With most of the furniture unpacked and boxes thrown out, and the IKEA bedroom closet units assembled and installed, there is suddenly more room to install the old baseboards and corner posts, add new large quarter round base strips against … Continue reading Monday House, week 24, trimming along
With the Monday Family moved in … and the kitchen counters installed last week … you might well think the Monday House rebuild is done and over. Twenty-some weeks and its compleat. But, it isn’t. The Monday’s are living in the … Continue reading Monday House – never ending story
Everything has to be done by Friday. And that is the story at the Monday House too. Here is a pic of the kitchen cabinets pretty much all installed. Extra wood plinths have been installed under the cabinet frames to … Continue reading Monday House, week 22, a ton of granite
About two weeks ago the construction crew jaws at the Monday House fell through the floor when a giant moving van crept down Monday Street. Surely that wasn’t for the Monday House, where maple flooring was just going in? Fortunately, it … Continue reading Monday House, week 21, old and new come together
You may recall that the upstairs in the Monday House had a finished floor but no subfloor, which made it rather “springy” underfoot. So the pine flooring was removed and a thick subfloor installed. In the meantime, downstairs, the old … Continue reading Monday House, getting floored
Mr and Mrs Monday are not beige people. Nor fans of “gallery white”. If you, gentle reader, prefer those neutral shades then you might want to go fetch your eyeshades before reading on. Their house has COLOUR in a big … Continue reading Monday House, week 17, colour blooms
The Monday House is typical of 1900 houses in that it has double hung windows. These are more vertical than horizontal in overall shape, sometimes referred … Continue reading Monday House, week xiv, double hung windows, doors, and more drywall
The drywall from last week was delivered to the second story, and by this week most of it was applied. The upstairs bathroom drywalling, using special more-water-resistant panels, is delayed pending arrival of taps and pressure balances that are … Continue reading Monday House, part xiii , applying the drywall
Last week, we saw the hose blowing cellulose insulation up the stairs and into the walls. Some of the 6mil plastic vapour and moisture barrier were started. They prevent moist heated air from penetrating into the exterior walls and eventually … Continue reading Monday House, week xii, closing up the walls
The Monday House passed various city inspections, for electrical, plumbing, and stud walls and structure. This had to be done while all the walls were still “open” and work visible. The next step is to blow cellulose insulation into the … Continue reading Monday House, part xi, insulation
Each day the Monday House seems to make large strides towards our finished idea of a house. For example, the living room ceiling has been levelled: Old houses have varying degrees of crookedness (so do new built homes too…) and … Continue reading the Monday House, part x, room functionality and liveability becomes apparent
Huge progress was made in the Monday House this past week. In part, this is because the work force doubled from the usual crew of four carpenters. Add in two electricians, and two plumbers, and lots of visible pipes and … Continue reading Monday House, part ix, heating and plumbing
The new sub-floor is completely laid on the bedroom level. And level it is! With a good base to work from, the new partition walls were quickly installed. They are in the same places as the old original walls. While … Continue reading Monday House, part viii, rooms take shape
Older houses from the early 1900’s were made up of numerous small rooms, each with doors, that could be closed off from the hall or other rooms, probably to conserve heating and avoid drafts. This is definitely what most people … Continue reading Monday House, part vii, Dramatic changes
Recall that over time the Monday House had settled in the middle. Sometimes that was natural wood shrinkage and rot; sometimes it was careless hacking away at the supporting structure by plumbers, ductworkers and homeowners. Additional steel support posts are required, and … Continue reading Monday House, part vi, levelling the floors
Down in the basement, some holes were dug for new support posts. The wooden post shown here, possibly as old as the house (114 years) was totally rotted off where it met the floor. The cement floor had been poured … Continue reading Monday House, part iv, structural repairs
Old houses are full of surprises. Some are good, some are bad. Some are strange, even bizarre. This picture shows some knob and tube wiring in a ceiling, but also something more serious, and bad: The wall on the centre … Continue reading Monday House, part iii – surprises abound
On the first day of new ownership, the general contractor bashed various holes in the ceilings and walls to see what’s inside them. Looking for surprises (more on this tomorrow). Instead of walls being made of 4×8′ sheets of drywall, … Continue reading Monday House, part ii – gutting to the studs
