Whole Home Renovation in Courtice, Ontario
A complete top-to-bottom transformation of a semi-detached home — engineered sealed walls to stop odour migrating from next door, a reconfigured custom kitchen, two rebuilt bathrooms, and a modern staircase, every room touched from the main floor to the second.
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The Scope of Work
A complete renovation of a semi-detached home — every room touched, main floor to second, built around one goal: seal the home from a problem next door, then make it beautiful. Here's the work, room by room.
Sealing the Demising Walls
- Stripped every shared wall back to the bare stud cavity
- Closed-cell spray foam on the back of the neighbour-side drywall to seal the air path
- 1" SONOpan over the studs
- Two layers of ½" drywall with staggered seams
- Attic blocking to stop odour migrating overhead
The Kitchen
- Fully reconfigured and opened-up layout
- Full custom cabinetry
- Quartz countertops with a waterfall edge
- Quartz backsplash
- New drywall ceiling
Main Floor
- Removed all flooring, installed glue-down vinyl plank throughout
- New drywall ceilings in the living and dining rooms
- Powder room fully redone — custom vanity, wallpaper accent wall, new toilet and sink
- Full repaint throughout
The Staircase
- Removed the rounded bottom tread and birdcage spindles
- Squared off and modernized the stair profile, cut back old nosing
- Custom stair caps; risers and stringers clad and painted white
- New post and handrail with metal pickets
- Treads in a piano-finish dark stain against white risers
Second Floor — Bedrooms & Hall
- Hallway: new flooring, trim, and full paint
- Master: demising-wall sealing, custom closet cabinets, ceiling fan, flooring, trim, paint
- Second bedroom: flooring, trim, paint, ceiling fan
- Consistent flooring and trim carried through every room
The Bathrooms
- Main bath: complete gut — new toilet, vanity, tub, and tub-surround tile
- Master ensuite: walk-in shower, custom vanity, custom mirror
- Matching flooring and full paint throughout both
The Hard Parts, Done Right
This renovation started with one problem most contractors wouldn't take on — and grew into a full-home rebuild. Here are four parts of the job that took real engineering and craft.
Sealing out a problem from next door
This is a semi-detached home, and odour from the neighbouring unit was migrating straight through the shared walls — to the point the family couldn't live with it. They asked the neighbours to help, got nowhere, and called us to engineer a fix.
Odour travels on air, so we sealed the air path. We stripped every shared wall back to the bare stud cavity, sprayed closed-cell foam against the back of the neighbour-side drywall to make it airtight, added 1" SONOpan over the studs, then two layers of half-inch drywall with the seams staggered. We blocked off the shared cavity in the attic too. The smell stopped at the wall.
A dated staircase, rebuilt modern
The original stair had a rounded bottom tread and old birdcage spindles. We squared off the profile, cut back the old nosing, and rebuilt it into a clean, modern staircase.
New post and handrail with metal pickets, custom stair caps, risers and stringers clad and painted white, and the treads finished in a deep piano-gloss dark stain. It went from the oldest-looking thing in the house to the centrepiece.
Opening up the kitchen
The kitchen was closed in and dated. We completely reconfigured the layout to open it up to the rest of the main floor, then built it back as a full custom kitchen.
Custom cabinetry, quartz countertops with a waterfall edge, a full quartz backsplash, and a new drywall ceiling overhead — a kitchen that now anchors the whole main floor instead of hiding in a corner of it.
A master ensuite worth waking up to
The master ensuite was rebuilt from the ground up into a calm, modern space — a walk-in shower, a custom vanity, and a custom mirror, with the same flooring carried through from the bedroom for one continuous look.
Paired with the gutted main bathroom down the hall — new tub, tile surround, vanity, and toilet — the second floor went from tired to turn-key.
Before & After, Room by Room
From a closed-in, dated semi to a sealed, open, modern home — the main floor, kitchen, staircase, and bathrooms, before and after.
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A Home Sealed, Opened, and Made New
What began as one stubborn problem — a smell the family couldn't escape — became a complete transformation. The shared walls are sealed, the main floor is open, the kitchen anchors the home, and every room from the front door to the second floor was rebuilt to one standard.
At handover, the homeowner received The Cornerstone Care Guide — the DNA of their renovation — documenting every product, finish, and warranty, along with their client-portal login holding every project photo and record.
"Cornerstone Construction is the very best, professional and experienced. I wanted someone I could trust, and they definitely delivered. I am very happy with the beautiful results."
— Judy-Ann Ironside · Verified Google ReviewHear it from the homeowner.
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