Renovations

Usually when people ask what I've been up to lately I have NO IDEA what to tell them. I keep busy doing this and that, but I can never remember what it is exactly that I've done.

Not so for the last month of my life though. It has been a long time since I have used my free time to do things for myself (perhaps explaining the lack of posting...) Most of my Elijah-free time, and a good portion of non-Elijah-free time has been used to organize, paint, clean, and prepare our house for listing.

We listed on Tuesday (yesterday) and when we got home at 9:30pm there was a "For Sale" sign on our front lawn. It's such a strange sight! I have such mixed emotions when I see that sign. It is such a momentous thing for us, and in a big way it reminds me of when we bought the house, except the "For Sale" sign was exciting because we were moving in, and now we're moving out. I remember after we bought the house that it took a week for the "Sold" sticker to go up and I was so indignant! I wanted the whole world to know that we had bought a house. Now I have expect to see the Sold sticker on it again whenever we turn the corner to pull in the driveway, even though I know that I'd know if a sticker was going to be there.

Apart from feeling a bit like when we bought our house, though, I feel a mixture of excitement, anxiety, embarassment (because our neighbours didn't know we were planning on moving yet) sadness and happiness all at once. We've met a milestone (in managing to get our house into list-shape) and we're closing a chapter of our lives by moving, but we're also starting a new chapter, and I love the idea of possibilities. Part of me loves uncertainty because it can hold so many good things, but another part of me (and Matt would say a bigger part of me) hates uncertainty and gets stressed by it. Day to day I choose to ignore the stress because I'm happier not dwelling on it. I downplay things so that I can cope. It works pretty well, too.

So, all that being said, here are some before and after photos of our renovations. I have to take some better "afters" of the bathroom, as it was the biggest job, and all I have is the list photo.

Mulching the back gardens

Taking a picture of the garbage pile. This scene was repeated another 3 times before all the junk was gone!

What Pippin thinks of all the renovations.

My attempt at a self-photo when we had the zoom lens on.

A cluttered living room with gross pink carpets, closet doors for out bedroom, and laminate lying on the floor in packages.

Matthew puttying the hallway, and Pippin observing the work. Notice all the stains on the carpet?

More stains. And oh my goodness, Pippin has a way of being in every single photo, and yet he never poses.

Progress shot. Carpet is still down in the dining room, underlay is the dark stuff and wood is the light stuff.

Artsy progress shot? I don't know!

The finished product!

I like this so much more! No more clutter, furniture, nice floors, warm lamps, so nice!

Only one chair made it back upstairs, as the other one doesn't have the ends to the legs, so we can't stick those foam things on it to keep it from scratching the floor.

Matthew posing for a pic in the newly painted front hallway

Our bedroom before painting. The dark strip on the wall at the top was where the border used to be.

Another bedroom before. No more closet doors (well, really, mine has been gone for 3 years...we've been functioning that long without one of our doors and it has felt so messy in our room!)

Progress shot! I was really worried the colour was too yellow-y, especially compared to that dark blue-grey colour.

After shot! The colour turned out and really brightened up the room. This isn't the true after, as I actually hemmed the curtains too. I'm so proud!

See those closet doors? I installed them ALL BY MYSELF. And it was the biggest pain in the butt ever. EVER. Like, more annoying than mosquitoes, especially because it was noisy, and I did it while Eli slept.

The renovated downstairs bathroom. I don't have a before photo of this, and I wish I did, but just to remind you, there was a green toilet, a green-white vanity with a faux marble green and white counter-top, hectic granny striped wallpaper, and linoleum to match. Oh, and this mirror ended up in the upstairs bathroom, and we have a medicine cabinet in there now instead.

Not so different than before, it's just empty and painted beige rather than yellow.

More beige rather than yellow.

Broken wooden toilet seat, stained linoleum, beige toilet.

Old mirror(s) which cut you off at your stomach. I could never get a good idea of my outfit in these mirrors. Also, note the cabinet (we painted it white later)

Check out what we were dealing with. The gross dirty spot was the lovely present for us that we discovered underneath the layers of peeling bathtub paint (apparently it was a crappy paint job, because the pros would never let it peel)

Old faucet, cracked tiles, a faucet that dripped, all kinds of mildew and mold. Yummy!

Wallpaper, border, sponged paint, a broken towel rail that was installed upside down to begin with...OH and don't forget the trim that was painted the same colour as the paint. True of pretty much every room in the ENTIRE HOUSE. I could punch the last people who lived here for that, as I've had to go through and not only paint every room, but I've had to paint trim white as well. Thanks a lot, previous owners. Oh, and your welcome, future owners.

A progress shot with Tony.

The only finished shot I have right now, but look! White toilet, sink, tub, vanity, new tiles, fresh paint, a beautiful cabinet, a new mirrow, ceramic floor tiles, a new light fixture...isn't it beautiful???

And there you have it, folks! Now you know what has been consuming all of my time lately. And now you know why I'm thanking my lucky stars that Elijah waited until last week to start rolling like a madman. There's no way I'd have been able to any of this if he was as mobile a month ago as he is now.

And speaking of mobile, this evening he started pushing himself up on his hands so high that the only part of him touching the floor was his knees. I think we're not more than a month from crawling! Craziness.

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this super long, so I'm going to finish and go to bed as I am exhausted!