Renovations to make me happy in daily life
The Overview
This 600 sqf condo has been my family home for the past 10 years. I live here with my husband, and my son (a 14 year-old white cat). It’s a humble looking mid rise in heavenly Westend, Vancouver.
The unit was fine to begin with, but as a designer and problem solver, I could tweak a few. I can think of elaborate renovations with new everything, but I am a die hard tree huger and minimalist at heart. Less is more and reuse what I have is more of my thing.
Once my husband and I hit our financial goal, and some nagging after, we decided to tackle our first renovation. I waited 10 years to do the renovation, so I knew exactly what I wanted and what’s fine not to touch.
The Monies
Upon deciding to start the renovation process, I have asked for a few quotes.
What I wanted is:
- Removal of a wall.
- Kitchen peninsula where the wall is
- Removal of bottom half of our built-in to fit piano under
- Apply molding in hallway to make it interesting
- Incorporate Japanese antique door for the reno
Contractor 1: $9000 including a new countertop that I didn’t ask for.
Designer1: $12000 only includes 7 feet long bottom cabinetry for kitchen peninsula, and a specific lighting and the installation from her showroom.
So I quickly learned that they don’t want to take on a small job, they’ll sell you things you don’t ask for, such as new countertop, new entire kitchen etc… And no, the quotes does not include any products such as appliances and lighting, it’s just pure cost of materials and labor.
I have learned that DIY level jobs cost thousands! I don’t know about you but I like traveling, and investing. With that thousands, I can go to Italy, many many times or buy some stocks. So I took on a DIY reno with mostly HOME DEPOT products.
How much I spent on my renovation
I spent about $3000 on everything including:
- materials (wood, paint, tiles etc.)
- products (a sink, faucets, lighting etc.)
- labor (demolition, carpentry, electrical etc. done by skilled friends)
About $1000 each on the 3 categories. I also sold our unused bits (furniture, lampshades, and so on) on Craigslist and made over $500.
The result is fabulous if I say so myself, and I am very happy with what I have achieved with our humble $3000 bucks.
I have also traded skills with my friend who is a very cool woodworker, like a true hippy. (Not that I am a hippy but I like the idea of skill trading)
I (5 feet tall, 30 something tiny Asian girl) did a lot of DIY labor.
DIY means Do It Yourself right? That means it takes a long time and you can only blame yourself for not finishing a project. My small renovation took about 3 month, and everyone disliked the dust and inconvenience the whole time. It was definitely worth it in the end though.
Sentimental Story
Part of the reason why I waited 10 years to do my renovation was to incorporate some sentimental pieces to my home.
I am originally from Japan. Both of my parents were working so I was usually at my grandma’s house after school. It’s a 100-year old house in a country side with lots of charms.
100 years ago, they didn’t use nails to build homes, they used large lumbers to interconnect each other to support the structure. The thick beams were there in the living room. The wall is made of mud. Original house didn’t come with kitchen, and Bathroom was also separate.
For young grandma, everyday was like camping. The kitchen was outside! and had to make fire to heat the bath or to cook. By the time my mom was a tween though, kitchen was added on and hot water was running. I still remember getting water from the well.
Anyways, long story short, my grandma passed away a couple of years ago. I knew her house was going to get demolished. I wanted to use the salvaged materials for my home. I’m a grandma’s girl after all.
I shipped an original door from my grandma’s house by Fedex. The cost was around $200. Shipping with Fedex was about half price of taking it on the plane as a large check-in luggage.
I also brought back some antiques in my suitcase to in corporate with my renovation.
The goal of renovation
My goal was to make the flow of the condo better.
No body wanted to bring the dishes from the dining table to the sink before. That’s the main thing. Sounds like a tiny little thing, but it was in the way of my daily happiness. P.S. this renovation was done just for my pleasure. I don’t care about re-sale or other factors. I love my condo (the view, the location, the size) and I’ll never leave here by my choice.
The solution:
- Take out a wall!
- Build a peninsula to eat at
The challenges:
- Don’t want to redo the flooring
- Have to patch up the popcorn ceiling
The kitchen that came with this unit wasn’t bad at all! Sure I didn’t like the cat puke colored granite but it’s granite none the less, I don’t have a heart to rip out a functional kitchen or a counter top.
What I didn’t like a lot more was this wall that was separating the kitchen and the dining area.
I wanted that wall gone! But it’s not that simple. If I take out the wall, I have to redo the flooring. We’ve got this cheap looking but very practical laminate flooring in the living room, hallway and bedroom. Kitchen floor is this 2000’s looking tumbled edge tiles with very thick grout line.
Would I choose both of these flooring? Absolutely NOT. My ideal flooring would be a white oak wide planks or chevron pattern. How wonderful to do all the flooring? I know, but what it means is that I have to put my existing laminate and kitchen tiles in the landfill. Rip out still totally fine kitchen. Might as well change the bathroom floor? I didn’t want to do any of that.
I decided to keep the bottom half wall and 2 feet of right side wall intact, so I don’t have to redo the flooring.
Good news is, after renovating, I don’t mind the kitchen tiles anymore. My eyes doesn’t land on it like before thanks to my brand new DIY backsplash. white glossy tiles brings my eyes up.
This post is already too long, so I will do blog posts by the renovation projects.
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