reno and refresh the home - demo time

 so things became dusty and definitely got worse before better. With our home previously being a multi-family home we thought maybe we could live through some of the reno. the house was not plastic-ed at the beginning and so we had dust from top to bottom and escaped to the country/cottage for most of the summer. I came into town as needed for clinic work, and what I could do online, I did.

I was grateful that the summer timing worked out as I cannot imagine doing this in a Canadian winter, let alone during the school year with teenagers.

next phase was a lot of demolition, sourcing what was in stock and could be delivered thanks to pandemic supply issues. Making quick changes to the plans I designed was also par for the course as there were things hidden behind 122 year old walls and ceilings. I used my sketchbook, my phone, a free 3d planner, pinterest, webstores and bottles (ahem, glasses) of wine to manage. Our surly contractor questioned almost all of my choices...but I worked with the house and the things that couldn't be torn down, the things that needed to be repaired, and altered all of the plans as needed to bring light back into this old space.

so this phase we will call progress?! cabinets from Ikea, quartz from capital stone, appliances from costco, several items from amazon, tiles from home depot, re-used the hood fan (had the guys build a custom enclosure around it) and stove, found old maps with our house from ikea, stools from walmart and local shops, additional furniture from dufresne, repurposed a lot of furniture we already had (antique chairs, hutch and cabinet), artwork is all from the collection I have had for years.

the photos are a bit all over the place, so captions added.

can you feel the lack of light? this wall had a small opening into the kitchen with a door (as we used the old bedroom as a tv room), this was from day one - so many layers with old houses, lots of mess of plaster and wood!

you can see how small the opening was into the kitchen, this image should be after the next one as the cabinet was torn down. the small pantry shelves had to go as well as pantry cabinets were to be added (and were in stock at Ikea)

the ceiling in the tv room was not insulated - one of those old house discoveries as you move through a reno

this wall originally also had the fridge. you can see my make shift solution to the complete absence of counter space, and note the wainscotting and wall mess as the layers were peeled away before this wall came down

it took the better part of a week just for the initial demo...

then once the wall dividing the kitchen and tv room, and the remnants of the closet frame (you know so that you got the sense you were moving from a closet through to the patio doors), a temporary support wall was added so a support beam could be placed between the two spaces. You can see the areas that will need to be patched on the floor to match all of the old flooring. And the last photo still shows the old bathroom opening (close to the garbage can is where the door would be relocated)