A Mini Make-Over

As I mentioned yesterday, the family and I spent the weekend at our 'new' house completing a mini-makoever of the old lady.

The plan was always to rent the existing house out, while we complete the design and permit process on the dream home.

To do that though, the place needed more than a little work.

But, since the rental period will only be 6 months, we obviously didn't want to pour a lot of money into the thing...we decided to focus our efforts on the the main floor and upstairs bathroom.

So...with this to work with (and PS the pictures actually make the befores look waaaaay better than it actually was)...

....and a budget of $2000, we:

1. Had it cleaned from top to bottom (including upstairs carpet) - this took almost 1/2 the budget.

2. Painted all the walls and trim on the mainfloor...including the stair banister and risers.

3. Put in a stove.

4. Staged the mainfloor with stuff from my basement/garage.

5. Put in a new vanity, mirror and light in the bathroom, sanded the wallpaper down and painted the walls...I'll do a bathroom reveal at the end of the week once that is done- we're also planning on making over the tub area in some way.

And though I still have a little accessorizing to do, this is how it looks after 2 days of work...

...and I think it's pretty OK.

Just goes to show that with a coat of paint (preferably white when the house is dark and dreary to start) and a little 'shop your own house', you can make any place look its best.

And for everyone who wants to know what white paint that is up on the walls, I have none other than the fabulous PARA Paints to thanks for that (and Jen for helping organize it all)...you might remember that when completing our basement reno Para sent me all the paint needed to complete the project...we ended up using the colour Snowfall (P5223-14D) for all of the basement and indeed, carried it up to our main floor hallway and staircase...it's a wonderful warm white that works so well with the creamy base of the Ostrich wallpaper I have on one wall in the foyer.  When we were selecting the paint (again, a huge thank you to Jen for helping with the colour suggestions) for this basement project, we also chose a more 'white white' called Chrysler Hall White...though I had planned to put this in the hallway, it was just too 'clean' a white against the wallpaper so we ended up with some leftover gallons...thankfully, because Chrysler Hall is literally just white (no grey, yellow, cream undertones) it was the PERFECT choice for this mini-reno.  We hauled the paint 4 doors down to the new old house and voila...gorgeous clean white walls.  I couldn't be happier with how the paint instantly and miraculously transformed this house.  If you are looking for a white that's really just that, I HIGHLY recommend Para's P2118-00 Chrysler Hall White.

You better believe I'll be souping #projectdreamhouse with a whole bunch of Para Paints goodness.

.......

Oh and PS/before I go...don't forget to enter my current giveaway from...

...a gorgeous print of your choice could be yours and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment...easy peasy lemon squeezy, as my soon to be 5 year old (big boy's b-day is tomorrow...insert mommy sad face- he's growing up WAY too fast).

Smooches.

xo