Blog

The bedrooms in our house are fairly large, and currently we have our three oldest children in the biggest room. When we first moved in two and a half years ago Nathan had this room all to himself. Then when we had Rebekah, Nathan and Mackenzie shared. Now that we have four kids, Rebekah is in there with them too. It took them a little while to get used to sleeping all together, but now it's going well. There wasn't much to do in the bedrooms other than cosmetic fixes. I painted it pretty soon ... continue reading...

We started the laundry room renovation in October 2014 and it took about three months to complete. It doesn't look like it needed much work, but the vanity had a lot of water damage around the bottom so we knew we had to replace that. And then we replaced the almond coloured toilet to match the sink. We stacked the washer and dryer and made custom shelves out of birch trees and scrap wood we had lying around. We also replaced the light and the door, and painted the walls and trim. Here are the ... continue reading...

When we moved in, the living and dining areas felt very small and dark and outdated. There was a funny half wall between the dining area and living room that was really unnecessary. We wanted to take down that wall to make it all move open. Before we could do that though, Tony had to remove all the wiring and re-route the ductwork that was underneath this wall. He moved all the light switches that were in this small wall over to the wall by the kitchen. At the same time, he added a light to the ... continue reading...

It's amazing how much a bit of paint can update a space. The front hall in our third house was fine other than the wood trim and wood bi-fold doors on the closets. We bought this house, and the layout and bones were great, but the finishes were all a bit outdated. All we did in the front hall was replace the closet doors with some white colonial bi-folds, and paint the trim white. The painted wood trim is in the colour Simply White (Benjamin Moore) in semi-gloss. It looks so much brighter and ... continue reading...

The stair renovation was by far the most difficult project we did in our house. In hindsight, we maybe should have gotten a contractor to sand and stain our upstairs floors and the stairs, but I guess our attitude is "why would we hire someone when we can do it ourselves?". The stairs were all clear oak and were very orangey, and they were scratched and very dirty. Also, there were only two newel posts on the whole staircase - one at the very top and one at the very bottom. As a result ... continue reading...

When we bought our house, the kitchen was very orange. The cabinets were solid oak and they were in great shape, but the colour just made them look outdated. The wall colour didn't help either, more orange. And of course the trim was all 90's wood too. At one point we talked about removing this wall, in the picture below, between the kitchen and the dining area and adding a peninsula. But when it came down to it, it just seemed like too much work and we might not have made our money back ... continue reading...

The basement bathroom really didn't need much work. I patched a few spots on the walls, and painted the walls and trim. I can't even tell you what colour I used for the walls, because I think I just mixed a few half cans of paint that I had lying around. It's quite a small bathroom with only a shower, toilet and sink, but it's perfect for when we have guests over. I made a towel shelf using a wood apple crate that I got from Michaels. I've also seen these crates at Home Depot and Walmart, ... continue reading...