makeover monday #1

Who doesn't love a good makeover, right? I could look at before and after shots all day which is why I'm starting a new series:

One of my goals for 2012 is to complete 25 makeover projects. The first one that AJ and I have nearly completed is a condo we bought and have fixed up on a majjjor budget. When we closed we asked for $3400 to fix up the place... and trust me, we could have easily spent another $10k.

Here are some before shots... I'm warning you, whoever lived here before wasn't exactly hygenic. I have no idea how people lived like this. The carpet was a pinkish color but it's been so stained it's hard to tell what it really was like initially.

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Close up of the countertops that I had some up close and personal time with...

Now for the mostly after... I'm still learning how to use my new camera so pardon that my indoor shots are sort of yellow-y. (Does anyone know what I do to fix that? Is it the white balance?)

We still are waiting for the fridge, it will be an apartment sized stainless fridge from Frigidaire because the hallways are so skinny coming up to the condo. We went to Home Depot and ordered carpet for the living room, dining room and bedroom and the order was going to be $1100... which would make us come in exactly at or slightly over our budgeted amount with the other repairs... and then AJ tore up the carpet in the rooms and discovered a great hardwood floor underneath. It was one of those moments where God grants you a HUGE gift and we saved bucco bucks by renting a sander and redoing the hardwood ourselves.

The walls were so stained that I washed them and then painted them Martha Stewart's Garden Shed... it's sort of a sage green. I wanted to set off the cabinets more than they were when the entire room was a dirty white. I bought a laminate countertop paint at Home Depot for $20. It's an oil based paint that can be tinted one of 12 colors and I chose a darker one that went well with the trio of paint colors we picked out for the apartment. It went on beautifully after bleaching the living daylights out of the counters.

After cleaning the floors AJ painted them a slightly darker white than the cabinets and we'll polyurethane them. There was a gas range on the other side of the kitchen but we are removing that and placing this new stove there and and a fridge where you see the new range now.

This bedroom, like the rest of the rooms in the house, had stains running down the walls and an unbelievably disgusting carpet. AJ found hardwood painted red underneath the carpet so he went over it a couple times with the same white we used on the kitchen floor. It's a very beachy look with the white hardwood.

The living room was very dark so I went over all the boards multiple times with Martha Stewart's Hickory Hill paint and the floor was in great shape under the carpet. We still have to touch up around the baseboard trim.

(Sorry for the blurry photo below.)

I wish you could have seen the condo in person... it is amazing what cleaning, paint, new appliances and new floors will do. The cabinets are still old but with new paint and liners they aren't atrocious anymore! :)

Budget:

$1100 six replacement windows from Home Depot. AJ installed them all and saved us money on that!

$200 six gallons of paint. Martha Stewart's Garden Shed, Ginger Root and Hickory Hill. We also bought one gallon of our fave Behr's Ultra Pure White in semi-gloss for trim. We've used that all over our kitchen at our house.

$20 paint for counters

$450 stainless range by Hotpoint

$404 stainless apartment sized fridge by Frigidaire

$45 toilet seat and new faucet for sink

$60 renting the sander

$90 peel and stick tiles for bathroom

$12 contact paper for cabinets

Total: $2381

What makeovers have you been working on lately? AJ and I have had fun with this one... it took about three weeks and it was great for me to get out of the house and go paint after some days when the little guy was a ball of energy all day...