David and I have been very blessed with the opportunity to be home owners, and have a house to move into for day 1 of our marriage (which, by the way is only 64 days away!!).
Not only do we have the blessing of a cosy roof over our heads, but we also have 5 very handy, hard working, and creative men to help make it a little more personalized (David, his father, two brothers and brother-in-law). David’s father has a large hand in the creativity and production, and I could not be more appreciative or happy with the decisions he’s made to make the house look the way it does thus far. Him and David have been busy putting their heads together to come up with many many great home improvement idea’s, and it just keeps on going! My step father Bob, who went to heaven in 2006, was a contractor, and built the house my mother and I still live in. It was always the best thing to have a handy guy around, even if just to fix things. The creative and independent portion is icing on the already delicious cake! It is for these reasons (plus many more) that I am so thankful to be marrying into this family.
Since we’ve received the keys to the house at the end of March, I haven’t been able to make too many visits, since it’s in Hamilton, I’m in Guelph, and I am working a whole lot! Also, David and I decided that it just made sense if I were to be assigned all the wedding tasks, and he could take care of the house tasks. It’s a great deal if I may say so myself!
However, yesterday I was feeling a little lonely, and a bit annoyed with the wedding planning — I needed a break, and some time with my future husband. David told me they were starting to paint the tin siding on the house, so I jumped at the chance to help! I’m definitely not one for a lot of hard labour, but painting I can do! I quickly got myself ready to go, and made my way over (of course however, with a quick stop to pick up a 2L of chocolate milk, and 5 junior bacon cheeseburgers for the guys!).
I was sure to bring my camera so that I could finally capture all the changes that were going on. I was so impressed to see everything! Tree’s moved from here to there, hedges gone, new plants, interlock patio and pathway, shelving moved, door installed, back deck bigger, new dry wall…. the list is endless!
To start things off, we have the living room, as we saw it when we first got our keys. Changes to be made: new paint, new curtains, take down the shelving, and get rid of the carpet!
Here is the living room today: Shelves gone (but being used elsewhere!), paint drywalled, sanded, almost ready for painting, curtains gone. Also you can see the new oven that will go in the basement apartment when the flooring is done.
This is the basement as we first saw it. Changes to be made: new flooring (take out carpet and vinyl), new cupboards and create a separate entrance for a renter.
Below is the basement today: The new door/exit gives it so much more light! David took the shelving that was originally on the wall in the living room, and used the wood to make a new shelving unit in the tenants sleeping area. It also creates a wall that wasn’t there, so that the bedroom and the kitchen are now more separate. The boxes on the floor contain the new basement tile!
Below is the basement from the kitchen angle, looking into the bedroom. I didn’t take a picture of it, but there used to be a door on the right wall (according to this photo), that led into the common area, and access to upstairs. It no longer exists, which makes the apartment more private, and gives us our own basement space (most likely being used for storage).
Below you see the laundry room on the left, the door to the apartment bathroom in the middle, and the stairs leading up from the basement on the right. Through the bathroom is the only access the tenant will have to our house, in order to use the laundry. There also used to be wall hiding the stairs, which is now evidently gone, in order to open up more space.
Below is our backyard as we first saw it! (*Something to note: our house is on a corner, so where we lack in backyard, we gain in side yard! Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the side yard for you yet!) The changes that have been made so far: deck is painted and slightly larger so that the stairs don’t walk straight into the new basement entrance, the black fence is gone, the lamp post at the verrrrry back of this photo has been moved to the front side garden, and the green siding/awning has been painted (phewf!).
Below is the view of the backyard from the other angle (I didn’t take one that matches the above photo, and yes, that’s me helping out!). You can see the deck is painted, and the green colour of the siding is now charcoal.
Above you see the first angle of our beautiful walk out! Below is another angle; eventually there will be railings around the edges (safety first!). David’s dad made the smart decision of removing the black railing from the front walk way, and so we’ll be able to use them here instead.
Below you see our new patio! Unfortunately I don’t have a before photo for this, but originally it was a car port, that eventually was turned into a patio, but was still black pavement with car oil stains when we got it. David’s dad had the brilliant idea of getting rid of the debris from the walkout, by laying it under interlock brick. Now we have a more aesthetically pleasing patio! This picture was taken before we painted the green tin (the ceiling) with the charcoal colour. The wooden steps are also new!
Then you can see (above) that we painted the ceiling, and posts.
The photo above shows a bit of the difference from the green to the charcoal, and you can see our new side garden and trees, that help to kind of take attention away from the yellow hydro poles. We had to stop painting as it had started raining.
Below is another view of the side garden, the new placement of the light post, and the new walkway to get to the apartment/backyard. You can also see the new rock at the end of the driveway — it used to be just wood.
The last two pictures below are a before and during photo of the house from the front. Looking forward to doing another post of more after photos! Also that is when I will include more photos of the interior! Have to get a lot of painting done before that happens! Thanks for reading! Excited to have everyone over for a patio dinner sometime!
Daughter, Mother, Mrs. 