Kristen S

Mid Basement Project Progress

It’s about that time in the basement project where progress slows down, and it starts to lose its luster. This past weekend was a slog. It took all I had to muster up the courage for another two days worth of painting.

I adorned my battle gear (old boots, track pants and my work shirt) and grabbed my boom box & El Granto and headed into war.

The War against the spiders.

I’m a big, tough grown ass woman, but an eight legged arachnid will send me into a tizzy of screaming like a little girl and running away with my arms above my head.

The basement you see is home to an a colony of daddy long legs reminiscent of Aragog & his family from Harry Potter. They’re huge, mean and out to kill me. It’s true. They almost accomplished this feat by jumping out at me when I was painting the basement brick walls. They would crawl out from behind ductwork, or from behind the washer & dryer or (shudder) crawl out if the overflow drain on the sink. I even had one jump (I swear!) into my hair. Insert shrieking girl, hand waving freak out here.

All told I painted FOUR spiders into the wall, as my only weapon when they attacked me was my paintbrush. I stabbed countless others with the broom, a wire brush and a paint stirrer.

I love animals, but spiders you just don’t make the cut. They are horrible, horrible little creatures. They are almost as bad as those million legged house centipedes.

What else did we accomplish this weekend other than barely making a dent on the storefront spider population?

Painting. So much painting. When we left off last weekend we had painted the first coat of Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofing paint on 3/4 of the laundry room brick walls. The reason only 3/4 of the walls got painted was the fact that we had to move the washer & dryer. We have a bunch of work to do with the washer & dryer, so once we removed them they would be gone for about a week. We left this until the last moment possible so that we could have clean underwear and socks. Those are vital luxuries I’m not willing to go without. So we washed every article of clothing and linens we owned, and removed the washer & dryer.

We have had two brand new Whirlpool laundry pedestals sitting in the boxes for (cough cough) two years. It was time to remedy that. So while I wire brushed and cleaned the walls, El Granto laid the washer & dryer on their backs and installed the pedestals.

The dryer laid on its back ready for its pedestal

Walls wire brushed to remove any loose paint (the grey marks are from my wire brush)

With the washer & dryer in the middle of the room, I set to painting behind them. Like the rest of the walls I painstakingly brushed the first coat of paint ensuring I covered all the nooks and crannies.

We left it to dry overnight and yesterday I came back and rolled on a second coat throughout the laundry room. I used a long nap roller loaded with lots of paint and gave it a heavy coat, back brushing to ensure the paint covered well.

5 gallons of paint and 15 hours of work later, the basement waterproofing paint is done.

Basment Walls Painted with Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofing paint

While I would love to show you a fantastic finished product, sadly that is not the case. The washer & dryer are still in the middle of the room, there is still dirt everywhere, the sink is full of (crap) and the floor is littered with paint cans and displaced tools.

Being mid project is like being in the eye of the storm.

Next up we need to get our Dricore subfloor down & leveled, re-do the dryer ducting & hook back up the washer & dryer. Install drywall (on some) of the walls, and then flooring, lighting, more paint, hiding the wires & plumbing, storage, curtains, pretty things and so much more.

Excuse me while I go wash the spider guts out of my hair.

Basement Step 1

We finally got started on our laundry room project, but before a paintbrush was lifted, we did a lot of research and prep. Basements are notorious for having problems with water (especially ones that are over 100 years-old). As the ad for Dricore told me at Home Depot, 98% of homes have basement water issues.

Basement before shot. Notice the evidence of the water that once entered the basement (from a blocked drain.) and the dirt that came in with it.

Whether it’s a bit of condensation, dampness, or a basement floor that weeps when it rains, you probably have some sort of water hanging out in your basement. Before we could do anything with the basement we needed to get our water under control. We knew the water issue that occurred previously was from a blocked drain in the backyard. That has since been fixed, and the only water we’ve had in the basement since was a little puddle from the giant downpour we had this summer (remember the one with the flooded GO train and the abandoned Ferrari?) Even then the water puddled right beside the drain, and if our floor was sloped properly, it would have made it to the drain on it’s own. (We will be fixing the floor slope as well.)

So our brick foundation is without active leaks, cracks and is generally in good repair. We have a working outdoor drain and two basement floor drains. We have a back flow valve that was installed in the basement floor, and all our broken clay pipes were replaced with PVC.

How else could water possibly get in? Dampness can come up through our cement floor, or in through our unsealed painted bricks.

So we needed to tackle both of these items. After much deliberation we opted to do a waterproofing paint on the walls and a Dricore subfloor on the floor.

Why did we opt to just waterproof paint the walls? Several reasons: we didn’t have active water, and the bricks had been painted in the past. To do an interior waterproofing system we would need to strip all the bricks (possibly causing damage) and then add an interior waterproofing membrane and French drain. Lots lots lots of work, and $.

So option B, waterproofing paint. There are several of these on the market, but only one that I could find which you could paint over existing (in good condition) paint; Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer. We are big fans of Behr paint (we’ve painted most of the house in it). So we feel confident in using the Behr product. While our work wouldn’t be warrantied (Behr only warranties it on unpainted brick). We felt confident that if we did proper prep and application we would be good to go!

Now it was time to prep. A paint job (especially of the waterproofing variety) is only as good as your prep work. So we moved everything away from the walls and got to work. We wire brushed the walls from top to bottom, removing any loose paint, and checking the mortar and brick for any problem areas.

We were happy with the state of our foundation (no cracks, or problem areas! YAY!) So we moved on to cleaning the bricks. We mixed up a solution of TSP and scrubbed the walls with TSP and a scrub brush, then washed off with clean water, and left everything to dry overnight.

Basement walls wire brushed, and washed with TSP

Look how impressed (and sexy!) I look after wire brushing the basement.

The next day we came back and started applying our Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer in un-tinted white . We opted to use a long bristle brush to apply. This would end up being tedious, but ensured that we got the paint into every nook and cranny. We went over all the brick, one brick at a time ensuring we got good coverage with our waterproofing paint.

One coat of Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer painted — One coat of Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer applied

6 hours later and we completed one coat on about 3/4 of the walls in the laundry room. A lot of work, but the results are looking great so far!

I can’t wait to get back down there and finish painting. We have to move the washer & dryer to get to the rest of the basement. Hopefully we’ll have more progress to show you next week.

Toronto West End Real Estate

January is usually a slow time in the real estate market. People are burrowed in their homes keeping warm, not wanting to traipse through feet of snow to visit open houses. The market sees a few homes up for sale, but not the number that usually grace the MLS in spring, summer and fall. Still there’s usually a good little inventory that keep the market going, and offer a decent selection to would be home owners.

This winter in Toronto, there is a lack of inventory on the market, and it’s starting to make people do crazy things. It’s reminiscent of Black Friday at Walmart and people willing to fist fight for a half price flat screen tv. Now don’t get me wrong, the Toronto real estate market is always hot. Back when we were looking we saw over 100 homes and witnessed bidding wars up the prices well over our budget. The worst we experienced was a Victorian on Euclid where we had to wait in line for our scheduled showing and it went over for 100k over asking.

That my friends is nothing compared to what’s been going on in the West end of Toronto in the last few weeks.

A dilapidated fixer in Roncesvalles with soot covered walls, no heat, missing windows, knob and tube wiring and a gaping hole in the roof had over 300 viewers to it’s weekend open house.

Roncesvalles "fixer" — Roncesvalles “fixer”

The listing alone advised viewers to leave their kids at home. This was not a move in ready home. I’m surprised it wasn’t condemned, and to even have electrical and gas service hooked up extensive rehab was needed. The agent estimated that it needed $400k to make it livable. In the end it sold for $803,649. $153,749 over asking. WOWZA. [See the Toronto Star article here.]

In comparison, two streets over from our house, a move in ready, renovated semi with a basement rental unit topped the scales with 500 open house viewers, 32 offers and a selling price of $848,625. A measly (cough cough) $208,725 over asking.

West Toronto semi that sold for almost $210,000 over asking.

This is my neighborhood. The same one where I regularly find beer bottles in my planter boxes, have seen drug deals happen on the corner, and the dog caught a hooker & a john in the back alleyway during the summer. (He barked, and scared them away. )

Our neighborhood is gentrifying, and really it had nowhere to go but up. It was a working class neighborhood with tons of industry which kept it from soaring in the earlier housing booms. Now is it’s time for change, as the industry slowly moves out the condos have started to go up bringing with them new infrastructure as well (a new Metro & Shoppers Drug Mart going in at Dupont & Lansdowne). The proximity to the subway and the vast array of restaurants & bars makes it a hipsters paradise, and the real estate market has followed the brunch crowd. However, $850k for a semi?! That’s just ludicrous! [See The Globe and Mail article on the house here, Toronto Star here, and for a more candid article see the Mash here.]

Is this the way the Toronto West End market is headed? I doubt it. It most likely was a perfect storm with lots of desperate buyers and few houses on the market. Come spring when the mercury gets above sub arctic, and the sellers come out of hibernation, the market will (hopefully) spring back to its normal status quo. Until then, good luck intrepid home buyers, good luck!

High/Low Exterior Lighting

I love the look of a high end item with the price tag of a discount item.

I was perusing the exterior lighting isle at Rona the other day, when I spied this light.

Continue reading “High/Low Exterior Lighting”

Laundry Room Makeover?

Hey guys! We visited the Interior Design Show yesterday (which was awesome.) It really inspired us to get started on some new projects. I am still compiling all my pics and will have an inspiration post up for you in the next couple of days.

Speaking of new projects, on January 21st, 2013 I wrote this post (I have copied verbatim it below):

The entrance to the Storefront is level with the street. What that means for our basement is that it is completely underground and has no windows. At all. Most basements at least have some tiny windows. Not our house. Our basement is dark, damp, and the ceilings are about 6 1/2 feet tall.

So…a dungeon.

: Basement before we moved in, before the reno, before the water damage, and when there was still a strange toilet hanging out in the middle of nowhere… Now this part of the basement is storage for a lot of misc. stuff.

: Basement before the laundry was moved downstairs. Now the washer & dryer live beside the sink

: The “Laundry Room” as it is now. Note the water damage on the back wall

: The laundry sink. It needs some TLC

Its kinda depressing, right?

Couldn’t we just dig out the basement and make it nicer/finished? We could, but that would be expensive and hard. We could never have any windows, and a room without windows is just a bit sad. It would make a good dungeon, but a family room or guestroom? Not a chance.

So…what will become of our basement? Realistically, it can be some storage, a laundry room, a maybe a workshop. You wouldn’t want to spend HOURS working down there, but its warmer than the garage in the winter, and a good place to keep craft/DIY supplies. 1/3 of our basement is already drywalled on the ceiling in the laundryroom area. We’re thinking of adding the workshop to that room, and then using the rest of the basement as storage/utilities.

What do we need to do to get it in shape?

Eradicate the spider population (shudder)
Install a Dricore subfloor to allow any moisture that does get in, to get to the floor drain.
Some sort of (cheap & cheerful) flooring over the Dricore
Figure out what to do with the brick dust that the foundation bricks shed regularly and give the bricks some sort of finish (they have been previously painted but are flaking and yellowing from the water damage from a flood last year). I am thinking a breathable basement/masonry paint.
Install the awesome laundry bases we have had sitting in boxes for the last year.
Scrub our original cast iron utility sink, and refinish the outside of it. It’s beautiful, but has seen better days after the reno and copious amounts of paint brushes being washed in it weekly.
Figure out something to cover/disguise the plumbing/electrical/dryer venting on the laundry wall. Thinking building a floating wall out of wooden slats
Curtain or wall of some sort separating the laundry & workshop from the rest of the basement
Adding some lighting to our dark staircase
Prettying up the staircase ceiling (Paint or more wooden slats?)
Adding a storage rail & hooks to the staircase wall to act as a mini utility closet
Moving the rubber flooring that is currently in the laundry room to the storage area of the basement
Fill some areas of the floor that are crumbling
Organizing/purging the misc crap that has been growing in the basement
Buying A full size ironing board (we only have a mini one, how do we survive?!)
Building a drying rack (preferably one that folds away)
Adding a counter of some sort to stop socks from plummeting to their death behind the dryer. Also a good spot to stack folded clothes etc.
Shelving or cabinets above the washer & dryer for storage of laundry detergent and cleaning supplies
Purchase a dehumidifier to try to control the moisture levels better (especially in the summer)

Here is some of my Basement Inspiration:

Laundry Room/ Workshop Pinterest Board

This isn’t a project that we’ll be focusing on, but we hope we can chip away at it and end up with a usable space (that’s a bit prettier and less scary.)

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

So that post was almost exactly a year ago, and guess what we’ve done to remedy the situation?

NOTHING.

Not. One. Thing.

Everything in that post holds true. We have not improved the floor, the light, or the storage, and the spider population is increasing exponentially.

Where does that leave us? Well its late January in a very cold Toronto. My garage is freezing, and I’m getting antsy to DIY. I miss the smell of sawdust in my nose, or paint in my hair. I need to be wearing ripped paint stained jeans, a giant hoodie, and some earplugs.

So I decided it was time to take on the great big project of our basement laundry room/crafting workshop.

Am I crazy? Absolutely! Is it nice and toasty warm in the basement? YES! So its decided, I am turning the sad, sad space into a pretty, useful space that I wont dread using.

NOW. Where do I start? Anyone? Anyone… Bueller… Bueller?

Don’t Crank That

Sometimes in home ownership you make costly mistakes. Case in point: We close our skylight too tightly.

We have an opening skylight in our bathroom. It opens and closes with a big pole that you turn the handle and it cranks open.

When we had one of our cold snaps I walked into our bathroom to find out skylight had shattered. Don’t worry, it was just the inside piece of plastic (they’re double layered with air in the middle for insulation.) The skylight has a screen, which luckily caught all the jagged pieces of broken plastic.

It still caught me completely off guard. Who knew skylights could just shatter? Why did it happen?

We called our roofers and they assured us that it wouldn’t leak or anything, and it was marked as a low priority. Flash forward to the bitter cold snap we’ve been suffering from (grrr polar vortex grrr). Because it is just sooo darn cold out, and nice and toasty warm inside, we were getting a whole lot of condensation on our now uninsulated skylight. The condensation was dripping down onto our floor and making puddles. We called the roofers back, they upped the importance and scheduled a site visit on one of the coldest days of the year. Upon inspection they discovered that we appear to have tightened the skylight too tightly, and when it expanded with the cold it broke.

A new skylight was ordered, and it was safely installed yesterday taking all the broken pieces of plastic and condensation with it.

Our pocket is lighter, or egos a little bruised, but at least we have a drip free skylight back in our bathroom.

While talking with the roofing company we learned the following:

Only JUST close crank windows & skylights. Over tightening can warp the frame and put pressure on the glass/plastic risking breakage.

DON’T CRANK THAT SOULJA BOY!

On the positive side, dude I’m the freakin HULK. I am so strong my muscles break skylights!!!!

A Wee Bit Cold

While the East coast is getting hit with a big snowstorm, here in Toronto its cold. Like really cold. For the third time in three weeks its dipped into the -30’s with the windchill. For my American friends that’s about -22 Fahrenheit. A week an a half ago it actually went below -40c (-40f).

While it was only -32 when we woke up this morning, we were greeted with frost on the inside of our front door.

Yep, that’s INSIDE THE HOUSE.

Yes, I know I live in Canada. Yes I know it gets cold here.

However Toronto usually doesn’t get this kind of cold. We are usually buffeted by the lake and get very little in the way of snowfall, and usually we are about 5 degrees warmer that other areas. Apparently Mother Nature decided to teach Torontonians a lesson this year, and show us what a real winter is like. (p.s. it’s a bitch)

So as you can imagine, we haven’t done much on the house in the last few weeks! We are working away on a lighting project that we hope to finish this week. We are bundling up on the sofa watching Klondike, and HGTV on repeat. The dog refuses to go out for walks, and wants to be underneath blankets at all times, and we had soup for dinner last night (I hate soup.)

Excuse me while I go drown my cold weary bones in hot hot coffee.

Canada’s Handyman Challenge

Do you have a favorite TV channel? One that you turn to first to see what’s on? Mine is HGTV. Before owning a home I lusted after every home and project and reno on the TV just itching to get my own place. I wanted to learn how to frame a wall, why plumbing needed to be vented and how to tile and drywall. I wanted to be a handy(wo)man.

Needless to say Canada’s Handyman Challenge is one of my favorite shows. It takes average handy Joe’s, and puts them to the test in home building/repair challenges. To top it off, the judges are my favorite hosts on HGTV. Bryan Baeumler, Scott McGillivray and Paul Lafrance. The new season of CHC is about to kick into high gear, premiering tomorrow night (Tuesday January 21st at 10pm ET|PT) on HGTV Canada.

One afternoon when I was busy working on the kitchen project my phone buzzed with an email asking me if I’d like to come down to the set of Canada’s Handyman Challenge and sit down with the judges and host Jenn Robertson. Would I like to visit behind the scenes of one of my fave shows and interview three of my heros? Nah. I’m good. I’d rather be elbows deep in plumbing.

So I went (of course!) I battled a closed road and an out of the way set location and literally ran to make it in time.

When I arrived, I got to tour the set (which was freakin’ awesome!) and then sat down with Bryan, Scott, Paul and Jenn with surprise guest (our buddy) Mike Holmes.

My first realization: Scott’s hair really is that great.

Next realization: The guys are old friends, who get along great and enjoy taking the piss out of one another. Throughout our round table the guys were super relaxed and personable. Scott even told us bloggers that he checked out our blogs (swoon). The strange thing is that you watch these guys on TV so much you kinda think that you know them. That they’re your friends, when really you’ve just been voyeuristic looking at their lives from a box in your living room! They quickly put us at ease and were very candid with our questions.

The four lucky bloggers attending got to ask the gang a question. My question was a bit self serving (I was trying to get the inside scoop so I could take the prize at next years competition.)

I asked this: “What is the one skill that the candidates and handymen in general are lacking?”

I LOVED their answers. Here is what they said:

Scott: Passion.

Paul: Math, Science.

Mike: Confidence.

Jenn: Ability to hang wallpaper! She says there’s always a wallpaper challenge. PRACTICE HOW TO WALLPAPER!

And my favorite response:

Bryan: Planning.

Bryan says people don’t stop and think/plan out what they are doing, they just go head long into the project without thinking how they’re going to do it. I couldn’t agree more. I see my projects going downhill fast unless I plan it out beforehand. I plan on taking Bryan’s advice and planning out my projects more!

I can’t wait to see the judges in action (and what candidates posses the skills the judges are looking for!) I will also start planning my plywood challenge for next year.

Here are a few more behind the scenes pics (I couldn’t share all of my pictures as I was invited on set during the FINAL challenge. So check back after the finale and I will be sharing more pics!.)

I will be chatting on twitter tomorrow night during the premier (Tuesday January 21st at 10pm ET|PT) on HGTV Canada. Follow me @storefrontlife for my witty remarks about my new best friends Bryan, Scott, Paul, & Jenn.

Until then you can get your CHC fix by checking out host bios and behind the scenes videos about the show here.

Would you ever try out for Canada’s Handyman Challenge? Will you be watching tomorrow night?

Focus on the Journey, not the Destination.

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. -Greg Anderson

That is crappy advice. Cause sometimes the journey SUCKS.

Case in point: Gathering supplies for an industrial chandelier project in mid January in Canada without a car.

This is how our weekend went:

Friday after work I took three buses and a shuttle to get to Ikea North York (aka the Ikea in the opposite end of Toronto from where we live.) Getting two lights (which have been sold out at my local Ikea for months). Then taking a shuttle, three subways and a bus to get home. Three and a half hours later I had my lights, and fro-yo. So there’s that saving grace.

Saturday El Granto, myself and the dog headed out to the lumber yard. We took our favorite route along the West Toronto Railpath only to find halfway along our route the path turned into 2″ of solid ice covered in water. AKA the most slippery walk ever. Then it started to rain. We proceeded on city streets, which weren’t much better. Why cant people with corner lots SHOVEL THEIR SIDEWALKS?! Insert blood pressure rising. We got our needed lumber, and El Granto carried it home while I wrangled the bags of supplies and the pooch.

El Granto carrying home a 4x4 8 foot post. — El Granto carrying home a 4×4 8 foot post.

Next we dropped off the dog at home, and took the bus & streetcar to Home Depot to get everything else we needed.

Our menagerie of weird supplies for this project.

I then braved the skating rink which is our backyard, and headed into the garage to spray paint while the weather was warm enough. (It had reached +6 in Toronto, and with the heater on in the garage I could get it to +10, which is the minimum temperature for my spray paint to cure.) I set up my drop cloth and painted three light coats on all my lights & supplies, and left it to dry.

Sunday I went to check on my paint, and discovered that the drop cloth had fallen onto the lights and f@#ked up my paint job. Insert string of expletives. I conquered my anger, sanded down my newly painted lights, and painted another two coats of paint. I then marched them inside to safely dry in the basement. Where no big mean drop cloths could fall on them and make me cry.

Our light(s) after 6 coats of paint. Three would have done it except for the damn drop cloth that decided to fall on it and wreck everything. — Our light(s) after 5 coats of paint. Three would have done it except for the damn drop cloth that decided to fall on it and wreck everything.

SO three days of journey, very little accomplished, and no actual “industrial chandelier” made.

Eff you Journey. I will stop believing.

(Not) Burning Down the House

El Granto is a bit of a tech nerd. He’s not quite Howard Wallowitz, but the man likes him some gadgets. Hell he even has a watch that receives his texts and emails.

I may not be the biggest techy, but when it comes to our home I really have been taken up with home tech. From the simplest touches such as our bathroom fan with a timer, to our IR repeater and of course to our Nest thermostat. I love them all. I want to turn our house into robot house. Bring it Jarvis.

While we’re not quite at the whole home automation level, we have just added three super cool new smart home additions.

Meet our Nest Protect Minions.

When I posted a pic of our install on Instagram I had quite a few questions asking what on earth these things are.
They’re awesome, that’s what.

They also happen to be super smart smoke/co2 detectors that help keep us safe whether we’re burning dinner (that never happens I swear) or fast asleep. They sense smoke and co and will give you vocal warnings when something goes wrong. There is two levels of warning. I like to call them “burnt the toast” and “the effing house is on fire!”. The former will let you know when things are a bit smokey and let you turn off the warning with a wave of your hand. The latter will tell you to get the hell out of your house and notify you via the Nest app to let you know your house is burning down.

It’s a bit hard for me to explain their awesomeness in prose alone, so I will let this video do all the hard work for me.

My favorite part has to be the “nite nite” check, when you turn out the lights for the night the system does a full check and a pulse of green light on all the Nest Protect units lets you know that everything is working and you can safely go to sleep. I also really like that if the Nest Protect senses co2, it will talk to our Nest thermostat and tell it to shut off our gas furnace. Pretty darn cool.

The Nest Protect works with our Nest app, so everything is working together and updating you on one app.

We installed right before Christmas, and just like the Nest Thermostat install it was super easy.

Read and follow the simple instructions.

Scan the QR code on the back of the Nest Protect, enter in your settings and wait for it to sync itself.

Nest Protect doin its thing — Nest Protect doin’ its thing

Then attach it to the ceiling and pop it into place.

After all of them are installed (we have one in our basement, one on the main floor and one on the second floor). You test the whole system and relax, cause your house is now way smarter than you are.

The current weather has put the system through its paces. We were able to check on the system and up the heat during the ice storm & cold snap to make sure the dog wasn’t freezing, and neither were our pipes. We also had the peace of mind that the house was safe, and we could also use it to check and see if we had power when most of the city was dark.

Are they worth the price? I say yes! And if you’re in Canada and don’t already have a CO detector, as of Jan 1, 2014 it became law that you have to have one. So get a co detector!

*BTW We really truly have no affiliation with Nest, we just love their stuff.