Not Done Yet, But...

Even though the reno house is not complete I'm just itchin' to show you all the work that Bob has been doing. I tell ya, sometimes you forget just what a mess something is till you see the 'before' shots! Okay, the white is the before and the taupe is the after.







Yes, we need to do some planting but I think getting the interior of the house up and running is the part the guys are focusing on. We want to paint the front door black (there is a woman who potentially wants to buy the house and wants the door to remain wood so we are waiting until we list to paint it black), and put up black shutters to bring more curb appeal.




This is the before shot of the kitchen. Believe it or not but a wall was behind me with just a single door opening so I couldn't take a wide shot of the kitchen. Just note the beautiful cabinetry. Ugh.

I may have to do a post of the red brick vinyl floor that was in the kitchen but I'm pretty sure you get the idea ;)



Here you can see that we opened the single door up to make a huge opening to the living room. The reason we did this is the windows in the living room are huge and let in tons of light. It is a bungalow with a walkout into a ravine. So the view is stunning - I should take a picture of that now that I think on it. The fridge would be just on the right hand side but you wouldn't be able to see it while sitting at the dining room table. This was taken a few weeks ago and I need to take a new picture.

Here's the bathroom almost a year ago. Now I have to say those tiles are from the 50's and are friggin' fantabulous (no I'm not being sarcastic)! I wanted to save them and have a company come in and coat them in a white epoxy which would be stunning. Problem is that we discovered the tiles down by the tub were cracked and you can't replace these without it being obvious. Luckily I didn't have to be there when they gutted this puppy because I've had to destroy plaster walls with heavy ceramic on them before and it is pure bull labour. There is nothing you can do but keep dragging the crap to the dumpster and it's heavy as hell.

As I mentioned I wasn't as involved in this project and when I learned the guys were not going to put granite countertops in the kitchen and no ceramics I kinda lost complete interest. Hey, I figured that I would only state my reason and if they shot it down then I would let it go. So Bob asked me my opinion on the tiles for the bathroom and I said, 'sure' cause like, I'm not going to be living there. Then Bob picked a horrible tile for the floor so I had to step in and show him a colour that would work with what he had. Now, I think it turned out great BUT I hate using ceramic as baseboard. I think it was the 'boys' choice and they ran with it. I would have argued for real baseboard but again, I've decided that this house will appeal to the man of the family and I have been able to add a few touches that will hopefully allow a woman to say 'okay, I can live here'. Just so you know, it's a brand new white tub, jacuzzi jets and then Bob found bronze like fixtures for the tub and shower. Turned out really nice, just can't see it in the photo.

Okay, that's all I'll bore you with for now. Wait till you see the basement pictures. Those are sheer brilliance! I told Bob that I wanted to do a blog with the before and semi-after but he kept saying 'no, wait till it's finished!'.

Obviously I couldn't wait.

There is a whole bunch going on with the whole 'can we sell and make money' thing. Not sure yet but a house up the street went for over a hundred thousand more than what the real estate agents told us our house could go for. I told Bob to call the real estate agent from that sale because from the pictures, the house hadn't been re-modeled and except for having gas heat and A/C we can't really see how our house could list for a hundred grand below theirs. Hell, if that is the only difference and it costs say 20 grand to put in gas heat and air conditioning then by God it will be done. 20 grand to make 80? Easy math peeps. Course, I've been known to blow smoke so whatever.

If we break even all is good.

Okay, it would be good as in not the worst thing to happen but I really do want Bob to make some money on this job so that I can reconcile the fact that he chose to leave me alone on the weekends for 5 months. Keep in mind, he has done all this while working full-time.

Yeah, he is my hero.

I just need him to stop long enough so I can show my appreciate ;)