A Place For My Shoes (or New Master Bedroom Closets)

Really the worst thing about this house is the bedroom closets. I have never seen any that are more poorly designed; the person who installed them must have been on drugs. In a typical closet the rod runs from left to right allowing you to see all but the clothes in the farthest corners. In these closets the bar runs front to back allowing you to see only one piece of clothing at a time.

For this reason, you would end up wearing on the first 5 items over and over as it was took much hassle to look any deeper. We ended up each taking a closet in the 2 bedrooms and I must admit that my clothes lived on the floor as it was easier to find them if they were not in the closet.

To remedy the situation, I decided to re-configure the master bedroom closet and build a new wall of clothes storage.

We spent one weekend (which ended up turning into 2 weekends) framing, dry walling and installing doors for the new closets. As it was our first time installing doors we purchased pre-hung ones thinking it would be easier. Unfortunately we had to reduce the height of the doors by 6 inches to fit under the slopped ceiling. Since there were recessed panels on the doors we had to take 3 inches off each end, so we had to re-install the hinges and handles anyways.

Other problems we encountered were: having to drill pilot holes to be able to screw together the framing, running out of screws late Sunday night, having to run down 2 flights of stairs to cut each piece of molding and framing. Also my skills at estimating timelines are greatly lacking. Each step took longer than I had planned for.

The final product is amazing. Each of us has our own space, we can see our clothes again and my shoes have a beautiful new home.

And now we know: seriously the right tools make a HUGE difference, like could have cut this project time by 50%. Just pay the extra to rent them and spare yourself the grief

Changing the Upstairs Toilet

Mysteriously more water suddenly started appearing in our bathroom. This time it was pooling around the toilet. We peeled back the ugly sheet vinyl flooring and discovered a soaked subfloor that smelled rank. It appeared to be rotting, which seemed to indicate a repeat problem.

Having already fixed the pipes and the caulking we figured it must be the toilet this time. So the night before our EcoEnergy follow up visit, we rushed out to Home Depot and purchased a low flow toilet in order to get the rebate. Installation seems easy enough and we flushed to test. Bad idea, water went everywhere.

Turns out the problem was not the toilet, it was the installation. The previous one was not re-installed properly after one of the plumber visits. So that was 150$ that did not have to be spent. The toilet is nice though J

And now we know: take out the old wax ring before installing a new one. If you put the new one on top of the old one, the toilet will leak.

Changing the Door Handles

Sometimes the small things make the biggest difference. I am working my way through the house changing the door handles from the old clear glass knobs...

To these simple round knobs (cheap and cheerful!)

And now we know: do not buy the cheapest kit to drill the holes for door handles. The pieces get stuck together and the project gets stalled while your husband treks over to his grandfathers to use a vice to separate them.

Installation of Hardwood Floor

The back room sat empty for 4 months with nothing but plywood subfloor. It was still a useful space, plenty of painting and wedding projects got done in this room. Come October we were really getting antsy to get some flooring down. Before the basement problems, it was planned to be our only summer house project, but plans changed.

My parents gifted us hardwood as a generous wedding present, lovely light maple in 1 ¼” wide boards. This would darken to match the existing golden colour of the hardwood in the rest of the house. A friend with experience (and tools) spent one Saturday helping us install the floor and baseboards. Although it took 3 months longer than anticipated, the result is gorgeous and this room has fast become our favorite.

And now we know: Friends with knowledge and tools are great! Hardwood is a project that we can actually do.

And Then Water Rained Down...

One day water randomly started coming through the kitchen ceiling. The bathroom is directly above that area, so we deduced that this was were it was coming from. Not having any plumbing experience we called in a pro. The plumber cut a hole where the water was coming in and took a look. A pipe had cracked. So he replaced it and no more water problems.

I proceeded to patch the ceiling. A very crappy patching job; likely because the ceiling is ¾” plaster and I patched it with ½” drywall. Before I even got it finished, water started coming through again. Since the patching was going badly anyways, we opened it up again. We checked the toilet and monitored the drains. No source could be found.

So back came the plumber. He pocked around the pipes and looked at the bathroom. Nothing was wrong, he suggested it might be from the tub leaking behind the wall. So we cut a hole behind the shower fixtures from the second bedroom wall to monitor where the water came from.

Turns out my husband had re-caulked the tub recently. This was the cause. I re-caulked it and that was the end of that water problem.

This is how our kitchen ceiling currently looks and it will stay this way until we redo the bathroom. It feels like tempting fate to patch it at this point.

And now we know: just cause you have one giant house problem does not mean another is not around the corner. Also that my husband should not caulk.

A New Furnace is Installed

The existing furnace was oil and dated from 1963. We replaced it with a high efficiency gas furnace.

This was the most painless of our home improvements, likely cause it was done by a team of professionals. It took 2 days, the men where very nice and there were no problems. Not really the prettiest investment in your home though.

The Problems Begin

The day after we got possession of the house we were down in the basement and noticed a pool of water near the floor drain. Concerned we called in the big guns (my dad and a carpenter friend) and started investigating where the water was coming from. We followed the water flow further and further south-east in the basement, demoing walls and floors as we went. Over the course of a few weekends, we finally trailed it back to the concrete block walls.

By this time our finished basement was no longer finished. All the items we had stored down there were relocated to the 2^nd bedroom and there were piles of building material on our driveway. We were the ‘white trash’ neighbors whose house is an eyesore for the whole street.

All the demo work meant long days in the stifling hot basement. It meant finding mouse carcasses in the ceiling, cursing the crazy building techniques where someone had used nails and screws on every board and discovering that someone had applied tar to not only the interior walls but the floors as well. Most of all it meant stress and lots of time lost.

What we discovered was that there was water rushing in through our concrete block walls in a couple of locations. The water ran under the finished floor, out into the unfinished laundry room and into the floor drain. There was rotten wood, but luckily no mold.

And now we know: old people may seem sweet but do not trust them, they are evil. Don’t bother with a home inspector, they are not responsible for anything so what do they care if they do a thorough job? What you think is the worst that can go wrong can always get worse.