Pickering Kitchen and Basement Renovations, from Frenchman's Bay to Seaton

The fridge is often the first problem in a Liverpool or Amberlea kitchen: its opening was framed for a 1970s model, and a current one will not fit the width or the depth. No dishwasher, or one squeezed in later, and a fan that vents nowhere useful are the other usual complaints. Amberlea's first houses went up in 1975 and many are modest in size, while Liverpool filled in through the 1970s and 1980s in Colonial and Tudor revival styles, so the answer is usually a better-planned run inside the same room: wider appliance bays, deep drawers in place of base shelves, a pantry wall and a hood ducted outside. A licensed plumber and electrician supply the dishwasher's water, drain and circuit; we build everything else.

Pickering basements come in two kinds. Under the 1960s and 1970s houses around the bay, headroom often shrinks once the ductwork is boxed in, and the foundation walls were seldom insulated, so we check clearances and dampness before any layout. In Duffin Heights and Seaton the walls are usually tall poured concrete with a bathroom rough-in. Either can hold a rental suite, since the City now allows up to two additional units on most lots with a detached house, semi or townhouse. Plan for a second step after the permit: By-law 8040/23 requires each unit to be registered, for a one-time fee, once building and fire inspectors have seen it finished. Licensed trades run the plumbing, wiring and ductwork, and our crew builds the rest to the approved drawings.

Some of Pickering's oldest houses stand well back from the lake. In 1993 Council designated the whole hamlet of Whitevale, on Duffins Creek, a heritage conservation district, and a heritage permit from the City may be needed there before replacing windows, doors, roofing or cladding, putting on an addition or building a new garage. In Dunbarton, a few houses from the early 1900s still stand on the west side of Fairport Road, while the first subdivisions around them arrived in the 1980s, so one job there can mean century-old framing and the next a large, newer custom house. We coordinate demolition, framing, insulation, drywall, floors and paint, line up the licensed trades for wiring, plumbing and heating, and help put the permit application together around your designer's drawings.

A large share of the homes in Duffin Heights are townhouses, from freehold rows to stacked condo towns, with rooms spread over several floors, so a flooring job there is often as much about stairs as rooms. Builder-installed carpet covering the stairs and bedrooms is usually the first thing owners want gone. We replace it with hardwood treads and risers, or with stair nosings that match the new plank, keep the rise of the top and bottom steps consistent with the rest, and plan clean transitions at each landing. Because these townhouses share walls, we suggest an underlayment that cuts footstep noise, and where a block townhouse belongs to a condominium corporation, we check its flooring rules before anything is ordered.

Bay Ridges has ranch-style bungalows on wide lots, and in a one-storey house the main bathroom serves everyone, so owners often ask for a powder room or a second bath carved out of a bedroom closet or the basement. The bungalow layout helps, because the bathrooms sit over an open basement where a licensed plumber can reach the drains from below. In Highbush, where most houses date from the 1980s and 1990s, the upstairs family bathroom often still has a one-piece acrylic or fibreglass tub surround that has cracked or yellowed. Replacing it with tile means opening the wall to the studs, adding cement board and a membrane, and checking the subfloor around the drain before anything is set.

Pickering's rules allow one additional unit in a separate building in the back or side yard, and the City can limit its floor area, height and distance from the property lines. Rougemount's extra-large estate lots and the big, treed lots in Dunbarton have the most room for one. The City has also worked with Whitby on five pre-reviewed detached designs owners can buy, though each still needs a building permit. We frame the floor, walls and roof to the drawings, sheathe and wrap the shell, and coordinate the foundation, roofing and service connections with the specialist trades. The City also publishes a structural snow loading map, so the roof framing is designed for the load set for that part of Pickering.

Before the 1960s subdivisions, the lakeshore around Frenchman's Bay was cottage country: Toronto families built summer places there in the 1910s and 1920s, and many were winterized after Highway 401 opened in the 1950s. In the ones still standing, walls can be a patchwork of wood panelling, early gypsum board and later patches, often with little or no insulation behind them. When owners open up one of these houses, we usually strip the old finishes, straighten the framing, add insulation and a vapour barrier, and hang new drywall so corners and ceilings come out true. Taping, a smooth finish coat and primer follow. Where an old ceiling sags, the joists get checked before it is covered. Any wiring the work exposes is updated by a licensed electrician.