Rejuvenation Projects Blog

Framing the fireplace for cement board application

Here we are, getting ready to frame up the fireplace for the cement board and mantle.

Installed mantle with cement board

And here’s the mantle!  Installed, with cement board interior (all ready for tile) and drywall ready for mudding.  Here’s a nice detailed shot:

Larger top piece added (I'm not sure why but hey, lookin good)

Mudding has begun!

And finally, the baseboard has been pieced to match with scraps reclaimed from our other reno projects and the mudding has begun.  Next post, the primed result.

So after we got the lights and went all Hardcore with immediate installation, we waited a couple of months and then took on the daunting task of ripping out our fireplace.  For some reason, I had thought this would be a relatively easy task.  Even though we had discovered many “cover-ups” in the house, we had this odd faith-based assumption that the fireplace was neither a cover-up nor a badly done operation.

Ha!  So lets take a moment to recall the original before – and what it looked like when we got started:

Our old fireplace (now painted white!)

I never understood the grill things – I had thought they were useful (why put them in otherwise?) and was told that they were recent, but when we had a company come in and look at our fireplace/chimney they laughed.  Apparently it was a trend in the 70s, not entirely useful and obviously “recent” is in the eye of the beholder.

Did you notice the lights?  I love the style of the Glide – though picking finished from the web was tough.  I decided to go with a polished nickel cup finish, a bronze gilt body finish, and a 7″ ivory shade.  They coordinate perfectly with the Blairmont, I’m really happy with the overall look.   I picked this series because the stepping on the shades echoed perfectly all the wood molding in the house.  I’ve never seen anything quite like this series here in Ottawa, so I like that they set my home out in a neighborhood where most of the interior details look the same.

Okay, sorry!  Side-tracked by lighting.  So we got started on the mantle – I should say my hub started ripping it apart and I followed him around with a shop vac.

Stone facing on a brick base

We discovered that the stone was all attached to brick.  And cinder blocks.  I’m not really sure what I expected, to be honest…

All the stones are off - just the brick remains

Construction material shoved into the cavity behind the brick

We quickly discovered that behind the brick was a large cavity full of construction debris (nails, saw blades, mouse nests, 1977 newspapers).  I think at this point, we were starting to wonder if the project would get intimidating.

Off with the bricks and cinder blocks, it all weighed a ton

Demo completed

Of course, I dragged the new mantle in to make sure it would fit.

A shot of our old fireplace with the new mantle on stand-by

At this point, we clued into the idea of protecting our new light fixtures and realized the project was going to make an extremely large mess so we had cleared out a lot of the space.  Finally – with a little guidance and a couple of days work, the fireplace started to evolve quickly.

The very first thing that happened in our living room/dining areas was the addition of boxes for lighting – before ordering from Rejuvenation, I went into my “stock” and pulled out these to be place holders:

View of dining area from the kitchen

An antique, not quite period appropriate for the house but nice enough.

View from the living room

Fireplace, painted white with classy outdoor light fixtures.

At this point, we had found an art deco mantle and had taped off its dimensions.  We used these to indicate where the new lights should be wired.  As soon as we had the lights in place, I got all excited about our living room/dining room reno and ordered my lights from Rejuvenation.  The first one arrived and it looked like this….

A sad day for package delivery in Canada - the box looked like it had had some Tough Love.

I had feared ordering something across borders – I called up customer service (who were, of course, very kind and helpful) and a little while later, a new pile appeared.

The lighting arrives for our living room/dining room area

I’ll admit, I was a little afraid to check it out!  But I soon ripped into the boxes and discovered…

One piece! It was like Christmas come early in our house.

I have to tell you – for me, home decor and renovating ALWAYS leads back to lighting so when I opened up my new Blairmount light fixture (in polished nickel with the 16″ ivory shade) I was ecstatic to see the high quality and style in person.  Of course, before finishing any of the other projects for our space, I had to get it up.

A nice start - the light installed.

Still outstanding?  Everything.  Just imagine this space with refinished floors, new drapes, reupholstered chairs, no cat tower… My next post will be all about our fireplace demo!

With our sunroom halted, we have started to move forward on activities in our combined living and dining room.  Here’s a shot of the before:

Our fieldstone fireplace (added in the 70s) and blue wall-to-wall carpeting

While it was still listed, the previous owners had all of the carpet ripped out to expose the original birch floors underneath.  They had been covered since the 1960s.

Another shot, facing west (towards the dining area):

West facing window with door to kitchen area.

On our list of things to do:

• Add light fixtures to define the space and add character
• Rip out the fireplace and add something more deco appropriate (and in-scale with the house)
• Refinish floors and add a tile hearth
• Patch and paint walls/trim/etc.

So our sunroom reno continues…

Foam up, ready for stucco

We hired a great stucco guy to do it up, he matched our windows perfectly.  Did you notice that our ugly satellite dish took a walk?  It was such an eyesore!  And check out the new door on the garage   We obviously like to multi-task.

Another view

On the inside – we still have to insulate and drywall but we’re getting there.

Where the door used to be

The new door!

You can see the new wiring hanging down – we’re looking forward to getting it fully insulated and finished up this spring.  I actually got my hands on another light that matches the one in our office – the finish is a different colour and well-suited for our new space so I’m just going to rewire it

So after eliminating the ants (and all the siding!), my hub finished up the framing and put up all new sheeting -

The new location for the back door.

Framing done, time for windows!

At this point, it started looking like a brand new addition and neighbors started commenting.  Through our whole renovation, our neighbors have been really wonderful and supportive of all the changes.  We feel really lucky!

And with windows!

The windows we got were a real steal – they look great!

Matching windows makes a difference

They look great and have added a real pow to the overall appearance of our home.

And a new door!

We completed it all with a new door – to be painted out next year.  But a real backdoor, what a difference!  Next up, the current state of the interior and the stucco job.

I have to admit, I completely forgot to finish writing about my summer sunroom project.  It happened in bits and pieces – took so long and is still a work in progress!  After we bought a pile of windows at our local ReStore, it took a few months for us to find the time to begin any sort of installation process or to figure out how we wanted to situate them in the space. 

All that to say, eventually we started demoing the space and quickly discovered this:

Our roommates

Also known as carpenter ants.  Not good news but not really bad news as they were located exactly where we wanted to put a door.  We did more demoing and discovered another nest (of course) – we did eventually manage to get them all out but not before our sunroom looked like this:

Nice view though, right?  With our garage opening into the backyard on the left side of the sunroom, we decided to move the back door from the pool area closer to the garage so we can use it easily in the winter.

New window frames but the same old stairs

Note that the door to the garage is boarded up (you can see it on the left, through the fence).  Next year, we will build a deck off the sunroom (I hope! One step at a time, right?  Or something).  After the framing for the door was done and the stairs moved – my hub and a friend finished all the new frames for the new windows…

Window framing done, door moved.

Complete with model – it was at this point that we started to get excited about the possibilities of this space.

Of course we were DIYing it up – here’s a great shot of the guys in action, closing in the space:

Balancing is half the fun

Next up, window and door installation!

Just like any other DIY renovator, we’re finding that each project takes a lot of time to get done.  My hub and I both have our day jobs, a year into renovating we now call this Our Other Job.  All that to say, our office is finally starting to come together.

So what has been done?

• Demo’d wall of closets between office and kitchen
• Ripped out old carpet
• Built new wall with pocket door
• Added built-in bookcases
• Rewired throughout, added network wiring
• Repaired walls, painted all walls and trim (and built-in to match!)
• Added new programmable thermostat
• Added new lights throughout (including one that we bought at The Great Glebe Garage Sale and had replated)
• Added wall length bulletin board
• Decorated!

The current state:

Office view from the kitchen

For us, it’s all about having a cosy space to sit and read – with a great view of the front yard from the desk.

Full view of the built-ins

I had to stand on the sofa to get this shot – the office isn’t a huge room but it holds everything we need.

The Reading Chair

When my hub saw this chair, he had to have it.

We hung some art – these posters are from the Women of the Red Cross series launched by the Canadian Red Cross.

The new-old ceiling light fixture.

And finally – our newly replated ceiling light fixture.  This replaced the huge ceiling fan that was here when we bought the house.

Outstanding (read: probably won’t get done for years):

• Paint out trim around bulletin board to match
• Figure out how to weather proof the original windows (they are so drafty, blah)
• Add new air intake vent covers (the size we have requires custom, we may play with the floor a bit to be able to order standard size)
• Refinish floors (they are in seriously sad shape)

Details you may find interesting:

• Woodwork done by Ottawa valley local – Bill Davidson (it’s beautiful and a perfect match to our kitchen cabinets – did I mention how uneven the floors were?) with hardware from Lee Valley.
• Wall Light – although Rejuvenation carries the Bruno series, they don’t have the scissor arm version.  I had to hunt hard for it – I’m hoping to be able to get the floor version to go with my sofa.
• Ceiling light – Replating done locally by Gary’s Custom Cycle.  He did a great job (please note – he really encouraged us to stay with the original yellow finish, it was in perfect condition.  I always admire dedication like that).
• Furniture – Couch via Kijiji Ottawa, Desk was found, Chair via St.Pauls University Annual Rummage Sale, Eames Chair from Mobilia, Rug from Homesense.

In case you can’t tell, I always prefer to shop as close to local as I can – with the exception being Rejuvenation.  I recently got my first order of lights, they are for my dining room/living room area.

Now that you’ve seen how nice the front of our house looks, let me introduce you to the back.

Here’s what it looked like in the spring:

Our backyard, complete with black pool and ugly sunroom

Oh, I can’t even tell you how long it took us to figure out the pool. We didn’t know about the chronic algae problem until neighbors started asking us, “Are you the people who bought the house with the green pool?” Anyway, I promise it isn’t green anymore.  What’s important to note here is the ‘selling feature’ or the ‘lovely addition’.  Now being a girl from the Kootenays (this is my west shout-out!), I have to admit that I didn’t really see the point to a sunroom.  Seriously, it smelled like a pool change room (and an outdoor pool at that, ever been to one?  The change rooms always smell awful!) and the interior – well, I’ll let that speak for itself:

The right side of the room

Notice that chip board was used to finish the walls – and nothing makes a room feel separate from a house like an exposed exterior wall.

Original back door and closet

The original light fixture (ha!) – and did you notice the two screen doors?  A screen door into the sunroom from the house  - and one out to the pool area.  Did you also notice the complete absence of a real door to the back yard?  I loved the two closet/cupboard things, they effectively hide a window (you can see it on the right side of the door in the first picture).  Our house actually had four boarded up windows (and one door!), so far we’ve liberated two.

Another back door and window shot – we had ripped down a section of the wall to see what it was made of.  Given the lack of door and heat source, we were surprised to find the room insulated (and framed to code?  maybe).

What I originally wanted to do was rip it down and put in a big deck – thankfully some friends intervened and reminded me that Ottawa winters are long and cold – and that sunrooms can be accessible year-round.  So I put the sunroom question (to keep or not to keep?) out of my mind for a while until I went to our local ReStore and discovered seven beautiful new windows.  If you haven’t heard of ReStore – you need to check it out!  ReStore is a non-profit store that sells donated new and gently used home renovation materials to the public – with all proceeds going to an excellent cause (Habitat for Humanity), it’s been my go-to destination throughout my renovation.  Anyway, anyway – I saw those beautiful windows and I knew that they were destined for my sunroom.  The decision was made, the room would be saved….now we just had to rip out the old windows, put in some new ones – maybe get a real door, a heat source, wiring to code, flooring, and maybe a good light?  Not an ambitious project at all.

Multi-tasking all the way – here is a detail shot of our previously discussed bookshelves:

Built-in details

I have no comment about the knotty pine, it was built to be painted and I had honestly no idea how much of a pain those knots would become. Let me tell you – never, ever, ever get knotty pine to work with for areas that will be painted. I like seeing grain lines through the wood finish but am not a fan of seeping knots. Anyway…

Shelves with crown molding

What’s different?  Crown molding!  So exciting, it really hides the slant in the ceiling.  And now onto the primed:

Primed!

You can see my tired hub, his destroyed desk – but it’s finally starting to get somewhere.  To come – the finished product!