Wow qu'on aime!

... and it's DONE!!

We had the painter and his coworkers do a thorough cleaning (after we had spent 2 days clearing the first layer of dust), and here is the spectacular result! We love it!





It's now ready for us to come back home...

Presque tout est fait, sauf le ménage...

Getting closer...

Everything is almost in place except for the fact that there is dust EVERYWHERE! We started by washing our new set of plates; here's Jonathan very enthusiastic about the task...



The pantry now has all of the shelving installed. All that is missing now is the washer/dryer...



Here is a daytime shot of the bedroom, giving a bit of a better idea of the dark blue-grey colour of the wall.



So far we are very pleased!

Et la lumiere fut!

Cette fin de semaine l'électricien est venu installer une partie des lumières et c'est vraiment magnifique!

Le couloir:


cuisine:


Notre penderie dans notre chambre:

Almost the end!!!! But...

Though we are approaching the end of this major project, there are still little snafus that come up along the way... usually these involve return trips to Rona/Ikea/Home Depot to return unnecessary items or exchange incorrect pieces, but some are more serious, like the latest discovery:



Yep, that's a big crack in our new sink. The contractor will try to exchange it next week. Not quite sure how the crack got there...

Now onto the other new additions:

New toilet in master bathroom (dual flush!):


Medicine cabinet, faucets and vanity installed:




Close-up of faucets...


Shower doors nearly installed and all shower plumbing installed:


Awesome kitchen faucet and tiled backsplash:

And finally a great picture of the main area. Things to notice:
- new radiator under window
- painted walls
- tiling of backsplash
- dropped-ceiling lighting above the island
- sanded floors (to be varnished this week)


Almost there!

Comptoir

This part is really exciting... they installed the countertop in the kitchen! It's Staron (the Samsung version of Corning's Corian), which is a composite material. We chose this because we wanted an undermounted sink and we did not want a joint in the giant slab that is on top of the island (which would have been the case if we went with quartz).

I think it looks superb!



A creative close-up shot:

On approche de la fin

Now it is the time when finishing touches are being done and the place is really taking shape!

Here are the new door handles installed on the (84") doors:

The kitchen is coming along - you can now see more cupboard doors, and the island taking shape in the center of the room.  Also notice the hood over the spot where the oven/stove will go (and the hole through the wall, through the brick, leading to outside!):

It's getting close to being done!

On aime notre salle de bain!!!!!

Ah, the "piece de resistance"...

The bathroom has turned out really well, we are so impressed!
The vanity and medicine cabinet should arrive next week.



In our master bedroom we decided to go the Ikea route for closets (Pax). Two challenges include leveling the bottom of the closets, because the floor is crooked, and deciding what to do with the sides (either beef up the wall, put melamine planks, or use painted MDF along the sides. We chose the last option). Now if only I could reach the top shelves...

Kitchen

The apartment is really taking shape!

Here is the kitchen partially installed. The colour of the cabinet doors will be the dark brown-black that you see on one of the doors in the photo. There will be an island in the center with some space for about 2 stools. The stove/oven goes in the open space between the floor cabinets between the 2 windows.

The Ikea people came to take measurements for the counter, which should arrive in about 2 weeks!

Céramique dans la salle de bain

The master bathroom continues to take shape.  The wall is entirely tiled and it looks fantastic!

The two pipes below are for the wall-mounted sink faucets.

Can't wait to take a bath in there!

Quelle est belle notre salle de bain!

More progress in the master bathroom...

Isn't it pretty??

The shower base is made up of the same tile as the floor, only cut into smaller 4"x4" pieces.

Here is a wide shot of the kitchen, with some of the base cabinets and pantry in place! (and you can see the lovely new wood floor)

Encore de la céramique et début de la cuisine

As the apartment takes shape, we are starting to see the various rooms take form.

Here is the powder room, all tiled!

Here is the beginning of the assembling of the kitchen cabinets.  We panicked when we saw the colour of the wood, thinking they had made a mistake (we ordered dark brown-black) - but then realized that all cabinets are like this and the coloured part only shows up on the doors and side panels.  Phew!

In the master bathroom, work began on the shower floor.  This was one of the 'surprises' after we learned that the shower base we had bought would have likely cracked in a few years.  To be safe, we stuck with tile...

Finally - here is the master bathroom with its floor tiled and bathtub and faucets in place!  Note that the bath is actually quite a bit deeper than what you see from the side; the base is actually dug down further below the floor.

Céramique dans la salle de lavage

It took awhile (and a few visits to several ceramic stores) before we finally decided on a dark grey tile for our 2 bathrooms and laundry room (18"x18").  Here is the laundry room all tiled!

Début des plancher

Hello friends!

Sorry for the long break.  Let's just say that renovating can be tiring and stressful, and has been keeping us quite busy lately...

Things are moving along quite well!

Here is a photo of the new wood floor; we kept the old hardwood and had to fill in the spots that were left bare from the demolition.  First photo is in the kitchen, where there used to be linoleum (on top of old linoleum, on top of older linoleum, etc etc...)

Day 56 - Office... / Céramique

Isolation refait dans le bureau

Mais dans l'opération un fils réseau a été endommagé...

Notre couloir:

Début de la céramique par Stéphane:

Day 52 - Office.

Voici le bureau avec sa nouvelle isolation.  Il va maintenant faire chaud dans cette pièce!  Nouveau plafond, nouveau mur...  Maintenant la question, c'est comme il y a deux radiateurs, il risque de faire trop chaud! 

C'est Stéphane, un des employés, qui a refait les murs le weekend dernier à un prix interessant!  Merci!

Day 51 - Plâtre et bureau...

Alors ce qui a vraiment avancé cette semaine c'est le plâtre.  On commence à voir à quoi va ressembler le résultat final.   Ça fait vraiment toute une différence:

Par exemple voici deux photos de l'entrée:

Ils ont aussi commencé à bâtir la base de la douche.  Rebecca à la chance de prendre la première douche:

Sinon on pensait que c'était terminé avec le bureau, et bien non!  On a finalement pris la décision de tout arracher les murs pour refaire l'isolation.  Quel catastrophe cette extension!  Alors quelques photos avant qu'ils reconstruisent les murs.  On dirait un gros gâteau...

Qui à faim?

Day 47 - Mur de la cuisine

Désolé ça fait longtemps qu'on n'a pas mis à jour notre Blog...  Nous voilà de retour.  Alors en ce 17 février, ce qui a de nouveau c'est que le mur de la cuisine est finalement posé.  Voilà le résultat:

Camping...

Some of you may wonder about our current living conditions during the renovations.  As previously mentioned, we are living on the downstairs level of Jonathan's dad's condo in downtown Montreal.  As you will see from these photos, we are really "roughing it"...!

Here is the living room and 'mini-bar' area, with our furniture temporarily installed (even my piano!):

This is the staircase that leads upstairs:

This is the bathroom.  Note that some of our bathroom fixtures that we chose were inspired by this bathroom (notably the sink):

Bedroom:

Rebecca's walk-in closet (with some of Jonathan's clothes)

Our combination office / storage room for all of the boxes that are staying unopened during the renovations:

Jonathan's closet:

Laundry room

We consider ourselves very lucky to be able to stay here for several months!