To summarize the past 2 years we should paint a picture of the house as it was when we bought it. The old owners lived in the house for 20 years and not only chain smoked inside but we feel they didn't clean a day in the 20 years they were here!! SO needless to say the place needed a LOT of TLC to get it liveable. The first 3 weeks were spent scrubbing, cleaning and painting for about 12 hours a day! We could not have done it if it weren't for the great support we had of our friends and family. I believe there were some weekends where there were about 11 people painting in the small confinds of our kitchen/hallway!!
The kitchen before and after: We liked the wood cabinets in the kitchen, so the big jobs in the kitchen were cleaning and painting and replacing the flooring. The floor had cigarette burns in it and desperately needed replacing. Due to a tight budget and VERY uneven floors we went with stick down tiles. I am a master at them now... Ryan does not have the patience for installing the stick down tiles and after installing a few crooked he was removed from that job. :-) (this is my mom in the super dirty kitchen.... if you look closely you can see the dirt and the unwhite ceiling)
Kitchen After: Its hard to see the difference int he picture.. but it shone with cleanliness!!
The back hallway before: had astro turf for carpeting... yes that is correct fake grass carpeting!! The walls are wood panelling that they painted a nasty grey and which was caked in smoke!!
Hallway After: A good cleaning and painting does wonders!!
Bedroom #3 Before: This room is a 8 by 9 room which is small. So we decided for the time being to make it a walk in closet. Before I get into the details of the makeover I should explain the oddness of this room. There was a curtain at one end that used to be the opening to a closet... the old owners opened up the closet on the kitchen side and put the fridge in it to make more space in the kitchen. Great idea... however they never put drywall up in the bedroom to hide the back of the closet. So there was a big opening looking at the back of the fridge! Since our house is so old and was plaster and lathe and this room was wallpapered. It was decided to gut the room and properly insulate it. So day 2 of our adventures in home ownership started with tearing down walls.
Closet After: I loved the idea of the Extend-It Closet sytsem that you can get at Canadian Tire. However, the base system is $75 and then you need extra pieces to add onto it. So being the shopping savy person I am I found it for $25 on craigslist and Ryan was very proud of me! So after putting up new drywall and getting it mud and taped by Ryan's brother we were ready to go. We ended up being given a can of green paint and since we didn't really care what colour the room was we painted it green. We also had to put the stick down tiles in here as well because the flooring was puke yellow tiles underneath dirty dirty carpeting!
The Basement Before: So not only did the astro turf carpeting go down the back stairwell... BUT it was in the basement as well... I think this picture says it all!
Basement After: We painted the wood panelling and ripped up the disgusting carpet and it made a HUGE difference!!
Thats it for now. Stay tuned for the living room/spare bedroom makeover that happened last year!!
It's really Nasty. That green floor haven't been clean recently. It's good you have decided to renovate your home
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