And the demolition begins!

Brad's birthday is in January; the same weekend we got our keys. Instead of spending money on gifts and  celebrations, we decide that we will just concentrate on the renos instead. But of course I couldn't quite let it go, so I bought him a hammer! 

With great help from friends and family the walls start coming down! There is something so exciting about taking a hammer to a perfectly good wall, and at the same time it feels wrong, like you are doing something so bad! I seem to be the only one who felt that way, pretty soon there wasn't much of the existing dining room and kitchen left. 

At the end of the month, I start to wonder, maybe we got a little hammer happy. Will there even be an original sheet of dry wall left? 

 This is so wrong!

Where the kitchen sink once lived!

At this point I can't see eating my cheerios here ever again

Open view from the guest bedroom to the master!
Call us crazy, but the plan is to take all the closets out of both the master and the guest bedrooms.
 How else will I fit my Dorothy Drapers in my bedroom?!

Next post, the real fun begins! We start planning the kitchen!!

Got our keys! (January 2012)

Friends and family have asked us repeatedly to post pictures of our renovation and I thought it would be fun to try blogging!  
 This being my first ever blog, please excuse me if my blogging etiquette is not quite what it should be.  

Enjoy! ~Shelley 

Our little house was ready to move in the day we get our keys, however, if you know us, you know we had to put our own spin on it immediately. We couldn't just move in and get a feel for the space and then create a wishlist. Not to mention save some money for all of our ideas! No, we had to start renovating before we even do our final walk through!

I have space planned, selected hundreds of paint colours and designed many kitchens for my clients in the past 7 years as a designer, now it is our turn! 

These are our before pictures. 

We are much further into the thick of things now, I plan to update every few days until I catch you up!

 Our kitchen was the first thing we wanted to replace. We have plans to make it more modern and fresh, however, after gently (and painstakingly!) chipping off the back splash tile, I decided to keep a couple to use as trivets in the new kitchen! 

 The kitchen and dining room were very compartmentalized, this was the first wall to come down in our plan.

 This built-in was a great idea, but for us, we wanted to maximize visual space. This was a the second wall to come down! Hopefully a nice new custom built banister will take its place!

 Looking at the dining room and hallway from the living room.

 Hallway 

Guest bedroom (bathroom is built out into this room- I know...)

 Master Bedroom closet

 Master Bedroom doorway

Master Bedroom

Nursery (it will no longer be a nursery!)

Nursery closet- We have BIG plans for this room!!