So, I was going to wait ...

I was going to just do a before/after sort of post; worthy of any of the copious flipping shows on TV. But I've decided to blog about my condo renovation experience so far.

I bought a condo just up the road in Glendale. It's 984 sq. ft. 2 bed, and 1 (upstairs) bath. It was a fixer-upper foreclosure that had been vacant for about 5 years. The bank was dying to get it off their books so I got it for a song ($28,500 - no, that is not missing a zero!). It was one of the few condos in the under $35,000 price range that seemed like a place I could actually live without getting mugged on the way to/fro my car. I jumped on it.








The windows were boarded up when I bought it. My assumption was that the previous owners had shattered the windows before leaving, but that's only an assumption. $2,400 later I got three new top of the line windows from Affordable Windows. I highly recommend them, and no, I'm not getting anything for saying that. I just genuinely had a great experience and think my new windows are great!




Next thing my dad and I finished was the bathroom. I strongly suspect nothing had ever been updated since the condo was built in the late 1970s. It started like this:

We gutted most of it, including changing out all the rotting plumbing under the sink, and replaced some rotten bits of wood in the subfloor.





















Then I decided I needed a medicine cabinet in the wall adjacent the sink









In the end it came out alright. New medicine cabinet, light ...

and a new vanity, faucet, toilet, and laminate flooring (12mm. Brazilian Cherry on sale at Lumber Liquidators)








But I'm still trying to settle on a cool mirror for over the sink. And I just got an idea off Pinterest to add some stone veneer to the front of the tub - I will post pics when I do it






We also ripped out the carpet, painted, installed laminate floor, and changed al the electrical sockets and switches in the smaller bedroom so that it went from this scariness ...

















 to this modern but inviting office and/or guest room:

So we're almost finished with the kitchen and dining room, and have just stripped the popcorn ceiling off the living room ceiling. I will do a better job of posting pics and updates from here on out. I will also try to be more descriptive about the individual projects and less focussed on a simple before/after format :-)