The laundry room is done- almost!

Like many other projects in our home, the laundry room was put on the back burner while we worked on more important projects- i.e. the wine cellar, walk-in closet, etc! Yes, our priorities were (are) all mixed up:)

The gutting of what would become a laundry room began after our basement flooded during a strong rainstorm in the summer of 2008. It then remained in that state until we sloooowly started putting it back together piece by piece in 2010 until 2012.

I unfortunately can't find the flood pictures which would give you a good idea of what the room actually looked like. Here is a description: The room was originally part of the garage but was separated to create a laundry/work space, the walls were shiny varnished wood paneling, the ceiling was stuccoed, the flood was covered in blue, black and white mosaic tile, one wall had a bathtub held in place by a bed of cement (Yes, a tub!), the washer was in one corner of the room while the dryer was on the other corner about 17 feet away, and there were countless exposed electrical wires hanging from the ceiling. Maybe it's better I don't have before pictures since it may cause nightmares!

The original room was divided in two so as to create a laundry room and a playroom. The laundry room is small but it works.

The room is now almost done. Here are some pictures:

  This side of the room is used for storing laundry supplies but also the outdoor spa products (hence the beach towels) and craft supplies.
Cabinetry: $400 at Home Depot
Stool: $18 at Zone on St. Denis Boul.
Clock: $10 at Home Sense
Rug: $19 at Ikea
Looking for a mate sign- DIY

Here is the actual laundry side of the room:

The baskets are from the dollar store ($2 for the large baskets and $1 for the small ones). Much less expensive than any of the other options I looked at. The floor is the original tile that we decided to keep. The artwork is from Home Sense ($34). I find it kind of kitsch but fun- a great option for a laundry room.

The room is bright and cheery. I decide to go with this look after purchasing the clock. I figured that since there was no window in the room, why not brighten it up with color. The rest of the house has a mature and sophisticated character so this was a great place to have fun.

What's left to do:
Caulk and paint the crown molding
Install the baseboards around the cabinets
Install the door into the room
Install a light fixture

One day, soon I hope, it will be complete!

 Smiles,
Nancy

Landscaping part 3: The Reveal

As previously mentioned, we had no intention of re-doing the pavers when we first bought our home (See part 1 of landscaping). That was, of course, until it all started sinking, tilting and simply looking horrible. In an effort to save some money we decided to keep the original pavers in the front of the house. But a little change was done by adding a border of new cobblestone-like pavers along the edges.

Here is the before and after:

You can see the retaining wall tilting in the before picture and the straight wall in the after picture. Also check out the add border- I find it calms the busyness of the pavers. Also notice that the driveway on the left side of the image is paved in the original pavers. Since it did not need repairing it only made sense to keep the original pavers in the front of the house so as to not have two different patterns.

Close up. Now if only I could get the city to fix the sidewalk!

The walkway on the side of the house was changed to the new cobblestone-like pavers. This is why we added the border around the front part of the house, we wanted the two types of pavers to blend. And of course, the great part is that the slope is perfect- no water accumulation along the foundation walls.

Another change was the addition of a black iron fence. I love the way it looks!

As for the backyard, we decided to get rid of the outdoor storage shed- I sold it on Kijiji. The yard looked so much bigger without it! We wanted a place to chill and the shed just took up too much precious space.

The yard went from this:

To this. Look at all the extra space without the shed!

To this:

See other landscaping posts: Part 1, Part 2


 Smiles,
Nancy

Landscaping: getting it done - part 2

The freeze and thaw experienced during Montreal winters means that there is lots of movement in outdoor landscaping. This also means that when laying pavers, the excavating and compacting is key to ensure that you won't have to redo your landscaping the very next year (I've seen this happen- what a mess!!).

As with any renovation, it's important to check on the progress. Here I am (9 months pregnant) verifying the work. The workers were extra nice to me but I think it's because they feared I'd go into labour if stressed.

In our climate it is necessary to excavate at least 12 inches (approximately 3 inches for the pavers and the rest is for rock and gravel).

Excavating for the walkway: 

Check out that belly!

Excavating for the backyard tanning pad:

Once the excavation was done, 2/3 of the area was filled with 3/4 inch crushed stone and compacted with a plate compactor. Gravel was then added on top of the 3/4 inch stone and also compacted. Tip: the compacting is done when you can walk on the gravel without causing an indentation.  The surface must be slightly sloped (3/16" per foot) away from the house for water drainage.

Here is the backyard pad filled with gravel but not yet compacted:

 Check back soon for the final reveal. It's a huge improvement from the before (See the before post)

Smiles,
Nancy

Landscaping Project: The Before- part 1

When we purchased out home the interlocking pavers were at least 15 years old but in really great shape. The slope and water drainage was perfect and the retaining wall was perfectly straight. Tony and figured that this would save us a few thousands of dollars in landscaping. But for some funny(!?!) reason within the first year of home ownership the pavers and retaining wall started moving and sloping! As if it was just waiting for us to arrive to start falling apart.
Because of the cost, we just kept putting this work off. But finally, five years later, we decided to bite the bullet and get the landscaping done. The pooling of water (and freezing during the winter) around the foundation of the house is a no-no. We didn't want to end up with foundation problems- a common problem in Montreal.

Here are some pictures of the before:

The sloping retaining wall:

The wall gets worse after every winter due to freeze and thaw.


Walkway sloping towards the house:

The grey section at the bottom edge of the foundation wall on the left side of the image is where the pavers should be. They sloped approximately 2 1/2 inches.


The pavers are old but I actually don't mind the pattern. In addition, my driveway is paved with these pavers and it's in great condition. So in an effort to save some money I decided to reuse the existing pavers. The contractor tried to convince us to just change to new pavers, driveway included, but to no avail.

We also decided to complete the backyard by adding a paved pad near the spa- a perfect tanning location.

Old entrance into the backyard:

Here is the drawing I gave the contractor:
 

This is a photocopy of the house plans. I just drew in the paver section around the house and the backyard indicating the instructions relating to the size and which pavers to use.

The contractor laughed at me when I gave him the above sheet but at least he knew exactly what I wanted.

I'll post the after pictures very soon.

Smiles,
Nancy

Sweet little dreams: gender neutral nursery

Because we did not want to know the sex of the baby while pregnant the nursery decor had to remain gender neutral. In a previous post I presented the fabric which influenced the rest of the decor- pale blues and greens, with pops of bright orange.

I wanted to keep it calm and serene, not too over the top babyish. That being said I did want it to clearly be a baby's room but perhaps a classy baby:)

So here it is:    

 

I love the pattern created by the star light.

 The bedding, drapery and change table accessories were made by my mother.

The framed parrot is actually needle point my mother made in the 1960s back in Portugal. Th colors work perfectly in the nursery.

 The diaper bag is held up by an owl hook- so cute!
 The metal pacifier was welded by my father-in-law for the birth of his first daughter.

Excuse my absence...but I'm back!!!

So I've been absent from the blogging scene for over a month now. Here are the reasons why:

1. I think the picture says it all!

Yes, I'm pregnant!!! It's my first pregnancy and I'm sick all the time. My nausea builds up throughout the day and by the evening I'm very sick and unable to really do anything at all. But on the positive side, doesn't the baby look sooo cute!

2. CORRECTIONS and then more CORRECTIONS! I teach history at a college and for this semester I fell behind on correcting. I'm still trying to crawl my way out from under all the essays, tests and assignments.

This was my stack of corrections for today- I didn't finish:(
 So basically the pregnancy sickness has put me behind on corrections and also on blogging. But hopefully this will end soon.

Smiles:)
Nancy

Harvesting

Harvesting- ahhh, it's that time of year again!

In our neighborhood it's very common to have fruit trees and gardens. We're no different- actually we are a little different. Many of our neighbors are older Italians who use their entire yard as a garden. We, on the other hand, only use a small section for a garden.

We do however have a fig tree in one corner, grape vines lining the fence and a small plot used for tomato plants.

Here are some images of the today's harvesting.

First, the tomatoes:

 We love cherry tomatoes and plant a variety of different colors. They make for such colorful salads.

Now for a very special little tomato. The pizzo tomato, also known as the vesuvio tomato, is our very favorite. They are little balls of sweetness. You can recognize this little fella by it's little point, it's almost heart shaped. Perfect to eat as snacks and my husband loves to make tomato sauce with them because there's no bitterness- just sweetness!

Second, the grapes:

 Not much to say about these- just that they're delicious! Next year I'd like to plant a dark grape vine.


Third, the figs:
Check out our fig tree:

You can see that some have ripened but many have not. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so they can continue to ripen.

 From what I hear, figs have a lot of sugar. But they are just so darn good!! I can't resist!

For those of you scratching your head and thinking "figs... in Montreal, Canada?" All I can say is "Oh, ya baby- we've got figs!" Fig trees aren't suppose to resist cold Montreal winters but there is a way to work around that. Come mid-October my husband and I dig a massive hole in the yard and tip the tree into the hole. We then cover it with dirt and bags of leaves to protect it from freezing. Come spring with dig it up and stand it up. Don't kid yourself, this is a lot of work! I'll blog about this and show pics in late October.

 Lucky for me I had a little helper to eat up all the falling fruit. He keeps the yard so tidy:)

And after some harvesting comes some re-lax-ation!

Hope you're enjoying some late summer fruit!

Smiles:)
Nancy

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