In order to tell a more complete version of this story,
I'm going to back up just a little bit to the early days of home ownership.
One of the first things that had to be attended to was the rotting back deck.
My Dad was indispensable and a wealth of knowledge when it came to
tearing down and rebuilding. Over the years, it has been rebuilt twice.
Both times, my Dad was involved in the process.
Underneath the deck was the shared laundry room/shed.
It was accessed by the tenants through what is now Howie's office door.
I would dash down the stairs out the back of the house and enter
through an exterior door that is no longer there.
In those days, laundry was a near daily occurrence.
It's no wonder that our septic field eventually faltered.
When we opened up the house and took over, the laundry room
(shown above) became Howie's office space.
The lower part of the room was rotted out, so, my Dad
and Howie rebuilt it. Fun times. See the smile? :)
This is the view into the room from what was once the exterior door.
The door wall was closed in and another window was added in its place.
Just outside Howie's office, there is a basement bathroom.
It was super tiny and had many issues. It needed attention.
See the plumbing pipes to the left of the ladder?
That was where the bathroom wall had been.
The sink originally was jammed between the toilet and that wall.
We had those pipes re-routed further along to allow for
a regular sized vanity to be installed.
This entire room was completely destroyed and rebuilt.
Along the way, mistakes were made.
The wall shown below was to be an extension to the basement hallway.
It led to Howie's office, the bathroom, and Austin's room.
Once this wall was framed and wired, we realised that it had a few problems.
The hallway narrowed too much and
Howie's office would be accessed via the bathroom! Oops.
My Dad puzzled this one through and rebuilt the wall.
He made an angle in it and the hallway was extended to the right.
Howie's office and the bathroom would each have their own
separate doors. Brilliant!
This is how it looks now ~ see the cute little angle?
And here is the view down the little hallway
(to the right in the photo above)
which leads to the bathroom and Howie's office.
Once the basement bathroom was completed,
we were able to dismantle the upstairs bathroom.
Howie was becoming an expert at demolition. :)
The mirror wall was covered with a layer or two of wallpaper
which had been painted once or twice. I'm sure it made sense to someone.
We came to the conclusion that the drywall had to be removed and replaced.
A new counter top was built on top of the original cabinet (thanks, Dad!).
We removed the doors in order to fix and paint them.
This is an example of one of the ways in which we were able to
keep the total cost of our renovation to a minimum.
I had my heart set on a nicer sink than Howie had planned on.
The difference in cost had to be made up somewhere else. My solution?
I bought a discounted remnant of linoleum and redid the floor myself.
That was an experience! (Pre-YouTube days.) :)
However, it was worth it. That sink is still one of my
favourite features of that bathroom.
One of the last things we did was replace the blue carpeting.
The night before it was due to be installed, we removed the old.
Unfortunately, we found that the underlay had been glued to the plywood
in both the living room and Emma's bedroom.
A job that should have only taken a couple of hours ended up
taking us all night. The children slept through it all.
See what I mean about my Dad? There he is again!
He was such a huge help to us throughout the process of transforming our home.
The night before the carpeting was installed, he dropped everything and
came to create and fasten nosings to our flight of stairs.
Just a little side note ~ the hallway wall colour in the photo below
is the same colour as the hallway leading to Howie's office (shown above).
As the lighting varies, the shade appears to be different. It's an illusion.
It was nearing Christmas when the carpeting was installed.
This photo was taken prior to moving everything back into the living room.
We set the children up to watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and
I snapped a photo. I had no idea how much I would love it. But, I do.
It brings back such happy memories
of those precious days of long ago.
And then, before we barely caught our breath,
our little princess turned three!
Our major renovation was complete. Just a memory.
Nearly eleven years later, we feel like we are still recovering.
Because we got caught up in life, some of the finishing was left undone.
One by one, we are crossing those items off our list.
I suppose, if it ever comes time to sell,
we will be forced to get them all done. Perhaps that is what it will take.
In the meantime, we will live life and seek to take things as they come.
By God's great grace and in His strength.
Eternity is what really matters. May we be found living life
in light of this truth while the Lord has us here.
This series is coming to a close.
Next up....before and after shots.
And, that will be that! :)
With Love, Camille
**Previous posts in this series may be found by
clicking
here (introduction),
here (part one),
here (part two),
here (part three),
here (part four), and
here (conclusion).
