Monday, September 5, 2011

Upstairs Apartment ... Let the Renos Begin!

Somehow, I don't know how, September is already here.  With the summer behind us and our tenants moved out, we are launching full swing into renovations of our upstairs apartment.  After just 3 days we've had some surprises, scrapped some plans, made new ones, and have already realized that our 1 month timeline is probably just a little unrealistic.  We've got lots of exciting stuff planned for this apartment, but first...here is a tour of how it all looked on September 1st:

On the left is the hall.  We painted this about a year ago when our tenants were on vacation and plan to keep the colour.  On the right is the oh so very red bedroom...not a bad shade of red, but it definitely doesn't fit with the colour scheme we chose.
The living room.  A good sized room with a great view of the street below.  Not a ton to here other than paint and hopefully refinish the floor a bit.
The tiny 2nd bedroom / office / whatever-else-we-can-fit-in-there room.  For some reason the previous owner went hogwild installing outlets in this room.  They're all over!  Even along the top of the room!  Who could need so much plugged in to one tiny room??
Ah yes, the 'kitchen'.  Before the house was split into two separate apartments, this would have been a bedroom.  Not a lot of cupboard space...we added the blue cabinets over the sink about a year ago, but will still probably need more.  We'll likely add some shelving here and there for extra storage.
And finally...the bathroom.  The claw foot tub is original and beautiful (though it could use refinishing).  The toilet is new - we installed it last year to help conserve water (it's low flow and dual flush!).  And that sink...is a throwaway.  We've wavered on how much to tackle in this room.  The layout is awful and could be so much better, but moving fixtures is expensive...but more on those plans another time...

So, there you have it. The upstairs apartment 'before' shots.  It's exciting and daunting at the same time to finally be carrying out some of the plans we've been making over the last few months.  Unfortunately we can't tackle too too much until our electrician finishes replacing all the old wiring.  Fingers crossed that process goes smoothly and we don't end up with too many holes in the walls!!

1 comment:

white collar | green soul said...

I was just wondering about your blog this morning!

It looks great up there! I love that you still have some beautiful details up there, too.

That bathroom layout is ridiculous.. seriously, who thought that was going to be a good idea? And I wonder if the outlets in that bedroom were for an entertainment unit or something? I'm trying to figure out why else you'd need outlets that high up... strange.