Remodel

About three years ago I had a sun room addition put on the back of my house. Even though I put in skylights the dining room always felt very dark and closed in.  Last fall, I had two extra windows added to the dining room at the side of the house.

The two windows made a big difference, the room felt bigger and brighter but now I had to either repaint the room or add wainscoting. Since I never grew to like the bottom colour, even though I chose it, and because the chair rail wasn't installed all that well, I decided to go with wainscoting.

Before

Window opening

Framing

Windows Installed

As the windows were installed in late fall last year, 2018, I decided to wait until this year to have the wainscoting done.  The work started the Tuesday after Easter and took just a little over a week.

Top and bottom rails installed

Battens installed

Top cap and cove moulding

All painted

Room back together.

It came out just liked I hoped, the room looks even brighter and looks taller as the wainscoting draws your eye up.

I only put two of the drapery panels back up but now that the wainscoting is done the room needs new sheers and I'm thinking it probably needs new lighting too. Next year's project is to get the floors refinished. 

Wordless Wednesday

Thankful!

It's beautiful fall day, just one of the many things that I'm thankful for. When I was younger, Thanksgiving was just a long weekend with a wonderful meal prepared by my mother and father. I didn't really appreciate it but now I think it is my favourite holiday.  It doesn't have the hustle and bustle of Christmas but it's a holiday that gives you time to spend with family and time to reflect on what's important.

Saturday I hosted an ice cream social in my sun room. It was wonderful to have so many friends and family join me. I couldn't have asked for a nicer fall day. I think everyone enjoyed their sundaes.

While there's no longer a meal prepared by my parents; the next generation is carrying on the traditions. This year my niece and her boyfriend made us Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful; turkey with all the trimmings even if we did forget the sweet potatoes in the microwave.

Today, I put away the outdoor patio furniture and most of the agility equipment. The teeter and mini dogwalk are still out as I think I'll have to mow the lawn one more time and those things have to go in last. It was such a gorgeous day that I decided to take the dogs to Mer Bleu. I used to go there with Duffy when I was first posted here and I took Ceilidh and Tucker there once but with agility taking up most weekends I've never been there with Beckett and Keltic. Today, half the city must have been out, hard to really enjoy the woods with all the crowds of people but once we were on the smaller trails it was pretty quiet.

So as this weekend draws to close, what am I thankful for? I'm thankful for blue skies, autumn leaves of gold and red, and warm breezes. I'm thankful for my freedoms, my health and my home (I love my new sun room). I'm thankful for my fur kids, both those I have with me and all the ones gone ahead that have been part of my journey. I'm thankful to enjoy wealth that many people only dream of; it lets me take part in the wonderful sport of agility with my dogs and to travel and do many things without worrying if I can afford it. But most of all I'm thankful for family and friends who are there when times are good to celebrate with me and when times are not so good to support me.

Beckett and Keltic enjoyed the walk. They got to meet other dogs and were petted by a number of children. Can you find Beckett and Keltic? They were good posing for me today. I'm thankful for that too.

Where are they?

There they are!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The New Addition

 No I didn't get another puppy... but I would like to; I had an addition built on the house. For years now, I've been thinking about putting a sun room on the back of the house. I've had quotes done for kit installations where the panels are prefabricated off-site and installed at your location.  I had thought that this would be less expensive; boy was I surprised at the cost. At the time, I didn't have enough saved to even do the kit installation so I waited a couple years and very nearly signed a contract but I made it conditional on determining if the city would let us build on the existing deck. They wouldn't so I backed out, but I kept on thinking about having a nice sun room. Last spring when my mortgage came due and I still had that sun room on my mind, I borrowed the money since interest rates were very low to do the sun room.  I began the search for a contractor, I had wanted it built last fall but didn't sign a contract in time to have it done so it was scheduled for this spring.

Technoposts and beams

The contractor parked his trailer in my driveway on 8 June for what was to be a five to 8 week job depending on delays. The first delay was that it rained most of the first week and my contractor and his partner got stomach flu so nothing happened in week one. In week 2, the old deck was removed and  my contractor and the technopost installer decided on a different layout for the foundation posts. This meant we needed new engineering drawings and the city needed to approve the revised drawings. The new drawings took nearly a week and the city took 12 working days to approve the drawings. The city tries to get revisions done in five days but technically they have 15 days. But while we waited for the drawings and approval, nothing could be done but the beams and joists, the floor could not be closed in.

Floor Joists

Once we had the approval work on the framing moved along quickly. It was neat to see what had been done each time I came home. When I left to go to Calgary for my niece's wedding and some vacation time with my sister, the tile floor was being installed. I had hoped that the sun room would be nearly complete when I got back.  Nothing much else was done when I got home, it was somewhat disappointing but the windows hadn't yet arrived.

Framing

Roof beam and rafters

Roofing and exterior OSB

Insulation and skylights

Tongue in groove pine ceiling

Tile floor

I was home for a few days before going camping, the day before I  left the window installers arrived. Funny thing, the team leader was a sheltie owner that I knew from agility. They started the job and completed it while I was away camping. The siding company was supposed to be in early the next week. I got home from camping on Sunday evening, no one showed up on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I e-mailed my contractor who told me that my job was the next one but they wouldn't be able to get to it until the next week, but on Friday they showed up at 7:45 am while I was still in bed.

Windows and exterior siding

Interior siding

Siding all installed

With the siding done all that had to be completed before I could use the room was the electrical. The electricians were confirmed but the morning they were to arrive no one showed up until 11 am and then when he did, he couldn't compete the job as he didn't have the necessary tools and screws. He asked if they could come back the next day and told me that they would be there at 7:45 am. Again no one showed up until nearly 11 am; I had called my contractor at 9 am to see if something had happened. It was different electrician who showed up and I guess there was some miscommunication about what time he was to do my job. He finished the job which was a good thing as I had already asked my sister and brother-in-law if they could help me move the patio furniture in that evening.

Section sofa set in the garage

The construction had taken so long that I had purchased a new sectional set when all the stores started to have their summer clearance sales. Thinking the sun room would be close to done when I got back from Calgary, I had the set delivered and had stored it in the garage.

With help from my family, we got the sun room set up on Thursday, 3 Sep, almost two months exactly from the time construction started. There still are some small jobs to do, eaves-troughs and some flashing on the roof line and the final inspections still need to be done as well.  I didn't get to use the sun room on Friday or Saturday as we were heading off to an agility trial but I did get to use it yesterday and if it's not too hot I'll use it today. Hopefully we'll have a nice fall and I'll get a lot of use of it during that time before the weather turns really cold as I won't be able to use it to sit out in then either.

Ceiling Fan

New sectional

Finally relaxing in the sun room

Evening star

So while the project took longer than expected and I didn't get to use it much while I was on vacation (I go back to work tomorrow), I'm very happy with the end result. I'm looking forward to using it next spring and also happy that this winter I won't need to shovel that deck. I use the snow blower on the lower deck so that's not too hard to do.

This was my first really big project and I guess as construction projects go, it went rather well. My only real regret is that I took so long to actually make the decision to build the sun room as I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it immensely, stay-cations are looking better and better, maybe a hot tub will get installed next year.

Catching Up

Wow, it's been awhile since we wrote our last post, we've been busy and I just haven't had the time.

On 16 June, it was Beckett's 6th birthday where does the time go; it just seems like yesterday that I went to Oshawa to pick him up.  We had a low key birthday. Beckett and Keltic both got a special cookie treat and Beckett got three new discs; after all what else do you get a Frisbee-holic.

Beckett with his new disc toys

Beckett with his birthday cookie.

Since our last post we've done some agility trials including our first United Kingdom International (UKI) trial. I entered Beckett in two Speedstakes and the Masters Series event which is one round of Jumpers (with weaves) and one round of Agility (Standard to those who follow AAC).  Beckett got Q's in one of the Speedstakes and in the Jumpers run.  For the Masters series, they also do aggregates of the Agility and Jumpers rounds and the dogs that place first and second in their height class get a bye to the Masters series finals at the Canadian Open (the National event). Beckett placed third; it didn't really matter as we can't go to this year's Nationals anyway. Keltic, I just put in Speedstakes events since it was the only event that didn't have weaves. He did good but had three bars down in the first run and one bar in the second. I could hear him give a little grunt each time he jumped so that pushed me to finally make the decision to put him in a lower height class. We had another UKI trial right before our Canada Cup weekend (more on that later) and will have another later this month.

Keltic also had his first K9 Kup event on 28 June. K9 Kup is the agility house league in our area to get young dogs or dogs new to agility used to a trial environment. Keltic ran pretty well even in the pouring rain but none of his runs counted towards the team's placements as he now gets handicapped for having his Starter's title. He missed his dog walk contact in the Standard run which was otherwise clean. He did had a great opening in Gamblers getting the mini gamble and he also did get the main Gamble. The main Gamble was jump, jump, tunnel and I doubt I could have called him off the tunnel though so good thing it was that easy. We had a 40 second opening and 20 seconds to do the main Gamble, Keltic's time was just over 48 seconds. We were in an absolutely perfect position when the buzzer went and Keltic was done the Gamble in a flash.  We were clean in Jumpers only because the judge wasn't sure if he did the tire or not; he didn't. This was the first event he did back at the lower jump height so not sure why he didn't do the tire; it was probably harder to go between the tire and the standard than just doing the tire at 10". I'll have to lower my tire in the backyard and get him working on it again.

On the home front, I'm having a sun room built but so far the project hasn't progressed all that much. The contractors parked their trailer in my driveway on 8 June but since it was pouring rain, that's all that got done that day. The rest of the week was rainy and my contractor and his partner got sick so nothing got done the first week. The second week, the old deck came up and the technoposts for the foundation went in, but they revised where the technoposts were to be placed so we needed new drawings from the engineers before anything else could be done. Those new drawings took nearly a week. After we got the new drawings, the beams and joists went in and that's where we still are today as we are waiting for the city to approve the new drawings and we can't go any further until the foundation is inspected so the floor can't be insulated or closed in until that's done. This four to six week job will likely now take 8 to 10 weeks so it doesn't look like the sun room won't get much use this summer.

The beams on the technopost foundation

The joists are in.

The sun room will have tile floors and a tongue in groove pine vaulted ceiling with a fan and light. There will be three double (full screen) slider windows at the end away from the house, a double hung window near the sliding door, a fixed transom window above the slider window at the far end and two skylights in the roof to make sure we still get as much light in the dining room as possible. We will just be installing a storm door just beside where the double hung window will be so not quite mid way as I didn't want to break up what's to be the main seating space. Hopefully the city will approve the revised drawings soon as they've almost had them longer now than they had the first drawings which we submitted with the permit application.

It sure will be nice to have a space where I can wipe the dogs feet before they come into the house. It will also be a great space for brushing them too. And, of course, for it's real purpose sitting out in the evenings without getting eaten alive by mosquitos.