Kitchen Reno complete

 Sometimes I don't know how we got from this...

to this

in terms of deciding to make this change. It slowly snowballed. First, it was just changing the range hood to something with a better fan speed. Then if we were doing that, we needed to do something with the backsplash because of the different style of hood. Then we looked at stuff we just wanted to change. Our blinds were over 20 years old so that was time for an update. And there was the counter. We hated how dark it was even though the one it replaced was a dark green. Something about the dark counter and floor didn't do it for us (the lino we replaced was lighter). I was doing my dream bathroom and the quartz counter wasn't as expensive as expected so why not do the kitchen...welp 4 times the area in the kitchen would be a good reason. But we already have solar panels so here we are.

And we love it. I, of course, started watching kitchen reno videos after everything was done, and don't think we would have done anything differently. It feels like our kitchen is bigger again. I know the colour this year (and last) is green but we really like the blue veining in the quartz. The range hood is out of head knocker range although we have to get used to not opening the cupboards quite so much. We might have gone with a stacked 4-inch tile for the backsplash but I like the offset large tile. It has some different colours and textures that aren't obvious. The big win that isn't visible is the deep double sink.

And everyone was great!

Now for the bathroom - demolition starts Monday!

Counters by Maxwood

Tiles by Midwest Floorcovering

Window covering by Dusk to Dawn

Hood ventilation by Lloyd Plumbing& Heating who also did our new furnace and air exchanger

Home ownership and renovations

 A lot has been made lately about housing affordability. I live in a community with decent affordability - there's a good inventory of rental units, condos, and single-family homes. Since we don't believe in purchasing homes to rent we missed our levering our home into a home in the Vancouver area. With the drop in home values in 2016 and the acceleration of housing prices out there, even with an extra $400K (buy out and inheritance) we could not enter the housing market without taking a huge downgrade.

So renovations it is. Luckily this is a custom home. We got the plan we went with inexpensive finishes to keep our mortgage down on the understanding we could upgrade later if we didn't move away. It's later. We did round one renos and have finally admitted this is our forever home.

This round we're doing windows, the ensuite bathroom and furnace/water heater. There is a green rebate but it will only cover some windows (better than a kick in the teeth). The windows are the most important for energy conservation, the water heating system important for water conservation, and the bathroom for PLEASURE (and accessibility as we age).

The process was kickstarted when I found a tile that I L-O-V-E for the shower. It has some of the beige on our walls and blue as an accent colour and will be the "feature wall" that has the shower components. The rest of the walls will be a large (8x20") white mix textured tile that really echos the lightest colour in the feature tile. The floor will be navy 2x2 antislip tile (safety first🙂) 
 

Here's the completed palette; I'm getting a quartz countertop with a white vanity and linen closet. I'm pretty sure I'm getting a blue tile backsplash for the vanity but the tile guy said to wait and see.

The problem with the new bathroom counter is Fred's always talked about doing the kitchen as well. Now I'm on board with that sooner than later. New cabinet faces, same countertop, and a new kitchen sink...after doing the energy conservation upgrades. 

I still wish I could have moved home. The only way we could have done it was if we did it before we retired so we could replenish our funds. This is something to keep in mind for younger people moving to affordable housing.

A story of a greenhouse build

Since we're not moving to the west coast, a greenhouse is the next best thing for extending the growing season. While we checked at Wayfair in the end we got a greenhouse from B.C. Greenhouse because they had 5 layer poly glazing. They supply very complete directions. We also called to find our underground utility locations and were surprised it was so close to the planned greenhouse location.

Media space updated! Yay!

When we moved into our place in 2000 we knew we wanted an open basement, dedicated media space, room for a pool table and 2 guest rooms with a bathroom away from the media space. Well we got it but it wasn't quite what we wanted. Fast forward 18 years and we finally decided to do something about it.