This post is long overdue. In fact, other than a couple small things being taken care of presently, our renovations have been finished for over a month and a half. We waited for ages for the final invoice and are now working through some final billing issues with the contractor, so it really hasn’t felt complete, yet.
However, since it is finished and we’ve been living with our updated spaces for a while, I thought I’d share some final pics, even though one or two did get leaked via various social media. For the most part I’ll let the photos below do the talking. Check out my previous posts if you want to see things at the beginning or middle of the project, to see where we came from.
I may have a separate post on the contractor experience at some point, but for now I’ll just focus on visuals for the completed work. You may notice that all floor tile throughout is the same. In fact, we also used same mosaic for accent in the kitchen and baths, too. We wanted some consistency, as pieces of this project stretch throughout the house.
Click any pic below for an overlay gallery.
The Kitchen & Den
Our scope was basically to keep to our rather small space, as we didn’t want to rip everything out to the frame. We also needed to work with our existing appliances, as most were new or near-new. As such, the layout largely remains the same as before. The key difference, however, was to get rid of counter space we didn’t use and include a floor-to-ceiling pantry there instead. On the den fireplace, we had some awful tile removed, too.
In the pics below, note the use of different lighting combos. We have under-counter pucks, over-counter pots and a centred fixture (that mostly replaced an ugly inset fluorescent. We’ve used LED bulbs across the board, so it’s completely energy-efficient. Good thing, too, as we may have ended up with a couple too many. It’s a hard space to light evenly.
And, a few closeups of the different lighting. Lots of lumens for a small space.
The Upstairs Bathrooms
Our hall and ensuite baths are, for the most part, mirror images of one another, since they share a wall. The key differences being that the ensuite is a tiny bit longer due to positioning of the entrance, and the hall now has a tub as before, while the ensuite has a new floor-to-ceiling shower where a useless sitz tub used to be.
The vanity lighting above, was something we found at one of the home improvement superstores. The thing I like is that it combines three ambient light fixtures with three accent fixtures. We presently have a bulb in only the middle accent piece. The pics below show the various components we acquired for the shower/baths and vanity cabinets and vessels in the two baths. Our toilets were still new, so we simply re-used them.
Ensuite
Hall
The Landings & Basement
Our scope was much smaller here, and almost entirely about replacing a noisy ceiling fan and ridding ourselves of any remaining lino. We re-tiled the two landings at the inside garage door and front door. In those areas, after the contractors were finished, I spent a good chunk of my holidays painting the entire front door area (walls, trim and big-ass railing), and adding some wood trim to the stairs to mask the horrible carpet that remains. In the bath the scope consisted of new ceiling drywall and the aforementioned fan, floor tile, re-use of some shower hardware from upstairs and a coat of paint.
As of this writing, nearing the end of September, we’re still replacing some light switches and wall plugs with decora, but that seems to be taking forever, due to its exceedingly low priority.