Garage Floor...DONE!!!...Plus an extra $300 in my pocket

I am a happy camper.  Thanks to my guy from Ontario who installed it for me, the VCT flooring I snagged on Craigslist for 60 smackers is down. I was grateful, to say the least.  It took two whole days and one half day.  One of putting down the plan-i-patch (don't always go by quantity directions on the packaging) and one for putting the adhesive (again, quantities way off!) and tile down.  After that it was installation of the cove base and the transition strip into the garage.  It looks absolutely amazing.  So bright and cheery.  I have attached some install photos and will take a picture of the finished garage shortly.

I have been at it again....  Last week I was browsing Craigslist and came across a FREE vintage Danish Mobler teak desk in rough shape .  I grabbed it, spent about and hour and a half oiling and sanding and fixing....wa la, it was gorgeous.  I would have kept it if I had a place for it.  I sold it in a couple of hours on Craigslist for $300.00.  Not a bad haul for a few hours work.  I am planning on doing a whole lot more of that CL buy and resell.  I am picking up a Vintage teak Ply lounge chair with ottoman for $30.00.  I may keep it or if it doesn't fit into my living room decor I will resell it.  I just found the same one for $465.00 without the ottoman on CL.  I have a sneaking suspicion my garage is going to be turned into a studio for making over furniture and reselling.

And...stay tuned....apparently my new roof is going in a day or so...ouch!

Time to project inside

It seems that the long hot summer we had suddenly disappeared.  The rain and wind have arrived and so it's time to focus my attention on the interior.  I am still waiting for my roof to be replaced and I'm hoping this week will be my lucky break in the weather dept.   I've lined up a company to do my downpipes in the same color as my house, so I won't have to paint them.

I decided to finally paint my spare bedroom headboard I bought on Craigslist for $5 a few years ago.  I decided on orange to match the ottoman I snatched from another CL listing for $3.  It was a fast re-do with a couple of cans of spray paint.

I'm really excited!  I will be finally getting the VCT tile down in my garage next week.  I decided to do planipatch over the old black adhesive on the floor (cutback).  It is going to look absolutely fantastic!  I will post the pictures of it in the process and finished.  I want a high gloss finish on the floor and I'm not sure whether to epoxy or wax it.  I still need to finish a bit of the painting of my walls but this would only take about an hour.  I'll get it done now that the fall is here.

Backyard re-do

It's been a busy summer.  I've been doing my best to get out into the yard and re-vamp it.  Right now my biggest battle is the weeds in the lawn which seem to live through every form of weed killer I have applied.  The fence was finished about three weeks ago.  It wasn't my dream fence but with the impending new roof happening in a few weeks, money was scarce.  I am happy with the end result of the fence though.  I had two new gates installed and kept the lines of the fence as plain as possible.

In the spring I headed to the back forty where my large pine/spruce trees are and made a meandering pathway from the back shed to the compost box.  I have to say it has a magical quality to it.  I'll post pictures of that soon.

I am hoping to build some planter boxes for my vegetable garden this fall so the garden will look better next year and it will be easier to plant and keep weeded.

Here are a few pictures of the yard so far....

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.......