And away we go again...
Good grief. My last entry was July 2012. "Blogger-fail"
For those who know me personally, you know how bad the past year and a half has been for me. In August of 2012 I lost my job, and that spiraled into many months of unemployment, and a serious relapse in my health. But after, what I can only refer to as a complete realign of the fates this past month, life is truly on it's way to normality...which has a nice ring to it. Thank you again to all my friends and family for their support, love, and encouragement. It's only in times of true strife that you realize who really has your back...and there were a lot more of them than I thought there would be, so I am most certainly blessed, and very grateful.
Anyway, so it's now time to get back to my reno, as I have made a big decision - I am going to focus on selling the condo this year. Yes, I know, it's like I just moved in, but there are some important financial reasons for me to sell, and I feel like it's the right time. I am going to bite the bullet and go back to renting in order to move to an area that I love. And as I want to have it on the market by June, it's time to step it up and get on with things.
Now things didn't totally come to a stand still. I have worked on a few things, so it's time to play catch-up. This is going to be in no particular order...because by this time I don't remember when I did what.
The Bathroom
Since I had A LOT of time on my hands (and I needed the distraction), I thought I would try to get some of the crappy jobs out of the way. One was the fixing and repainting of the bathroom ceiling.
First, it was time to "suit-up"! Yep, nothing's sexier than a pink duck shirt with the caption "Miami Duck" on it.
Then, the "fun part" (yep, I'll just keep repeating that it was "fun"...yep...F-U-N...sure) of spackling and sanding. Then I slapped on a layer of ceiling paint to finish.
Before:
And now...all good:
The Issue of Insects
As with any apartment dweller, I have had my share of run-ins with the odd insect. But I seemed to be finding them repeatedly in my bathroom. Of course, there was an easy explanation for that:
When there is a gaping 1/2" gap at the bottom of your baseboards between the floor and the wall, you might experience the odd visitor. So time for some caulking...
Ugh...Baseboards
As I looked down at said baseboards, the word "ew" came to mind. Yikes...didn't anyone ever clean those things?
.jpg)
A little elbow grease took care of the "ick" (not going to even think about what may have created the "ick")
Then I slapped down a little paint:
The Focus Wall
And, since I had some brown paint sitting around...might as well paint at least one wall in my bathroom. Though it involved a little force-able removal of the towel rack that was heavily glued to the wall:
Still have no idea where I'm going with this big brown wall...but it's a start.
Grab Your Caulk-ing (sorry...couldn't resist the double-entendre)
Another little "crap job" (def: crap job: reno jobs that are very boring and have little effect on the overall outcome of the project, but that you have to do anyway, because it will look like crap without said crap job), was to recaulk the very sad caulking job that was done around the tub.
The Solarium
The last crap job was the solarium ceiling. I was debating over whether or not to repair the popcorn, or just scrape the ceiling. The reason for the necessity of the decision was the fact that the former renters did not understand the concept of moisture and its effects on an enclosed space. Their inability to put 2 and 2 together resulted in black mold along the ceiling in front of the window. I removed the mold, but it required scraping the area in order to remove it all thoroughly. So anyway, I decided to scrape the ceiling. I think I will leave any pics to another time when I'm ready to take on the full project. So tune in at another time for all the solarium fun.
I'd love to say that I accomplished more than that over the last year and a half, but nope. Hard to focus on renos when your mind is full of thoughts of where your next pay cheque is coming from. And, lets face it, doing renos costs money, and I thought that it was a little more important to be paying my mortgage and buying groceries than painting the solarium.
But, the fates have finally smiled upon me and I can finally refer to myself as being "gainfully employed", so onward and upward! Time to get back to the renos at hand.
Oh, I did do something about the clock in the living room. I decided that clock would stay, but that I just needed to change the colour to give it a little pizzaz. So I decided to use up some more of my purple paint from the bedroom, and voila!
Yep, that's what it needed. A little facelift.
Oh, I got some fancy tealight holders:
Sparkly.
And, there was also the question of the lamps in the living room. I liked the addition of the crystals...but they still seemed to be missing something. Fabric markers to the rescue! I coloured in the upper and lower band around the shade with black fabric markers (available pretty much anywhere)...and got this:
Now that's what I'm talking about! Needed a little extra glam.
Oh, and there was also the rearrangement of the laundry room (again). The shelving unit in there was not serving much useable purpose, as every time I needed to get something I required several acrobatic moves in order to reach it. So I went with the slightly unconventional...a bookshelf:
Well I'll be darned if it just worked out perfectly...always think, and go, outside the box.
Uhm...I think that's it...maybe...I'm sure I'll come across something that I haven't posted sooner or later.
So let's get on with it...RENO 'S HO! (er somethin' like that)
Love, Laugh, and Make it Gorgeous!
Blogger on the Run
 |
| It's pretty bad when a grizzly thinks it's a fail |
For those who know me personally, you know how bad the past year and a half has been for me. In August of 2012 I lost my job, and that spiraled into many months of unemployment, and a serious relapse in my health. But after, what I can only refer to as a complete realign of the fates this past month, life is truly on it's way to normality...which has a nice ring to it. Thank you again to all my friends and family for their support, love, and encouragement. It's only in times of true strife that you realize who really has your back...and there were a lot more of them than I thought there would be, so I am most certainly blessed, and very grateful.
Anyway, so it's now time to get back to my reno, as I have made a big decision - I am going to focus on selling the condo this year. Yes, I know, it's like I just moved in, but there are some important financial reasons for me to sell, and I feel like it's the right time. I am going to bite the bullet and go back to renting in order to move to an area that I love. And as I want to have it on the market by June, it's time to step it up and get on with things.
Now things didn't totally come to a stand still. I have worked on a few things, so it's time to play catch-up. This is going to be in no particular order...because by this time I don't remember when I did what.
The Bathroom
Since I had A LOT of time on my hands (and I needed the distraction), I thought I would try to get some of the crappy jobs out of the way. One was the fixing and repainting of the bathroom ceiling.
First, it was time to "suit-up"! Yep, nothing's sexier than a pink duck shirt with the caption "Miami Duck" on it.
Then, the "fun part" (yep, I'll just keep repeating that it was "fun"...yep...F-U-N...sure) of spackling and sanding. Then I slapped on a layer of ceiling paint to finish.
Before:
 |
| This is what happens when the concept of turning on your bathroom fan eludes you... (not my doing) |
And now...all good:
The Issue of Insects
As with any apartment dweller, I have had my share of run-ins with the odd insect. But I seemed to be finding them repeatedly in my bathroom. Of course, there was an easy explanation for that:
When there is a gaping 1/2" gap at the bottom of your baseboards between the floor and the wall, you might experience the odd visitor. So time for some caulking...
Ugh...Baseboards
As I looked down at said baseboards, the word "ew" came to mind. Yikes...didn't anyone ever clean those things?
Then I slapped down a little paint:
 |
| (now, I accidentally bought clear caulking instead of white, but I used it for now. I'll correct it later) |
The Focus Wall
And, since I had some brown paint sitting around...might as well paint at least one wall in my bathroom. Though it involved a little force-able removal of the towel rack that was heavily glued to the wall:
Still have no idea where I'm going with this big brown wall...but it's a start.
Grab Your Caulk-ing (sorry...couldn't resist the double-entendre)
Another little "crap job" (def: crap job: reno jobs that are very boring and have little effect on the overall outcome of the project, but that you have to do anyway, because it will look like crap without said crap job), was to recaulk the very sad caulking job that was done around the tub.
.jpg) |
| so I broke out the x-acto knife |
 |
| in some areas the caulking barely existed |
 |
| very tedious job to clear out the old caulking |
.jpg) |
| But does it ever look nice when you're done! |
The last crap job was the solarium ceiling. I was debating over whether or not to repair the popcorn, or just scrape the ceiling. The reason for the necessity of the decision was the fact that the former renters did not understand the concept of moisture and its effects on an enclosed space. Their inability to put 2 and 2 together resulted in black mold along the ceiling in front of the window. I removed the mold, but it required scraping the area in order to remove it all thoroughly. So anyway, I decided to scrape the ceiling. I think I will leave any pics to another time when I'm ready to take on the full project. So tune in at another time for all the solarium fun.
I'd love to say that I accomplished more than that over the last year and a half, but nope. Hard to focus on renos when your mind is full of thoughts of where your next pay cheque is coming from. And, lets face it, doing renos costs money, and I thought that it was a little more important to be paying my mortgage and buying groceries than painting the solarium.
But, the fates have finally smiled upon me and I can finally refer to myself as being "gainfully employed", so onward and upward! Time to get back to the renos at hand.
Oh, I did do something about the clock in the living room. I decided that clock would stay, but that I just needed to change the colour to give it a little pizzaz. So I decided to use up some more of my purple paint from the bedroom, and voila!
Yep, that's what it needed. A little facelift.
Oh, I got some fancy tealight holders:
Sparkly.
And, there was also the question of the lamps in the living room. I liked the addition of the crystals...but they still seemed to be missing something. Fabric markers to the rescue! I coloured in the upper and lower band around the shade with black fabric markers (available pretty much anywhere)...and got this:
Now that's what I'm talking about! Needed a little extra glam.
Oh, and there was also the rearrangement of the laundry room (again). The shelving unit in there was not serving much useable purpose, as every time I needed to get something I required several acrobatic moves in order to reach it. So I went with the slightly unconventional...a bookshelf:
 |
| After |
 |
| Before |
Well I'll be darned if it just worked out perfectly...always think, and go, outside the box.
Uhm...I think that's it...maybe...I'm sure I'll come across something that I haven't posted sooner or later.
So let's get on with it...RENO 'S HO! (er somethin' like that)
Love, Laugh, and Make it Gorgeous!
Blogger on the Run
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