A very special visit to Kleinfeld Canada and the Marilyn Denis Show

I wanted to share with you a very exciting experience my friend Lisa had this past Tuesday on the Marilyn Denis show. Lisa is the beautiful bride on the right between Marilyn Denis and Jessica Mulroney.

I nominated Lisa for a makeover a few weeks back just for fun...chances were I would never hear back from them...but it was worth a shot. When I was asked if Lisa would be game for a vow renewal makeover not only did I have to admit I wrote in but I braced for her response to the vow renewal. Lucky me she had been thinking about just that....
So we headed down to The Hudsn's Bay store in Toronto for Lisa and Craig to film some footage for the big episode.

Lisa is not one to seek out this type of attention and frankly it was way out of her comfort zone and I am so impressed she pushed herself to do what made her very uncomfortable.
Her discomfort of nerves really didn't show on camera to me, she did great.

So off  to Kleinfeld we went....let me just say Kleinfeld is breath taking and the dresses are to die for, any girls dream. I never had a real wedding dress experience as I bought my dress solo when I got married so I am not totally shocked both Lisa and I had tears in our eyes when we arrived...what a gift to be there at this stage of life to find a dream designer wedding gown....
Lisa rented her dress back when they got married so this was very special for her to get this re-do.

It was pretty exciting to say the least...

Check out the incredible Kleinfeld Canada here I know where I will be taking my daughters when the day comes for wedding gown shopping...Since I didn't have a special bridal experience I want to make sure both of my girls don't go without that special moment.

I am thinking perhaps I should be planning an vow renewal next.

 Don't forget accessories and shoes...

The decor was gorgeous too , the doors and floors were incredible...

There were so many dresses to drool over in every imaginable style and so many of them are pure art.

Jessica Mulroney was Lisa's personal bridal consultant for the day. Lisa sent her photos of what style of dress that appealed to her and she pulled some truly beautiful dresses.

Here's me just sitting there waiting to see the dresses on Lisa and wondering how did we get here?

Trying on the dresses begins...

This was the first dress Lisa tried on it is a Daniella Caprese, Blush and silver ball gown with Tulle and lace and the one she chose.

Trying on a mermaid style dress and doing a sit test , I am so glad kept this in the taped piece, it was too funny.

This woman rocks a wedding dress I tell you , if they had let me I would have tried some on myself.

It was clear to see this was the perfect dress.

This beautiful beaded dress with full tulle skirt which was my dream dress style way back in my 20's was head to head with the blush dress, I think I should get it for myself...

I want one too....how could I not? These days most women marry twice, I think staying married should be a reason to do it all over again but to the same man....well actually no one is the same person 20 years later and if you still want to be married that is something definately worth celebrating.

I got up at 4:00 on Tuesday the live taping day and picked up Lisa at 5:35 am... Lisa her friend Christine and I drove into the city and arrived about 7:00am to Queen Street where we got a coffee and tea and a little breakfast at Starbucks before her 8:00 am call time. We showed up and signed in and were ushered off to wait behind the scenes of The Social...kinda cool since I watch this show a few times a week at least...we gotta get to a taping of that show too, show tapings are always a lot of fun.

Christine and I were eagerly awaiting the start of the BIG show. We both were feeling the stress Lisa was feeling just before rehersals, but she did a great job.
Lisa truly looked incredible all done up, she was the perfect blushing bride.

 It was an emotional experience for both brides that got their dream dresses and makeovers for the Marilyn Denis show, I have a huge thank you to The Marilyn Denis Show and all that they did for Lisa, not only did Kleinfeld give Lisa this beautiful gown but the Board of Tourism Los Cabos gave both brides a three night stay in Los Cabos...WOW, truly incredible. I couldn't have dreamed this good of a makeover for Lisa if I tried.
Please check out the episode here  and hear more of the story ...

Would you re-new your vows???

Built-in update part deux

Ovet the weekend something happened to the ceiling bye bye popcorn....and I didn't have to lift a finger how perfect.

Things have been moving forward slowly...but things are still happening.

Carpentry really can be tough on the body, lot's of lasting aches and pains after each day of working at a big project like this. I am wishing I had a hot tub right about now.

It's funny you can spend 4 straight hours at it and have completed what seems to be only a couple of small details, but there is no rushing detail jobs. 

You'll see I framed in the space about the unit to close in the gap, there is no need for the gap, it's just a dust collector. 

 When we built our bunkie a few years back before I closed in the walls with bead board I had the kids make a little time capsule, so I suggested the same for Ellen ( the lovely home owner )to do the same with her kids since she has a bundle, lol she has two girls and two boys (same as in my fam growing up), they thought it was fun too...I love time capsules, wouldn't it be great to find one in a reno?

The gap above the wall unit was just about 10 ft wide so I decided to close it in with MDF,most MDF comes only 8ft long and I didn't want a seam.... I found some MDF 121" long at a local mill and had them rip it down to the size I needed and then I sanded it down to the exact height to fit the space and after three of us lifting it into place and taking it out twice and recutting it length wise and gouging the walls on either side we got this beast of a piece in place. Wall damage can be repaired thankfully. 

 I had to use my multi tool to cut the angle into a clean square cut for the hearth...this kind of job takes time and patience and possibly a professional massage...it took 4 hours of cutting to be exact split up between two days.

Although it was a lot of work and totally a pain in my ...back it HAD to be done, it looks so much better now, I attached the sureply so that I can tile when it's time for that.

Next step is tacking the mantel, it's going to be simply gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

Upgrading a ho hum built-in

 I am currently working on a re-vamp of an exsisting built in for a family in a near by town...we had a chance meeting when I bought a couple of shelves from Ellen about 4 years ago or so...I built her a couple of padded headboards and have done lot's of trim work and a banquette.
It was time to re-paint the family room but Ellen refused to repaint this less than beautiful built-in that they inherited when they purchased this home.
With a lot of re-working this will be a truly beautiful white fresh center piece of the great room.

 The plans were/are to remove the tile and mantel re tile and build new mantel, remove the tile from the hearth and clad with trim and wood painted white, add a shelf on either side, remove glass doors and middle vertical piece, fill in gap above unit and add crown moulding, face frame all the shelving and add bead board to the back of shelves.

This is the style and over all feel I am trying to create.

What has been added to the project,( these things happen all the time, you get in there and other changes become obvious )...remove angled hearth to create a flush with the flooring tile hearth, add foot detail to both base cabinets and new doors for the base cabinet.

Day one was demo day of course, for the most part this all went well a little messy but all that needed to came out successfully.

 Day two we searched and selected marble for the surround and hearth, Ellen picked a classic carrera marble subway tile, a great timeless choice.

 Removing this framing allows us to re shape the hearth, cutting the hardwood I can square this out. The previous owner was a contractor and he loved angles.

 Day three progress was good, I was able to add the two extra shelves, the shelf on the right went smoothly but the left shelf took over an hour because of the angled duct running up the left side, I had to create a template, let's just say it wasn't that easy...I'm just glad its over.

 I face framed the shelves for a nice thick look with the most beautiful poplar.

Today I will tackle a few more details...I will post the progress here, check back in a couple of days.