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The ExploreNorth Blog
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The writer is a resident of Canada's Yukon Territory with a passion for Exploring the North. This blog is one of the vehicles used to share that passion through words and images.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'house renovations'
Company is Coming
Two of my sisters, from Kelowna and Seattle, are coming up for a whirlwind 3-day visit on Tuesday evening. There’s always a few tasks to do when company is coming – yesterday I decided to gut the kitchen in celebration ...
Fun with Tile
Now that the sunshine and heat is gone I’m back to house renovations in between the projects that provide cash. Today the dining room serving bar is getting its tile top. In the first photo you can see the bar (which was a coat closet until I f...
A Business With Nerve
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had picked up 1,900 pounds of tile for the entry and kitchen. I got a phone call yesterday from Home Hardware, where we bought them. We were quoted $8.50 per tile – thinking that was low, we asked for an...
I Love Rain!
I don’t always love rain, but I sure do love the rain that’s fallen the past 2 days. The forest fire smoke is gone and the flowers, especially the lupine on our property, are going crazy. I was getting very paranoid about fires, despite t...
Our New & Improved View
Cutting trees to get a view on property like this is always a tough balance. How much can I cut without losing any privacy? I think I’ve got it now - not as impressive as the cabin’s view but not too bad either. Particularly when 16 month...
Back to Work at Home
I’m now back to reality after that great road trip. Yesterday I picked up a big load of renovation stuff at Home Hardware, including this 1,900 pound pallet of Italian ceramic tiles for the entry and kitchen. The tiles are 20×20 inches eac...
Back Home - 18 Days, 6583 km
We got back to Whitehorse yesterday afternoon. It was a most excellent road trip - I put 6,583 kilometers (4,090 miles) on the Outback in 18 days and had some wonderful experiences ranging from visits with family and friends to wildlife encounters an...
The Hardwood - Almost Finished
Despite the sun and very warm temps, I’m being good today I’m hoping to be able to complete the hardwood installation this weekend, even though I’ll be at the Trade Show for quite a few hours starting tonight. It’s going qui...
Another Skagway Day
I was bad yesterday I’m in the middle of laying the hardwood flooring in the living/dining room, but I looked at the job, then I looked outside and at the weather forecast….. and I headed down the road to Skagway! The forecast was f...
Renovations - Laying the Hardwood Floor
I’m in the middle of the next major step in our renovation - laying several hundred square feet of walnut hardwood. We got a good deal on what we needed almost a year ago and it’s been stashed in various places around the house since then...
Step Boldly Forth…
…into a brave new palette. I’m up to my neck in drywall filler and dust in 3 rooms, but in my typical “instant gratification” process, just had to paint a few walls that were finished. The first photo below shows the breakfast...
Free Woodworking Plans
One of the resources I keep handy for my ever-growing “to-do” list is the Web site for free woodworking plans at Google. These have been created using the very cool Google Sketchup program. I haven’t actually found time to use any o...
Poor Subie…
When I get into “renovation” mode poor Subie loses her warm, dry bedroom - doesn’t she look like she deserves a trip to the Oregon coast?…. or Phoenix….. or Yuma….. or Albuquerque…………....
House Renovations - Lighten Up!
It feels good to be back at the unfinished renovation projects at the house we live in. That’s particularly true now with the light of Spring getting closer and closer, since the 2 main projects were begun to get more light into the house. Here...
Some Huskies!
Huskies are supposed to love the cold and snow - what’s wrong with these two?? Kayla is curled up in the cat bed! See, Stacie, it’s not just your fur-kids who are getting this “husky” thing wrong! They love it when I ...
Basement Renovation - the Bar/Fitness Room
The last 3 days I’ve been working on our own house (finally). The first job was to get more heat upstairs, from the wood furnace in the basement (it’s -42° at the moment, making “heat” a really significant word ). The ec...
Kitchen Renovation - Complete
We got the project finished yesterday afternoon, a little over an hour before picking the new tenants (and new Yukoners ) up at the airport. Nothing like cutting it close! It’s a fairly dramatic change from the old kitchen - brighter, friendly...
Snow Cleanup Morning
Climate change - in the southern Yukon the most noticeable effect has been warmer winters with less sun and more snow. Yesterday morning, the business of the day started at 8:50 with plowing the driveway (and ended 9 hours later when we got home from...
Crown It
Crown mouldings are plain and simple a pain in the ass to do, but they really do take a cabinet job up a notch so are worth the effort. I’ve been hoping that it would warm up a bit before I had to clean the shop at the house out, but no ...
Another Kitchen Day
Well it’s almost finished. There’s a long list of stuff to do yet but it’s all comparatively fiddly stuff - more trim and kickplate, crown moulding, hanging 2 more doors, paint and such. We’re really pleased with the result, a...
Back at the Kitchen, and Snow
I got back to work on the kitchen in the city house today. There’s a lot to do yet, but the timing feels good. The complicated part of the corner cabinet is now done (another pair of hands would sure have been useful in assembling it!). A pot c...
Looking Like a Kitchen Again
We got the rest of the upper cabinets hung today (a temporary installation brace is still in place in the photo below. The next step is building a new lower corner cabinet - a fairly complex unit that I haven’t completely figured out yet. Then ...
Another Afternoon in the Kitchen
We got the rest of the cabinets for our new kitchen in on Thursday, so were back to work on that project today. We got off to a late start, distracted by the great breakfasts at the airport Although we’re running into some bugs, things are co...
Day 3 of the Kitchen Reno
“Day” 3 is a bit of a misnomer, unless 3 hours constitutes a day But anyway, Cathy and I have now assembled all of the cabinets that we’ve got so far (2 more, the 2 largest, should be in any day) and have a good idea of how the ne...
A Kitchen Renovation Begins
I actually enjoy the creative process of house renovations, and this morning started a complete rebuild of the kitchen in one of our rental properties. From this angle it doesn’t look like a bad kitchen, but it’s quite worn out. This is t...
Antidote to High Heating Costs
In the Yukon, the antidote is relatively simple if you own the home you live in - heat it with wood. Installing a wood stove or furnace is apparently a very common renovation right now as heating oil costs continue to spiral upwards. With a brief rel...
