as they were removed. We were glad we decided to replace as much plumbing as possible. 

Basement Renovation - Day 2 - Sept 12

All of the sub-floor plumbing for the bathroom etc. was finished today, so we won't see the plumbers again for a couple of weeks. It makes for quite a complicated system as shown here.The walls were also sealed with a moisture-preventing compund today.  

Basement Renovation - Day 1 - Sept. 11

Today the contractors arrived to begin our second big reno of the year: the basement. Day 1 involved tearing up the concrete floor with a jackhammer to make way for the plumbing for shower / toilet / sink / washtub / laundry machine.
That's our new furnace behind the plastic.