tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-106695642012-02-16T12:15:39.552-08:00One old neglected bungalow, two kids, and us. Our quest to bring new life to this old house.Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.comBlogger3191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-82924091080149629452012-01-16T19:58:00.001-08:002012-01-16T20:19:32.581-08:00

Well its been about 6 months since our last post. We've been working on the kitchen since May, pulled out all the plaster (it wasn't salvageable). Replaced the windows and doors, refinished the floors, and many other thing we'll leave for another post. We're building the faceframes and doors using salvaged wood from other parts of the house, 80 year old douglas fir. The boxes are made with good

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0Vancouver, Vancouver49.261227 -123.11393tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-28714486250191305752011-05-16T11:36:00.000-07:002011-05-16T11:36:11.238-07:00

I've been working on the other 2 drawers, it's a really slow process. The 2 middle drawers are both 5". The bottom drawer is 7.5". I should have done 5.25" and 7", would have been a lot easier, since I have to glue up boards for the bottom drawer. I drilled the holes for the hardware, it isn't screwed on yet, I still have to varnish the fronts. The  centre slides have been giving me a little bit

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-58025292515853691562011-04-30T21:20:00.000-07:002011-04-30T21:20:12.842-07:00

  Finally got the top drawer done and installed. I had to router out the slot for the bottom. I used a piece of 1/4" pine plywood left over from another project. Since I used a centre slide I had to double up part of the bottom, so the screws didn't go right through. It took me a while to figure out how the slides work. They come apart in to 3 pieces, so they're adjustable in depth, and you can

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-70550468037595872132011-04-24T20:13:00.000-07:002011-04-24T20:13:02.765-07:00

 Half-blind dovetails that is. These are the first ones I've attempted, besides the few practice ones I did. I'm pretty happy for a first attempt. It sure is time consuming doing them by hand, I don't know how many hours it took me to just do one drawer. This one is for the basement, 3 more to go for these cabinets. The most difficult part I had was marking the lines, if you make more than one

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-21796784360349284672011-04-17T20:36:00.000-07:002011-04-17T20:37:02.069-07:00

Here is the rain barrel we got a few weeks ago. I added the overflow pipe today. Bought the wrong pipe the first time, so back to the store. The 1" pipe said 1" 25mm and I read it as 1.25". It doesn't have much water in it considering all the rain we've been having, time to check the gutters, there much be something clogging them somewhere. We don't have big trees, so I usually only clean

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-58051881368164662382011-04-10T19:37:00.001-07:002011-04-10T19:37:55.881-07:00

I built the side panels for the cabinet today. Now for the counters and drawers. I want to practice my dovetails more before starting on the drawers. The counters are going to be concrete, 2" thick black. I need to make the mould first, we did a small counter in the bathroom, so this will be the 2nd one. We're not going to under-mount the sink, so that should make it a little easier. We have to

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-29427665676841583432011-03-06T21:55:00.000-08:002011-03-06T22:15:49.443-08:00

Plumbing isn't really my thing. Having to sweat copper pipes in a confined space, surrounded by flamable materials makes me nervous. I used a doubled up piece of galvanized metal, and I still burnt the wall and cabinet a bit. I had a leak on the first attempt as well, I think the pipe was a little out of round, so I cut a bit more pipe off, and then it worked the second time. Well after getting

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-64434971620391873172011-02-06T18:50:00.000-08:002011-02-06T20:53:23.899-08:00

I cut up an old 2x6 that I had to make some panels for the cupboard doors. They're almost 1/2", I'm going to plane them down to 1/4". There's are quite a few nail holes in them, we're going for a rustic look in the basement. One board split, so I had to glue it back together. I need to joint the boards as well, I'm going to set up the router table to do this, since I don't have the space or

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-24070729518799529832011-01-22T19:35:00.000-08:002011-01-22T20:25:06.801-08:00

I set up a couple jigs to do the mortise and tenons for the doors. This one is for the mortising. It holds the work piece, and has stops, so you adjust the length of the mortise. It look me a while to build, and while to setup. It was difficult to get them centred, I used my electronic calipers, to help dial it in. It needs to be centred, because I have a stop to position the piece, so each

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-55721347670185040262011-01-03T20:18:00.000-08:002011-01-03T20:52:25.747-08:00

Here's the new mobile base I got for my tablesaw, I got tired of dragging it around the shop. With a small shop, I have to shuffle the tools around.I made a new crosscut sled for the tablesaw as well. My old one wasn't very accurate, so I just made a new one from scratch. Here's the corner cabinet, which I built first, after building and levelling the base. There are lots of pipes to work around.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-17654496374879633872010-11-27T21:55:00.000-08:002010-11-27T22:25:30.942-08:00

I've had the top for this router table for almost a year, so I finally started building a base for it. Here I am, finishing off the drawer. I'm going to add another drawer, but one should do for now. Here's the router table with the Lee Valley top and fence. I build it out of scrap I had lying around. The melamine and pine are taken out of our bedroom when we demoed it. The case for the router

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-17071041778511714482010-09-11T21:18:00.000-07:002010-09-11T21:32:11.147-07:00

Stripping the side of the house with a heat gun, was taking forever. So we got a Silent Paint Remover. It's still taking forever, I guess it's faster though. I don't know what kind of paint we have, it doesn't come off like in the videos though. Instead of coming off in sheets, it comes off in tiny flakes. It must be because there's no latex paint binding it together. I had a few shingles that

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-2307969401255089142010-08-29T20:50:00.000-07:002010-08-29T21:11:31.744-07:00

I've been busy at work on the side of the house, all the stucco is now removed, so now only the east side has stucco. I haven't been blogging much about the progress, since we've blogged about the stucco removal a number of times. Today I ripped out all the shingles that had holes, from when they insulated the house. There was another one that was rotten, the only rotten shingle I've found so

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-92025199821574765582010-08-06T10:12:00.001-07:002010-08-06T11:58:42.462-07:00

Here we are in front of the infamous Petch House. We stumbled upon it driving around Eureka. Greg wasn't home so we left him a note. His house looks great, and I was impressed with the all the nice houses in the neighbourhood.This was an example of one of them.This is the Carson Mansion, it has to be the gaudiest victorian I've ever seen (I mean that in a good way). The amount of detail is truly

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-35192236782813295232010-06-28T11:27:00.001-07:002010-06-28T23:21:04.376-07:00

I've been working on the side of the house for about 16 hours total. It's pretty thick in places, and not really easy to remove. My arms are sore from working on it yesterday. You can see a yellow bucket over the electric meter, since it's glass, it needs protection. will need more protection, when we're further up. The electric wires complicate things too on this side. I'm thinking we need

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-62365248108618531102010-05-04T22:25:00.000-07:002010-05-04T22:33:27.814-07:00

Yeah, he could be a little cranky...and he ate too much grass, sometimes...and he left a permanent mark in my fresh concrete...This was one of his favourite places to lounge...trying to make an escape...We miss our construction cat. He died while we were eating dinner, it looked like he was having a stroke. He was 14, and I'm glad he didn't suffer. He will be missed by all.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-20759844271522409572010-04-04T20:34:00.000-07:002010-04-04T20:56:39.664-07:00

We hung the wallpaper in the bedroom on Friday night. We've had the paper for a while, we got it though Graham and Brown. It's the kind of wallpaper without the glue, so we had to glue the back, and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. It's really difficult to cut when it's wet, that seemed to be the most difficult thing. I had problems with the first corner too, where you're trying to fold it both

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-16797931753287627992010-03-28T16:33:00.000-07:002010-03-28T17:00:42.662-07:00

Here's what some of the bad parts looked like after sanding. I sanded the floor with an edger, using 60 and 80 grit paper. It didn't seem to take much off, so I used the belt sander with 50, 80 and 100 grit. It took off a lot more, but I gouged the floor a little when I wasn't being careful. Next time I'm going to look in to different floor sanders. The room is only 12' long, so a drum sander

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-11472855344927187112010-03-14T17:02:00.001-07:002010-03-14T17:16:07.885-07:00

We've slowed down a lot since I've gone back to work. We did get some paint on the walls. We had the paint matched to 2 colours on the wallpaper. I wasn't sure if I liked the blue coloured ceiling at first, it just seemed too saturated and artificial. It's starting to grow on me now though. We're going to be building a built-in for the closet, drawers on the bottom, and hung clothes on the top.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-81346543822587006252010-02-26T12:16:00.000-08:002010-02-26T12:55:56.938-08:00

This room had a bad reno done by the previous owner. He ripped out the old plaster, and replaced it with a horrible drywall job, and sub-standard electrical work. The drywall on the ceiling was hung the wrong way, and some of the joints were hanging between joists. He ripped out the closet on the dining room side to make one large closet. He filled in the floor with some door trim, and a hockey

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-36128299527323496302010-01-10T21:23:00.001-08:002010-01-11T09:25:36.033-08:00

Here's how the dining room looked on Christmas eve, just before we moved the furniture back in. We pretty happy with how the floor turned out. I did most of it with an edger, and then a belt sander. Since the room is so small, it didn't make sense to use a full sized sander. The edger is a little tricky to use, and I wasn't too happy with how the floor wasn't sanding flat, so I switched to my

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-35473474340358868612009-11-16T15:08:00.000-08:002009-11-16T15:21:55.481-08:00

I didn't take any in progress pics of this. This room is all plaster, so we had to take extra precautions before making holes for some ceiling speakers. I made a backing out of quarter inch plywood to fit in the joist bay, and attached a 2x4 on each end of the plywood. I attached this in the attic to the joists. Of course, I put one of them in the wrong place, even though I'd already drilled a

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-72041516377898462982009-11-08T18:38:00.000-08:002009-11-08T19:22:58.831-08:00

It seems like we've been working on this room forever. We put new french doors in, during the summer. I drywalled the one wall with the doors, after shimming it to make it plumb. It was an inch out of plumb. There was a large patch on the wall shared with the bathroom, I think someone did that ripping out the medicine cabinet. Too bad, now I have to build my own cabinet to replace it. The plaster

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-45307988858636120992009-07-12T21:22:00.000-07:002009-07-12T21:48:15.784-07:00

Here we are this morning, with the old aluminum window taken out. Someone took out the centre of the frame to put in the aluminum one. So the first thing I had to do was remake some of the pieces. You can't see it in the picture, but it was really windy this morning. The door kept slamming... Here's the frame primed with the new pieces I added back in. The sill is 9 degrees, so I had to match the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-46554348326079239172009-07-05T22:38:00.000-07:002009-07-05T23:30:06.376-07:00

Here's the wall before. We've been planning doors since we built the deck. Took a while to order them, and then they sat in the yard for a couple weeks waiting to be installed. Inside with the plaster and lathe removed, as well as the cellulose insulation. The insulation was messy and hard to clean up. I didn't want to remove all the plaster, but there wouldn't have been much left on this wall

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-65383862887568845582009-06-22T10:47:00.000-07:002009-06-22T11:01:20.467-07:00

We've got some new replacement sashes, to replace the aluminum windows that someone put in. So, on Saturday, I took out the aluminum window, and prepped the frame for the new sashes. I already stripped the trim on the outside, and the sill. I had a little bit of trouble getting the jamb liners in. I was using roofing nails to attach the clips at first, then switched to screws. The problem came

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-48221061841437562562009-05-24T17:24:00.000-07:002009-05-24T17:52:21.077-07:00

82 years is how old the pipe was, and 4 stores was how many places I went to get the parts. They're replacing our water main, and one of the city crew told us he wasn't sure how our vintage galvanized supply pipe was going to fare. Here's the valve at the property line, after I cut the pipe, and removed the piece. There was a step in the pipe, I removed that with the new one, and just sloped it

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-50376910684867171022009-05-03T16:54:00.000-07:002009-05-04T23:43:38.071-07:00

I've been working 70 hour weeks, so I haven't been doing much on the house. It was a nice day so I sanded these down, and gave them a coat of Sikkens Cetol. I'll probably give them another coat, not today though. They look good for $50 chairs. I think they're a mixture of pine and some thing tropical. Looks like Phillipines mahogany maybe on the arms. They had some mold and mildew on them from

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-69073109989926335412009-04-15T18:27:00.000-07:002009-04-15T18:46:06.836-07:00

I put the existing baseboards back on, on the weekend. We took them off to strip them and varnish them. The fit isn't perfect I noticed, I guess it's from the house settling, I'm sure the fit was tighter when the house was built. I didn't think of fixing it until it was nailed back on. I guess I'll live with it. I started on the trim around the door today. I need to buy wood for the header,

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-15599475844816328272009-03-29T16:26:00.000-07:002009-03-29T17:10:22.464-07:00

I finished painting the living room yesterday. We used the Benjamin Moore Ecospec paint, a cheaper low voc paint. It's a custom colour that will match the wallpaper that's going on one wall. The wallpaper is from Graham and Brown and it's called Sophia-Pebble. We should probably order it now, before it's discontinued. We still have to pull the ceiling down and do the box beam ceiling before we

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-4091476202956274262009-03-21T22:21:00.000-07:002009-03-21T23:06:22.849-07:00

We haven't been posting lately, we haven't been idle though, either. We've been removing the low plywood doorways that a previous owner added, the 1/4" plywood off of one wall, and 80 years of wallpaper.We knew the ceiling was dropped in the living room, we didn't know it was plywood though. It's going to be harder to remove when the time comes. It seems to be these weird plywood boxes, that

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-46434589599284838252009-01-29T20:59:00.000-08:002009-01-29T22:30:19.700-08:00

Here's a picture of the floor after scraping, and with the primer on it. I scraped all the old paint off with a carbide scraper. Most of it was already loose and peeling. I didn't get all of it off, and they say to get it all off. We'll see if it makes a difference. After scraping, I used the degreaser, it was really hard to rince off. They say for best results, to wash it off with a pressure

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-83262451731009342252009-01-15T21:10:00.001-08:002009-01-15T21:30:06.621-08:00

We just put it up last night, it's from Rejuvenation. It's a Timberline pendant. Deb helped me put it up, I didn't want to drop it. The escutcheon doesn't quite touch the ceiling, I guess the box is sticking out a little too far (only about 1/8"). We got a good deal on it, because they had a sale on them with the energy efficient bulbs. We planned on using them anyways, so it wasn't a big deal.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-19736403223275154582009-01-04T19:34:00.000-08:002009-01-29T21:41:48.220-08:00

This was the first woodwork project that I completed last year. This made the other 2 projects a lot easier to do. As well as all the other woodworking projects we have planned. I wanted to add an end vice, I haven't done that yet though.This was the second project of the year, an armoire for Ella's room. It's all made out of pine, we didn't want to spend too much on wood. I was still a lot more

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-110095738416144752009-01-03T17:53:00.000-08:002009-01-03T18:18:05.145-08:00

Here's the stairwell to the shop. I finished drywalling it, and it's got a coat of paint on it now. The top is plaster that isn't in very good condition. I'm going to have to use plaster washers to resecure it. I'm going to trim it out with rough cedar, to give it kind of a rough look.I've been drywalling the shop, and moved the bench I use for power tools. The table top is cut to fit in this

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-86672227480025099612009-01-02T11:43:00.000-08:002009-01-02T12:03:15.525-08:00

Here's the house with the stone work on the front, and most of it's stucco. This was about 2 years ago when we started removing the stucco.Here's a similar angle now, well in the summer, there's over 30cm of snow on the ground now. This year we're going the tackle the sides, the back is already done. We need to rent scaffolding to do the top, I think I'll start the bottom with just the ladder

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-9083297528720082182008-12-23T15:10:00.000-08:002008-12-23T15:28:02.154-08:00

Some pictures of the snow in our backyard, we had over 40cm (16") of snow already, and there's another 20cm (8") in the forecast. It's been record breaking cold too, it was -15 celcius the other day (7 fahrenheit). Good thing I have the week off, I spent half the day shovelling yesterday. I was walking to work in the snow before my time off started, since I'm not comfortable riding my bike in

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-44009962866522969912008-12-08T21:17:00.000-08:002008-12-08T21:59:21.606-08:00

It's been about a month since I finished the table, it was a birthday gift for my mum. I made it all out of western red cedar 2x6's. I ripped the curved part of the 2x6's off. Of course I had to buy a new tool to make the table. I got a DeWalt biscuit joiner, to make all the panels. This is a shot of one of the sides, without the top and bottom piece. The tenons were huge on these, I probably

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-63886384024479382072008-10-30T21:39:00.000-07:002008-10-30T21:58:24.085-07:00

Well, it's too late for this year... but it'll be ready for next year. All of the major pieces are ready to assemble. I measured the doors in the basement, and it looks like I'll be putting it together outside. So I'm just going to wait until the spring. Then I can put it together, sand and stain it outside. I don't want to do it now, because it'll be sitting outside all winter, which will make

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-42202181048909639952008-10-28T20:56:00.000-07:002008-10-28T21:38:15.242-07:00

We finished painting for the year, a couple weeks ago. Here's a picture of the back of the house. There's still part under the deck that we haven't painted, will have to wait until next year. I wanted to do 2 more coats of varnish on the beams as well, just ran out of summer. I painted too late in the day, and when we came down the stairs the next day the wall was dripping with paint. I had to

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-79514789779631042082008-10-12T22:24:00.000-07:002008-10-12T22:47:54.901-07:00

I put up the new mailbox today. Our neighbour gave it to us, they didn't want it. We think it's from Restoration Hardware. It's been collecting dust for over 2 years in the basement. It's a pretty big mailbox, maybe designed for monster houses that get lots of mail order catalogues. I painted the front of the house around the door yesterday, it needs more work but we're running out of weather to

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-43085790246032042262008-09-22T12:14:00.001-07:002008-09-22T12:27:16.682-07:00

The weather cleared up long enough to get a couple coats of paint on the bottom of the house. Deb did this while I was at work. You can see how much work the side is going to be, not looking forward to having to work around the electrical. I'd like to strip the fascia board right to the wood, it's all douglas fir. The end is a little broken, from when a dump truck hit it, so I have to repair that

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-36364135169777761522008-09-14T23:48:00.000-07:002008-09-15T11:50:09.760-07:00

I was getting tired of posting pictures of the white primed front of the house. Even though I was doing a lot to the front, it didn't look that different in the pictures. Most of the front shingles are repaired, except around the front door. A few rows that I repaired didn't quite line up, because there used to be a wooden porch where the shingles wrapped around, and I guess they changes by about

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-83936393233115809742008-09-06T20:35:00.000-07:002008-09-06T20:53:56.819-07:00

we've watched this house on 12th avenue transform from an ugly duckling into the beautiful swan over the last couple of years. last week a for sale sign went up with probably the top seller in vancouver- robin d vrba. check it out here... remember as soon as it's sold it'll be gone so it won't be a viable link for very long!described as: Looking for spectacular? Look no further. Lovingly

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-3725120428313454262008-09-04T21:09:00.000-07:002008-09-04T21:30:38.692-07:00

We've been working at the front of the house, trying to get it ready for paint. We have maybe another month to get the paint on before it's too wet and cold. Hopefully it'll be before that. I've scraped most of the loose paint off the, and primed the bare shingles. There's still some repairs where there used to be railings for the porch, and where the insulation was blown in, hopefully I'll get

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-81171022851966281362008-08-16T22:07:00.000-07:002008-08-16T22:23:06.682-07:00

I replaced the siding on the right side of the front today. I drove out to Sunbury Cedar this morning, to get the cedar. It took pretty much the rest of the day to prep and put on the siding. I used wood preservative, and back primed it. I made a little story pole when we did the other side, so I reused it, the spacing seems pretty good. It was scorching hot today, so that's why there's an

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-25153239424169210422008-08-02T20:03:00.000-07:002008-08-02T20:19:38.055-07:00

Well it's kind of the opposite actually, I don't know who in their right mind would stucco a ceiling. I thought it would be easier to remove, I thought with gravity, it would just fall down. I guess they used extra nails or something, it took me a whole day to remove this ceiling section.Here`s a picture with most of it off, I did eventually get it off. It rained when I was taking it off, so it

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-88372110511339782008-07-29T21:08:00.000-07:002008-07-29T21:20:38.813-07:00

Well after 4 days work, the stucco is off 95% of the front of the house. I didn't have enough energy to finish it yesterday. Today the weather turned, so I didn't get to do any work outside, it was the first significant rain in over 4 weeks. Yesterday was a really hard day, and my muscles are still aching, some parts were more difficult than others, taking stucco off from a ladder isn't fun.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-7523385929149841812008-07-26T20:35:00.000-07:002008-07-26T21:11:35.981-07:00

This is the first destuccoing I've done with the ladder, it more difficult and time consuming. We're planning to get scaffolding for the sides, when we do them next year. If you look closely you can see 3 parts where the shingles are patched, it looks like there used to be corbels there to hold up a planter under the window. We'd like to add that again, although, we'd be careful to make it so it

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-48307467246145303952008-07-20T21:43:00.000-07:002008-07-20T22:06:10.831-07:00

I got some plywood last night to repair the sheathing on the front of the house. The sheathing was repaired before, I'd say maybe 10 to 15 years ago, only they redid the stone the same way, which just let the water in to the wall again. I was going to replace the whole front, but decided later to just replace what was rotten. I can use the other sheet to redo the back porch. So after removing the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-66256549575317880942008-07-19T21:36:00.000-07:002008-07-19T21:53:39.485-07:00

We started taking the stone off the front of the house today. This side has been redone before, some of the studs and the sheathing was replaced. They did a better job than the other side, which still have cedar siding underneath. This took less than 10 minutes to take off, just using my brick hammer, my masonry chisel, and my prybar. Water has been leaking behind the stone, there's no flashing

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-34617492864960701622008-07-14T09:31:00.000-07:002008-07-14T09:56:48.765-07:00

We spent quite a bit of time staining on the weekend. We re-stained the floor and stairs of the deck on Thursday night. It took a long time to dry, I'd say it's just finished drying today. I guess it's because it's a second coat, so it doesn't soak in. We're using Sikkens Cetol SRD, and it's a one coat system, I'd use the Cetol 123 on the handrail if I did it again, it just looks so much better

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-19210537042382684702008-07-08T20:44:00.000-07:002008-07-09T09:23:40.785-07:00

I realized a while back that we'd never posted pictures of the deck once it was completed. Well it's not quite done, but it's more done than it was last summer.Here's a picture with the new arbour that I built a couple weeks back.You can see the fir posts that we're varnishing in these shots. We're still sanding the beams, they were rough sawn, and the posts were s4s, so they were easier to sand.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-89882995401995095212008-07-07T11:50:00.000-07:002008-07-07T12:04:30.722-07:00

I got back to removing the stucco on the back of the house on Saturday. It was raining pretty much all day, so I worked on the section at the back porch. It's probably only a 5'x7' section of wall, but it took me about 6 hours, including pulling all the nails and cleaning up. I got a bigger more sturdy pry bar, made by Fat Max, it's 24" but it's really beefy, and it doesn't dent the siding if

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-18531660577751120042008-07-03T11:34:00.000-07:002008-07-03T11:58:10.916-07:00

I had a five day long weekend, so we got a lot of little things done on the fence and the deck. I built a jig to put the post caps on with dowels. The post cap fits on one side of the jig, and the post on the other, so the holes line up perfectly. We'll see how well the dowels hold on the caps, I wasn't too impressed with how nails hold them on. I used waterproof glue, so we'll see how it holds

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-14209561532427997602008-06-22T20:43:00.000-07:002008-06-23T10:45:54.178-07:00

Here's the fence so far, I finished putting on the rest of the stats during the week, it only took a couple hours. I kept the template for the curve from the back fence, it's just an old piece of OSB plywood, with a 10' radius cut in it. It worked well on the longer spans, it doesn't quite look right on the shorter spans though.Here I am putting on the gate. I tried putting it on earlier, only it

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-38044908549052782442008-06-16T20:47:00.000-07:002008-06-16T20:54:02.897-07:00

We got quite a bit done on the fence yesterday. All the cross pieces are on. I figured out all the spacing for the pickets, we're using 1x3's and 1x4's alternating. We're going to cut an arc in the pickets, once they're all on. Right now, the tops of the pickets don't line up.It was nice and sunny here yesterday, and the fence is on the south side, so we moved the umbrella to the front. There are

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-85810023643563201302008-06-14T20:46:00.000-07:002008-06-16T11:23:36.410-07:00

Well, I guess it's not exactly day one, since we did the footings last weekend and last week. We did the arbour first, it's going to be a wide gate, it's over 4' wide. I like the steel brackets so far, seems easier than setting the posts in concrete, and keeping them plumb. We'll see if they stay plumb over time. I put a shim under each post to raise it off the ground, so the post doesn't suck up

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-15727082438816949632008-06-11T11:33:00.000-07:002008-06-11T12:03:57.959-07:00

These are the new Muskoka (Adirondack for Americans) that we got about a month ago. I'm building an outdoor couch out of cedar, but we just didn't want to wait any longer to enjoy the deck. The chairs are made out of some kind of wood, I just know it isn't pine, or any other wood that's familiar to me. They're made in China, so the wood is either tropical, or from Russia. I've heard bad things

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-45428187516409008022008-05-16T14:15:00.000-07:002008-05-16T14:18:41.666-07:00

happy birthday, derek!(look at all the refinished woodwork and plaster in the hallway! woot!)

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-39173988729141587542008-05-04T20:34:00.001-07:002008-05-04T21:00:34.843-07:00

We're trying to finish the deck off for summer. Some stuff we can't do yet, like staining, since even though the weather was great today, it's not good enough for staining. I finished off the water table that I started last weekend. I had to take a few courses of siding off, and ended up replacing some of the sheathing too, since it was kind of rotten. When we get some siding to fix the front,

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-84385000262752086982008-04-28T10:54:00.000-07:002008-04-28T11:21:08.736-07:00

We continued work on the back of the house, specifically, under the deck. There was one corner that still needed the stucco removed. For some reason, it was more brittle, in didn't come off in sheets. I removed the old water table, the part at the bottom of the house that diverts water away from the foundation. Instead of flashing, the house originally had a piece of wood sticking out. That was

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-62310444588619848532008-04-16T18:26:00.001-07:002008-04-16T18:39:50.278-07:00

I put this up last night, Seth was really anxious for me to put it up, he was pouring over the instructions all afternoon. I think he would have tried to do it himself, if I didn't do it. I went to the new Home Depot by my work. It's a smaller one in a more urban landscape. They seem to hire the same level of staff though, I found what the metal loop lagbolts that I was looking for, after the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-48573413547736624372008-04-12T22:40:00.000-07:002008-04-12T22:58:33.675-07:00

when we moved into our house we inherited a 24" Frigidaire electric range. i think this was only the second time i had ever lived in a place that had such a small stove. i started looking online at various manufacturers and thought long and hard about which one i was going to save my pennies for. i found a really cool looking thermador range that was 46" wide with 2 ovens but when we went to

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-33832762154393463582008-04-07T19:51:00.000-07:002008-04-07T20:11:13.433-07:00

We removed some of the wood from the kitchen on the weekend. Most of the wall are covered with a homemade board-and-batten, made out of plywood. The wood was above the kitchen cabinets, and it always kind of bugged me that is was even there. It took maybe 10 minutes to get it off, and maybe 20 to clean it all up. It turns out, there used to be cabinets up there. Some of them look like they were

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-48740757992580973612008-03-24T15:42:00.000-07:002008-03-24T15:59:47.664-07:00

I haven't done a post in a while, we've been doing some work on the house though. I've been building a wall in the basement stairwell, to support that side of the living room, that is sagging. I removed the 4x4 post that was at the end of a 6x8 beam (there's a 6x6 post 3' away from it). I built a footing, and replaced the 4x4 with a 6x6. The footing sunk about an inch, when I was jacking up the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-20141293782069866092008-03-02T20:40:00.000-08:002008-03-02T21:28:55.749-08:00

Here's a picture from last weekend. We took out the window in the bathroom to inspect the frame of the window. We wanted to check the exact size of the opening, and see how square it is. It's a little more than 1/4" out of square, so sash replacements aren't going to work without fixing the squareness. You can see some of the shingles I removed below the window. The house was insulated and had

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-59865663754980705872008-03-02T08:55:00.001-08:002008-03-02T08:57:55.471-08:00

yesterday just by fluke, pretty much, we bought ourselves our first dog. he's a shiba inu and is only 3 months old. he will only get to be about 20lbs fully grown- perfect size for us and our house and yard. we haven't come up with a name yet.mr.tibbs is not happy.

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-45873629176167678312008-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:002008-02-26T13:40:10.540-08:00

On Sunday, I started pulling all the nails that were holding the mesh on for the stucco. We tore the stucco off last summer, while we were building a deck. The wall is cedar shingles, and it's in okay condition. At one point, cellulose insulation was blown in, so there's holes at every stud bay. I need to remove the shingles with the holes, so we're using a shingle ripper. It's kind of like what

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-63444309011637674692008-02-23T20:25:00.000-08:002008-02-23T20:54:21.714-08:00

Here's a photo of the floor broken up. There was a 4x4 column at the end of the beam that I took out. There's a jackpost helping to hold up the floor. It's just a precaution, there's another 6x6 column 3' down the beam, and another about 2' down the joist. The 4x4 post didn't have a footing, it was on a 2x6, and it was there for a long time, it was there before the floor was painted, so probably

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-66350382911936517822008-02-10T17:30:00.000-08:002008-02-10T17:56:56.494-08:00

I finished putting it back together upstairs last week. It took about 10 minutes to take apart, 10 minutes to bring upstairs, and 10 minutes to put it back together.I putted the shelves together upstairs. They're just rails screwed to the sides, the the rest is brad nailed together. Today I did the rod for the other side. It's an old rod that I cut down, it must have belonged to one of the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-77538194972471304172008-02-03T14:35:00.000-08:002008-02-03T14:56:31.199-08:00

Well it's time to disassemble it, and bring it upstairs. I just hope it goes back together again. I did 2 coats of stain, I need to do the inside of the doors, and finish doing the inside too. I guess it's technically an oil finish, not just a stain, it's called Watco Danish Oil. The colour is medium walnut, it's hard to tell from the photos what colour it is, especially with the fluorescent

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-67877008668035553762008-01-29T20:48:00.000-08:002008-01-29T21:16:02.598-08:00

I've got the armoire I'm making mostly put together, I've been working on it a lot the last 2 weeks. I've managed to remedy most of the mistakes I've made. A lot of the problems come from the fact that the plans call for non standard sized lumber, and I made mistakes trying to alter the plans. It would have been easier to buy bigger lumber and cut it down to size, it would have been a lot more

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-72207098368031158162008-01-14T14:06:00.000-08:002008-01-14T14:15:17.349-08:00

I'm building an armoire for my daughter, and I've come to the conclusion, that you can't build it as cheap as Ikea. I'm using the same crappy wood they use, it's knotty pine. And that doesn't include the labour of course, that's just the material cost. Here's an Ikea wardrobe. it's about a foot narrower, but the same depth and height, and it's cheaper than what I spent on materials. I just hope

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-82722039993073134202008-01-11T15:40:00.000-08:002008-01-11T15:52:08.559-08:00

Road work is just so much fun. Not only can we not park on our street and many of the side roads are closed, but now we've got no water. And of course, it only affects our house. Here's how I found out:Seth: "Mummy, there's no water! I can't wash my hands!"*ding-dooooonnnng*John, a roadworker: "Hi, you have no water for a few hours. While fixing the main water line, the workers broke the

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-24784641537423741652008-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:002008-01-11T09:20:39.684-08:00

I'm building an armoire for Ella from the Stickley furniture book I got for Christmas. I just finished the top, so we figure we'd try getting the top up the stairs, you know, to see it the thing would fit. No dice. The top is 50"x22.5. It looks like I'm going to have to make it like flat pack furniture, so it can be dismantled. I bought a Kreg pocket screw jig, so hopefully I can just put it

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-73827102391436373462008-01-06T22:16:00.001-08:002008-01-06T22:33:28.708-08:00

We started this project last January, and finally got around to finishing all the small details. It seems like the small details always prevent us from finishing any projects. We painted first, then finished stripping and sanding the trim, so we had to fix the plaster walls again, since sanding and stripping did some damage. I think we had green painters tape on the wall for a year. It ended up

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-16274941714766907842008-01-04T10:19:00.000-08:002008-01-04T11:06:23.911-08:00

I've had the top and the vice for over a year, so I decided to build my workbench. It's for using hand tools like chisels and planes, I have another bench to use power tools on. The top and vice are from Lee Valley, I made the base out of maple. I've never worked with maple before, it's a lot harder than fir. My tablesaw was having problems cutting it, and my drillpress was having problems

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-69574752268775219912008-01-03T10:53:00.000-08:002008-01-03T11:28:04.243-08:00

We bought a new toilet for the upstairs bathroom, so the old one was banished to the basement. It's a Kohler Serif, and it has the Spanish style top flush ( I call it Spanish style, because almost all the toilets in Spain seemed to be this type). We opted for the round front, since we don't have a lot of space in the bathroom. The toilet is physically smaller than the old one, so that's good in a

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-49612634803361037792007-12-28T12:36:00.000-08:002007-12-28T13:01:00.584-08:00

I found a good article on coffered ceilings, from Finehomebuilding. We want to add them to our living room. The ceiling was dropped a few inches in the 60's, so we'd have to remove the ceiling. I'm sure the plaster underneath would have to be removed as well. The ceilings are 8'-4" currently on other parts of the main floor. The dropped ceiling its 8'-1". We were thinking the coffered ceiling

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-77925885222458422242007-12-25T20:41:00.000-08:002007-12-25T20:47:35.698-08:00

here's wishing everyone a very merry christmas! we hope santa brought lots of toys, i mean tools! and as a bonus, this year for our gingerbread house, i made a simple model of our house!i can't wait to dive in!

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-16309573800852122182007-12-09T22:12:00.000-08:002007-12-10T09:55:26.556-08:00

This weekend, we moved the furnace duct for the living room. After almost 4 years of living under the entertainment unit, I decided it was time to move it. I made something to divert the air before, so it didn't all blow under the unit. We're planning on putting a piano on that wall, so we can't have a vent under the piano. I moved it as far to the side as I could, there's a beam underneath, so I

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-21057671629535726392007-12-03T10:29:00.000-08:002007-12-03T10:39:25.215-08:00

We hadn't used our fireplace yet this year, I was a little worried, because we've been using it for almost 4 years now, and it hasn't been cleaned. It's an old chimney, so it doesn't have a clay liner like the new ones. The sweep came by on a Saturday, with a shop-vac, and a brush on the end of a stiff cable, with a reel. He shone his trouble light up the flue, then scrubbed it out from the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-48058322173904879832007-11-25T11:27:00.000-08:002007-11-25T21:06:01.395-08:00

a few months ago there was a whole bunch of movie trailers in our neighbourhood, mostly around one of our favourite houses.this is the result:so neat!

Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09098532257506560012noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-73521156854028995012007-11-12T18:36:00.000-08:002007-11-12T18:49:01.716-08:00

I finished the tile and mounting the counter, as well as the painting, and the piece of trim below the window. I still have to seal the grout on the tile that I just finished, other than that and 2 pieces of quarter round it's done. I'm working on the basement powder room as well, I put the latch on the pocket door, sanded the door and put three coats of Waterlox on it. The door is some kind of

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-78189001179811039402007-11-07T10:33:00.000-08:002007-11-07T10:49:22.695-08:00

We've slowed down a bit since the frantic pace of the summer. We finished the tile in the bathroom downstairs, since the counter is now in. We finished grouting it on the weekend, Deb helped me with the grouting, not one of my favourite tasks. We still have to seal the grout, and do all the silicone, around the sink, and where the tile meets the counter and wall. I need to cut off some of the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-40000833076726709732007-10-15T10:49:00.000-07:002007-10-15T11:17:17.002-07:00

It's Blog Action Day, and we've decided to participate, along with a lot of other blogs over at Houseblogs. We've been doing lots of little things over the last few years, to reduce our energy consumption, and all the small things, seem to be adding up. Our last electricity bill said we used 50% less electricity than last year. We've replaces all our bulbs with compact fluorescents, we unplug our

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-44519755773232907002007-10-14T09:48:00.000-07:002007-10-14T10:06:26.193-07:00

I finished grinding the concrete countertop yesterday. The new grinder came last week, but I waited until I could do the countertop with natural light. It was a lot easier with the new grinder, even though the grinder looks like a toy. It's a lot cheaper than a professional one, and it should last through the next counter projects. You do have to be careful not to get it wet though, I wore rubber

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-31673655234930460432007-10-09T11:15:00.000-07:002007-10-09T11:27:12.168-07:00

The weather here on the weekend wasn't the greatest for us. I think we got over 2" of rain on Sunday, and a lot on Saturday as well. So we moved the work back inside. I hung the sheet rock for the powder room in the basement, and along a hallway leading to it. It seems like such a small bathroom, I think it's pretty average sized though. The drywall is taped, and we could have it painted by the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-49855141654331455142007-09-30T09:58:00.000-07:002007-09-30T10:08:51.878-07:00

The weather has turned seriously sour here. We still have stain and varnish work on the deck to do, and paint work to do on the house. We're supposed to get 65mm of rain just today (over 2"). We did manage a couple small things yesterday. We opened the box to the freezer we bought 2 months ago, and swapped places with the fridge in the basement. We still have the old big freezer in the garage.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-8803200476431461812007-09-20T09:49:00.000-07:002007-09-20T09:53:51.606-07:00

I sanded the cap for the railing on the deck last night. Deb and I are both working again, so we didn't get home until after 6. I sanded the railing while she was making dinner, didn't take too long. It wasn't supposed to rain today, so Deb stained the rail after dinner, well it's raining today. Not a surprise, we live in a rain forest, and get more rain than most places in Canada. I think it'll

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-77321208794396641272007-09-19T10:26:00.000-07:002007-09-19T17:00:57.789-07:00

So a year after making the form, and over a month since pouring it, I've started grinding the countertop for the basement bathroom. We're not exposing the aggregate (at least not on purpose), so the first part is all done by hand, starting with a 150 grit grinding pad, then 220, and then 400 grit. There are a few defects in the counter, I'm trying to embrace them, and say they give it character.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-67867210438021686092007-09-17T12:02:00.000-07:002007-09-17T12:17:12.329-07:00

These are the lights that we put on 3 posts this weekend. They're from Canadian Tire, part of their Moonrays collection. Installing them was pretty straight forward. I did have to do it differently than the instructions though. The connectors are really huge, and wouldn't fit through the half inch holes I drilled, so I had to cut the wires, and splice them together inside with butt connectors.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-41180637291590610992007-09-10T21:53:00.000-07:002007-09-14T09:07:05.456-07:00

Here's a shot of the railing stained. We treated the deck with bleach and TSP first, then gave it a sanding with 80 grit. It removes the mill glaze, and makes it take the stain more evenly. We used the Sikkens SRD formula Stain, which is only one coat. I think we did 4 coats on the fence, with the Cetol 123, so it was a lot easier than that. Still, it took 11 hours to sand it all down, and for

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-19602140751489589202007-09-06T20:05:00.000-07:002007-09-06T20:14:15.453-07:00

Well we had a busy weekend, and we got close to finishing the stairs to the deck. We had to pour the pad at the bottom of the stairs, which is done. It was tricky working around the stairs to finish the concrete, it turned out pretty good though, and it won't be very visible anyways. The last step is still huge, we need to get some pavers or flagstones to make a walkway at the bottom. All the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-75101143423254814822007-08-31T13:43:00.000-07:002007-08-31T13:54:07.544-07:00

I realized that we hadn't taken any good pictures of the deck yet, so here's some pictures of the progress so far. We hope to finish the stairs and railing this weekend, if the weather holds out.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-65259193438974552632007-08-30T20:48:00.000-07:002007-08-30T21:03:54.599-07:00

Here's the handrail so far, well we've finished more, but this is the latest photo. We used 2x4 and 2x2's for the ballusters. The wall is the other issue. We wanted a little privacy, so we built a wall on one side. Well the neighbours aren't crazy about it, and we don't like it the way we thought we would. So we have to redo it, not yet though, we're going to finish everything else first. We

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-42647565434844271462007-08-27T09:28:00.000-07:002007-08-27T09:41:07.891-07:00

We finished getting the stucco off the back of the house, well the part where the deck is anyways. I'm really glad we got it off before the deck, since the little stones and glass dent the new cedar decking really easily. We have most of the railing posts on, and about 3/4 of the decking down. We have to bring the rest of the decking back, since it's not up to snuff, it's got all kinds of defects

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-63465682832059811752007-08-22T22:18:00.000-07:002007-08-22T22:58:27.374-07:00

We've been chipping away at it again. With the deck structure and part of the stairs in place, we can access the main floor. I screwed a piece of plywood to the deck structure, and started ripping more off. We want to do it before we put on the new cedar decking, since cedar is soft, and the stucco would ruin the decking, even if we were really careful. About half of the stucco is off this back

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10669564.post-2110934702863021312007-08-16T20:30:00.000-07:002007-08-16T23:18:55.402-07:00

It seems like so long ago, even though it was only 2 weeks ago that we dug the holes for the posts. You can see the Bigfoot footings in each hole, they're expensive, but they save time.After levelling the Bigfoot, you screw on the sonotube, then backfill, then you're ready to pour the concrete. Well after making the posts plumb, and securing them in position. It took a long time, setting up all

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134900860188022345noreply@blogger.com3