A couple of days ago we went to East End Glass to pick up the custom piece of glass we had ordered for the basement shower.  The piece is about 3 feet high and 3 1/2 feet wide.  It is 3/8″ thick.  It was very reasonable ($130).

A friend of ours is a designer and one of her suppliers gave us the chrome channel we needed for installation.  Very nice of them.  It’s not very expensive but we were having a tough time sourcing it.

Ben then went to work installing it with clear silicone.  He did a great job.

The glass adds a beautiful finishing detail to the shower.  We’re thrilled with the shower in general.

Big day yesterday. Ben and Dan (416-880-8999) came over to install the laminate floor in the basement. We were excited to see how it would look and to see further progress towards the finish line. Ben and Dan had spent the last few days pouring cement to level the floor. Now it was time to see what the light coloured Tundra flooring from Ikea would look like down there.

We had hummed and hawed over what to do for the flooring in the basement. We decided to go with laminate over carpet since the main function of the basement will be as a play room for the kids. This means that we won’t be worried about juice, markers, crayons, paint and the plasma car that Jack loves riding around in.

We then talked about what colour laminate to go with. Ikea has three options in the Tundra line that range from light to dark. Usually we opt for dark floors but because it’s a basement we opted to go lighter since it will help brighten the basement.

Here’s how the day progressed as the floor was installed. We were really happy with what Ben and Dan were able to accomplish in a day…and their work was top notch.  For anyone looking to install laminate floors it took 2 guys a full day to install about 500 square feet.  We had a lot of cuts to make since we had to go around two posts and an odd shaped spare bedroom.

A ton of finishing touches need to be done in the basement but we are getting close there as well.

The walls have been taped and mudded and primed.  Pot lights have been installed.  Trim is just now beginning to go up (but we are waiting on the floor to be complete to do the majority of it).

Next step is for Ben to finish leveling the floor and install the laminate (we have opted for that over carpet since it will be a high-traffic playroom for the most part).

Exciting times as we near the end on these projects…

We’re really happy with the look of the media room.  Jim (or Jim-bo as our 4 and 2 year old are known to call him) did a fantastic job sanding and painting the unit to perfection.  Jim is a great painter at a reasonable rate (416-951-4446).  We highly recommend him for anyone looking for a professional painter who is also a superb guy.

We also re-used a beautiful french door that we had in the basement.  Ben hung it and Jim did his magic on it.  We still need to find a handle for it.

We need to clean the media room, load up the bookshelves and get things organized…but here’s how the bookshelf is looking:

Sorry for the radio silence lately.  We’ve been running around and haven’t had the energy to post.

The good news is that there is now lots of updates to make.

We’ve made progress in the upstairs bathroom.  Framing, insulating, drywalling, taping and mudding were all done last week.  Dan and Ben did a good job bringing it all together.

That means Harold was able to jump in and get the tiling going.  He’s now done and will grout tomorrow.

This room hasn’t been without trials and tribulations.  From a floor that refused to be leveled, to a rad that has caused nothing but hassles and second-guessing, the room has taken longer and cost more then we expected (of course).

This is how it is looking now: