house Archives - Page 3 of 6

Massively Unprepared for a Massive Renovation

Jun 15 2015

Last time my main room will ever look like this.

Oh boy guys. Might have bit off more than I can chew.

I’m like a squatter with a mortgage again, back on an air mattress.

Usually I’m hyper-prepared, but not this project, and am not handling it great. My neighbours saw it in my frantic eyes Saturday, and like how I always say they’re the best, 5 showed up early yesterday morning to help me transfer all my belongs to a trailer.

Minimalist forever.

What is happening?

When I bought the house last July, only thing I put off was the electrical work, it was too huge an undertaking in both cost and time.

Then, living through the winter I realized more fresh air is needed in the main room, and remember, that was the first time I bought something on credit: windows.

So I combined the jobs into Mega Renovation, added more (washing machine repair, plumber) plus “paint the interior of house” because let’s do this project properly.

So if I’m going to have 8 trades coming through and drywall dust everywhere, no way am I leaving my belongings to soak it up. Plus it creates a pleasant work environment for everyone.

Above – the 30-point electrical to-do list

Below – in the trailer while it’s being backed up, playing “Catch my Stuff”

Add the stress that I put everything into a trailer like here, take my life with a tow hook.

So locked it, then parked This Week’s Car in front – 2015 Jaguar XJL.

Added a heater inside.

Here we go!

“Operation Last Renovation of My Life I’m Never Doing this Again and will be Removed from this House in a Box” kicked off at 8am today.

Sorry in advance if it’s a light blog week, and please send good luck!

Can you Spot the 5 OCD Things?

Jun 15 2015

There are 5 things in the above photo that make me nuts. Scroll for answer.

It’s the view from my couch, and, the only place I sit in my main room.

It’s all I can see.

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1 – the door is superfluous. It’s access to the water main, which is accessible from the other side

2 – the fire detector should be to the right, out of sight

3 – the silver rail should be white, to blend in

4 – terrible spot for a light switch, it jars the eye and ruins its flow

And the trickiest of the 5…

5 – the trim changes either side of the door. Now that’s all you can see, too.

Bought on Credit for the First Time

Jan 29 2015

Always ran my finances like, “if I can’t pay cash, probably shouldn’t be buying this.”

To be clear: I use a Visa daily, it accumulates flight points, but always have the cash to pay off at the month’s end, which also helps my credit score, like that #TheTrickIsFullPaymentAlways #GoodCreditScoreIsKey #SuchNicheHashtags

It’s fast to fill out the form, forever to deal with the consequences eh.

But fresh air is essential.

The windows.

(I tape things out always)

Details – each window is equidistant from the corners, 14″ high, drywall return, awning opening, reeded glass running horizontally, and all for just $60/month PHFT.

Bet that’s the part that gets me into trouble, the PHFT, how it would accumulate… because I don’t have that chunk of cash kicking around, so guess that’s how credit happens huh… #NotARenterAnymore

Blog tag = house

Shovelled my House for the 1st Time

Dec 12 2014

Living downtown, I saw snow like twice a winter, and used the underground city instead. Today I returned to 2 feet of it.

I enjoyed it, so simple and immediate, the opposite of writing and blogging – move snow from here to there, go. Plus doing this for the next 3 months phft, let’s get country strong.

Cause woah, snow weighs a lot eh.

Now to add a photo that makes it clear I travelled today.

It scented the whole lobby.

World’s best backpack.

Good trip, good to be home.

I won.

And the end, because it’s now neighbour-beer-&-catchup time, have a good weekend xo TTY Monday.

Again, I know, I’m Sorry

Dec 2 2014

Can you tell I am not into it? Probably.

Hi from the couch. It’s the grey days, plus the cold, a metaphorical sucker punch in the gut bahhh. So cheap, to sucker. I should tweet that line.

I’m drowning in newspaper deadlines, it’s business year end plus a drawer of Life Admin… sorry but taking the rest of the week off here, to get things in order to start a fresh year. Reminder that corporate taxes are due soon.

Back to regular daily updates on Monday… we’re off to Michigan next week for Ford’s annual Christmas party, and tomorrow’s column I’m trying something new, a sequel: Driving Tricks Part 2.

Still in the Civic, still loving the throw.

Been sewing.

I love sewing, specifically quilting. Here’s the first one I ever made #BenefitOfBlogging

In my mind, setting up my machine was a benchmark in the 4-month saga that was my house winterization project. A kind’ve finishing move, “kk when the renovation is complete, I get to just live in it and do things like sew” benchmark.

Achieved that Sunday, and it’s distracting me. Currently working on curtain tie-backs.

Modified this old piece using left-over curtain fabric, therefore all fabric in my house is exactly the same YES how’s that for plain. Love plain.

You’ve seen this cabinet on my blog since 2007. Best it’s ever looked.

Was introduced to this truck.. OKAY have you seen this thing in action – 2015 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6

Something that big and heavy that can move like that PHFT… I’ll go find you a video link brb….. here, Top Gear, Richard Hammond drives in the dunes of Dubai.

And here’s me… curling my hair in a parking lot.