Archive for category small spaces
Before & After Photos
Posted by Brian in bathroom, bedroom, decorating, diy, finished, floor plans, interior, kitchen, living room, photos, renovations, small spaces on May 25, 2012
It’s been a long time since we’ve done some updates, we’ve been living comfortable for over a year now since the major renovations took place. Â In that time we’ve put the house on the market for 2 weeks showed it to 20+ potential buyers, decided not to sell, then put our apartment up for rent on Kijiji, showed it to several potential tenants then decided not to move, and finally decided to do some more renovations. Â We’re sticking it out a while longer and have some smaller renovations to do this coming summer. Â The next couple of weeks will involve building a small backyard, and new deck with roof for the back entrance (our main entrance), this will provide us a bit of outdoor space to relax in the summer. Â Following those renovations we’re planning to finish up the kitchen (backsplash and pot rack). Â Here are some before & after photos of our apartment, not everything is finished, but pretty close. Â Thanks to everyone that helped us get to this!
New shelves in the studio room
Posted by Brian in diy, photos, small spaces on August 1, 2011
We moved in about 7 months ago, and really haven’t done much since we moved in, we finished up the kitchen (sort of) and the living room, but pretty much started enjoying life again for the past 6 months, now that we’re half way through summer we decided we better start finishing up some of our plans. Â Today we went to home depot and picked up some MDF boards for shelves, and a nail gun + chop saw from my parents house. Â I did the cutting, and Ilona did all the installation, the result are some extra storage shelves in the 2nd bedroom that she’s been using for a studio to paint. Â The room is still a disaster but we’re a step closer, hopefully we’ll continue to tackle the rest of the house and exterior in the next couple of months. Â Here are some photos from the day:
Kitchen floors and a new desk
We moved in exactly a week ago, and have been working away on small projects as we go, trying to tie up all the loose ends. Â The ends.. they’re still pretty loose, but we hit some pretty good milestones this weekend. Â My parents and Ilona put down the kitchen floor, while my friend Colin came over to give me a hand with my desk in the hallway. Â I had wanted to go with a floating desk but it just wasn’t feasible, the butchers block counter top from Ikea that I used as a surface was really heavy. Â I still need to fix up the baseboards under/behind the desk, and stain the desk a couple of times, but for now, I at least have somewhere to work!
The kitchen floor looks amazing, we just have to get the plumbing done for the washer/dryer and build a couple more cabinets, then we should be ready for the granite templaters to come in and measure the counter tops.  Definitely looking forward to it!  We also finished off the bathroom last weekend, with my uncle putting in our robot shower, I have to admit, my showers this week have been about 5-10 minutes longer than normal because it’s just soo cozy, heated floors,  tons of pressure, all kinds of different jets and settings  = awesome shower.
Bedroom almost finished.. moving in tomorrow
Posted by Brian in bedroom, decorating, diy, interior, photos, small spaces on January 22, 2011
I spent the day building a closet organizer today, putting in some baseboards, and installing one of the set of  blinds we purchased on Thursday from blinds to go.  Just have to put some closet doors on, and a finishing baseboard around the room and the bedroom should be finished.  We had the floors finished 2 weeks ago through out and they look fantastic.. the patches of new flooring don’t exactly blend in, but hopefully over time they start to mesh with the old.  The bathroom is also almost done, we just have to mount the shower and install 2 pot lights.  Our art studio/2nd bedroom is also finished (minus the baseboards), the living room still needs to be wallpapered and baseboarded, then there’s the kitchen.. not quite there yet.  We probably have 2 more weeks and 2 weekends of work to go on the kitchen before we’re ready to get the granite guys in.. now that I’ve put a timeline on it, it will probably be 4 weeks.  Either way we’re partly moving in tomorrow (bed, clothes, food, kitties, xbox) and commencing life in the new house..  Photos of the bedroom almost there but still empty:
Bathroom Update
We’ve had a lot of work done on the bathroom over the past couple of weeks, mostly by my uncle Roger. Â Roger started out building up a new raised floor for the shower and toilet area, we had to do this to avoid cutting in to the original cast iron stack. Â Since the stack was being used for all 3 apartments and could potentially be brittle, it was too much risk at this point to risk cutting it. Â So we reused the pipes were the toilet already was, to get the right slope we had to elevate it a bit to place it where we wanted.
After the floors, we ended up framing over all the walls, framing in the shower and making sure everything was very solid. Â If we had tiled over what was there, the swaying walls and squishy floor would have resulted in broken tiles within the first couple of weeks. Â This past weekend my dad and I insulated the washroom, and started installing the cement board and ceiling.
Also we’ve picked out our shower unit, this crazy robot looking thing that steams, and rains and all sorts of fun. Â It’s pretty crazy that the bathroom is around 30 square feet.. tiny! Â Hopefully the next update we have some tiling to show.
Closet under the stairs removed!
Posted by Brian in floor plans, interior, photos, renovations, small spaces on November 14, 2010
The section under the stairs has finally been taken care of, what was previously there was pretty much the most unsafe thing we’ve found in our house (so far). Â The wall that formed the closet space under the stairs was built from about 6 2×4’s with minimal bracing, what we didn’t know until we investigated further is that this wall supported the entire set of stairs, plus the landings for the 2nd and 3rd apartments!! Â We couldn’t believe it, essentially the upstairs platform was precariously balanced on the wall, and tacked into the inside hallway wall, and exterior wall.
To beef it up, we put in some new stringers in both walls, attached with about 10-12 5″ long 1/4″ thick lag screws, we then used 2 double 2×8 beams and a double 2×6 beam as the new floor joists for the landing up top, and hung those from joint hangers on the stringers. Â The result is way more space below for my computer area, and a more open hallway.
Below are some before photos, during photos, after photos, and a little sketch on one of the photos showing our plans for the space in here. Â We’re planning to build a small computer nook for myself, a closet space (without a door), some shelves, and a little cubby with a trap door/cat door to put the smelly litter boxes in. Â I’m still contemplating whether I should eventually attempt to build a small motion sensor activated fan and exhaust from that little cubby to the outside of the house.. maybe next year if we’re looking for something to work on!
Beds with storage – small space solutions
Posted by Brian in decorating, furniture, interior, small spaces on September 9, 2010
We’ve been starting to look at some good solutions for small spaces, and one of the ideas we came up with were beds with storage underneath them. Â Actual built in storage, rather than just cramming everything and anything under the bed, the prices and style vary depending on where you look, from $300 at Ikea, to well over $1000 at Leons. Â The brick seems to have a decent selection, although I’m sure with a few visits to a couple of other stores we could definitely find something that we both really like. Â Having drawers under the bed could be great for all our extra linens, pillows, and towels. Â Here are a few of the beds we’ve found so far:
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