Renovations: 2021 Recap

I feel like it’s been a bit since I talked about the home renovations. I can assure you they are still going strong. Welcome to my recap of the house renovations for 2021!

I wasn’t cooped up at home as much this year thanks to the strong leadership skills of Nova Scotia Premiers, no matter their party colours they’ve been strict but fair and it’s kept us safe and almost “normal”. I still got lots done though.

1. Insulation upstairs and around the foundation.

2. 3 Glorious heat pumps installed (this killed the budget a little)

3. New basement windows.

4. Stairs redesigned and gym finally got real flooring after 2 years of nothing.

5. Airbnb kitchen repainted.

6. Installed a garage door so my “garage” is no longer a glorified shed.

Perhaps the list isn’t as long as 2020 but it’s still drastic improvements to life here. I also enjoyed many lush months of gardening and plan to grow that each year still.

Looking forward to what 2022 brings.

Zero Waste Renovating: Reusing

The previous homeowners clearly had a knack for their own DIY techniques. There are quite a few built in wooden shelving units in this place. Most of them are very much not my style unfortunately so I’m currently in the process of removing them.

I am quite fortunate, a lot of the wood is in fairly good shape and I don’t intend to throw it out! In the interm while doing things in the home- I’m lucky to have a garage/ shed (it was a garage but the previous owners removed the garage door to make it into a man cave… Yeah) I can store these materials in until I have time to transform them into something I’ll love.

I know that most people aren’t as lucky as me and have an abundance of space to collect materials to keep them from a landfill. For those whose space is more limited- remembering to recycle, sell/give away, or enjoy a bonfire with the scraps is crucial to keeping your waste management low.

After living in the home for a month, I had 3 bags of garbage, mostly wallpaper that had been removed, but it was killing me. Before putting in on the curb I did a final garbage scan to see if there was anything useful in these big bags. I realized that the paint cans were an adorable little bucket once the paint had dried in them- I had 2 empties in the garbage, so I grabbed them and now using them as little waste bins for kleenex!