Let there be lights

This addition is all about finishing up the garage project....  Just little bits to do now and I'll admit I have lost my desire to work in here.  My passion right now is organizing closets and drawers.  Did I say passion?  I mean obsession.  I have spent countless hours youtubing organizing ideas and I've spent the last three weeks visiting and spending money at the Dollarama.
 Containers, containers, containers and more containers, not to mention the store of awsomeness...Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Wow, they have a lot of cool organizing stuff....I'm pretty much done now with the organization so I have no excuse but to enter back into the realm of the garage and finish the filling and painting.  Unfortunately Collin, the contractor broke one of my lights in the garage so I had to trek to IKEA to pick up another one.  While I was there I found some more great organizing things of course and spent the rest of my IKEA gift card I got for Christmas.  The replacement light still isn't up in the garage but it will only take a few seconds to do.  Collin is coming back one more time just to put up some trim around my garage entrance door...and the garage will be done....well done as far as hiring someone at least.

I gotta say this had been a stellar morning.  Finally, yes finally...my outside lights are up!!!  I couldn't be happier with the final result.  The pictures I posted aren't the best but you get the idea.  All my lighting and electrical is now complete.  Can I get an AMEN?

The Garage Reno...part 1,000

The garage is almost done and trust me when I say I couldn't be more thrilled it's almost over.  I will in fact have some things that I will be doing after the contractor is done but they will be minor.

Highlights over the past few weeks....
The back garage entrance door was finally installed, along with the original diamond shaped door plate from the  original front door of the house along with the left over damaged window from Crestview doors.  My only disappointment with the door is I couldn't get a chrome door knob to match the chrome door plate but it's not that bad and I wasn't about to spend $300 on a door knob set.  This door has already cost me more than it should, not to mention the amount of hours looking online at door knob sets and waiting 4 weeks for a special order slab door to come in to fit the 5" backset, plus hauling the original door down to the door store to have the hinges notched.  I'm just happy this part of the garage is done.

The teak shelves I bought off Craigslist were installed off the ground.  That was a job and a half.  Those shelves were bloody heavy.  I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that!  I put all the knobs I bought from home depot on the cabinet doors and organized all the items to go in it.  I went through every screw and tool box I had and organized them into their appropriate container.  I bought some peg board (ripped my thrumb to shreds in the process) spray painted it and put it up and now I'm just waiting to paint the door into my hot water tank room and I will then put the other piece of pegboard up on the back of the door to store bigger items like hand saws etc.  I also took the two upper cabinets I already had and spray painted them and had them installed.  I placed my recycling station, t.v. trays and step stool under them so they are in easy reach of my kitchen.

I bought an old teak veneer dresser off Craigslist 3 weeks ago in the hopes to turn it into a rolling work bench.  Normally this wouldn't be an issue to find but I had a certain measurement I needed it to be because it was to be stored under my window at the back of the garage with two doors on either side.  I finally found a dresser that would work.  I pulled the two bottom drawers out and wanted shelves in their place.  I bought a butcher block table top and casters from IKEA and had the contractor put it all together.  It looks great!

All my lighting was installed and I'm just awaiting the wires and light plates to be covered (they cannot be flush with the ceiling because I have a wood slotted ceiling).  Hopefully some of the covers will be done today.

Yesterday the entrance from the garage to the kitchen was rectified.  The door now swings into the kitchen so it doesn't hit the garage door rail!  I also had a pet door installed so my cats will hopefully use that.

I am also hoping I will come home to my new address up on the exterior of my house.

It's all been a blur so far...I am sure the next few weekends will be full with me trying to do the odds and ends left over...which I dare say will involve holding a paintbrush.

Drywall is done...time to paint

and the garage story unfolds

Well, it's time to update my blog.  I'm charging my camera to take some photos tomorrow. 

Since my last entry I had my electrical done.  I decided I wanted two extra plugs outside my house.  One at the back entry and one at the side of my house for the Christmas lights to be plugged into.  I wanted the electrician to make sure he would put my outside front lights beside the garage door evenly to the garage door.  When I arrived home that day they were off center.  One light was about 5" away from the garage door and the other side was about 12".  WTH,  I was mad.  Now if it was moved it would leave a hole in my siding.  I decided to be inventive and decided that because I have 5 numbers in my address that putting the address between the light and the garage would make it seem like it was supposed to be that way.  I had bought my address numbers before I had even done my house reno.  I originally wanted to put them under my outdoor lights but the lights are quite low on my house so putting them there would make the house numbers extremely low.

Now, what to mount the house numbers on.  I scoured the internet for days and was going to get plexiglass backing for them because that looked pretty cool from the pictures I was seeing.... but suddenly I thought about a teak shelf I wasn't using from inside my cabinet.  I quickly rummaged it up and placed the numbers on it.  That was it!  It looked fabulous!  Now if only the edges of the shelf weren't exposed.  Then suddenly I thought of what my contractor used for the edges of the tile when he did the installation.  Shluter!  (Metal trim).  I measured the depth of the teak and the next day made my way to the building store and purchased a piece of the metal trim.  Needless to say it finishes it off beautifully.  Now if I only had tools, I could put it together myself.  I have really had the urge lately to start building things.  In the new year, that's exactly what I'm going to do!  When one of the guys came to finish off my framing I got him to cut the teak into a 5 1/2" X 28" piece.  I can't wait to see it all finished!
The drywall guy arrived on Wednesday.  He ended up installing the drywall onto the beam on my far wall over the line of windows and also up the window posts to the beam.  Needless to say the next day I made him take it down.  I don't want any of my beams covered damn it!  That's one of the reasons I adore this house.  Don't touch the character features! The tapping and mudding has now been done so Monday should be the day it gets sanded.  That means by next weekend I will be painting again.  Then the trim will be put up next, then the lights will go in....then my doors (more on this in my next entry, it's a lonnnnggggg story.

I feel like I'm on the home stretch now and I've got to say I am glad.... because I'm really weary of living with the contents of my garage in my living space.

........more to come.....pictures to follow.......

I need some progress happening people

The garage is at a stand still at the moment and I've had some hiccups along the way.  A reno with hiccups?  Who new?  It does seem that the garage has been my nemesis out of this whole house reno experience.
First the ant infestation.  Then ripping down the ceiling tiles that were stapled to the ceiling.  Then pulling out each and every staple one by one.  Then trying to coat the ceiling with primer then paint...then ugggh, primer again and then paint again.  I think there is more paint on that ceiling than the whole house.  Drum roll please....I finally finished the ceiling painting last weekend.

My glass garage door was also installed last week.  I cannot tell you the excitement that was bubbling inside me the day it was being done.  I new that by the time I got home from work I would see what my house would look like with the prized glass garage door in.  As I turned the corner into my neighborhood I could  see my little gem with it's new addition.  All I can tell you is WOW!  It looks great!  I noticed when I got out of the car that the door was not flush which scared me a bit.  I decided to enter the garage via my kitchen.  As I opened the door into the garage the door hit something.  I thought someone left a box on the floor behind the door and it hit it.  I peeked behind the door.  Nope, nothing there.  I looked up and &%@*, the door was hitting the rail for the garage door!  No way!, You've got to be kidding me.  I called the garage door people to vent my disbelief.  Long story short, the garage door could not be lifted higher because of the beams in the house.  I would have to get a new kitchen door and have it swing in instead of out.  Definitely not what I wanted but at least there was a solution.  I received a discount from the garage door company.  It will help a bit with the new kitchen door and installation. 
 Before all this happened my plan was to get a new garage back entrance door because the one that is there is hollow core.  I had been scouring Craigslist for a full light double glazed french door.  I found one for $250.00 and tried to get the guy to come down with his price.  He wouldn't.  I mentioned it to a co-worker who told me he had a single french door and would sell it to me for $50.  I was going to do it until this whole out swing door problem occurred.  Now my plan is to take the existing kitchen door, which is a flush door, and use it for my garage entrance door.  The door back plate I never could use on my front entrance door can now be used on this door.  I also have a left over cracked window frame from Crestview doors (the originals for my front entry door arrived from their warehouse with cracks...but they did send me new ones). Now I'll take the cracked one, use some wood glue and fix it and have it installed on my back garage entrance door.  I got a price from a glass company to fit double paned glass in it for $25.  So now my front turquoise door will match my back garage entrance door...except it will have one window instead of three.  I will be getting the glass this weekend, along with sourcing out a chrome door knob to match the back plate I had chromed soooo many months ago (you have no idea how hard a polished chrome door knob is to find without special ordering it!).
Even though this whole door project is going to set me back more than I thought, in the end the result will be mid century amazing.  I'm all about the mid century amazing thing...or hadn't you noticed?

I have more to tell but I'll put it in my next entry.....

My oh my

Well, it's officially begun.  Josh, my contractor arrived on Friday morning at 8am with two workers to take out the sub floor and the existing glass sliding door in the garage.  I decided to come home around 1pm to see if they had finished.  I knew it wouldn't take long.  They had the proper tools and the muscle to get the job done quickly.  When I arrived at 1pm no one was there and everything was out.  The disappointing thing was, it looked as though they removed old vinyl commercial floor tiles that were existing on the concrete floor.  Now that being said, I have no idea what condition they were in and from peering into the garbage bin they looked to be a beige color which I am not fond of anyway.  Then began my journey...okay...my obsession to find a inexpensive but beautiful solution for my garage floor.  I was thinking it would be bare concrete with a sealer but now because of the old vinyl tile glue, my garage floor is now black from the old adhesive.

So many options.  Epoxy, VCT flooring, ceramic tile.  I decided to hit the internet full speed.  Wallas, I found what I wanted via forum message boards.  It would be VCT flooring (Vinyl Commercial Tile).  It was relatively inexpensive, it looked great and I was pretty sure I could reapply over the glue on the existing floor....at least that's what I though initially.  This is where it got really complicated.  Message boards galore, I found many opinions.  No you have to remove the old adhesive, no you don't have to remove it as long as the mastic is really really thin.  I tried acetone, as a few suggested, to see if I could get it off.  It did work but would take a lot of work to do the whole 264 square feet.  I've decided it will be fine to go over the residual adhesive, as one person who was in the same predicament as me had called Armstrong flooring and they said it would be fine to go on top. I'm crossing my fingers!

So now that I had decided what I wanted to put on the floor I looked up the cost from Home Depot.  It seemed I would pay about $1.00 per tile.  I decided to go on Craigslist to see if anyone was selling VCT.  Low and behold I found someone selling 9 boxes (45 tiles per box) for $12.00 per box.  I would need just over 6 boxes so I would get 7.  I quickly wrote the CL poster.  Yup, still available.  They were in a nice grey neutral colour which would work perfectly.  This works out to .27 each tile with no tax!!!  That means it will cost me $84.00 for the whole floor (plus glue, the rental of a roller and a piece of metal trim for the transition into the garage from the garage entrance and possibly cove base (not sure of the edges yet).  I then wondered if I should do this myself or get my contractor to do it.  Well kiddies, I have decided to give it a go and do it myself.  Luckily I found a number of "youtube" sites showing how to lay it (very helpful).  I have added a picture of the tile I've found on CL.

 I thought I was done painting the ceiling in the garage....wrong!....upon further inspection it looks like in some spots the original oils from the wood have come through the primer and paint and left a yellowing.  I guess I'll have to prime some of those areas again and then paint with latex AGAIN!!!  Every time I  paint I get a headache from looking up constantly.  I guess I'll be taking on more headache! I also changed my mind on the lighting I had purchased.  I had bought a bunch of lighting from Rona because I had gift cards.  I do still like it but I have decided I want the garage to match the interior of my home.....so,  I picked up two cool pendant lights from Home Depot that look a lot like my expensive lights in my master bathroom ($29.99 each) and the rest of the lighting I got from IKEA.  See pictures.  It's going to look spectacular.  I'm going to get Josh to box in  the wires and fan pipe on the one inside wall and when I'm ready to get my cabinets (who knows when) I will butt them up to the ceiling so it will be flush and look professional.  My cabinets will also be off the floor which I think will look cool and will protect them from any water that may accumulate, doubtful but you never know.  It will also make it easier to clean under them without the leg attached.

I am getting a new steel beam put in above the garage door because the existing one was too short for the glass garage.  This will be installed on Tuesday.  I will also get final measuring done the same day for the glass garage door. Speaking of which, the door came in and they made the wrong door.  They didn't opague the glass so now it has to be custom etched.  No biggie but just thought I'd mention it.  I can't wait for that to be installed!

Well that's all for now...stay tuned

The Garage reno is now underway!

Ok, so it's in the beginning stages of the garage reno and right now I'm taking a break.  I decided to dye my hair during my break so I'm now sitting here looking like a dork with a plastic bag over my head.  Gawd, I hope no one decides to pop in.  I've been painting the post and beam ceiling.  Oh what a fun task that has turned out to be.  Abet of buying latex primer when in fact I knew it wasn't going to work prolonged the process on the first day.  The oil in the wood was leaching through the primer. After taking the latex back, the paint store employee began to  argue with me that the latex should work as well as the oil and that in fact the results would be no different.  I said, okay...should I use all the two cans up of latex and then come back when that doesn't work and get my money back or should we switch it out now.  He switched it out.  It worked like a charm like I was sure it would.  I'm pretty positive one coat is going to cut it.  It took me two long days of neck cranking and cutting in each and every slot in the wood.  I am now finished the primer and in the next few days I'll be putting the paint on top. 

I'm doing all this before my contractor actually begins.  Why?  because I want this to go fast.  The electrician is going to have to get the lights up and I don't want any delays.  The walls obviously are not up...in fact I ripped down the existing paneling trying to save money of course prior to the actual demolishing.  I didn't find any treasure in the walls but I did find an old wasp nest and some dried up larva of who knows what...but other than that it was all good.  I still have some heavy pieces of shelving etc. to get out of there.  My friend will be over soon to help me move it. 

Okay, hold on I have to go rinse out the dye...be right back....

Shower, done!  where was I? Ah yes, moving the rest of the heavy stuff out.  Once that's done I'll be ready for the contractor.  The bin is coming on Wednesday and it shouldn't take more than a few hours to rip the floor and insulation and odds and ends out. 

I have decided to wait on the cabinets for the garage.  I'll wait.  Trying not to spend too much.  Speaking of spending.  I ordered my glass garage door.  It should be here near the end of the month.

I have actually discovered a new addiction.... www.pinterest.com
I'm not sure if its heaven sent or from hell.  I've gotten loads of ideas but I'm also on it 24/7.  If you're not familiar with it check it out.  It's people posting pictures on every subject possible and you save it to your own site in blocks.  Kind of like a filing system at your fingertips with all your interests, projects, wants etc.  It's got my brain working on ideas for the garage and other crafty things.

Well, it's time to move that heavy stuff I was just talking about.  Be back soon!