My new office.
before and almost after. 

Things done:
- foam wall paper border removed
- carpet and underlay removed, staples and nails removed
- walls painted, trim painted
- furniture removed
- blinds removed



Still needs:
- another coat of paint on the window sill
- base board quarter round trim
- new light fixture.
- ceiling painted
- patio door replaced
- frost window and install blackout shade

Details:
walls: Benjamin Moore Aura paint simply white in semi-glass (for durability). The expensive paint and glossiness covered deep burgundy in two coats!

trim: Benjamin Moore simple white in gloss

floor: refinished original wood, with minwax oil based (smelly) stain, 4 coats

jam making update

jam updates"

before we went to italy, I made rhubarb ginger jam with some leftovers from ginger beer making and a donation of rhubarb.

It was good, but very very ginergy. oops.

last week I made Strawberry hot pepper jam, it was eh. not especially hot, but just deeper in flavour.

And strawberry lavender jam, from here.

using lavender from my Guelph garden.
loved it. loved it. loved it.

Painting on Wellington St

Andrew's painting in the 3rd bedroom, the former blood red nursery,  that will become my office.

We're transforming it from "blood red baby dungeon",
into "fresh clean sewing room/office".

 I tested the following three Benjamin Moore colours:
- oxford white, which was too blue
- cloud white, which was too creamy
- simply white, which was a goldilocks colour
i.e. not too blue, not too yellow, juuust right


So far we've:
1. removed foam "a,b,c," wallpaper border
2. scraped glue off wall
 3. tsp'd and rinsed the walls
 4. painted one coat of Benjamin Moore Aura "Simply White" over the red.
The sales lady assured me that two coats, no primer, would cover red, so I'm anxious to see.

one coat

Now I'm waiting for paint to dry, but it's hot out here & its quick dry paint, so in about another 1.5 hour it should be good to go. :)





Update 1 hour later: coat two has gone on.

Update 3 hours later: two is enough. time to rest, painting trim tomorrow!

Emergency Bathroom Memories!

With all the work on the Harris street bathroom, I thought I dig up my pictures from the emergency renovation that I made to the bathroom in my Wellington Street house five years ago.

I been living in the house for a little over 5 years, and had allowed myself some willful blindness about the potential problems in the bathroom.  I had assumed that the framing in the shower was made of wood and was coated in naval paint.

It was actually pre-painted MDF, and had been soaking up water all those years.  A quick fix for the previous owners who had flipped the house to me, which turned into a nightmare for me when I finally investigated why the window framing was swelling...

Water seeped in below...

Water got in behind the tiles...

And below that horrible frame.

So I pulled down the tiles, and inspected the damage.  Then fell over:  I'm quite allergic to black mold as it turns out :(  After a quick recovery the "dry"wall, vapor barrier and other mold infested materials were removed and they were replaced with stone board and other non-permeable materials

Out with the old...

In with the new.

I managed to dig up subway tile that matched the original tile locally, and I was even able to get a nice bull nosed tile to finish a waterproof frame for the bathroom window.  Overall, not bad for an emergency repair.

Subway tile going in...

Window framed in ...

Complete!

Despite the rushed nature of the repair, it's held up well over the years.  I wish I had had the time to tear everything out and start again, but it has lasted well enough that a full replacement has been pushed out well past the kitchen renovations.