Apartment Upgrades

We turned over the Hugo house upstairs apartment October 1st to a new renter. Getting a new renter in is a bit of a "blitz" - it's hard to do things, improvement wise, when people are moving out, or in. This usually gives us about...a day or two to get things done. At least all the big stuff, like paint and carpet. So with this kind of go-go-go, I don't really get good after pics! 'Cause we pretty much finish at the last possible second, and I don't have time:-)

The renter that just moved out had been up there for four and a half years! Her son came to live with her about 6 months ago, and he had some difficulty with the stairs, so they found another place. Since she was up there so long - a lot of things just needed upgrading. She had never mentioned anything - nothing technically broken, but just old, and needing a re-do before new folks move in.

The 2nd (smaller bedroom). It's the only carpet in the house, and the last time we installed new carpet up there, Lauren (Brian's sister) lived up there. That was about 7 years ago. It was definitely time for an update, so we pulled it up.

The wood floors are still in generally great condition, but there are place in high wear areas where the bare wood was starting to show through the stain. The last thing we did was "stain ourselves out the door"

The big bedroom. Thankfully, other than scrubbing the walls with a magic eraser, and painting all the doors and trim, nothing was needed in this room.

This is the "walk in closet" off the big bedroom (pic above). That bedroom has two regular closets, in addition to this one. Renters usually use it as an office. It's spacious, bright...and blue! New renter hated the colour (so do I! - It's been this colour since our very first renters way back in 2004 - no one has bothered to change it). Brian and I Kilz'd it, so it's plain white now, although I don't have an after pic. It can now be painted a nice neutral that won't blind you.

Cast iron sink. Ollllllld

Counter top. Ollllllld. Although the same in style to my old one from Hugo downstairs, but to it's credit, not bright yellow.

A grey-ish blue. Way worn, and just in dire need of replacement.

We re-painted all the trim in the entire apartment, and all the doors, and all the kitchen cabinets. The apartment is just over 800 sq ft, but has a LOT of trim, doors, and door frames! This was mostly my job, and it really took forever!

Re-painting of cabinets, underway. They are old, but "plain" in style, and in good condition. They have new door pulls, and look very nice all spruced up.

A view from the front door, looking up. Main part of apartment is to the right, and the 2nd smaller bedroom is to the left.

There is a little walk in closet off the bathroom (the closet space up there is actually amazing, given the time period of the house - they didn't used to need storage like we do now)

This walk in is where she kept her kitty litter box - it is carpeted, and there was no hope for it. Replaced! (Here you can see that put deodorizer down, in an effort to revive it, but it wasn't working!

Bathroom just needed some simple maintenance and recaulking

The coat closet off the main area. Trim & door, painted.

One of the two regular closets in the bigger, "master" bedroom.

The walk in, off the big bedroom. One of the last things we did was Kilz the walls to white, I don't have any pics of that.

Kitchen...

 

Counter top - new one needed.

Old cast iron sink. New one needed.

New carpet laid in bathroom walk in. Brian had these carpet squares left over from a jobsite, and so it's was free to glue them down. They have a weird pattern, but it's a little less obvious in person that in the pic...and free. Can't beat that.

I found a really high quality carpet that would fit the 2nd bedroom at a remnant place. It was $100. Sold! When Brian went and picked it up, he called me and said it was the ugliest carpet he'd ever seen:-)

Which I will admit - is kinda true. Maybe not ugliest EVER, but it looks like airport carpet. Here it is just laid down, but not "kicked in" or tacked yet (hence the bump you can see here). Anyway, it does work very well in the space, and matches the current colour on the walls in that room perfectly!

It's a pinky tan and a baby smokey blue on a grey background, but overall, gives a tan appearance:-) But it's durable, and was super affordable. Seriously. You would have picked it too, had you seen the other options and prices!

Look what is getting ready for installation! A new counter top, sink, and faucet. I was instructed to buy a Delta faucet, as nothing else compares, Brian said. :-) It's a simple style, but again, is "fool proof" and hard to break. Perfect for a rental!

Cutting our new carpet remnant down to size...12x14

Work work work

Taking the old counter out was funny. It weighed about 1000 pounds. Ok, ok, maybe more like 250. No exaggeration. Brian and I lifted it off - it was made forever ago and was SOLID wood, including a cast iron sink. HEAVY. It was long, awkward, and so heavy. We carried it out of the kitchen into the livingroom, and even just going that far, my arms were burning and I had to stop and rest it on my leg a few times - where it left a hefty bruise just above my knee from the pressure. See, heavy! Brian acknowledged that there was NO WAY the two of us could get it down the steep stairs. So he called in a friend to help, and the two of them even said...heavy! And apparently getting it up into the dumpster was a sight to behold. Haha. Glad for strong men to handle the tough parts! The new counter top was feather-weighted by comparison, and very easy for me to carry up and install with Brian.

I don't have a better pic of the counter top installed, but it looks AMAZING in the space! It really freshened up the whole kitchen.

The kids did amazing - playing outside on the circle for hours and hours while we worked, and watching movies inside when it rained. We did a TON of painting, and then just a few other little things here and there. It really made the space feel brand new though, which is nice. The new renter is happy, so yay! That makes us happy!