Apartment Redo

(minus before pictures.)

So the condo is the biggest fix up project that I have ever done in my life. The problem is that I didn't take any pictures before we started. There are a few reasons for this; the biggest of which is that I was technically not living in the condo when the "remodel" began. This meant that I often showed up and... surprise! No carpet.

So humor me and when you are looking at these pictures imagine what it looked like with off white walls. You know, the kind that were once white. And on those walls imagine there is the ghost outline of pictures that were once hanging on the walls for 10+ years. Add to that mauve carpet with strange stains, and what I like to call anti-stains: white spots where the wrong cleaner was used.

Now we moved into the condo after M's grandmother moved out, and I never saw what it looked like when she lived in it. I met M right as she was moving out. By all accounts it was probably very nice, but when we got there it just was not working.

Living room, view by the door.

 When we first moved in my friends commented that all the furniture we had was mine, and did max own ANYTHING before we met? Truth is, looking at this picture the only thing I brought in were the mirror and book cases.  The couch is from the Cindy Crawford collection and is microfiber. DO NOT GET MICROFIBER!!! Yeah, it cleans easy enough, but it holds onto dirt and animal hair like nobody's business. The chairs are from a college friend that moved to china and had to sell everything she owned. Coffee table is from an estate sale, and has wings that expand! Notice that brown wall? I added that to create the illusion of depth, and hide a big crack in the wall.

View by the closet.

 Ottoman is from Overstock.com. Before I discovered the estate sale. I still like, it, and it stores extra throw pillows and blankets. This is super useful when you live someplace small.  That white bar above the window will be a valance someday.  Brown, to play off the wall.

Dining room.

Check out that wood floor! Installed ourselves.  This room is kind of strange. We have no place to store that bike ever since the complex sent us a nasty note about having it on the porch. The table belonged to Max's grandma, but she took most the chairs. That china cabinet (which I have mentioned before) is huge, but we like it, and that printer is because we don't like to be trapped in the back room to do work.

  

 We have a tiny kitchen. it used to have horrible linoleum, off white cabinets and gold knobs. I painted the cabinets a new white, and added black knobs. I don't know why, but it reminds me of Betty Boop.  Oh yeah, I also ripped the doors off the top cabinets and tore out the center shelf. Much more useful this way. We also put down some sticky tiles.

 

 Check out those sweet art deco shakers.

Hallway! The tan keeps everything nice and light so the walls don't close in on us. I would show you more, but our clean bathroom looks dirty the tub is so stained.  Not to mention the other two rooms are horribly messy, and my vacuum broke while cleaning the house today which made me loose steam.