Jour 5 - Aire ouverte!

Aujourd'hui c'était le début de la deuxième semaine de travaux, en arrivant chez nous nous avons eu la surprise de voir notre appartement complètement ouvert. Comme vous pouvez le voir sur cette photo

le mur entre le salon et la salle à manger est ouvert. La photo a été faite le soir, mais de jour c'est extraordinaire la quantité de lumière dans l'appartement! Une bonne nouvelle à été qu'on peut finalement facilement ouvrir complètement ce mur. Et oui, un changement de plan...


Ici Rebecca qui prend la dimension de la porte d'entrée... Car maintenant on cherche des portes!


Pour le suivi du projet, pour l'instant nous sommes en avance sur l'échéancier. On espère que ça reste comme ça...

Master bathroom fixtures (almost all) chosen!

Initially we thought the most difficult part of the decoration/selection process was going to be the kitchen. We were mistaken; it is definitely the bathroom. The several challenges we faced were:
- finding a tub with the drain in the centre so that you don't have a drain at your back/feet inside the tub
- finding a reasonably-priced (non-existant) double-sink
- finding a vanity to accommodate said sink (possible if you want to sink thousands into a vanity)... we will likely go custom-made to keep costs down
- finding faucets that offer optimal quality-price while still pleasing Jonathan's taste for faucet beauty

After several weeks of fixture-hunting, we ordered everything except the medicine cabinet (hence the 'almost all chosen') today at Batimat. Here are the fixtures we bought:

Bathtub (Bain Ultra, Origami 7236):


The toilet (Kohler, Persuade) - it's a double flusher:


The sink (Duravit, Vero) - note there will not be a faucet in the middle:


The wall-mounted faucets (AquaBrass, Volare) - we will not have the exact handle shown in the photo; it will more of a straight-line handle. And, there will be 2 faucets, one for each of us.



The matching faucet set for the bath (again, handles will be straight and slightly shorter, and not curvy as shown):


The shower faucet kit resembles the fixtures above; can't find the exact picture though. There will be a hand-shower that can move up and down a fixed bar, as well as an overhead rain-shower-head thing.

Other extras included pop-up drain for the sink and drain for the bath; hidden costs that they don't tell you when you look at the initial price.

Here is a photo of Marie-Claude at Batimat; we spent many hours with her and she was very helpful! After shopping around the city at various plumbing supply stores, we gave the business to Batimat because they really spent a ton of time with us and had lots of patience!


Finally, after it was done, we celebrated at Snowdon Deli. On the way, Jonathan took a beautiful picture of the icy bushes; testament to the rain, snow and incredibly cold weather we had this past week:

Day 4

Week 1 of demolition has completed! We went in today and are still amazed that the place is still standing...

Here is the view of the 2nd bedroom, looking towards the front of the house (note, still old hallway configuration):


Here is a view through some beams looking towards the former bathroom:


And the Bathroom of Mirrors is gone! Here is the skeleton of what is left...(the doorframe that you see was a former unused closet entrance)


(more bathroom)


The passage for the new hallway has been made and a hole in the back room now exists to accommodate a new door. Here is a photo taken from the master bedroom looking towards the back of the house:


I'm not sure what is left to demolish at this point...

After day 2: The first surprise!

Our first unexpected event of the renovation occurred once the wall between the kitchen and dining room came down. In this photo you can see the problem spot... a pipe running from the ceiling to the floor:



The likely solution will be to move the pipe towards the wall and somehow conceal it in a box which may jut out slightly, but hopefully not too conspicuosly.

So far we are impressed with our contractors (Carlysle Construction); though we already have experience with them since they did some cosmetic renovations in the apartment upstairs last summer.

Here are our new close friends for the next 3 months, Arpi and Matt:


The cupboards in the master bedroom came out to make way for the new corridor:


Not bad only 2 days!

Plan: avant et après

Pour bien nous suivre dans notre GRAND projet, je pense qu'il est important de vous montrer ce que nous voulons faire. Au départ, voici le plan actuel de notre appartement:


Maintenant voilà ce qu'on s'attend comme résultat (Plan électrique):

Il y a plusieurs changements majeurs:
-Enlever le mur entre la salle a manger et la cuisine
-Ouverture entre le salon et la salle à manger
-Déplacer le couloir pour:

• Avoir 3 chambres à coucher distinctes
• Agrandir la salle de bain
• Avoir plus de place pour monter la laveuse et la sécheuse

- Ajouter une salle d'eau
- Insonoriser le plafond
- Refaire l'électricité
- Remplacer les vieux tuyaux en acier
- Refaire la cuisine
- Prises réseaux
- ...

On pensait que la pièce la plus compliqué à faire aurait été la cuisine, mais finalement c'est la plus petite, soit la salle de bain. Pour l'instant nous sommes toujours en train de chercher le meuble de salle de bain parfait à bon prix!!!! Car très facile de trouver quand on a beaucoup d'argent.
Nous avons quand même été capable de prendre des décisions, comme pour la douche:
http://www.ovedecors.com/section/products/product_id/91/language/fr
pour le bain:
http://www.bainultra.com/web/wcm/connect/bainultra/en/main/products/baths/origami/
et je vous présente notre toilette:
http://www.totousa.com/productpage.asp?PID=1064
excitant n'est pas... :-)

Pour le reste, soit, le lavabo, les robinets et le meuble, ça reste à déterminer...
Voici quelques adresses:
Newform (mes robinets préférés, voir la collection BASE, mais $$$$$$
Cabano
Frani (Solution a prix intéressant, mais pas aussi beau que newform...)
Natphil
Catalano
Ébénisterie AGR (Pour faire faire un meuble sur mesure)
...

J'espère que très bientôt on vous présentera les choix finaux pour la salle de bain, car après il il a encore plein de détailles à choisir:
- Céramique
- Poignées de porte
- Portes
- ...

Let the fun begin! Day 1...

After the snow stopped and the freezing rain started, we decided to head over to Melrose to take a look at the damage after Day 1 of Demolition. It's hard to pinpoint the exact emotions I felt when looking at the wreckage but it was indeed somewhat sad, yet exciting! Here is a collage of photos (CLICK to see larger). First photo is Jonathan cutting the alarm wires.... thief!

Empty House

We've moved out of Melrose and into Jonathan's dad's 'bachelor pad' in the basement in downtown Montreal.

Here is a photo of our living room (Jonathan is learning to be a master stitcher):


And here is a photo of our dining room:


Here is a photo of the kitchen:


Here is a photo of the master bedroom (our ex-office):


Here is a photo of our bathroom:


Here is two photos of the bedrooms:





Here is a photo of our fantastic movers finishing the job of moving my piano (for the hundredth time) into our temporary apartment:



We highly recommend La Capitale movers!