As most of you know by now, I am always coming up with some projects or home improvements just to keep Bruce on his toes! This past Fall we embarked on some significant home improvements with the guidance and expertise of trusted Contractors. We do actually practise what we preach; the contractors we used were all within our “Referral Community” who have been recommended to us over the years by trusted friends and clients, many of them having done work at our house several times, and the Professionals we refer to you whenever you need their skills.
Our project included popcorn removal from ceilings on the main floor, upstairs hallway and skylight; installation of many pot lights; crown mouldings on the main level, new doors on the hallway and bedroom closets to replace those annoying bi-fold ones; painting throughout, including staircase stringer and trim.
One of the best pieces of advice we received was to rent a storage pod for our furniture. This protected our furniture and allowed the contractors to work more quickly without obstacles. The only pieces we didn’t move were our office desk and storage cabinet which were not too difficult to work around. We used Blue Sky Storage from Burlington. Mike was great to deal with and delivered a brand new container on time and accommodated us when we needed to extend the rental for an additional week. This also made the clean-up on completion so much easier.
The initial work was the Electrical which was done by CanPower Electric. Mike and his team did all the wiring when we renovated our bathrooms about 5 years ago and we were really happy with the workmanship and nice guys too. We’ve included a couple of photos of the “elegant” temporary lights they installed to allow the ceiling work to be completed before fitting the permanent lights.
Next was the real messy job, the ceilings. We used Kevin Furtado from Maple Improvements in Milton. Kevin prepared the job sight on the Saturday so he could roll right into the job on Monday morning. We did actually move out for a week while this was happening. Not only was this less stressful for us, but it allowed Kevin to work till later in the evenings without worrying about us coming home. I’m still not quite sure how he managed to do our skylight over the staircase without training at Cirque Du Soleil.
CanPower returned to install the permanent lights when Kevin had completed and painted all the ceilings. Love the additional lighting throughout and the dimmers everywhere. We also added wall sconces on either side of the fireplace, and love the effect.
The carpentry and detail work was done by Enda McHugh and his company Connacht Construction Inc. They came as scheduled, and the workmanship was excellent, Enda even helped us select the perfect crown moulding to complement existing millwork in the family room. I’m so glad we added the molding as it really does add a touch of refinement to the principal rooms. The upgrade of the closet doors was such an improvement both visually and practically. For years we struggled to close those bi-fold doors when the winter jackets filled the closet, now we simply close the doors. Great guy to deal with.
Our Painter Mariusz Maciagowski came in and transformed our taupe walls with an elegant, neutral soft Cloud White. We didn’t want to contrast the wainscotting so we elected for the same colour, but a different finish; flat for the walls and satin for the trim, wainscotting and molding everywhere. We love the fresh new look and the flexibility to add accent colours in the form of furniture and accessories.
Last, but not least, I didn’t want to look at a black TV screen above the fireplace now that we had refined the room. I had researched the Frame TV by Samsung, which has the unique feature of looking like a framed piece of art on the wall when the TV is not in use. A perfect solution as there was no way I was convincing the guys to do without a TV on the main floor! To avoid any frustration we hired a Technician, Erik Omay of Sound Solutions. Erik mounted and installed the TV and new Sonos Soundbar and did an excellent job of concealing cables.
From start to finish we were 5 weeks. You hear so many horror stories of Contractors not showing up as scheduled or not completing work. It’s so reassuring to work with true Professionals who have come highly recommended by people you know, like and trust.
I’ve promised Bruce no major projects this year. We’ll see……
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