A little too big

In my previous post "Shiny & New"  I posted that the new appliances are in and the old ones are gone. Well that true, BUT one  new appliance didn't fit. Our new microwave that's supposed to go over the stove, doesn't fit into the space. It's 1/8" bigger!  So as a result we've decided to remodel the whole kitchen!

Yes, we've decided to get new cabinetry, new countertops, new backsplash and maybe even floors for the kitchen. Well, we always knew that we will have to invest into new countertops, new backsplash and new facing for the existing cabinetry. But with the new developments, we decided to go all out and make our kitchen cozy and stylish.

Ideally we would like to do the following:

•  new flooring

• new backsplash

• granite countertops

• breakfast bar with seating for 2

• remove "facing wall" that separates kitchen and living room

• new cabinetry that extends all the way to the ceiling

• smart and stylish solution for storage on the side

That's a pretty big list and it will cost accordingly, but of that's what it takes to make me want to cook, then be it!

Basically new year will be all about massive renovation projects, lots of dust, building supplies and hopefully a finished kitchen. Stay tuned for more in 2014.

Last Drop

The appliances are now in the kitchen and that means that most of the heavy lifting is done and it's time to paint the main entrance staircase. We decided to paint  it last because when our fridge was delivered the wall was terribly scratched and damaged during  the process. To make sure that we didn't have to paint this staircase twice, Alex and I decided to leave this wall until all heavy duty listing is done.

The delivery crew were very careful and nothing was scratched or damaged. I was eager to paint the wall, and as a result, I painted the entry and the staircase - all in one day. Most of the prep was done before, so it was a quick turnaround this time.

The New Year is upon us and I hate to leave things unfinished, so painting the staircase was absolutely wonderful. The kitchen still need a lot of love, but we are getting there.

I'm looking forward to the progress in the year to come.

Shiny & New

Boxing Day sales are a big 'no-no' in my household. I've worked in the retail industry and marketing long enough to know that it's all just a big trick to get everyone to buy more stuff. But if a Boxing Day is the only available day when you and your hubby have  the time to go shopping for appliances together- it becomes a big 'yes-yes' for me.

So this boxing day, Alex and I went to a few large retail stores to buy a few shiny appliances. We bought a set of microwave, stove and a dishwasher. Fridge was a already purchased about a year ago when we first moved in, here is the post about that.

Our old white appliances are gone and new shiny stainless steel appliances are in!  YAY.

The kitchen is starting to look more like a real kitchen. Well, there are many boxes there now and everything is out of place, but it will look nice soon!

Accessorizing

Now that the walls are freshly painted and the furniture is put back in place, it's time to add a personal touch to this red hot living room. Alex and I travel often and to commemorate every trip we add another photo to our "Travel Wall". I haven't put up any photos in our new place yet, including the "Travel Wall". But now that red wall is ready, I can't think of a better place to display our travel photos.

 

Hanging photos is tricky because "if it's not  a right angle, it's a wrong angle" and I'd hate to see poorly displayed photos in my new home. 

 

I love little knickknacks and cozy pillows in my home. I believe they add personality and  a splash of colour to any living space. I already have a great collection of various things that i would like to display in the living room, most of the stuff that was there before is definitely coming back. But I love to change things up from time to time, so some new pieces will be added. I also love to mix old and new pieces together to create an eclectic feel. My newest craze is patterns and textures. I love mixing and matching, it's so much fun. 

 

Here are some photos of the whole process of getting our living room ready for living. ;)

Delicious Red

After a long day of paining yesterday, the staircase and the feature red wall were painted once while the ceiling had two coats of paint. Thanks for my two little helpers most of the work was done on Saturday, but there was still more work left to do today.

After a few hours of hard work, the staircase and the feature wall were done! I was pleased with the calm beige colour I picked for the staircase and most of my living space, but I was mostly excited about red hot feature wall in the dining room.

I wanted to paint a feature wall in the dining nook ever since we moved in to our house about a year ago, but I had a really hard time convincing Alex that it would be a good idea. Luckily, I have the advantage of design software and I created this mockup to showcase what we could accomplish.

 

I created this image to illustrate what I wanted to do with the feature wall. I wanted to showcase our travel photos somewhere in our new house and this dining nook wall seemed perfect for it.

 

It turned out a lot easier to "sell" the idea with my visual aid in hand and here are some great photos of the whole process - finishing the staircase and paining red wall.

 

 

Just have to hang our travel photos and we are set!

 

Huge thanks to Anna and Alexandra for all your hard work this weekend. I wouldn't be able to get all this work done without your help!

Painting party

With the Christmas holidays approaching at the accelerating rate, I've come to realize that the summer is long gone and I'm behind with my renovation projects. I'm not going to get into the bathroom and kitchen at this point, but I must address my living room.  While we were able to get a few extra arm chairs for the living room to make it more of the entertainment corner, we still haven't painted the space since we moved in.

So now that the holidays are here and things are not as busy with work, it would be a perfect time to get that painting job done.  I invited my sister and Alex's sister to help us paint the living/dining room - a mini painting party with max results!

 

4 people, 2 days, one large open living space - I think that's very doable!  I picked mellow beige for the wall colour that will complement our flooring, bright accessories and furniture. Traditional white trim will highlight and brighten the space. The feature wall is bright red! 

 

Armed with rollers, tape and wine the girls and I were hard at work all day long. We painted the ceiling (two coats), walls in the living room and the staircase, plus a red feature wall in the dining room! What a great and productive day. If it wasn't for my sisters' help I wouldn't be able to get all this work done. Huge thanks to Anna and Alexandra for all your hard work today. 

I can't wIt for tomorrow to finish what we've started.

 

Here are some great shots of today's progress! Check back for more pics and updates tomorrow.

 

1 Year and Counting...

It's hard to believe but we've been living in our new home for one full year already. On November 30th Alex and I celebrated our first year at the house. We spent some time reminiscing about the old days of condo living, new challenges of owning and renovating a house and our house reno aspirations for the years to come. I also, went around the house and took some photos to assess what we accomplished in one year.

 

So far we've done a few things around the house to make it more "homy". We painted most of the rooms and bought a few additional pieces of furniture, but there is still a few more things to do. However, the house is starting to look more and more like a home.

Being realistic...!

The key to successful renovation is being realistic! And that's a key factor that I forgot to take into the consideration when I planned to have all renos completed in the summer. The truth is that I had a very eventful summer filled with Birthday parties, concerts, traveling and even a few weddings. In fact my summer was so full of wonderful celebrations that I didn't even care about getting any of the things on my "house to do" list done.

I had a very ambitious plan to finish the kitchen and bathroom renovations, but I ended up doing absolutely nothing during the summer. So as soon as leaves started to change colours and sky became grey, Alex and I were back to the drawing board.

After a serious consideration we've decided to do the following:

1.       Finish Alex's Bathroom first because it required the least amount of work
2.       Renovate Master Bathroom second
3.       Concentrate our efforts on the Kitchen
4.       Paint the rest of the Living Room/Dining room

We plan on painting everything at the very end of all heavy duty renos because I'm quite positive there will be scratches on the walls especially after all the heavy equipment and appliances that will have to be carried up the narrow staircase.

While we are in search of tiles, granite countertops, faucets and other materials for the bathrooms, Alex and I have already started a few things. We painted the upstairs hallway and one wall in the living room (this wall is far away from the entrance and wouldn't be damaged during kitchen renos).  We also bought a lovely armchair to spice up our living room and are currently in search of a futon for the office and a love seat that will complete our living room sitting area.

I'll do my best to keep up with all the new things happening in the house. Stay tuned for more.

Kitchen Progress

We are finally moving forward! Now that we have more time to dedicate to our kitchen renos, we are totally committed to getting it done this summer.

Big thanks to Kathy who has some great ideas and suggestions for our kitchen. Seeing this sketch makes me want to start on the kitchen renovations as soon as possible. I'm very excited!

I know it is a lot of work, but I'm optimistic!

Kitchen Nightmares

 

This is our kitchen. And it needs a little bit of love. Well actually it needs a lot of love.  When we moved in, Alex and I decided to work on this kitchen first. But we soon realized that it will require a lot of work and therefore we pushed it down the renovation list. This is also the biggest and the most expensive project in the house that we'll work on.

 

The Kitchen is fully functional and everything works as it should. However, some of the stylistic choices of previous owners don't align with ours.  This kitchen features outdated white appliances, mirror back-splash,  pinkish cabinets and cheap purple counters.

While some people would like this colour scheme, Alex and I can't wait to update this Kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops and dark wood cabinetry.

Our plan is to tackle this huge project this summer.  All we have to do is decide what we want to do, buy all supplies and get someone to actually do all the work.