reno and refresh - the main is mainly done

outside of some finishing touches, the main floor is mainly done. the dust has settled - many times - as evidenced by the amount of cleaning I have done since construction ended in the second week of September. There were several mistakes made, including a cracked window, but for the most part I can live with or disguise the mistakes, because the overall feel is right.

The furniture arrived immediately after Thanksgiving (after I hosted a gathering of 20 people), furniture that was supposed to arrive on Sept 10 and instead Oct 12.  At some point I may post the refresh of the other 2 floors above, but this floor, the main floor had the biggest change, from dark to light, from cluttered and broken to flowing and functional.

How do people do full home renovations and stay sane and competant? I missed my garden, the peace of it in summer, but cannot imagine this in the winter, or really any other season than summer. I feel like I can breathe and celebrate and have people leave their energy imprints in this space. It is set now for more than just us, to enjoy with others, and that has already been a big focus since the majority of the reno is done. Still to do are bits and bobs, reorganising, hanging curtains, another round of dusting. But it feels like home, likely because I designed, sourced, saved for, and loved this space through the changes.

It is happy and light, this is what 117 years looks like xo

I have several versions of these bar stools, they are stackable (12 in total - all were used over Thanksgiving last weekend) The "tiles" on the island are stickers I added for an inexpensive way to dress up this side of the island. Remember the white toe kicks? I had the paint matched to the cabinets and laid down on the floor, on my side and painted that way for several hours to get it done!

the tiles I added, and behind the glass doors of the pantry are family dishes given to me years ago, and relocated as I am now using the hutch as a bookcase and storage area in my treatment room/office

I put together the breakfast nook (there may have been a lot of expletives involved in the building of this as I had to drill spaces for the screws to fit into properly, and there was a lot of that) I added art cards and a string of lights to disguise the light fixture placement mistake. On the wall is a map I had blown up and printed at a photo centre - this one was from 1902 with our street and the immediate neighbourhood only

my island dream, hood fan and on the shiplap wall one framed image only, the image is a map of Ottawa from 1888 and includes our street. The shiplap is otherwise too lovely to cover, love the textures and layers with shiplap wood and hexagon tile

bathroom refresh! New vanity, mirror, lighting, accessories, and I found and installed this beautiful art wallpaper

this bit of wallpaper marks the former location of the bathroom door, shiplap covers its other side, but may add something at a later date

grouted and finished, and light pours in

the chaise is one of the items that arrived, I added a simple rug and existing artwork and old chair. I am sitting on this chaise right now, writing, looking at the rest of the kitchen

context in terms of location within the kitchen space

the french doors looking into the treatment room with sleeper sofa

sleeper sofa that arrived this week in my treatment room

I wallpapered to cover cracks and messes of this wall so that I could get away with not having to paint the whole room - french door where there was a solid door blocking light. Repurposed an old side table as well, added some old art cards and covered with glass, new sectional arrived this week

view from living room toward the kitchen, The only new things are the sectional and rug

looking from the wing chair in the living room through one of the open french doors into the treatment room (I have curtains there too, ready to draw for privacy)

inside the treatment room looking out to the front door, keeping it uncluttered!

front door to kitchen look. I wallpapered the entire entryway to the top of the stairs

immediately to the right of the front door, separate entrance into my treatment room.

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honouring the home - history

With my love of family history, it's really of no surprise to me that I should love older homes. My current home, when we purchased it, we were told it dated to somewhere in the early 20th century - likely 1910-1920.

After pouring through city directories yearly online, I found it - 1905. I managed to find some information on previous owners, including their births and deaths, and via the census of Canada for both 1911 and 1921, but also was able to trace the history of the area via some lovely maps from the 1880s through to the early 1900s.

Many original features of my current home were torn out over the years, but what attracted me and my husband to this house in need of some TLC was that the staircase and banister had never been painted. Simple as that. We have slowly been making changes to the home to try and both honour and update the space, and subsequent posts will be dedicated to that as a way of keeping it all in one space, and not scattered in file folders and photo albums across several platforms.

One of the earliest owners of this house died from falling off the caboose of a train, and his young wife and several children took in boarders, seemingly to survive financially. She had remarried by the 1921 census, and found her death record several decades later that showed she died here.

A few of those original features that remained intact:

front porch detail

the "doorbell" on the front door

the stairs and the wear of hands over the generations who lived here 

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