2023: Our House Goals for this Year!

It’s that time of year again – time to plan out this year’s house projects! And with January behind us, we seem to have a better grasp of which projects we can reasonably tackle in 2023.

I am not big on making new year resolutions (why set myself up for failure…) but, every year, I do like to take inventory of all my home to-do’s and try to plan out where we will focus our energy. I made my first to-do list for our current home last year (here) and I think we did a pretty good job at sticking to it (you can find our final review of the year here).

Having now lived here for a full year, I can honestly say my wish list has grown exponentially. Not because there is anything wrong per se with our current space but, rather, because I am always looking at how to better a space (be it aesthetically, functionally, etc.) and since our current home is a new build, it has so much potential. But, alas, while the ideas are endless, the budget is not… So here is what I think we can realistically expect to tackle in 2023…

1) Hallways

There’s something about a lot of blank walls that makes a space feel unfinished; that’s how I feel about our hallways. I am not a fan of displaying family photos in our home – a few photos strategically placed here and there is fine but I don’t want our walls to be a shrine to us. Instead, I am hoping to breathe some dimension into our space by adding wall moldings throughout the home (to create a cohesive look) and will likely hang art in the main areas. I’m hoping to snap some fun photos of the boys this year and will hang those in their hallway.

This hallway is nice but it’s missing a little something on the walls to make the space more lived in and to tie in the other hallways in our home…

2) Playroom

We may have been a little too ambitious to think we could tackle both of our unfinished spaces (playroom and gym) in our first year of living here but I think we have our priorities straight this time around. We use the gym everyday and the potential in there is amazing (I have a long wish list for that space) but we are adults and we can live with the exposed wires and nails for a few more years.

The kids’ playroom is another story… They have a lot of toys in there but, for safety reasons, we don’t want them to be in there unsupervised. So this will be one of the first spaces we tackle in 2023. We already ordered the framing wood and drywall in 2022 and have our electrician lined up but it will still likely be a year-long project before it is truly complete. Next on the budget is ordering flooring, baseboards and trim.

3) Mudroom

The one item that is at the very top of my wish list is the mudroom.

We currently have a dedicated space which I call our “mudroom” right off of the garage. It is in the same space as our laundry room. It has a bench and coat hooks, so it is fine… just fine… It has no storage so in the winter the hats, gloves, etc. are sprawled all over the place and the mess is just repeated in the summer but with beach bags, towels, sun hats and flip flops.

Our mudroom is small – it was supposed to be a walk-in coat closet but we removed the coat closet from the plans and kept the same layout. It’ll be comprised of two walls (since it is open to our laundry area and is too narrow to build out on all three sides). So I will have to be creative but I really think that, when done, it will change the way we come in to our home.

4) Outside

If 2022 taught me anything it was that our outside space will never be “done”. The hope is that each year it will be better than the previous but, with a 2 acre lot and way too many Pinterest ideas, I would be setting myself up for failure if I tried to make this one big project. Instead, we’ll tackle it in numerous very small stages.

The goal for 2023 is to work on the front and side of the house. We are hoping to add an interlock path leading to our front door, add some plants and boxwoods below the windows, plant some cedars along the one side where we have a neighbor and seed the entire lot in hopes that we start getting some grass. Sounds ambitious when I write it all out so I’ll try not to be too hard on myself if we don’t do it all but the desire is there and I think both Paolo and I are committed to make it happen.

5) Luca’s Room (maybe…)

This is a bittersweet “maybe”…

Luca was one when we moved into this home. I decided at the time that I would keep his room simple – I felt that there was no point in creating a nursery but also it was too soon for a big boy room… While I haven’t touched his space, I have a lot of ideas for it. The driving force to design this room will be when he is ready to transition from a crib to a bed. Theo had just turned 3 years old when he started showing signs of being ready to sleep in a bed. Luca is turning three in October 2023 so if he follows in his brother’s footsteps then we may be looking at tackling this space towards the end of this year. But I won’t be rushing him – Luca’s my last little baby and I’m not sure I’m ready to let that stage of life go just yet… (plus, he’s totally the type of kid who will get out of his room at 4am and wreak havoc in our home)…

6) Guest Bedroom

I wasn’t planning on having the guest bedroom on this year’s project list but sometimes unexpected events help shift your priorities… Luckily, this one is a good shift.

When we built the house, I opted to remove the closet in our guest room and just leave the nook (where the closet would have gone) as empty space. I did this because the closet area was pretty wide (for a small guest room) and I preferred to have a smaller built-in closet and a desk area combined.

Up until now, our guest room has only ever been used by my parents who live about 2.5 hours away. They usually come down for only 2 days at a time, so there’s no need for a dedicated closet. But this year, in August, Paolo’s mom will be visiting from Italy! The last time we saw her, Theo was only 10 weeks old, so it will be 6 years since we’ve been together. While she will be splitting her time between ours and Paolo’s sister’s house, I still want to make sure that she has enough storage in her room here to be comfortable.

And as if the above was not already a lot to tackle, I am forever hoping, dreaming, planning of little things I can do around the house, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I sneak in a few un-planned projects onto the list along the way…

But, in a nutshell, this is what we have planned for 2023. Stay tuned to see what we actually get done!

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2022 In Review

I am not quite sure how we got here but, somehow, 2022 is done and now it seems like the wish list for our home projects in 2023 is endless (if only the budget was endless too…).

After living here for over a year, we’ve come to know our space and we definitely have a deeper understanding of what projects need to be tackled first. But, before delving into what is to come, I always like to look back at what we set out to do at the start of the year and what we actually accomplished.

If you missed it, in January 2022 I posted my Home Project intentions for the year – you can find that post here. Now let’s see where we are at…

1. Theo’s Room

Theo’s room was my very first DIY in 2022. We had promised him a big boy bedroom as soon as we moved in to the new house, so I intended to make good on that.

Fast forward to January 2023 and Theo still loves his room (thankfully!!!) and it is still one of my favourite spaces.

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You can see more of Theo’s space (before the rug and chair arrived) in our Home Tour Series post here.

2. Foyer Built-In

Originally, I planned on getting a seat and back cushion made for this space. I was going for a tufted banquette style but the cost for custom upholstery for such a small space was more than I was willing to spend. So I improvised…

I used a Twin bed headboard that came with the wall mounted bracket and covered it in a neutral (but still stylish) upholstery fabric. I made a 2″ seat cushion using the same fabric and added shiplap to the back for some visual interest.

While we rarely enter by the front door, we do need to walk past our foyer every time we go to our boys’ bedrooms or whenever I go in to my office and, each time, I look over at my little creation with pride.

While Theo’s room is one of my favourite spaces for sentimental reasons, my little foyer bench is one of my best DIYs to date!

3. Closet Glow Ups

Calling what I wanted to do to our closets a “Glow Up” might have been a little far fetch… Our closets (ours and the boys) are very builder grade and I knew I wasn’t going to be in a position to tackle those in our first year of living here. So I set out to make them just a little more functional by adding extra shelving (since there was a large space between each shelf).

My intention was also to get an Ikea Pax system for each of the closets with drawers for some more contained storage but Ikea has had a rough year in terms of supply. Every time I thought of getting a unit, the frame and/or the shelves/drawers were always out of stock. So, now, I think we will hold off on buying anything until we’ve designed the whole space (one closet at a time, of course) so that we can have it all fit in at once.

4. Landscape

Talks of landscape consumed most of our summer this year. We had several contractors come out for quotes and each seemed to have a different idea of how we should go about getting grass and hardscape. Ultimately, drainage issues on one side of our house took precedence and we had to hire a contractor to dig, bury a perforated pipe and create a swale.

We brought in several loads of fill to level out some low spots and pruned as many of the trees as we could. We made our first ever brushfire (and a few other ones after that too) and have lined up our trades for (hopefully!) some hardscape and landscape in 2023.

So while lots seemed to happen behind the scenes, our actual lot still looks the same…

5. Phase One of the Unfinished Parts of the Basement

The unfinished parts of our basement are areas that both Paolo and I were excited to tackle but there ended up being no room in the budget for it this year.

Currently, the framing wood and drywall have been purchased for the playroom and we’ve had an electrician come out for a quote – so stay tuned for at least some developments in that space in 2023!

FINAL GRADE: A-

Am I grading myself too generously by giving an (A-)? Maybe to some but I am happy with what we have accomplished in our space this year. In addition to the above list, I installed shiplap in the dining room, built shelves in the guest bathroom, had some fun art projects and invested in all the usual organization essentials that are required in the first year of living in a new home.

My to-do project list seems to grow longer everyday so I find that setting these realistic goals at the start of every year and then looking back on them periodically throughout the year has been really helpful in keeping us grounded. Stay tuned for our 2023 Project List coming out shortly!

2022 : Our To-Do List

For as long as I can remember, Paolo and I have always had something to do in our homes; no space was ever truly done. Now that we’ve been living in our new home for 3 months, the list of projects we hope to tackle grows daily. Realistically though, projects take time and cost money, so it won’t happen over night. In the meantime, to calm my mind and to manage expectations, I’ve created a list of the projects we can reasonably hope to tackle in 2022. Here it is:

1. Theo’s Room

When we sold our last home, Theo was still in a crib and about to move in to his big boy bed. Before I knew that we were moving, I told him we would transform his nursery into a big boy room when he changed beds. He didn’t forget that and kept asking me why he didn’t have a cool room when he moved into his big boy bed at the rental house where we were living during the build. So, now that we are home, Theo’s room is the first on our project list.

First up for his room is going to be to add moulding to the walls. I fell in love with this design by Millhaven Homes years ago and plan on replicating it in Theo’s room. Currently, Paolo wants it to be on just one wall but I’m pushing for a whole room design (mainly because I am not a fan of accent walls in bedrooms). So we still have some plans to iron out but I’m thinking we will start with the wall behind his bed and see how the space feels after that.

2. Foyer Built-In

Currently, our foyer is a blank slate. We have a glass console table that we brought over from our last home; it’s not what I envision for this space but it’ll do for now. We have a coat closet that is in need of some built-ins but it functions well for the time being. What we are missing is a place to sit to take off/ put on shoes.

We purposefully designed a space between the front door and the coat closet where we knew we would eventually build a bench. Since we extended our tile rug into that space, we won’t be building anything on the ground (because I don’t want to ruin the pattern) but we’ll do something simple like this one built by Angela Rose and then glam it up with either wall trim or a custom seat cushion.

3. Closet Glow Ups

One item that didn’t make it on to our wish list (as I knew it would be outside of our budget) was custom millwork in the closets. I never raised the question of shelving and layout options with our builder because I assumed we’d live with the customary shelf/rod standard until we decided to invest in custom closets. To my surprise, when the finishing carpenter was working on our closets (each of the boys and ours) he did a really good job at designing the space and even added extra shelving. Now that we’ve used our closets, the layout actually really works for us. While it may not be our dream design, (and we may very well decide to invest in a custom layout down the road), the current closets work great; they’re just in need of a little extra touches.

Currently, the shelves in each of the closets are spaced far apart. This year’s closet glow ups would just consist of us adding a few extra shelves in between the ones already there and also adding a small IKEA PAX wardrobe to each of the closets for some drawer space.

4. Landscape

Originally, we naively thought we could hold off on investing in landscape until our 5-year mark, which is when we’re hoping to get a pool. However, when we moved in in October, it became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to live with a field of mud in the front and back of our house for all those years.

Our plan now is to break down the landscape into phases. In 2022, the plan is to clean up the trees surrounding our lot, level out our land and bring in the necessary soil to make everything even.

5. Phase One of the Unfinished Parts of the Basement

We made sure to finish part our basement during the build stage to ensure we had extra space aside from our main level. However, our future gym, pool room and play room still need to be framed, install electrical, drywall, lighting, flooring, etc. Since all of the spaces are usable, just not currently pretty, we’ve decided that this is another area of our home that we can work on in stages.

Our intention for 2022 is to frame the walls and install strapping in each of the three spaces. We’re going to hire an electrician to run the wiring for outlets and lighting. And, if time and budget permit, we will get drywall installed and mudded.

That’s what we’ll be working on in 2022. The list may seem short to some but, since this is our home, I want to be sure to leave time to enjoy our space without tools and paint brushes in the way. In between these larger projects, I’m sure I’ll find smaller DIY tasks to tackle that may not have a big interior design impact but that will be sure to bring me joy.

What’s on your list this year? Long or short, the first step is to write it down! Lists give you a reference point to look back on and keep you moving forward!

HOME TOUR SERIES: Laundry Room

After two months of being in our new home, the first space to feel “done” is our laundry room! And while I’m grateful for every room in our house, I am especially thankful for an efficient and beautiful (to me anyway!) space where I can scrub, wash and fold my family’s laundry to my heart’s content! [Raise your hand if you actually love doing laundry!!! Nobody? Just me? Cool…]

When we first started designing our home, I wanted a separate mud- and laundry room but ultimately we ended up combining the two to save on square footage. Now that we’ve used the space for a while, having the two together turned out to be the best set up for our family. Theo’s able to take off his dirty clothes as soon as he walks in or our dog comes in from his walk and we’re able to wipe him down and throw the towel in the hamper before even entering the main living area.

One of the rules I had when building this home is that each space we tackled during the build process had to be fully done. If the budget didn’t allow for us to get everything in a specific space, then we just held off completely. I learned from our last home that if I did some upgrades to a space (for example, if I added only lower cabinets to the laundry room and not uppers) then I would likely just end up living with it that way for far longer than I would if the space was empty and in need of finishing. So while we have a joint mud/laundry room, the only part of the room that is finished is the laundry area. The mudroom will be tackled in the (hopefully) near future.

Our entire house (with the exception of one feature wall) is painted in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace. Our laundry room cabinetry and shelves are custom made by Sebo Woodwork. I wanted a colour that resonated with a typical laundry room and that was a little outside of my white, black and wood tone comfort zone – so we went with Benjamin Moore Mount Saint Anne as the colour for the cabinets. It’s a subtle blue that can lean towards grey or green depending on the lighting and it feels timeless for a laundry room. The shelves are a custom colour used by our millwork company – they call it “clamshell”.

In terms of cabinetry, there were a few items on my wish list that we were sure to include. The first being a space to hang clothes – we installed the clothes rod near the sink area for those items that have to be hand washed and hung. The second must-have was a rack for those items that we have to lay flat – we opted for three pull out drawers with metal racks in each that I can just close with clothes in them so that they’re not on display while drying. The third must-have was upper cabinetry that went to the ceiling – we did a combination of uppers and open shelving to allow the space to feel bigger and brighter.

We went with a classic 3cm white quartz countertop mainly because of it’s clean and low maintenance characteristics. We included a quartz drip ledge under our farmhouse sink and I love how it stands out against the blue of the cabinetry.

We extended the backsplash from the counter to the ceiling to highlight the height of the room (10 feet) and give the space a fresher and more finished look. The backsplash is Pasha Marlow Cloud from Euro Tile & Stone.

The floor tile was actually our least expensive flooring (coming in at under $1.50/sq ft) but it turned out to be my favourite tile in the whole house! I knew I wanted a diamond-patterned checkered floor for this space but I had a hard time finding something that would meet my vision at an affordable price point. And then, on a whim, I was scouring through pages and pages of tile options on the Home Depot Canada website and came across two 12×12 tiles that I thought could work well together (gray/white). They weren’t even displayed on the same page but I knew they would complement each other. I was skeptical at first given how inexpensive they were but my tile installer explained that so long as tile is installed properly, we wouldn’t notice a difference in the flooring and he was right, we don’t.

Finally, when all of the “hardscape” was done, it came time to add the finishing touches. The first thing I knew I wanted were the pull-out hampers from The Home Edit x Steele collection. We designed our hamper opening to accommodate two 3-bushels pull-outs and had one labelled “Laundry” and the other labelled “Towels”. For hardware, we went with polished chrome latches on the double-door cabinets, knobs on the single-door cabinets and bar pulls on the drawers. The lantern pendant above the sink is quite large in person and is the perfect “antique” white (almost cream) finish.

The decor is mostly items I shopped from my home. We added some hooks near the sink to house our brushes and hand towel and added a frame above that I got years ago from a thrift store. In the corner we have two of my favourite McGee&Co. items – their raw steel stand that is quite stately and versatile and their in-house white planter.

What is not pictured in this first Home Tour Series is the “mud” side of the room which currently includes, among other things, a bar fridge, an old bench and hooks for jackets. Once our kitchen fridge is delivered (apparently we’ll be lucky if we get it within the next 6 to 12 months…), then we’ll be able to move the bar fridge to the basement and start working on adding a broom closet, a gift wrap station and a bench with storage. Until then, I’ll just enjoy this prettier view of the space.

Additional Sources

Sink

Faucet

Hooks

Brush

Art Print (discontinued)

Jars

Washer / Dryer

Custom Home – Month 17 & 18 – WE ARE HOME!!!

Phew! It has a been a whirlwind of activity around here! When I last left off, our builder had told us that they likely would not make their latest deadline which sent us into a panic since our landlord had already said that he could not extend our lease beyond September 30…

For a long few days we seriously contemplated moving all of our belongings (and our children and dog!) into the unfinished portion of our house while construction continued upstairs. Then, our builder advised that they were going to work miracles to get everything done in time for the end of September. And then, as though the stars aligned, our landlord agreed to let us stay an extra two weeks into October, provided we moved all of our belongings from the basement of our rental out of the house by the end of September so that he can have workers start finishing the basement. Crisis averted!

“Work miracles” is definitely one way to put it! There were trades working on top of trades nearly everyday, including the weekends, in September to get the house completed. Ultimately, September 30 proved to be too ambitious because we needed a buffer of a few days between when the Certificate of Occupancy was issued and when our bank would finalize our mortgage. So we ended up closing on our house on October 7, just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving!

Like any new build, things were not 100% completed upon closing. We had temporary garage doors for a few weeks, some of our exterior doors are still backordered (we have temporary ones for now), we were missing a faucet in the powder room that has since been installed, we had a leak in our kitchen sink that has since been fixed, our pocket doors still don’t close, we are missing cabinet doors, etc. But it is fine because we are home!

Now that the “construction phase” is behind us, we have a whole new set of “pandemic challenges” to deal with, including the fact that none of our appliances were delivered and there is currently no date set for when they will be in stock. For now, we have a loaner fridge and stove, we are hand washing all of our dishes, and relying on friends and family to do laundry every week (there are no laundromats near us)… But it is fine because we are home!

And since being home, we’ve already been able to enjoy our first family celebration! If you were here for my very first construction update post, then you know that we found out that I was pregnant almost immediately after we sold our house and closed on our land. That was the start of our home project and we’ve since come full circle as Luca just celebrated his 1st birthday in his very own home!

While my monthly Construction Updates have come to an end, there is still lots to share! Once we get fully settled in (it’s taking much longer than I anticipated), we will start tackling our long list of DIYs and I’ll be sure to take you along for each one, big and small!

Custom Home – Month 16: Standing Still AGAIN…

The month of August started so strong. Floors were tiled, then hardwood was installed, then the millwork went in and then the countertops!

All of that sounds amazing but what we don’t talk about is the amount of time the house still sat untouched this month. Tile was done in three days; hardwood was another three days; millwork was one day and counters were in within a few hours. After that, nothing.

We expected trades to be working simultaneously on the inside and outside of the house since we have repeatedly communicated to our builder that our landlord is not extending the lease and we need to move out by the end of September. Still, a balcony needs to be built, covered deck needs to be finished, we haven’t chosen our stucco color, we are missing interior and exterior doors, septic has to be delivered and installed, showers need to be tiled, electrical and plumbing need to be connected, and countless other stuff that could have been done in the days that our house sat empty.

Needless to say that with all of the excitement at the things that we do see come together, we are beyond stressed. We’re trying to remain optimistic but the reality of the situation is starting to kick in and we are losing some much needed sleep over it.

I hope to give you a much more positive update next month!!! Until then, here’s a glimpse of our exterior elevation in its current unfinished state – I am beyond in love with our front door pillars!

Friday Home Finds – LD Shoppe

In the past few years, Melissa and Sasha Leclair have become to Ottawa what Shea and Syd McGee are to Utah – an interior design powerhouse team!

I first discovered the husband and wife duo almost ten years ago when Dylan – a former co-worker from my Future Shop days – posted photos of his condo remodel that Leclair Decor had done. Paolo and I had just moved into our first home in 2011 and, in 2012, I told my parents I wanted a consult with Leclair Decor as a birthday gift. [They had no idea what I was talking about but they wrote me a cheque anyway and I immediately had Melissa come by for an in-home consultation]. I have been a devoted follower of Leclair Decor – and then their shop, LD Shoppe – since then! So I figured, since this is my birthday week, it would be fitting that this week’s Friday Home Finds be LD Shoppe!

I’ve been collecting some of my favourite LD items over this past year (and keeping a running list of other decor purchases that I will want from there once we move in to the house!). Below are some of my finds!

1. Gold Candle Snuffer – Lighting a candle is one the easiest ways to create a calming and peaceful room. I have more decor candles than I care to admit and this snuffer is the perfect addition to creating my zen space.

2. Apothecary Large Bottle Matches – Leclair Decor always recommends creating vignettes in “3s”. I think that these matches, along with the above snuffer and one of my pretty candles, will make a great vignette and be LD approved!

3. Riza Vase – The online photo of this one does not do it justice. In person, it’s a dainty (but not cheap) piece and the color is perfect for a neutral color palate.

4. Safa Riser – I don’t know why but 2020 has instilled in me a love for risers! I don’t think you could ever have enough. This one will look perfect on an end table with a candle, beads, and match holder (coincidentally enough, I happen to have gotten all those items to go with my riser from LD Shoppe!).

5. Black Woodfire Tray – This is another piece that will stop you in your tracks when you see it in person. We will not have a wood burning fireplace (nor would I ever use something this pretty near fire!) but this will look great standing upright on one of my many open shelves through our home.

6. Olive Recycled Glass Beads – I love glass beads – sitting on top of books, in a trinket bowl, etc… This one is the nicest shade of green!

7. Sariah Paper Towel Holder – We’ve been using the same (broken!) paper towel holder for the last 10 years. This whole time, I’ve been searching for one that appeals to me, that blends in with my kitchen but that is also a decor piece in and of itself – this one hits the mark!

8. White Alphabet Pillow – This is cutest kid pillow without looking or feeling like a kid pillow! My initial thought was to use this in Theo’s room but now I’m thinking it would even look great in my office!

9. Willen Match Holder & Striker – Another perfect accessory for my candle obsession. The picture makes it look greenish but, in person, it’s just the right tone of grey.

My ideal day consists of grabbing a coffee, turning on some of my favourite tunes and driving across town to visit LD Shoppe. Once in there, I can literally stay for hours and I never walk out empty handed (as you can tell from the above). The shop has items for all price points – their furniture pieces are stunning, they have a wall full of rugs and the prettiest light fixtures on display! You pretty much need to walk the store at least three times at every visit – once to look at everything on the walls, once to stare at the lights on the ceiling and then once to look at all of the decor objects! If you go, keep an eye out for a woman with an oversized blue stroller, coffee in hand and mesmerized eyes looking around [hint hint – that would be me!].

Please note that Casa Cres is not affiliated with this shop; in most cases, the shops featured in my Friday Home Finds are not even aware of their feature prior to posting. The above are purchases I have personally made for my home.

Custom Home: The Mistakes We Already Know We Made

The one aspect of building our home that has brought me both comfort and angst is the fact that I know mistakes will be made; they’re inevitable. My hope, in the end, is that the mistakes that we do make in the construction stage will lead to something even better once completed.

While there are certainly little design aspects that we wish we had planned out differently – such as ensuring that our front doors were centred in our foyer – we are choosing to make the best of the design that we have and not dwell on those little things. However, we already know of two “bigger” mistakes that we’ve made that we would definitely do differently if we were to build another house.

Pay Attention to Window Sizes

The first mistake we made was to not pay close attention to our window sizes. Before building, I would have thought that bigger is better when it comes to windows but, now that we have big windows throughout, I really wish I had been more intentional on window sizes. To be honest, when we approved our initial plans, the window locations were shown but not the specific sizes. We actually didn’t know what our window sizes were until after the plans had been submitted to the City for approval and, at that point, we didn’t want to make any changes out of fear that it would delay the approval and the start of the construction.

Even before we started designing our home, I always wanted a breakfast nook off of the kitchen with built-in seating. We actually carved out additional square footage in our plans to ensure we could have that nook. Unfortunately, the windows that were included in the plans for that space span almost the entire wall from top to bottom; meaning, there’s not enough wall space to build a bench. When I first realized this, I actually felt as though I had been punched in the gut… This was the one aspect of our design that we knew we wanted and I never even thought of checking to make sure the windows were at a proper height/size.

So now we’ve let go of the built-in bench design and will get a nice table and chairs instead. It was an expensive mistake to make (as we probably would not have added the extra square footage if we weren’t going to get a built-in nook) and a lesson that I would stress to anyone who is building – make sure your windows fit your vision for the space!

Discuss Your Plans for Your Unfinished Space

Another mistake we made was not sharing our plans for our unfinished space with our builder from the onset. In my mind, I always knew that we would allocate a portion of our unfinished basement to our future gym and pool room. Paolo and I discussed doing a rough-in for a future bathroom in that space so that, later on when we finished the space, we can add a powder room and avoid having our kids or guests walk across our whole basement space to use the other bathroom.

I didn’t share this plan with our architect at the initial design stage since it was something we intended doing a few years down the road. Well, when we knew our builder was working on plumbing and getting ready to pour the concrete in the basement, we reached out to ask that they add a rough-in for a future powder room. The response was a resounding no…

It turns out that when your house is on a septic system, like ours, the size of the system is determined by factoring, among other things, the number of bathrooms in the house. Once the septic size is chosen, it is included in the initial building permit application. If we really wanted to add the powder room, we would have had to have an engineer recalculate the size of the septic, potentially create new plans and submit a request to the City to amend our permits. All of this would come at a significant cost and delay to us. So what could have been a few hundred dollars for a rough-in, would now cost us a few thousand dollars. Needless to say we will not be adding a bathroom in the gym/pool room.

It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. Never assume you don’t need to discuss your intentions for an unfinished space. There are certain things done at the construction stage that could affect how you could use your space in the future. Another example is to let your builder know if you plan on installing a pool down the road – this may impact the size of your electrical panel, where your septic system is installed, how many trees are cleared during excavation, etc. If you know that you want to add or expand on a space in the future, it is really important to communicate those wishes with your builder from the onset.

I’m sure there will be many other things that we will wish we’d done differently once the house is actually finished and we are living in it but, for now, I feel as though it could have been much worse. The two “big” mistakes we’ve made have just meant that we needed to rethink our intentions for the space but they aren’t going to take away from the enjoyment of the home.

Custom Home – Month 13: Let There Be Light (Sort Of…)

This month started with the installation of all of our electrical wiring. The electricians were amazing to work it – we did a thorough walkthrough before they started and then went to the house every day during the week that they were there to fine tune some of the choices.

Once electrical was complete, we required a building inspection for our framing before we could proceed to insulation and drywall. We were hoping that could all be done this month but it didn’t… There were some issues with our trusses (which is not uncommon), which has delayed our getting our permits and, in turn, delayed the start of drywall.

So… all we have to show in terms of construction advancement for the month of May is this white electrical panel and the yards and yards of wiring running through our framing…

I don’t know why I’m so excited about this but I really like that my electrical panel is white!!!

While the house sat empty for the rest of the month, I used the time to write some of our intentions and prophecies on our framing. I’ve seen this online with other builds and I love the idea of leaving our mark on this house. It’s unlikely that anyone except us will ever see it but I’m still glad to know it’s there.

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Fingers crossed for a much more positive update with Month 14’s review…

Millwork Details to Elevate Your Space

Millwork has definitely been one of the most time consuming parts of our build. In addition to the amount of time spent designing the plans for our millwork, I’ve also spent countless hours agonizing over all of the small details and, still, I am almost certain that once we move in there will be things that I wish we’d done differently. Until then, here are a few of the design details that we’ve included in our millwork plans to elevate the look of our cabinetry.

The Ends of the Cabinets

In our first home, we didn’t add any decorative elements to our millwork. The ends and corners of our cabinets were left flat. With our second home, the majority of the millwork was built-in between walls, so we didn’t have any exposed cabinet ends to consider.

This time around, we have several exposed ends, so I’ve tried to be purposeful in designing those spaces.

In our laundry room, for example, since the end of our cabinet is exposed, we made sure to add some decorative panelling to tie it in to the rest of the millwork. You wouldn’t think to notice the ends of cabinets but when you compare the drawings with and without the finished ends, it’s a no-brainer – decorative panels go a long way to elevate the space.

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  Without panelling

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  With panelling

Pay Attention to the Top and Bottom of your Cabinets

Another added detail that we were conscious to pay close attention to this time around was the top and bottom of our kitchen cabinets.

For example, we have one section in our kitchen where the end of the cabinet is exposed. We decided to add a decorative baseboard to that panel so that it blends in with our kitchen island.

Since we have 12-foot ceilings in the kitchen, we added a 2-foot bulkhead and then 10 feet of cabinetry. In order to make the bulkhead and cabinetry appear seamless (and intentional), we added this modified molding that will close any gaps between our upper cabinets and the bulkhead.

Let Your Counters be the Showpiece

We put a lot of focus on our millwork in the kitchen and laundry room because those were our two largest cabinet spaces where we need our millwork to be functional and, ideally, pretty. In other areas, such as the master ensuite and the Jack & Jill bathroom, we opted to go for a clean and simple cabinet design (no additional detail work) and are making our stone countertops the showpiece of the space.

The boys’ vanities, for example, are just a set of two drawers for each boy (no cabinets); we want the eye to focus on the counters – which will be a 5-inch thick skirted edge – and let the millwork blend into the background.

Custom is Not Always Best

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves when building a custom home to try to have everything created and designed specifically for us. But all of those personalized designs come at cost. There are definitely spaces in our home where we don’t need to invent the wheel. In our guest bathroom, for example, we omitted all custom millwork and purchased a ready-made vanity from Home Depot. We framed the space so that the vanity is snug between two walls and that will help give it the built-in look without the custom-built price.

Store bought vanity from Home Depot Canada

In our case, as in most cases when you’re building a home, millwork was one of the priciest items in terms of “add-ons” for the house. My biggest piece of advice where millwork is concerned is to be intentional, purposeful and resourceful with each space. In addition to the above tips, consider making a wish list of everything you’d like and then work with that to create your space. For example, I knew early on that my wish list items for our pantry and mudroom were too expensive to fit in to budget at this time. Instead of settling for less, we decided to completely omit those spaces from our current millwork plans. We allocated the funds for those spaces towards finishing the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms the way we want them and we’ll tackle the pantry and mudroom down the road. If there’s an area of your house that you really want custom but it’s not currently in the budget, consider not doing it all for now. I’ve often heard that “imperfect action is better than perfect inaction” but I don’t believe that applies when building a home or renovating a space. Personally, I don’t believe in spending money on things I don’t love, so I prefer to do nothing until I am ready to make it my everything.