The Upstairs Bathroom

As I've mentioned before, the kitchen isn't even the worst room in the house. That title goes to our upstairs bathroom. 

When we bought the house, there were 3 bedrooms upstairs. The hallway you see down there extended further and there was a room between the washroom (on the right) and the master bedroom. My parents decided to split that room and make half of it into a walk-in closet and use the other half to get a bigger bathroom.

Well, ladies and gentleman, we do have a bigger bathroom but it's still in the state it was 7 years ago when we did this.

This is the view from the door.

The vanity.

The nice beige toilet and sole shelving unit in the bathroom.

The bathtub/shower.

The extend part of the washroom.

Aaaaand some bonus dusty floor rot to top it all off!

The only part that pains me in all of this is that there isn't much I can DO in this room of the house. We're definitely going to need a professional for this part. I'm thinking maybe of at least building some shelves or updating an old dresser to make the room look fuller. 

Here are some examples of color schemes and furniture. 

The next step for the bathroom is finding a company that will do a nice job with our limited budget!

Cleaning and de-greasing kitchen cabinets

The first step in our kitchen Reno game plan is to wash and de-grease all the cabinets and drawers. It was a longer process than I had anticipated. You're basically washing out years and years of dust and grease. 

I used this product, which I bought at Rona for 14$. Honestly, I could've bought the smaller size for 7$. A little bit of this stuff goes a long way. Especially if you've been cleaning your cabinets over the years. I needed to take off A LOT of grease.  

      

   
I did it in two shots. The first was about 3 hours. I washed all the bottom cabinets and drawers, and removed the baseboards. We're going to be redoing the floor so we won't be needed them for a while anyway. 

Here are a few before and after shots. 

Whyyyyy would you do this???

And there you have it... One heavy duty degreaser and a lot of elbow grease, no pun intended, and the cabinets have been cleaned of years and years of dust and grease. Next step, sanding!

Kitchen Renovation 2013-2014

Here is our kitchen now: 

Check out this fugly stick on vinyl tile. Oh, and then even fuglier 80's linoleum! 

Our worn and kitschy oak cabinets:

Warning you're about to see years worth of greasy dust....

Our counter-tops. They've seen a lot. 

Our wannabe "sweet country style" backsplash. 

We'll there you have it. Our kitchen in all it's 80's orangey beigeness. 

There's obviously a lot of work ahead here. The worse part is that it isn't even the worst room on the house! I'll get to the upstairs bathroom in a later post! 

Here's our game plan: 

1 - Clean and de-grease all the cabinets and drawers. Take off baseboards. 

2 - Light sanding of all cabinets and drawers. Rinse. Stain with General Finishes Java Gel stain. 

3 - Install new hinges and handles. 

4 - Remove backsplash. 

5 - Patch up drywall. 

6 - Install new backsplash. 

7 - Apply Encore counter-top refinishing system in Concrete.

8 - Flooring?!

We're definitely on a tight budget but the kitchen will be a huge selling point for the house. 

This is why the flooring is last at the moment. We don't have much to splurge so my mom wants to out in linoleum or vinyl tile. *shudder* I'd really prefer doing tile instead of anything linoleum or vinyl because they look cheap and they're just not as durable and timeless as tile. A good tile in neutral colors can go years. 

I'm currently in the process of cleaning our cabinets in order to stain them at the end of November. A post on that will be coming shortly.

The countertops will be covered with the Encore refinishing system in concrete. I was definitely hesitant at first because it seemed a little gimmicky. However, I've checked a few blogs and reviews and it seems pretty legit. Plus apparently we're getting it for free. (My dad's work contacts)

I'll be making a trip to Home Depot next week to pick out some new hardware and a backsplash. 

This is a picture I've found online that greatly resembles our kitchen. I'm hoping staining the cabinets will update the look of the kitchen as dramatically. 

That's it for now! Post on the cleaning and de-greasing of the cabinets to come shortly!