Renovations fast forward

I admire how some bloggers buy a fixer upper and then spend an amazing amount of time and energy doing all the renovations themselves. Learning how to tile, do electrical, rebuild whole parts of their houses via youtube. All the while, holding down a full time job and being generally super stylish all over the interweb…

Let me spare you the suspense. I am clearly not one those super humans ! Nor do I want to put undue pressure on myself in becoming one. I have exactly zero interest (or patience) in acquiring certain skills. Calling in the pros and having the job done in a minimum amount of time and a maximum amount of quality and perfectionism - that is my preferred way of tackling a building job.

So if you’re looking for blog content about grueling house renovations - move along ! The best I can offer you is this post, because, as mentioned in my previous missive, when I bought my new home it was pretty much in tip top condition. And that is just fine by me.

As you can see, the previous owner had already spared no expense doing a really good quality renovation. All the electricity had been redone and was up to code. The walls had been newly plastered and painted. The bathroom is brand new. She installed double glazing in the original front windows. She even hired a specialist to restore the “art nouveau” glass insets. And she paid special attention to maintaining all the original 19th century features that give this apartment it’s special charm (floors, doors, mouldings and mantles are all original).

I mean look at these pictures. It was all pretty much move in ready…

Remember these are only the “before” pics, right ? Right !

So what did I really have to change here, you’re probably wondering ?! Well. Some things had to go for purely esthetical reasons. Blue and beige wall colours ? Not my thing. The bathroom and kitchen sinks ? Not my taste either…Having a surround build around the circuit breaker panel in the bedroom ? That goes without saying.

Other jobs - like extra insulation on the exterior bathroom walls - were however a real necessity. So was having the wooden floors sealed - with an extra mat finish (!). Because you know, when you live with an unruly cat herd who loves to wee, puke and occasionally poo where they’re not supposed to… you enjoy having floors that are easy to clean and do not stain… New gas and water line in the kitchen ? Also a must have.

Removing the double doors from the front room (the ones going out to the building hall) and rebuilding the wall ? That was partly done for practical reasons (less noise and more energy efficiency) and aesthetics as well. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had a large wall in that room against which to place furniture, decor and plants.

For documentation sake, here's a few pics of the whole process.

I’m proud to announce : none of the above I did myself ! Yes, I hired a building company to do all the heavy lifting for me. And like I said, that is just fine by me. I’m very pleased with the job they’ve done. If you’re in the Brussels region and in need of a serious builder, do contact BBCS sprl. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Now that the boring (renovation) stuff is out of the way, let’s move on to the fun bits, shall we ?

Weekend To Do

Ok guys. Are you ready for the truth ? This is what my living room looks like 90% of the time. Messy. Unstylish. A disaster zone.

Like total DI-SAS-TER zone ! I haven't been able to use the dining table since 2012. Probably part of the reason I now have a table in the kitchen. Anyway. Back to the point.

One of my favourite bloggers - Anna from Door Sixteen - sometimes has these "Weekend to do" posts, which I always find incredibly motivating. Even hip New Yorkers, such as Anna, don't just spend their weekends sipping vegan beverages, shopping in designer boutiques and walking tiny dogs... but instead struggle keeping up with housework. For an untrendy slacker like me, I find that somewhat reassuring.

Again anyway. I thought I'd my own little to do for this weekend :

1. TIDY UP THE LIVING ROOM ! Obviously.
2. Prepare ebay posts for some of the unwanted Tomado shelves. And other stuff where appropriate.
3. Tidy up the rest of the place.
4. Vacuum like there's no tomorrow. I've just come back from 10 days in the UK and there's cat hair EVERYWHERE. Side note: I do need to follow Merle's advice and invest in a furminator...
5. Do the laundry. Technically there's still a basket left to do, but I've run out of space to hang stuff. So I consider myself done for now.
6. Clean the litter boxes.
7. Prepare and eat courgette fritters. Miam.
8. Listen to The Bugle podcast.

Wally is keeping an eye on my progress.

Also I'm planning on posting some "After" pics here tomorrow evening. Fingers crossed.


Update Monday morning - Yeah. About those "After" photos. Not gonna happen... By the time I finished last night, it was already getting too dark to shoot decent pics. Plus, not everything was as tidy as I would have wished : laundry was still drying in the living room, piles of paper still need to be sorted on the dining table, massive bags full of stuff are waiting to be taken to the goodwill... You get the picture.

But still. That was one hell of a productive weekend !

Also. Look what the cat dragged in.

 My latest ebay score has arrived. Any guesses ?

Ch-Ch-Changes

Big changes indeed ! Which for the moment mostly involve making a gigantic mess...

... moving out furniture and selling off a whole bunch of stuff on ebay (and still finding the time to flip through Design Sponge at Home ) ...

... and blogging on the coffee table while od'ing on coffee... How 'à propos'.

Yes, you guessed it, I had the brilliant idea to tackle a complete overhaul of my bedroom right before Christmas and the end of year marathon to get all the school projects in.

I'm pleading the temporary insanity card and blaming flipping through too much 'Design Sponge at Home' for all this foolishness.

So how are you guys getting on with your Christmas preparations ?

Weekend to-do

Yeah, I know that is one horrible photo - both quality and subject wise.

Unfortunately this hot mess is no longer confined to the living room sideboard. Over the last few weeks, crap has slowly spilled over and out of the living room. And is now taking over the hall and is menacing the bedroom. I swear it's like this mess has a will of its own...

I spare you any further pictures. Plus it's still too dark to capture anything but the front room. Yep, I fell out of bed today, but - dude! - do I have a plan !

This desperate situation calls for drastic measures. Enter the weekend to-do list.

1. Finally get my lazy ass in gear and schlepp all the stuff destined for the cellar down to the cellar. Some of this stuff has been waiting in the hall for months now... making it increasingly difficult to enter my place... And NO, I don't want to end up in some crazy Hoarders TV show.
   
2. Hang second Enje shade in the kitchen (the first one has already been installed a while back - don't ask why the second one is taking so long). My Dad is scheduled to arrive in two hours to help. So this should definitely be feasable.
3. While Dad is here, ask him to help me install my new door handle. Yes kids, you guessed right. After obsessively stalking other people's rad 60s door handles (here, here and here), I finally scored one for myself !
4. Tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise, tidy up, organise...
5. Hoover and clean like there is no tomorrow. Or rather, like there IS a tomorrow and that tomorrow is bringing a family visit. And no, I don't want to be the black sheep, errr big fat slob, of the family...
6. Take care of all the normal weekend stuff : grocery shopping, thrifting (!), clean the cat loos, see friends, enjoy the sunshine...

Ok guys, it's now shortly after 8 am. I'm off to a quick shower (just in case I meet any neighbours on my way to the basement - you know, not wanting to appear as a total slob... ) and then off to work.

I'll let you know how the big battle turns out.


Update - it's now noon, my Dad just left and what did we accomplish ? One lousy Enje roller is now finally up. The door handle thing turned into a total disaster as we couldn't figure out how to get rid of the old one. No amount of turning or pulling could persuade the knob to move. It's been sitting on my entry door since 1959, and I have a feeling it's going to sit there for the next 50 years as well. Stupid thing !

Update 2 - Sunday, 7 am - I fell out of bed... again... So here's what I got done yesterday.

• All the crap that cluttered up the hall is now either in the cellar or in the garbage bin. Success !
  
• Grocery shopping
• I decided I wouldn't have time to go thrifting. So that one can also be ticked of the list as well.
• The cats can now poop on clean litter...
• I also started tidying up the living room; the Cadovius shelves are now dust, cat hair and clutter free, and so is the seating corner. Still, the worse part remains mostly untackled...
  

Hall closet before & after

Are you ready ?

Here we go...

Way back in January. No comment...

The hall decor consisted mostly of clutter. How embarrassing.

And the inside of the small walk-in closet was even worse.

The last of the dreaded yellow - and some paint samples.

Mr Messy would feel right at home...

And then February brought : ebay success (coat rack is now sold),

... some much needed decluttering,

... also some harassing paint work,

... and finally, some rewards, aka new furniture and accessories.

A Kewlox wall cabinet is now holding all of my shoes.

A Charley Harper poster from 1977 is cheering up the entry. And of course, a little West German pottery never hurts.

The whole closet is now a sparkling white.

In the future, I'll probably be buying some Ikea boxes to make better use of those built-in shelves, but for now I just randomly dumped most of the closet stuff back in there.

Even the inside of the door frame got a fresh coat of paint. Although you have to dangerously twist around to actually see it. But what can I say, perfection is my middle name.

So to sum up, I used the Little Greene "Shirting" (left over from painting the hall last year) for the walls and trim, and Farrow and Ball "Pavillion Gray" (left over from repainting the kitchen) for the accent wall.

I confess, the Kewlox cupboard at 210 eur blew a bit of a hole in my budget, but turned out to be the only option given that this space is exceedingly narrow. So anything with drawers and doors other than sliding ones was out of the question. I did consider the Ikea Aspvik wall unit for a while, but it would have been less partical for storing shoes, as it does not come with a middle shelf. And for once, I did not want to wait for anything vintage to turn up on ebay.

So Kewlox it is ! And I'm very happy with my choice. I very much like how the checkerboard doors add some extra punch to the space. And in any case, being greeted by anything other than a complete mess when you enter my place, is a very nice change :-)

Welcome to the jungle...

... We got fun and games ;-)

Charlie is certainly having fun. I am less amused by all the chaos!

But more order & organisation is on the way. The Kewlox cupboard is being picked up tomorrow evening - sold for 91.50 EUR. Not too shabby.

And then... well then I can start moving the rest of the furniture into its new and rightful position. More changes on the way.

Bedroom

Remember the bedroom ?

The one room that was coming together nicely ?! Ergo got tossed to the bottom of my priority list ? Well I have been naughty.


I started by switching the bed around.

And then I used my Oma's little dresser as a headboard/bedside table.

Crappy photo due to the lack of space, but you get the idea. Plus I gave the dresser a nice make-over with some organic furniture oil. It's positively glowing.

Nightstand vignette.

Now you might have wondered where the 200 EUR for my Thonet chairs went. Well among other thrift finds, into this glorious wall lamp.

Found at Mouche for 70 EUR and I invested another 30 EUR to have it rewired (originally it did not even have a switch).

A word of praise to Christian - my go to guy in all things lamp related. He did a beautiful job and chose a black fabric coated wire (and not some cheapo plastic one) - the sort of detail that makes all the difference.

Close-up of the "articulated joint".

See you can move it around in whatever way you fancy. FUN !

So here it is my new cosy bed nook. Any thoughts ? Better or worse ?

Meanwhile in the living room...

Well at least Charlie is staying serene AND on top of the chaos.