Staircase upgrade on the Cheap

Here is a before and after picture of the staircase. It was too expensive to replace the wrought iron 1970's railing, so I lightly sanded it, and used black tremclad. It cleaned it right up and looks much better.

I also sanded and varathaned the exposed 6 inches or so of stair tread on each side, and painted the riser with the trim colour we are using around the house.

We felt for safety and to finish it off, that we would continue with the same carpet that was installed upstairs, as a runner down the center of these stairs. The railing goes not only up the stairs, but along the hall as well, so there was a lot of tremclad to do!.

Creative Renovating

The upstairs hallway had a wallpaper border all around the top, including the area over the stairwell.

There is no landing in this stairwell, making the ceiling two storeys high. The border was dry strippable, meaning the pattern part ripped off easily, but it leaves behind the brown backing paper. You then wet this and scrape it off. Sounds easy enough, but unless we can rent some serious scaffolding, this job has been left for now.

Until I got creative! I pulled a completely redneck move. I took a long handled mop and soaked the paper border over the stairwell, from the second floor hallway. I then took the wallpaper scrapper blade and "duct taped" it to a pole (used for painting ceilings etc) and proceeded to scrape off the paper. This actually worked! It fell all over the place, and took a lot of mopping to get it really wet, but it worked.

Did the same trick when it came to painting the primer on the wall. I "duct taped" the trim paint brush to the pole, and carefully edged the paint. Not too bad at all! No one could believe how I did this when they came in to do work on the house today. I promised Jeremy, that not once was I in danger. I did not go anywhere near a ladder, just got creative with the extension pole!

Painting the Walls

This 37 year old semi detached house, was wall to wall wallpaper. It was stuck in the 80's and needed to come down. After lots of hard work, we all managed to do our share of wallpaper stripping.

Now the next step, was to wash the walls. Glue residue left over from the wallpaper will turn your paint finish to that crackle finish if you don't get it off. After washing with TPS solution, we filled holes with Spackle and sanded. (Lots of holes from hooks over the years).

Finally, the painting. I love the zinsser products, and purchased a HUGE tub of it, and had it tinted close to the finished colour. This way, we only have to do one coat of primer, and then one coat of the finish paint. The zinsser primer covers ALL paints including oil paint, it makes a great surface for the finish colour.

I also painted the ceiling. Even though it seemed OK, it just freshened the place up with 2 coats of ceiling paint.

Painting the walls, can make a huge difference to a room. After all the prep, it is starting to look good, as you can see in the primed picture compare to the before picture of the same room. It is still in progress, but coming along. (The before picture is the one with the pink wallpaper)

Next is to prime the window trim and bedroom doors (some are pink!). Plus we are still puzzling over one bedroom that had cork board glued to the wall, and that the previous owner had ripped off the wall, pulling off the drywall paper with it.

Upgrading Plumbing

We had a friend come in over the last few days, and replace many of the copper plumbing lines, as they looked fragile!

Once that was done, we were able to get the water back on, but we are still turning it off at night, until the new furnace is installed. We don't trust the old one, and the nights are very cold now. We also installed a new laundry tub, and new taps for the new washer and dryer that will show up in the New Year.

Renovation Credits

Yesterday (Thursday) we had a energy auditor come to the house we are working on, and do a energy test. He places a airtight frame in the front door, and starts a large fan in the frame. This reverses the air flow in the house, and will show up any air leaks.

This was a great test, as it showed us leaks we can fix. But the best part is, that we can get renovation credits from the government.

If we replace the old furnace with a high efficiency one, we get $750.00

If we replace the two toilets with 6L toilets, we get $130.00 for each toilet

If we insulate the basement, attic entrance, and do some caulking, there is even more money.

If we do this work within 18 months of this test, then he checks the work, and approves the credits.

This certainly helps with the budget, and with the heating costs.

The test was 350.00 and you get 150 dollars refund from the government for doing it. But if your house is over 10 years old, you could actually do renovations quite cheaply, with these renovation credits.

Demolition Day

Although we took measurements on the weekend, the real demolition started today. Adair and Hailey, after stripping out the gross old carpets upstairs, are now tackling the two layers of stick on tiles and linoleum, as you can see in the picture.

Michelle, my resident electrician, was checking out all the sockets and the panel.

I was out and about shopping! Actually I was ordering a new back patio door to replace the tired busted aluminum one, and a replacement bathtub for the lovely green one in there now., and a couple of new toilets.

Hailey's dad, Cecil was helping today as well, and was removing all the carpet strips and trim. Such energy! Hope it keeps running smoothly. I tried to corner a kitchen person in Home Depot, but someone else got to her first! Was going to get IKEA kitchen, but they want you to design and upload your own plan, then just go and pick it up! I think I need a bit more guidance than that.

Until next time.. the demolition saga continues...