Melody Kilbank

Well, it looks and smells sooooo good in this unit now. All the stale odors are covered with fresh paint…every square inch, including ceilings! I always think when doing a renovation the most dramatic change is when the painting is done! It makes a place feel new!

The structural engineer came today to review our sagging joists. The news is likely the best we could hope for. He has concluded it was likely caused from the original build. The remediation we think will be fairly simple. But the engineer had to consult with another colleague for what actually needs to be done to repair/reinforce it. Hopefully we will have an answer later this week.

In the meantime we can proceed with flooring the upper level and doing our finishing upstairs! WAHOOO!!!

Our original target date for completion was August 1st.  I’m speculating if the joist remediation doesn’t take too long, maybe August 15th!

We after much MUDDING and patching we are all primed and ready for paint.
Our legacy of pulling staples still continues!
Tomorrow night I go to the first AGM of the condo association! Should be informative!
Got some great deals today at HomeSense for Vanity mirrors and bathroom towel/tp holders! I LOVE HOMESENSE!!
Still waiting for the call from the structural engineer! 🙁
After the painting we can’t do much else til we know what’s next!

My husband Brian thinks we should open a new retail outlet called “Staples”…LOL. We keep pulling and pulling. They are eternal it seems. Just when you think you can finish in one evening, it takes another. Yet another 4 to 6 hours of pulling and we should be done! I’m glad there was carpet only in 2 bedrooms, and the stairwells! The pictures may not look like much…but they are prepped and ready for flooring, once we get to that stage!
The mudding has started. Our friend Cam McCulloch, http://www.cammcculloch.com/ General Contractor is going to be doing some of the work for us! Ceiling prep has also begun, thanks to our friend Gary!
Another “thing of beauty” is our bath spigot now works It didn’t require re tiling the tub and it is like brand new….now to get to the CLR and clean up the tub and tile. Just wait…it is going to sparkle!
Still no word from the structural engineer. There has been a change in property managers, so today I brought the new one up to speed. Hopefully we won’t loose too much time over this.
Tonight we started our evening of work with a picnic in the condo for supper! I think all these experiences make for a lot of good memories!

When I look at today’s progress, we aren’t much further ahead on the project than yesterday. But when I see that we have only owned the property for 6 days, we are doing well.
Like the saying goes Two steps forward, three steps back!

The steps forward:

1.  The waste bin was taken away today! That means we almost filled a bin with demolition materials! That is PROGRESS!

2.  All the electrical is done. See photo for my idea for more money!!!
The three steps back:
1. So the set back today was trying to resolve the leaky taps in the bath tub. Old pluming, new parts and parts not working. We are half way there. The good news is all the old shut off valves have been replaced and the new ones installed so we can do any plumbing required!
2. We are still in the demo mode and today finished the last of the flooring. We still have, what seems like a million staples to pull from the carpet underlay, but that likely won’t hold up the painters.
3. We have learned of a structural issue with the joists in the ceiling of the kitchen/dining room and living room. The condo association has to resolve it. I am waiting for a call from a structural engineer who is to come and assess the problem and design a solution. I’m trusting it will be done as quickly as possible.
The pictures aren’t noticeably different today, but check them out anyway!

More sweat equity put in by my husband Brian.

Well, we accomplished a lot today as well. A good thing, as we both have to go to work tomorrow!
We have successfully removed the flooring in the main bathroom. This was a 3 person job and took many tools and a lot of muscle! The last of the flooring in the upstairs is in a small storage room and it is almost completely gone too. The staples were the hardest to pull up!!
All the walls which had wall paper have now been treated with TSP. My new friend! Boy does that stuff cut through grime, glue and guck! I also did the main bath.
I cleaned out a storage closet which had lots of items left behind, a few treasures which we are using. Check out the classy lamp in the photos! Also left was some dishes and cutlery, lots of boxes which went straight to recycle, and phones, speaker stands etc. Most of it went into the “bin”!
Tomorrow we have the flooring being delivered and the plumber coming.
We have discovered some sagging beams which are cracked. So I’ll be on the phone to the property manager in the morning!

We accomplished a lot today! More demo! All the laminate flooring is removed, all the carpet is gone and most of the tile is gone. We still have the main bath, the den and a small area of the kitchen to remove. It’s hard with layers of tile, lino and 1/4″ plywood. But that’s for tomorrow!

The theme for today is battling the borders. The good news is we were VICTORIOUS! However it did take us another 6 hours. You see, the person who installed the wall paper borders didn’t just use wall paper paste, they used some kind of silicone like glue. I had to use a razor sharp wall paper remover tool. There will be lots to mud over! But it is all down now!

Both bathroom vanities are gone and we still have one working toilet…an essential! New toilet will be installed early this week. We only have the bin for 3 days, so all the major materials from our demo have to be gone by Tuesday.

Shouldn’t be a problem as we almost have all the major demolition completed. One more day should complete the demo.

Other fun things we discovered today…a large garbage bag that was sitting out on the grass by the patio. Guess what was in it? Water logged cat litter complete with cat feces! We had to put it in a stronger bag and it took Brian and I both to haul it away…it was seriously HEAVY! We also determined what room the kitty litter box was likely kept in….good thing I have 2 bottles of the pet spray neutralizer!

Now for the challenge of the day….upon removing the water stained drywall ceiling in the kitchen, see photos day 1, we discovered a structural issue. I’m going to have to go back to the condo plans and determine if the condo association is responsible or the unit owner.  Stay tuned for the answers on Monday!

Once again the photos tell all, but remember it has to get worse before it gets better!

Sweat Equity is our theme for today! My husband Brian is proof of this! Hot day, lots of grunt work!
Although the pictures may not show progress, we accomplished a lot today.
Removed all the wall paper on the main level. Only to find out there is more wall paper behind the panelling in the dining room!
All the carpets in the bedrooms are up and the bathrooms are almost dismantled.
All the electrical has been checked and is working well. 🙂 Not so much the plumbing though…more on that on Day 5!
So take a look and tell me if you think you see progress. Remember when it comes to renos it gets worse before it gets better!

We bought a condo!!! Yes, we secured a foreclosure and although the possession date is today, our work started several weeks ago!
For the next few weeks, I will chronicle our renovation experiences and you can follow our progress!
So prior to today, I have been busy arranging insurance, utilities, and securing product. Our goal is to be done in 3 weeks.
We got a late start as we were to have possession originally on July 2, but there was a little back and forth with lawyers and today we finally closed.
I have ordered cabinets, bought bathroom vanity for upstairs. The Home Depot had dual flush toilets on sale, so they are sitting in my living room! I’ve picked out the backsplash tile, flooring. Got some deals at Restore on some bathroom vanity sinks. Also caught some deals at Park Lighting just today!
We got possession late in the day today, but we were able to get some demo done this evening.
The dumpster arrives tomorrow!

Its a 1106 sf 2 bedroom 1.5 bath 2 Story apartment!