Family Home Renovations

My client, Robert, has a can-do attitude like no other. As I have gotten to know Robert over the last seven months, it shouldn’t have surprised me the type of home he and his wife chose for their first purchase. In business-for-self and raising a family of two young children, 1 and 3, I have to say it still shocked me when I pulled into his driveway to meet him in person for the first time.

Right beside his family car in the driveway, a large disposal bin sat nearly full of housing rubble. He was still hard at work, so it took a few attempts of knocking on the door to get his attention.

The house was completely transformed from the pictures I saw in the MLS listing three months prior. Within four weeks of taking possession, they had all the major renovations complete on their three-story house. It took another two weeks for the finishing touches; the cabinets, counter tops and dishwasher to be delivered and installed.

Robert and his wife selected a great community to raise their family in, with plans to stay for the long-term. They saw many nicely renovated homes in the area, but felt that this home gave them the beginnings of something that they really wanted to make their own.

The family was able to live in their previous residence for four weeks while the major renovations took place. Robert made himself available on site each day. He’s aware that many people don’t have this opportunity, but stresses the importance of being on site and available. “I couldn’t imagine not being there,” says Robert. “If you can, be there.”

He continues to share stories of why this is so important; “My wife and I had picked a laminate flooring for my main floor thinking it would work well. One day I had come in shortly after the installation had started and it looked different together than it did individually. It really wasn’t going to look good for the entire floor so I asked them stop while they were already halfway through the dining room. I was really lucky as this was product they had in stock and they did not buy specially for this job. So it ended up costing me $500 for material & labour instead of it being a big disaster. After that I was sure to buy a box of the flooring I was interested in; laid it out all together before making the big purchase.”

“Another example was the back splash in the kitchen. I got a good deal on a product I had bought earlier, before we had picked most of the other supplies. It was one of the last things to be done in the house. I happened to not be home when it was installed and when I got back I realized that it didn’t look right. All the renovations were done now, but we didn’t like this prominent piece. I sucked it up and started smashing it all out. We had the drywall repaired and a new back splash installed – one we liked. Again, if we would have double checked the sample we would not have gotten in trouble.” Robert recalls. “It’s things like this that should keep others motivated to check on their renovations every day, at least once a day.”

Even with those challenging experiences the family was able to spend some quality weekend hours working together building their home. The renovations gave the family the opportunity to truly make each room their own, building a part of their family story from the ground up.

The whole home, except for the basement, was renovated and crafted with their family in mind. The total cost for this amazing transformation was $75,000 – approximately double what Robert had originally budgeted. The costs, however, could have easily been even higher, nearing $150,000. It was through Robert’s connections in the construction industry and partnership with a fantastic general contractor that he managed to source much of his supplies at better than market prices.

Negotiating great prices on supplies and participating in the daily work may not be an option for every family. If you are planning to do renovations with a future home purchase, there is a mortgage product, Purchase + Improvements (to be covered in a later blog), that can help roll the costs of renovations into your mortgage.

Robert and his family are very proud of their work, as they should be. The project truly turned their house into a home. Prepare to be amazed…

BEFORE	AFTER
Ensuite 1
Ensuite 2
Half Bath
Kitchen
Living Room 1
Living Room 2

Making Storage Beautiful

I love beautiful storage.  It makes my life easier, it makes me appreciate my home more and in some cases it can add value to your real estate investment.

Here are some great websites recommending ways to get organized and add some beauty to your home.  So many ideas that can lead to even more creative ways of using your closet, wall space, and shelves.

Four Tips to Organizing Your Closet “People wear 20% of what they have 80% of the time,” says Donna Smalin Kuper, a professional organizer and author of How to Declutter and Make Money Now!

50 Cool Jewelry Storage Ideas Take care and show off you beautiful stones, pearls, and beads. 

Clever Built in Storage Ideas “These images are completely inspiring and really display how every nook in a home can be functional with a bit of ingenuity…”

House Tours: A Stylish Home with Practical Storage “After she lost most of her possessions in Hurricane Katrina, Amanda Catalanotto, professional organizer and homeowner, rebuilt her family’s house with style and function in mind.”

Ideas for Strategic Organization & Storage “Stop clutter from clogging up your home by taking an orderly approach to fixing pain points, such as your entry, kitchen, and closets…”

Add Brackets for Neat Stacks “Prevent folded clothes and linens from toppling with wooden dividers.”

Wall décor with a personal touch

1. How to make your own chic silhouette art

2. Giant Personal Picture

(Note: I also suggest using a foam core board that can be purchased from a office supply or craft store.  This can eliminate the cutting and painting a border.  It may be a bit more expensive, but will save time.  All you need to do is print the picture as directed, buy the board, spray glue it on and hang).

3. Cherry Blossom Bottle Art

Closet Upgrades 2

Condo living makes for unique ways to creatively maximize storage space. I usually found that my extra items that I like to have on hand, never had a decent accessible space to dedicate to them. My “extras” refer to items such as crafts, linens, luggage and tools. Other items that sometimes come into consideration, if you don’t have a storage locker or need them to be a bit more accessible may include sporting gear and seasonal items.

I decided to convert two of my closets that I felt weren’t maximizing their use. The one closet originally had two wire shelves with adjoining hanging bars at 3’ and 7’ heights. The second closet had one shelf at 6’. These shelves are the common installed product with new builds. You can still see the placement of the shelves in the pictures. I was considering removing the shelves, but decided to keep them and add more shelving and drawer units.

To get started, I first looked at what space I had, what I needed to store and how I though I would best be able to access my items. At one point I was considering adding a table that I could sit at to do work or even ironing . Eventually I realized that my preference would be to work at our living room table and stick with my current ironing board arrangement, therefore, I made many of my supplies more portable.

The stackable Ikea Salma box with lids from the craft closet were purchased from Ikea. They hold a variety of supplies from paints, to ribbon to paper, photos and cards. I used an old plastic bin as a holder for my wrapping paper, and the Antonius drawer units are great for tissue, bows, gift bags and décor. The other drawer unit to the right of the closet holds boxes, candles, candle holders, and note books. The extra shelving and the Antonius frame and drawer unit on the left side were purchased from Ikea.

The second closet I kept with a similar concept. I kept the original shelf and added other Antonius shelving to give me more places to stack and hide things. On the bottom I kept my household paints, tools, and hardware bins. The shelves mainly hold my extra linen, pillows and towels, while the top shelf stores our luggage bags. I also keep my ironing board and iron in here. The iron will eventually be installed properly with the Rationell Variera iron holder from Ikea on one of the inside walls. The iron fits nicely between the shelves and the closet doors.

Both these closets may not be the pretties looking, but they are functional and can easily be adjusted or changed if I ever wanted to re-arrange the space or put it back to the original design for rental or selling purposes.

Closet Upgrades 1

Closet designs are constantly over simplified and underutilized. This continues to be an issue with the construction of new homes, condos and townhomes today. Developer’s can cut costs by putting in a basic wire shelf with an adjoining hanging bar, leaving it in the owner’s hands to use ‘as is’ or customize the space to their needs. The common result, owners continue to use the closets ‘as is’ without considering customization.

Living in a metropolitan area where the cost per square foot is the highest in the country, it pays to rethink and invest in closet and storage space to make it as useable and efficient as possible.

For a number of my closets, I purchased an installation piece with a row of shelving with three (extendable/retractable) bars. I manipulated the placement of the bars to work for various closets. In some, especially the smaller entry closets, I removed the bar from the one side and only had the shelving and the dual height bars for jackets.

The shelves were used for accessories; hats, toques, gloves, scarves, and shoe maintenance products for the hall closet and socks, under garments, and belts for the bedroom closet. The accessories fit nicely in the Branas baskets from Ikea.

The Perfect Home Essentials picture shows some additional ideas on how to add extra shelving and shoe storage to the bottom of your closet to gain maximum versatility.

In addition to bottom storage units, shelving can be added above the hanging bars for extra storage of boxes, seasonal clothing, bags, etc. I purchased shelving from Ikea that was installed using a bracket/bracket rails system, which allowed for various height adjustments. Alternatively, shelving can be purchased from your local hardware store, cut to your required size and installed with brackets.  Both shelving options are shown in the pictures below.