House Progress Report: Looking Back over the Year
Taking a look back at all the progress we've made over the past year.
My therapist says that depression is most often caused by looking at the past, while anxiety is most often caused by looking at the future. The goal should be to live in the present, focusing on the here and now.
Obviously, that is a paraphrased account of something much deeper and complex, but I hope you get the gist.
I, however, think that statement is flawed…
…when it comes to home renos.
A huge part of staying sane while renovating is to remind yourself of how far you’ve come*. We both wanted a home that could be renovated, but we both drastically underestimated the mental toll that comes with a home reno. Especially since we are the ones actually doing the renovations, and we’re living and working in the house while doing so.
So, let’s take a look back at where we were a year ago.
Secondary Bedroom
According to my pictures, we were testing paint colors and about to hang the molding in the second bedroom.
In the past year, we’ve hung all the molding and painted the lower parts of the walls. Probably the most exciting news of last spring was that we moved into the secondary bedroom. Finally, we had an almost finished sanctuary to escape the renovation chaos outside the door.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve painted the wardrobe and dresser Craig & Rose Lido Blue on the outside and Farrow & Ball Skimming Stone on the inside. I also learned that Polyurethane is a stronger finishing product than wax, and it’s best applied with a sponge (not a brush or rag). Seventy hours later, our clothes are now in those units.
Garden
Around this time last year was also when we caught our houdini dog escaping the garden.
We inherited a lattice fence that had holes big enough for Finn to walk through. To keep him in, we put some green plastic fencing around the fence and zip tied it in. I wouldn’t say that it was trashy…but I also wouldn’t say that it wasn’t (lol).
That worked for about six months. Enticed by the garden space and cats roaming freely on the other side of the plastic, Finn figured out how to chew the green plastic apart and squeeze himself out to the garden beyond.
Probably the fastest project we finished was the fence up in one weekend.
The garden was really the focus of last year. Ian did a lot of the (literal) heavy lifting. While I was busy flitting around in NYC, he transported two tons of hardcore, 750kg of sand, and all the patio stones from the street to our garden by wheelbarrow and bags, with his dad pitching in as well. He mixed every pound of cement by hand. But before any of that, he dug out two garden beds and dug several inches below the grass.
He was keen on ‘organic’ borders, while I had a more boxy thought in my head for the garden layout. But we compromised, as we normally do, and made the garden layout both practical and organic.
In my garden excel spreadsheet, I think it lists that we have over eighty different plants in this garden. That is actually comical to type out, but here we are.
Spring has just started to flirt with us, but oh my goodness, I am here for what she is selling! As a type this, I’m sitting in the sun, Finn at my feet, the smell of hyacinths wafting around in the slight breeze. The garden is filled with colors, bulbs continuing to pop up, and many thirsty bees around looking for that early spring nectar.
Entryway
As a partnership, we rarely veto the other. In the entryway, I put my first veto down about lowering the ceiling. Ian really hated this box thing we had going down the middle, and his OCD tendencies wanted it to all be one level playing field. I, on the other hand, did not want our hallway to be unusable for months. So I vetoed it.
Obviously, from the pictures, you can see that my veto didn’t work out. As with a lot of other home reno ideas, this did not pan out because when it came time to ‘unpop’ the ceiling it just cracked and spilled what Ian was sure was powdered cancer.
Thus the ceiling was lowered.
He was absolutely right (but don’t tell him that!).
As a plus (or maybe just a standard?) he listened to my concerns and I think the ceiling was lowered, plastered and painted within 6 weeks (and it was never unusable).
We now have the floors laid, 90% of the skirting up, the paneling up, and the base of the mudroom built.
Library Wall
Since I can’t have a literal library, I really wanted a floor to ceiling library wall somewhere in the house to keep all my books.
Was I influenced by the rainbow shelves that can turn neutral during decorating months? I can neither confirm nor deny.
This wall used to be a door to the kitchen. Since we’re planning to open up the kitchen and living room, this door was no longer needed. It’s also the area that connects the two hallways and the two doors to the living room / kitchen and secondary bedroom.
Perfect place for a center piece library.
I designed the bookcase (in my head, as one does) and Ian brought it to life, putting more finishing touches on it as he built it. This picture shows it at about 95% done, we’ve since put some finishing moldings on the edges of shelves and we’ll eventually have fancy architrave and cornicing at the top.
Long Hallway
This long hallway is the bane of my existence. No color looks good in it and we’re not entirely sure how we want the little alcoves to function / look! But, that is a problem for another time.
There used to be a giant metal case that ran the length of the hallway. There was a metal top held on by metal screws, and as you can imagine, those screws were not tightly fit. Even under the original carpet, you could still hear the metal on metal clank as you walked down the hallway.
Not great.
And then, the subfloor on the furthest end of the hallway was literally falling apart. You would almost a sink a little when you stepped on that end.
Before we laid the floors, we dug up and relaid the subfloor. We also decided to throw away the metal tops of the case and put down new wooden subfloors to protect the pipes but stop the metal from clanking.
After over a year of that noise, I can say this hallway is a much nicer experience than before. Though no one uses it more than Finn for his 5pm fetch the (stuffed) pheasant!
Other Random Things
In news no one but a homeowner knows, we had to get our window re-pointed. Essentially the protective casing that keeps your windows secure and waterproof, started to crack and fall off. So much so that on one window the newspaper was showing (the re-pointers told me that was how they did it in the old days, lol).
We also got more lights! Our entryway originally had one light, the hallway had two lights and our living room had two lights. Now we have four lights in the entryway, three in the hallway and six in the living room (complete with a dimmer!). The extra light makes it feel more energetic.
I cannot underestimate how much more work we have to do, but it’s fun to look back and see all the transformation we’ve done in a year, chipping away bit by bit.
*I do think it’s important to remember that when doing this, it’s looking back at the positives of the past, not the negatives, the ‘what ifs’ or comparing yourself against others' progress.