Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The push is on before Christmas arrives.  Marcel and his crew's last day will be on Wednesday.  Just a few more days before everyone books off for the holidays.

There have been lots of changes around here, folks.  A lot of changes.

The other morning before I left for school, we chose the pulls and door handles for the kitchen cupboards.  Thank God for the Lee Valley Hardware catalogue.

We were at a complete loss as to how long the handles should be, so Joe had the great idea to put up some painter's tape on all the doors to help guide us in our selection.

But there was one set of cupboards where the position of the tape completely bamboozled me.  I kept saying to Joe, "I don't like it.  This doesn't look right."  He insisted it did.

So I did what I always do when I have a design question.  I took some photos.  Then I called my friend Colleen.  At 6:45am.  And e-mailed her the pictures.

She, too, said the tape looked funny.  But then she started to laugh.  "The tape on the set of middle doors is on the wrong side!"  What?!  I didn't understand what she meant.  "The tape on the middle doors is by the hinges!"  Oh, for Pete's sake.  I burst into laughter.  I thanked her, got off the phone and ran upstairs to tell Joe what a couple of goofs we were.  He, too, laughed.

Cupboard door handles in the wrong orientation.

Cupboard door handles in the correct orientation.

The hardwood flooring is now throughout the house.  The pot lights are fully ensconced in their homes in the ceiling.  The lights under the upper cabinets are in.  The microwave oven has been installed.  The Bertazzoni range is firing on all cylinders.  The range hood is now operational.   

The floors are in!

Pot lights are in the ceiling.

Under-the-cupboard lights are now under the cupboards.

Thank you Colleen for advising us to put our microwave oven under the counter.  
It will be perfect here!

We're cooking with gas.

Stand well back!  The range's hood vent is so powerful it could suck you clear to the outside.

Home sweet home.

TGIF!  For the first time in weeks we can sit upstairs.  
Having 'happy hour' with Marcel.

Who knows when and if we are going to decorate for Christmas.  We cut down our tree from under the power lines 2 weeks ago and this is where the tree remains.  In a bucket of water sitting in our driveway.

Driveway festiveness.

Of Glitches And Good Things

GLITCHES

We've experienced our first glitches of the reno!  I guess it had to happen sooner or later.  Thank goodness they are minor glitches.

1.  The first glitch is our new refrigerator was damaged when it was delivered a couple of weeks ago.  Apparently the movers dropped the fridge on our stairs on its way into the house.  No one thought much about it at the time.  When Marcel tried to roll the fridge into place in the kitchen yesterday, he discovered that one wheel was jammed into the under-carriage and the fridge will not move easily or sit level.

 Easy with that fridge on the stairs boys.

Joe is looking into getting a new fridge.

2.  The second glitch is that the man who is laying our floor arrived here after lunch yesterday only to find the house locked up tight.  So he couldn't get inside to continue laying the floor.  That job got delayed by a day.  But what's one day in the scheme of things?

 The hardwood floor is now in the kitchen, dining room 
and along the fireplace in the living room.

Besides those two teensy things, everything is going swimmingly!  What's new you ask?  Let me fill you in....

NEW THINGS

1.  The counters have been measured and are arriving on Monday!

Amir measuring for the counter tops.

2.  The hideously ugly added-on hearth (that stuck out 18" off the floor) has been smashed off.  We are having a gas fireplace inserted in it's stead.

BEFORE:  The ugly hearth is attached and the gas line is in.

AFTER:  The fireplace is still ugly but at least the hearth is off!

3.  The hardwood flooring now runs the length of the hallway.  I love it!

 Almost there!

4.  The railings are coming off the stairway.  They will be replaced with metal spindles and wooden bannisters.  We're getting new stairs too!

Be careful....the first step on the right is a doozy!

Sigh.  I am in love with this renovation.

Day 18

Eighteen days.  That's it.  I can't believe so much has happened in our kitchen in so little time!  We have only one person to thank for that.  Marcel Lanter.

Best contractor ever.

Marcel is one of the most reliable, friendly, conscientious, calm, knowledgeable, and hard-working contractor you will ever meet. He told us our kitchen project would start at 8:00am on November 17th and at 7:58am on that day he and his crew pulled into our driveway and got to work.  It has been the same ever since.

Our renovation has gone so smoothly we can hardly believe our good fortune!  All of the trades have lined up and everything has been delivered on time.  It sures makes life stress-free for Joe and I.

The hardwood floors are now in the process of being laid.  We are having the entire upper floor of our house covered in hardwood.  I can hardly wait to see it when it is finished in the next couple of days!

Here comes the floor!

I love my new floors.

Most of our neighbours have their front yards all decked in Christmas finery.  

Not us.  We are going for a more industrial and sawdust look this year.

Thank you Marcel for being a homeowner's dream.  You continue to make this experience so easy for Joe and I!

Marcel Lanter

Markor Construction

markorconstruction@gmail.com

604.898.1765

A Reunion and a Birthday

In between choosing backsplash tiles and hardwood flooring, we've made time for some weekend fun as well.  Two of my favourite outings have included a reunion and a birthday.

REUNION

We recently got together one sunny Saturday afternoon with our long time friends, the Thiessens.  Irene and I have been BFFs since we were 14 year old students in junior high school.  Over the decades, our two families have spent lots of time together; both pre- and post-children.  Dinners, athletic events (where we were the athletes), sleepovers, camping trips, vacations, holiday gatherings.

All of our kids are now grown and living their adult lives in Vancouver.  Irene and Randy reside in the eastern reaches of the Fraser Valley in Harrison Mills and we're up here at the tip of Howe Sound in Squamish.  Our families' paths don't cross very often anymore.

So we planned a reunion.  We met at Molly and Paige's apartment for an afternoon and evening of fun, food, and laughter.  Always the laughter.  My God, the laughter.

     Joe, Irene, Jamie, Chad, Paige, Randy, Molly, Will, and Nancy together again.

Even though it has been forever since all 9 of us were together in the same room, I absolutely LOVED how those intervening years instantly melted away.  It was as if we had seen each other just the day before.  Over a delicious turkey dinner, we reminisced about days gone by.  We laughed so hard we cried.  Afterward we played a bawdy game of 'Things'.  We laughed so hard we cried.

At evening's end, with hugs and kisses all around, we promised to meet up again this coming summer.  I can hardly wait.


BIRTHDAY

Joe and I took Paige out for her birthday last weekend.  Our first order of business was to eat, of course.  Molly suggested we have dinner at 'Campagnolo ROMA' which recently opened in their Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood.

Campagnolo ROMA at 2297 Hastings Street, Vancouver

I highly recommend this restaurant!  Honestly, the food was as good as I have had in Rome.  I ordered the  'spaghetti carbonara' and when I closed my eyes I was instantly transported back to Italy.

Baby Girl and Big Mama.

A platter of made-in-house Italian sausages.

"Here, let me taste that!"  Joe helps himself to my bowl of carbonara.  "You're right.  It tastes exactly the same as the food in Rome."

Get the spaghetti carbonara when you go.  You won't be disappointed.

Kitchen Magic

This whole kitchen renovation is like magic to me.  Talk about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

Every day I leave for school at 8 o'clock in the morning and when I come home nine hours later Marcel and his crew have made magic in my house.  Serious magic.  Beautiful magic.

Here comes Joe's stove from Italy.  All 400 pounds of it.

Moving the stove through the kitchen to be stored in the living room.

Putting the kitchen cabinets together.

The new refrigerator and stove sitting in the living room.  Notice the hideously stained wall-to-wall carpet has been removed (THANK GOD) and the floor is bare plywood.

More cabinets are installed.

Lunch Break!

The work room.

The new window is in!  All 12 feet of it!

The kitchen facing south.  The range and hood fan are in place.

The kitchen facing north.

Joe's new girlfriend: his Italian Bertazzoni gas range with 6 burners, a flat top grill, and 2 ovens.

It looks like I now have stiff competition for Joe's affection.

The 'Lord of the Manor' surveying his lands.

Joe has taken on the lion's share in planning this renovation.  I never realized how much went on 'behind the scenes' in a project like this.  Like I said I thought it all happened by magic. 

We have chosen the cabinets, the appliances, the counters, the flooring, the back splash tiles, the lighting, the sink, the faucets, the hardware, and the window.  We arranged for their delivery.  We designed where the cabinets were to go in the kitchen (not easy let me tell you).  We have asked friends for their invaluable advice regarding this renovation.

But it has been Joe who has done all the research, who has made the countless calls to vendors, who has picked up supplies from Vancouver and beyond, who is in touch with our banker, who is paying the bills, who has been getting samples from showrooms.  It is a lot of work.

All I have to do is wash the dishes in the bathroom sink.  

I got off easy.

Lotsa Progress!

Things are happening around here, people.  THINGS ARE HAPPENING!  Each day I can hardly wait to get home from school to see what miracles Marcel and his crew have performed in my absence.

The kitchen ceiling and walls are up, dry wall is going on

Sanding the first coat of dry wall

Kitchen cabinet assembly in the living room

Our new 'multi-purpose' room

Our living room has become a multi-purpose storage room.  As of today it houses a refrigerator, boxes of hardwood flooring, kitchen cabinets, dining and living room furniture, and cardboard boxes for recycling.  Oh, and bottles of booze.  The bar is now on the fireplace mantel.  We need easy access.

New skylights

We had Marcel install a couple of 'sun tubes' in our dark and dreary hallway.  What a difference they make!

Daisy's hideout

Our cat Daisy is not loving the renovations.  She disappears every morning and only comes out at bedtime.  Yesterday I discovered where she's been hanging out.  She has tucked herself under the drop cloth that is draped over the couch and dining room table.

Still camping

It is amazing what Joe rustles up for supper every night with only a frying pan and a single hot plate.  We pretty much live downstairs.

Pick a tile, any tile

One day of every weekend finds us in Vancouver.  If we're not picking out light fixtures, we're choosing counter tops.  If not flooring, it's kitchen cabinets.  Yesterday found us trolling showrooms looking for backsplash tiles.

Our warm and welcoming guest bedroom

It's a good thing none of the kids have been coming home to visit as their old bedrooms are now chock full of STUFF!  All I can hope is that the renovations are done before Christmas, otherwise the children will have to sleep in a hotel!  Or at your place.

Vacuuming the drywall dust

Priming the ceiling

To save time, Joe volunteered to prime the kitchen walls and ceiling.  Better him than me.

More to come, folks.  Stay tuned!