Friday, November 6, 2009

Verdun Fixer Upper, an update










I never did get around to mentioning that Amy Barratt and I sold our sweet little Verdun fixer upper in a speedy rapido eight days, fetching 93 per cent of the asking price.
Getting the deal to the notary proved a bit of a challenge but when the money and keys changed hands, the vendors were pleased and the buyers were over the moon.
The young couple have spent the last two months transforming the vintage post-war cottage into something more to their taste.
They began by removing the original brick chimney, buying themselves some extra square footage and improving the layout. In the before and after pix, you can see that a skylight now fills the old chimney opening.
The also decided to move the kitchen from the front of the house to the back. Instead of looking out over their driveway, soon they will be able to look into their garden as they prepare meals. The interior photos above, are of the old living room and a corner of the new living room back through what used to be the dining room and sun room.
The new owners are avid recyclers. They bought old solid wood doors at the local Eco-Centre for a few bucks each and lovingly stripped them. They tore out the boxy old hot-water radiators and are replacing them with old-fashioned cast-iron beauties. They've saved some of the old chimney brick for future projects and have made the local ferrailleurs (scrap collectors) very happy by setting aside copper pipes and scrap metal for them.
Best of all, they tore up the admittedly ugly flexible flooring found in all the rooms and discovered beautiful narrow-strip wood underneath. Bonus!
The work, most of which they are DIY-ing with the help of experts like plumbers, electricians and a structural engineer, is coming along.
I said best of all but that isn't really true. Best of all, the couple welcomed their first child, a healthy baby girl into the world on Monday. Mum, dad and la petite fille are reported to be doing well.

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