I used to watch “This Old House” with my Dad when I was a kid, and loved seeing Bob Vila turn disasters into dreams in such a seamless, seemingly effortless fashion (and in 22 minutes!). This is no Bob Vila project extraordinaire, but the first stages of the renovations to the new house are almost complete. There is still a lot left to be done, but after painting every day after work and on the weekends, we’ve made some serious progress. My parents bought this house, which is across from my old high school (Go Panthers!), to accommodate both Fernwood and a living space for Matt and I. Matt and I truly lucked out in this situation as the living space is 2000 square feet and our rent is only going up another $200 from the bug-infested, ramshackled gong show of an apartment that we live in now.
The only major renovations needed to the living space are a few new windows, new kitchen counters, and a new bathroom vanity that our contractor is going to build for us. The rest was simply cleaning and painting. And by ’simply’ I mean ‘painstakingly’ because this place was a fucking pit when we got possession. Picture this, if you will: a two-storey house in which four dudes lived that was not once cleaned or vacuumed, had been outfitted with apparently the Pentagon’s security system, and had been used for the sole purpose of watching hockey games and what appears to have been spraying grease on the ceiling of every room. Awesome for a frat party, not so hot for when you want to take a shower without getting salmonella.
We cleaned our hearts out for a few days, and set to paint every single surface in the place. The bathroom, in particular, was a nightmare. My Dad took the task of ripping out the old shower insert and replacing the damp giprock behind it. He referred to entering that tub or using the toilet as “taking your life in your own hands.” I don’t understand how a person could get naked and then step into that tub to have a shower – it was covered in what can only be described as a mixture of blood, diarrhea, and rust. Sexy!
The whole place was painted “apartment white” – you know, that creamy, off-white colour that you can buy in huge vats for the price of a happy meal? So we changed that mighty quick. Here are some before shots:
The kitchen – main floor
The dining room – main floor – complete with the outline left after I ripped off the foam-mounted Monet poster that was stapled to the wall.
The pink bathroom – second floor
You can’t have a pink bathroom without a pink toilet now, can you?
The living room – second floor
Another view of the living room from the master bedroom – that door is a fire escape with such serious security bars we refer to it as “Cell Block D”
The bedroom, complete with GIANT CLOSET
In addition to the bathroom, living room, and master bedroom, the second floor also has two smaller bedrooms – one of which will be the office, and other the “guest room” (read: empty room because we have no furniture). We’ve painted each room a different colour, and while we tried not to move into crazy territory with our colour choices (and tried to avoid drab country), there are a few that we weren’t super pleased with. The guest room, for one, turned out to be a much darker shade of blue that we had expected. The living room turned out to be much more purple than plum, unfortunately. But, we’re so painted out that we’re not prepared for any do-overs, so we’re just going to move our stuff in and make it work. Purple living room be damned.
The carpets are going to be cleaned on Thursday, and Matt and I are going to move in Sunday and Monday (with the help of his friends, thank god). The windows, countertops, and bathroom likely won’t get started until sometime in July, given that this is apparently home reno ‘busy season’, but hopefully at that point I’ll be on a beach in the Dominican and it will all be done by the time I get back.
But our work doesn’t end at the living space. We’re praying that the woman occupying the business unit in the front moves before her lease is up at the end of February, and that we can get the cleaning, painting, and wall-removing on that place done in a timely enough fashion that we avoid complete exhaustion. This is the first time since we got cable that I cannot even stand the sight of Mike Holmes. Bob Vila, though, I’ll never tire of.
Filed under: Awesome | Tagged: family, homelife, Ice Cream Cohen, photos
Yes! So awesome to be able to see your new place, via the ooold interweb. Love the black and white floors. Seriously, they are so vintage and cool. And the place is HUGE! And awesome! Can’t wait to see more pics!