Inside box number 1 ....

After a trip to the home show and home depot looking at newel posts/railings we came home kind of disappointed expecting to have to do a lot of shopping to find the right pieces for the stair case. While taking out our frustration on the upstairs railing we found this little gem.

Our newel posts up until now have been really dull looking squares. We figured they were covered with a thin layer of wood but thought the inner layer would be an even shittier looking square newel post. We were happy when we pulled off some veneer and found this old newel post. Lets hope the main one is in as good shape as this one!

The beginnings of the upstairs hall/stairs/entryway project

With our final energy audit out of the way we're putting the basement back on hold for now and moving back upstairs.

Our next project is our upstairs hall, stairs and entry way. These are our last above-grade spaces that haven't been fixed yet. The plan is to skim coat the plaster on the walls in the hall and drywall the ceiling and walls around the stair case. Skim coating the hallway walls was motivated by a desire to avoid door jam issues that come up when drywalling over the plaster. None of the walls are external so this seemed like the best way to go.

So far we've gotten almost all the wall paper down on the walls that will be skim coated. Tomorrow and during the week we're planning to prep for drywall. With the rest of the space finished, its a little disturbing to see parts of it partially destroyed. We're also having to be more careful to make sure we don't mess up the things we've already done... the joys of living in a house and renovating 1 space at a time :oP.

Weekend baking

We had another weekend with no progress on the house. Instead we made cupcakes and butter scotch sticky buns


Since last week we also had our energy audit. It went pretty well and it looks like we should get all our rebates back. Our neighbours that were just getting the rebate for the furnace didn't get bothered much, but since we are trying to get rebates for a window, insulation, furnace and hot water heater we got asked for receipts. We have most of them... somewhere... We've tried to be methodical, but inevitably in all the shuffling of boxes around the receipts stash has gotten buried.

Next week we're hoping to start on our next project... the stair way. The last part of the house with "old lady pink". We're looking forward to the final "de-pinking" of the house.

Work hard play hard

The long weekend was a great break for us. No renovations got done and much fun was had.

First off we hosted a Mad Men themed cocktail party. We really like to entertain so it was fun to finally have a party in our house. At the request of one of our friends we made it a formal affair so everyone dressed nice and had some tasty snacks and cocktails.


Then for Valentine's day we were off to Colborne Lane . It was a good meal with some molecular gastronomy tricks to boot. After Alinea in Chicago it wasn't totally mind-blowing but still pretty good for TDot.

Today was back to work :P and tomorrow is the energy audit... then we'll see what we get up to next.

Insulation update

The basement is now insulated. We're just trying to tag up with the energy auditor for our final audit and rebates. It definitely feels warmer, but until we replace the door in the back walk up it won't be as warm as it could be.

With the basement done and various deadlines satisfied at work we've turned out attention to tidying up the house for a "Mad Men" themed cocktail party this weekend. One of the reasons we liked this house was that it had a good amount of space for entertaining... Now the space is finally usable for entertaining. It's exciting :) .

Here is a picture of a vase I got for our pass through. It's nice to be able to make things pretty instead of just functional.