Sunday, January 24, 2016

What The House Looks Like Post Reno and another Thrift Find!


I promised some pictures now that the reno is done with only a few tiny things left to do.  Here we go - beautiful new quartz countertops, subway grey tile back-splash, and all new stainless steel appliances.  You can't see the dishwasher as it is on the other side of the breakfast bar.


The subway tile looks great with the counter and new appliances



To the right you can see where our utility/laundry/dog bathing/freezer area is.  We made no changes except added a few more shelves. It has a pocket door so if you are doing laundry and it gets too noisy you can close the door - or if Buddy tries escaping bath-time same thing, you can lock him in.

New flooring replacing offwhite lowgrade carpet, new 1880s treasure cupboard

I hated having carpet in the dining room - the laminate is Armstrong commercial grade that is hopefully made to stand up to both dog and humans.  I love the way it looks.  Our new/old display cabinet we bought in the fall looks great in the bump out.  As you can see, we have an open concept living space with tons of windows which make it difficult to get decent photos.

New living room sectional - our old area rug and footstool work with it

In the living room only the old sofa/loveseat combo went and we bought this sectional.  The area rug and footstool we have had for 12 plus years.  I am not entirely sure the rug and sofa go together but we are keeping the rug as have always loved it and it has lots of life left in it.

New metal air grates (old were plastic)

One of the smallest things about our reno that I love the most is changing out the plastic vent covers to metal.  We should have done that when we first bought the house but we replaced every single one including rooms which were not renoed.  We bought these at home depot in packs of 3, I think they were about $12 each but well worth it.  The flooring company was suggesting very expensive wood vent covers - I quickly vetoed that after we had a quick look at a few cheaper options.

One of 3 new lights and our new slate house number (old ones paint was coming off down siding)

We sprung for new house numbers with our three new exterior lights (2 front, 1 side).  All 3 old lights and house numbers were experiencing weather related issues.  Hopefully these will last longer than 7 years which is how old the house was.

New Back-splash and Countertops

We kept the old kitchen sink and hardware which were pretty decent but the new counter/back-splash goes pretty nicely with them.  I was poor at taking before shots so the only one you see is our old exterior light - very weather beaten.  The rest of these photos were taken from the realtor shots which I posted previously on the blog but you can see how much the house has changed.  It definitely reflects our taste now.

Old Exterior Light - weatherbeaten
Realtor Photo - Prior Owners furniture Living Room
Realtor Photo-Dining/Living area (prior owners stuff)
Kitchen Previously (Realtor photo from prior owner)

We had budgeted $20,000 for the reno and that is what it came in (minus the new furniture).  We purposefully bought a smaller house that cost $100,000 less than others we had looked at and put some wanted upgrades in.  If we didn't have the cash which we set aside when we bought it we wouldn't have done any of this - but better to do the upgrades now so we can enjoy it for the next 20 years versus doing renos just before you sell like most people do.  We put matching quartz countertops in both bathrooms but need to frame out the mirrors and do some painting in there - spring projects still to come.  I also want to put up drapes around the patio door since we took down the vertical blinds.  Our two living room lamps have seen better days - You can't tell but both shades are cracked due to teenage wrestling matches in our previous home (**or possibly teenager versus Dad, but he'll never tell).


The thrifting gods were good to me Saturday as I had heard my new favorite thrift store was running low on donations so I dropped off two grocery-bags full of clothes there and I found these - four 2 gallon glass storage containers with plastic tops for $4 each or $16 total.  I quickly scooped them up as have been looking for larger food-safe containers ever since I bought the 18kg (40 lbs) of rice in September.  I also bought 10kg (22lbs) of flour last week at Costco for $6.99 so needed extra room for that.  They fit in the bottom of one of the corner cupboard lazy susan's just perfectly and now all the extra rice and flour is tucked away. I shall never have food storage issues again!  According to the stickers on the bottom I believe they came from a restaurant supply place out of Vancouver.  It seems a bit extreme to buy in these large quantities but that is how I meet our monthly food budget - by getting the absolute lowest price on things we use often.

Have a great week everyone!


31 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! Enjoy your new space-and the jars were a great find.

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    1. Thanks Sam! I have been looking for a storage solution for months so the jars were an extreme find :)

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  2. Nice...you must be so happy that it's almost done. Good choice on the vent registers. I agree, a nice touch for not much money compared to the plastic ones.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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    1. The plastic ones were terrible, I know they are cheap but based on how long you own your house something definitely worth upgrading.

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  3. It must be nice to have it done. Sensible to do renos at the beginning so you can enjoy them. Had a little laugh at the mental picture you painted of Buddy's bathtime.

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    1. Buddy is pretty good but not keen on getting into the bath. No fighting once he's in though.

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  4. What an accomplishment! It all looks beautiful! Love the jars, perfect for storing grains and flour!

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  5. That's the way to do it, save here and enjoy something special there. The kitchen is great! - Margy

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  6. The changes really elevated the look and feel of your kitchen. You're right about people renovating just before selling. We did that with our house in PA and had little time to enjoy the improvements. You have a beautiful home. Relax and enjoy it now that all that work is done.

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    1. Thanks - we did the same in our last home too. We intend to stay here for a very long time so now other than upkeep and maintenance we are done!!

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  7. The house looks absolutely beautiful. Can I move into your kitchen? I don't know why I have such a thing for kitchens. I don't cook. But I DO clean. Everything has been done so well. Which specific Armstrong laminate did you choose? We're getting ready, finally, to start doing some work on our apartment and also plan to install laminate flooring. We find ourselves leaning toward that same look. Great job! Great home! Enjoy it all!

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    1. Thanks Mitchel! The laminate we used was http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/laminate/reclaimed-american-chestnut-aged-chestnut-wood-plank-L6604/floor-130154.asp. It is supposed to be more durable (even commercially rated). I love the look and if you did happen to chip it you could simply add some black to that area and hide it easily due to the pattern of the wood.

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  8. Gorgeous! The floors look fabulous - I love the newer looks of laminate and they held up to all four of my kids plus two cats. It looks like a new home! Great job!

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    1. The new laminates are quite hardy. We had laminate in our last home that prior owners installed - it was not nearly as nice as this stuff. Worth spending a little more.

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  9. I'm in love with your house!! It looks amazing. You make me want to start a project. Hmmmmm, maybe a bathroom?

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    1. Seriously - think long and hard. The end is worth it - the middle bits not so much

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  10. So modern, simple and clean looking, congrats!

    So what was the total time frame from start to finish on the kitchen? I only ask because we are contemplating a major reno in ours. I am hoping I don't have to cook for a long, LONG time while ours is done.....lolz

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    1. 6 months but we were our own general contractor hiring each tradesperson/company as we went. We had to fit it around our business so took much longer than it would have otherwise.

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  11. It is all so lovely. I agree that doing the reno's now is important so that you can enjoy it. When we put in our flooring they tried to talk us into those horrible wooden registers. we ended up with something similar to yours.

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    1. Those wooden registers are terrible, aren't they? Expensive and ugly - no thanks! I like the ones we chose. They are a bit funky, like the rest of the house.

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  12. As a rockhound I am in love with your quartz countertop! (Can't say I like how the former owners arranged their furniture - they sure liked leather!) Nice thrift find! Jars are handy for so many things!

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    1. Thanks! I loved rocks when I was a kid - it appealed to that side of me - Hubby and I both instantly liked it.

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  13. We use the same jars for herbs at the studio I go to class, they're perfect :) Great score. And your home is beautiful! Your kitchen looks like the expensive version of my apartment's, haha :) They're twins.

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  14. It looks fantastic, love the Victorian glazed cupboard so much. xxx

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    1. Thanks and welcome home! Can't wait to see all your adventures from Goa.

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  15. Wow, I love your kitchen! That subway tile backsplash and those floors are my favorite things! Thank you for commenting on my bedroom feature on Vanessa's blog!

    Tania

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