The Powder Room

 

I've been asked by several people to keep these up, so now comes my bathroom post!

 

If you remember, at the beginning the powder room looked like this: 

 

Boring and also that horrible green colour.  I don't even know what to describe it as: Mint?  Citrus? Mint mixed with citrus!?  Well, whatever it is, it's gone.

 

John did an excellent job of fixing the shower - the horrible off white one was gone, gone gone!  He even put in that bar thing so that the shower can be adjusted.  So good. 

 

 

 

 

 

After we painted the walls white we got tired of looking at a boring old shower, so we found this shower curtain at Wal-Mart of all places.

 

We removed the old vanity style lights,  I hate those things - and John had to patch up the wall so that the nicer lights could go up (the photos didn't come out so well - they look like giant balls of light, as seen below!)

 

John changed the taps in the bathroom, and it's unbelievable what a difference it makes!  Also changing the mirror from a bland slice to this lovely one we found at HomeSense makes it look like a completely different place. 

 

You can just glimpse the new light John put in in the shower.  Doesn't it look different?

 

And there's the nice scroll-tile design towel I couldn't pass up from Homesense.  We also changed the towel rails which were horrible cheap plastic things.

 

And our lavender wreath has found a new home.  John looks impressed!

 

 

Also found this great little shelf at HomeSense.  I got the cannister from my Zia Bettina and filled it with fancy soap.  (I have enough soap to sink a battleship!)

 

Well there you have it!

xox

Ave

 

The Living Area

And we're back!  Here's a quick look at what has been done in the living room/dining room at the condo. 

 You may remember this was what it looked like before - I especially hated the shelving unit (which for some reason was attached to the wall with glue of some sort), the track lighting bothered me to no end, and the flooring had to go...it was pretty cheap looking and in some places they had tried to repair the flooring with glue and it left long grey messy marks.  Ick.

 So we got to work - John discovering the joys of CLR

 YESSS - The shelf has come down!

 And there's the space without the shelf - looks gross.  ha. 

 We got excited and bought some furniture - I really love the Hemnes line from Ikea.  Seriously.

 The miniature tv in all its glory!

 I have minimal documentation of the floor being put in, but suffice it to say that it makes an enormous difference!  I believe this one was called "Yorkshire Spruce"  and John says he's not sure there are that many spruce trees in Yorkshire...hm. 

 Ah yes, more bits of furniture we acquired at Ikea - these are Hemnes bathroom shelves, which I enjoy, and are the only ones that would fit in such a small space.  You can catch a glimpse on the right of the butterfly I rescued from the garbage at school in my first year teaching. 

 Then the couch arrived...and we joked for ages beforehand that it would come in pieces - har har, how amusing.  Yeah, it came in pieces. 

 John was not amused.  Much colourful language was used.

 But then it was done!  And I got my chaise longue I wanted, and it fits nicely in the corner! 

 We're still in the market for carpets - I'm looking for something like this that doesn't cost 500$.  Yes, this one actually costs that much, but that's because it's from Pottery Barn.  They have it in green too, but I can't see paying 500$ for it... bleh.  Ideas, anyone?  Moroccan scroll carpets are so hot right now.

I will leave you with this parting shot.  Its the truck that came to take away all the leftover crap our "contractor" left behind.  This is the view looking down on it from the balcony.  I believe I was doing a little dance as it drove off. 

Well, there you have it...

More pics to come as always

xox

Ave

Second Bedroom Mania

Well well!  I'm blogging like mad now, aren't I? 

Here's the next installment - what we did with that second bedroom.  It's a good sized room, with a closet, and a walk through to the powder room.  As you know, it started off with those double doors, and that weird kitchen window...

 I did like these doors, I did, but when you think about it, they opened outwards, taking up lots of space, and look at that wasted wall space...Mom came up with the idea to get rid of one of the doors, and I think it was brilliant. 

 Here's what it looked like inside before... look at that window thing.  Come on. 

 Closet space, yes, and the door to the bathroom. 

 And here's the semi-finished product!  We gained a lot of space there...

 Here's what it looks like looking towards the kitchen.  The exciting thing was, once this was done, we could FINALLY do the floor.  I was so tired of looking at that mess!

 You can see the smaller window, which will eventually have glass fitted... and of course that fantastic daybed.  I just love that thing!  And the purple toile pillows I got from one of mom's coworkers, with an old blanket mom has had for ages that just works perfectly. 

Time for a nap!

Lots more work to be done in here... We were going to put the desk in here, but when the bed is opened there isn't really enough space... We're working on it!!!

Thanks for reading!

xox

Ave

Ave's Kitchen Nightmares...

Kitchen Nightmares... Turn into kitchen loveliness?

We haven't quite finished the kitchen yet....we'll get there, once I can get a hold of someone to put some cursed tiles up as a backsplash.  The kitchen has been the source of a heck of a lot stress, and tears, and just... bleh.  I'm not made for setbacks, even if they are minor, and I swear I never want to go to Home Depot again.  I'm ashamed to admit I may have had a fit in the plumbing aisle...

Aaanyway, it's sad that we put our faith in a contractor (who had done work for my family before) and he was quite unreliable, and never finished what he started.  He just kind of...disappeared.  So we were left scrambling to find people to finish the jobs he started.  Anyway, take a look at what we did below...

Do you like the view?  ;)

It all started with a heck of a lot of cleaning... the previous owners weren't the tidiest people in the world, in fact the cupboards were all stained.

 We decided to hide the cheap laminate stuff on the peninsula...with my fave, white paint.

 I think it turned out pretty good - in fact the thing is almost unrecognisable!

 Anthropologie provided us with some knobs for the cupboards, luckily most of them were on sale...they get a bit pricey (10.00$ per knob...hm)

 John removed all the cupboards, and numbered them so we knew which order to put them back in. 

There is no photographic proof, but I actually used a "Random orbital sander" to remove all the weird stains and the cheap looking finish on the cupboards.

 We stained them then with a light white wash for a bit of a shabby chic feel, and put the knobs on...

 As you can see all the tiles were removed (they still are...grumble grumble), but we got excited and started putting things in the cupboards.

 Down below all the handles match, thank you Ikea (don't get me started on them right now though)

 And here's what the tea station looks like.  Yes, I said tea station...

After a while, we got Mr. Stucco to close up that hideous window and leave just a little one to get some light through.  Nice, right? So much better than it was.

Then came the new tap...which quite frankly makes a huge difference. The sink is kind of hideous because the previous owners stained it with something that neither CLR or Bleach will remove...We're working on it...

 After that came the fun part...and when I say fun, I mean not fun at all.  Our fantastic contractor (cough) had removed the old microwave (it was beyond saving) but also (for some reason) removed the cupboard above.  It seems nobody makes cupboards of that size anymore, so we had to make one ourselves (with a little help of the neighbours).  This is me attempting to cut out a hole in mdf.  Not that fun. 

The good news is - John is awesome and hung it up!  The new microwave is snug underneath...

 And that's how much better it looks now!  Just waiting to finish up those drawers soon... Unfortunately it may be another "make them yourself" job as the old ones were quite warped. 

 To finish off this post... John got a nice birthday present from my fams... a Kitchen Aid stand mixer that he had been eyeing for a while.  As you can see, he was rather pleased.

Then he got artsy.  Giggle.

The best thing was when J just stood there with his hands on his hips looking at the kitchen, and said "I think we're going to have one of those kitchens like they have in magazines".

Well that just made my day!

More to come...of course. 

Thanks for reading, and for the nice comments!

xox

Ave

Blank Canvas

Oh my how quiet I've been! 

I'll tell you quickly what's been taking up my time in the last few months - and here she is.  A condominium I seem to have purchased in a moment of insanity.  Ok fine, not insanity, I'd been planning it for ages, but then it finally happened, and lo and behold, here she is. 

Not much to look at really, when you think about it, but the potential my friends, oh the potential!

Here's the not so exciting kitchen...

 That happened to have some random window thing over the sink - Presumably to let light into the second bedroom.  First thing I said was "UGH, that's gotta go"...

 Semi unfortunate flooring, horrible shelving unit and weird light fixture...

 Master Bathroom, some form of odd hospital green.

 Double doors into the second bedroom, which in theory is a good idea, but in practice really doesn't work as they swing out and take up so much space...

 Here's the powder room, which has that same iffy colour to it. 

And the rest of the living room/dining room, that had some odd fake fireplace in it.  Hm.



And the master bedroom, that didn't look like much to start off with...

Well that's what the old girl looked like before we got our hands on her.  Want to know what it looks like now?  No, it's not quite finished, but after much annoyance, many setbacks, and me ripping out my own hair... it's starting to look like a livable place.

More to come my friends....

Ave

xox