the townhouse

Cool Tools: New Shop Vac

2011-05-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, part of the difficulties of fixin' up the homestead is trying to make do with whatever tools you happen to have at hand. I'm not so bad as to just grab a butter knife that's close to hand instead of a proper screwdriver, but - sometimes when I just don't have the time to fly down to the local mega-hardware store - I'll make do with a not perfect solution. But, when I do find the time to plan ahead a bit and then a lot longer time to actually peruse the aisles and aisles of tools and handy stuffs in the mega-store, it's great finding a great tool to help me along on my project.

Here's a cool find. I know, I know; it's only a vacumn. But it's cool, and it's a much-a upgrade from the old dust mover-arounder that I had before, which is about all it ever really did.

It works as a shop vac (of course)

It blows leaves.

It can also accept a hose on the in port, and a hose on the out port, so I can create some negative pressure and feed the exhaust out a window. This is a vast improvement over just blasting into the room I'm working on and creating a huge swirl of drywall dust (redoing a kitchen right now).

It also takes a Hepa filter (the filter it comes with is just ok for backyard leaves and stuff)

And it can take a bag that is not suggested anywhere in the directions, but that saves you from having a big tank of loose drywall dust to empty somewhere.

Anyway, I like it, and if you're trying to keep the dust down, or you have asthma issues, it's a way better way to work.

Earl

On the Radar: Grey

2010-04-29T07:24:00.001-07:00

Marie Claire Idées -somethingfrenchblog

I've been loving everything grey lately - which is funny as I think I fought the colour initially when it first showed up so prominently (I'm one of those that still remembers the greys of the '90's); but as it usually goes, some colours I welcome faster than others, and usually the one's I fight I end up liking the best. Funny thing that, although I'm still not a teal lover. But at the moment I just can't get enough. This weekend I was at Ikea and they had a bedroom set up with their grey painted EDLAND line and with a greyish-white TUNDRA floor and mauve wall - the room really had a great feel to it. A fresh change from all the dark hardwood floors. I think I mostly like the grey furniture and then walls second (not both together though). I'm seriously thinking of painting our entry way and hall grey, we are thinking of going for a lighter wood floor (whitish-grey) and I love the grey wall idea in contrast. What are your favourite colors lately?

Marie Claire Idées -somethingfrenchblog
Marie Claire Idées -somethingfrenchblog
Marie Claire Idées -somethingfrenchblog
Marie Claire Maison - Mudrik
Marie Claire Maison - lilcourt
Marie Claire Maison - CathRobins
Marie Claire Maison

Edible Gardens

2010-04-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

Chris Spagnoli's kitchen garden, Photo Credit: Steven A. Gunther, Sunset Magazine

Every spring, I get the urge to plant a real edible garden. I think more and more, we all feel this way; knowing where our food is coming from, shrinking our eco footprint and well, there's just something about that. Knowing our food is safe, not affected by pesticides and that we grew it. Our neighbor offers us her zuchinni's, tomatoes and lettuce during the summer and another offers us their plums, but it just would be nice to have our own (if you know what I mean). So earlier this week I went looking for online sources, finding a wealth of info at Sunset Magazine. We don't have a backyard to grow a real garden in our townhouse but we do have space to build larger container gardens than we did before in the condo, but this article isn't just about us. We've found some good links for smaller container gardens too. How about you? Are you planning a garden this year? If so and you'd wish to share, (maybe some tips) just shoot me an email or leave a link in the comments, it would be fun to see! Here's a few related links:

No. 1 One pot vegetable garden
No. 2 Edibles in boxes
No. 3 21 best crops for your edible garden
No. 4 Your perfect tomato

Spinach (three to four sixpacks) and 'Bull's Blood' beet greens (three sixpacks) fill a 4- by 4-foot bed., Rob D. Brodman, Sunset Magazine

Sunburst squash and Early Girl tomatoes in big glazed pots (Photo Credit: Thomas J. Story), Sunset Magazine.

'Early Girl ' tomato, 'Purple Ruffles' basil, garlic chives, and jalapeño chiles in a large galvanized planter. (Photo credit: Thomas J. Story), Sunset Magazine

Design in a Bag

2010-03-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

Design in a Bag are ready-made interior design samples for the kitchen and bath created by Chicago-based designers Rebekah Zavelhoff and Nick Nichols of kitchenlab-chicago.com. Starting at $59 each bag includes beautiful samples for tiles, counters, cabinets, counters, paint suggestions as well as images/renderings of what they will look like when they are all put together. Choose from more than 30 bags. Available online at designinabag.com.

Inspiration: Settee Love

2010-03-16T00:01:00.001-07:00

Battersea Sofette from anthropologie.com

There's a nice cosy spot in our new townhome that would perfectly accommodate a settee or a piano. Although I know we can't afford either at this point probably, it's just nice to know we have some choices and one can dream. A few pieces I've been saving for inspiration.

traditionalhome.com

House and Home (Photo credit: Michael Graydon)

via Design is Mine

Canadian House and Home (Photo Credit: Donna Griffith)

Inspiration: Dressing Room Gallery

2009-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

I found this picture of a dressing room over the weekend (still trying to track down where; if it's your blog, just let me know and I'll send credit out). But love it. Whenever I actually get there (for those of you wondering what's happening with our reno's - we are slowly, ever so slowly coming along) - I hope to perhaps create something like this in my closet space. Seems I'm always piling things on top of my shelves, but love the idea of a vintage portrait gallery surrounding me in my dressing room/closet.

Meanwhile back at the townhouse....

2009-10-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, time has flown. Where has it gone? What have we been up to you ask? That's what I'd like to know. Well actually, we do have a business (which comes first), and other jobs and then I guess there's life.

But we have accomplished a few things. Our new furnace is in and running. I never thought I'd ever be posting or boasting about a furnace (it's kind of like a vacuumn cleaner, one of those things you need but never want to buy), but this one is a beauty (looks robotic). Maybe I'll leave the details for E to explain, as I'm really not that interested to be honest, but I do like the idea of having a hepa filter which helps us allergy-proned folk in a big way, and as a bonus (with all these flu scares abound) it is supposed to protect against flu viruses and molds as it removes more than 99 per cent of viruses and molds from a home's filtered air. Ever since we removed the rugs downstairs and got our vents cleaned and installed our new furnace, breathing has come a lot easier. Definitely worth the investment.

Also new, our bath/shower. Our contractor did an amazing job ensuring that there won't be any leaks for a long time. He installed a green board behind the tiles, and then we had a plumber come in and do all the water work. The subway tiling took a little longer to install (since they are so small), and we opted to do the ceiling part as well, but I think it was worth the wait. I don't think I've ever been in a brand new bathtub - and there's just something special about that.

Below is an image I took, trying to get the whole room in it (ceiling to floor). As you can see we've got our work cut out for us, the 16 foot ceilings (all need to be painted) and of course the flooring needs replacing along with the toilet and vanity. Ok, everything...

Here is the before bath/shower (see far left):

So as you can see, we've got our work cut out for us. We even had to buy a new ladder to reach way up there. This Telescopic Ladder we picked up from Home Depot has been our saving grace. And what's nice about it, it can be stored anywhere, and since we don't have a garage, we don't have to worry about hanging it outside ready to help someone to break-in. It stores in our storage room very easily.

Here's hoping our next update won't be as long. We're a lot more behind than we thought we would be by this point. Could this be a three year project? Yikes!

Bath Time!

2009-09-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Inspiration: Livingetc.

The process here at the townhouse at times seems slow (especially to show pictures), but there are many things going on in the background. Next week we are finally tiling our bath and installing a new tub. We have hired a contractor for this, just because we need a plumber to drop the tub (and some stronger arms than mine), there's some construction work needed to ensure the walls will be leak-free and most importantly to rush it up, (as we really need a "real" bath/shower)! Washing one's hair in the sink every morning is just not cutting it. And as it is right now, the old bathtub is surrounded by just the studs, as we pulled out all the drywall and old tile (well linoleum that looked like tile) and because the taps leak when you turn them on (another issue). We have enclosed the area with a nice plastic protector. So it hasn't been exactly relaxing, and after a hard day's work in all this dust we're making, a nice bath/shower is definitely needed. We've taken a few before photos, and I'm adding along some inspiration after them.

We have decided to go with a white subway tile with no decorative trim; due to pricing and luckily, we just like the look. Clean and spa-like. Here are a few images we've collected for inspiration.

Hotel du Nord, Denmark

Livingetc via Desire to Inspire

Photo Credit: Vincent Leroux for Marie Claire Maison

Via Desire to Inspire

Fisherhart via Desire to Inspire

Ode to the Bee

2009-09-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

Andrew's Reclaimed Shop

Last week we had a wasps nest removed from the outside wall of our townhouse. It was a very busy place there when we first moved in, and it also meant we couldn't really go outside and enjoy our patio because of it. So we had to call in the exterminator. This bothered me alot, but we had no other option. After the fact, I saw these cute little beehives on etsy from Andrew's Reclaimed Shop. I wished we could've given them these houses to live in instead, far off in the distance. Hence my Ode to the Bee (or Wasp).

Mama's Little Babies

Beehive Bubbles Print Neato by Matte Stephens

Kim Fox

Potato Potato

Seasonal Delights

Andrew's Reclaimed Shop

A Great Kitchen Reno on H&H

2009-09-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

House and Home has a video on their site of a great condo kitchen reno. Click here to see.

Kitchen Plans: Open Shelving

2009-09-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hotel Du Nord via Boligliv.dk

Last week I saw a post on Desire to Inspire on open shelving for the kitchen. We had them in our last kitchen (which was galley style); and now I'm thinking about them for our new kitchen for two reasons. It's a lot cheaper to do and because I love the look, don't you? It's a modern take on the cosy cabin kitchen, and like a professional kitchen, so efficient (no cupboard doors to open and shut). The only negative of course is dust, and keeping it looking somewhat organized. Here's a few that have caught my eye (including a couple mentioned at Kim's post). Also a big congrats to Kim's very own and awesome kitchen being featured in the October issue of Style at Home. You can also visit it here.

via Remodelista

Indierocket

Indierocket

marieclairemaison.com

marieclairemaison.com

Aquavita DesignPhoto credit: Janet Kimber, from the June 2009 issue of House & Home

via Apartment Therapy

via Aint No Disco

Carolyn Quartermaine - Cote Sud Photos Marten Morell

marieclairemaison.com

via Desire to Inspire

Country Living

House and Home, Photo Credit: Mikkel Vang

hartslane

The Pantry Door

2009-09-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Country Living, Photo Credit: Keith Scott Morton

Dreaming about pantries today. I never had one before, so even though mine is very small and actually holding paint at the moment, I thought I'd log some inspiration. Click here to see more photos.

The Closet Cantina

2009-09-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

It seems we've been taking one step forward then two back as of late, hence the sporadic posting. This past week we jumped ahead quite fast removing most of the kitchen cupboards and backsplash around the tub in the bath. Which in turn motivated me to finally set up our temporary kitchen from our even more temporary kitchen. We had been just making do, with placing things in the hall upstairs in front of a large storage room, while we shifted things from room to room. One thing I've learned so far is, plans never work out the way you planned. How easily do things get side tracked.

So without making this story too too long, the previous plan to work our way down - by finishing the upstairs first, went by the wayside pretty fast this past week when we had to deal with an issue in the kitchen downstairs (more on that later). But I finally got the temporary kitchen set up (well sort of - can't find the shelves for the actual shelf). So still food storage is at a minimum. Think bags and bags on the floor. But we're getting there.

I cleaned out the storage area which was just holding all our paint cans and brushes etc. and moved everything into there. Turns out the room we were initally going to use, needed to be used for bigger storage from things that were downstairs in the kitchen we had to work on. (Like I said, more on that later). But for now we've set up the cantina in the closet. Added a few decorative things (like that Keep Calm and Carry On poster - to help us when things seem a little overwhelming) and a Home Sweet Home caddy from our realtor.

As a side: Due to the lack of facilities we've been eating a lot of take out, and frozen foods so far (which we zap in the microwave). I think we should start rating them we've tried so many. But now that we're set up a bit better perhaps and hopefully soon we'll start using that slow cooker and the toaster oven for other gourmet possibilites (ideas anyone)?

I think it's going to be a long fall.

Things in our closet cantina: Mini Fridge, Toaster Oven, Microwave, Electric Burner, Coffeemaker, two chairs w/tv tray (for a table), shelf & caddy for food/dishes storage and dresser to hold microwave.

Colour Inspiration

2009-08-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today I had to be out of the house while E and friends pulled out the kitchen cupboards and bathroom walls (too much dust), so I headed down to the nearest beach for a little break and some unexpected colour inspiration. While there I took this photo, which reminded me of a Canadian House and Home issue from Dec '07 and article they did on the hues of Canada's varied landscapes. The idea was to set the tone in any room. Now I know I've been thinking white white white, and I still love this idea, but since we're not there yet, I'm liking the idea (and now seriously considering) some of their West Coast and Mountain Range colours (see samples below). Using the hues from the sand, driftwood, grey skies, mountains, snow and water. Loving the different whites, creams along with the greys. I made a slideshow of their other colour inspirations from this article, click here to see. (Photo credit: Felix Wedgewood).

On an unrelated note: Don't you love these small driftwood twigs dipped in the paints? Especially the whites and creams. I'd love it if someone would do this; maybe dipped in porcelain (is that possible)? With a smaller dip in gold?

Oh dust

2009-08-26T12:35:00.001-07:00

Oh dust; it’s one of those things in our homes that we all have to deal with – or not, as the case may be – and that we’re all surrounded by constantly, whether we recoil or embrace it. Now, dust seems pretty low on our collective warning boards, and, indeed maybe it should be, as there are much higher priorities that we all have to worry about; the state of the world in general kinda worries me, but, given sufficient high levels, dust can start to move from “low level”, to “start dusting” to “try not to breathe”. In our newly moved-in home the large red wooden arrow has been moved out of it’s well weathered state of “buy endust” into the “try not to breathe” area of our board, and, well, frankly, dust has become an elevated issue in our home. Seems many of our conversations now either begin with “dusty, eh?” (we are Canadian), to “dusty, eh?” (same as last aside; “eh?” is officially recognized in Canada as either a query or a statement – see the footnoted glossary). Oh, dust.

Now the thing about dust is that it is many things. Many things that is besides an annoyance, and something that we move around and disturb enough to re-land on other household surfaces as we quickly feather dust just prior to guests arriving, and I’ve only recently become fully acquainted with what dust is. We’ve recently had an environment Scientist (is the “environment” portion of that title capitalized? I’m thinking the environment is a Noun) come to the house to give us a good overall idea of the condition of house. What he showed us was surprising. I’ve learned a tremendous amount and I’d like to share it all with you, but I’m running out of time to write this out. I’ll lift the lid on dust tomorrow. See you then.

Lighting Dilemma

2009-08-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

We're having a bit of a lighting dilemma at our new townhouse. Many of the lights - (most of the ones in the upper part of the townhouse) are sconce lighting due to the high ceilings, and are in desperate need of changing. This really proves to be a dilemma, as everywhere I've been looking, all the sconce lighting is very "bathroom-like" in style. This is where you come in. Can you help me with some hopefully "Canadian" sources for nice sconce lighting for rooms other than the bathroom. We need two for the each of the smaller bedrooms and another in the hallway upstairs and then the stairwell going upstairs. I'm looking for more simple modern designed lighting and seem to be only able to find more traditional or chandelier-like styles. Would love your input/help!

Inspiration: Stairways

2009-08-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

Before we moved in, we managed to rip out a bit of the carpet, including the stairway (which you can see we really had no choice). By the looks of it, someone's puppy or cat had the best time ever with these stairs, and we didn't want the experience to continue with our felines. This post is really about inspiration. And although we've had some ideas of what we'd like to do, nothing is really set in stone of course. So we've started collecting and here's what we have so far.

Image from House & Home's Makeovers Issue

Stair diagram & terminology from Alexandria Moulding

Our first thought is to go with wood stairs and because what was under the rug is plywood, we think we are going to have to cover with it with some sort of finishing wood. We thought this new replacement stair facing kit we read about in the latest edition of House & Home's Makeovers Issue from Alexandria Moulding is an interesting idea. Affordable too at $32/2 steps (unfinished oak) and available at Home Depot. Your thoughts?

Image from Desire to Inspire

And then after we decided what to do there, then would come the painting. Initially the idea was to go with all white (much like Kim did from Desire to Inspire (above) and just like the rest of the plan for the townhouse. But then I remembered those beautiful pink stairs I saw a while ago in Wish Magazine (R.I.P.). They were from the home of Liz Kingstone and family (which I even blogged about at the time). See below. Aren't these awesome?

Photo by Michael Graydon

Image of the stairs from the top

And then while searching for ideas, I found these (below). And my heart sank. And now I'm imagining a rainbow set of stairs, with select words stenciled in on each riser. For those of you who haven't seen these before they are a stairway painting in Wuppertal, Germany by artist professor, Horst Glasker. The work is called Scala. The (German) words on the stairs are describing the relationship between human beings. Click here to read some translations. Acrylic paint on 112 steps. Love this.

Photo Credit: FrizzText

Scala - horst-glaesker.de

nrw-wohnt.de

So at the moment, the idea of walking up a rainbow everyday floats about our heads. This is a bit of work. But not too expensive, and possible. For now we dream.

Amazing what a little paint can do...

2009-08-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons we could afford this place was because of the condition it was in. We knew it would be a bit of work, but when we actually did move in, the reality really hit us. This wasn't our first reno, as we fixed-up our previous apartment as well. But it wasn't in any way near the shape this one is in.

So as we sit here looking around and what needs to be done, prioritizing and working around our work schedule, we decided to cut a few corners in order to speed things up a bit. Our first thought was to re-mud all of the walls, as they are of it's time, with that rough speckled finish. With our other place, E drywalled all of the walls (same era) and the smooth surface made a world of difference. That was the plan as we came in, but now looking at all the work and add in the high ceilings on the second floor; drywalling all over again, is rather daunting at this point. So we have decided to opt for just a good coat of paint for now.

The first room we tackled was one of the smaller bedrooms. It was rather dirty, so E TSP'd the walls (using the spray version which is definitely much more easier) and then followed up with a primer over everything including the ceiling. We then painted with a white eggshell for the walls and (a white semi-gloss) for the trim and doors - although we think for the next rooms we'll go with gloss for the trim and doors. We primed the floor white and have just purchased a glossy porch and floor paint (latex finish) that we plan to apply shortly (all white was chosen as mentioned in our previous post due to our darker winter climate and budget. We added some white baseboards as well adding some liquid wood (image below) under the baseboards where the floor was uneven; then painted it white once it dried. We have now primed the floors which are awaiting their first coat of floor paint.

Applying the liquid wood. We sanded and then painted. Once we paint the floors, it should no longer be visible.

The louvered closet doors were a bit of a hassle to paint and in fact I even tweeted about it, "is there an easier way?" Some suggested spray painting. The floors still need to be painted as previously mentioned, but for now, although the room isn't perfect, it is heaps better than it was before. We haven't any inspiration yet for this room although it's a perfect room for writing or studying in. Quiet with a nice desk level window to look out of.

Floors still unfinished in this image, only primed.

Floor Painting Tips: Before painting, ensure all surfaces are clean, sound and dry and free of any oil or grease. If there's a finish on the hardwood floor, you should scuff/sand it first (stainless steel is a good option). Wipe/clean with a damp cloth and then start priming. Always prime before painting.

To begin

2009-08-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

This week we started a new column at Poppytalk called "Makeover on a Budget" which I'm super excited to share! So excited in fact, I've built this blog to keep all the posts in one place. We recently purchased a 70's built townhouse which is in dire need of some upgrading. It's a typical townhouse of it's era with wood- siding, two floors, surrounded by a few evergreens and a nicely sized fenced-in patio. We love the neighborhood, and although it's a fixer upper, the place has good bones and we can see it's potential. Most of the place needs a complete overhaul as it was sorely neglected and in some cases terribly, so I thought it would be fun to share the process, as we attack room by room in hopes of a better place.

As the kitchen and living room are pretty much a right off, we have moved our living quarters temporarily upstairs into the bedrooms and will slowly work our way down. As we don't have tons to spend on this makeover, the process will be slow at times, but thankfully Earl is super-amazing at fixing things as well as loves (yes, loves) reading manuals and how-to books (unlike myself). We are planning to do everything ourselves, except for of course any scary electrical issue we'll have to deal with, along with the odd plumbing situation.

A little background before we get started. We moved in at the beginning of the month, and are living in one room upstairs. This room is the master bedroom, where we've set up sleeping, eating, living and working quarters. I know, a little crazy, but like I said, this is a "makeover on a budget" and since we don't have the luxury of renting a different place while we do this, we'll just have to make it work. The initial plan was to have one of the smaller bedrooms for the kitchen and the master bedroom as the sleep/work/living quarters, however it turned out that the bedroom we were going to use as a temporary kitchen room was terribly dirty, so we are currently painting this room first (now primed) so we can set that up shortly (hopefully with style). We plan on using a slow-cooker, microwave, toaster oven (all previously owned by us) for cooking tools, and I purchased a single burner heating coil for $20. We also purchased a dorm fridge. As the sinks here are clogged and way too dirty for washing dishes, we will be carrying water in with a basin for dish duty. Basically we'll be camping indoors.

The master bedroom as you can see had it's original sculpted 70's green carpet still which we pulled out before we moved in and now have placed a temporary laminate floor in there (scraps from our previous apartment) until we finish the walls and decide on a permanent flooring. We needed something more than just the bare wood for now (due to the residue from a 40 year old carpet). The ceiling in this room (which you can't see in this picture) is 16 feet high, so the room seems alot larger than this image shows, . We are drawing on a few images collected for inspiration:

INSPIRATION:

I like the idea of a simple bedroom with not too much clutter around to confuse thoughts and disrupt a restful environment. This image from Boligliv magazine of a room at the Hotel du Nord in Bornholm, Denmark is an inspiration to start things off, with it's symmetry and basic palette. I've always loved blacks, browns and whites together. (Image of room found via Emma's blogg). I can see everything here could probably be purchased at Ikea, making this a pretty reasonable choice. We may not get the bed right away (in fact I know so) - but it will be the inspiration to start, and we'll see where it takes us.

This is such a plush cosy-comfy-looking room (another I found via Emma's Blogg - image from LivingEtc and styled by Claudia Bryant.) but which looks a little more expensive than the one above. The grey-white-tan palette also appeals to me, emitting a restful saturday morning appeal. I've never thought of actually buying carpet, but looking at this room, makes me almost want to go there. I doubt we'll take this route, however we may draw some inspiration from it.

Because of our climate here in the Pacific Northwest coast (lots of rain and darker days), I am drawing inspiration from the Scandinavians (hence my visit to Emma's blogg), with a plan to have lighter walls and ceilings, so they will give the illusion of light, and will brighten up the bleakest of rainy days (there are many here come winter). So the thought is to go with white flooring, where we'll paint when we can, and lay laminate and tile for the rooms/stairs where we can't.

So we hope you'll follow us in this adventure, where we hope to successfully do a "makeover on a budget" and where too, you'll feel free to make suggestions, give advice or share similar stories in the comments area.