Grates, scrubbed and painted

One small home improvement completed: the scrubbing and cleaning of grates, vacuuming pet hair out of vent, removing pencil crayons, pennies and other small objects that fit through the holes - thank you curious little toddler. And polishing and painting. 

A much needed facelift. I first tried black, because I had a bottle of black spray paint. That seemed a little harsh and luckily I ran out by the 3rd cover.  Off to the store for a softer colour, Oil rubbed bronze gives the new, old effect, but not as harsh. Most of the hardware in the original house was a mix of shiny silver or bronze and I had been replacing door handles and light fixtures with oil rubbed bronze, so this should help with the continuity as well.

I never did like the silver grates. Had looked into replacing them at Restoration Hardware but that added up to one large expense. Never a priority. Spurred into action and having to sell home, a thorough cleaning and some spray paint cleaned up the dulled and dinged silver.   A quick fix, an easy upgrade.  Each one was removed and cleaned in the laundry room washtub then placed on newspaper in the basement.  While the grate was drying I came back upstairs and used newspaper and painters tape to cover and protect the hardwood. I cut a piece of card box to cover the opening. Back down stairs to spray the grate, then upstairs to spray the trim. 10 minutes of drying time and they were ready to be reassembled.   Luckily this paint dries very quickly as the cats like to sleep on the heat.

The cold air vents were given the same treatment.

Another kitchen angle - before and after

WOW! I got rid of the bathroom door and replaced it with a slider. Removed the huge rotting window and replaced it with french doors (which had to be custom ordered to fit).  New tile (NOT ON TOP - yuck). Tore out the vinyl flooring down to subfloor ... no way I could handle tiling on top, not with knowing how filthy it would have been undearneath.  (This before picture shows the water damaged door (which was on the bottom of the cabinets too). The vinyl floor, hideous.

By getting rid of the bathroom door (that was never shut), light was able to flood the space. French doors and balcony give us much needed access to outdoors.

A kitchen angle - Before and after

Organizing my photos into categories, I came across a move in day photo of the kitchen. I always wondered why before pictures look so bad, like one is purposefully making the before worse then it is in order to accentuate the after. But now I get it, I wasn't thinking of documenting a kitchen reno on move in day, just was taking pictures and unloading boxes.

These are all taken from the dining room, same angle. You can see we tore out all the lower and upper cabinets. Got rid of the angled stove (I didnt like that at all). Moved the position of the sink. Got rid of the half wall that was separating an unused area.  The idea was to make the kitchen brighter and more spacious. I think I achieved that. The old cabinets were dark and water damaged. The white cabinets and lack of upper cabinets make the area more spacious and lighter.  The wrap around counter provides much needed counter space, which the before kitchen lacked.

One day Ill get some real after pictures.... but for now, I thought this was an good reminder of what was and what is.

Bathroom reno completed

The bathroom was painted over the weekend!

The mirror and shelf were installed. We also took off the "plastic" baseboard and installed a wood baseboard. A trim around the door frame was attached. The wood shelf is still undone as I do not know what to do with it (it is not the recessed "2" shelf I envisioned). We love the outcome of bathroom - a complete year from start to finish! 

The Toto Aquia II Dual flush toilet;  I love my toilet. It was really important to me to get a water conservative dual flush. Although any toilet would have been better then the water guzzler that was previously in here.

Kohler Wellworth sink. The sink, this was my backup sink. I had bought two other sinks and returned them as they didn't fit the tiny area and they were not quite what I wanted.  Faucet is by Kohler.

Wall paint - Oatlands taupe; Door, baseboard and ceiling - white. I initially used Chantilly Lace paint by Benj Moore on the walls, but that dulled the tiles. (post edit: not in love with the paint colour with this bathroom. I will have the find the perfect white)

Baseboard Painted and installed by Contract-Her.

The shelf was installed above the tile, just in case I changed my mind. I didn't want to put holes in the tile.   Mirror - Pottery Barn online store.   Vanity Shelf - Vintage Tub and Bath.

Light fixture - oil rubbed bronze, made by Rejuvenation: 

The boldest thing I did in this bathroom, the Floor tile - Keystone Daltile -ocean blue and artisan brown summer.

Wall and bath surround tile - Modern Dimensions, Arctic white matte finish

And a white waffle shower curtain and bath mat from Target. Still need a new rod. I have a bruise on my cheekbone as the rod keeps falling down.

Click here for BEFORE pictures. And here for work in progress and one of the beautiful but rejected sinks.