For the three people who are still checking on my blog every once in a while, your patience is finally rewarded. I had actually planned to post yesterday, but the project I have started on interfered with my plans, so it's today instead. Not that you care, you've been waiting so long that 24 hours wouldn't have made a difference.
Rather than try to cover the last four months (five, you say? you checked the date of the last post? You didn't believe me? you were so right...), I am starting from now and pretend that nothing happened during that time.
Having spent the last couple of years looking for a slightly better home than the one we live in, one with a garage, a fantastic kitchen, with a south-facing garden, and no neighbours within five feet from us, we have finally come to the following conclusion:
- the houses we like are too expensive
- the houses we can afford are worse than the one we are living in
- house-hunting is a depressing exercise in Toronto
- people go through a lot of purging of personal stuff before they put their house up for sale
- sellers renovate their kitchen BEFORE they sell their house
- people don't use their garage to park their car, they amass all their junk in it and run out of room to put anything at all in it. Might as well have storage and no garage.
Soooo... we have decided to stay where we are, the house we have been living in for the last 20 years (yes, we are a bit afraid of moving and we would rather procrastinate). But we procrastinate no more. We are renovating our kitchen, which will happen either on this side of Christmas or next Spring, depending on when the kitchen designer calls us back with final quotes, and we recover from the heart attack.
The other room that is a problem is the office -- here's one side:
and here's the other:
These are very dark and large built-in bookcases that were there when we bought the house. 20 years later, I find them, well... large and dark, and I would like to reclaim the room as more of a sitting/office than a big mess of books, papers and other junk.
So, a few hours after these photos were taken, this is what we had:
Which means they are now ready to be ripped out of the wall tomorrow. This is great. A minor inconvenience -- have a look at my dining room:
Well I had to put all the crap somewhere, didn't I? Anyway, as I said, tomorrow, bookcases ripped out, large filing cabinet going into the basement, and then, eventually, putting dry wall, inserting floor where the cabinets were, re-painting. Later even, fitting nice Ikea bookcases (the tall slim ones, with nice glass doors), installing a window seat where the window is (only full south window on this floor), removing the large desk in the corner and replacing it with a much smaller table, creating an oasis of peace in this room where the dogs can sleep during the day and I can have a smaller workspace. That's the theory, anyway. The three hours spent at IKEA yesterday really gave me some great ideas.
Wish me luck tomorrow and hope I will still be married by the end of this renovation project. My spouse doesn't do too well with chaos and upsetting the natural balance of things. On the other hand, I told him moving would be a lot more traumatic and a ton more expensive. So he has to deal with his angst.
As for the dining room, let's just say I won't be entertaining anytime soon...
Moka, throughout the lugging of books, files, and more books and magazines and crap, only had one thing in mind:
Throw me the ball! Throw me the ball! Throw me the ball!
As for Tigger, he decided it was too much for him and he slept through it all.
Hi! Welcome back! Loved your reading your blog and the update. Sorry to hear you are tearing out the bookcases, they look like very nice bookcases. But the room will definitely look much better and possibly bigger without the big bookcases. I am envious that you are getting a window seat. That looks like a nice window to sit at and knit. Good luck in your project! Rosalia
Posted by: Rosalia | Tuesday, 06 October 2009 at 14:43
Welcome back! I've been hunting for plans to build bookcases and didn't consider Ikea. Good plan!
I kind of know what you're going through. We completely rebuilt our kitchen about 10 years ago and then rebuilt our only bathroom a few years later.
It will be like a "new" house once the renovations are done. Please post after pictures when your done.
Posted by: Grace | Tuesday, 13 October 2009 at 00:16