I chose the title Summer Renovacations because this summer's renovations have really been a breeze. They've really felt like a vacation. This is because I tackled my main project, the basement rec room, back in February. Having the main event taken care of, my summer suddenly opened up to a myriad of project ideas I've had in the back of my mind.

But first, at the end of June while Becca and the kids went to Ontario early, I had to take care of some business. Our upstairs hallway/closet was in rough shape. You see, kids like to run into walls with things. Sometimes they just like to run into walls. I can still picture in my mind the time Joseph ran headlong into one wall and hit is so hard that he smashed into the wall on the other side. Two dents in one shot. But enough about Joseph's head. I did some very unmotivated painting. There's nothing like getting up at 4:30am to paint, then go to work, and then race back to work some more. Add in a sprained ankle, and fun was had by all. However, I can't imagine the mess if I'd tried to paint with the kids around. I'm sure there'd be a couple of dents in my head from banging it against the wall in frustration. Behold:

Becca has a long list of little knick knacks she wants made. For instance, she asked for a little holding tray for our plastic wrap containers. I told her to buy one. She said they go anywhere from $30-50! There's nothing like motivation to get a job done. A couple scrap pieces of wood. Some plumbing strapping, and voila.

So we have a basement bedroom. You might not know this because up until now we've called it the box room. Not full boxes. No no no. We stored empty boxes. You know you've made it in life when you can have an entire room dedicated to empty boxes. Alas, the grossness of the room was too much. It was the dingiest room in the house. Blech. So I took to painting and ripping up carpets.

 What a nifty surprise! carpet on carpet! I asked Becca if we could keep it, but she said no.

Hey, I got to lay carpet for the first time in my life (minus carpet on our front steps). It was kind of easy. I'll bet you can't tell that I vacuumed too.

The closet was so disgusting. Not anymore. I lay in some of my left over kitchen tile to save a few bucks (and not have to merge two carpet pieces together.

Keeping with the basement, I wanted a door for our storage closet in the workout room. Now I've had my eye on a falling apart old horse lean-to at my parent's place for some time. They let me raid it a bit, and so I slapped together a barn door. 

Not fancy. Which is fine because I'm not capable of fancy. Just let the wood speak for itself.

My parents bought a condo in Saskatoon. They needed their table back. Becca was all too happy to oblige. We needed a table. They aren't cheap. And so I took a stab at building one. There were just a couple of problems. First, I couldn't get my hands on the right wood I wanted. Second, I don't have the proper tools and work space to build one. 

However, a couple of months ago while visiting some friends I noticed their dining room table was very, how you say, rustic. It looked nice, and seemed to function well enough. And so, I thought it'd be fun to do the same. Maybe some day I will have the right wood and tools. If so, this current table would make a great outdoor table. 

Some ridiculous over the top staging here:

 Oh, and I slapped together a bench for it too. Rustic is in, baby. Especially when you don't know what you're doing.

 Even Mr. and Mrs. Bear think this staging was a bit much. The dining room hasn't been clean since.

Hey, I bought a stud finder! After years of messing up walls, I bought one. There were two at the store. One was $45. The other was $5. You'll never guess which one I bought? 

I had to test it first. 

It must not work!

So I must start thinking about setting up my classroom and prepping for the school year. The thought ran through my mind that how can I spend so much time on other kids and not put some work in to make Joseph's school year better? The answer is, of course, I get paid to do the former. Regardless, I whipped together a quick desk, chalkboard, and bookshelf unit. It literally took a couple of hours (which is two more hours than I've spent at my school this summer). The boys, and their teacher, love it!

 Apparently I have to build a frame for the map. Oh, and that's our gift card Home Sense metal paper holder thingy on the right. Home Sense... Nonsense. What garbage there.

The boys love coming to do work in their new school room. Of course, since the staging occurred, it's been a mess. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bear are hard at work at their desk too.

Sorry, I don't know where the bear thing came from. They're always laying in the way I guess.

 Clearly I have too much time on my hands, not having to do a giant reno. Here's a fun project though. We love our neighbours and all, but we also know they need a break from us. Hence, there is a little privacy fence separating us. The problem is, the fence looks like this:

You'll never guess which side of the privacy fence that camper belongs too. Anyway, the fence needed some fixing. So I called up a guy I know to come over with his loader to take it down. He looks like good help. 

Mr. Workerman and I re-set the posts. However, we went to buy some concrete at the store and the guy there told us to try a new product. Basically you mix two bags together and then, via chemical reaction, goop starts expanding all over and setting the posts in place. I think it's glorified spray form. It was neat, but I'll stick to concrete next time. Concrete's way more fun.

 When my parents tore down their old garage I took some of their old yellow siding boards. You're probably following a trend here. I take stuff from my parents. Well, I tried to straighten the boards out, spent about three hours peeling paint and sanding (I had two great little helpers) and then painted the thing white. But wait! Becca had a great idea! Why not add a little mini-Saskatchewan decoration! And why not add a little "T" where Tisdale is!

Yay! Maybe we should sell these things!

Danny needs some rest. Actually, it's been pretty nice not having to work so hard on real renos, or build a house, or have a job... A real summer renovacation. Oh there's more to do. And the garden is in full bloom. I also should make my way to the real school soon to set up a classroom. One that pays me money. Or maybe I can just take my parent's old money?

Bath Crashers: Slow Edition

Have you ever seen the show Bath Crashers? In it a guy stops people at a lumber store and asks if they want a new bathroom. He then stops by their house with a large crew and they totally redo the bathroom in just three days. It is quite amazing. And all of this takes place over a thirty minute show.

Jerks.

Ahh our awesome bathroom. The peach. The tan. The peach-tan. The 50+ year old parts and pieces. It's time for a new bathroom. It's time to crash this bathroom! So here is my main summer project. It's Bath Crashers: Slow Edition

Day 1 - Worst idea I've had in a while, I did an intense leg/cardio workout before demo began. Then my legs were jelly and stiff the next three days. Nevertheless, here is Joseph and I ready to begin. "W" is for "Workerman".

We only end up working together for about 2 minutes. Then I discover mold. I quickly usher Becca and the kids out of the house while I deal with the removal. However, I did end up saving another wall for Joseph to help me on. Still though, I think it best to ship them out for the remainder of demo. We go to the Tisdale parade at 6pm and then head off to Nipawin to camp out there for few days.

Day 2 - I steal my dad's truck to drive to Tisdale for Mass and then more demo.

By noon I'm heading to the dump and then buying my drywall and underlay. I get to Nipawin around 7pm.

Day 3 - Back to Tisdale. More clean up and then some painting of the ceiling.

Day 4 and 5 - Took Sunday off. Now it's Monday, meaning it's plumbing day. We move back to our house. My dad is here to help me out. Plumbing sucks. Especially with an old house. We hit one problem after another (after another, after another...). For instance, there should be 2x6 walls on the plumbing side. Nope, we have 2x4 walls. My dad comes up with a solution. We go to a welding shop and pick up a metal plate to install the valve against the studs. Now... this means cutting a hole into Joseph's room. But what can you do?

Things get so bad that Joseph is walking around with his flashlight explaining "I have plumbing problems, there are problems here, come have a look at these problems..." I guess all he heard was us talking about problems. Nevertheless, by Tuesday night we have the tub installed and the rest of the water hook ups good to go. We only set the house on fire twice too!

Leveling a tub is important.

The next day I return half of the favour and help my dad install rafters on his new garage he's building.

Day 6, 7, and 8 - Drywall. Frustrating drywall. Install is finicky, but ok. However, working with walls that aren't straight is a pain. But sanding. Oh sanding. Five mudding/sanding sessions.

Thankfully I had a helper for some of it.

Day 9 - It's Sunday. I know, we shouldn't be working. But Becca and I figure that not having an upstairs bathroom is driving us nuts, and we need to continue. So we take to painting.

Day 10 - The most frustrating day yet. After spending the morning touching up paint, buying more supplies, and installing plywood underlay, I set to tackling the floor. It's Costco flooring. What could go wrong? What a joke. It doesn't work. I'm frustrated. It's stinking hot in there. Humid too. I'm sick of it. Joseph repeatedly comes in to check on things. I kick him out. Bad papa. By 4:30pm Becca grabs our A&W gift cards and we head out to the flooring store. They give us two different products to take home and see how they look. They also promise us a deal. Then we go for burgers. Things are looking up!

I keep working when we get home. I do the counter top, sink, tap and some caulking. It looks great! By 10:30pm I exhaustedly go downstairs to shower before going to bed. As I come out of the shower I see water coming down from the walls. I quickly dress and run upstairs! Where's the water coming from? I can't find anything! That means it must be within my newly drywalled and painted walls! I'm tired and frustrated. I shut the water off in the house and go to bed for a few hours of restless sleep. 

The hours pass by that night. It's difficult to think of anything else but the leak in my house just a few feet away from where I am sleeping. I pray to St. Joseph half the night It turns out I don't know what I'm doing at all. What am I doing? Why am I yelling at Joseph to get out? Why is flooring such a big deal? Why does a mysterious leak leave me on edge? St. Joseph can't help me figure out the plumbing until he first helps me figure out myself. It's gut check time. Or more accurately, soul searching time. Thankfully I have the best of the best helping me through it. St. Joseph, pray for us.

Day 11 - By 4:30am I've had enough. Up I go to say my morning prayers, make some coffee, and find the leak. After making another hole in Joseph's wall I find the drain pipe for the sink is jammed within a stud and is leaking. I figure it's leaked for a while, but I must've made it worse during demo. So I spend the rest of the morning fixing the problem. I'm touched to hear Becca and the boys praying to St. Joseph while I work at it.

And he is amazing. Had my flooring been installed the day before it potentially could've been damaged due the leaking. Thanks be to God. And so, I put in the floor in the afternoon. By nighttime I'm feeling much better. As a bonus, the flooring we buy is far superior in quality, for not much more of the price. Shop local.

Day 12 - Tub surround day. With crooked walls means major frustration. I get a little edgy with it (the bathroom is hot and humid again), but settle down and figure it out. Afternoon is toilet time (with several more complications). The new toilet looks so clean that it takes two days before someone even dares christen it. Even to the point of walking by it to "go" downstairs in the middle of the night.

The next day we are in Saskatoon to do some returns and pick up some supplies that cannot be purchased in Tisdale.

Day 13 - Trim. Touch ups. Curtains. Tiling. And, the star of the bathroom (the cheapest thing in there), an old wood towel rack.

Day 14 - More touch ups. Some grout and caulking. A touch of paint. A few tightenings of tub plumbing. Some flooring/vent stuff... and...DONE!

And now... the big reveal!

Before:

After:

Here's the countertop and backsplash. They can't make countertops to be the size we needed (and still be one piece). So we improvised with a sharp looking bonus glass tile backsplash.

 And our favourite piece: the wood towel rack. This is a piece of wood I swiped from the hockey rink at my parent's place (remind me to fix it, one of these days...). I'll be thinking about my many hours out on the rink whenever I look at it.

And bonus! As a reward Becca bought me the Makita work radio I wanted! Now I can do more work for her!... and have music!

All in all, Bath Crashers: Slow Edition is finished! I learned so much from this job! Here are my top ten things I learned with this project.

10. Plumbing sucks.

9. Going to the basement bathroom in the middle of the night can be dangerous. Thankfully I installed our hand rail beforehand.

8. Try to keep the work area clean. You can spend a lot of time looking for a tool or a supply within a mess of other tools and supplies.

7. The Dairy Queen in Tisdale makes the best burgers and ice cream around.

6. Joseph is obsessed with mold. He calls himself the mold guy and walks around our house looking for mold and other problems. At one point I had to tell him to stop because it was making me too on edge.

5. This was a team project. I had a lot of help in so many ways. And that's not a bad thing.

4. When you start to make mistakes, take a break or shut it down for the day. There's always tomorrow.

3. Shop local whenever possible. Saving a few bucks from the city is seldom worth it.

2. Plumbing sucks. Yes, I am repeating this part.

1. Always trust St. Joseph. He truly is our mighty patron.

The Whirlwind... And Other Happenings

We're living in a whirlwind, folks! But lest we let this time go by un-blogged, I must bombard you with pictures so we'll remember how great it was.

Summer holidays started with a good ol' jamming session, complete with shirtless boys:

July the One found us in Humboldt for our sweet little God-daughter Monica's first birthday. We took in the city Canada Day celebrations, complete with bouncy castles and crazy scientist magician. And then more celebrations back at the Millette household. 

In the days following, I heard Joseph quote repeatedly: "Do it again, Uncle Dave!" From what I can gather, "it" involved a wasp nest, bug spray, and a BBQ lighter. The dads seem to have had quite a blast and the kids were duly impressed from a distance! As an aside, David thinks I take too many pictures of our kids... obviously, he's wrong.

But, Monica really is as sweet as her smile:

As the whirlwind began, the boys and I did our best to stay out of the house.

Daily trips to the park, the grocery store, playing with chalk, whatever. We also took in the Tisdale parade, complete with all the things a boy loves most (police cars, fire trucks, huge tractors, and candy!). However, we were questioned repeatedly, "But where was the combine?" Clearly, a parade is missing something without a combine, but alas "They were all out working in the fields!"

We found ourselves in Nipawin later in the week, avoiding the whirlwind happening at home.

Joseph kept himself busy following his Aunty Rheanne around and talking her ear off. "But I like talking," he tells me when I suggest he should take a little break (for our sakes, of course). We played with the kittens (a lot) and took rides on the little old wagon. I'm sure the kittens slept a lot less than they usually do, but they still seem okay despite John Paul's excited handling. 

We also entertained ourselves, along with the Aunties, at the spray park:

Are you wondering yet what all this whirlwind business is???

Our long awaited bathroom reno, of course!

I'm sure there will be many, many before, during, and after photos coming your way, so I will just give you a sneak preview. May I present, Workerman Joseph and his incredible DIY headgear:

Plus, no bathtub + grimy kids = picture of the summer!

It's All Mental: Fixing a House

So you might've heard that I did a little bit of work on our house this summer. As you look through some of these pictures I'm sure you'll be thinking "why the heck did they buy this house? Suckers." Now there are these stupid shows on T.V. where people get their yard "crashed." In two days, with all the fancy machines and a crew of 20 people, yards are transformed into palace gardens. Unfortunately if you take one person then the two days stretches into several weeks. Nevertheless, with a bit of sweat and blood, our yard crashers episode is complete (for the summer anyway). 

The old. Sigh. Our lovely "non-professional workmanship" house.

A beautiful slope really. The only problem is that it went the wrong direction. Hard to believe the first thing I did on the house was install a new sump pump for the basement.

Cracks. Unpatched energy foam.

Our lovely patio.

Our electrical. Literally down to the last wire.

The new:

Snipped wires. New siding.

Sloped the other way! Thanks Grandpa!

Proper slope, repaired tap and patched energy foam.

3ft. Mast. They don't come cheap. Obviously I didn't do this myself.

The sandbox system.

John Paul approved.

The patio. Yes, that's re-used concrete.

Discounted deck chairs from co-op (good deal).

$20 glass table and $16 bamboo rug from JYSK (Just Your Stupid Kids?)

Re-purposed concrete bench (not the top slab though).

Little inukshuk out of, you guessed it, repurposed concrete. Note the 250lb slab slapped into the ground (the dump charges per weight).

Left over supplies are stored in our "Workerman Area."

New grass growing in. Yay! I never thought I could grow grass! The other side of the yard is coming in way slower (as in not really at all).

Joseph is happy to have his yard back! Becca is waiting to find some nice hanging planters. 

A Few Things I've Learned:

1) It's all mental. The hardest part about fixing a house is the mental side. For instance, to spend two grueling hours to take out one square foot of concrete can lead you to despair. It's hard to be mentally tough in those moments. Day after day. Work at the little things.

2) Be smart, but be fast. I spent one of the first mornings humming and hawing over a stubborn bathroom tap. Afterwards there was no more of that. You can waste a lot of time over a project. Make a plan, and get the heck to work. Anyway, we're still at it with our house. More pics will come at a later date.

3) Seeing this everyday makes it all worth it: