Welcome to Kris' project management page. Here's where she discusses the overall management of this fun renovation and blogging the whole situation. Keep checking here for her stuff. Click here for the most recent blog.

Project Status

Phase Two Status: 47% Complete

Once all of the other construction is done, another coat of paint goes on for touch-ups. Another cool thing we're doing is that the walls around Kris' desk are getting metallic primer so magnets will stick, without being obvious. It'll be pretty funny when someone tries to stick something to a non-magnetic wall. We're on the hunt for a new table set and the island seating area. We're not really tracking to a specific date, yet, for the whole phase, because research takes time. Individual items will get put here as we schedule them.

• Phase Two Start - March 1^st - Completed
• Hall Wainscoting - April 4^th - In progress
• Warming Shelf - April 5^th - Completed
• Dining Room Chandelier Arrival - April 6^th - Completed
• Cabinet Door Decoration and Completion - April 12^th - Started
• Kitchen Chandeliers Arrival - April 19^th - Completed on April 4
• Plumbing Inspection - April 24^th - On Schedule
• Final Electrical Inspection - April 24^th Completed
• Breakfast Counter - June 2007^th - Delayed

Phase One Status: 100% complete.

• Renovation Start February 5^th - Completed
• Electrical Rough-in Started February 6^th - Completed
• Plumbing Rough-in February 7^th - Completed
• Plumbing Inspection - February 14^th - Completed
• Electrical Inspection - February 15^th - Completed
• Gas Installation rescheduled  to February 20^th - COMPLETED - Delay absorbed
• Foam Insulation Rescheduled to February 16^th - Completed
• Drywall replacement - February 16^th - Completed
• Priming and painting started February 19^th - Completed
• Floor Installation completed on February 27^nd - Completed
• Cabinet Delivery Scheduled February 28^th - Completed
• Cabinet Install Scheduled March 1^st - Complete but some components missing. See phase two.
• Appliance Installation Scheduled March 8^th Completed March 3^rd
• Appliance Hookup Scheduled March 5^th and 7^th - Completed
• Counter Installation Scheduled March 16th - Completed March 20^th
• Plumbing Hookup Scheduled March 21^st - Completed March 20^th
• Functional Availability Scheduled March 27^th - Completed on March 21^st and celebrated with the kids
• Tile Installation Scheduled March 29^th - Completed
• Full Use Completion Scheduled April 4^th - Completed April 5^th

The KrisBlog

KrisBlog 04/01/2007

The seder is WHEN??

Heck’s kitchen has been online for a couple of weeks now, and because things are functional, neither Randy nor I have been really pushing to finish things, even those that we can control, like figuring out where things will go and then putting them there. With the impending seder, however, we’ve had to start pulling things out of boxes so we can cook.

Randy’s mom is here, helping with the cooking, and we are methodically stealing – oops, I mean “borrowing” recipes by writing everything down. Right now we’re learning about Passover-style cabbage rolls (with matzo instead of rice).

We used the kitchen in earnest for the first time today, using all resources, including the new island prep sink and garbage disposal. Guess what? The new prep sink clogged up. Randy spent a while using the plumber’s snake to fix the problem, and we’ll need to have the contractor redo the pipes underneath.

Yesterday I went a little nuts buying furniture. I bought a new round table for the breakfast room and six chairs. The table is oval when the leaf is in. It has beautiful inlaid wood in a pattern on the top, and a four-column pedestal. Randy didn’t like the chairs I picked out so we spent some time walking around the store and finally settled on the chairs they originally had around the table. They’re OK and yes they’re more cushy than the ones I picked, but less cool. Anyway, while we were there, we bought a 9 x 12 wool rug for the dining room that is just stunning. It has beige, green, and gold colors and also lots of the gorgeous ginger color of the dining room walls, above the wainscoting. I still don’t have a chaise for the sanctuary, though. I’m making do with the loveseat from my living room but it’s just too big and overstuffed. I’ll find it, I’ll just need to be patient.

Chevey is doing really well with his new food, but I’m having trouble finding it. I did find a store that will order it for me, and it will be in on Wednesday evening.

KrisBlog 03/25/2007

What fun last night! Our first full “Heck’s Kitchen” meal for dear friends. Tuna, salmon, and sea bass (in courses) with Randy’s famous kid-friendly Brussels sprouts, salad, and risotto. Southbrook Winery provided a lovely 2001 Pinot Noir and a 1999 Lailey Chardonnay. Randy made his famous (and exclusive!) maple sugar butter tart pie for dessert, and friends brought an incredible 1980-something white port to go with. It was an amazing meal with a great table of participants.

Tonight Randy is making his mustard-herb standing rib roast. I’m doing my twice-baked potatoes and Texas green beans (bacon, onion, garlic salt, splash of lemon juice).

Spring is trying very hard to peek through. It was supposed to be 12 degrees today but made it only to about 5. Still, the weather people keep saying that it’s going to be 15 and 17 next week (which is a little bit above normal)

Chevey was feeling a little overwhelmed today, and Randy thought he was sick. Frankly, Randy focuses a bit too much on . . . shall we say, “elimination” . . . as an indicator of health J

Chev seems fine tonight, and he’s purring up a storm, even for Rhys.

KrisBlog 03/19/2007

Remember when I called the City for a copy of the original builder's permits and plans? Randy went to pick them up last week. First, they gave us the wrong plans - for a house a few doors down from ours. Then, when they did retrieve the plans associated with our house number, it's a different house. Different layout, different size, different everything. (Library? What library?) Uh oh. I can think of a number of implications, but I'd rather not. None of them are good.

If you've been keeping up with Randy's Current Status blog, you're aware that we had an issue with the granite supplier. I think we were waiting for a big problem to occur, because we hadn't really had one up to this point. Today was to be the big finish day, when the plumbing would be hooked up to the sinks and the dishwasher would finally be on-line. Not having the granite backsplash causes the tile to be delayed. Not having the main sink installed means that the plumbing can't be completed, and there will be yet another day with no dishwasher. Yes. ANOTHER day with no dishwasher. Honestly, if I have to wash dishes by hand in the laundry room sink much longer, there's gonna be trouble. Perhaps even some breaking of plates, with no happy dancing, nor "Opah!" involved. If they're broken, they don't have to be washed, right? In any case, we are both very surprised that we are having difficulty with this particular company. Of all of the parties involved in this renovation, they were the last people we expected to cause problems or do poor work.

Chevey is widening his scope a bit in the house, as we've been able to let him out more often while we're there. There's less danger and risk that he'll get into something he can't get out of, or that might hurt him, now that the countertops are in place and most of the chemicals and sharp objects are gone. He still loves plastic and has now decided that the bathtub in the master bathroom is his own personal giant water bowl. He's now putting things he likes in there. I hope that next time he steals my earrings, he'll continue to put them in his real water bowl or else they'll likely go into the bathtub drain. Oh - and he is now running up to me to say hello when I come home, with the purr meter on high. So cute!

KrisBlog 03/07/2007

I can’t believe it has been so long since I’ve blogged. There’s just so much going on and, frankly, Randy has taken over most of the project management piece of this effort. I can give you my take on things, however. When have I ever been reticent about my opinions? Hmm? ;)

Randy has been managing the crew and participating in the work, as well. He has all the tools that they don’t have and in the one case where he didn’t, he found one online and went out and bought one. What on earth would these guys have done without him? I’ll tell you what they would have done – they would have had to stop and come back later/next day, and our project would be very late instead of ahead of schedule. In addition to helping in the kitchen, Randy has managed to put up wainscoting and paint the dining room. It looks amazing. Then, as well as painting and framing/installing the antique air return grates, he painted the floor heat registers the same antique bronze color. So he solved our unusual size grate problem! Our only other option was to pay a fortune for real salvaged antique grates and somehow change the size of the duct holes in the floors. He’s amazing. I think I should marry him.

So the new, reworked pantry didn’t show up today. It’s now scheduled for tomorrow morning. Also tomorrow, the guys will be finishing the work on the outside window casings and brickwork from the vent hood installation. The island will be positioned and the electrical installed. And best of all, the cabinet installer will finish up, with the crown moldings and pantry. He’ll need to carefully fine-tune the cabinet door adjustments. One of my pet peeves is inconsistent gaps between double doors and uneven door bottoms. He’ll need to drill the hardware holes, too.

After tomorrow, we wait. Literally. For the granite countertops to be ready. Installation is now scheduled for a week from Friday – and that signals the end of the reno. Woo hoo!!

KrisBlog 02/20/2007

Well, the guys are gone now. The drywall is sanded and almost completely primed (Randy did the priming) and ready for paint. I covered everything I could find on the main floor in sheets and Randy and I used a roll of plastic to cover the armoire and the south side of the family room. Despite all of this, there’s still a lot of cleaning work waiting for Christine. And, I’m going to have to take each palm leaf off of our huge fake palm trees and clean them individually. Yuck.

Randy and I went to Restoration Hardware on the weekend to pick cabinet hardware. The people at the cabinet manufacturer and our designer, Marie Ann, all said that, for what we picked, the color was right but the hardware was just “too dainty”. Randy wanted Craftsman hardware. Sorry, no. J So today Marie-Anne went to the same shop where I got the new front door hardware. She picked some really nice handles, including $220 pot drawer handles. Randy and I went by this evening. OK…so four drawers…$880. I didn’t like the pot drawer pulls that much. What I did see was the style that my amazingly beautiful door latch set emulates. And that’s what I think I want. www.classic-brass.com.

KrisBlog 02/13/2007

I actually contacted, via email, the city of Richmond Hill this morning to ask about the history of our house. I understand that we have no recourse with the builder, as we are the third owners and the house is 20 years old. I just want to know.

The contractors put down a new sub-floor in the kitchen today, and the breakfast room sub-floor is in progress. Randy had them put in an extra little piece of joist against the bay area as there was no support there at all. He’s also looking around for another 2X10 to put in yet another one himself. He overbuilds everything J

So…given rearrangement of the inspections and the additional work on the floors, we should be one day off schedule. Randy, God love him, scheduled the cabinet delivery for two days in the project plan, so we are back on exact schedule. Unbelievable! We’ve also gotten one of the contractor guys to agree (maybe) to do the drywall on Saturday and Sunday, so we’ll be home, and we’ll be right on schedule. Sweet!

KrisBlog 02/11/2007

I’m still sick, but I’m going back to work tomorrow (Monday) because I just have to. I can’t be away any longer.

Randy cooked a nice meal, mostly on the BBQ grill, and I made microwave veggies and potatoes. The challenge was to actually make a chocolate soufflé in our makeshift kitchen. Randy did it! See the pictures.

Randy spent the day scrubbing the dining room walls, to rid them of the remaining sizing. He also started sheetrock repair and got at least one wall done. He’s worked so hard this weekend, and I’ve been too sick to help him much. I feel bad about that. I went to Value Village and got all the $2.99 sheets I could get my hands on. $30 worth! I’ll cover everything in the downstairs with sheets to help keep the dust down during the drywall work next week.

Joey and Rhys were pretty good boys this weekend. I won’t see them for Valentines Day, so I gave them candy and Valentine roses with a request that they each pass the rose on to a girl of their choice J

Our little family seems to be settling in well to the kitchen renovation!

Chevy was sick this morning. He had diarrhea in his box twice today. He’s been as sweet as usual, but we’re worried that he’s not feeling well. Randy will contact Joy tomorrow for history and advice. Poor Kitty.

KrisBlog 02/10/2007

Cleaning and wallpaper stripping day!

We played “Beat the Clock” on the 24-hour wall paper steamer rental. The remaining wallpaper in the kitchen was over oil-based paint, so it came off easily with the steamer. The dining room, however, was a big pain in the @** because it was put on with sizing. Now, I remember my mom using sizing when ironing . . . that’s my whole experience with “sizing”. This “sizing” stuff on the walls? Flour and water. What?? Doesn’t that attract insects and animals and stuff? How gross is that? So when you steam it off the walls, you have to scrape it with a tool, and it falls on the floor with the old wallpaper bits, and gets all over everything, and, just - eeeeeww! One way we cut down the amount of dust in the dining room was by three of five people in the house dumping over the colander of water Randy was using to clean the scraper as he went. And no, we couldn’t find where the water went. I suppose we’ll find out some day!

Our little makeshift kitchen seems to be working fine, as long as we don’t need a lot of counter space. We have the island from the old kitchen in the dining room, and have stored flatware, pots and pans, utensils, etc. in it. On top of the island, is the second microwave, the convection toaster-oven, the coffee pot, a one-burner hotplate (thanks, Judy!!), and the electric kettle. One of the boys pointed out at lunch that we actually have all of the same cooking options that were available (and that worked) in the old kitchen! Too funny.

Christine did a fantastic job cleaning up dust while also cleaning the bathrooms, etc. as usual. She’s such a gem!! She has a stunningly beautiful 13-year-old daughter who occasionally comes with her. Oddly, Joseph “had to” take a shower this morning before they got here. Julia didn’t come with her mom today, but I’m told that she’ll be here next time.

We had supper at a local pub and the boys watched hockey (Toronto vs. somebody-or-other) and I watched the Pro Bowl on a different TV. Dallas had the QB for NFC. I so miss the old days of the Cowboys – Mister Landry, Roger Staubach . . . those were the football glory days for me as a youngster J But I digress.

Chevy was such a sweetheart today. He played with both boys, “helped“ Christine clean the master bathroom, and even did a back flip with the feather toy for Joey today. Heck’s Kitty is really settling down into life in our home, and we couldn’t be happier with him!

KrisBlog 02/09/2007

I think Mike Holmes is my new hero.

We watched one of his shows last night where he said over and over that permits should always be taken out for remodeling. Randy made some phone calls today, and found that as of January 2007, permits are required by Ontario law. I guess that hasn’t been communicated very well, as our contractor’s agent told us three times that we didn’t need permits. I kept on it and even made Randy really mad at one point over it. Anyway, Randy spoke to the owner of the contracting company and he said that we absolutely do need permits. He met with the agent and the site supervisor right away, and sent them down to apply for the permits. The good news is that the electrical and plumbing inspections have a 24-hour turnaround (amazing!) and the gas inspection is done after the stove is installed. So that, combined with the decision to use blown-in insulation on the outside walls, impacts the schedule, but not as much as it could have. Just think if this was the U.S. . . . if we asked for a 24-hour inspection turnaround there, I figure that, after they stopped laughing, they’d book us in for 2 or 3 months from now.

The boys are here tonight, and tomorrow the housekeeper comes (whom, I hope, is bringing help!) Randy and I will be stripping wallpaper in the dining room, preparing for the Jatoba floor installation. Now I actually have to start thinking about colors. I can’t wait to take down the awful pink drapes and Celtic lace sheers in there. I might put the lace sheers in the garage sale, but the pink drapes have gotta go! Maybe we’ll post some before and after pics of Heck’s Dining Room, too.

Chevey met the boys again tonight and seemed to take to Joey right away. Rhys, who is a little bit rambunctious, didn’t get Chevey’s cooperation right away. Joey is calmer, like his dad, so they hit it off pretty well. Chev is definitely Randy’s kitty J

KrisBlog 02/07/2007

I’m really REALLY tired of being sick. I’m way too busy and impatient for this. And my nose hurts from all the blowing and wiping. Whaaaaaw!!. And yes, I’ll find some cheese to go with that whine. Oh…wait…the fridge is in the reno zone and I’ll have to put gear on to get the cheese.. I’m going in! AAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhh

(sorry . . . when you’re this sick for this long, somehow, you need to fantasize about battle)

We’ve been lucky so far with things that have to depend on studs, like pot lights, and now the exhaust pipe for the vent hood. The kitchen designer said that he miscalculated because he didn’t measure the length of the stove wall properly. If he had, the exhaust pipe would have landed right on a wall stud.

The kitchen designer is currently redoing the drawings, and should let us know tomorrow whether or not there is an issue. We’re told that there’s no problem. Originally, 3” of fillers were planned at both ends of the wall in the design that we likely don’t need anymore!

The plumbing is all roughed in, and ready for sink installation. The wires for the pot lights and the sockets are also all roughed in. The wire fish had a good day!

Randy says that less happened today than he wanted . . . but a lot happened. We’re still OK with the critical path, so we’ll see how the next few days go. Always a new day!

BTW, Chevey has found his favorite place in the house, and it’s also my favorite place, although mine’s bigger – he loves cuddling in the bottom of a table in the Sanctuary. I put a Chinese-inspired pillow in the bottom of the table, and he found it and made it his own for a few hours tonight.

KrisBlog 02/06/2007

Randy had a tough day today. He had to go downtown for a client launch party when he really wanted to be here to work with the construction guys. Then he had a little plumbing “incident” while doing the rough-in for the island sink tonight. He solved the leaks by draining the water heater and opening all of the upstairs taps so that he could get a proper seal with the solder. I knew he could do it! Randy can do anything. J

But I’m still waiting to find out how much extra the contracting company charges for letting him help. <ducking>

I’m still sick and the cold is progressing from my right ear and sinus to the left, so it’s a total virus party in my head! I still can’t hear anything. The huge amount of dust from the renovation isn’t helping. Christine, the Housekeeper from Heaven (or maybe Heck), is coming on Saturday with her dust mask and hopefully a friend, so that we can attack every surface in the house.

Today Steve had to help us reposition the pot lights in the kitchen and the breakfast room. We had planned for 20 total, but our best positioning ended up with only 19 (yay…some extra $!). So, no less than three designers helped us place the pot lights. Then when the sheetrock was gone and we saw the joists and the availability of pot light connections in the kitchen ceiling, the placement we had didn’t work. According to Steve, pots are spots that get wider as they hit the floor. So if you have a pot that is slightly behind you, it will throw a shadow on the countertop. So we need to make sure that the pots are directly overhead when standing at the counter. The pendants/chandelier over the island will take care of any shadowing there.

Randy doesn’t feel comfortable with the moldy yellow batting insulation so we are going with the blue blown-in, à la Mike Holmes. This requires a one week lead time. Project scope impact: delay of sheetrock installation by one week. Amazingly, critical path items aren’t moving. Sweet.

Chevy stayed in our bedroom all day today with all his toys and, uh, accessories. I hate closing him up! But he could get under a plastic sheet and into the kitchen, and there are holes in the floor. Likewise in the basement, stuff is falling through from the kitchen, so the bedroom is the safest place for him. He spent the day under the bed for some reason, rarely coming out, although Randy and I both checked on him quite a lot. The nice part is that because he was a breeder, he’s used to being by himself in a room for long periods. And we’ve moved his litter and food from the kitchen to the basement to the master and he’s so far just gone with the flow. Good kitty!

KrisBlog 02/05/2007

Oh my goodness, the stuff we found, today. Randy’s description on the Current page pretty much says it all.

What he didn’t say is that we found sooo many things wrong with the construction in this house. Remember when I said to stop me watching Mike Holmes? Well, if I hadn’t been watching Holmes on Homes, I wouldn’t have known about vapor barriers and insulation. And I wouldn’t have understood when the guys ripping out the kitchen said that the vapor barrier (what little of it there was) wasn’t installed properly. I stuck my hand in a hole in the drywall and there was a nice cold breeze in there. When the tile floor in the kitchen/breakfast room was removed, several holes in the plywood revealed laziness – the framers didn’t bother to cover the floors when it rained; it’s apparently easier, faster, and cheaper to just break holes in the plywood so that the rainwater just drains out into the unfinished basement. The cabinet installers either didn’t know how or didn’t bother to do the math on the stud placement in the walls. There are tell-tale hammer hits in the walls where they looked for studs on which to hang the cabinets.

Also kinda scary was the condition of the inside of the wall oven cabinet. Let’s just say it was scorched inside. Randy will post pictures of the stuff we found today on his “post-mortem” page after the project is complete.

I figure that if we were to take every room in the house down to the studs, we would find stuff like this everywhere. Don’t builders and construction people have any pride at all in their work?!

SO…what this all means is that the scope alarm may be going off soon. We’ve decided to take down all of the kitchen drywall so that the vapor barrier and insulation can be redone properly. We’re considering whether or not to replace all of the insulation with the blue blow-in kind, which we are told is expensive, but is much faster to install . . . so, from a “consultant economics” perspective, it may be the best option. I get to make that call tomorrow, since Randy has to go to a client project kickoff meeting tomorrow.

Thank goodness this is the slow season for me and I’m not having to travel every week. I don’t expect that to last much longer, though!

Chevey was such a good boy today, despite all the banging and hammering, and the strange voices. He spent the day in his favorite basement room and was quite happy with the light and the TV on (on the Food Network). Randy and I both went down to see him many times during the day and he was just fine. He’s such a little trooper! Nothing seems to bother him. He’s the best kitty! J

Tonight he spent time with me in the sanctuary, on the loveseat. He scared himself while playing with the doorstop, and then decided that he had to be up on top of the TV table, just in case I needed him to change the channel or something. I think our little boy Bengal is settling in very nicely to our home!

KrisBlog 02/04/2007

Things are totally coming to a head. Randy says that I’m sick to my stomach because my immune system is affected by nervousness about the reno. I think I just have an ugly bug. In any case, I spent way more time packing and sorting kitchen stuff than I should have, and now I’m paying the price. I had to come into the Super Bowl during the second quarter. That’s bad, 'cuz then I wasn’t able to “magic” Chicago the way I wanted to. And so, they’re in trouble. I’m sure that’s why.

And speaking of the Super Bowl . . . is Prince not a GOD?!?!

And now… Indianapolis are the Super Bowl champions. How weird is that?

Oh yeah. Back to the reno:

We’re exactly on schedule. Critical path is the floors on the 19^th, and cabinet delivery on the 27th. So far, so good, but then, so far, it’s been only Randy and me doing stuff according to the project plan. When others are introduced, we’ll see how the one week of slack can be distributed J

I’m going to have “words” with the General’s rep tomorrow, 'cuz I’m convinced that it’s more important to have the proper permits than to cheat and save a couple of bucks. If we were spending $20K I might be willing to forego proper inspection and permits. We’re spending a whole lot more than that. It just doesn’t make sense to risk that in a home we’re planning to spend the next 20 years in, and plan to sell in our 60’s as our nest egg.

Cheveyo is a little bit scared, and still uncomfy with the activity in the house. He asserted himself this morning by peeing (nee: spraying) his kitty bed. Randy and I got very used to his bringing us a present when we woke in the morning. This morning, it was a spray. Bad kitty!

KrisBlog 01/23/2007

I forgot to mention in Sunday’s blog that on Saturday we took Randy’s grandmother’s dining room chandelier, circa 1930, to a restoration shop for rework and refinishing. This all started when the handyman we hired to paint the old house, with all best intentions, took down the chandelier and took it home to “fix” it.

Bless his heart.

Long story short, while trying to rewire it, he broke part of one of the arms off. Randy was sick, and almost inconsolable. (Question: why do men obsess on “things”?). So I found this place downtown with a Web site that had some magnificent pictures of chandeliers they had restored. We took the chandelier and one of the lamps I have from my mom’s house down there a couple of weeks ago for evāluation. Long story short, when Randy spoke with the restoring expert about the amount of work that needed to be done, he got very emotional . . . and so he just had to decide: do it or don’t do it, but the emotional #$@!’s gotta go.

We met with the restoring expert and she was very careful to ask us what I thought were all the right questions, as well as considerations we wouldn’t even have thought to give. In the end, Randy said “yes”, and this will be several grand worth of renovation money. But very very well worth it. The dining room will be spectacular.

Check back for before and after pics!

KrisBlog 01/22/2007

OK, so, we haven’t even started this project yet, and already we are at risk. Coco, the kitchen designer, let Randy know today that the cabinets will be delayed by three or four days because the doors won’t be ready. There are, like, 50 (OK, two) REALLY BIG THINGS linked as dependants to the cabinet installation: the countertops can’t be measured, cut, and installed, and the appliances can’t be installed. The solution? Install the cabinets but leave the doors off until they’re ready. Bingo!

I guess the project has actually started since the cabinets are being made . . . we just can’t see that, so my perception is skewed. What is it that we consultants say to each other to bring us down from the outer space our clients send us to? “It’s all about perception.” It doesn’t actually matter what the fact/truth is at all. The only thing that matters is what is perceived. And btw, I’ve learnt that perception can also be contrived if it’s useful.

I’m looking forward to being a client for once, just so I can give back what is so often and so generously shared with me ;)

Marie-Ann, the head designer, has given a cabinet-colored wooden post a thumbs-up on the Jatoba island extension. That or stainless steel. I’m not convinced of either. I think it should be the same granite as the countertops. I’ll defer to her good design knowledge, though. I already know that I’m not good with color.

Robert, from the general contracting company, has put a project plan together at last and will share that with us sometime this week. It will be interesting to see how his plan and ours lines up. Stay tuned!

KrisBlog 01/21/2007

The project plan is complete. We have included a week of slack. I’m not a big fan of slack, unless of course I’m on the hook for delivery as well as project management. Then I’m all about slack. Slack is good. And BTW, it really is good to be a wire fish!

The more I watch Holmes on Homes, the more frightened I get about this reno. Somebody stop me watching Mike Holmes.

We went to the winter Home Show at the Toronto Convention Centre yesterday. The same people we always see there were there, except this time we spoke with a couple of custom furniture builders. One was an elderly Chinese lady with some beautiful Teak tables and chairs, and an incredible mahogany desk. The other was a second-generation woodcrafter who learned at his dad’s knee, so to speak. I fell in love with his jaw-droppingly-beautiful, Tiger Maple dining table and tulip chairs. The wood pattern on the table he had at the show is indescribable. I’d include a pic here but unfortunately the company’s Web site has disappeared. That’s OK…it’s more important that he keep working in wood rather than in html.

We saw a stainless steel-surrounded gas fireplace with a straight slit of fire and river rocks on either side. In talking with the guy in the booth, he’s the designer and this is a test fireplace. The rocks are from a dollar store. He designed and built the surround, and the basic fireplace is from a fireplace manufacturer. SO…again…Randy and I keep either finding or wishing for stuff we can’t have yet.

We talked seriously with a guy with a solarium and additions company. Randy asked him to come out to the house and have a look. We are seriously considering a small solarium off of the breakfast room. So, like, we need another room in this house! How many are there? Well, including the finished basement…16. Anyway, we’ll see what happens.

We have finished my favorite room in the house, the so-called “sanctuary” which is a lovely, robin’s-egg blue with a beautiful hickory floor. For Hanukah-mas, Randy got me a lovely sheepskin rug that absolutely makes the room! Combined with the dark wood tables and an elegant lamp, this room is now stunning. The floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the front yard and the park, and the light that comes in is amazing. My white overstuffed love seat is just too big and bulky, though, so we are looking for either a very smallish love seat, or – even better – a plushy chaise.

Out of scope for the kitchen reno is our next step: reno on the master bedroom and “en suite”, which is a fancy-assed Canadian (OK, Torontonian) way to say “master bathroom”.

<rant>What really irks me about being in Canada versus in the US is that it’s so freeking hard to find what you want/need, and never, ever in one place. Or even to shop and get ideas. I spent almost six months buying and researching home décor and design magazines for ideas, most of which are produced in the U.S., and constantly finding that either the items I want aren’t available in Canada or that they cost twice what they cost in the US, accounting for the exchange. One trip home to Texas over Christmas had us in Expo and I saw everything I wanted all in one place, at prices in US$ that, even with the exchange, were far better. Amazing. </rant>

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