Home, Sweet Home. And hives. Lots of hives.

My new beautiful kitchen. See our
clever pegboard backsplash? :)

We have moved into the new house. I had no idea it would be this much work and this much time. I haven’t written a word in days, and if I never see another cardboard box again, it will be too soon.

We woke up that first morning in the new house to a gorgeous sunny room. Naturally this startled me, so I sat bolt-upright in bed at 6am. You see, in our old place the bedroom was in the attic and the windows were tiny, and you had to become super-sensitive to sunlight or you’d never know it was morning. Here, the window is huge and is right beside the bed. We look out on trees and a park. It is heaven.

Not a single bat has flown at me in the time we’ve been here. They are almost suspiciously absent from our lives. It reminds me of the time I got rid of a really bad roommate, but then still found I missed them a little.

Brian is dead tired and I suppose I am, too, but it feels good. We’re only half unpacked and I don’t even care. Well, except I’d really like some curtains, because living at ground level for the first time in years has reminded me that people can see you in your skivvies when you’re getting breakfast together in the morning. Oops.

Behold, my hivey legs.

It hasn’t been smooth. I woke up on the first morning here with hives all over me. I looked like a little kid with chicken pox, frankly. It wasn’t attractive, and it took us two days to figure out that it was the construction dust doing it to me. Brian had to clean the house from top to bottom while my mother washed all my linens. The reaction has ceased but has left me with red splotches that I hope will heal nicely.

But so far, I am thrilled with the house. No, not the neighbours, and no, not the commute…but the house is lovely, feels huge, and ohhhhh, that sunshine.

This is a tiny sliver of ‘happily ever after’, so I’m going to leave this post just as it is. For now. 

Sunshiney happy bed!

Building the Nest: Repairs and twitchy eyes

You may be wondering why we haven’t updated the blog in a week. (If you didn’t notice, then you’re not here enough.) It’s rare for us to get so busy that no posts go up, but hear me out: this is the order of events that happened between last week and this one:

SUNDAY:

Jordan and Brian go back to the apartment to sleep after a long day of working on the new house. Jordan steps into the bedroom and immediately throws herself onto the ground in an evasive manoeuvre as yet another bat dive-bombs her from above. After Jordan crawls backwards down the stairs, Brian startles the bat into the office and shuts the door. Bags are quickly packed and Jordan and Brian sleep at Jordan’s parents’ house.

MONDAY:

Jordan undergoes scary medical test, complete with sedatives. Jordan doesn’t remember the rest of the day. The bat catcher comes and says the bat is gone, and tells Jordan she’s a wuss for not catching it herself. Jordan is too drugged up to slap the man.

TUESDAY:

Brian finishes the drywall and patchjob on the dining room ceiling and bathroom walls after repairing the leak, ready for tiling, at the new house. Leaking pipe is soldered and new tub has been installed.

THURSDAY:

Brian spends the day scraping spackling off the dining room ceiling to prepare for repainting. He rinses his head in the new tub while Jordan tidies downstairs. Jordan hears the whoosh of running water, then the telltale drap-drap-drapdrap-drap of a leak. Brian follows the sound down to the basement, where water is pooling on the floor. With  many curse words, Brian yanks out his drywall patch job and discovers another pipe, cracked. Jordan has a cigarette.

FRIDAY:

Brian asks Jordan in the morning, ‘What colour would you like to paint the living room?’ Jordan says, ‘No colour; why?’ Brian says, ‘Well then, there’s going to be one raw drywall wall, because I’m going to have to cut out the wall to fix the pipe today.’ Jordan says nothing, and stays as far away from the new house as possible. Brian and Jordan’s dad spend the day patching the cracked pipe. Mention of the house makes Jordan’s eye twitch.

SATURDAY:

Brian teaches himself how to tile, and tiles the bathroom. Jordan sticks to packing up the old apartment.

SUNDAY:

Jordan hears Brian testing the water, just to be sure of his pipe repair. She tries not to ask herself why this is being tested after all the tile has gone up.

Do couples buy houses to test their resolve to co-exist with each other? I haven’t yet met a person who said, “Oh, you’ve bought a house? What a wonderful experience you’re about to have! It’s like a second honeymoon!”

Brian is in his glory. I hope he writes about it this week, so I can read it and try to understand. Every now and then, he’ll wander over to me, covered from his head to his toes in plaster and grouting, and just smile at me. I give him a face I’ve seen on popular girls in high school when nerdy boys would stare at them; the look that says, “What do you want, weirdo?” But Brian just keeps on grinning until I roll my eyes and walk away.

Darcy and I are hiding out in Brian’s new office. At least there aren’t any bats here.

(Knock on wood.)

Building the Nest: Bathroom woes

I swear, there was a bathroom here when I left last night.

I remember moving boxes into this, our new house, in preparation for the final big move at the end of the month. I remember looking in this bathroom and thinking about colour choices.

And now, less than 24 hours later, I come in to find…that.

To be fair, I had gotten a quick phone call from Dad while I was at work that morning. He said that the leak—the tiny leak from the tub that was supposed to require only a tiny patchjob—had not been as simple as predicted. The hot water pipe, not the drain, was the leaky culprit. This meant, apparently, that the wall had to be torn out a little bit.

Of course, when they tore out the wall and found that a previous owner had filled the wall behind the tub with newspapers instead of insulation, that required more demolition.

I should be grateful, and I am, that Brian’s brother is a drywaller. Because I came into the house, saw, the bathroom, and then walked right back downstairs to the kitchen, where I painted a first coat on all the walls; and by the time I was done that, the boys had put up walls again, and installed the (new) tub. Why a new tub? Because the previous owner had painted the old one by hand and it felt like sandpaper. And because once you’re redoing the whole damn bathroom anyway, you might as well replace the tub while everyone is helping out. It was a project we’d planned to delay, but sometimes you don’t get that luxury.

I’m calmer about it now, though the newspaper discovery resulted in the vinyl shower stall being torn out and destroyed, so now we’re also going to be tiling. I am not exaggerating when I say that our teeny tiny repair job has quintupled in price.

I’m grateful for Brian and his brother, who both have been through house renos with their parents. And I’m grateful for my dad, who played foreman and helped Brian sodder pipes together. (Did you know people can soder their own pipes? Neither did I.) I am also grateful for my mom, who, I’m told, brought the men lobster rolls and veggies to keep them fueled.

I am grateful for credit cards, and carefully crafted spreadsheets that will help us pay back said credit cards.

I am grateful for my old pug Mr Darcy, who sat by me while I turned off my brain and painted the kitchen. I am grateful that he’s such a dork, because he amused me by getting yellow paint all over his butt, then managed to mascara all his whiskers in blue by sniffing a freshly-painted table.

We will look back on this and laugh one day. But right now, I just sigh.

Keep Calm and Paint On.

Furniture Makeovers: painting old wood with Jordan

We spent the weekend at the new nest, working on things like wiring and installing a dishwasher (okay, Brian was doing that, not me), and revamping old furniture to make new treasures for our house (that was me). As I worked on two very different dressers in the backyard, I thought about what tips I can offer up for the amateur furniture makeover artist. I’ve got a long history with refinishing furniture (in the past, I’ve done some pretty cool commissioned paintings on furniture), and I’ve found there are two ways to refurb an ailing wooden treasure: the fast way, and the right way. But don’t despair: there’s a time and place for both.

PAINTING OLD FURNITURE: THE FAST WAY OR THE RIGHT WAY?

Refinishing furniture can be a complicated, smelly, toxic, messy, onerous task. Doing it the right way usually follows these steps:

1. Remove old paint

2. Sand

3. Apply primer

4. Sand

5. Apply paint, and sand again if needed

6. Clear coat

Dresser 1: BEFORE

The fast way goes like this:

1. Paint and pray

I usually follow the ‘right way’ when I’m doing a commissioned piece, but when it’s just for me, I have a third method which feels like a fair compromise:

COMPROMISE: JORDAN’S HALF-FAST FURNITURE REFINISHING

1. Sand the piece with rough paper and a mouse sander

2. Prime

3. Paint

4. Clear coat

TIPS FOR FURNITURE MAKEOVERS

Here’s a few tips I’ve learned, primarily through trial and error and misery:

Dresser 1: AFTER!

a. SPRAY PAINT IS NOT ALWAYS THE ANSWER. Spray paint needs a lot of coats to be effective, and tends to chip or scratch. If you want a brushstroke-free finish, use a roller with ‘real’ paint.

b. TYPE OF PAINT COUNTS. I buy a lot of ‘mis-tints’ at the hardware store—paints that have been returned because the colour was wrong, and are then sold super-cheap—but I always check on what type of paint it is. For furniture, a semi-gloss is better than an eggshell finish, though your clear coat will help with this as well.

c. QUALITY IS KEY. Choosing a higher-quality paint may mean the difference between one coat and three. This means in the end, the higher-quality paint will actually save you money.

d. TAKE BREAKS BETWEEN STEPS. Water-based paints need three days to off-gas, and oil-based paints need a week. This means that, no matter how dry your paint seems, it’s still releasing gasses for 3-7 days. During this time, do NOT apply your clear coat; you risk accidentally pulling off the paint, and you can end up with a finish that easily chips or peels.

Dresser 2: BEFORE

e. TAKE RISKS ON THE TRASHY STUFF. The blue dresser seen here was free, found on a street corner, in terrible shape, and headed to the trash. The creamy one was purchased (for a whopping $20), is more unique, and is higher quality. So naturally, I did the risqué paintjob on the cheap/free dresser, and did the ‘safer’ colours on the more expensive piece.

f. CONSIDER LOCATION. The creamy dresser here will now be used as a buffet/sideboard in our dining room, while the blue dresser is indeed still a dresser. But many people pass up great deals on furniture when they think they don’t have a spot for it. I’ve seen adorable high chairs made into plant stands, TV stands made into benches, and dressers made into kitchen islands. Don’t get stuck thinking about furniture as a one-trick pony; it can be as versatile as you like!

Dresser 2: AFTER

g. TO PAINT OR NOT TO PAINT? My dad cries a little every time I paint a piece of furniture. The reality is, many of the pieces I salvage were going to end up in the landfill if I didn’t paint them up. Yes, that ancient dining room chair might be a pricey piece if you could ever find a buyer, but sometimes no one is looking for one raggedy old hoopback. Painting it up and revitalizing it may give it another twenty years of life in a person’s home. People who freak out every time someone paints a chair are probably the same people who say women shouldn’t have to colour their grey hair: I’m sorry, but some of us just aren’t ready to look our age.

Look at those painty, painty hands.

On the flipside, of course, some pieces should be left well enough alone: church pews, cast iron sewing tables, and things handmade by your great-grandpa may deserve to be properly refinished by a professional. Ask yourself: is the look of the wood what gives this particular piece its magic? If the answer is yes, put the paintbrush away.

That’s just a few tips to get you thinking and hopefully get you feeling a bit more courageous! Worse-case scenario, you have to prime and paint again. Relax, folks; it’s just furniture. Now see what you can create!

Better In An Hour: Easy upholstery

Behold, our ugly red vinyl footstool. (Forgot to take a
photo rightside-up.)

UPHOLSTERY FOR LAZY PEOPLE 

It's been a while since we did a DIY crafty post, but don't fret: since we're getting the keys to our new house on Tuesday. Here's a small project that saved a little footstool from the trash:

Behold, my ugly footstool. Find your own similarly-shaped piece of furniture--a footstool, a padded stool, or something else entirely. This style of upholstering won't work as well on, say, a stuffed couch; look for something smaller, with a wood base to receive the staples.

YOU WILL NEED
-an old piece of furniture (ie footstool)
-a staple gun and staples
-a piece of fabric
-scissors
-foam, yoga mat, or other padding

First, we cut the yoga mat up. We used an old, thin, unappealing yoga mat to add padding to the stool, as the original padding was worn down to nothing. We cut three ovals of yoga mat out with a pair of scissors after tracing the footstool onto it. This step took 5 minutes.












Next, we stacked those onto the stool; we then took our piece of fabric and put it on top. Then we flipped the stool over, and began stapling the fabric to the bottom of the stool. This step took 15 minutes.

You'll likely need to keep adjusting your foam/yoga mat pieces to make sure they haven't shifted out of position. There's a knack to going around turns or corners, too: create tiny, intentional folds, and staple them down. On the straightaways, you can just go straight and tight.

Lots of staples for a secure attachment!

Cut off any excess, add any staples you need to, and hammer in any staples that didn't quite jab all the way into the wood. This step took 5 minutes.

And there you have it! A much more attractive footstool than the one you started out with!   And, in total, this entire project took 25 minutes. Now, at some point we will be painting the legs, which I estimate will take another 30 minutes to properly sand, prime, and paint.

Not bad, eh!

Simple, easy, and good for us lazy people. Just my kind of DIY makeover.

The Homeownership Continues: our little house with pictures!

Our kitchen!

THE GOOD NEWS

Well, we appear to still be signing things for the new house all the time, and we are waiting on some lawyer documents that I do not understand--thank god for Brian--but I think we can now safely say that we've bought a house. The inspection went pretty well, no doubt because we spent a little extra to get a well-reputed company to do it; they did find some minor things, like a missing hand rail to the basement, and a blocked laundry vent that needs vacuuming. 

THE NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS

They also found a leak in the bathtub drain that is apparently easy to fix. For those of you who recall our old apartment (the one we fled because the bathroom floor had melted under the tiles into a muddy cesspool of black mould), you can imagine the chill that went down my spine upon hearing this news. But we negotiated for repair fees, and all the men (Dad, Inspector, Brian) are in agreement that it's a quick fix, and no mould has begun. Hmm. I'll believe it when I see it fixed, properly, and after I buy my own mould detector. 

Mom inadvertently freaked me out his week by asking me if I was really confident in the inspector; in fact, her exact words were, 'Did he seem professional to you? Did you trust his skills?' Which are good questions to ask, of course, except that she had recommended the inspector, so I have no idea why she would ask me such a thing.

LEARNING TO LET GO

This entire experience has been a lesson in leaning on others. As I'd only joined in with Brian's house hunting a couple weeks ago, I didn't have the time to learn a whole lot about the house buying realm. Consequently, I am grateful that Brian has learned so much, and that my mother is a trained former mortgage broker. Still, it's a bit weird to turn on my internal elevator music and leave my financial wellbeing in the hands of others, no matter how close they are to me. There's strangers involved, too, of course: a mortgage broker, a realtor, a bank giving us this giant loan, an inspector, and a coven of strangers in the form of a condo association. 

I’m actually getting excited now about the whole house thing. I’m excited to be able to leave my windows open without being repeatedly wakened by the sound of 18-wheelers going down the highway. I am so eager to set up my new (smaller but nicer) art/writing/office room, and to have Brian set up in an office of his own so that his myriad school and business papers don’t keep getting left around the house; I’m starting to feel like I live with a humanoid magpie who’s trying to build a nest out of all these papers by plastering every surface of the house with them.

But if someone else wants to PACK for me, be my guest.

Okay, without further ado, here are a few photos to start!

This old house: apartment makeover, first steps

Our apartment is about to come under scrutiny. It’s funny how this makes me crazy, but it does. Our landlord is coming into town; he lives overseas for most of the year for his job, and he actually hasn’t been in Ottawa since we signed the lease…which, you can imagine, made some of the minor repairs that come with a move-in a bit more difficult to deal with. Lucky for him (and me!), Brian likes working with his hands. 

BEFORE: former tenants' dining room (sorta)

AFTER: we made it our living room.

I was looking through some photos that we took of the apartment when we first moved in. This is a habit I got into long ago, as I’ve found that even the nicest landlord can sometimes turn into a raving Mothra when you try to tell him that that hole in the wall was there when you moved in. Flipping through these photos, I realized something nice: while we’re still pretty far from completing our ‘nest’ the way we envision it, we’ve come a long way from the way the place was lived in by two bachelor college boys. 

The gap in the door.

Our bathroom: owls!

Brian's shaving set, a prized possession.

Our bathroom door is still crooked. Well, to be fair, the walls are crooked, as the house is sinking down into its own belly. The reason the door appears crooked is because, while the house sank and the door began to rub incorrectly in its jamb, someone clearly started shaving off bits of the wood. Now the door has a gap at the top that is wide enough to stick my hands through. It’s a cosmetic issue only…except when we have guests over and suddenly it’s awkward that you can hear everything so very easily.

BEFORE: former tenants used as TV room in attic.

AFTER: we made the TV room our bedroom!
More decorating to come, on a forest friends type look.

There are parts of the apartment that I absolutely adore. The pot rack that Brian installed on the kitchen wall is a lifesaver, and has eliminated the horrible clanging sound that usually occurs during cooking as we dig for the right pan. With the warm weather approaching, we are eager to set out seats on our little balcony, and when we eventually reorganize the art room/studio upstairs, it’s going to be the sunniest, coziest place to craft stuff on a Saturday morning. 

BEFORE: tenants' old bedroom #1.

AFTER: our new art room/office, instead of bedroom.

At night, we climb the stairs to the attic level and crawl into our big bed, under the cheery covers we picked out. I miss Jon Stewart because we lowered our cable TV plan to afford our rent, but Brian will play Big Bang Theory repeats on his laptop for me ‘til I fall asleep. In the morning, I’m greeted by warm yellow walls, even though there’s almost no natural light filtering through the tiny windows. 

BEFORE: former tenants' bedroom.

AFTER: dining room/workout room, and study area.

This is the backdrop against which our lives are lived. This is where we cry, laugh, whisper, and shout. This is where my friends can come anytime they need to chat; it is where I experiment on Brian’s gastrointestinal tract with my cooking endeavours. Every morning I shower in the tiny tub with the hot water pipes whistling and knocking in the walls. Every night I cringe a little at the roaring highway traffic zipping by a meer 50 yards from our heads. I have a closet where I effectively can find all my clothes, and just this week I separated my socks from Brian’s so I’d stop pulling on the wrong ones in the morning. 

BEFORE: kitchen.

AFTER: our wonderful pot rack!

I want more time with the house. I feel like we just started to get to know each other, and then my attention was pulled away for a standard out-of-the-house workweek. Today we created a chore schedule, and it’s my sincere hope that we can start DIY’ing more of our furniture (some needs a coat of paint badly), and making curtains.

The landlord’s impending visit makes me nervous. It’s as if I bought a used car and a year later, the original owner shows up and examines how I’ve maintained it, and what dashboard toys I’ve chosen. I worry he will sneer when he sees my wok and Corningware is stashed with the linen, or that he’ll flip out about the toothbrush holder Brian installed because we have no bathroom counter. With its imperfections, tiny spaces, and odd shape, this is the most I’ve ever modified an apartment to fit my needs; and while I think we’ve been pretty ingenious so far, I don’t want this man to pass judgement on it. 

One of our many items needing paint.

Still, the last guy slept on a mattress on the floor; if the landlord’s going to sneer at my hidden pans, he must have fainted when he saw the garbage bag of inexplicable onion skins that were stashed in a deep kitchen drawer by the last tenants. Oh, wait—he didn’t see those because we had to clean them out.

My happy place.

This post was really just an opportunity to show you some photos of our efforts so far…but as I’ve written it, I realize how far I’ve come in three months. While I’m clearly showing signs of possessiveness about the place, I think I can safely say that I’ve fallen a little in love with it, too. Of course, this morning I had hot water for my shower, so that colours my sentiments today. But yeah, I kinda L-word this place. Just a little.

Fri with Bri: a Friday drywall repair tutorial, and a scotch pairing.

This year, Brian will be blogging on most Fridays, about his activities, musings, matrimonial experiences…and his wine, scotch, beer, and tea recommendations. This week, Brian teaches us how to repair holes in drywall, and finishes the weekend off with a fine glass of scotch. Enjoy.

This week I wanted to cover how to repair a hole in the wall… most people have them, lots of people hire someone it fix them but when you move into a new place in December, most people just want to have it fixed fast.

Now, I have to officially recommend that you hire a professional to do all repair jobs for you and we can’t in any way be held responsible for any damage or negative result that may occur through following this tutorial. There, that’s out of the way now.

another hole

I found the holes...

We of course started off by finding the holes and communicating the problem to our landlord; we asked for his permission to complete the work ourselves. When you are renting, this is a very good idea when you move in. Most times by offering to do the work you can get the landlord to cover the costs of the materials, and depending on the size of repair, you may even negotiate for a rent reduction. Sometimes it’s worth it for the landlord to ‘pay’ you a hundred bucks rather than wait weeks on end for a high-priced contractor to come in. It really depends on the repair. 

When you are looking at the holes, note for how deep they are, what the wall is made out of, and how big (wide) the holes are. All of these factors with help you to decide what materials to use. Our walls are drywall and paint and the holes were no bigger than a quarter in diameter, so we could use basic drywall compound to fill in the holes. 

scraped off paint

peeling paint scraped off

Make sure that if there is any paint chipping off around the hole, that you remove it. I used a putty knife to scrape off the flaking paint which exposed a very large area. This is an iimportant step, because you will otherwise end up with paint that continues to chip and peel, or there may be a visible line where the peeling paint is lifting. Jordan’s dad, Bill, came over to help with this process; we used a large putty knife to spread the drywall compound around and to smooth it out. 

Tip: the smoother the surface when the compound is still wet, the less sanding to do when it’s dry.

 I then had to start the sanding… ever hear the saying ‘Hindsight is 20/20’? Well, in hindsight I would have worn a mask and probably put a sheet around the area because the dust goes everywhere…. And I was spitting out dry wall dust for about a full day. After the sanding, be sure to get rid of any imperfections, ripples or bumps by running your hand along the surface to check for them. Then vacuum the floor and walls, as this helps to control the dust and makes applying the putty easier the second time. Jordan took a dry dishtowel and wiped at the repair areas to slough off as much of the dust as possible before painting. After applying any final coats of putty to any imperfect areas, sand one more time and then vacuum again when it’s dry.

Taping

Smooth putty

Once the final round of sanding is complete it is ready for paint. The nice thing about asking your landlord to cover the cost means that if they have any leftover paint they may opt to give it to you: we got to use the last of the ceiling paint that was originally used, which made painting the ceiling so much easier. This is the part of the process Jordan hates! She doesn’t enjoy painting big flat walls in single colours, preferring a canvas and free reign to create colourful images; I however love painting walls, and It was so exciting going to the paint store and having them use their computer to match the paint chip we had kept from the scraping process. 

Warning: The matched paint is not perfect, so be sure that if you do paint match, you must paint the entire wall—not just a cover up the section you repaired.

 For the bedroom, we went with a brighter colour but still in a similar tonal range. The one we chose was Bagel (which Jordan says sounds way less awesome than it is...it's a banana pudding type of creamy yellow).  When you are painting the walls it is important to tape all the edges you don’t want painted, to paint the edges of the wall with a paint brush first, and use rollers over all of it. Oh, and move the furniture well out of the way. Be sure that you are spreading the paint evenly. If your paint doesn’t have a built in primer, really consider using a primer to reduce how many coats you need to do. We decided that a built-in primer was the best for our project as time = money, and with the built-in primer paint, we only needed two coats to get our colour right.

Tip: when you hear the roller going wub wub wub wub wub wub as you roll, it means you need more paint.

I recommend doing two coats of the paint on the wall, even if you are using a primer; it ensures that you have proper coverage and there is none of the previous colour coming through the paint. Read the paint to see how soon you can put on the next coat: if you put it on too soon, you risk actually peeling off the still-damp layer!

Once you’ve finished all your coats and they have dried for 24-48 hours, it is now time to remove the tape!!! This is my favourite part. I like trying to make a large tape ball :) The next step is to now tape off the ceiling in the same fashion, if there was any repairs done to the ceiling, and apply a coat of ceiling paint to the area. This step is also helpful for any mistakes that happen because of slipping rollers. Be sure to feather the paint out on the ceiling: it’ll help blend the paint tones together, even though it’s the exact same paint, as time does change the colour of white. Now take off the tape and add it to your tape ball from previous. 

Tip: if you make multiple tape balls keep them close or your wife might throw them at you. 

Last step is putting furniture back and cleaning up. Not only does this finish the job, but it earns you big brownie points if you do a little extra cleaning in the process. 

source: glenfiddich.ca

BRIAN’S SUGGESTED IMBIBING: A SCOTCH RECOMMENDATION

Now reap the rewards of a job well done! I like to pair the reward reaping with a lovely scotch. This project’s scotch pairing was Glenfiddich, 12 years old, which has a beautiful golden colour with a full oaky aroma and a hint of peat; this scotch is nice because I find it has a smooth taste with a nice sweetness and a subtle smoky finish, very good for the beginner scotch Pairs best with a happy wife and a freshly painted room.