Friday

December 2013


I knocked down a wall partition. There was dust everywhere. I wanted more natural light coming into the kitchen area. 







With the wall gone, A gap in the wall needed to be filled. It had to be done properly to meet building code. So a wall expert needed to do the job.  Dust and debris everywhere. I had to clean all this up before the new floors put in and before I paint the walls. 




Dust and dirt cleaned up as best I can. Floor materials in boxes. I am excited for new floors!!! 






Shawn - the handyman - the day he fixed the gap on the wall. 





 
Using a GoPro to squeeze in the details into the frame - you could see here the kitchen now looks much better with painting done as well. 






I had to remove the old sink in the washroom. It just had to go. It left this big gap on the floor where there were no tiles. Decided we just put in Big white tiles as a base for the new sink. 






New washroom sink set in place. I had to work with the green. Budget wise, that was the only choice. Bathroom renos can be sooo expensive. So I work with what we have. Its green. It will be fine. 






Fresh white paint, new sink, new toilet seat, new light fixtures, new shower curtain. I just need to install the mirrors and medical cabinet. I need to install towel holders and figure out how we can have storage..





Using temporary plastic shelving once again - I try my best to organise our things and de-clutter and just get myself out of the "camping" mode. I have been living like this for a while now since we moved here. 






This is what is called "camping" in your own apartment. It is not a very good feeling. We brought all our stuff in a u-Haul only to find we had too much stuff. So the challenge was to sort through our stuff and purge. Keep only what we need ; everything else has to go. 






With less stuff out of the way, we can now see the new floor. New floor!!!!! soooo happy!





 

With a lot of our things either sold or given away to donations, our apartment felt much better. But there were still quite a bit of stuff to deal with. 







New Blinds! Finally some privacy restored! Makes me happy! Blinds are expensive. This and the floor were the most expensive part of the home renos. 






New floor! I am soooo happy! I still need to do some more painting. 






I finally completed assembling the wall unit in the bedroom so we can have storage. Such a nice feeling! 





This was what my trip to IKEA looked like. This was one shopping experience.  You see the woman in white shirt? Behind her are all my purchases in IKEA. Imagine that!  All these needed to be assembled by me! :-) 

Tuesday

December 3, 2013


Home Reno Challenge: turn this ugly bathroom beautiful, bright, clean and comfortable on a budget. That sink has to go. The floor needs a lot of work. That awful dirty yellow paint is atrocious. I'm excited. I can't wait to get the job done! 







Looking at possibilities for design. I have to work around that green tub and the green toilet. Exploring ideas. Should I go with a bold print for a wall design? Should I keep it simple and safe? Will it be easy on the eyes? Hmmmm. I love this project. 








Floor work: Next challenge: What floor should I go with? what paint swatch should I use to guide my overall design. Lots of planning, exploring, imagining… all part of the project.







I'm thinking maybe a mirror about that size can go into that spot I marked with a green painter's tape.







Baseboard and flooring finally decided on. This will be the basis of my design.

Monday

December 2, 2013



A new day begins.  With a painter's tape I got from the dollarama across the street, I tried to imagine how to make the best use of our very limited space.  The blinds will have to go. 







I was a bit sad not having Ron with me in our new home. But I knew that I had to focus on the tasks that needed to be done. Doing reno's isn't really Ron's thing anyways. 








Now with the blinds taken down, the dirty, carpet has to go too.







  I was able to find a professional installer named Tony to get the carpeting removed.







 Underneath, we found parquet flooring. It was going to cost quite a bit of money to have the original flooring restored. Ron says he didn't like parquet flooring. Hmmmmm what to do now?






Sunday

December 1, 2013

 Ron had to go back to work in Elko. I would be staying in Vancouver in our new home by myself and get the needed renovations done.  Kerry gave us a ride to the airport and back.






Ron on his way to Cranbrook. His flight leaves soon.







 Back at our new home, boxes everywhere. The serious work now begins. I am up to the challenge.






First thing to go were the very dusty blinds. I now begin writing a very long list of things to do.

January 26, 2016

Today Ron comes home from his long Vacation. I am so excited for his homecoming that I decided to make an art wall. Lots of meas...