The renovations are done!

Well I started all this the week I got back from overseas.  I had a list of things I wanted to do on mum's house, and the bulk of it was done in only one month, however the last few things just seemed to drag out.  But TODAY I finally cleaned my last paint brush and I am now planning on putting away my painting/work clothes for a good while.  It is done!!  Every surface of the house inside and some outside has been sanded/painted and upgraded.  I thought I would take you on a tour - and I will point out some of the changes.

Front entrance - Obviously here is the beautiful new windows and the new door.  What you can't really see is that the light was previously broken and hanging down and now the entrance is lit with a downlight.  The sliding door leading into the lounge has also been painted however it is tucked too far into the wall to see it in the after shot.

Lounge room - Unfortunately I have taken these photos from different angles.  I guess my intention in the before shots was usually to take a photo of the windows - knowing we were getting beautiful shiny new ones.  But when this room was finished, it just looked so nice looking back over it from the window.  

Dining room - Again, not the greatest angle of this room, but the windows (which you can't notice because the blinds are blocking them.  Probably the most obvious change in this room apart from the painting is the chairs have been re-covered. From this angle you don't notice that they now match with the sofas, but now they do.

Kitchen - quite a few dramatic changes in this room.  The peach blinds have been removed, new down lights to replace the terrible fluros, the wood veneer sliding doors have been painted white and the runners and pelmets are updated.  You will also notice the black mosaic tiles now travel under the window.  This is because when the new windows went in, the architrave was smaller and we had a gap between the frame and the tiles.  The mosaics (IMHO) work really well to fix this issue.

From this angle you can see that the desk has been removed and replaced with a bookshelf.  The kitchen used to be painted blue - which seemed like a good idea at the time, but I much prefer the warm white colour we chose.  That hideous fluro is gone and so are the pinboards.  In the after shot above - on the very left you will see a black print.  This is a gift that I made for mum for Christmas.  I'll do a post on this later - it was pinterest inspired.

Laundry - I think this is one of my favourite room make overs.  Of course the window has been changed, hideous curtains gone, new taps, new lovely white tub, shelves are gone and replaced with cupboards.  New wall tiles, walls and doors painted.  We didn't change the mosaic tiles on the floor as they were in quite good condition, and I think they actually look better now as the rest of the room is just so lovely.

Hallway - Again, aside from the paint and change of knobs on the cupboard doors, the biggest change in the hall is that the broken light fittings have been removed and replaced with stunning down lights.  We've also got a new bookshelf at the end that is no longer stuffed with junk.  The hall runner has been put back now.

Bathroom - One of our lovely friends had updated the bathroom sometime ago so there was really only paint and the windows here, although we did have to have the shower resealed.  Again the paint was blue in here, but we ended up using the same warm white as the rest of the house.  Another big difference you will notice is the door has been painted white and I have updated the ugly old door handles.

Toilet - this is by far the room with the changes that makes me most happy.  As you can see, the toilet was in dire need of updating.  When the bathroom was done years ago, the poor toilet missed out.  But now it has been tiled to match the bathroom, new windows, painted ceiling, walls and door and the best bit… a shiny new and attractive toilet. YAY!

Bedroom one - I always felt bad about this room.  It is the ONLY room in mum's house that I had never before painted. It can't really be seen in the picture, but it was in need of a paint in a major way.  The walls were full of holes and needed lots of patching.  So this room got new windows, tacky old light replaced with a lovely remote control fan light, ceiling, walls and doors painted, new door handles and knobs, new carpet and I also treated mum to new bedside lamps and a gorgeous deep red cushion.

Bedroom two - again this is taken from different angles, but we all agree the bed works way better for access to the room facing this direction.  Aside from windows and paint, the terrible carpet has been replaced, and again I treated mum to new lamps (she bought the cute cushion), I also bought a new black skirt for the bed and the blue one in the before shot was very helpful as a clean up rag!!

Bedroom three - last but not least.  Unfortunately by the time I took the before photo for this room, it had already been pulled apart.  It used to have two single beds.  You can see the horrendous carpet has been updated.  The blinds in before have already been removed but they were falling apart and so were replaced by a lovely roller blind.  Everything was painted and door hardware updated like the rest of the house.  It is now a cute and fun playroom for the kids.

Well that marks the end of the tour. I hope you enjoyed.  To me, looking at these pictures represents a lot of hard and backbreaking work.  All the physical pain and a LOT of money.  However, the satisfaction of the after - finally having it all done is so satisfying and a massive achievement.  I am so happy and mum (who wasn't sure she needed all this done in the first place), now can see it was needed and is EXTREMELY happy with her "new" house.