old master bedroom - before and after

The before and after of our home continues.  On the main floor of our home we had our 3 bedrooms.  At the very front of the house was our master bedroom.  We painted all of the other rooms of the main floor except this room.  Again, our mentality was that we were renovating some day and it wasn't worth the money or trouble to fix up this room.  The door on the left enters into the front hall and the original entrance to the home.  With no natural light in this hall, it was my least favorite space to pass through every day.  To the right of this picture is the boys room.

Still at the door of our bedroom but this picture below shows the wall separating our room and the boys' bedroom.  Because the room would have been the original living room, there was no closet.  We made do with an armoire.  (You can see the side of the unit.)  And with no air conditioning, Andrew had the unfortunate task of installing this air conditioner in one of the piano windows every spring.  He is ecstatic that he never has to do this again!  Yes, we are getting A/C!

This room receives amazing light with its southern exposure.  In the picture below, the left hand wall divides our room and the front hall.  The mask hanging on this wall is from our trip to Venice in 2004.  And the nail that holds the mask?  This was quickly nailed into the wall as I laboured in this room with Nathaniel 6 and a half years ago.  Our midwife needed a quick spot to hang an IV bag of fluid.  I stood in front of that dresser, labouring and waiting for the fluid to enter into my system.  That was also the spot where my water broke.  

And the bed was where both of my boys were born.

The picture below is taken from the front windows.  You can see down the hall and into Abigail's purple bedroom.

This room never received any attention.  No paint, no new carpet, no new curtains.  This carpet was stained so many times with our babies' spit up.  It was really nice not having to worry about these stains.  Getting rid of the nasty brown curtains in the front windows has been a dream since we moved in.  I can't tell you how excited I was to pitch those.

And then the walls came down!  Here you can see into the boys old room with the blue walls.  And the wall between our bedroom and the front hall was taken down.  The three bottom pictures were taken from the front windows of the house.

Oh the excitement when I saw this open space revealed!  There are those front windows again.  To the left of the picture below you can see the brick wall where our front hall was.

Our front door is at the left of the picture below.

A view of the boys room from the front of the house.

Another picture taken from the front windows.  Andrew is right by the stairs to the second floor.

Where our old bed used to be.

And another view into our bedroom from the old door way.

Our front windows.

All the walls are now down in this space.  There is nothing left of our old bedrooms.  Just a few support posts to jack up the second floor and correct the uneven floors upstairs.  I have big plans for our old bedroom.  It will be a new living room that will be open to our dining room and music/homework room.  There will be a gas fireplace between the piano windows, where our old bed was.  We'll need to purchase new furniture for this space - a couch, chairs, coffee table, area rug.  There will be new dark, distressed hardwood running throughout this entire space (and into the entire 2nd floor.)  The walls will be white with pops of fun colour in furniture and accessories.  My dream is for a bright and cheery living space.

boys old bedroom - before and after

Moving onto the boys room.  Their bedroom was directly across the hall from Abigail's room.  The above picture is looking in from the hall that runs from the front of the house to the back of the original house.  The bottom picture is still looking from the hall and shows the west facing window.  

View of the door and into the very dark hallway.  Their closet was covered with the blue curtain.

This room was our original nursery when Abigail was born.  We chose an underwater theme when I was pregnant.  Interesting that she is the swimmer in the family!  The crib used to be directly under the octopus.  It used to be lower but we had to raise it up when Abigail was able to stand in the crib and grab the arms of the octopus.  It just never got lowered.  

And the demo picture.  All the walls and ceilings were torn out making the space so open.  There is the west facing window.  You can also see into our old bedroom to the left of the picture.

The picture below is taken near the front of the house.  You can see the window to the left.  The right of the picture was the old hallway.  The opening at the far right is the back of the original house and opens into the kitchen.  Abigail's room was to the right of this opening.  This opening will be enlarged to double the width it is now.  (It is a standard door opening now.)  Our stone mason is working on the door opening right now.  It will have two pocket doors.

Below is the space cleaned out.  The framing to the left of the picture, behind Nathaniel, has since been taken out.  

This room will be our new dining room.  Our kitchen table will go right in the middle of the space.  With the wider opening to the kitchen, we will have better flow between the dining and kitchen spaces.  I'm on the look out for an old hutch that I can paint and put against the far right wall, beside the larger opening to the kitchen.  I am most excited for the light that will be in this room.  The boys room was always dark because of a broken roller blind.  We didn't know what kind of window treatment would be going up, so we made due with a roller blind that could never go up.  This is a common story with so many elements of this house.  So many things we just made due with because we knew we would be renovating someday.  That someday is finally here!

And if you missed it, the before and after of Abigail's bedroom is here.

abigail's old room - before and after

I fully intend on documenting our home renovation through photos and blogging.  It is so exciting for our family and I know many friends and family are interested in the process.  So I want to include you as best I can.  I've been having some trouble knowing how to start going through all the before photos and the demo pics. I really just need to jump in.  So, Abigail's bedroom pictures were taken first, so this is where I will begin.

The backstory.  Our home was built sometime around 1887.  It was one of the first houses on our street.  In the mid-forties a kitchen and nanny suite were added to the back of the house.  In the mid 1980s, a 3 story addition was added onto the kitchen.  Workroom in the basement, family room and mudroom on the main floor and an extra bedroom on the third level.  In the 60's, it was a rooming house for young women.  Our neighbour actually lived here.  It was empty for a time and a missionary family purchased it from the bank.  We then purchased the house from this family in 2001.  It had been duplexed and we had a rental apartment upstairs until 7 years ago.  We continued to live on the main floor with our 3 bedrooms, kitchen and family room.  The room facing east was Abigail's bedroom.  The top picture shows the east side of the house with her closet on the north wall.

When you enter her room, you see her bed and the south facing window.  It was not a big room.  But the light in the morning is amazing.

From her bed you can now see the wall of closets and storage.

Two weekends ago, the walls came down.  With no hallway, you can now see all of what was her room.  Her bed used to be in the corner.

On the left you can see the lathe and plaster wall behind what was her closet.

Her walls and ceiling.

And now an empty shell.  On the left, you can see where the old window of the original house used to be.  On the other side of that old window is now the family room addition.

Good bye room.  I will not miss the tininess, the carpet stained with nail polish and purple paint.  (Andrew was painting the closet doors when the 2 year old Abigail came and plunked her hand into the paint tray.  She cried and flicked the paint on the blue carpet.  We had an upset Abigail to clean up and an old carpet that we didn't care to get stained because this is what we were waiting for.)  The future for this room.  The music/homework area.  There will be no dividing walls going up.  To the right beside the south facing window will be the spot for our piano.  In the middle of the space I hope to have a round table with 4 chairs for homework and crafts.  I can also move the table and chairs if I ever plan on having newborn photo sessions in my house.  My plans for the wall on the left is to have a huge gallery wall of our family photos.

Next up, the boys room.

(And please give me feedback if there are details you'd like me to include in these posts.)

the gap

Here's the new look around our house.  Nathaniel helped this one come out on Saturday night while playing with a toy in his mouth.  And here's the face I got when trying to document this new look.  Jesse has now been singing "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth".  And don't ask me where he heard this song.  Nathaniel is happy with the change.  Tonight as I brushed his teeth he commented that now I didn't need to brush as many teeth!

harry potter

Meet our very own Hermione Granger.  Abigail has now become completely enthralled with anything Harry Potter.  For a long time she said she wasn't ready to read the books.  She was worried that they'd be too scary.  Now this is all she can talk about.  She's finished Book 3 and watched the first 2 movies.  She talks about how sad she is that there won't be anymore books coming out.  If she is able to spend anytime watching tv, she watches the movie on the laptop.  And guess who she will be dressing up as for Halloween?  Yesterday was a bit of a preview as she attended a neighbour's Harry Potter themed birthday party.

Two hours before the party, she disappeared upstairs with Nathaniel and found this outfit in their closets.  Nathaniel contributed the upper half and she reused a new skirt.  The wand - something she made with the birthday girl's sister a few weeks ago.  Luckily these 3 girls share a love of all things Harry Potter.

I love that she throws her whole self into what interests her.  Sometimes there might be a bit more drama than I can handle at the time, but the passion she feels is inspiring!

our home

It has begun.  After years of dreaming, planning, meeting with contractors and various trades, the renovation of our home has started.  Andrew and I purchased our home 10 1/2 years ago.  When we moved in, we knew we wanted to undertake a renovation to turn our duplexed home into a single family home.  In my mind I thought we would begin in 3-5 years.  I had NO idea.  Children and money delayed our start.  We lived with concept drawings for over 5 years and finally came up with a final plan for our home this spring that suits how we live.  I couldn't be more excited.  

The sledgehammers came out Saturday morning.  With an enthusiast bunch of friends, our home quickly became a chamber of dust and rubble.  This is why we moved out.

You really needed one of these this weekend.  The dust was incredible.

 There were no plans to enlist our children in helping out this weekend.  I figured it would be too dangerous. But they were so eager.  We allowed them to begin the demo last weekend with the taking down of the first wall, but Nathaniel was in tears a few times when he thought he couldn't help.  So, we ran out to get more dust masks and let them help where it was safe.

The two bins in front of our home were filled by 11am Saturday morning.  The rest of the debris was piled in every room.

The rads were taken out.  They will be resprayed and reinstalled.

This is what Nathaniel was dreaming about.

And Jesse just wanted to sweep and shovel.  Abigail helped out Saturday but I didn't have my camera at the time.  It was so dusty I had to be careful when I took pictures.

I will post many more pictures of the destruction.   You will also notice that there is a new category - renovation.   Plan on seeing many more posts as our home continues its transformation.

fresh peach cookies

Peaches are nearing their end, but still can be found in markets and grocery stores.  I've had a line of peaches on my counter for a week, ripening and awaiting the next new recipe I have been eager to try.  This was a perfect recipe to make in the morning and present to the many wonderful friends who helped demo our house this weekend.  Perhaps not the perfect choice for strong, dust covered hands.  I would definitely classify these as dainty cookies.  But in one mouthful, you can still appreciate a tender, peach studded treat.  Dust or no dust.

Fresh Peach Cookies - from Martha Stewart
makes 4 dozen

2 cups all purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/4 inch dice (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/3 cup peach jam
2 tablespoons fine sanding sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.

2.  In a mixer on medium high speed, beat butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and beat in the egg and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture all at once and mix until just combined.  Add the peaches and jam and mix until just combined.

3.  Using a tablespoon, drop the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets.  Space the cookies about 2 inches apart.  Any unused dough should be refrigerated.

4.  Combine the sanding sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle each cookie with 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon-sugar mixture.

5.  Bake cookies 11 to 13 minutes or until golden brown and just set.  Allow the cookies to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

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first day

It has been a whirlwind.  Moving on Saturday and spending the weekend setting up our new temporary home.  And then the kids started school Tuesday.  Trying to take a lot of deep breaths.  Everyone (including me) seems a bit more sensitive.  Trying to keep this in mind as my children struggle to find their place in their new reality.  To keep some continuity, we popped by our home (the one being demoed this weekend) for the first day of school shots.

Abigail was excited for school.  She is eager to improve her multiplication skills and rise to the new expectations of grade 4.  Her teacher is wonderful.

Nathaniel began Grade 1 in the french immersion program.  There are some old friends and lots of new friends to meet.  There are a few more boys in his class this year.  He has reconnected with his best friend from JK and meets him everyday at recess to play.

But he is struggling.  Tears the first, third and now fourth day of school.  It is hard on him, me and the school staff.  At the start of the day he is bound and determined to come home with me.  He is such a strong boy and it takes 1-2 staff to keep him from bolting out the door after me.  I am hoping that he quickly gets into a routine because leaving him in this state every morning is so upsetting.

And Jesse started school yesterday.  His first official day.  I had hoped to do a similar drive past our house to get pictures by the front tree, but ran out of time.  So pictures on the front porch of our rental house made do.  He has actually surprised me.  I was prepared for tears and a bit more separation anxiety.  On his first day he was focused on finding his hook and ran straight for the firetruck on the carpet with a few friends that he knows.

This morning he was a bit teary as he gave me a big hug, but walked in with his class with no problems.  Off to pick him up in an hour.