Creaks Be Gone!

On Saturday, while Darryl and his Dad went to pick up our new front door (which won't be installed for months as upstairs is our priority.  We just wanted to make use of the 15% off sale), they also picked up some chip board for new subfloors upstairs.


The original subfloors upstairs were in pretty rough shape.  They were super squeaky and creaky (something I imagined cursing whenever the creaks wake up the baby when we walk around up there in my imagination).  They also had several sections which had broken off leaving gaps in the floors which isn't the safest or best. 


You can get the general idea of how they looked before, or here's a fuller picture of the subfloors on the main floor from when we did that reno a few years ago.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the holes in the floor.  They started installing the chip board before I got home for the day and even realized they were going to.

So, on Saturday, instead of tackling the electrical as planned, they installed the subfloors in the nursery which felt like we were taking a step back a bit (as we were debating whether or not to even put new subfloors in).  It's going to add on to our timeline quite a bit, but in the end it is for the best.

So now when we walk in there, it no longer creaks and there is no fear of stepping on the wrong weak board and falling through to the main floor. 


Here's what's left for us to do before we can set the nursery up:

* Finish electrical in the hallway
* Drywall the hallway
* Mud the hallway
* Sand the hallway
* Prime the hallway
* Paint the hallway
* Take hallway floors up
* Remove all nails from the hallway floor
* Install new subfloors in the hallway
* Install new bamboo floors in the hallway
* Install new subfloors in the nursery
* Install new bamboo floors in the nursery


I should probably stop looking at this list.  It's very daunting and stressful and I cannot imagine how we're going to get it all done in time.


Anyone else stressing about projects and deadlines!?

Smoke Infusion

Last Thursday I had 2 wonderful cousin-in-laws come and give up their evening to paint the nursery for us and it looks great!  We used the left over paint from the bathroom actually.  I really didn't want to do a blue boy's nursery because it's so stereotypical, but we ended up deciding on the Valspar No-VOC "Smoke Infusion" colour from the bathroom for a couple of reasons:


1.  We already had a gallon sitting at home left over (but were thinking that if we didn't want that colour that we could paint the guest room or our room with it).


2.  The neutral-ish map that is the inspiration for decorating the nursery didn't look as good when I put it up to neutral walls, it made it look more yellowy and the blue really brought out some of the colours.


3.  It wasn't a baby blue, but more of a grey-ish blue that sometimes even takes on a greenish under tone which I liked.  It's more of a grown-up blue than a baby blue.


4.  Blue is my favourite colour.


Without further adieu, here are a few of what will probably be some of the most boring pictures ever (but it was a very exciting day for me so bear with me!)


Here's just the primer:

And a little bit of infused smoke...

It's hard to get a true picture of the colour.  It's a little more accurate I think in the bathroom post from when we painted the same colour in there.

Here's what's left for us to do before we can set the nursery up:


* Finish electrical in the hallway
* Drywall the hallway
* Mud the hallway
* Sand the hallway
* Prime the hallway
* Paint the hallway
* Take hallway floors up
* Remove all nails from the hallway floor
* Install new subfloors in the hallway
* Install new bamboo floors in the hallway
* Install new subfloors in the nursery
* Install new bamboo floors in the nursery


Gosh, when you write it all out it seems even more daunting!  Here's hoping we have enough time in the 7 weeks before baby is due.  Luckily we've crossed one or two things off that list since I drafted this post, but still lots and lots to do!


Ps.  Has anyone found a technique or tape that DOESN'T pull your paint off??  Now we have to go back to repair parts of the brand new ceiling paint because the frog tape I used peeled so much off.  So frustrating.  I know cutting in is the only sure-fire way to not peel paint off, but I just don't trust my abilities yet.

Nursery Progress

The nursery has come a long way from where it was a year ago. It's still got a ways to go, but things are shaping up in there. It's gone through more work than most nurseries, but we wanted to have an insulated room for baby and new flooring that wasn't sticky and hole-ridden.

So almost exactly a year ago, this is how the room looked before we got to work.

On the very right of that picture, you can see a good sized hole in the wall from when we did some duct work during our main floor renovations.  You can also see the temporary left over laminate floor we had put down over top of the sticky original floors just so that we could walk in there without leaving with a glue-like tack on our soles.

And just a view from inside the room looking at the doorway (with no door)

Then we tore it to pieces and it looked like this...

Yikes!

And it stayed like that for a good 8 or so months while we worked on the bathroom.  But after insulating, vapour barriering and dry walling, Darryl was ready to sand it down...

After the sanding it was time for some primer (which ended up having some chunks in it from either sitting too long, or being stored in the heat of the attic, so it left a few bumps on our brand new walls, but worse things have happened).

My wonderful sister-in-law came to prime the walls and Darryl did the ceiling.  She gave the walls two good coats and took some of the work load off of Darryl's shoulders, which he so deserves, he's been working so hard and mostly on his own.  I haven't been much help since the paint fumes and drywall dust aren't ideal when incubating new life. 

But now we have a fresh, clean slate to paint the walls before the new floors go in.  Colour also went up last night which I will post about next week. 

Then, before the floors can be done, we have half the hall way to deal with.  It needs some electrical work, drywall, mudding, sanding, priming and painting and THEN we can start on the floors. 

Anyone installing new floors?  Working on a nursery?  Picking new paint colours?  Paint is always such a fun part of the reno phase.