The chronical of how my renovations are going.

The plan

• Destroy current kitchen, turn it into dining room. Remove cheapo floating flooring.
• Destroy load bearing wall to open up apartment and have large living room. Replace wall with steel beam. This also involves destroying the front entryway for the installation of a steel lintel above the doorframe (new door also).
• Destroy bedroom walls, turn 3 bedrooms into 2 big ones
• Refinish all the floors on 1st and 2nd floor apartments
• Install new kitchen in a new location (plumbing, wiring, etc...)
• Have plumbing done to have gas cooktop in kitchen. Have furnace inspected and tuned up.
  

When all is done, it should look like this:

Budget

Day 0

Money spent

• 150$ to cover floor refinishing 'deposit'. Thieves.
• 500$ new door

Day 1

Demolition work has started, all the walls in both double rooms have been knocked down (except the load bearing ones). Two containers full of plaster, wood lathes and wood beams have been hauled out of the apartment, probably at least 1 more to go before we're done.

Floating cheapo flooring in the kitchen removed to reveal 'prelart'. Ugh, will need to scrape the crap out of it to get at the hardwood underneath, but it should be salvageable.

New door has been delivered.

Went to Ikea, redid my kitchen design. New kitchen will be a bit smaller than I had originally anticipated (10' X 10'). On the bright side, I'm gonna get me some granite countertop (which I probably won't get until the first week of august, oh well, a wood plank will suffice). I also decided to get an undermounted sink, which means I have to have one picked out before the Ikea counter installation dudes come measure up my counter (after all the cabinetry has been installed).

Ikea kitchen design should run at around 10,000$ (including all appliances and countertop). Give or take 2k$-ish.

Money spent

• 700$ for containers (delivery, pick up, two shipments)

Day 2

Spent most of the day running around buying things, and the crew has done a bit of demolition. There doesn't (to me) seem like much was accomplished today. The walls/closets for the bedrooms have been setup.

I removed all the linoleum in the old kitchen, I'm hoping the hardwood can be saved.

The bad: in the front entryhall, the little wood/linoleum thingie was covering up a very badly warped/damaged stretch of hardwood (I was hoping the hardwood would be in good shape). This will translate into more expenses, as I'll have to build a new entry area (ceramic tile most likely). It'll probably end up looking nicer though.

Money spent

• 926.62$ building materials
• 350$ container (delivery, pick up one shipment)

Day 3

Electricals have started to be installed. Bought a bunch of concrete (20ish bags) and the concrete slab which will support the steel beam has been poured.

Money spent

• 271.27 building materials

Day 4

Oh my god that thing was heavy. No really, it was really really really really freaking heavy. Allow me to elaborate: It's a 22 foot steel beam that weighs in at around 1000 pounds, there was seven of us lifting it (or about 150 pounds per person).

Momentarily threw out my back near the end of getting it into the apartment. Exceedingly dangerous. No way in hell we are getting that beam into place without hydraulic lifting equipment. No freaking way.

On the plus side, my back doesn't hurt now and there's no stabbing pain, we'll see how it goes over the weekend, I should be good.

Needless to say I'm incredibly concerned about how this operation is unfolding (we should have been about 15 people to get the beam off the truck and in the apartment). The beam is resting on a wooden support structure we put together about 2 feet of the ground. If the supports fail, it'll probably bring down the building in all likelyhood. Stress levels high. Really, it should be fine, but I probably won't sleep until Monday when the beam goes up.

Apart from that, so far so good. We've added the non-shrink grout to the concrete slab, more electricals were taken care of and the front door has been removed (temporarily replaced with some wood planks until we get the lintel in Monday). Replaced the old crappy back door with my front door, which should be a good improvement. Also bought all the gyprock that will go up on all the walls.

Slight change of plan as to how we're going to deal with the entryhall. The angled wall in the front bedroom will be kept at an angle to avoid having to deal with variations in floor height.

Fun times.

Money spent

• 887.76$ building materials
• 350$ for containers (delivery, pick up)
  

Day 5

Where to begin. First off, I had to scramble to get a hold of my engineer because over the weekend I noticed some cracks in the non-shrink grout (which shouldn't happen). This had me in a state of panic because my engineer seems to be busy and doesn't get around to calling his clients back very often. I finally got a hold of him, explained what was going on and he said we'd have to re-do the grout. Ah well, not that bad. Once that was sorted out, Marc and I ventered off to find a way to lift the humungous H beam. We found some lifts which should do the trick.

I spent the rest of the day at Ikea trying to order my kitchen. After a 2 and a half hour wait, spent another hour with their staff working out the details of my kitchen only to realize that the payment to my Visa that I made yesterday hasn't yet been posted so I don't have enough credit to make the purchase. I'll have to waste some more time tomorrow going back there and making the payment.

The guys made some decent progress today. They setup the new grout for the basement, got the vertical support beam in place, lintel and front door installed. With luck, the H beam goes up tomorrow. Once that's taken care of, progress should really start to fly on getting the drywall up and the finishing work should be underway.

Money spent

• 36.35$ Building materials

Day 6

Great success! The beam finally went up today, all my stress has evaporated.

Work should quickly pick up the pace now that we've got the beam in place. All that's left is some plumbing, electricals, and drywall. Fun times.

Went to Ikea, bought my kitchen, it should arrive this friday. Should be assembled by next wednesday. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get the sink or cooktop setup until the countertop arrives, which will probably be in about 1 month.

Note to self: Call back granite place to make sure i've got a booking setup for the counter top. Also order the sink.

Money spent

• 83.46$ building materials
• 11,515.45$ Kitchen from Ikea

Day 7

Today the crew re-built my entrance area, it was very much over due. They've also made some headway in setting up the drywall in the bedrooms. I'll probably have to buy some tile for the entryway soon.

I started work on the second floor apartment with the help of my parents. We ripped out the ugly bathroom cabinet that was pretty much inside the shower, ripped out the counter top in the kitchen, and then went shopping to figure out how to fix everything we destroyed :)

Got some tiles for the countertop, and some sheet plastic-like material for the bathtub. Marc's got a tile cutting thingie so we should be able to make quick work of the counter in the kitchen, and setting up the bathroom should be relatively painless. Still, an extra 500 hundred bucks spent and the second floor is far from ready.

I also started getting the rooms ready for paint, and it's a pain. The walls all have about 10 layers of paint on them, and they are all peeling so I've got to strip off all the excess paint layers before priming. Ugh. With luck tomorrow I shoudln't have to spend much money and can get all the rooms prepped for primer.

Note to self: Booked the granite measurements for the 30th of July, so I should have counter top by the 13th of August. Awesome. Buy sink! Buy faucet!

Money spent

• 528.27$ building materials
• 223.77$ tool rental

Day 8

Today the crew made lots of progress on the drywall. I spent most of the day wrecking the 2nd floor apartment with my parents. My dad got some plumbing on the second floor taken care of, ang G helped out a bit with getting the big front room ready for painting by scraping away at paint that was flaking off.

Money spent

• 5000$ labour

Day 9

My kitchen has arrived from Ikea, huzzah. The crew has been busy with the drywall and have now started to do the joints.

On the second floor it's been an interesting experience. The countertop in the kitchen was rotten, and Marc made me another one. The bathroom wall was rotten underneath the tile, so I ripped it out. Time for the big guns, I'm going to put some concreteboard in there and fix it permanently.

I'm now officially starting to bleed money and I'm pretty sure I'll be off my estimates by a significant margin. Oh well, there's been alot of additions to the work I had originally planned for.

Money spent

• 453.40$ building materials

Day 10-11

More progress is being made on the plaster work in both apartments. Feels like this is painfully slow going.

More fun surprises today, the floor underneath where my old sink was is rotten and needs to be replaced! Fun times, I tell ya.

Day 12-13

The plasterwork on both floors are pretty much done. The kitchen counter on the second floor was tiled and grouted. The concrete board for the bathroom on the second floor was installed as well as the plastic tile thingie to cover it up.

The new kitchen walls have been painted with primer. This is good this weekend we should be able to put together the kitchen and get everything ready for installation.

Spent a fair bit of coin today, bought tile, cement, kitchen faucet and some paint. Also paid up for the labour.

Money spent (last few days)

• 892.79$ building materials
• 5720$ labour
  

Day 14

More fun with plaster all over the second floor apartment. Not much left to do on the second floor, mostly plaster/sanding and we should be good for painting this weekend.

On the first floor progress is slow but steady (I think). The cement for the entrance is poured and should be ready for tile monday. By next thursday everything should be finished.

Money spent

• 1472.13$ building materials (been saving up bills)

Day 15

When will this plaster hell ever end? I'm still not finished working on the plaster on the second floor.

My parents are putting together the Ikea stuff on the first floor, so far so good. G's also been helping out with some cleaning and stuff.

With luck, paint will fly tomorrow.

Day 16

Luck wasn't with me apparently. I _think_ I've managed to finish the plaster (assuming I don't find anything else that needs major work). We've (G and I) taped all the rooms we'll be able to do with the paint gun, so primer all day tomorrow.

My parents have been very helpful in putting together my entire kitchen (without doors or rails). Looks like everything should fit quite nicely. Adjusting the cabinetry to my funhouse crooked floors should prove interesting.

Day 17 (July 23)

Argh. One of the contractors decided to quit, yay! Marc's on vacation, so that leaves me with 1 guy so far working on getting everything ready. He's been working on getting the floor patched up. The deadline of the 27th is looming.

On the second floor, things aren't much better. Today I managed to get the two front rooms primed. I need to finish up the plaster in the bathroom, prime the dining room, kitchen, and bathroom, ideally all in the next three days. Oh, and I also have to have the finishing coat everywhere, and hope that I don't need to put two down. Fuck.

Day 18-19 (July 25)

Making progress on the second floor, it's primed everywhere. Tomorrow should be good for finishing coat, now if only I started getting some calls from renters.

First floor is a pain. The Ikea kitchen wasn't exactly designed with funhouse floors/walls in mind. The guys are having a bit of difficulty in getting everything to fit where it's supposed to.

In theory tomorrow this should be taken care of. My TODO list isn't being cleared out real fast, most of this is going to have to wait until the guys come back from vacation. All I'm hoping for at this point is: apartment is primed, floors patched, kitchen installed, plumbing done, back stairwell functional.

Everything else can be done later more or less (I'll be living in a construction zone).

Day 20 (July 26)

Yay, the kitchen is installed. Well actually the cabinetry is installed, none of the doors/shelves/rails/etc are installed, but everything is where it should be and the island has been put together. It looks awesome, I'll put up some pics tomorrow.

Time is going to be tight, so at this point I think they'll only have time to finish up the floors and fix up the back stairwell. I'm still hoping for primer, but I won't hold my breath (it would suck to have to prime after the floors have been freshly done though).

The second floor is progressing, should be done tomorrow.

Day 21-22 (July 27)

The floors are being sanded/varnished as I write this. Huzzah. Most of the apartment has been primed, so I'm actually in pretty good shape.

Another unpleasant surprise on the second floor, the linoleum in the kitchen is hiding a totally fucked up floor. It looks like they put a levelling liquid on it, so I'm going to remove the linoleum and put down some new flooring of some sort.

The floors guys recommended I don't put down crystal on my floors since it might have reacted with some of the crap that was done to them, so I'm going with polyurethane varnish instead (they say it looks as good but is slightly less durable). Today I take care of bills and moving everything to new address.

The end is nigh.

Money spent

• 2,600.00$ floor refinishing

Update: Of course, a day without something going wrong isn't possible. The sanding guys had no problems with the second floor apartment, and it's been sanded/sealed/varnished. In my place, it was a bit more complicated and the sander jumped around a bit while they were evening out the patches so they will need an extra day of sanding to get the job done. I also will be spending this evening going around my apartment with plastic wood getting it ready for tomorrow.

This leaves me a bit tight on time, as they will need to work Sunday to get the job done so that on Monday I can get the counter guys in.

Day 23 (July 28)

Second coat of varnish done on second floor, first coat done on first floor.

I've started packing up the stuff in my apartment.

Day 24 (July 29)

Second coat of varnish done on first floor, looks amazing. Still packing everything up today.

Day 25-26 (July 31)

Just finished moving today. My folks helped me pack the last little details (although I forgot my stupid shaving kit in the old place after leaving keys in the mail slot).

No major incidents to report, everything has survived the move and now the fun times of putting together my kitchen await me in the comming weeks.

Need to rip out linoleum on second floor this week and put down some new stuff, it has to be ready to rent asap.

There's still alot of finishing work that needs to get done to finish up my place. Stuff like plumbing needs to wait for the counter to be in and there's still quite a bit of small things (plinths, electricals, etc..). Will also need to actually put some finishing paint everywhere once I've figured out what kind of coulours I want.

Money spent

• 600$ movers

Day 30something (August 11)

I've been keeping busy, back at work and working nights and weekends on getting a few things finished up.

I finished ripping out the vinyl flooring in the kitchen on the second floor. Also starting installing the new vinyl flooring and it should be done tomorrow. Then I should probably put a last coat of paint in the bathroom on the second floor to make it look nice, install moulding in bathroom and then it'll finally be finished.

In my place, no progress to report. The counter is due to be installed next thursday (16th). After that I need to schedule the plumber and get my workers back in here to finish up.

Day 40ish (August 30)

Lots of stuff has happened since the last update... Second floor was all finished up, and it's rented.

In my place, the countertop was installed, the gas plumber came by and installed the gas line for the cooktop, the electricals are pretty much done everywhere and all the plumbing is done.

I've pretty much installed all the drawers and cabinet doors. To finish up in the kitchen I'm going to have to go to ikea and get a missing plank or two, but it should be completely done before the end of this weekend.

I should also be able to finish up alot of little things around the house, move my office into the spare bedroom and finally unpack everything. The end is nigh.

The gas dudes will be here tomorrow to install the liner in the chimney .

Money spent

• Labour 4366$
• Steel beam 2400$

Day 47 (Sept 6)

Since last update, mouldings done everywhere, liner installed in chimney, kitchen 99% done, chimney downstairs walled up, door to basement re-installed, basement outside entry now has ciment edge to prevent infiltration.

Left: tiling in living room, backsplash in kitchen, front door wood panelling, and painting. I'll be spending the weekend varnishing outside door and re-painting stairs and rails outside. Fun fun! (hope weather is good).

TODO LIST

Finish plaster work on second floor bedrooms

Plaster bathroom on second floor

Prime second floor

Paint everything on second floor

Fix up wall next to kitchen sink on second floor

Varnish wood moulding on kitchen sink second floor

Put together Ikea kitchen for my place

Install Ikea kitchen

Install flooring in kitchen on second floor
Get a coat of primer done everywhere in my apartment

Fix up floor in my apartment

Get plumbing done for gas: heating, cooktup, heater tune up. (after countertop installed)

Have the countertop measured (scheduled 30th)

Install countertop (somewhere around 13th august)

Remove legacy plumbing

Fix up back stairwell into cellar

Install stained glass pane in front door

Install plinths where they are missing

Get floors refinished (scheduled 27-28)

Pack and move small stuff (29-30th maybe)

Schedule move stuff (hydro, videotron, telus, etc...)

Move (scheduled 31st)
Kitchen: add plank next to fridge
Kitchen: Add plank next to oven
Kitchen: Figure out a way to get the planks installed in front of sink
Kitchen: install plinths
Kitchen: screw the cabinet in island to outer board and/or shim it
Get plumbing done for sink/dishwasher/fridge

Get electricals done for dishwasher/oven/cooktop
Install lighting fixtures in living room
Check to make sure outside lights still work
Doorbell?
Back door: fix it up so that it's ready for winter
Tile entry
Add missing plinths/mouldings everywhere

Get cover plates for all light switches, electrical sockets, etc...
Fix up back door to cellar somehow
Rip out Bell wiring everywhere
Electricity in living room
Fix plug next to staircase
Install air intake for heater

Install dryer exhaust, fix up whole somehow
Condemn the window in the back downstairs
Install wood panelling for front door

Fix up woodwork in living room around window

Install quarter-round mouldings everywhere

Prime dining room
Fix plaster in my room next to window
Paint everywhere *pant pant*