Sunday, May 24, 2015

New House!

While our brief time in a condo was lovely... I do not think that condo life is for us. So we bought a beautiful little cottage just around the corner.

The Before Photos (with someone else's things inside it...)-

The house from the street... lots of curb appeal!


The front vestibule... surprisingly large but no built-in closet.



The dining room... really good size with terrific floors and trim.




The living room... 
 




 The kitchen... needs some tlc. Floors have to go and the wall colour is not working for me.



The eat-in kitchen... lots of unrealized potential. That cabinet has to go!



The back porch... clearly a prevously underused space. Would make a perfect and functional mudroom. Lots of built-ins.



The master bedroom... small but functional. Closet needs a door!



Bedroom #2... again small but functional. Wallpaper is going!



The front porch... the floorboards needs to be sanded but everything else is in good shape!




The garage... really cute little space!



The bathroom... panda window...hmmm?


The backyard... long, well landscaped and maintained. Basically all you can ask for.





Thursday, May 21, 2015

What's Left for Jenn's New Place

Well I haven't posted most of the after photos for Jenn's new place yet but they are on their way. Other than Jenn's master bedroom we are getting to the finishing touches everywhere else in the house... and it has really come a long way!
Here is a list of the final missing or unfinished elements.

1) Finish the front closet. Not much needs to be done here but take down the old cheap looking hooks and put up the nicer (already purchased and in the house) hooks. Maybe even take down the old closet pole in lieu of the new hooks.

2) Add big peace lily to the living room. Not only do they look great and let you know when they need to be watered but they also clean the air in your home. Love peace lilies. The pot is already there but still needs to be painted cream.


3) Paint all remaining elements that need to be cream e.g. coffee table, plant pot and saucer, magazine stand, bench, curtains rods, etc. I think a painting party is in our future...

4) Add a lovely white floor lamp to the living room. The floor lamp she currently has is really ugly and darkens the room more then anything else.


5) Find a thrift coffee table (preferably with a lower shelf for computer/television set-up) and paint it cream. Something similar to this:


6) Add bamboo blinds to the front window for extra privacy and their good looks. I especially love when they are hung with cream curtains (which these will be).

7) Remove the old phone jack from the kitchen wall then plaster, sand and paint.

8) Remove the awkward shelf above the kitchen peninsula.

9) Finish the mini mud room in the kitchen (at the back door).

10) Put up the new curtains for the patio doors and hem them... actually hem all the curtains in the house.

11) Start and finish jenn's master bedroom makeover.

12) Come up with a vignette for the landing at the top of the stairs.

13) Do something with the very blue (but newly renovated) bathroom.

14) Hang the closet door in the girls room.

I think that covers everything!

The unfinished basement needs a ton of work but that is another story...



 

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Small Cool

I love the Small Cool Contest at Apartment Therapy and this year is off to a bang! Check out this amazing tiny space... and there are only 9 entries so far. I think I found my winner!



Monday, May 4, 2015

Gallery Walls- Spaced Out or Tightly Packed?

So I am working on my apartment master bedroom gallery wall. It will be quite large spanning one entire side of the room. I have frames up there. It is a lot of frames... some new and some old (but painted to match). I am now trying to decide whether I prefer the frames to be tightly packed or to be spaced out... or a mix of the two...

loosely packed (with some variation)


tightly packed (with mostly large frames)

 

somewhere in between (with a little bit of everything)

 
hmmm...