Phase III: Foyer.d. (FINAL)

Foyer:

Features:

The easiest room yet... dare we say it. No plumbing, no hair-raising (quite literally) overhaul of electrical, no trades to co-ordinate... working our butts off was never so sweet. With this completion of the Foyer, our house actually looks like a really nice House now, just walking in the door. We could get away with selling it for a nice profit (as long as you don't open the door to the basement & don't mind getting your hands a tiny bit dirty with the remaining lipstick fixes & disaster that are our yards), or live in it comfortably for a while (if we were other people who could actually sit still & "settle down"). After 2.5 years of the ole renovation grind... we're pretty happy about this.

Entering the welcome home honey room (Foyer sounds kinda snobby, don't cha think?) is nice and bright, fresh, crisp, and clear. The spaces are divided into "landing pad" where you enter & take off your shoes/coat, and then the hardwood defines where the living spaces begin: doorway to Living Room, Kitchen, and staircase. Thank you Sarah Richardson for that gold nugget! We love that woman, in a totally stalker creepy kinda way.

Deconstruction:

We ripped out flooring & subfloor, the buit-in bench, and scraped the stippling off the ceiling (arms still throbbing-ache), but kept all but the last 2 steps, the walls, and the doors. Whew! 

Reconstruction:

Added a Coat closet! Personal fav. When winter hits (Winter on the SK prairies isn't one thing like the music; when it hits you feel lots and lots and lots of pain), this lil gem will be an organizational life-saver. We get it that thee-who-doth-not-live-in-the-Arctic-doth-not-understand-what-it-is-to-live-here and that we need a place to stow away our harpoons, snowshoes, and layers of outerwear made from the skin of ferocious animals in an upper-buy home.

Also: new subfloor & all flooring (hardwood, marble), reconfigured the last 2 steps, made the existing staircase rock fuckn' solid while still using all the original materials, & appliqued some wainscoting. Purdy little room, ain't she?

Elements of Design:

Focussing on the architecture; we chose to tediously repair and then paint out the dark-cavernous wood (it simply must be re-iterated that was unsalvageable in piss poor condition... look at it the wrong way & it would shoot hot splinters at your eyeballs), added the wainscot details (all the way to the 2nd floor) to boost any remaining character, and then pulled the hardwood through from the Kitchen until it meets the new marble landing-pad. Read more about all the other intricacies & doodads (in a cuss-free, polite environment) at Apartment Therapy.

Decor sits ontop the fixed elements... as we are still changing everything about so much still (this damn house is too big), which is nice because we believe good innovative design takes time.

Celebration/Next Up:
Still searching for an acceptable runner to line the stairs (hopefully before the big beast of Winter rolls into town). A runner would be not only sweet on the feet, but dampen the cavernous echo all the way through the 2nd floor that bounces off that beautiful beautiful marble.

Concocting something more *fun* to do in here now that we've completed the base-palette is also on the menu. All in all it's a crisp, clean look... we re-used as much original material as possible, repaired down to the bones to keep her healthy for many more years to come, and then added as fine of finishings as possible for our budget. Not too shabby.

Yes. It's funny cuz we keep saying we'll celebrate with a nice bottle of champagne (like... a nice one) when that fat lady (and no, I'm not talking about YOU when I say that, Justine, you vain toxic cow) sings... and that started when we decided to sell 223. It looked something like this:
"When we put the FOR SALE sign on the lawn"
"When we get an offer"
"When we close the deal"
"When we close the deal on 619"
"When we move in"
"When we get the Kitchen done"
"When we stop drywalling"
"When we're done...."
...you get the picture.
It's always been a not yet kinda thing... rationalized in fear of loss? in frustration of possible postponement & re-scheduling? Of anticipating future catastrophic events that may or not yet happen? Anyway... it's humbling to acknowledge the folly of this false philosophy (a moving the goalposts carrot-stick bullshit oh-so-common in our repressed automaton cum hedonist culture). So, listen up: no matter what the state of affairs is currently in WE HAVE ARRIVED. And we're getting that fucking bottle of Dom, like, now, bitches. So join us & bubble-up!

Phase III: Foyer.c.

that piece over there on the left, isn't attached to a goddamn thing.

The Vortex:

It is time to talk about how 619 bends (affectionately referred to as the vortex).

Up until our floor-plan major re-constitution in the Kitchen and Dining, there was a prominent slump in the centre of the house. It has been determined that this is due to the idiots that lived here, and several events we have discovered while rehabilitating this beautiful old house (considering its exceptionally poor condition upon our arrival: worst house in best neighbourhood indeed).

The main beam had the load support removed at one time (suspect #1), the main floor supporting wall was literally just dangling 2x4's inside the plaster when we arrived (Dining Room/Kitchen), there was a fire in the Basement (bad bad bad Real Estate Agent did NOT disclose this information until we were being handed the keys) by which it's extinguishment methods further damaged & weakened the subfloor to the Kitchen/Foyer (as well as being a major contributor to the awful brittle state of all the wood trims & panelling), there were heavy smokers inside here long enough to saturate their stench deep into the walls and wood as well as poke holes in every fecking window screen, there is evidence of the appropriate past vermin infestation equal to the level of neglect, and as we repaired the Family Bath there is A FECKING JOIST MISSING (removed so as to accommodate indoor plumbing). Say whaaaaaaat? Yup yup... it's true.

Although these crimes have been repaired (the main support was teleposted before our occupancy) by our renovations in so far (wahoo for the Man & his mad skills!), and the over 6" slump in the centre of the house that behaves alike a sci-fi wormhole sucking into it's dismal gravity the walls/floors/ceiling/willtolive isn't vastly apparent any longer, it's still a part of our story and helps describe the desperate plight of rehabilitating this abode. That's right, bitches, GOLD STAR for us.

We (the adults) come from a generation of "the disposable" and have worked very hard at reversing our social programming to value 1. our planetary home 2. our fellow humans. Taking on this money pit dwelling is all about making things last a lifetime through repairing what's broken, and investing in it's future so as not to end up levelled for a new-build (to which the condition of this home was slotted for). So, yah, on the surface it may look like we're culprits much like the idiots that lived here as we rip stuff out to fix stuff right, but if y'all haters calm the f*ck down and read what we're up to here at the Erleichda house, you may get the relief of understanding we're aligned with good ole-timey values of quality and sustainability (or if anything, to unapologetically document the process of learning to lighten up!). Also, we like to make buttloads of money so we work our asses off taking the time and energy to fix shit by hand (infusing more quality workmanship the assholes who live here 100 years-in-the-future can rip out because they want a more trendy space #painfullyselfaware). It's a delicate balance between restoring and modernizing, being honest and embracing change, the enlightenment to hold two opposite thoughts simultaneously, and protecting our investment by honouring what resources are available/existing. Level up!

Seeing the burnt & rotten state of this subfloor is the first time, in all this time, we were brought to exasperated tears (and there have been some hard times, chronicled here on point if not demonstrated by our tough-yet-trying-to-still-find-the-light demeanour that has developed over the breadth of these renovations). No sobbing or tears-to-laughter brand of weeping, but a slack-jawed eyes wide silent tears of resignation. That bloody vortex.

So we fix this sh*t. Now.

Thank stars this is something we CAN fix.

Wish us luck, folks.

(And follow the Renovation Diary here)

Phase III. Foyer.b.

Floorplan:
Enter house from West through Front Porch into Foyer.
Door to Living Room is to the right, staircase to 2nd floor is omnipresent, door to Kitchen is at the end of the room (past the staircase), and hidden from view is the door to the Basement (under the staircase).

We will be reconfiguring only to add a coat-closet (a modern necessity for living in an upper buy in this winter wonderland).

Deconstruction:
Floors out. Bulit-in bench out. Carpet on the stairs out.

Reconstruction:

Sarah's House

Ceiling:
Will be trenched for electrical, and then remove the stippled plaster.

Walls:
Coat closet built. The North wall has a register which cannot be blocked, so we're positioning the closet in the SW corner. Yes, the closet will cover that beautiful oval window (don't worry, you can still appreciate it's character from the Front Porch). As for losing natural light, this small West-facing window is in the shadow of the house and offers only ambient light (think 20W incandescent for 2 hours a day). The huge window in the stairwell is the main source of natural light for the Foyer, and a mirror will be added to bounce around that light equalling a brighter, happier space. Physics agrees!

Floors:

Sarah's House

After the subfloor is inspected & repaired, marble (or something similar) will be installed in the area from the staircase to West of the Living Room door. Hardwood (remnants from the Kitchen) will be laid in the remaining space. We'll need a transition piece of some sorts... buffering.

These particular ideas came straight from this Sarah Richardson design. So you may blame her influence if you are still all faclempt over our destruction of any "original" elements (the Man & the Woman now quickly run away from any further absurd accusations of destroying your troglodyte aesthetic values).

Dreams:
Good golly we're full of it... this space has been endlessly inspiring. How to pull it all together... we're still working on that!

Perhaps a gallery wall, some colour & texture while remaining simple & clean, a mirror (of course), and overall a feeling of "Honey, I'm home!" kiss kiss hug hug wonderful wonderfullness is to be in the air. Even though we don't really know what it'll look like in the end it'll come together, we just know it will!

On a side-note, we've decided to re-arrange priorities on remaining "finishing" decor until the Foyer project is complete. So we can focus without our usual overdose on coffee coffee coffee, but moreso because we know that this space will be the informer to the rest of our home design-wise, and that we will be taking some risks with it. So, to avoid needing a passport to get from one room to another... hang on as we suss this out in 2014. Fecking love this year already ;)

You can go here to the Foyer project on Apartment Therapy!

Phase III: Foyer.a.

Foyer:
After being contacted by Apartment Therapy, this project popped up on the to-do list for 2014 (now link to project here!). An exiting opportunity for our mess to get published & the main floor closer to being "complete". We're pretty sure we were chosen from the list of applicants because our plans are risky controversial bold awesome (painting out the unsalvageable woodwork, obscuring the small oval window, and modernizing the space in an almost 100 year old home), and are pleased to accept the challenge.

facing W to FRONT PORCH

The Foyer is the (2nd) entrance to our home & creates 1st (2nd) impressions (1st place going to the Exterior & Front Porch, but the Foyer is truly the 1st when inviting you into the soul of our home). It's been an embarrassment to date (ahem cat litter? Yah... great 1st impression of our soul for our guests: the warm waft of cat poopy).

You may follow the Renovation Diary on the Apartment Therapy website. That link will ultimately lead you smarty-pantses back here to our personal blog, where you may experience our embarrassingly filthy language, sloppy editing, and ubiquitous sarcasm which we are to restrain for respect of the article & kind folks at AT.

facing SE to the stairwell

Features & Original material:
Beautiful beautiful wood trims:
In such poor condition it's a total heartbreaker. They were already painted with several layers (forest green, white, and a putrid salmon YUK) and then were stripped and neglected for who knows how long. The wood, unfortunately, is irreparably dry, cracked, splintered and has not been cared for. To be positive about this fact, we're embracing change and painting the wood out for a fresh & bright vibe.

it looks worse in person

To appease any wood-loving hangovers, we will be preserving details of the original elements as much as possible. Still don't believe painting out the damaged woodwork is a brilliant plan to save character (not to mention materials from the landfill? Have you seen what amazeballz happened in our Dining Room when we did? (Oops... haven't posted the final pictures yet! Wait for it... ;)

Built-in bench:
Also, coming out. It's not "original": our house-whispering skills have determined the bench to have been added in the '70's. Furthermore, when it was added the original bottom 2 stairs were hacked up to accommodate it.
We will be taking the panelling that is on it's face and putting it back (to where it was originally) on the staircase... aaaaaand painting it out bwa-ha-ha (now we're just having fun with you wood-purists, brace thy-self for our unbridled sass!).

Front door & window, and Living Room French door:
We will do our best to keep this woodwork intact. Pffft.

Staircase:

One of the things we fell in love with with this house was the staircase configuration: not facing the front door (feng shui), and the zig-zag being fecking adorable. The carpet on it, however, is the bane of our existence with it's mucky-muck-always-dirty feeling if not the wretched colour & texture. Time, care, and delicate attention will be invested in making this feature shine. You're welcome.

Hardwood Flooring:
Again with the poor condition! Our sad house :( That's ok... we have a wicked plan to bring new hotness to this old & busted.

Stay in tune & watch the magic unfold before your very eyes... um slowly...