Renos

Sigh. Renovations.  Before starting out on some home renovations I was excited, thrilled, curious, etc.  Now?  I realize why people say renovations and then groan afterwards.  They take longer than you think, they cost more than you budgeted, and there are inevitable snags along the way.  Take for example, our office/guest room.  It was one of the few rooms in our townhouse that we didn't paint when we first moved in.  It had two colours (why?) and random pieces of wood attached to walls, holes, dents etc.  We decided to repaint a lighter colour and get a bit more organized.  "More organized" meant a trip to Ikea where we purchased their lovely floating shelves.  

Note to self: never. buy. them. again.  

I have  a love/hate relationship with Ikea.  Often things look so functional but they take more work to install than they can be worth sometimes.  SO we painted the room, it was all coming together, ALL we had yet to do was put items on this newly screwed in shelf.  On went the files and off went the shelf.  The whole thing literally ripped out of the wall and just about smoked me in the head.  It has now taken 4 + weeks to fix the wall.  The holes were huge and Jason had to:

 cut out the drywall, 

put in 2X4 in between the studs, 

buy new drywall anchors, 

put a new piece of drywall on, 

putty it, 

tape it, 

re-paint it, 

and THEN put up the shelf for attempt #2.  

These ikea shelves are stupid because 1. their screw placements don't match typical stud spots in a wall and 2. they hold very little weight.  GRRR.  So much for organizing the office better since these shelves can't hold much weight, tell me, WHAT in an office doesn't weigh much?

Finally my office/guest space has come together although there are a few things I'd still like to do:  I'd love to figure out a curtain to go over our closet-door-less closet and perhaps find a nice area rug?  We also have to fix our heavy bookshelf to the wall so that if Silas climbs it, he doesn't pull it on himself.  Sigh.  Renos are  NEVER done.  There's always more you want to do!  

our office when we bought our place 2 years ago. ugh.  we liked the built in desk though

prepping for paint

see how dark it was?

new paint, new shelves.  I was aiming for olive green- but the walls turned out mintier than I hoped for.  Oh well, it sure brightens it up though! 

new frames from thrift store (finally framed our university certificates!), re-covered cushions and garage sale finds, newly covered bulletin boards on the wall

kinda dark- but this is my 'craft' center.  I found jars on the side of the road which became my craft storage 

help!  What colour of cloth should I use for the closet cutrain??

Our kitchen is a similar story.  We started with tiling the backsplash which was a very involved process. We had to rip off the oak board that was there, prep the wall, put the tile up, put in the grout, clean it off, and then apply the silicone.  Phew.  We also changed out our sink faucet (cause it was terrible) and because there's always more you could to to make it nicer, we changed out our hood fan to be stainless steel to match the rest of our appliances.  NOW I'd love to make it more functional- you know, organize my endlessly chaotic tupperware cupboard etc.  There's lots we could do to make it our dream kitchen like change countertops and cabinets- BUT lets be honest, we won't fit in this townhouse much longer so we just want to make it nice enough to re-sell in a year or so.

Our kitchen when we bought 2 years ago.  Notice the green, the mis-matched white hood fan...the oak 'backsplash' or whatever that is

prior to demolition (we had painted the walls chocolate brown)

taking apart the old 'backsplash'

we had to apply an enhancer to the tiles.  The one on the left is how it looks with the enhancer and on the wall

prior to silicone

completed!  New hood fan, tiles up, etc  Cause I'm anal- need a new stainless steel coffee maker- the one I have is white and well, it's older than me =)

new sink faucet

chalkboard paint =) (ignore stuff on top of my fridge, gotta figure out where to put the clutter)

What's on our to-do list next?  Bathroom vanities- which will mean re-flooring, re-painting, the whole show... making nice curtains, changing out light fixtures for nicer ones, and you know, having a baby sometime in there.  =)  Nothing like nesting to speed up home projects!