In 2005 we had to move from our small home town to a major city. Wow, what an adventure!
MisterT found a pretty appartment in the classifieds, so we made the two hour trip to visit the city and the appartment and decided to rent it.
It was affordable and close to MisterT's new school. However, it was old and needed lots of renovations. We had to renew absolutely everything: paint every wall, remove the carpets, lay laminate, etc.
For one or two months we drove there every weekend and renovated and renovated and renovated. Ugh, i wonder how we survived.
It was exhausting, not only because of the physical hard work but also because we did not have the time to relax. We left early on fridays right after work, returned back home sunday nights and went to work monday morning.
It was hard, a race against time and a real challenge, but also so much fun and a wonderful feeling to create our new nest. It made us realize that "we" can reach everything.
So let's start with the bathroom, we didn't have enough time to renovate it; there was so much other and more important stuff to do. The only thing we did was to replace the shower head.
Pretty in Pink:
We did not renovate the storeroom, but rearranged the cabinet and squeezed in our washing machine and dryer.
The hallway was the hardest part because of its L-shape and the muddy green-brownish Latex paint on the walls. Have you ever tried to coat Latex paint? It is a PAIN and almost impossible to cover it with a lighter shaded paint. We painted the walls three times until we were satisfied with the result.
A few weeks later we sold the massive wardrobe and replaced it by a bookshelf:
The kitchen was a nightmare too, again that terrible Latex color but this time with obvious smoker's remains.
We replaced the carpet by PVC floor coating and painted the walls in a matching blue shade with metallic silver sponge technique. I would never do that again but it was trendy back then and we really liked it and did a great job.
Mold in the window frames, yuck
My stylish "Renovator's Outfit", haha:
And MisterT hiding:
The bedroom got another 2005 trend, the wipe technique:
We bought an old cheap waterbed:
The Living Room before:
MisterT built a new aviary and it turned out amazing!
The Living Room After:
A few weeks later we re-arranged the furniture:
We used the second bedroom as a study and converted it into a bird-room a few weeks later. I will not share many pictures of that room because it has always been in constant chaos.
We decided to paint the walls green, but instead of a warm pastel green we got a color that can most likely be described as "peppermint". It looked terrible and my metallic silver wipe technique made it even worse- god, what was i thinking?? We repainted after a few months.
That was our "bed" during the renovation weekends:
Finally, the balcony:
After weeks of hard work and eating microwave junk from plastic plates we rewarded ourselves with homemade burgers and another gift from the previous tenants that we had saved for a special moment:
Two mini bottles of schnaps :)
