Renovation Update

Steve replacing the ceiling tile he had to remove in order to adjust ducts and wiring.
Mouldings and railings will be coming soon.

Although I haven't blogged about it, we have made big progress on the renovation of our Almonte house. And by "we", I mean Stephen who has been working an average of four hours a day (most days) on this project.


To help you orient yourself, I made this little video that walks you through what we're doing and why.


And here, ladies and gentlemen, the stairs!

The stairs have actually been in place for more than a week now, and I much prefer the new stairs over the old ones and I think having the stairs situated in the centre of the house makes so much more sense.

One of the limiting factors in terms of length of the stairs was head room: There is a supporting beam that runs across the ceiling just at the bottom of the stairs (where the new support post is, and where the old support post was). That beam could not be moved without major engineering.

Stephen is six feet tall and has a lifetime of having to tilt his head to the side when going up or down stairs (including the staircase that was in this house when we moved in) in order not to have a constant bruise on his forehead. So this staircase has been designed and custom-built to provide a rise and run that meet building code while also fitting within the available space. It took a lot of calculation and precise measuring.

The other thing we had to work around was the window at the top of the stairs. Although it was pretty well centred in the guest room, our new floor plan has the staircase straddling the left edge of the window. Our solution is to have a short, angled wall that sort of blocks the window. It's a little weird, but it'll be in our walk-in closet, so I'm not too worried about it. (And if we ever decide to change the exterior of the house, we'll adjust the wall as well.)

You can see the diagonal line drawn on the floor that shows where the wall will go.

At one point, Stephen had suggested just walling over the window — it wouldn't change the exterior, but it would block off the window indoors. I was definitely not happy with that option, so we got creative, and I do think it is better this way.

Although reconfiguring the basement was not one of our main motivations for this project, I do think it will make that space much better as well. We're seriously contemplating putting patio doors and a walkout where the current laundry area is. That will make the entire space — family room and guest suite — feel bright and open.

I'm really excited about the next step: opening the stairs to the front hallway! I'm not sure if Steve will get that done before Christmas, but it will completely change the feeling of the main floor.

The walls come down!

And then building the new front hall.

Enclosing the stairs

This phase will also involve tiling the floor (my job) and carpeting the stairs. (I prefer carpeted stairs: they are quieter.)

Stay tuned!