It only took me 3 1/2 years to get around to it...

But here it is!  A long LONG time ago I promised to post pictures of our condo when we had completed the renovations.  I never did.  But it's never too late, right?  Since I still don't have more pictures of our current house to blog about (that kitchen of mine.. it never stays clean long enough for me to take a couple of pictures!), I decided to dig these ones out of my photo archives and throw them up on the old blog.  Let me take you on a tour of our former condo!

The condo was a total gut job.  It was disgusting, and stinky, and rundown, and smelly, and... you get the picture.  It was also the first reno project Doug and I ever took on. We learned how to do a lot of things by practicing on this place :)  When we look back now, Doug and I often shake our heads and laugh at how little we knew.  Before the condo we were inexperienced in the art of laying flooring, tiling bathrooms, finish carpentry, installing light fixtures... but we figured it out!  Here are the before and afters-- room by room.

BEFORE: Kitchen

AFTER

Here's what we did: We refaced the existing cabinets with new doors-- built by my own handy husband!  We replaced 2 of the upper cabinets (the one with the mullion doors over the sink and the box holding the microwave) and made them higher than the other existing cabinets to make it look a little more custom.  New lighting, new flooring, new fridge (the other one broke down on us), new paint, new faucet!  The stain used on the doors in the kitchen is one of my favorites-- a nice rich deep brown that doesn't look too red.  Beautiful!

BEFORE: Living Room

AFTER

New paint, floors, crown, baseboards, and lighting.

BEFORE: Living Room/Dining Room

AFTER

Yup, we took out the half wall.

One of my favorite transformations in this room was the fireplace.  In the first living room "before" picture you'll notice that the tile was a nice forest green-- complimented by the brass fireplace grate.  I sanded, primed and painted the tile and then sprayed the brass components of the fireplace with matte black barbeque spray paint.  It was a $15 transformation that looked incredible!

BEFORE: Master Bedroom

AFTER

New paint, crown, and carpet!!

BEFORE: Ensuite Bathroom

AFTER

The dramatic bathroom vanity makeover was once again done by Doug!  I personally tiled the floor in this bathroom (and the other one too) when I was 7 months pregnant with Caleb.  I have a picture to prove it.  Definitely not the best picture I have of myself.

BEFORE: Second Bedroom (Nursery)

AFTER

And again-- pretty much everything was redone in here.
Heck, I even made those curtains!

BEFORE: Main Bathroom

AFTER

(I don't actually have a picture of this room... but if you can ignore cute little Caleb in his jolly jumper, you can see into the bathroom)

Wow, that was a long time ago.  We were sad to sell our first home, but were really excited about our new house (where we are now).  A few months after selling the condo we heard that the unit above ours had a fire-- the sprinklers kicked in and flooded the unit, ours, and the one below.  We were pretty thankful that we were no longer there... and a little sad to realize that all of our hard work was ruined.

Hope you all enjoyed this brief detour... now I just need to clean the kitchen!!