The Nursery Begins...

Life's about to get a whole lot different around these parts.  Yup, we're expecting...TWINS.  Identical twin boys to be exact.  We've got about 3 1/2 months until our little bundles of joy arrive, so we're getting down to business and prepping the nursery.

This weekend's task...build an Ikea Pax wardrobe.  We initially had hopes of finding something vintage, but the busyness of life and the exhaustion of pregnancy squashed our visions of scouring flea markets and antique stores.  So we defaulted to Ikea (of course).  Besides, now that we are living in our 750 square foot upstairs apartment, space and especially storage are at a premium.  The customizability of Ikea's Pax system help make the most of what room we have.

Just like the Ikea flyers tell you, when space is at a premium, maximize vertical storage.  At 8' tall, this wardrobe does just that.  What they failed to mention (and what I failed to think of) is that that vertical storage gets built horizontally...and needs a whole lot of floor space...

Yup...just enough space in our 8'x12' nursery to inch my way around and get this thing built.  I had some reservations about not having enough room to tip the wardrobe vertically...but a little manouvering and we somehow got it in place.

We opted for glass Storas doors - they are slightly reflective and subtly transluscent, so they help reduce the massiveness of the wardrobe.  We had initally planned for two hanging rods, but decided that drawer space is more practical...after all, are we really going to have time to put each of their teeny pieces of clothing on hangers.  Not likely.  So we'll just throw nicely fold everything and shove gently place it in one of the three Komplement drawers.  We've left space at the top and bottom to add some storage bins to fill with whatever other crap nice things the babies come with.

Oh and hey, did you see those awesome wooden animals in the first picture?

We picked them up on our last-real-vacation-ever-before-our-lives-are-consumed-by-kids trip last fall in Copenhagen.  Copenhagen is pretty much the best place on earth for kids stuff - there's a toy / kids store on just about every corner.  I think it's something to do with the legacy of LEGO (did you know that "LEGO" is from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play-well", I do, because Wikipedia just told me).

Anyways, these little guys are from Holztiger.  They are handcrafted, handpainted, and Made in Europe.  And yes, I fully realize that one day our little angels will colour all over them with marker.  That's why I took a picture of them.

And now for some tips for anyone building a Pax wardrobe right now and found this post by googling "I would rather have a big Pax bonfire than continue building this giant wardrobe!"

• even though when you generated your shopping list from the easy as pie Pax wardrobe planner, it says that the hinges are included with your Storas door, they are not.  Get over it.  They are in a separate bin that you can only find by asking someone.  If you, like me, did not realize this fact until you got home and were trying to put your wardrobe together, you will have to drive all the way back to the store to get them...yay!
• Komplement drawers can be placed in every 6th hole.  That means drawer, 5 empty holes, then another drawer.
• Hinges get in the way of your available holes.  Put the doors on first so you can see where your other stuff can go.
• If you (like pretty much everyone) have baseboards / quarter round around the perimeter of your room, your wardrobe will not sit flush against the wall, making it difficult to use the provided holes in the back of the wardrobe to anchor it to the wall.  Instead I plan to buy some steel L brackets from the hardware store to connect the top of the wardrobe to the wall.

The 1/2" That Turned into a Full Bathroom Reno

So all summer we've been going back and forth over whether or not we should completely renovate the upstairs apartment bathroom in our house.  It has a great original claw foot tub that we plan to keep no matter what, but the layout is just awful:

The door swings the wrong way and hits the tub, the toilet is squeezed into too small a space and the sink is wedged behind the door and doesn't really fit.  But, moving fixtures (and their required plumbing) is expensive.  And with an old house like ours, you never know what you might discover once you start opening things up and how much it will cost.  So, we chickened out.  We decided to simply replace the vanity and flip the door around so it swings against the wall. 

Things were going along smoothly until Ikea lied.  That's right...lied!  You see, the vanity we bought claimed to be 23-5/8" wide.  We measured over and over again to make sure it would fit and it looked as though we would have a 1/4" to spare.  Ok, so maybe it was only an 1/8" to spare, but it should fit!  But it doesn't!!  The sink cabinet is nearly 1/2" wider than that Swedish guy claims.  He seems so trustworthy on their radio ads...  So, if any of you are planning to squeeze a Godmorgon cabinet into a space, leave yourself an inch or so of tolerance!

So, rather than spending money squeezing some new fixtures and finishes into a badly arranged space...we've decided to bite the bullet and go for it, rearranging the layout so it works way better.  It'll depend on what the plumber says and how much his quote is, but we're hoping to achieve one of these two layouts:

The top layout is our preferred one.  It gives way more room around the sink and allows someone to stand there without getting hit by the door.  The alternate layout below would still work for us though, and it would mean moving less plumbing since the sink more or less stays where it is.  In either case, the beautiful claw foot tub is placed under the window and will be much more visible from the doorway.

And so, we have tentatively started gutting things:

Now we await our plumber to come let us know what the damage will be to get things rearranged...fingers crossed we can make this happen!

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!!

Upstairs Colour Scheme!

Planning is well underway for renovating the upstairs apartment of our house.  We have some boring but necessary stuff in the works (attic insulation) and some much more exciting stuff too (bathroom reno anyone?).  More on those projects later.

We've been digging through our fan decks and paint chips to come up with a colour scheme.  One blog that's been really helpful in the process is the Colour Collective.  Essentially the whole blog is a series of colour schemes pulled from inspiring (often fashion related) images.  Here are a few of our favourites:

There's a good chance it might change, but here is the colour scheme we have come up with so far:

The colours are all Benjamin Moore.  From left to right, they are:

• cc-670, Gray Wisp
• 2147-40, Dill Pickle
• 2034-50, Acadia Green
• cc-250, Seaspray
• 2063-20, Down Pour Blue
• HC-172, Revere Pewter
• 2051-60, Birds Egg

Once September rolls around, we'll be able to start painting!