Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Top Reasons to Renovate Your Rooms

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Renovating a room in the home can be a lot of fun, and it can be an exciting opportunity to try something new in your home and extend the functionality of your property as well as increase the ‘wow’ factor for guests. However at the same time, it is also very important to make sure that you are in a position to be able to renovate your home, and there are many considerations to take into account such as cost, time and stress.

If you are on the fence and currently deciding whether or not you should renovate, then you might find that you’re in need of a little more encouragement before you bite the bullet and go ahead. Here then are some very good reasons to renovate that might just help convince you to go ahead.

It’s an Investment

Adding or redesigning a room for your home might be a very expensive process and one that needs some up front capital, but it is also one that will pay for itself in the long run. This is because any property that someone buys will normally be purchased as both a place to live and an investment. By improving your home you increase the resale value of your property because less work will need to be done on it, and because it will appeal to a wider audience. Something like a new stone flooring in the kitchen will last a lot longer than carpet and this will make it an investment and a better buy for the next owner. That and it will look nicer and be easier to look after meaning it’s a more tempting prospect for people who just want to live there and meaning they’ll probably be willing to spend more to live there.

Many People Will Benefit

When you renovate your home this will often affect more people than just yourself. If you are adding or improving a room and you live with your family, then this is something that the whole family will be able to enjoy, and if you’re doing something that will be visible externally then this might even be able to help brighten up the neighbourhood and improve the view for your neighbours. If you won’t do it for you… do it for them?

It Will Have to be Done Eventually

We live our every day lives in our homes of course and this means they will invariably go through a lot of wear and tear as we eat, drink and wash there and as we play with the kids in the living room. In other words then, properties deteriorate, and if you don’t do the renovations now, then you’re going to have to do them eventually. Why not get it out of the way and enjoy your home more for longer as a result?

It’s Fun

The fact that you’re reading this article at all and have gotten this far means that really you’re just looking for affirmation that you should be renovating. When you do improve your home you’ll find yourself living somewhere that’s got more space, that looks more modern and that will make a better impression on guests when they come round, and it will change the whole way you live your life on a day to day basis. Sometimes you’ve just got to treat yourself…

The article is written by Joseph Colin who is home decor blogger and renowed interior designer.





My Living Room and Dining Room Renovation is coming along

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I can’t wait until our living room and dining room renovations are finished. It’s very slow going.

It seems like every time we get on a roll we find something that sets us back a day or two. For example, today we were starting to put the quarter round on and noticed that in one area the floor must not have been sanded properly when we originally sanded it after taking off the original baseboards and quarter round so the wood floor was raised higher in one area and lower in another. So that resulted in a couple hours of sanding. Now we’ll have to do some staining and polyurethaning before we can resume our work.

At this rate it’s going to be a few more weeks before we have everything done, but I can almost see the finished product. Well I think I’ve had the finished room in my head for years I’ve just been waiting to see it for a long time.

When everything is finished I’m going to rearrange the furniture. I’d also like to either replace the tv stand – which is really nice, but very heavy to move when cleaning, or look at tv mounting brackets and maybe just have the TV mounted on the wall instead of on a stand. I don’t know, I’ll have to see.

My dog still uses her crate and that’s a big eye sore in the living room too. I’d love to either move that to another room or pack it up for storage … but she really likes sleeping in it. I don’t know. I guess that’s another thing I’ll have to think about once the living room dining room renovation is finished.

I’m just happy that the reno is almost done. Yeahhhhhh!

Time to do some renovations!

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I think we’re going to start working on our living room renovations again this weekend. We were going strong on the reno for about two weeks but in the last week or so we haven’t done any reno work at all. We’ve been busy with other matters.

This weekend we’ll be putting in the baseboards and doing other molding work. Chris wants to rent a nail gun and compressor so that we can get the work done faster so I’m looking up places that we can rent from. So far I’m trying to decide between places like Home Depot and an industrial supply rental company. I guess we’ll just see which store has the equipment we need in the morning and go from there.

Something tells me it’s going to be a busy weekend!

Preparing for House Guests

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I’m trying to get ready to have house guests again for a couple of days. My brother-in-law and nephew should be here sometime tomorrow and I think they’re staying until at least Tuesday, maybe longer.

The main purpose of the visit is to help with some renovations of our living room and dining room but of course it’s always nice to see family. They were away this weekend because my nephew was trying out for an OHL hockey team – hopefully he made the team. They’ll have to drive back to Chicago, which is where they’re from later this week.

My brother-in-law is a cigar smoker while an occasional cigar smoker. Mostly he smokes cigarettes. I think his latest brand of cigars is Rocky Patel which is one I’ve never heard of before but I guess he he brought it over from the US. Since this is now a non-smoking house he has to go outside and smoke. So far he doesn’t seem to mind that rule. I just hope it’s not pouring rain tomorrow like it has been today otherwise he may not like that very much.

Well, I suppose I should try to relax as the next few days will be quite hectic since we will have visitors and we will be doing renovations. I also have an appointment for another test on my hand. This time it’s a bone scan still trying to figure out what’s wrong with my hand. It’s a little better than it was but it still has a long way to go it seems.

Renovations continue

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My living room and dining room is starting to look a little bit different thanks to all the work that was done last week. The renovations are no where near complete, but finally, for the first time in literally years, I can see that the room will be finished within weeks.

My brother in law, who came with his son, from Chicago to help us with our renovations had to leave for the weekend, but he’ll be back and we’ll be doing more work next week.

My brother in law and nephew were actually here because my nephew is about to join a Brockville OHL hockey team. He’s an extremely good hockey player and we – and the team owners – think he has a good chance of getting into the NHL .. so being on this team is hopefully the beginning of his professional hockey career. He’s a smart kid though – whether he’s on a hockey team or not he has education goals. He wants to be a doctor and he’s intelligent enough to become one.

I don’t know when my nephew is supposed to officially start with the Brockville hockey team if he joins them, but I know my brother in law and nephew will be back here next week for a few days and then they have to get back to Chicago. I think my brother in law has to drive his daughter to NC for a raleigh nc accounting interview. She’s going to be moving I believe or she’s thinking about it.

I’m in a for a few busy days so I guess I’d better relax while I can. Last week was pretty hectic!

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