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!!

My Weekend Report

I hope everyone else had a good weekend! Doug and I had a pretty busy one, but it was good nonetheless. On Saturday Erik and Micah came over to help Doug out with some electrical work that needed to be done in our place. Erik helped Doug install a couple light fixtures, while Micah and I had a great time playing. He sure had a good time jumping on Auntie's bed. I think he was more excited when I came and jumped with him. It must have looked pretty hilarious, a 6 1/2 month pregnant woman jumping on the bed. No wonder he was laughing and shouting "Jump Auntie Elissa, jump!"

He also got some valuable hours of coloring in. He's working pretty intently on that picture.

Sunday was busy for Doug and I, since we were leading worship at our church. Even though it can be a long morning of setting up, taking down, etc. it still was fun to play and was a meaningful morning of worship for us. We also managed to hang out with friends during the afternoon, make a trip to Home Depot to research some options of for replacing our shower (it's going to be a big project!), and spent some time and Mom and Dad Toews' for Father's Day. Today, I ended up taking the afternoon off from work to go get my hair done. My hairdresser (the best one ever) it leaving on holidays for several weeks, so I had to fight to get an appointment, but I managed to squeeze one in. Even though I may feel uncomfortable, large, and tired of being pregnant at times, I can at least have great hair! Don't you think? Here's a couple pictures of the finished product.

I think this week will fly by pretty quickly. I have a full day of work tomorrow, Wednesday is a day of meetings, Thursday the girls and I are being sent to the spa for the day by our boss (yeah!) and on Friday, Doug and leave for Saskatchewan! We will be there for the weekend and fly home on Monday night. Even though it's a short trip, it will be nice to get away and see my family. Well, that's it for now! Hopefully I'll see some of you Saskatchewan folk this weekend!

The Month of May

I know, it's been a long time since my last post, but let me tell you, sometimes blogging seems more like work after I've been sitting at my computer all day in the office! However, Doug and I have been up to quite a bit lately, and I guess it's time to update everyone on our lives. Let's start at the beginning. Well, first of all, my sister Angie came out to visit us for the first week of May! We did some fun stuff together, like heading down to Bellingham for some Target and supper at Billy McHale's (I would highly recommend Billy's, let me tell you. So would Rosanna, right?). We also spent a day down in Vancouver doing some sightseeing, shopping on Robson, and eating out. Here's a few pic's of us enjoying a beautiful day down in Vancouver with our beautiful sister.

Unfortunately, we were not able to spend the entire week doing just fun stuff. We also put Ang to work. On April 30th Doug and I took possession of our new condo. Let me tell you, it was definitely not move in ready. In fact, it was so shabby (and actually disgusting) that I wouldn't have let my own pet live there (if I had one). So we started tearing it apart. We ripped out a wall, all the carpets, all the baseboards and mouldings, and the light fixtures. Doug's dad was over at our place everyday that first week helping us get all the work done. After all the demo was completed, we painted everything, installed laminate in the kitchen and living room, had new carpet installed in the bedrooms, and put up all new mouldings. Unfortunately, we are still working on our place. We've made it our goal to get at least 1 thing done each night after we get home from work, and we also have weekend projects. At this point, we have a couple more light fixtures to put up, the countertops need to be replaced, and Doug is working on building us new kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. Hopefully it will all be done by the time the baby arrives at the end of summer! Here's a couple pictures of the demo!

Not only did Angie come to visit us this month, but my Mom and my little brother Joel also came out to see us! Joel was playing in the National V-ball tournament here in Abbotsford, so we spent the weekend watching his team play. We also had a little fun together too. Red Robin's is alway fun, right guys?

Here's Joel focusing in on the court. Isn't he cute?

Well, I think that pretty much covers what we've been up to this month. Once we finish off a few more things I'll try to put some before and after pic's of our place on my blog. I'll also have to take another pic of my fairly large belly one of these days. I think I've run out of room in my non-maternity shirts, and I might have to head out and buy some maternity ones. They're just so expensive, especially since I'll only be wearing them for another 3 months! Besides outgrowing my clothes, this pregnancy has been pretty good so far. I've been pretty comfortable these past few weeks, and pretty much back to my "normal" self. I feel like I have lots of energy, I am still enjoying work, and I love knowing that there's a baby on the way! Even though we haven't had a whole lot of time to think about the baby and get ready for it (we have been pretty busy with our house), it's been so fun to feel the baby moving and kicking. I think we may have an active child on our hands, since this kid is out of control some days. One night I balanced the TV remote on my stomach, only to have it kicked off! I'm pretty sure it's doing gymnastics in there. Anyways, I think that's all I have for now. Hope you all enjoy the pictures and the little update!