Home Renovations // PART 1

Home Renovations: PART 1

This past year have been full of SO many new adventures for our family. 2019 was one for the books. In February we  found out we were pregnant, and gave birth to a healthy little boy (our Hudson bear) in October 2019. Tom finished his second degree in April (so glad to have university days behind us lol). Upon graduation he started a new position at his current place of work. He's now the Intake Lead at his organization and is really enjoying his new role. He's been with the organization for 5 years now and was so happy he found a way to stay there. His first degree is in Linguistics, and his second degree is in Elementary Education. His career path was a long, windy, and expensive road (haha) but we believe everything happened for a reason, and purpose. And we are so happy, content and grateful for where he is now. So that happened. 

So for basically our entire marriage we lived in a basement suite. We absolutely loved our basement suites but at the time we were living in a 2 bedroom basement suite. So the original plan was to have the two boys share a room. Have Hudson in our room for the first 6 months or so, and then transfer him to Parker's room and have them share. Well. As I thought of that, and all the baby stuff we would have again PLUS Parker's stuff... I just thought, man. We are going to out grow this space fast (even though we loved it!). Then I started looking for 3 bedroom rentals, and they were very expensive. So then I decided to apply for a mortgage just to SEE what we would qualify for, so we could gauge where we were at. The mortgage team got back to us (we used Colin Bruce), and I started looking at homes within our price range. Lots of homes were condos or townhouses, but we knew we wanted a single detached family home. I have kids, so having our own yard was super important to us and I wanted the storage space (basement) that comes with having a single family home. We also wanted to own the land. Just for more options/flexibility in the future. 

So I had applied for  a mortgage in June. We needed to find a house before August, as that's when our lease was up at our rental. We had to find something before being tied into our rental for another year. We ended up finding a house within 1 month. I applied for a mortgage June 8, we bought the home July 10, and took possession August 14. And immediately started renos. Then had a baby in October. IT WAS A WHIRLWIND. This ALL happened while I was in the middle of CRAZY BUSY wedding season, Tom had JUST started a new position, I was pregnant. Ya'll. It. Was. Insanity. We viewed about 10 homes in person (and I looked at a ton online). My real estate agent took me to like 6 houses in one day haha. Lot's of them weren't in an area of town we wanted.. lots were either in Millwoods or East Edmonton which was just too far of a commute for Tom.  Tom works on the West end so we wanted quick access to his work. Location was one of the most important things to us. So. We found this house, that was only 10 minutes away from the neighborhood where we had rented for the past 6 years. So we were familiar with the area, which was nice, and the home itself reminded me soooo much for my childhood home that I had a BUNCH of nostalgia when we viewed it. It was a yellow corner house (I grew up in a yellow corner house), it had the same bungalow layout, same features (wood cupboards , wood cutting boards, the bathroom mirrors were the same, same tin shower in the basement, lol!) It was a total grandma house. The original owner lived in it since 1961. She was moving to a seniors community and it was the first time the house was on the market. The house was obviously old, and she didn't change a thing (basically everything was original, even the kitchen appliances lol). But it was kept in good condition. She definitely took care of her property. It has 3 bed + 1 bath upstairs, with 1 bedroom + 1 bath downstairs. New washer/dryer, high efficiency furnace. The basement unfinished and a total dungeon, but eh. Having the extra space is SO NICE!!! I've converted the basement into playroom for the kids and it's AMAZING not having all the toys on my main level. The kids can make a mess in the basement and I don't care. I can close the door and walk away, lol! 

So anyway. Fun story. When tom and I were looking at houses online, we stumbled across this one and said how cute it was. And how we could instantly envision how we would reno it, the changes we'd make. At the time, we never thought we'd actually purchase the home. So it's just funny how it worked out. We got the home for the exact price we wanted, and everything from financing, to inspection, to move in went seamlessly. We started renovations the DAY we got possession of the house. Our friend Levi (who has made custom furniture for us before) helped us get started on our main projects. We moved in August 14, and he had the floors DONE by August 16. CRAZY!! It was sooo nice to get the flooring done before we moved in. Levi also installed the shiplap wall for us, then Tom painted it. He also installed a dishwasher in the kitchen, and installed 3 new windows (2 in the basement and 1 in the bathroom). Then we needed some grading done in our yard, so I hired my friend (Sheena)'s husband's company (Tyben) to come do that. They got it done for us quickly and before winter hit because we desperately wanted it done before the snow. Lots of landscaping companies turned as away as we were looking "too late in the season" and they weren't booking new jobs until next summer. But Tyben Construction was awesome and happily took on our project. We also had the entire electrical system in the house upgraded to meet code, added a fan in the bathroom to vent out the steam, added new baseboards with the help & tools of our good friend Scott Vockeroth, took down the valances and got new kitchen appliances. We got all the "main/big stuff" done by September. 

Then I was ready to start decorating. I wanted to make the house feel like a HOME. I feel like once you start putting things on the walls, it makes it more homey. I wanted to get pictures up, I wanted the decor to reflect our personal style. I wanted to put our own spin on things! So! We had the same set of couches (one couch, one futon) our entire 7 years of marriage. So with the new house, we got new couches. And it has been my dream FOREVER to have pink couches. I have the best husband ever who lets me live out my pink dreams. He's the best. He said since he only gets me pregnant with boys that I can treat the house like my baby girl. Lol!! What a gem. So I got the couches, coffee table, rug, curtain rods, and then hired Ashley from Illustrious Interiors to help me with the finishing touches. I had just given birth to Hudson, and now with a newborn and toddler knew I didn't have the time or head space to go shopping for all the accessories. So she was AWESOME and got my curtains, pillows for the couch, frames for the gallery wall, and all the styling details (decor for the shelving in the shiplap wall, stuff to go on the shelf above the couch, and centrepiece for the coffee table). She came to the home and installed everything- she installed the curtain rods, hung my gallery wall, installed the shelf/styled the shelf above the couch, painted my front door pink and installed new hardware. She was so awesome and easy to work with and I'm SO grateful for her help. Because of her my living room is officially FINISHED and I'm so so happy with how everything came together!!!! Our next project is to paint all the doors/door frames upstairs white, and spray paint the hardware black (some people have been saying to get new doors, but the standard door sizes don't fit our doors so we'd have to cut them and blah blah blah- we are just gonna paint them!) Once that's done. Time to save for the kitchen. Oh the horrendous kitchen. But you know what! It's functional and I have a dishwasher so I am soo very grateful for that. Lots of people have been asking about our renovation journey so I thought I'd include some before/after photos below. It's definitely been a labor of love and we are so grateful to the entire team of people who helped us transform this place!!! 

Home, sweet home: