I Knew It!

So the last post I mentioned that we were handing in paperwork and that we had things stall in the past.  Well... it was like I had looked into the future.  Or had inside information.  The very next day I heard from Chris asking for information regarding the basement.  As in information on the support beam, as well as any information on the construction of the basement.  We thought "No problem! We can ask at the town office as everything needs to go through them to receive a building permit". Turns out that the town was much more lenient back in the day.  They have nothing on record that will help us.  From there I drove into Regina and headed to the land titles office.  Waited in line for ages, explained what I needed, the woman went and looked to come back empty handed.  UHHHH!  Last chance, William contacted the diocese to see if they had any information.  They are going to look into it, but it doesn't sound promising.  This is stressing me out!  If we can't give the information on the basement, I might not get my loft as the engineer can't sign off on the plans without knowing the basement can handle the extra weight.  Send positive vibes our way please.  I think we are going to need them!

So to get our minds off the stress, we went for a long walk yesterday and ended up at the Indian Head museum.

 

This is a picture of the original part of our church.  This is the back section where we hope to have our kitchen.  I was sad to see there was once a tower that over the years had been taken down.

This plaque once hung in the original church.  So, this is from the 1800's.  Crazy!

We have been discussing how we would at some point try to find a church bible if we could to have as a piece of art more than anything when the renovations are complete. We were a little frustrated when we saw this...

These my friends are bibles... from churches... in our area... that have gone under. SO one of these could be the original bible from OUR church.  There is no glass or barriers to stop a person from flipping through the pages to snoop.  We were SO TEMPTED!  But it felt weird to start pawing at things in a museum.  One of the volunteers that works there lives a house down from us, so I am going to see if I can get permission to check them out.  At the very least I would like pictures or copies from the original if it is indeed there.

So the weekend was not all bad although we were stressing out.  I hope to come back with good news.  In the mean time I will continue to enjoy watching people as they pass by...

Our church is a Pokemon Go Pokestop!  We have been enjoying seeing families, kids, people walking their dogs, etc coming by.  It's been a great way of speaking to people in town that we wouldn't necessarily get a chance to chat with. I love this town!

A New Entry

So we have officially made a decision that will change the look of the outside of the church.  We are going to move the main entrance from the side of the building to the front.  Currently the front of the church looks something like this...

This is an old picture from a previous blog post, but it focuses on the spot we are placing the new entrance.  It will be going between the two outer windows.  We will be removing the middle window, the door will go in that space, and stairs will go up to the door.  The issue we had was that this space is 13 feet (4 meters) across.  That is not a standard door, so we had to do some shopping and digging to find something.  By chance William found a door at Restore.  This store is a donation place for Habitat for Humanity.  You donate renovation items you no longer need and they sell them to other people.  The profits go back into Habitat for Humanity.  This is where I purchased a ton of tiles for my bathroom mosaic.  Getting the door here means we got a HUGE door for a fraction of the price if we had custom ordered it.  EXCELLENT!  The issue became "how do we get this thing home?!"

We decided on hiring a moving company.  Less stress for us, and a better chance it would arrive in one piece.  William met the movers at Restore to organize the loading of the door.

One of the reasons we liked this door is that it isn't just the door, but also the frosted windows on either side.  Here is a better look at one side...

You can't tell from this picture, but it brings in light nicely but you can't see in. PERFECT!  We've been basement dwellers long enough now that I crave sunlight.  A LOT!

The doors themselves are called "Composite Doors".  They are made up of a variety of materials and should (hopefully) be stainable.

Once the door was loaded and ready to go, William called to let me know they were on their way. They arrived and then it was the fun of trying to not only get it off the truck, but also where to place it as it would not fit in the house and it had just rained and the ground was wet and muddy.  It was decided that the best place for it was to lean it up where it will eventually be installed.

The movers told me they were worried about getting it off the truck as a forklift was used to get it in. I am happy to report that everything went smoothly and the door is now awaiting insulation!

This is where it will now live for a little while.  We will be handing in the paperwork for the permits this week.  As we have had things stall on us in the past waiting for permits, we are hopeful it won't, but ready for it to happen to us again.  Lucky we are not in a rush, although it will be nice to not worry that something will happen to it while it's leaned up against the building.

Things are not even officially a go yet and we already have choices to make.

Back to the stress of too many choices!

Let's Get Started!!

You know that feeling you have when you are super excited about something?  Like when you were a kid at Christmas and you could NOT wait until Christmas morning to open your gifts and play with your new toys?  Well that is how we have been feeling for about a week!  I contacted Chris (the same person who did up the plans for the basement) to see if he was going to have any availability in the future.  I was not expecting him to have much time as it is summer and tis the season for building and renovations.  To our luck and total excitement, he told me that he had just finished a few things and had a bit of time.  YES!!  Score one for us!!  Not only is Chris talented, he is a super nice person! We worked out a time that we could all get together (he was even able to come out to the church so we could really explain what we were thinking).  We then had to wait a whole week!  Seriously, I was so excited it was the longest week I've had to live through in ages!

Finally this past Friday was the day!  We got to work pretty much as soon as Chris got here as the place is so big and we had so much to discuss.

 

This second picture really shows just how daunting this project can feel at times.  Chris walked in and asked "So, what are you thinking?"  It was difficult know where to begin with what we have been thinking.  By the time we got to the back of the church, we had a good starting point as to what we were thinking, and what Chris thought could be done.

With any luck, this picture will someday be the spot where my kitchen will be.  Fingers crossed!

So once we had discussed a plan for each section of the church i.e. where bedrooms, bathroom, dining and kitchen (and perhaps a loft...), Chris needed to take some specific measurements.  This also meant some of the terrible faux wood paneling needed to come off the walls.  Back in the 1980's church attendees found the building drafty and cold.  To combat this some of the windows were insulated and covered up with the most hideous faux wood paneling.  It's just EVERYWHERE!  We can't tell if the tin ceiling is in good shape as it is covered in paneling.  It was truly like Christmas when it was decided we needed to know exactly where the covered windows are.

Here we go!

 

And the first piece of paneling is off!  This is the left side of the church as you walk in. Will then took paneling off on the opposite wall.

While Will was busy pulling paneling off, Chris was taking the measurements he needed. He had the coolest little gadget!  I had never seen a laser tape measure before.  So fast and easy to use for one person.

Chris was here for about two hours.  We discussed multiple ways things could look/go/be placed. Will and I differ on a few ideas, but in the end Chris joked "happy wife...happy life" ;)  We told him that he is our expert, so if he felt some of our ideas just wouldn't work, we would not be offended if he needed to scrap them.  By the end of the visit we all were overloaded mentally and felt like this...

 

Haha, ANY excuse to put in pictures of the kids!

So now we wait for Chris to work his magic.  The nice thing about this next phase of renovations is that we are not in a huge rush.  The last time we worked with Chris we were on a bit of a time line since we wanted to get done and moved in ASAP.  Now, if it takes some time, we pass the plans back and forth until we get to exactly where we want...PERFECT!  The basement was an excellent learning curve so now we know what we like, don't like, and what we would have done differently.

I want to say thank you again to Chris for coming out and making time for us!  If anyone out there ever needs blueprints done up for a build or renovation, I HIGHLY recommend contacting Chris. I've put a link to his website. CJ Evans Home Designs

Resurrection

WOW has it really been this long since I last opened my blog and wrote about all our renovation adventures?!  I think the last thing I said was something about life slowing down and I would have time to catch up.  Boy was I wrong!  So, where have we been?!

Well I spoke at a conference.

Been chipping away at my masters thesis and cuddling with the fur babies.

Oh yes and I was busy doing this...

WHAT?! Crazy.  All of a sudden we were becoming a family of five (because as everyone knows the fur children are indeed part of the family!).  We had just finished the demo of the bathroom at the house in Regina and the renovation needed to be put on hold.  For one, because whomever said morning sickness was in the morning OR that it only lasts a few weeks knows NOTHING!  I could barely eat anything I was so sick.  The thought of doing anything to do with renovations was just not going to happen.  And William was worried about me, so the last thing he wanted to do was worry about renovations.  This is where we stopped.

 

Here is the bathroom window with everything demoed down to nothing and the bathtub gone.

The window is where the shower was.  As this is where the most damage was when we began the demo, we were very happy that there was no rot to deal with.

This is how everything stayed for a few months.  Even though I was feeling terrible (for the whole pregnancy) I still made sure to take pictures every step of the way when the renovation started up again.  Once everything was finally done at the house I took a day to rest.  Then a day later I went into labour.  At least she gave me a day to rest. 

This past year has been all about being parents.  We just were not interested in renovations.  It wasn't until last month when I was at the bank next to the Home Depot I thought to myself "I haven't been in there to look around for AGES!".  I told William and he agreed.  This is when we knew we were ready to think about the renovations for the church.  

So as we prepare for the next phase of renovations at the church, I decided it was about time to update my blog/journal.  Welcome back to the adventure my friends!