Our naked house.
Every room looked like this for a while. No flooring, no trim, no tile and NO KITCHEN!
With no sink, no stove and no cupboards we moved into the naked house.
Because we had absolutely no kitchen, this half destroyed bathroom was where I washed dishes for a month!! If I never see another baby bottle floating in a bathtub I will die happy.
I am a girl who loves camping….. but this was just HORRIBLE!
On the bright side the fun part was upon us: clothing the naked house in elements that we liked.
I felt like Sarah Richardson without the big budget.
All those days of decorating my Barbie house as a young girl were about to pay off.
I may not be able to decide what I want to eat on any given day of the week, but I was seasoned to decide all of this.
We went to our favourite tile store, The Source in nearby Kitchener, Ontario.
It was our lucky day and they were moving from their old location into their new location. Which meant that they were liquidating a lot of their merchandise! Yaaaa Hooooo!
We needed enough tile for our three showers, four bathrooms, kitchen and entry way! Phew that was a lot of tile! (Later we came back for tile for our kitchen back splash, stone for our living room wall and MORE tile for our newest basement project!!)
Dollar signs flashed behind our eye lids. THIS was money saving at its finest.
This colour combo was picked for our teeny tiny master en suite. I just loved the 12 by 24 dark brown floor tiles that emulated wood!
Every night after we were both done work, we packed up our little family and drove the hour trip to pack up our truck and hoist all that tile to its new home with us.
This colour selection was for our kids bathroom and our basement bathroom.
(The grey tile is reading blue-ish but it is definitely a pretty grey)
The picture below is of the colour choices and swatches for our main living areas. There is our counter top selection, our flooring for the kitchen and entry way and a sample of our existing warm oak flooring.
We decided on a durable dark berder carpet from The Carpet Store.
It was the exact carpet we had chosen for our previous house and it was so forgiving against
We were accustomed to steam cleaning our carpets often, and spot treating them as needed and we were happy that they maintained their shape and colour.
We were pleased to find the same carpet and have it in our new house.
The staff was so awesome that they even put up with these antics…
(Ya I take pictures of everything.)
(Obviously being “king of the castle”)
We found these oil rubbed bronze look lighting (that was a mouth full) and loved that they had an old world-industrial-feel, and decided to put them throughout the house where task lighting was needed.
We found this bathroom vanity at our favourite store ever for $199.
This was a great deal at the time which kept getting better!
You see, our favorite store sometimes drops certain items prices. If you shop there enough, like us, you can visit the friendly people at customer service and have them price match the item to the new lower price.
Well, we watched these vanities go from $199 to $99!! Which meant a little extra money back in our pockets since we bought TWO!
This was a great deal at the time which kept getting better!
You see, our favorite store sometimes drops certain items prices. If you shop there enough, like us, you can visit the friendly people at customer service and have them price match the item to the new lower price.
Well, we watched these vanities go from $199 to $99!! Which meant a little extra money back in our pockets since we bought TWO!
Back at home my handy-man-hard-working-hubby was a tiling machine.
This was sooo exciting. These 24 by 24 tiles were placed on an angle and I adore the small visual interest they add.
The kitchen was looking like a room again!
Our entry way was getting some progress too!
(Excuse all of these dark phone pictures!!)
(Excuse all of these dark phone pictures!!)
Our upstairs bathroom got a new tub instead of this old dilapidated one I talked about here.
Below is our en suite jet tub.
I’m sure my husband could have hooked it all up himself but since we wanted the peace of mind we called in an expert.
Umm ya, that peek a boo hole is still in our closet.
A year and a half later this bathroom is still unfinished! There are more important projects on the list for now.
Like the kitchen!
I talked my hubby into grouting it one night around 11PM.
There we were in our pajamas scrubbing away grout and running down two flights of stairs to the basement for fresh pails of water.
Sometimes you do things fueled by complete adrenaline.
And lifting all those swish-swashing-pails was worth it!
The kitchen was making progress, now all we needed was cupboards.
A few days later we found the best deal of all time.
I mean THE ABSOLUTE BEST.
A few days later we found the best deal of all time.
I mean THE ABSOLUTE BEST.
But first I must tell you we considered other solutions to our cabinet woes.
Side note:
We had talked about refacing our existing kitchen cabinets and went as far as to have a consult at home depot and finding contractors to come in to our new home and to give us a quote on resurfacing them .
The $3,000 price tag was disheartening.
The $3,000 price tag was disheartening.
So when we stumbled upon this deal of the century we were thrilled!!!
Home Depot had this maple mahogany Eurostyle Cabinetry ON SALE.
This meant we were going to be paying half the price of regular cabinetry!
This meant we were going to be paying half the price of regular cabinetry!
Our happy dance was shortly interrupted by the realization that they were going to be discontinued! We would have to start buying the pieces we needed from various Home Depots and hope that we would find all the cabinets we needed.
In this instance the reward outweighed the risk and so we spent the next month driving hours away to collect our kitchen puzzle.
But in the mean time….
We went from this make shift “kitchen”
To this upgraded make shift one…
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(A folding card table did the trick. This fought the urge to eat every meal out. Instead we dined on toast and instant noodles. A kettle, coffee maker, toaster and grill was all we needed to prepare all of our meals for a while. Definitely creative cooking at its finest.)
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We made use of our china cabinet and turned it into temporary cabinets!
While we waited to hunt down our new kitchen cabinetry we had our carpet installed.
This was something we didn’t even question doing on our own.
Paying for installation, in my opinion, was money well spent.
A crew of eight or so had the carpet done in a day!!! In a snow storm!
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They worked fast and it was hard work too!
We have a total of 25 stairs with just as many spindles that they meticulously carpeted around.
We have a total of 25 stairs with just as many spindles that they meticulously carpeted around.
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I was so pleased with the flawless finish!
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Finally, with new tile and new carpet the house was being put back together!!
I could have peace of mind when letting my babies play on the carpet knowing I wouldn’t have to rush out and get them vaccinated again after a session of childish rolling around.
I could have peace of mind when letting my babies play on the carpet knowing I wouldn’t have to rush out and get them vaccinated again after a session of childish rolling around.
It is the little things.
Every day we came home from our various jobs and went right to work on our list of projects.
And every night we collapsed in bed with exhaustion and were proud of the house we were building together…
And every night we collapsed in bed with exhaustion and were proud of the house we were building together…
…for our little family.
Next up: Our House (Part Four) “Building the Kitchen!” and more about the deal of the century and where we got it!
