Townhouse Powder Room

It seems with everything I hate while it is happening, I love to brag about how great it was once it's over. Renos are no exception. Maybe because the current reno though long and drawn out, has been relatively painless.

And since my current reno is still in the rough stages I am bringing you a flash from the past Before and After. This is the main floor powder room in all it's flower border- paintable textured wallpaper- hand stenciled glory. Yup, it was quite the work of art.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ignore the potty and step stool.

I didn't take this pic to share with the world, it just worked out that way.

This whole place was fixed up quite affordably, and the powder room was no exception. It got the same laminate floor as the rest of the main floor.

After the wallpaper was carefully removed, which took a while, it got a coat of blue paint.

The mirror came down too, it was replaced by a mirror from my Grandma B which I painted white. I couldn't part with it so the mirror is now in my baby girl's room.

The door got painted, the door knob replaced (huge difference). The new light fixture over the sink isn't pictured here.

The counters got painted and held up very well for the 3 years we lived there.

Then we hung a new towel holder and some shelves left over from our last place and there ya go.

BEFORE

AFTER

It doesn't look like much but it made a big difference at the time!

kitchen, pass through

This is just a little quick before and after. I love Before and After pictures.

It thrills my heart. I am not quite sure why... but it does.

These particular pictures come from the first place we owned, a 1200 sq ft townhouse. I have written about it before. We bought it for pretty cheap and it was kinda run down, and everything was pink or beige. The floor in the kitchen was pink tiles, the cabinets were very rough honey oak. With the sexy hardware in the middle of the door. And the walls and counter were beige.

Remember it was the time when everyone had a very dark brown wood kitchen when you look at the pics.

BEFORE

The pass through was tiny. I have seen this before, it's not great but I've seen it. Aaron on the other hand was baffled. In the kitchen is a giant sunny window, in the living room is kinda dark. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that? So we consulted our friend who checked it out, wrote up plans, we handed the plans to the strata council, and waited.

Then we made it bigger.

And we painted the walls blue and added new track lighting and replaced the pink floor with dark laminate, and replaced the ancient dishwasher and stove.

And redid the cabinets with dark brown oil based paint, took the doors off the one cupboard, took one section out, and refinished the wall, added the wood ledge. And tiled the backsplash with white subway tiles. And re-drywalled part of the other side of the wall around it. And filled and sanded, and filled and sanded. You get the idea.

AFTER

And it only took a few MONTHS. Nothing big.

And I wasn't impatient once.

I made that last part up.

But it did look good. And I loved it.

More Before and Afters

Kitchen Edition. This is the townhouse kitchen. When we bought it the cupboards were in quite poor shape. They were an upgrade from the original cupboards, that were in all the other units but they were dated and sun damaged. The window in this kitchen was large and bright in the afternoon, so all the cupboard doors facing the window were peeling and badly in need of refinishing. The also had the lovely hardware in the middle of the doors that dated the whole kitchen terribly.

This was the first place we owned so I had big plans, and no idea how time consuming they would be. I also knew we would be living in the townhouse about 5 years (turned out to be 3) so resale value was a big factor.

I initially planned to strip and re-stain the cabinets a more modern walnut colour, but after a consultation with the paint store guy (who tried it on his own place and said it failed terribly after weeks of work), and my own sanding/striping efforts which took over 4 hours for one door, I decided to paint instead. I had R who was 10 months at the time and I wanted a finished kitchen sometime before he moved out of the house. I was still big on the wood look so I painted the cupboards brown. A few of my loved ones tried to talk me out of it, but I knew it would be right, and I loved the result.
We did a few structural-ish changes in the kitchen, including adding the microwave/hood fan combo, which was harder than you'd expect, and opening up the pass through to make a real window sized opening. Both involved altering cabinetry and of course, using power tools, so when I say "we" here I mean my lovely husband did it and I asked "How much longer?" at least 50 times while he slaved away. In the end I liked the new kitchen, even though I would have liked to change the counter out, etc. I guess it didn't matter much for resale as the new owner ripped it all out! A said it was ok, because we would have done that if we had the time/money, but I still feel a twinge when I think it is all gone.
In the end this update didn't cost much at all, paint for cupboards and walls (we used oil paint on the cupboards by the way and it held up very well), new hinges and handles, cheap subway tile backsplash, new laminate, and new dishwasher/stove/microwave. The appliances all came from coast wholesale appliance and they were cheap and worked great. Actually the microwave was top of the line, since I don't really cook (well) I thought that would get the most use! That's all, loved how it was just the right size and just so cute!

take up the mantel

This is that regular scheduled decorating I was referring to before. We moved into this house in the beginning of October and I was slowly working on decorating, then BAM. Christmas came and everything had to be shuffled and redone for the season. Now that Christmas is officially over at our house, there are decorating issues to get back to. Namely the living room.

This is the old place, the townhouse. I was pretty happy with the living room here. It was summer when this pic was taken so the colours are a bit different from what I am working with now, and the configuration is different. My current living room has a long mantel and bookshelves on either side. It's a lot of space to cover.







Here are some shots of how it looked in November...














Now there are six black framed pictures over the fireplace instead of the empty void.... here are some old close ups....

So the big question is
What should I do now?
Working on it.