Addition Update...Bathroom on a Budget

The master bathroom is about 90% complete. 

If you follow me on twitter some time ago I was ranting about finding a bathroom vanity and how it was probably going to drive me mental. I have been on the hunt for a 60" Vanity preferably in white for this bathroom. Every place I looked the prices were so high, ranging from $900 - $2000. Remember we are selling this place! This is not my forever home and all we needed was a vanity that looked really nice even it wasn't to my exact taste. 

I searched high and low and then resorted to Kijiji. There are quite a few small stores that sell vanities at a discounted price for numerous reasons....some maybe I would rather not know! 

Branko finally found a guy close to his work with a vanity that was black/brown with a greyish coloured granite top.

Here it is....our 60" double sink vanity for $620!!!! Even though the colour was not my first preference it still turned out looking really nice! In the evening the sunset shines in the bathroom window and the counter top sparkles a bit.

He also ended up getting those mirrors, 3 for $50!!! WHAT! We looked around on-line and the mirror retailed for roughly $140 - $180 in-store.

The tile was $1.99 sq. ft from Home Depot.

All that we need now in this bathroom is the faucets and a light fixture.


The deadline is coming up close and we are working full force right now. Every day after work we put in a good 3 hours and Sat. and Sunday we will be working all day. The hardwood should be fully completed by tomorrow night and next week we will head to my parents to pick up some furniture that we are going to borrow so we can stage the house properly.

I am really looking forward to that day the "For Sale" can go up!

Addition deadline set....on our 3 yr wedding Anniversary

We've officially set an Addition deadline date. 

June 12th, 2013. Our 3 year Wedding Anniversary. 

On that day we hope to put up the "For Sale" sign, take some pictures, sit back and probably reflect. (Or maybe just keel over) 

We are so close....so so so close to having our normal life back. To attending family gatherings without feeling like we need to get home. To getting back to our new home that is patiently waiting for us.(you can read about it here). To taking summing rides in the Cadillac(check out the Classic Cars page!) To having friends and family visit. 

It's only been 6 months(winter months) but it's time to move on. All we can do now is hope and pray that this decision we made to extend the house was the right decision. That somebody will come along and love that the house now has 2 bathrooms instead of 1, 4 bedrooms instead of 2, a real laundry room that is not in the kitchen, an old laundry room replaced with a pantry for the new kitchen, new dark hardwood flooring instead of old scratched up oak coloured hardwood, new kitchen including a hood and island which were never there, all brand new stainless steel appliances instead of old white appliances, a real dining place where you can sit and eat dinner, solid deck that is not rotted away, new siding and updated more efficient heaters, and of course added touches to landscaping. 

Oh and we also updated the old bathroom....initially we were going to gut the entire thing but in the end decided to just change the toilet and lay some tiles down(it used to be hardwood). 

Old look:

New look:

We have another crazy weekend ahead of us but this will be the weekend we see so many changes come into play and next week the new granite counter top comes in! 


Hope everybody has a great weekend! 

The difference some sod makes....

Just a quick post because I can't contain my excitement....

From last year:

From Sunday Night:

AND........NOW

When you think you can't and you want to give up always remember and remind yourself of your own capabilities. 

Addition Deadline Update....Hardwood and Landscaping

It was an extremely busy weekend as usual around our house. We had so many items on our list that needed to be knocked off. 

Saturday we spent painting all of the ceilings in the addition part and the old  part of the house. I also painted all of the walls in the old part of the house. The colours were off due to some touch ups we had to do. It's so nice to finally put away the drywall/sanding tools! We still have a few more areas we need to touch up with paint which will be completed this week. 

The landscaping is almost done. We plan on putting sod down in that area that needs grass. We found a place that sells it at a pretty good price and to cover this area it will cost just around $200. Considering this is the focus point of when you pull into the driveway we felt it was important. 

We also made some changes to the back as well....we had some extra stones from the front that we were able to use and continue the pathway. 

I spent Sunday with my Mom, we took her for lunch to Cheesecake Factory in the states and also did some shopping. (She lives close to the Buffalo) 

My dad trekked up to our place for the day and helped Branko start installing the hardwood. 

The new dining room(please don't mind the messy kitchen)

And the bedroom:

This weeks plan is finish the sod, the hardwood in the master bedroom, all of the painting, and purchase/install the remaining new cabinets for the kitchen. 



Addition Deadline moves on and we are so close! 

Before and After Back Deck

We made the decision about 3 weeks ago that the back deck needed to be re-finished. The old deck was pretty much falling apart, pieces were missing, the colour had faded in some spots, and the stairs were rickety. 

We headed off to Home Depot to purchase all of the wood. Thankfully this project didn't take too long. From removing all of the old wood to installing the new pieces we probably invested about 6-7 hours. 

Old Deck:

New Deck:

Things that need to be completed back here:

Black windows need to be painted white

Fascia needs to be completed

Landscaping still needs work  

Addition deadline moves on! 

May you say.....

So it's May....if somebody can please tell me what happened to Jan, Feb, March and April I would greatly appreciate it. 

The one really good thing is winter flew by with us working so hard on the addition. We can see the finish line and I still can't believe we built a house addition and fully renovated the interior in 5 months.  I would love to post some really great pictures but I just haven't had the time to take any plus even though we have done a ton of work it still doesn't look all that spectacular inside. 

We've been working really hard on making sure the outside is clean with trips to the dump and getting the siding done (thanks Branko's dad!) 

Branko's dad has become the designer, the siding guy, the plumber assistant, the electrician. So long as I keep buying the cookies I am pretty sure he will keep coming back! 

With that said I have one small before and after picture of the outside. 

Keep in mind the outside work is not fully done, we will landscape all around the house and some of the exterior work with the fascia still has to be completed. If you look closely you can see we ripped out the front deck. It was worn down and lopsided so we will build some new steps entering the house. Had we been staying in this house the siding probably would have been in a greyish colour and the lower half would have been stone but we are not! 

This place is going up for sale and hopefully soon!   

Addition deadline on track! 

We WILL do this!