Cornwall Homes

They are still painting St. Columban's steeples/roofs, and I thought I'd add another update photo. They're just using a regular metallic paint, which I thought was surprising, since it's so incredibly shiny depending on the light.

I'm torn with weather I liked it better before (drab silver), or now (shiny new silver). I'm obviously happy that they are keeping the building well maintained, but it does look rather flashy/new from certain angles. I'm sure the gloss will dull over time, too.



One of the reasons I post about the church is because it's right near my house. I'm on 5th, the church is on 4th, and a few blocks east.

I never attended this church, but my grandmother's funeral service was held there.

There's a photo of the interior on their website here. It's actually quite nice inside.
http://www.alexandria-cornwall.ca/diocese_sept_069.htm

The only detail I wish this church had, is more stained glass. The panels around the altar are fancy but all the main windows are plain. My old church (when I used to attend as a kid) was GORGEOUS and very ornate - at the opposite (and poor) end of town.

I couldn't find any photos of the windows of Nativity, but here is an interior shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricklerocker/6082249545/

Right near St. Columban's and also in my "hood", is the newly revamped Big Brothers & Big Sisters building. They recently had a local artist (with several other artists/painters to help) repaint/decorate the whole building. I actually met the artist before, and she's a nice girl. She has a very unique and distinctive "whimsical" style, and I think it works quite well here.

What do you guys think? Too much? Totally cool? An old building crime?

The entire building used to be a pale mint green, which you an see on the far left.





I like it. I think it's the use of so many bright colours.

Lastly, here's probably one of the final updates on a very VERY sad renovation story. I'm still not sure if they're planning to gut the other half (the right side) of this duplex. I walk by it almost daily, and it doesn't look like anyone is occupying that half.

The building used to have casings just like mine (slightly different crown on the doors/windows), and 2 panel wood doors. It was gutted to the studs, had all the original 3-over-1 windows removed, and any other architectural detail(s), and the inside now looks like a cheap condo apartment.

This last update is to show the awful looking remodel of the front porch. They actually demolished half the cinder-block centre, removed the centre t-g divider, and rebuilt the entire decking. Then they made these awful LEGO-looking planter boxes on each side. They didn't even bother to take off the lumber tags/staples on the raw ends. TRUST ME when I say that this photo makes it look pretty flattering, since it was taken from at least 30ft away.



Compare with "before" (this was taken shortly after they started butchering it):

Cornwall Homes

A small update to the house near my Mom's. As a quick recap to those that haven't been following along: this was a rather lovely 1920s or 1930s foursquare with a back addition. It was brick with original windows, stained glass, and I never got a really good look at it, but I know it had a beautiful archway between the dining room and living room.

Fast forward a few years, and it's now been sold, totally gutted (I think they even removed the main floors down to the joists. They REMOVED 90% of the brick, tore out all the windows, removed the back porches, side stairs (it used to have an upstairs apartment), and just generally butchered the entire house.

Before:



And now... I laughed and I almost want to cry. The patched brick around the windows looked TERRIBLE, but I guess it doesn't matter since they decided to paint the brick to match the ugly yellow siding.





Also note that they tore off all the dentil moulding and crown that was on the porch, as well as the original numbers and street plaque. I would have LOVED to save those. Instead they shittily patched over the whole thing with white sheet metal.

Cornwall Homes (Updates)

I need feedback, here. Does anyone care to stay updated on some of these "botched renos", or would you prefer to see just the occasional "really nice" Cornwall homes? I'm indifferent, so as the viewers/readers I'd rather know what YOU want to see.

Alright, quick photo update on the two unfortunate houses in my 'hood. The "finished" foursquare one a few blocks away is now up for sale again, meaning it was a flip. The house was originally sold for ~120,000$, and now they're asking 189,000$. This is quite high for the neighbourhood it's in. My house was only 85K, and I think I have more square footage, however that one has a nice private yard and a new deck.



See the listing here for interior photos. All the doors are now new (cheap) 6 panel Home Depot doors, a lot of the floors were replaced, etc.

http://www.century21.ca/Property/ON/K6J_4C6/CORNWALL/BEDFORD_ST/414

I also just noticed that they ripped out some of the detail mouldings on the arches. There are two curved archways on the first floor and originally they had these sort of column caps around the top just under the curved portions. It was one of those features that was a unique architectural detail. I did not think that they had removed these. They actually got rid of an archway entirely.

I found this OLD LISTING. See the difference:

http://cornwall.estatesincanada.com/houses-for-sale/large-lotgarage-414-bedford-street_658892.html

They got rid of all the beautiful old window casings, too, and the antique furnace grates (which absolutely kills me because I would have taken them).

***

The house near Mom's place has fared even worst.

A few weeks ago (maybe a month by now), she had told me they were ripping off all the brick, and putting up "ugly beige siding" (her exact words). It's pretty bad when even my Mom is saying it's awful, since she tends to be slightly indifferent. She also didn't like the awful brown windows that they installed.

These are old photos from back then (few weeks back):



You can see that everything was gutted to the studs:





Piles of bricks...



Then fast forward to yesterday, when I took these. The house looks so awful I can't even list the items that look wrong.



I was really hoping that they would reinstall the original window layout (2 on each side on the upper part), but who does that anymore. Light? Who wants that? It looks like the house is totally off balance.



God DAMN this looks bad. And what the heck is that bump-out on the roof. It looks like a shed. I can only assume it's a closet, but it looks RETARDED.



This almost makes me want to cry.





This side looks slightly less stupid, but I hate the brown windows with light yellow siding, with white trim. It's also obvious that two windows are missing, though if you want to be picky, maybe as many as 5 windows missing (2 on the top roof "room", 2 on the back of the house (one on each floor), and one right in the middle). Plus 2 basement windows, so yeah, 7-ish? That's pretty terrible. This doesn't count missing windows on the other sides of the house.



Just compare with some of the "before" photos:

Vanity & Cornwall Homes 4

Alright, as promised, and since I have a few spare minutes I can claw out of my schedule, here we go. Photos are pretty self-explanatory.



This is the board that will make-up the baseboard (toe-kick) and it will have a fancy cut-out in it on the front.



I wish I had this much space to work at home.





Main part of the case is sanded and ready for finishing (I'll also be adding a top Roman ogee moulding, and most of the bottom trim). The doors aren't sanded yet, but I started fitting some hardware (bullet catches).



Cornwall Homes (Update)

Some of you might remember this wonderful old house that I posted about a while back. The one where I picked up the beautiful solid wood front door that was thrown out:



Here's what it looks like now. I suppose the siding isn't THAT bad, but I hate that new front door with the beveled glass, the new vinyl windows, that awful plastic or aluminum railing that's WAY too high, and the icing on the cake is the absolutely AWFUL shutters that are TOO TALL for the windows. I was so pissed when they installed those shutters.



Then there's this formerly wonderful old house near my Mom's place. I had posted about it a while back:





Well, Mom told me a "by the way" side note last week that they were ripping all the bricks off of it! I was like: 'O_O'??? W-T-F? So now it looks like this:





I have NO IDEA what the hell they're doing to the back part.



The sad part is that it doesn't really look like they're keeping/saving/reusing the bricks. What kind of moron gets rid of brick?

Also, the inside is gutted completely. Only studs left. I had walked by a few years ago when it was rented, and I know there is/was a wonderful decorative archway between the living room/dining room but I have a feeling it's gone now.

Another side note: this is the house where I picked up the busted-up stained glass panel. It used to belong on this side going up the stairs. It's been capped over with painted plywood for many years though, since it shows up like this on Google Maps watermarked from 2006.

Dining Room Floor

Soooooo... Yesterday (day off for Canada Day), I decided I *had* to do a bit of work on the house. I didn't feel like working on anything on the to-do list (ugh), so I did one of those projects that's really not that important yet, but still needs to be done at some point.

I decided to tear out the crappy new laminate/plywood(s) to expose the original hardwood.

So this is how that went...

Before. I don't think I can fully express in words how much I can't stand cheap laminate flooring. And these were the cheapest of the cheap. Popped joints, chipped edges, scratches, dings, scuffs, and the awful installation didn't help it either.





Don't you love the nice transition strip(s)? Painted wood with silicone on one side (which is grimy and impossible to clean properly), and a nice metal strip, held in place with dozens of THREE INCH screws.



Not only did they not stagger the plywood, they also installed it over the same seams as the previous 1/4" layer. WHY?



The plywood came up easily because they nailed it down with DRYWALL NAILS. Yup. And you can tell by this one sheet how much of a crappy job they did by the location and quantity of nails used. Some sheets had a ridiculous amount (like 9 nails for a 12" square), and others had just a handful for a 4x8 sheet. They also randomly threw-in a few screws here and there.



The first peek at the floor shows off a few issues...



Floor stripped and swept:



And yes it looks exactly like this in person. It looks BAD. There's all kinds of carpet pad residue (who on Earth would want a carpet in the dining room??? Eww). Tons of large gaps (some that are nearly 1/4"), and a generally sickly looking colour. HOWEVER, under that, the wood looks to be fairly decent. I will refinish it providing that I can find a way to putty the cracks with something.





I will also have to get creative with some patching in several (at least 8) places.





In this room they made no effort to rewire in a non-destructive way (unlike the office, where they passed the wires just far enough to hide it with the baseboards).

Another Really Sad Reno Story

I was really *REALLY* bummed to see that this particular house ended up getting butchered.

This photo was taken just as they were starting to ruin it. You can still see the original windows/siding/door. Unfortunately they never did this street on Google Maps, so this is pretty much the only photo I have of it "before".



This was a rather unmolested original house in very good shape, just a block away from my place. I pass by it every day on my way to work. It had nice original windows, wood floors, nice arches inside (between the dining/living room), nice trim, etc.

Sadly, the house recently sold to some new owners (for around 117,000$), and the new owners started to completely ruin it.

They decided to board-up a few of the back windows (which you can see in the photo above), and install new siding on top of some already decent older siding (in perfectly good shape). This was when I started to feel really sad about the house. I didn't think it would get too much worst.

I was wrong.

A few days ago I noticed that they ripped out all the original windows and storm windows and replaced them with cheap Farley (Vinyl) windows from Home Depot.

But today was the most tragic butchery so far. They ripped out the beautiful old front door, as well as the door jamb (which they sawed in half).

The front door was especially nice since it was unpainted wood on the outside. Very few houses have unpainted doors.

Luckily, though, they had just propped-up the door in front of the large dumpster in the driveway, and when I came back from work it was still there. I grabbed it and brought it home. That bastard is INSANELY HEAVY. Like probably close to 50-60 lbs.

Of course what ended up replacing it was a cheapo metal clad door (which I think looks incredibly tacky/awful). I'll photograph the house again later so you can see for yourself.

Looking in the dumpster was even more sad. Rather than install insert windows (which just fit in the window openings - like I did), they must have bought the other type, so they ripped out all the original window mouldings, which were all in the dumpster. I decided to grab a few that were on top since these are SOLID FIR mouldings ($$$$$) and I can use the wood for my built-ins. I can only assume that they will be replaced with super thin, modern MDF cheapo ones.

I also saved 2 windows (most were smashed to pieces), and this coat-hook board:



One of the only window panes I could grab that wasn't broken.



I'm kind of curious to know what kind of lifting mechanism that these windows used to have, since they had these unusual slots in the sides.



I was very lucky to find the other parts that went with the door in the dumpster (right on top), such as the other half of the hinges, the door strike plate, and even the other half of the antique Yale lock (which sell for a pretty penny on eBay/Etsy). I absolutely LOVE the old lock. The only parts I'm missing are the two pins that hold the hinges together, but they were probably pitched in the dumpster with everything else (so I won't find them).



The interior side of the door is painted white, but I'll probably strip the entire thing (both sides) before I decide what finish(es) will go on it. The unpainted side is a bit rough, but definitely salvageable. Also, not visible in the photos, but the glass is old and wavy!



Here is the wonderful old lock. It was hard to photograph (low lighting) so it's a bit blurry, but the knob says YALE, and the locking "slider" is still there and works. I was VERY VERY happy to find the other half that attaches to the door frame. I will strip it and clean it, and it will be GORGEOUS. I can also get it re-keyed pretty easily.