Holy Flip, She's Keeping This One!

I just bought a house in Vanier.  Yes, Vanier.  Even if you're not from Ottawa you've probably heard that Vanier is a sketchy part of town - strip clubs, rub & tugs, prostitutes, drugs, crime...and the list goes on.  Well a lot of that may be true - in fact, the house I bought is about six doors down from the strip club but I believe this neighbourhood to be the next to 'turn around' and I suspect house prices will increase here more than other areas of Ottawa in the next five to seven years.  But actually, who cares, the house is the coolest and the neighbours are great!

The neighbours - I haven't met them all but I have met Charlotte.  She is the neighbourhood watch and gardener.  There are 2 (soon to be 3 at Charlotte's request) planter boxes at the end of the street blocking the residential area from the strip club.  Charlotte takes care of those for the City.  She also does her own front garden and apparently my front garden too.  She loves children and warns me if I ever hear yelling that's just her keeping "bad people" off our street.  I've also met Bibette.  She has a Harley that says "Crazy Bitch" on the side of it.  Need I say more?  We'll be great friends!  I've also met "The Jamaican" across the street.  I don't know his name but he saw that I could use a hand the other day with something outside and, without a word, helped me out and then went back to fixing his car in his lane way.  So far I see that people really care about that street.  There are some long time residents that really make an effort to keep the street safe, clean and looking it's best.  I love it more and more everyday.

The house - it's old.  I'm not sure how old but upwards of about 100 years.  There isn't a floor or wall that is level in the place but it's certainly rich with character.  There are little nooks and crannies everywhere to store things, there are several unique closets and best of all, a roof top patio (or soon to be, anyway).

The specs:

-Large eat in kitchen

-Main floor office

-Hardwood throughout main floor

-2 full baths

-Main floor laundry

-4 bedrooms

-Built in book cases

-Window seat in office

-Rooftop patio

-Enough back yard to have a garden

-Very colourful neighbours

The plan:

-Gut the kitchen - all new cabinets, appliances

-Alter 2 of the closets so they are more like "California closets" 

-New tile in main bath/shower

-Refinish hardwood discovered under carpet in bedroom #4

-All new windows

-New roof

-All new landscaping

-Turn roof top solarium into roof top deck

-Major foundation repair

-Pave the laneway

-Paint the entire place

-Add exterior shutters and new roof on front porch

-Fix up some of the plumbing and electrical

The other unique thing about this project is I have help!  My current boyfriend of almost three years - that is almost a record - is a-m-a-z-i-n-g at general renovations.  I can't believe how fast demolition and drywall is going.  We had the entire kitchen out in less than a day and things are ahead of schedule and working out better than expected...so far.

It's amazing how much stuff you can pull out of one house.  We have been to the dump three times so far (3 more trips to come today) and so far each trip has been about 1000 pounds of demolition material.  

Let's start with the kitchen....and don't be deceived by the realtor pictures - those cabinets where shit and note all of the appliances were apartment sized.  Drawers would fall out when you pulled them out, plumbing was leaking, and shelves inside where in rough shape.

Before:

Part way after:

Part way after that:

 

Stay tuned.....