Home Renovating

My co-worker, Shannon, has a brother-in-law, Paul Martin who is the owner of Martin Contracting. He's been in business for almost 20 years, but has recently launched a website. I was so thoroughly impressed with it that I had to share it!

This is a kitchen renovation that Paul did last year and I gotta say, this is pretty much my ideal kitchen. White shaker cabinets and some that have glass inserts, dark hardwood floors, dark counters, a farmhouse style sink in front of a large window, beautiful pendant lighting over the island...there's even a double oven and a pot filler over the stove top!! Gorgeous...

 

These next set of pictures are from Shannon's mom's house. I was over there for the first time not too long ago and noticed the kitchen immediately. The cabinets and mouldings are great and she has pot lights over the windows. This kitchen is a great example of how stainless steel appliances are not the be-all-end-all in the appliance world. When you have white cabinets, white appliances really help to open up the space because there is no break in the line of white. Don't get me wrong.. I love stainless steel, but white is appealing too, especially because I love me a white kitchen!

Here are some tray ceilings that Paul did. Tray ceilings are so elegant and really give a room that wow factor. They're also a great way to draw your eye upward, which can help make a room appear larger.

And finally, on a personal note, I'm doing my first running race tomorrow morning. It's not long (8km), but I've been hitting the pavement a few times a week for the past 2 months in preparation and I'm excited to get 'er done! Wish me luck!! :-)

Have a great weekend!

P.S. If my pictures from the race aren't too awful (and probably even if they are lol) I'll blog some when they're available :o)

Dan Marentic's Canadian House & Home Tour

I saw this condo tour on H&H OnlineTV and just had to share it because it is spectacular! 

Dan Marentic is an interior design consultant for Ctrl/Alt/Delete. He lives in a one bedroom, one bathroom 565 square foot "soft loft" condo. I love the way he altered some of the standard finishes of his unit to give his space a unique high-end look. These are the kinds of tours I like to see because they inspire me on how to upgrade my future condo.

Some of my highlights include:

• The floors - they are gorgeous
• The strip of tile he took out in the shower and replaced with marble to give a custom-look
• The storage along the head of the bed with built-in bedside tables. He used store bought closets and gave them custom doors for a high-end look
• He had a straight line kitchen but added extra cabinetry up top and perpendicularly to create an L-shaped kitchen
• The custom counter-high table that can be used as extra prep space and a dining table
• The ethanol fireplace in the living room, which has a cutout on the back so it can be enjoyed in the bedroom as well. 
• The sofa sectional is gorgeous and is large enough that it can function as a sleeping area for overnight guests.
• The way the balcony is set up with a dining area and 2 chairs overlooking the view.

Check out the tour HERE.

And just so I don't have a picture-less post, here's the Emily-Jane Bisectional from Style Garage :-)

Does anyone have $3000 to spare?

Have a great weekend!

Condo Shopping with Michelle

Michelle recently got a permanent full-time job (congrats!) and as such, has been keenly researching condos so she can move out of my parents' house. Michelle's a librarian so she's an extremely thorough researcher - she's got a spread sheet of condo prices, payment structures with varying interest rates, etc. This weekend, my mom and I went with her to various condo sales offices. A couple of them were busts because they were sold out (but didn't say so on their websites...), but we got some very helpful information at the Fuse Condos sales office. We were actually looking for the Upside Down condos sales office, but stumbled in to the Fuse office and decided to check it out. Turns out Upside Down condos is the same builder so we were in the right sales office all along. 


I like checking out how the condo model suites are staged because they always use reflective or glass elements, along with smaller scale furniture to make the rooms appear larger.


Here was the floor plan of the model suite they had in the sales office. It's 794 square feet with a 116 square foot balcony, and as you can see it's a 2-bedroom unit. All the finishes in the unit are standard.

I took pictures of the common areas, the master bedroom and master bathroom.

Here's the kitchen and dining area. The table was small, but nicely set up. The kitchen looked  good, but obviously if you've seen any kitchens I like (such as here or here), you know I love white cabinets. My mom and I both agreed that white cabinets would've been the right way to go here because it really would've brightened up the space. 

 This nook is cute! It reminds me of the nook in my current apartment, where we have our desk and wine rack. These mirrors remind me of the mirrors I got from BB Bargoons. This image is definitely going in my inspiration folder!

I wasn't a fan of the furniture or colour in the living room, but I like that the coffee and side tables have mirrored tops. It's a great way to bring light in to a room.  

The bedroom was very well sized for a condo - something like 10x12sq ft. I like the furniture, but again, not a fan of the colours...

The bathroom was nice. Soaker tubs are pretty standard now with new builds, which is pretty awesome.

Have you seen any nice condo model suites lately? I'll pass on any suggestions to Michelle. 

What Everyone Ought To Know When Buying A Home

Negotiate!

And I'm not just talking about the price here, folks. 

We went to go visit some friends of ours who recently bought a house an hour north of us - about 40 minutes outside of Toronto. The person they bought the house from paid for beautiful upgrades and got a lot of furniture custom built for the house. Since these friends were moving up in house size and loved the furniture the seller had made, they negotiated a lot of it into their buyer's agreement. The seller already had another place in the city that he was occupying, so he was motivated to sell.

Check out some pictures from the property listing:

The foyer is so high-impact! It's got a two-story-high ceiling and a little balcony on the second floor that overlooks it.

Here is the balcony that overlooks the foyer

If these cabinets were white, I probably never would've left their house and just stared at the kitchen dreamily for the rest of my life :-) 

And I love that the kitchen dining area opens up into the backyard and gazebo! Perfect for summer parties... if it ever stops raining....grrrr

Seriously, the master ensuite was probably the same size as our apartment......

I love the double vanity and the natural light in the bathroom.

A large landing area that would be perfect for an office

These guys were very smart to negotiate in so many furnishings. It made the transition into their new house a lot easier and they were able to sell off all of their old furniture! Bi-winning!

A home like this seems about 3 moves, 4 raises, and 2 kids away for me... but a girl can dream, can't she?