Ta Da!! |Our (Almost) Final Cottage Fireplace ....

We (ok, primarily Warren .. but I helped!) put up the stone on the new fireplace this weekend. A short post to show you the final (almost) result. Our order was a few stones shy of corner pieces, so we have to get 2-3 more of those and finish the top portion. We also still have to put up more porcelain tile on the hearth and fire box.  We're pretty proud of it. Can you see the weathered elm mantle? Looks like it's always been there! I think it makes our whole cottage look cozy! What do you think?

The stone product is a manufactured stone product made by Cultured Stone - the river rock series .. you can find out more about it here: http://www.culturedstone.ca/Products/colors-dressed-fieldstone.aspx

Aside from some (ok, many) body aches and pains, and some basic tiling experience, it's something you can do yourself ... Let us know if you're inspired!

ReNew Field Trip - A Visit to the WoodSource

Aside from two current client projects, our Delmar house project and the water damage repair work to our own home ... we are also in the middle of finishing a significant renovation on our cottage (never a dull moment)!

While our home in the city is contemporary, our little cottage is quite the opposite. It's small and cozy with lovely views of the Ottawa River, where it literally sits in the sand. I like to think of it as a beach house, because that's how it feels. Here it is last Thanksgiving ...




We bought the two bedroom cottage in a very forlorn and unloved state two years ago. But with a few walls knocked down, a cute Ikea kitchen installed and gallons and gallons of white paint, we brought back the charm. Last Fall, we completed a small addition, adding a third bedroom and a new bathroom (with laundry ... squee!) - as a bonus, we even have a few closets! We also replaced the doors and windows, did some electrical work, levelled the cottage's crookedness and winterized with insulation and heating.

With the worst of the interior changes complete, we're now at the "fun stuff" stage - closet shelving, door handles, decorative details like blinds .... and a bit of new furniture. Perhaps our favourite new feature is a working fireplace. This weekend, Warren will be installing the stone on the fireplace wall, as well as a new mantle. Because this will be such a focal point, we wanted something special for the mantle.

So ... we went to The WoodSource in Manotick to find a weathered wood mantle - the perfect accent to the new river rock cladding. We decided on a hand-hewn timber product. According to the WoodSource website - this timber is "salvaged from barns and other structures dating back to the 1800’s, and would have been harvested from the land adjacent to the building site. The timbers are usually square, hand hewn on four sides and commonly include some mortise pockets." You can choose from a wide selection.

After wandering through the stacks of timbers we selected a 62" x 11" x 4" greyish elm - that has all these weathered looking cracks and chips. I think it looks quite beachy!

We could have wandered endlessly, but while we were there I managed to check out their exotic wood and "live edge" selection. Lots of "live edge" products ... you can make counters, mantles and tables from this product....

They also have planks of barnboard,  (think headboards, tables, shelving) We made sliding doors in our city home from the re-claimed wood we found behind our lathe and plaster. Its' age gives it a lovely patina. These are similar. 

To find out more, drop by the WoodSource (  Mitch Owens Drive ) or visit their website: 
http://www.wood-source.com/reclaimed-vintage-wood-products/

Sneak Peek

We've been working away at our 1960's house on Delmar .... bringing our graceful friend up to the modern standard she deserves. Things are looking wonderful. With the snow melted away we are almost tempted to move in there ourselves! The yard is looking simply glorious. The original owner was quite a gardener and there are trees, trees, trees.  It's huge and private and a bike path runs right behind it.

With each day, this house seems to bring with it a number of pleasant surprises. (quite the opposite of the kinds of surprises we usually encounter with many renovations!)

Here is a sneak peek of the kitchen. All will be revealed shortly, but that's a marble mosaic back splash and some lovely honed granite accenting a contemporary look. The new windows bring in the sunshine (now that we finally have some).

The tile has turned out well, too. As always, our expert tiler, Tony, from TB  Tile did  a bang up job. Here's the master bath (check out the soon to be gone robin's egg blue toilet!) Yep, more marble.

The main/kids bath looks great, too. We kept the same cabinet - it was in good shape and was nice and large. But changed the sink, counter and back splash. I like how it's coming together so far.

My favourite tile of all, however is this brown, grey and black polka dot tile. It's a pattern we've used in our kids bathroom, and also in our own home's basement shower. We can't get this style any more. We had JUST enough to do this cool accent ... (I just find polka dots so happy ...) 

Stay tuned. We'll be posting all photos soon. By next week, we'll be getting ready for an Open House to showcase the whole project. Right now, we are run off our feet with last minute details. This is truly my favourite part, though, given how much shopping it involves.

ReNew in Washington

The entire staff of ReNew Homes (yes, that would be just the two of us ....) traveled to Washington DC over the Easter weekend. While there, as always, we poked around the city a bit, getting ideas wandering around neighborhoods  checking out how and where people live.  Sadly, we missed the cherry blossoms :( but the city was lovely all the same. Hope to do a deeper dive next time.

Here, in no particular order, is some good stuff we saw.

We headed to the well-known Georgetown area, where many of the homes date back to  1750's- here's the oldest house in Washington -  smack dab in the middle of the Georgetown shopping and restaurant district. It's been preserved and is worth a peek. Surprising to see the same type of stone foundation in many homes in the Glebe.

Georgetown University itself is quite beautiful - Gothic and huge. Near the school are houses like this .. .a virtual rainbow of what I imagine might even be student housing ....

A little fancier and equally bright homes - very "federal" in style. And further afoot some downright regal looking. Georgetown is an elegant area.

We also saw this upscale bathroom showcase called Waterworks in Georgetown (there are several locations across the US). The showroom experience is spectacular  I could have spent hours at the tile wall alone. The light in there was magnificent, and so were the samples. Check it out:

Here's a closer look at some of the marble selections.

We saw this cool shower, which would work in a traditional style bathroom, with a seamless tile shower floor. So unique.

We also spent some time wandering around Baker furniture - a company whose ads I have always admired. It was a wonderful store - although I quickly found all that neutral "greige" a bit tiresome. The furniture itself is lovely, and so well made. I can see how you would invest in a classic piece or two and want it neutral so you could keep it forever.

We loved Washington. With a good friend living there, I hope to return and do a deeper dive into some of the neighborhoods and architecture. I haven't even covered the cool buildings, monuments and museums we came across - many in my favorite mid-century era .... We'll be back, Washington!

Lessons from a Scupper

We're renovators. We've owned seven homes and (two cottages). We've seen stuff happen with houses of all shapes and sizes. We  KNOW stuff. Warren, especially, knows all kinds of stuff about homes and the behind the scenes mechanics that make them work - heating, cooling, foundations, insulation, eavestroughs, flashing, and air flow.

However, we've had an experience with our own home over the past few weeks that show how - even when you think you know what you are doing - repairs can emerge and knock you on your a#s! We didn't see this one coming!

Here's what happened to us. We moved into our renovated home last December when we enjoyed a mild winter, with little snow and an early Spring. No real issues in terms of snow, ice management. All was well.

This year is another story. We had plenty of snow in Ottawa - and ice - and more snow. Throw a few periods of melting and you've got a bit of a mess for a flat roof like ours. Long story short we had some ice dams, and then we had some leaks from run off from flat roof. Where our eavestrough met our roof - there was a gap not easily seen by our roofers (or us!). When we had an ice dam, the melted snow/water found it's way into a minuscule gap behind our siding and into our East wall ... all the way down to the basement! You can see bit of the exterior trail here.

You can see the thing called a "scupper" here. It is supposed take the water off the roof (with flat roofs you need an extra scupper, on top of an eavestrough ..) In case you don't know what a scupper is ... Many of our clients have or are entertaining the idea of flat roofs. They have a cool look we love, but our climate is not always friendly to these types of roofs. You just need a good roofer to tell you how to deal with them. (Thanks Todd Fenton from THF Roofing from  for fixing ours!)

We had so much snow that we couldn't even see this small gap up on the roof  - and had to shovel it all out of the way to see our way to repair things. Meanwhile, during our March break trip to Mexico ..... the water came in and found it's way into our basement ceiling, floor and presumably, our walls ....As Warren says, water always finds the path of least resistance.

Luckily for us there's insurance! My Mom, who is staying in our downstairs guest suite while she waits for her new condo to be built ... is now  a displaced person. She'll be spending some time in a hotel while we rip apart her suite - new drywall, new flooring, new insulation. She's moving out - along with a good deal of her worldly possessions. Sorry, Mom.

Meanwhile, as a family that has (ahem) moved a few times .... here is a funny one that could have been posted by someone we know (not mentioning any names ..).

Delmar Progress - It's All About the Kitchen

We closed on Feb. 4th ... and have been busy ever since. With no time to waste, we started where we always start - the kitchen and with the help of our trust kitchen designer extraordinaire - Tanner Vine of 2Go Kitchens. (Check out their work at www.2gokitchens.ca) A project like this is fun because there is no actual "client" but rather an imaginary compilation of who we think will move in one day. As you might expect, this is a mixed blessing. It's hard to be interesting and neutral at the same time. But Tanner delivered as he always does. Not that there was anything wrong with the "before" ...

We've all seen those upper cabinet dividers before, non? Well, say "bye bye". The new kitchen is actually oriented completely differently. We're running the cabinet's along the window wall, with a galley-style facing island. We're also substantially opening up the wall between and dining room and the kitchen. Last week, we had some help from our son, Quinn (he's 8) who loves to tear things down!

We're in "Ottawa at Home" magazine!

My dream job growing up was probably to work on a home and design magazine (now it's to be a travel writer!). My life took a different path but the next best thing to writing for a design magazine is to be featured in a design magazine. We've actually been featured in a few design/decor media and it's pretty exciting!

Ottawa at Home is a wonderful local Ottawa publication - always packed with fabulous homes and food. Warren to see if they could include us in their newest issue. Take a look .... (Warren is now a media darling ...) Let us know what you think!

ReNew Homes in "Ottawa at Home" magazine  - See Page 12!

Endless Winter - Trials and Tribulations

It's been a long winter. A  looonnnggggg winter.  I am rather grumpy about it by this point - and I'm originally a Prairie girl, used to MUCH colder winters than Eastern Ontario brings. This one's just been so ... varied. Cold, then snow, then icy melts, than more cold - then throw in some wind. We are shoveling endlessly (well, that's the royal "we") .. it just seems more tiresome than usual this year. Here is what our street looks like ..

But for homeowners, winter can be a more serious issue than something to complain about. Winter in Canada means snow, and snow melts, which means water. (Same applies to ice). And water - always - means big trouble for our homes. Water damage can be deadly (and costly!). Over the past few weeks, we've had to deal with a few issues relating to cold and water. We had frozen pipes at our Arlington Woods project - causing us to rip open a ceiling that was almost ready for paint and final touches. This is so irritating for homeowners. They get so close ... and then need to take a few steps backwards. All was well within a few days .... Luckily, we had a worker on site over the weekend who noticed the leak, so we were able to help the homeowners with it quickly. Far worse damage could have been done if it had gone unnoticed!
It's hard to know - especially in older homes with questionable insulation - what might freeze in desperately cold weather, but often a reno is a great opportunity to figure this out! At our Delmar Street project, we actually turn off the main water source each night when it's cold. Just to be sure.

At our own house, the fun continues as we struggle with our flat roof. Warren spends an inordinate amount of time on our roof - shoveling.  We think (but can't be sure because it's too icy up there!) that

When we had a warm spell a few weeks back - as lovely as it was - we had leaks in our walls. Warren did some investigation by flashlight and has identified (we think) the problem. Melted snow is making its way behind our siding somehow - we can't see the flashing due to snow build up - but think there is a crack or hold somewhere. The water is finding its way through whatever channels it can find and coming into our drywall. It's bizarre where it ends up. Hopefully Spring will solve this mystery once and for all and we can make repairs and avoid this for next year.

We also had some ice dams ... indicating our roof needs better ventilation. This is our first real cold winter in this house. Last winter we had just moved in, and it never really got cold. We weren't able to test our attic insulation and ventilation. We now have some work ahead to make some improvements. This just goes to show that even long after a renovation - there are new discoveries about how a home ticks. Even for professional renovators - our homes always have these little surprises!

And to end on a upside .. here is a much prettier shot of winter skating on the canal in Ottawa - just a few steps away from our roof problems!

Announcing ... A New Project

Warren and I have always been suckers for real estate. From our earliest days as a couple we never came across an Open House we didn't wander into. This has led to some cool projects ... and lots of moving. The trouble with us ... is that we can always see so darn much potential!  Potential, potential everywhere. Some houses, from the moment you walk into them ...just speak to us. They tell us they are tired and need some lovin' .... They tell us they want to be beautiful and hold a family again.

It's happened again. The client work we have underway in in various stages of almost finished. It's time to start thinking about a new project. (We had our eye on a great house in our neighbourhood that seriously needs some lovin' - but for some strange reason we can't aquire it. The current owner keeps disappearing on us. After several frustrating months of back and forth - and radio silence (even his lawyer can't find him). We've given up.) The project would have been great - but a home renovation business waits for no man. Onward we go.

So, we've been poking around, viewing some properties, trying to see if we can find something with potential. And finally ....

Welcome to Delmar Street! Our newest project involves making her beautiful and functional - so a new family can love her. Love her mature trees, gracious layout, and sunny spaces. She's from the late 60's - when they built 'em well. She is in a great neighbourhood, with walkable streets and lots of green. When you walk in this house - it just feels good. Stay tuned for the plan.

And ... we're blogging!

Welcome to our ReNew Report - our ReNew Homes blog!

Stuff happens during the course of our Ottawa home renovation business day.  Every day is different. Every day is a challenge. We often don't know what most days will bring and what problems we will solve.

But, it seems, there is always a story ....

We thought capturing these stories would be a cool way to share all those neat home renvoation do's and don'ts, tips and tricks, ups and downs and overall learning that comes from working in such a dynamic business.

We have a diverse array of projects - an interesting cast of clients and a whole range of industry experts to draw from.

We won't name our clients (unless they'd like us to) - but will use our own names, those of our team and we'll definitely point our readers to our valuable suppliers and tradespeople.

Enjoy our blog! Leave us your comments and questions.