Demo Day #1 and already a change of plans!

We picked up our keys yesterday and boy were we excited!!!

We went straight over to the house from the lawyer's office, where our keys were attached to a little leather cutout of a beaver. I leapt through the front door in excitement and immediately started peeling wallpaper off the walls.

The first layer came off too easily. But is there really anything more satisfying than pulling off an entire panel of wallpaper in one piece!?

And guess what was underneath? Wallpaper. And MORE WALLPAPER. 

Seriously, guys, there are SEVEN LAYERS of wallpaper. And, for good measure, a layer of yellow paint between layer 2 and 3. Can you see them? From the top layer down: a brownish-green vertical stripe pattern, a beige spotty pattern, another beige stripey pattern, a blue hatch-mark weave pattern, then the beautiful yellow paint layer, and then an "I-swear-this-is-a-camouflage-pattern" layer, and... you guessed it, another beige layer right on top of the drywall. 

Today, with tools, wallpaper remover, and my mother-in-law Chris, we went at the wallpaper in the den. While the top layer came off like a dream, the other six layers are NOT coming off easily. We will have to choose between either 1) scoring, spraying, and scraping Every. Single. Layer. off the wall, or 2) hammer-and-chiseling all the layers off at once, but in Tiny. Little. Chunks.

We knew renovating this house was going to be a labour of love, but it just got a whole lot lovier. This is the smallest of the three rooms, plus a long hallway, that needs wallpaper stripped. And don't even say it. I WILL NOT paint over all those layers and just make it worse!

Meanwhile...

Mister J., his Papa, and our friend Jim attacked the kitchen.

Seriously. They ATTACKED it:

There were sledgehammers, chisels, reciprocating saws, and crowbars a-plenty. And lots of NOISE, and dust, and debris, of course. 

But after removing all the hardware, all this wood, a pile of tile, the old cabinets, and a wall, here is our new beautiful open kitchen! 

Okay, so it's not beautiful yet. But to me, it's Gorgeous.

We discovered a pipe, though. Not sure what we're going to do with that pipe. It's right in the middle of what will hopefully be a walkway.

But the major change to our reno plans is the colour scheme of the main floor. Remember how I said we were going to paint the coffered ceilings and all the trim around the windows and doors white? Well, the quote for bringing all that wood up to paint grade was wayyyyyy outside our budget.

So we're going to keep the wood dark brown. Which, now that I think about it, is actually a better decision. Once you take trim white, you can never go back. After some time spent on Pinterest looking at inspiration for "craftsman dark wood colour schemes," we've decided to go green! Here's our favourite inspiration:

We'll also be painting the ceiling (not the wood bits) a nice white, which will lighten up the colour scheme quite a bit, kind of like other awesome inspiration photo: 

What do you think? I can't WAIT to get to the painting stage. 

NEXT UP: More wallpaper peeling, and more kitchen demo! 

A Sunday Musing: To Be of Use

I've started going through books, asking each volume whether or not it would like to come live at No. 77 with us, if it will enliven the imagination and keep company on dark winter nights. Some books cry out to come along for the dusty adventure of moving into a house being renovated! Others say, "Thank you, but send us along to some other home."

I pulled a volume off the shelf this afternoon, that every time I've moved has been scrutinized and re-evaluated. But today, before I placed it in the giveaway pile, I randomly flipped to a page, and this poem struck me as utterly appropriate for our upcoming home reno. The poem also reminded me of so many people in our lives who have demonstrated this fearless approach to hard work, a willingness to dive in, roll up their sleeves, as if to say, "I'm here to work until the work is done." We are heading into many months of dust, grime, chaos, obstacles, and hopefully many successes and delights along the way. This poem reminded me that the way in which you give yourself over to a task often transforms both the task and the doer. Not only will we be renovating a house, there may be some renovating of our spirits as well: patience, determination, cheerfulness, gratitude, creativity will all be essential to our survival and success.

So, I wanted to share the poem with you.

You may be happy to know that this particular book will be "of use" to us in our new home.

To Be of Use
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hand, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

- Marge Piercy
in Circles on the Water

Poem found in Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.

Starting at the very beginning

So... we bought a house.

When we first moved here, we didn't think we would actually stay here. But this little town has worked its way into our hearts and we found ourselves this spring looking at every MLS listing in our three favourite neighborhoods. We saw some baaaad houses. We saw some nice ones we'd never be able to afford.

After a particularly bad day of visiting houses which felt haunted, or disgusting, or smelled really bad, I went back to the listings we'd passed over early in our search, and No. 77 didn't seem like such a bad option to me anymore. "Jordan, I think we'd better go see this one."

So we did.

After a 1 hour visit to the home, we said goodbye to our infinitely patient realtor and went to a nearby café and made a list of everything we'd like to do to the house. It was a long list. But MAN we were kind of excited.

And then we made an offer on No. 77... and 5 days later, after some negotiations and even bumping another accepted (but conditional) offer, our offer was accepted! We set the closing date at three weeks from our offer, so as a result of this blisteringly short lead time, we get the keys this coming Wednesday!

But let me tell you about the house. It's in our favourite neighbourhood in town, Wortley Village. It's located between two beautiful parks. The house was built in 1923, and is 1 and 1/2 stories with a full and finished basement. The exterior is brick, and at the front of the house has the most gorgeously inviting front porch, complete with a swing. We have four bedrooms and two bathrooms, in addition to a south-facing sunroom at the back of the house. There are coffer-style ceilings throughout the main floor, and beautiful wood trim around all the windows and doors. Underneath the carpet, also throughout the main floor, is lovely hardwood just waiting to be refinished.

The previous owners lived there for 50 years, and while it needs some cosmetic modernizing, they meticulously maintained it. Everything is in immaculate condition, right down to the orange and brown boomerang-worm patterned carpeting in the attic:

And the basement! How can I describe it? It's like the love child of an Austrian ski lodge and a Norwegian sauna:

Oh yes. And the kitchen. It's big enough to fit Audrey Hepburn, and that's about it. And orange. Did I mention that orange is a popular colour? 

Look at those lovingly hand-made cabinets. And the gorgeous shape of those handles! They will definitely be kept and refinished (I'm thinking a gunmetal grey) and repurposed in our new kitchen. 

So while our list of renovation project ideas is a mile long, the house has amazing bones and piles of potential to be as stunning inside as it is on the outside. 

We'll be posting lots of before and after photos here, as well as updates on our progress. Our biggest reno goal this summer is to get the whole main floor updated to our own style. Here's a rundown of what we're *hoping* to accomplish this summer: 

• Complete kitchen reno, including knocking out the wall between the dining room and the kitchen to expand it and make the whole hospitality side of the house open-concept. This is by far the biggest and most dramatic portion of our project! 
• Paint all the coffered ceilings and dark wood trim a satin white.
• Paint all the walls on the main floor.
• Rip out carpeting and restore hardwood floors. 
• Install tile flooring in the kitchen and the front entrance.
• Change out lighting fixtures in all the rooms. 

Of course, you know what they say about the best-laid plans and certain roads being paved with good intentions. I'm an idealist, a dreamer married to a cool-headed realist. Jordan tends to temper my crazy goals. But we accomplish a ton when we're working together. And we love a project. 

So wish us luck, check back here often, and pop by anytime! We promise to feed and water anyone who comes by the house wearing their work clothes. ;) 

COMING UP NEXT: Photos of No. 77 when we get our keys on Wednesday, April 15!