A Working Stove!

With the hood fan in place, we were able to hook up our new stove! I could finally make a cup of tea. MMMmmmmm. Anyone in the market for a used stove?

Thanks to Dad and Joyce who let us hog their garage space for a few months. When this is all said and done, we owe you a nice home cooked meal and a bottle of wine. Love ya!

Installation of the New Hood Fan

After much grief, Ben overcame the battle of the attic and successfully installed our new range hood. The bottom picture shows what the hood will look once the glass overhang and shroud are installed. Time to call it a day.....I'll keep you posted.....literally (smile).

Lights!

As of yesterday, we have working lights! And we've expanded from only one working outlet to three or four, (more to come) yay! I no longer have to use several extension cords just to make toast, or do my laundry etc. Our cork flooring arrived yesterday, and we will install it over the next week or so.....I think. Today my sweet husband is fighting abstacles in the attic trying to get things ready to install the new hood fan The gas line has also been run to the west wall (shown here) for the gas stove hook ups. We've been without a stove for a couple of weeks now, but no-on has seemed to miss it much as it's been too hot to cook indoors anyway. Hail to our still working BBQ! (sigh......but I do miss my cup of tea) This too shall pass. :)

Removal of slider and installation of new door and window

Here you can see where we've taken out the slidding glass door to the patio and replaced it with a single door and new window. This will allow us to make use of the space underneath the window for seating in our built in kitchen nook.

Moving the kitchen doorway (off the hall)

In order for our fridge to fit along the west wall, we had to move the passage way into the kitchen (from the hall) over nearly two feet. This will allow our fridge to be flush with the rest of the cabinetry. You can see the new doorway re-framed, and the two foot gap will need to be filled in later.

Removal of the South Wall

With the south wall now removed, this is what it presently looks like as of today. At the top of this photo, you can see the bottom of the second LVL support beam we had to install. You can also see the initial framing for the eat in bar (bottom right).

Kinda Like Camping.....I think

Ben managed to move our old sink and countertop to the new north wall, so we could still function at least minimally. all the plumbing was done on this wall, so we can still run water and wash dishes......sigh, but I already miss my dishwasher. I guess it's kinda like camping....I think!

South Wall Before Removal

These photos show the south wall before it's removal. We removed it up to about where you can see the old stove, and to a counter height. This is where our home office will reside, and an eat in bar will be on the other side.

This was when our living quarters got really squishy. Ben took a week off work to conduct this part of the renovation. We were without power and water, off and on, for a few days, and the weather was stinking' hot! So, we (the kids & I) kind of resided outside, and made much use of our swimming pool!

Trades were coming and going, and we were unable to pass through the kitchen to get to the backyard (the floor was missing), so everytime we came and went, we had to go out the front door, down the steps, around to the back yard, through the gate, and up the back steps to get to the sundeck in order to BBQ, or just find a spot to be out of the way. My fridge is in the living room, so cooking on the BBQ so we could eat outside involved this labyrinth like passage!

Putting in the Recessed Lighting

Here, you can see Ben is installing the recessed halogen pot lights in the kitchen ceiling. I had no idea that lighting was soooo expensive! But, oh......a properly lit kitchen is worth it. The sloping ceiling on the window wall will remain (it was originally hidden by the wall we took out), as this structural feature is part of our roof line. A separate halogen lighting track will later be installed in order to illuminate this part of the kitchen, as pots cannot be set in the sloped ceiling.

You can also see that some wiring has been done on the west wall, as Ben has ran a lot of the wires for the electrician and set them in their boxes, ready for the electrician to work on at a later date.

On the south wall (hidden, but on the far left hand side of the photos) is the original sink wall, still functioning (thanks honey!)......for now.

Putting In the New Kitchen Window

Here you can see that the washer and dryer have been moved to their new location, and Ben & Don are installing the new kitchen window. Underneath this new window will be the new kitchen sink.....more plumbing!

(PS For those of you unfamiliar with blogs (including myself) you have to read these things from the bottom up.....I'm also still unfamiliar with the formatting, which may explain some of the large gaps between posts. Bear with me...)

Taking out the North Wall

The photos displayed above show the removal of the north wall (where the stairwell used to be) and the installation of the LVL support beam (yes, it was inspected by the engineer). Due to the ever present changing of real estate laws, we had to take out a permit for the renovations!

The little window shown here was original with the house (though I don't know why), but was later to be removed and a new window placed on the center of the new north wall. This will be the wall where the new kitchen sink will be. The washer and dryer will have to be relocated, and replumbed (the first of Ben's many further plumbing projects) in order to reside in future enclosed cabinets on the right hand side of this wall.

The Original Sin (uhhh, I mean the Before pic)

This is such a big project, I thought I'd blog it. This first picture shows the kitchen in its original state, as it was when we first bought the house (or hovel, as Ben says). The wall on the right of the photograph (North wall) was the first wall to come out. Behind that wall was an indoor stairwell that led to a back door that took us out to the yard. The first thing we did was take out the stairwell and floor it over. We would use this new square footage to expand the kitchen after we took out the north wall. We then turned the vacant stairwell into a storage area for the downstairs suite. We also rebuilt a new stairwell off the sundeck, to allow access to the backyard to the kitchen. The stairwell we removed The original location of washer/dryer The original slider to the sundeck