The light at the end of the tunnel...

We are VERY close to the end of our long renovation journey. It's hard to believe how far we've come and every time I look back at the pictures I am just amazed at all of the work we have done. When we ripped out the kitchen I was nervous and scared at how we would cope without the most important room in the house; but we managed. And then when we realized that we had no other time to put the floors in except for New Years, I don't think either of us felt ready but we did what we needed to do and got it done. I really am soooo happy that all of the major renovations are complete! There's nothing that I dislike more than being in a state of restlessness and partiality.

So what's left, you ask? Paint, closet doors, window coverings and refinishing the tub! It's nice when your to-do list fits on one hand:)

Kitchen Backsplash!!!

We finally have a finished kitchen! Last week we put up our gorgeous backsplash, and it really finishes off the kitchen...icing on the cake!

Photo Gallery Updated!

I have finally updated our Picasa web gallery for our renovations! I added the kitchen and some floor photos.

Currently we are re-vamping the second closet in our bedroom and soon will be doing the same for our hallway closets.

More work... :>

Now that all our floors are finished we have started getting going on the rest of the work that needs to be done. Today, I'm painting the empty closets so we can install the new closet system in there. Organization FTW! When we sell I think one of the nice selling features is the ridiculous amounts of storage space for a condo this size. We're setting it up so the space is used as efficiently as possible with the rubbermaid Configurations closet system. it's a cheap, versatile system and has already made our large closet in the bedroom so much better.

Once the closets are done we'll be installing the baseboards. That'll probably be spread over a few days. After that... well, it's just closet doors and paint and we'll be finished. Oh, and the kitchen backsplash, which i'll probably do in a few weeks.

I'm guessing we'll be completely finished before the end of April. AWESOME!

Bye-Bye Carpet:)

We set ourselves a goal for January, and that goal was to get the floors done. Well, we reached it! They look fabulous and we don't EVER have to look at that nasty orange/brown/rust-coloured carpet again!

It was such an overwhelming task to look at, but once we got started we realized just how easy it was to install. The hardest part of it was removing the carpet when we still had all of the furniture in here. If we had no furniture then it would have gone so much faster.

Our February goal is going to be installing the baseboards and at least purchasing the tile for the kitchen backsplash. Oh, and I hope to update the gallery because that hasn't been done for a LONG time!

Floors!

This is Deb posting as Nick since I have forgotten my log in information...regardless...we have floors (well, sort of)!

We had no idea of when we were going to install them and about 2 weeks before Christmas we realized that we had no other time to install them except for the time we took off for New Years. January 1, 2009 we started, and we hope to complete this (at least the main portion of it) today.

On Thursday we didn't do too much except for ripping up some carpet and the underlay. It was disgusting and I never want carpet again! On every piece we ripped up there were stains from liquids (pets, drinks, water) and I can only imagine what kind of bacteria was on that...YUCK! We removed the hallway carpet and underlay and then scraped the glue from the concrete, and since the hallway is a heavy traffic area, there was a lot of glue and shredded underlay!

On Friday we got some help from Nick's step-father and we removed a lot more carpet and put down the new underlay for the laminate. We (they) started the hallway which was the most difficult area because a lot of cuts were needed. Later that night, Nick and I removed the remainder of the carpet and prepared the area for the next day.

So today has been full of cutting laminate and laying the floor. Apart from finishing off the hallway it has been pretty smooth sailing. It looks fantastic and I can't wait to put the furniture back to where it belongs (most likely we'll be doing that tonight).

We will be doing the bedroom in a few weeks but it shouldn't take very long to do.

Almost Christmas...

Well... it's 2 weeks until christmas, and I still have not updated anything.

Deb and I haven't done anything to the place since the summer... we've been very lazy about it. But that'll soon change.

In January, we are going to be purchasing our new flooring. We haven't made the firm decision yet, but it'll either be a dark brown oak engineered floor, or it'll be a very dark high quality laminate. The Laminate is cheaper, but I hate laminate... so we'll see. It also might be too dark.

We're also going to be getting the tiles for the kitchen backsplash around the same time. So that'll be the final step in getting the kitchen finished.

Lastly, we will be getting our new kitchen table and chairs... yay! finally we'll have somewhere to sit and eat dinner. Right now, we eat at our coffee table. I think I have an even worse hunch back now because of it.