EPISODE 4: HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! - RENOVATING MY TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME

Preparing to demo the middle half of the 2nd floor

RENOVATING MY TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME - EPISODE 4!

Following the completion of the work we did in the back half of the house, Adam and I were definitely riding an emotional high. We knew that even a seasoned contractor would have found the task we had decided to take on to be challenging and the fact that we figured it out ourselves only fuelled our fire to keep going. There was plenty of work still to be done but nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.

Proceeding to lay down a new sub floor on the back half of the second floor, Adam and I still had to demo the walls, ceiling and floors in the middle half of the second floor. Originally we had only planned to widen the staircase in this area but now that we had pulled the second floor into Phase 1 of our renovation, this area would occupy our new hallway that runs along side the stairs as well as our new master bathroom. In order to prepare for framing the new second floor layout though, we would first need to finish demoing this area.

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BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTO’S FROM OUR SECOND FLOOR DEMO!

Chaotic doesn’t even begin to describe how this next task went. Adam and I waded through rubble of lath and plaster, drywall, steel mesh and insulation for hours. The room was so thick with dust we could barely see more then 10 feet in front of us. Thankfully we were prepared with protective Tyvek suits, commercial grade respirators, and lots and lots of garbage bags. In order to avoid the dust from going to other parts of the house we had barricaded ourselves in by first covering the staircase opening with plastic before laying down planks of wood across it and covering it with plywood. There was no way in or out, and Adam and I had to keep going until all the work was done. Six hours, 80 garbage bags, and what felt like 10 pounds of sweat later, we were done. Despite wearing protective gear my legs were black and my face looked like I had a charcoal mask on. We were filthy and completely depleted!

Soheila hakimi - renovating a victorian home

What we didn’t anticipate to find was that the ceiling joists in this section of the house actually run the opposite way as the joists in the rest of the house. This came as a complete shock to us and totally added an unexpected challenge. Unsure of how this would change our plans to frame out a new layout, we knew we would have to have our residential structural engineer to come back in and take stock of our new findings.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

Since the very beginning, our structural engineer Ken Davis of K.H. Davis Engineering Consultants LTD has been nothing but amazing. Not only does he have great credentials and has worked on numerous Toronto century homes before, but he has been tremendously helpful with answering all our questions. Whenever a problem has arose during our home renovation that has caused concerns or a need to pivot, he’s been the first one we call and has always found a solution that works for our budget. If you’re even thinking about removing a load barring wall in your house, trust me when I say you’ll want someone like Ken on your team.

As we awaited news from Ken, we still had a lot of work to do. We still needed to finish widening the staircase and level the floors in the middle section of the second floor and we still needed to finish framing the first floor including build bulkheads for our incoming kitchen cabinets. Compared to the joist work we had previously done these tasks were a piece of cake and I actually quite enjoyed learning how to properly frame out a house.

HARDWOOD FLOORING IN TORONTO

Chestnut Flooring Showroom is located at 8601 Jane St, Concord, ON L4K 5N9 Tel: (905) 761-6655

Although our Toronto Victorian home renovation did see yet another unexpected delay, it also gave us time to go shopping for additional flooring for the second floor. Prior to starting our home renovation and my new home renovation series on YouTube, Adam and I talked extensively about what our dream house would look like. One design feature that I was obsessed with incorporating into our renovation was herringbone floors throughout the main floor. Only once we started to visit showrooms and look for a good suppliers did we stumble upon Chestnut Flooring in Vaughan.

Chestnut Flooring is a family-owned, full service, one-stop-shop for all your flooring needs. They offer a wide range of flooring products including hardwood, engineered, laminate, carpet, vinyl and even tile from both well-known domestic and international brands.

Since Adam and I were very happy with the white oak herringbone floors we previously bought from Chestnut Flooring a few months earlier, it was a no brainier for us to pay their showroom another visit now that we needed floors for the second floor. Within an hour we were in and out of the showroom, having found numerous suitable option and given the helpful advice we had received from the co-owner Sherry. I have never been one to make a design decision quickly and even shocked myself with how fast I was able to make a decision. I guess when you know, you know, and being in good hands with a great supplier gave me the comfort I needed to not have to think twice.

Chestnut Flooring has a wide selection of hardwood flooring, engineered flooring, laminate, carpet, vinyl and even tile from both well-known domestic and international brands.

UPDATES ON MY CAST IRON RADIATORS

Following the pickup of our cast iron Victorian radiators for refurbishment, I heard from Ironworks Radiators Inc that one of our radiators did not pass its pressure test. Unfortunately, the ornate Victorian column radiator that we had found hiding behind a clunky rad cover on the main floor was missing a leg and where that leg used to be, was a tiny hole. In order to repair the radiator they would have had to saw it into three pieces, remove that cast iron column where the hole was and solder the remaining two pieces back together. Although Ironworks has successfully done this repair before, there was no guarantee it would work for our Victorian radiators so Adam and I decided that the safest approach to this problem would be to buy an additional vintage cast iron radiator from Ironworks Radiators Inc stockyard.

Ironworks Radiators Inc Stockyard - Located at 367 Bering Ave Etobicoke, ON M8Z 3B1 - By Appointment Only!

Located on the boarder of Toronto and Etobicoke, Ironwork’s stockyard is full of vintage radiators waiting to be refurbished! The owner of Ironworks Jennifer, has been collecting radiators for years often going into old homes and removing all the ornate radiators before they are demolished. She’s always adding new and unique finds and her inventory is always changing which makes each visit fun to her stockyard a fun little treasure hunt. Once there, not only was I able to quickly make a decision about which vintage Victorian radiators I wanted to purchase for refurbishment, but I also got to see a model of the two new Castrad radiators I was planning to purchase for under the twin kitchen windows. I would also come to realize later how helpful browsing her showroom and shop was when it came time to selecting custom colours for all the cast iron radiators I was purchasing! A decision I struggled with for weeks!!

PHOTO’S FROM MY VISIT TO THE IRONWORKS STOCKYARD

Well there you have it, our renovation continues to move ahead now that we have heard back from Ken regarding the second floor. Turns out we will need to do some additional structural work to the second floor, but it’s nothing that Adam, his dad and I can’t handle ourselves. Stay tuned for more on this in the next episode!

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Home sweet Home! My smoke bush out front has grown out of control over the summer! I am looking forward to doing more landscaping and gardening next year!

If you don’t want to wait for the next episode to catch a glimpse of what is happening behind the scenes you can always follow me on Instagram where I share up-to-date stories of my interior design and renovation progress!

Thank you so much for joining me today and for checking out my new Toronto home renovation series on Youtube. I am super excited to be modernizing a Victorian home while still keeping the charm of an old Victorian house. If you have any questions about my Victorian house renovations, what it’s like to live in Little Portugal, Toronto or 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 Chestnut Flooring and Ironworks Radiator Inc for partnering with us on this project. I’m so excited to be working with local industry experts on our Toronto home renovations but want to reiterate that, like always, all opinions remain my own.

Until next time,

- Soheila

A shot of the Toronto city skyline in the fall of 2022

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EPISODE 3: SWEAT EQUITY - RENOVATING MY TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME

Renovating my Toronto Victorian Home - 2nd floor demo selfie

RENOVATING MY TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME - EPISODE 3!

When Adam and I first started talking about renovating our Toronto Victorian home, we knew we had to split it up into two phases. Phase 1 would focus on fixing the structural issues and redoing the entire main floor, while Phase 2 would focus on re-configuring the layout of the second floor and enlarging the third floor by replacing the back half of the roof with a new dormer.

What we didn’t anticipate, was how bad the condition of the main floor ceiling joists were in the back half of the house. Half didn’t span the entire width of the room, big chunks were cut out of them, and many were being held together by other, smaller, pieces of wood. We were Shoooketh!

Many of the ceiling joist on the main floor did not span the full width of the house!

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Originally, we thought all we would have to do was sister each ceiling joist (to sister a joist you add an extra identical joist to the existing over-spanned, damaged or inadequate joist, and tie the two together with glue and screws (or nails) to add structural support – sounds super easy, right!?), but after the demo was completed and structural work commenced, it became obvious that there was way more work to do! For one thing, 80% of the ceiling joists needed to be replaced. In order to do that, we would need to demo whatever was above. And yes, I’m talking about the second floor!

our 2nd floor ktichen before our renovation

We had not anticipated needing to renovate the 2nd floor kitchen (above) or the 2nd floor bathroom (below)

At that time, that area of the second floor was occupied by our second floor kitchen, my little back office, and a small bathroom with a stand-up tub shower. If I’m being honest, I didn’t love the quality of the cabinetry and the ‘master bath’ left much to be desired, but we were willing to wait. True, we had no real bedrooms but we had our master and two small twin rooms on the third floor that were being used as his and her closets. The house definitely needed more bedrooms and a bathroom worthy enough to be considered a master, but still, we had a plan, two phases.

p.s. I had not taken any photos of the second floor prior to the demo, so this was all I could find. The kitchen photo is from our viewing, prior to buying the house!

I guess this is the part where I should tell you that we not only did we end up pulling the second floor into the first phase of our Toronto home renovation but we decided to do it ourselves! In episode 3 of my home renovation series I share the last two months of sweat equity Adam, his dad, and myself poured into fixing our Toronto Victorian home. In this episode, we tackle the demolition of the second floor, how we replaced each ceiling joist one by one, us installing a new levelled subfloor as well as everything that happened behind the scenes! The crucial question is, will our work pass inspection? Find out in Episode 3: Sweat Equity! Haha!

Adam and I are ready to start replacing ceiling joists!

PHOTO’S FROM OUR SECOND FLOOR DEMO!

While Adam and I were busy working on the house, a few things did happen behind the scene. For one, our appliances finally showed up along with our new natural oak herringbone floors from Chestnut Flooring.

Chestnut Flooring - Herringbone flooring companies in Toronto

Our order from Chestnut Flooring arrived! We ordered some beautiful natural oak herringbone floors for the main floor!

If anyone is in the market for flooring, I highly recommend visiting Chestnut Flooring’s showroom in Vaughan. They are a family-owned, full service (that’s right, they don’t just sell you the flooring, they will help you install it too!), one stop shop for all your flooring needs. They offer a wide range of flooring products including hardwood, engineered, laminate, carpet, vinyl and even tile from both well-known domestic and international brands.

When Adam and I first began to look for herringbone floors we visited numerous showrooms but none stood up to the quality and variety that Chestnut Flooring provided. Their engineered herringbone flooring was superior in both top layer thickness and durability which meant down the road, if we ever wanted to re-sand and re-finish the floors we could do it without issue. Of course they also offer solid hardwood floors however, given our Canadian climate, engineered hardwood flooring is better suited for herringbone oak floors. Since the core of engineered hardwood consists of 5 to 7 layers of plywood pressed together in a crisscrossed pattern, it is its construction that makes engineered hardwood flooring less likely to shift, expand or contract when exposed to environmental changes in temperature, moisture and humidity (and when it comes to specialty floors like herringbone and chevron you don’t want movement). Further, our installer who had worked with numerous types of flooring from numerous flooring companies in Toronto, independently suggested we visit their showroom and commented on how he preferred the quality of Chestnut’s flooring products over others he has worked with. So really, that sealed the deal for us! Of course, now that we are redoing the second floor we will be revisiting the Chestnut Flooring showroom to order additional flooring. Stay tuned for our selection!

OUR TORONTO HOME RENOVATIONS - BTS PHOTOS OF US REPLACING JOISTS BETWEEN THE MAIN AND SECOND FLOOR.

Additionally, Adam and I also pulled the trigger on getting two of our column radiators refurbished! Prior to the demo of the main floor, we discovered a beautiful ornate Victorian radiator in the main floor bedroom. It had been hidden behind a clunky rad cover, had not been maintained and desperately needed to be refurbished, but it was beautiful and I was ecstatic about its discovery!

Victorian Radiator repair - Ironworks pickup

Ironworks Radiator Inc picking up my Victorian radiator for refurbishment

Of course, since we were doing such a big renovation, the possibility of switching from cast iron radiators to forced air was an option but after learning more about the pros and cons of other types of central heating systems (particularly a forced air system) – like how they can collect dust and cause allergies, how the duct systems require regular cleaning, and that the furnace system serviced – central heating radiators just seemed like less yearly maintenance. Further, cast iron radiators are spectacular in moist climates such as Canada where we get tons of snow in the winter and rain in the spring. They are known for keeping basements bone dry during these months not to mention don’t require additional bulkheads like a forced air system. Lastly, they can be a beautiful showpiece (like a piece of jewellery for your home!) when refurbished and considering I am trying so hard to keep the charm of my Toronto Victorian home intact, it was an obvious choice.

In order to pass Toronto building code we would have to meet a certain BTU output, so enlisting the help of a heating experts at Ironworks Radiators Inc felt like the ideal next step.

CAST IRON RADIATOR REFERBISHMENT & REPAIR

Based in Toronto, Ironworks Radiator Inc. offers a multitude of services including consultation, radiator resizing, refurbishment (which includes custom repainting), is a supplier of radiator parts and accessories (including super fancy radiator bleeder keys), and offers pickup and delivery services. They also have a huge stockyard of rare vintage radiators to choose from and are licensed distributor for various new steel and cast iron radiator from international industry leading brands like Castrad.

Discovering Ironworks has been immensely beneficial for us. Not only were we interested in getting two column radiators refurbished, but we were in the market for an additional vintage radiators and two new custom modern radiators for under the twin windows in the kitchen. Jennifer at Ironworks was an invaluable help, organizing the pickup of our cast iron radiators for refurbishment (a rare service that many moving companies including piano moving companies won’t attempt because of how heavy they are!) and recommending new and vintage cast iron radiators to meet our BTU requirement, aesthetic and new main floor layout. She didn’t just recommend product though, she also provided a personalized consultation explaining the best course of action for the main floor given what we currently had to work with in other areas of the house. She really took the time to explain things to me as well, which I very much appreciated because I had a lot of questions! Central heating was a whole new world to me and I was on a mission to drill down and get all of the details. Our consultation of course ended with an invitation to come check out her stockyard. Inventory changes frequently in the Ironworks stockyard so who knows what rare Victorian radiator I will find when I go! I can tell you one thing for certain though, this is one treasure hunt I could not be more excited for! Stay tuned for more on this in the next episode!

If you don’t want to wait for the next episode to catch a glimpse of what is happening behind the scenes you can always follow me on Instagram where I share up-todate stories of my interior design and renovation progress!

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PHOTOS AFTER SISTERING AND REPLACING THE CEILING JOISTS IN OUR TORONTO VICTORIAN HOUSE

Thank you so much for joining me today and for checking out my new Toronto home renovation series on Youtube. I am super excited to be modernizing a Victorian home while still keeping the charm of an old Victorian house. If you have any questions about my Victorian house renovations, what it’s like to live in Little Portugal, Toronto or 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 Chestnut Flooring and Ironworks Radiator Inc for partnering with us on this project. I’m so excited to be working with local industry experts on our Toronto home renovations but want to reiterate that, like always, all opinions remain my own.

Until next time,

- Soheila

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EPISODE 2: INDESTRUCTIBLE - RENOVATING MY TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME

Toronto Victorian Ceiling Medallion

TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME RENOVATIONS

Prior to starting renovations on my Toronto Victorian home, I knew that we were going to need to do some structural work.

When we bought the house it was split into two units and there was a big bedroom located in the middle of the main floor. In order to change the layout, we were going to need to remove a load bearing wall which meant finding a structural engineer and structural contractor in Toronto.

Additionally, the staircase was original and very narrow. Its condition was worse for wear and you could clearly see it was starting to tilt to one side. Eventually, it was going to need to be replaced and if we ever wanted to get a king mattress up the stairs, increasing the size was a must.

Lastly, Adam and I also noticed that there was some serious sagging in the floors. We suspected a load bearing wall was removed in the basement and if I ever hoped to install herringbone floors, this would need to be fixed as well.

Structural work is no joke though. In Toronto, you are legally required to get a permit and getting over this hurdle meant finding a seasoned structural engineer who has had plenty of experience dealing with issues like ours as well as a structural contractor that was capable of removing walls and installing both LVLs and steel beams.

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TORONTO HOME RENOVATIONS - MODERNIZING A VICTORIAN HOME

In episode two of my new home renovation series we launch right into structural work! In total we spent over a month focusing on improving the structural elements of the house including installing structural beams, sistering joists, levelling floors, adding several new footings and steel posts in the basement and installing two massive steel moment frames that pretty much make our house indestructible!

If this is your first time tuning into my new home renovation series, make sure to check out my previous episode ‘Sledgehammer Therapy’ and keep up with upcoming episodes by subscribing to my YouTube channel!

TORONTO CONTRACTORS

Our search for a good structural engineer and structural contractor in Toronto wasn’t easy. Adam and I reached out to a handful while putting together our budget for this reno and definitely ran into a few characters along the way. Finding someone ‘word of mouth’ proved challenging, especially since a lot of people we knew hadn’t taken on a renovation of this magnitude before. Since Adam and I weren’t interested in bringing on a general contractor we instead researched potential companies, looked at their reviews/references, spoke with the owners, made sure they were licensed and insured, and scheduled site visits. Even after all that, making a decision was hard and given the gravity of the ask and the money it would require, it was imperative we make the right one.

K.H. Davis Engineering Consultants LTD has a great reputation in Toronto. During our search for construction trades, Ken Davis’s name popped up a few times. A couple of them had worked with his plans before and mentioned how thorough they were. One also mentioned how responsive he was when a question arose because it saved him from delaying his project. After meeting Ken Davis himself during a site visit, we knew he was the guy we wanted to work with. He was incredibly knowledgeable, had worked on Toronto century homes before and was familiar with how they were generally constructed. He also assured us that he could address all our issues and was happy to apply for the permit and deal with the city on our behalf. When we finally pulled the trigger and started to work with him he scheduled a meeting with us to walk us through every aspect of the plans. It was clear during this meeting that he was not only taking into account what we wanted to do in this phase of our Toronto home renovations, but also our next phase which we really appreciated. Even after receiving our permit, when we hit a snag and needed to pivot, he shared a few possible solutions with us so we could figure out a financially feasible new strategy. When you are dealing with old homes, Adam and I knew that things don’t always go as planned but we both definitely appreciated having Ken by our side to guide us.

Toronto Contractors - Home renovations - dynamic design and construction

Raouf and his team at Dynamic Design and Construction - our Toronto structural contractor

Finding the right structural contractor proved even more challenging. Many of them had experience with removing a load barring wall and installing LVL’s but installing a steal beam was a whole different ball game. We needed a Toronto contractor with steel beam experience and know how.

With over 15 years in the industry Raouf has been leading his team at Dynamic Design and Construction through numerous Toronto home renovations of varying magnitudes. He has restored century homes in Rosedale, built houses from the ground up, and has plenty of experiences removing load bearing walls and installing structural steel beams like the H beams we had in our plans. Once we started to work with Dynamic, any anxiety I had going into this next step of our Toronto Victorian home renovations subsided. Raouf was great at communicating his needs, questions and concerns so that we could prepare and avoid possible upcoming challenges. His dedication to getting the job done and getting it done right was duly noted and appreciated, along with the commitment of his hard working team. I watched both moment frames get installed and moving heavy H beams into place is no easy task. Like a conductor and his orchestra, Raouf and his team worked together harmoniously, positioning and installing 7 steel beams and a steel post in one day. It was incredible!

He also levelled my floors, sistered joists, installed several footings in the basement, widened our staircase opening, poured concrete in our crawl space, created concrete footings for one of our moment frames and installed two steal frames on the foundation walls for the other. Adam and I knew it was going to be a challenging assignment and Dynamic Design and Construction rose to the occasion with total competency and professionalism.

P.s. If you are starting a Toronto home renovation and need some contractor recommendations Adam and I have put together a stellar list of contractors and tradesman for this project! I’ll be sharing more about our renovation process in upcoming episodes and the companies we are using but if you can’t wait, feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email via my contact form for a recommendation!

Dynamic Desing and Construction - Toronto Home Renovation Contractors

Roufe and his team celebrating after installing 6 steel beams that make up the two moment frames we needed to install in our Toronto Victorian home.

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Me after another day of home renovations!

So there you have it! Stage two of our Toronto home renovations is complete and we can now move onto the next step, framing, plumbing and electrical work.

While the structural work was going on we also finally receive our kitchen appliances (including our new La Cornue range) and finalized our new kitchen designs with Domani Design Group. Everything we are going to be doing in our Toronto home renovation moving forward will be preparing us for the install of our new kitchen, a large Crittall style back door and a whole new main floor layout! Plus I have some BIG NEWS which I will be revealing in my next episode, so don’t miss out and subscribe!

Additionally, behind the scenes I also started my search for tiles to replace the ones we had in our basement bathroom as well as demoed the area around our staircase, cleaned up the mechanical room and removed a large old decommissioned cast iron stack from the side of the house. If you want to see more behind the scenes you can always follow me on Instagram where I share more up to date stories of my interior design and renovation progress!

PICTURES FROM AFTER THE STRUCTURAL WORK HAS BEEN COMPLETE IN MY TORONTO HOME RENOVATIONS!

Thank you so much for joining me today and for checking out my new Toronto home renovation series on Youtube. I am super excited to be modernizing a Victorian home while still keeping the charm of an old Victorian house. If you have any questions about my Victorian house renovations, what it’s like to live in Little Portugal, Toronto or recommendations for Toronto contractors, hit me up in the comments below!

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EPISODE 1: SLEDGEHAMMER THERAPY - RENOVATING MY TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME

The front window of our Toronto Victorian Home that we are currently in the process of renovating!

TORONTO VICTORIAN HOME RENOVATIONS

IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!

Today I am so excited to be sharing the first episode in my new YouTube series about my Toronto Victorian home renovations!

If this is your first time visiting my blog, last year my fiance and I started the process of buying our first home in Toronto.

It took us a stressful 6 months and a total of 11 offers until we finally won a bid on a beautiful Victorian home in Old Toronto’s trendy Little Portugal neighbourhood. Since moving in last August we have been planning a number of home renovations including a major first floor gut and remodel.

Finally, after weeks of waiting and months of planning, we finally got our Toronto Building Permit and were able to start. Since the house does need some structural work we did need to apply for a permit but I’ll wait to share more about that in my next episode!

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In this episode my fiance and I talk about how we are feeling going into our home renovations, the prep work that needed to be done before we could start and I vlog the entire demolition process. In total, it took 5 days to completely gut the first floor (don’t worry I saved the beautiful mouldings and doors) and remove the sun-room at the back of the house but you won’t believe what we found during the demolition process!

Although Adam, his dad and I did the demo in the basement, we did hire Manpower Demolition Inc. to help us gut the first floor and complete the first stage of our Toronto home renovation. Since the basement was drywall and only two walls, it was super easy for us to do ourselves but when it came to super messy lath and plaster, and saving my decorative mouldings, we decided to hire seasoned experts.

In the end, we were super happy with the work and professionalism of Manpower, and how accommodating they were. Prior to even starting, I did a walk through with one of their project managers and showed him everything I wanted saved, protected and stored. They were also very accommodating during the documentation process, moving time lapse cameras around for me and letting me on site to take photos while they work.

Obviously, when you do a renovation like this you also want to make sure that you aren’t being excessively disruptive to your neighbours. Since we didn’t have a permit to leave a disposal bin on the street we had to do a drive by bin and I was happy to hear from my neighbour that Manpower cleaned up after themselves and didn’t leave any mess behind after loading each bin. I also requested for all the garbage from the demo to be brought through the house instead of down the shared lane way as to avoid damaging or scratch my neighbours newly painted house, which they did as well. All in all they did a great job and I would totally recommend them to other friend and family, and use them again myself!

P.s. If you are starting a Toronto home renovation and need some contractor recommendations Adam and I have put together a stellar list of contractors and tradesman for this project! I’ll be sharing more about our renovation process in upcoming episodes and the companies we are using but if you can’t wait, feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email via my contact form for a recommendation!

PICTURES OF MY OLD VICTORIAN HOUSE

Although I do walk you through the main floor of the house prior to the demo in this episode, here are some picture of the rooms we will be demolishing. We did keep all the decorative crown mouldings around the windows in the front room and pulled off the decorative crowns on the doorway frames but things like the baseboards and door frames we are planning on getting milled/replicated. We are also planning to reintroduce the decorative bullnose wall corner details you see in the middle photo (above) as a way of paying homage to the houses original character.

The old main floor kitchen that we are planning to completely remodel!

One thing I am super excited for is renovating our kitchen!

The house currently has two kitchens and the main floor kitchen definitely leaves much to be desired. I am so looking forward to modernizing this room in our Toronto Victorian home and bringing it to life with the help of Domani Design Group. We went all out on this part of the house and purchased the best of the best kitchen appliances, so I’m super excited for those for those to arrive at the end of the month. Especially my La Cornue stove!

TORONTO HOME RENOVATIONS - MODERNIZING A VICTORIAN HOME

During the demolition we did uncover a few cool things! For one, the boys at Manpower uncovered the remains of a tin ceiling under the drywall in the kitchen. Turns out it wasn’t actually tin but a faux tin material that was raised to give the same aesthetic. We didn’t save it but I thought it was a pretty cool discovery especially since i’ve been contemplating doing a tin cieling in the kitchen and talking about this idea on Instagram. Perhaps it’s a sign!

The faux tin ceiling we uncovered during the demolition of the main floor kitchen! Learn more in my Toronto Home renovation series on YouTube!

The faux tin ceiling we uncovered during the demolition of the main floor kitchen! Learn more in my Toronto Home renovation series on YouTube!

Another thing we discovered during the demolition was some old school coat hooks hidden in the abandoned staircase! This we definitely did save and I do plan on re-purposing them in the front foyer later on in the renovation! First I’m going to strip the paint off them though!

The antique coat hooks we found during the demolition of the abandoned staircase in my Toronto Victorian home.

The antique coat hooks we found during the demolition of the abandoned staircase in my Toronto Victorian home.

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PICTURES FROM AFTER THE DEMO STAGE IS COMPLETE IN MY TORONTO HOME RENOVATIONS!

So there you have it!

With stage 1 complete, we can now move onto structural changes that needed to be made to make the house structurally sound. We are going to be remove a load bearing wall in the next episode and installing some steal beams so if you are curious to see what goes into that , stay tuned!!

For now we left up a lot of the old framing so we can continue to give the house some support while we order the new LVL and steal beams but all that and more will be revealed in the next episode of my Toronto Victorian home renovations series!

Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss out!

Thank you so much for joining me today and for checking out my new Toronto home renovation series on Youtube. I am super excited to be modernizing a Victorian home while still keeping the charm of an old Victorian house. If you have any questions about my Victorian house renovations, what it’s like to live in Little Portugal, Toronto or recommendations for Toronto contractors, hit me up in the comments below!

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Episode 1 in my Toronto Home Renovation series on YouTube is now out! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!

HOME SWEET HOME - A PRE RENO HOUSE TOUR!

Welcome to my new house!

Welcome To My New Victorian House!

This past August was a whirlwind of a month to say the least! My fiance and I got back from our trip to Powell River only to celebrate my birthday and take possession of our new house all in the same day! It took us a good three days to get all of our stuff into the new place (with a lot of unexpected surprises along the way), but we are finally here!

I honestly could not be more thrilled to share my new house journey with you, but if you are new and are just tuning in now, this new chapter has been almost a year in the making. I vividly remember last September when Adam (my boyfriend at the time) and I deciding to sell my condo and start looking for a house together. I had just spent the entire summer at his family cottage and loved having the extra living space to enjoy. The idea of returning to condo life in a city still under COVID restrictions felt very daunting and I knew one day soon I wanted to find a house in the city instead. Little did I know, selling my condo was going to be even more challenging than I anticipated!

If you’re in a similar life stage as me, you may have already started paying attention to the real estate market. Perhaps you are thinking it’s a great way to invest you money and want a place to call your own - which it is - but since the beginning of the pandemic, the real estate market has been going crazy in big cities like Toronto. Condo’s have seen huge fluctuations in demand and value. Further, home prices have skyrocketed thanks to low interest rates and a lack of supply. Needless to say, what I thought would be a quick transaction turned into a few months of my condo being on the market before I accepted an offer I was happy with.

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The next phase of actually buying a house did not get any easier. Between skyrocketing prices, shady antics from agents, and lack of supply, it took us 4-5 months of searching, over 50 viewings, and 11 offers before we won a bid. If you’re looking to start your own house hunting journey soon, you should read my recent blog post about tips for first time home buyers on how to psychologically prepare. It was a really tough process for me - harder then I ever imagined - but I’m happy to say now it was worth the sweat, mental frustration, and tears because in the end I landed a beautiful home that is beyond anything I imagined I would end up with and I can’t wait to share it with you!

Since starting our house hunting journey a lot has also happened in my personal life including getting engaged to my boyfriend at the end of May. A few weeks later, we visited this beautiful Victorian style house in one of the most coveted neighborhoods in downtown Toronto and I instantly fell in love. The house is over 125 years old, and had so much original character, putting in an offer was a no brainier.

One of the first things that caught my eye was the beautifully arched brick entrance way! You could tell that the front of the house had been landscaped recently with a cobble stone pathway and large stone slab stairs, not to mention it was hard to miss the glorious smoke bush tree out front that provides a bit of privacy to anyone sitting in the front living room. It felt like it could be a scene from a movie - one where a young couple runs up to the front archway trying to duck out of the rain right before one of them gets the courage to lean in and steal their first kiss. Can you see it? Haha!

Perhaps it’s the romantic in me but the love affair with this house didn’t stop at the front door. The house also featured so much original molding and stain glass that I instantly became smitten.

Prior to even starting our house hunt in Toronto I had always loved old homes. Downtown Toronto is full of old homes and Victorian style houses are definitely my favorite, but unfortunately as we learned, a lot of them are not being very well taken care of, and the ones that are have lost a lot of their original charms due to updates/renovation. 90% of what we saw during our house hunting journey were that Victorian house style and I think at one point I started to drive my boyfriend nuts because I wouldn’t budge on what I wanted. But there is no denying the beauty of a Victorian home! Especially ones still full of original character! It’s rare, trust me I’ve looked! Lesson being, I am so glad I stuck to my guns!

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As I walked through the house, my romantic entanglement only grew. The front living room definitely became (and still is) my favorite room in the entire house as it feature so much original Victorian house interior character and a beautiful stain glass motif! In the morning, warm light shines through the window and casts large rainbows of light on the walls inside! There is something very bright and airy about the space that always gives me really good vibes anytime I spend time in here. Since moving in, it has definitely become the room I enjoy working from the most - as a matter of fact, I am writing this very blog post from it now!

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Even though we fell in love with the house after only one visit, we do have plans to do some renovations to it. Since the house is actually broken up into two units (check out the video below for the full tour) we originally planned on renting half of it out to Adam’s brother. As fate would have it (and unexpected issues with the house and our ‘new’ appliances) we decided to push up the renovations and start them this fall. Don’t worry, we are keeping as much of the original Victorian charm as we can!

Turning our house back into a single family home is going to be a lot of work but I’m really looking forward to starting renovations in a few months and putting in my dream kitchen. Before we start the renovations though, I wanted to do a quick home tour with you so you can see the canvas I am working with. In this video I will be walking you through my downtown Toronto Victorian house as well as giving you a little sneak peek on what we are planning on changing.

I hope you fell in love with the house as much as I did when I first saw it. If you have any questions or comments about this video, feel free to leave them down below!

I'm also going to be creating a lot of new content around my new home (renovations, home DIY's, and sharing about my interior decorating journey) so if you are interested in following along, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram @IsThatSoh!

MORE FUN VIDEOS FROM OUR ‘FIRST TIME HOME BUYER’ JOURNEY IN TORONTO!

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