Inspiration for Wall of Sliding Doors

While it is not yet finalized, it looks like our basement plan will involve having a wall of sliding doors blocking view of the appliances. I think this wall of doors, at about 20 feet long, could make a great focal point. I doubt we will find any (cheap) off-the-shelf solution for this space, so I have been thinking about creative ways to make this a great feature of our basement.

One idea I had was inspired by the Five Doors North restaurant located on Yonge Street not far from our house. I think an eclectic collection of doors painted in different colours would look great, but would it be possible to build this into the rest of the basement design? Would it be too clown/kid looking?

Source: Flickr

We could keep with the same door theme, but paint them a more muted colour (shades of gray?). Mirror doors are another thought, and they would probably make the basement seem bigger, but I worry about them getting broken by toys, or constantly being covered in kid hand prints. This is probably something that I will make myself, preferably using reclaimed materials, so the options are almost endless.

Source: Logan Square Kitchen

Source: Spazzi

Source: Gliding Door Company

Source: Momento Italia

Lead Testing Results

We have replaced all plumbing supply lines inside our house, but were concerned that there is lead in the supply line from the City, so last month we submitted a water sample to Toronto Public Health for testing. We received the results earlier this week, and the lead level in the sample was 32 parts per billion. This is not good, so we need to be careful to use filtered water for our drinking water until the supply line is replaced (we have been pretty good about doing this already, but not perfect). I thought I would do some research to see how this 32 ppb value stacks up:

• 1 ppb: Typical lead concentration for water leaving a Toronto water treatment plant
• 10 ppb: Maximum lead concentration for drinking water in Canada (consistent with WHO and USA)
• 15 ppb: EPA action level for lead concentration in drinking water
• 32 ppb: Our unfiltered tap water
• 50 ppb: Pre-1992 maximum lead concentration for drinking water in Canada

I am very disappointed in myself for not getting our water tested when we first bought the house. If you have an older home (lead piping was used until the 1950s, and lead solder was common until the 1980s), I strongly recommend you get your water tested.

The good news: this means that our supply line will be replaced (and upgraded to 3/4" copper) by the City on a priority basis; the work will be completed in the next 6-8 weeks, as opposed to the previous schedule of "sometime in the next 9 years".

Basement Layout Version 7

We are now on our seventh version of the layout for the basement, and I think we are getting close. We have brought back the large bedroom from our first layouts, as we decided this is important to us. However, we still kept some of the open space from our most recent layout by not creating a laundry/furnace room. This new layout includes a wash basin beside the washer, a linen closet in the bathroom, built-in wardrobes in the bedroom, and storage underneath the stairs. We still do not have a place for a freezer; the most likely spot is beside the water heater, but we would kind of like to keep that little nook for toys. Almost there!

Bowling Alley Furniture

I occasionally search for "reclaimed" wood and materials for inspiration for our upcoming projects, and have noticed listings on craigslist and kijiji for reclaimed wood from bowling alleys. I would love to use planks of bowling alley wood for the sliding doors in our basement, but 3" thick slabs of pine/maple would make for VERY heavy doors. So ... I dream.

Source: inhabitat

Source: Retro Renovation

Source: Design Crave

Source: counterevolution

Blog Action Day - Water

Our neighbour posted about Blog Action Day, which intends to unite the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue. The issue for 2010 is water.

She posted this great video that highlights the many faults of bottled water. Additional information can be found at Inside the Bottle. The City of Toronto has banned the sale of plastic water bottles on municipal premises starting in 2011 (similar bans have been passed/implemented for other cities and university campuses).



We recently submitted a sample of our water to be tested for lead, as I am concerned that the supply line from the city to our property line has never been replaced (we have replaced all supply lines inside the house). Aside from that concern, it is my understanding that tap water in our city is as good or better than bottled water in every way. Tap water is better regulated, MUCH better for the environment, and MUCH cheaper (our house is not metered, so I could argue that our tap water is free). We do not keep bottled water in the home; we use a quality filter in our fridge for all drinking water.

Some other notes with a more global perspective:

• It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger.
• The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world.
• Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water.
• Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

Ice Dam Refresher

The Green Building Advisor recently released a helpful article on ice dams. Ice dams are caused by the combination of 1) a sub-freezing outdoor temperature, 2) snow on the roof, and 3) a roof/attic that is above freezing. With this combination, the heat from the living space escapes out through the attic, melting the snow, which then runs down and re-freezes at the edge of the roof. This can cause damage to gutters and shingles, and can cause water leakage into the wall underneath the bottom edge of the roof. This image from the CMHC website illustrates the problem well.


How do you prevent ice dams?

1. Seal air leaks in your attic.
2. Increase your attic insulation (this depends on your climate zone, but for us the target is R-50).
3. Improve ventilation between the insulation and roof sheathing.
4. Cover the roof sheathing (i.e. underneath shingles) with rubberized membrane underlayment.

It is important to note that the first two steps (air sealing and insulation) will also help with the energy efficiency of your home. The third step (ventilation) might help with ice damming if your air sealing and insulation is not sufficient. The fourth step (ice and water shield) will do nothing to prevent ice damming, but will help to prevent water leakage caused by the ice dam.

If none of these options are available to you at this time, you can attach electrical cables to melt the snow/ice on the bottom portion of the roof, or use salt (which would need to be regularly replenished) to melt ice dams.

New Basement Layout?

We have revisited the basement layout again. Here is the layout that we have been bouncing around for the last year or so.

We were looking at photos of basements from similar houses last week, and found that the basements with open layouts seemed much more spacious and flexible. So, we completely changed the layout (see below ... the light gray areas show where we have bulkheads for beams/ductwork).

• We removed the wall separating the bedroom and family room. We will probably put the "family room" at the back of the house, and we will get a comfy pull-out couch that guests can use when staying with us.
• We have changed the front of the house into a play area (i.e. play table, toys, toys, toys).
• We removed the laundry/furnace room, and are planning to hide those appliances with a series of sliding doors instead.
• In order to help with storage, we have added a linen closet in the bathroom, and some built-in wardrobes in the front of the house.
• The area underneath the stairs will be 1) left open, 2) used for storage, or 3) used for a playhouse.

Any thoughts? Recommendations?

Transparent Toaster

If you don't think this is cool, maybe you're more of a RollerToaster person.

Leaning Mirrors

Young House Love is currenty featuring a house that has two tall leaning mirrors made out of old doors.


I love the look of huge mirrors, especially those that are made out of some sort of reclaimed materials (shout out to the mirror we made earlier this year). I had not really considered having a leaning mirror in our house because of the little one, but I guess it could work if it was installed safely (i.e. not tippable). Maybe we can work it into our basement or mudroom renovations?

Source: House and Home

Source: Oliver Yaphe

Source: This Next

Source: Costco

Circular Saw Pizza Slicer

How great is this pizza slicer? It is called the Pizza Boss.

What To Do Underneath the Stairs?

We have been discussing the basement layout lately, and one topic under discussion is the space underneath the stairs. I do not have a decent pic of our stairs as they are today, but they are just a basic straight set of stairs up one wall with a landing half way up (exit to the outside). The stairs will need to be rebuilt as part of our basement renovation, and our plan to date has been to drywall underneath the stairs and use that space as storage. Here is an example I found online of something similar:

We could also do some kind of more functional storage by installing large sliding drawers, like this project.

We are currently considering keeping the space underneath the stairs open. The primary goal would be to make the basement look bigger, but could there be a use for this space? I like the look of open risers, but those are not very safe for kids, so we plan to stay with standard risers. The folks at 8 foot 6 have a nice little workspace underneath their stairs, but that wouldn't work well with our ceiling height and landing location.

Our space would be more suited for kids, since the height underneath the stairs is too low for adults. So, should we store toys underneath there? Maybe have a little play kitchen or something? Do you know what I really want to do with the space? Build a playhouse under there! This does not help with the lack of storage in our house and it does not make the basement space seem larger, but it would be pretty darn cute.

I Love Boathouses

We boated by this boathouse in progress today at the cottage.

How great would it be to work on a boathouse project? I wish.