EPISODE 11: UNDERPINNING OUR BASEMENT - RENOVATING MY VICTORIAN HOME

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Lots of progress has been made sine our last episode including the completion of our navy blue kitchen renovation!

Renovating my Toronto Victorian Home - Episode 11!

What a trip around the sun it has been! This time last year Adam and I were nearing the end of our Toronto home renovations and putting the finishing touches on our Toronto Victorian home. Since then we have moved in, planned our destination wedding, and got married in Tuscany at the beautiful Abbazia di San Galgano Abbey before jetting off on our Croatia honeymoon.

To add a cherry on the figurative cake, Adam and I came back from our honeymoon to find out I was pregnant!

It was a little to early to share our big news with everyone here and on social media, and with Christmas around the corner, we decided to wait to tell our families first before sharing this amazing news with all you.

With that being said, this new discovery motivated us to start preparing for phase 3 (the final phase of our home renovation) - basement underpinning!

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We had to clear the front yard of our house (which included the removal of our beloved smoke bush) to prepare for phase 3 of our renovation, underpinning the basement. Don’t worry, I have plans to bring the smoke bush back!

What is underpinning?

Underpinning a house is when you reinforce or strengthen the foundation’s structure by excavating small, spread-out, portioned-out sections, before filling them back in with concrete. House underpinning can be required for a number of reason like:

  1. When the original foundation is no longer strong enough to hold the house and is in need of serious repair.

  2. If you want to increase the capacity of the existing foundation to support another story.

  3. To dig out the basement so as to lower the basement floor and achieve a higher ceiling height (as in our case).

How much does basement underpinning cost?

The cost of underpinning varies depending on the state of your current foundation walls, the square footage of your basement, how deep you want to go with the underpin/how much you want to lower your basement floor and how much additional work (i.e. waterproofing, installing radiant floors, main drain replacement/lower, additional plumbing rough-ins) is required.

We received a range of quotes for our basement between $55,000 - $80,000 but in generally, it is said that you should budget for $80 a square foot (as an average) to underpin and dig out your basement two feet.

In order to set ourselves up for success the first thing we needed to do was call our Toronto structural engineer Ken Davis. Having previously worked with K H Davis Engineering on the first two phases of our Victorian home renovation, we knew he was the perfect man for the job.

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Our Toronto Structural Engineer Ken Davis doing a site inspection during the underpinning of our basement.

Since 1999 Ken has worked on over 3000 residential projects and has a great reputation for helping homeowners and contractors alike achieve their design and renovation goals. From new builds to additions, laneway home and garden suits, K H Davis Engineering can do it all. He has also worked on many century homes in Toronto, including many Victorian homes like ours, which has provided him with a knowledge base we are always keen to leverage.

A couple site visits and a few measurements later, we were well on our way to finalizing revised plans! In the meantime, we had enough ironed our to start reaching out to contractors that specialize in basement underpinning and waterproofing in Toronto to solicit quotes.


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Our kitchen from Domani Design Group is finally complete after the installation of our range vent cover and under floating shelf lighting!

As we waited for underpinning quotes to trickle in, we were able to turn our attention over to finishing off the kitchen.

Since the last episode of our home renovation series we still had two items to check off before the kitchen was FINALLY finished. The first was get our electrician back in to install the last of the lights, and the second was to install the range vent cover. Thankfully we were able to complete both items with a month to spare before Christmas which meant Adam and I could get familiar with our new stove and practice our menu before hosting our family and friends for Christmas dinner. Having now spent a few months putting it to the test, Adam and I are so happy with our kitchen from Domani Design Group. Not only is it beautiful, but very well made. Every door and cabinet is soft close, I have more storage than I know what to do with, the layout is designed with functionality in mind and we absolutely love how much counter space we have!

Needless to say, celebrating our first Christmas at home was absolutely magical. Adam and I splurged on a 9 foot Fraser Fir and rented tables and chairs for our 20 person Christmas dinner. Not only were we able to show off our newly renovated house for the first time to many of our family members, but we were also able to share our pregnancy news with them, which made the whole season even more enchanting.

Following the holiday season, we received a call from our structural engineer Ken Davis to discuss our architectural drawings for the basement. It was concluded after a soil test that we would need to take a hybrid approach to our basement renovation that would involve underpinning about 75% of our basement and bench footing the remaining 25%. Given the sandy consistency of our basement and the fact that our neighbours house on one side is only 6 inches away (and their basement was slighting shorter than our current basement), there was a concern that underpinning that 25% section could undermine our neighbours foundation wall. To ensure everyone’s safety and the integrity of both houses, going with a hybrid underpinning and bench footing approach was the best option.

What is bench footing?


Unlike underpinning where you have to dig under the foundation wall, a bench footing is another way to support a foundation wall and lower the floor in your basement by creating a ledge or ‘bench’ out of concrete that sits along the existing wall. The downside to a bench footing approach is that it encroaches on your usable space. In our case, we have plans to build storage cabinets over-top of our bench footing as a way to not only hide the bench but make use of the space above it.

In addition to the hybrid underpinning / bench footing approach we also decided to turn one of the existing windows into an egress window. This would allow us to have a safety exit, should we ever need it and although we don’t have plans to rent out the basement or put a permanent bedroom down there, it’s good to have in case of an emergency. Given we are in the midst of doing a big renovation as well, there is probably no better time than now to action installing one.

What is a basement Egress window?

A basement Egress window provides a quick and safe emergency exit for your home, and an unobstructed opening from which someone can escape from. This means that a window, large enough for a human body to fit through (see Egress Window Size specifications based on your municipality code) must be able to open from the inside so that an escape can be made via an Egress window well or clearing in front of the window.

Once we were all in agreement regarding the best course of action, Ken was able to submit our architectural drawings to the city and get us our permit within two week! Remarkable!

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Allow me to introduce our Toronto Basement Underpinning & Waterproofing Contractor - ICYReno! #Partner

Meet our Toronto Basement Underpinning & Waterproofing Contractor

As we waited for our underpinning permit to be approved, Adam and I settled on an underpinning and basement waterproofing contractor in Toronto. Enter ICYReno, a fully insured and licensed waterproofing and underpinning company with over 10 years of experience. Not only have they helped homeowners across the GTA lower their basement floor but they are pros when it comes to interior and exterior waterproofing, back water valve and sump pump installation, drainage systems, concrete work, and more. They also came with an impressive endorsement from our structural engineer who had overseen a few of the basement underpins they had worked on in the past and was impressed by their quality of work. And if that wasn’t enough to seal the deal, their price was also one of the most competitive!

Within a week of receiving our permit, ICYReno began work on our basement. Before they could begin underpinning the foundation, they first had to demo the remaining drywall, stripping back all the layers until it was bare bones. Once complete they divided up the basement into small sections and began excavating and reinforcing each section, pouring new concrete footings before moving on.

Now, two weeks into our Toronto basement renovation it’s clear that ICYReno not only runs a tight ship with well organized bin drop offs and concrete pouring schedules, but their crew is highly trained and hard working. Having completed 50% of the underpin in just two weeks, it’s clear that they need no micro managing and can take care of everything from scheduling site visits with our structural engineer Ken Davis to booking appointments and sharing progress photos with our city inspector. They also sometimes work on Saturday, and given that I’m currently 7 months pregnant and ICYReno promised a 4-6 week timeline for completion, I appreciate their outstanding work ethic! Time is of the essence after all and at this rate they may even be done early! *fingers crossed*


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Meanwhile, I have been gathering inspiration for the basement. Given that we have to move our upstairs office into the basement to make room for our future nursery, we plan to divide the basement up into three major sections, a closed off front office that could double as a spill over bedroom should we need it, a larger open concept recreational room with a wet bar and perhaps a small play area where we can attempt to keep all the kids toys contained, and a conjoined bathroom-laundry room at the back where we can finally install our washer and dryer (which have been sitting in our living room for almost a year now)! YAY!

FUTURE FINISHED BASEMENT INSPIRATION

A few additional things we were able to check off our ‘To Do’ list since the last episode was install some new light fixtures on the main floor, finish off the powder room, make progress on the upstairs hidden linen closet and order new windows for the basement.

Next up on our list of things to tackle: prep the nursery for the baby’s arrival (I have plans to install a feature mural on one wall and paint the other walls), finish the underpinning, rough-in drains for the basement bathroom/laundry room and wet bar, install weeping tile and complete interior basement waterproofing, install radiant floors, dig and landscape for a new basement egress window, pour a new concrete slab floor and install a new basement egress window. Hopefully while this is all happening I can also source some tiles for our future basement bathroom!

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Basement renovation in progress….

Although Adam and I are not putting any pressure on ourselves to finish the basement before the baby arrives, it would be nice to have it as a functional space to work from and do laundry in. As much as I love visiting my parents every weekend to do laundry, it’s only going to get tougher once a newborn is in the picture. Anyways, that is all I have to share with you in this episode and blog post. If you have any questions about renovating a Victorian home, what it’s like to live in Toronto or need recommendations for Toronto contractors, hit me up in the comments below!

Before I sign off, I’d also like to say a big thank you to K H Davis Engineering and ICYReno for partnering with me on this project. I’m so excited to be working with such reputable companies on our Toronto basement renovations but want to reiterate that, like always, all opinions remain my own.

Until next time,
- Soheila



MORE BTS PHOTOS FROM THIS EPISODE


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SPILLING TEA: ALL MY JUICY RENO PLANS & INSPO!

My Romanesque style Toronto Victorian home


It’s been almost six months since we moved into our Toronto Victorian Home and yet waking up and walking from one room to the next still feels so unreal sometimes. The spark we first felt when we initially toured the house is still very much alive and it all just goes to show that our crazy first time home buyer experience was worth the struggles. In the end, we found a beautiful house in a great neighborhood that we have been loving learning more about and exploring.

OUR CREEPY HIDDEN STAIRCASE

Being over 125 years old, our Romanesque style Victorian home does come with its fair share of quirks. For one, we discovered a creepy hidden staircase in a wall while planning out our main floor renovations! We suspect it was closed off to hide plumbing to the second floor bathroom and make room for a new staircase to the basement, but given it features the same high baseboards you see in other parts of the house, the staircase was likely part of the original house.

Additionally, when we bought the house we noticed that the floors sagged. This is a common characteristic of old houses usually equated to their age, but upon further inspection by our structural engineer, we began to suspect that load bearing walls in the basement had been removed by a previous owner at some point. Thankfully the foundation of the building is sound and our renovation plans will address this issue.


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One thing I am 1000% doing is preserving the historical charm of the house as much as possible. Both the entrance way and drawing room feature high baseboards and crown molding centered around exquisite Victorian ceiling medallions. I also love the original ornamental molding that can be found throughout the first floor that embellishes the doorways including the main entrance. Unfortunately, a lot of these decorative molding features have been removed from the second floor, so one thing I’m definitely including on my ‘to do’ list is custom mill work to incorporate it back in.

Speaking of ‘to do list’, the reason why I am sharing today’s post is not only to expand on my pre reno tour, kitchen appliance tips, and share interior design inspiration for my upcoming renovations but it’s also to introduce a new Youtube series I’m going to be filming, documenting our renovation journey! I feel like this house and first floor renovation is going to be an amazing opportunity to share about my love for design and create entertaining content to excite you. There no doubt will be challenges but it’s in those challenges that great stories are made so I hope you will join me on this journey.

Of course, by way of this blog post I also wanted to give you a sneak peak into all the beautiful inspiration I’ve been collecting, what we are planning, and why we called in a structural engineer to help us. SPOILER: it goes beyond sagging floors!


RENOVATING A VICTORIAN HOME

Given our budget after buying the house and the fact that it is currently split into two units, Adam and I decided the best way to approach our top to bottom renovation is to split each floor into phases. This way, we can continue to live in the house during the renovations while still having a working kitchen on the second floor.

As you have probably guessed by now, phase one of this project is going to include a complete first floor renovation. Structural changes to support this, including widening the staircases on both the main and lower floor, will also be taking place as well as reintroducing an entrance way from the front hallway into the drawing room and removing unoriginal walls to create an open concept layout towards the back of the house where you will find a new kitchen, powder room, and bar. The sun-room at the back of the house will eventually be demolished so as to reclaim more of the backyard and a larger door opening will be created to replace it allowing for maximum natural light.

I will be elaborating further about these design choices throughout this blog post as well as providing inspirational images to help you visualize what we are planning. So without further ado, let’s start with diving into each element our renovation plan starting with structural changes.


STRUCTURAL CHANGES

I knew prior to starting our first time home buying journey that I loved Victorian homes so while on our quest we visited many renovated Toronto Victorian homes. A common repeated feature we noticed was an open concept layout on the first floor which, when paired with high ceilings, not only made the house look bigger but grander! Since original walls only seem to exist at the front of our house, Adam and I had no hesitations when deciding to alter the main floor layout by removing walls to make room for a larger kitchen and overall entertaining space. We learned that making these layout changes would require additional steel beams to provide stability and prevent structural issues that could arise later in the other phases of our renovations.

Additionally, since we wanted to demolish the sunroom and reclaim more backyard space we saw this as an opportunity to install a larger opening for a new doorway leading to the backyard. Doing this would require a steal frame to be installed to support the brick wall at the back of the house.

Pre Reno Kitchen and Sun Room - Photo Cred Raffi Tutundijan @jaggedlens

CRITTALL STYLE DOORS

Originally, Adam and I were thinking of doing a large steel Crittall style doors as the back entrance door, however after pricing it out and seeing what the lead times would be to have one made big enough for the opening (it would have to be custom made) we got cold feet.

Living in a cold climate, steel Crittall doors aren’t known for being the most energy efficient door systems since they aren’t great at preventing heat from escaping or blocking the cold from coming in. The Toronto Building Code does have a minimum thermal break requirement for all external doors which is why aluminum doors or fiberglass doors are more common (they offer superior energy efficiency when compared to steel) as well as cheaper. Alas, we are still undecided which way we will go but here’s some inspiration of what we are thinking.


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Further, it wasn’t until we moved in and tried to get furniture to the second floor and basement that we realized how narrow our staircases are! When it comes to staircases, Toronto’s current building code requires staircases in new builds to be a minimum of 36 inch wide. Historically, staircases were never this wide and although our staircase is not original, the opening was never widened by a previous owner. Our staircase comes in at 27 inches making it extremely hard to fit assembled furniture upstairs. For the longest time Adam and I wracked out heads trying to figure out how the previous owners managed to get the kitchen appliances up to the second floor. It wasn’t until we finally measured the width of the doorway to the small front balcony off our master bedroom that we figured out they must have removed the door temporarily and craned them in through the small balcony! Crazy right!? One of the biggest and possibly most pivotal decisions we had to make when putting together our renovation plans was figuring out whether we were going to address our narrow stair issue, how it would impact the structure of the home, and how much widening and replacing both staircases would be.

WOOD STAIRCASE DESIGNS

After finally deciding to move forward with widening the staircases, Adam and I debated whether to go more modern or keep it classic with the new stairs. We both love the look of floating stairs but given how much traditional character the house has, we ended up going for a more traditional design. But I’m sure we will add a modern twist somehow.

Lastly, structural issues in the basement that caused the floors on the main level to sag needed to be addressed before we can lay down a new subfloor and install new floors. To do this it seems that a few new beams will have to go in on the lower level - especially at the front of the house - to ensure the new floors won’t buckle a few years down the road. Installing these new beams will be also help us address the issues on unsupported over-spanned joists that we believe were caused by the removal of a load bearing wall in the basement by a previous owner.

Speaking of floors, I’ve been obsessed with mosaic and herringbone floors for years! Prior to buying a house, I told Adam that I hope whatever we ended up with needed new floors so I would have an built in excuse. During our viewings we saw a few Toronto Victorian's with mosaic and inlaid floors that only continued to fuel my obsession.


CURRENT FLOORING

Currently, the main floor has three different types of flooring going on, one of which does look original. However, it’s only a small section at the back and they aren’t in the greatest shape. If there was more of it and it was in better shape I may reconsider redoing the floors, but in our case this is one ‘out with the old in with the new’ sacrifice I’m willing to make. Traditionally herringbone floors were made of oak and these days you can get them in engineered oak in many different sizes and colours. Narrowing it down to a size was exceptionally hard given the size of the space. Too large and you don’t notice them, but too small and it’s all you notice. It needs to be balanced! In the end we went with a 90 mm natural oak herringbone colour which I am so excited about. It’s going to add warmth back into the space and match beautifully with what we have planned for the kitchen. I can’t wait!

HERRINGBONE FLOOR INSPO

I’ve shared a little bit about the kitchen appliances we ordered a few months back but when it comes to designing my dream kitchen you can bet it won’t be all white! In order to ensure flawless execution for this part of the project, I brought in the big guns, Domani Design Group. Not only does Domani distribute luxury European brands like Pedini but they also specialize in custom cabinetry for both kitchens and bathrooms as well as custom millwork! Just what I needed!

To us, the kitchen is truly the heart of the house and both Adam and I love to cook and entertain. With 10 foot ceilings and an open concept layout, I wanted the kitchen to feel airy but still anchoring, warm and full of natural light. Currently we have two big beautiful windows in our hallway that we plan to position the island between. For cabinetry we are keeping it simple, timeless, and classic but modern with a shaker style kitchen in a dark French navy to match our La Cornue range in the same colour with brass accents. The La Cornue range is going to be the centrepiece so I wanted cabinetry to compliment it, but not compete.

SHAKER STYLE KITCHEN INSPO

A warm porcelain countertop in a Calacatta with brown-gold warms up the space and plays on the natural oak herringbone floors. Floating shelves in a cool natural wood surround a simple and understated range hood which extends all the way to the ceiling to accentuate the height of the room. Bar seating will surround the kitchen island sink. I have even gone so far as to start to think how I will organize the kitchen and have submitted special millwork request to Oscar at Domani including a pull out spice rack and cabinet pull out drawers for my small appliances! I’m so excited!


KITCHEN STORAGE & ORGANIZATION IDEAS


I obviously don’t expect this renovation to go smoothly. I’m actually banking that it’s not so that I have some great stories to come back and share, but I am super excited for all that is to come. I’m also super excited to document and create my Youtube series around it so you guys can get a sense of the process too! If you aren’t following me already make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Instagram for updates on this phase 1 renovation and more design projects I have in mind!


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