Although it's taken a long time and it's nowhere near finished, I'm really happy with how everything is coming together. Throughout this year, I bought some furniture (most of it on kijiji for next to nothing) and put some time, effort and love into redoing the pieces so that they were unique. There were the chairs, the kitchen table, the mirror, the dresser that is living as a tv stand (more on that soon) and some other fun projects that I'll post about soon. I've learned a lot and it's been a really rewarding experience to invest (mostly time, sweat and tears) in my home.
BUT it didn't all start that way. Well, sort of. It started with tears. Actually and some sweat too. So basically that's exactly how it was from the beginning. Walking into the condo for the first time was somewhat shocking. I had walked through it as it was being built (when there were just studs and the concrete floor), but I assumed that it would be pretty and perfect by the time I moved in. I was wrong. First of all, I decided not to go with the carpeting that the builder offered because I knew I wanted hardwood. So walking into my brand-new-saved-like-crazy-for-this condo, I was surprised to see that the concrete floor was still there. All naked, stained and ugly. There was also vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathroom because legally spaces with water have to be "finished" before they can let me move in. That was great because we ripped it all up anyways. Fun times. Well, it was actually fine for me because I didn't do much of that step... The condo also didn't have high-end finishes, there was zero character and I started second guessing my decision. Cue the sweat. Two days later (two days before moving in) I discovered that I had three little cute mouse visitors. Cue the tears. Two humane mouse traps, a kind, brave boyfriend and a few viewings of "The One With the Pheobe's Rats" (which I can't find a clip of), the mice were gone, the floors were in (installed by Matt and my future brother-in-law - you are both amazing and I love you) and so was my stuff!
That was all a drawn out way to say here's what the condo looked like before:
This was the view from the front door. You can see the vinyl flooring (the green tape is where that floor ends and the concrete begins). Those rolls are the sub-floor that was going down under the hardwood.
The bathroom is directly to your right when you walk in.
And here's the view into the kitchen/"hall" to the front door. The bathroom is the door on the left, right beside the front door.
This is the living room. Doesn't it just scream "Come on it, sit down, stay a while"? On the right are some of the boxes of flooring (that Matt carried up the 3 flights of stairs because the elevators weren't working yet...)
After scraping the vinyl flooring this is what it looked like (with more flooring on the right).
This is the only photo I can find at the moment of the dining room area. And my helpers.
And this is the bedroom.
I know it's not the worst "before" situation, but I was definitely crossing my fingers that things would come together quickly. Once the floors went down a few days later it made a big difference. Thank the Lord. Matt has reminded me several times that if I never saw the condo like this, I wouldn't appreciate it the way it is now and I wouldn't understand how much work goes into transforming a space. He was right. This has definitely been a process in gratitude :).