I took some vacation time from work last week. I wanted to blitz the condo renovation and complete everything by the end of the weekend. Well, I almost made it… not quite. I did get TONS done. But am not quite ready to have the realtor come by and take photos yet. I guess it will be more after work nights to get this all done.

Here is what we accomplished: [Read more…]

Last Monday I met up with my realtor, Gary and had a realtor check in (or is that reality check?) I have been using Gary for about 20 years, so he’s someone I trust. I had him do a walk-through of both Greg’s and my units. I was curious, more about Greg’s unit and  just how much to do/spend before listing. [Read more…]

Hello,

Well, I have been working away on this condo update for almost TWO months now! I have blown my original time frame out of the water. My original plan was to be done by February 28^th, with the intent being to get the condo listed before the market got glutted with new listings in the spring. I think I may have missed the boat on that one 🙁 Although I am still a ways off from buying,  I keep my eyes on the listings all the time, and there was pretty much nothing out there between December and March, now it’s getting busy again.

However, I can only work on this project as fast as I can, since I am doing it evenings and weekends. I try to do about 1-2 hours a night, and about 4-5 on the weekends. Unfortunately, I am stuck working for a living so the projects need to fit in where they can.

That said, I am definitely making progress! Here is what I have gotten done in the kitchen:Here is my starting point:

I have completed the following upgrades so far:

• Refinished the counters with Make it Stone paint and Envirotex epoxy
• Remove plastic cupboard covers and paint cabinets. I did the uppers in white and the lowers in grey
• Painted the kitchen walls
• Tiled the back splash
• Replaced the floors. I used laminate to cover up the ugly old filthy vinyl

Here it is at this point:

I am currently installing the baseboards and purchasing bits and pieces for staging. Greg purchased the new sink, and he attempted to put it in on the weekend, however we had to re-cut the hole for the sink, as the new one didn’t quite fit in. So, I taped the heck out of the counters, to make sure my epoxy didn’t chip, and we (that would be him cutting and me yelling orders :)) re-cut the hole. Now the sink fits, but it’s not yet installed. Hopefully this week!

I am still working on convincing him to replace the appliances. The ones that are there now are 23 years old! And you can tell. All of the formerly white plastic on them has yellowed over time. They look terrible. Seems sort of silly to me, to go to all of the trouble to make the room look fresh and new, and then put the ugly old appliances back in.  I don’t even think it’s necessary to purchase new ones. Just NEWER.  It’s easy to find decent white appliances, as everyone is looking for stainless. I have even seen a lot of them for free.

In the bedroom I have done all of the painting. I painted the walls in my favourite colour of the moment – Behr’s Graceful Grey. And painted all of the trim, which was pretty yellowed looking in Behr Frost. And scrubbed the window, closet doors and blinds. The bulk of the transformation in this room is the staging, and I have been shopping like mad. Sit tight and wait for the reveal, it’s going to be so pretty!

The bulk of this renovation is in the kitchen and bedroom. For the rest of the space it’s just cleaning, carpet cleaning, painting trim and staging.

Greg has some tasks that he needs to complete as well. The shower needs to be repaired and the hot water tank replaced. This is holding me up a bit, as there is no point in staging the bedroom, which I am ready to do, until the carpets are cleaned. And no point in cleaning the carpets until the hot water tank comes out (as it lives in the bedroom closet).

So, I have accomplished quite a bit, but still have a ways to go. I have booked my realtor to come by on April 3 and have a look.  I will still have him come by whether I am done or not.  But hopefully that will motivate me to get more completed by then.

I can’t wait to show you the bedroom once it’s done!

Until later

D9

Design around the bedding

Here is my first piece of advice, when coming up with your Master bedroom design,  design around the bedding. Not the paint colour or the old chair in the corner. Yes, there is a scary old chair in the corner…

Here is what I am starting out with, I have to admit I’m a little bit embarrassed to even share these photos as it’s pretty sad and abysmal. Greg thinks if fine… “There is a bed” so that qualifies it as a bedroom (no bedding though). Might be a bit of a stretch calling this the master bedroom, but then it is the ONLY bedroom, so I guess it qualifies. Oh, and that blue lump in the foreground is an old robe tossed over a camping cooler that the cat sleeps on. So, you see what I am up against here…Me thinks it just needs a little injection of my design aesthetic!

I’m a planner. Which means that when I wake up early, I lay there brainstorming my latest reno project, and all of the steps I need to do. to arrive at the desired outcome,. Although this is super crappy for my sleep habits, it is good from the perspective of figuring things out before I do them incorrectly (most of the time anyways). For example, there is no point in running out and buying paint for the bedroom, until I have picked out bedding. Think about it, if you pick a shade of paint that you think will work say a nice hot pink (kidding, but good for this example) and then fall in love with a pumpkin orange duvet, well… you get the idea. I would prefer to build my colour theme around my main attraction: the bedding. Besides, there are probably about 1000 shades of paint to choose from, many less options on the bedding.  Ultimately it’s much easier to match the paint to the duvet, rather than trying to match the duvet to the paint. And to take it even one step further. I like the idea of finding inspiration, and utilizing that to set your direction. Pinterest is so fabulous for this. Gone are the days of ripping inspiration out of magazine pages.

Here is what I intend to turn this sad little room into. This is my inspiration:

I know, what you are thinking. It seems optimistic, doesn’t it? Well, I have a square room, a solid wall, a window and a closet,  Looks like I am good to go! Besides, it’s pretty much all content, not structure. Totally do-able!

To start, I am searching for the bedding, which is proving to be difficult. First decision. Bed in a bag, or Duvet set? I am a big fan of duvets. But this whole project is for re-sale, and I am trying to NOT break the bank. So if I spend about $130 on a duvet cover, I still need to spend another $100 on a duvet, and more on pillow shams and contrasting pillows etc etc. It could get expensive fast So, the the bed in a bag solution is more feasible financially, at about $100-$150 for a comforter, bed skirt, pillow shams, and contrasting pillow. some of them even come with the sheets!  And don’t forget the beauty part of this is that YOU get to KEEP all the awsome stuff you are buying. So at this point, I’m going with a bed in a bag, or coordinated comforter set, as the politically correct would say. After checking out a bunch of local stores and many online resources, I opted to go with this set from Wayfair. I am thinking that I may add in a pop of colour once it’s done, like hot pink! You see this is where we get to go crazy with colour 🙂