Whelp... here it is.... me stumbling through apartment renovations and "upgrades". 

I generally refer to my place as "my apartment", but recently a friend told me I should say "condo". Well... I think people sound presumptious and cocky when they say "condo". 

I used to know someone who would ALWAYS say... "I'm going back to my CONDO" and try to be all cool about it, even though had she been renting it would have been referred to as an apartment. Either way... I wouldn't do this shit if I didn't own it and wasn't committed to living here and wanting to be comfortable...

DIY, hahaha... Edited title. 

Anyways.... here I am.... I'm trying to do as many renovations as I can as this place was a pretty big shithole before. I'm pretty proud of myself for actually buying it and getting the amount of shit done I have, done, so I thought I'd share with others.

Chronologically speaking:

1) We painted the entire apartment (including ceiling).
2) New kitchen counter-tops, and painting/raising cupboards.
3) Complete Bathroom Reno: Replaced the tub & shower (had to be cut into 4 pieces and removed because it was built in), put new floors, new vanity, and upcycled bathroom mirror   (I bought a frame from the thrift store, painted it, and put the old mirror in it).
4) Kitchen Floor
5) Kitchen Backsplash 


I'll shut up and get to the pictures.....


Kitchen BEFORE:    


Kitchen Floor (note painted & raised cabinets and cheap, but new, arborite counter top):









So this floor was just some click together stuff from Home Depot. Seems like quite good quality, feels comfy & sturdy and has a "lifetime residential warranty". It was somewhat "easy" to install.... although I didn't figure out what the hell I was doing until I was 1/2 way done. 

I didn't fuck anything up too badly. There was one piece that would sit right underneath one of the stove feet that broke as I was putting it in. Not having much room for wastage, I contemplated leaving it.... but I figured it being underneath the stove it would be super sketchy and I wouldn't be happy leaving it and seeing it broken.... sooooo... I undid some work and replaced it. 

It meant longer job time, and I was short ONE PIECE in the end. But meh, I got it done right. I just walked over to home Depot found an open box and went to a lady and sweet talked her (she was very kind and was just giving it to me) into giving me another piece. Easy Peasy. 

I also had a pretty decent sized gap (in reality probably only an inch at it's largest?) in the corner behind the fridge... It wasn't close to 90 degrees and my floor cutting skills are obviously shitty.... so my piece was not a great fit in the angled corner... but I painted the floor black beforehand, and then filled it in with silicon (when doing the silicon bead around the entire kitchen)... it's smooth as a baby's ass and you can't tell I fucked it up, and no water will get in. Everyone wins. 

For reference... I already had the corner piece in before I knew  I was short a piece. I COULD have redone the corner piece for a better fit, but I was so close on material I just went for it. Had I known I had to go back and get more pieces anyways I would have just said "fuck it" and taken the time to make another corner piece to fit better. 

Also... siliconing around the kitchen was pretty easy. Not pictured, but I put the floor into the bathroom and learned quite a bit there. So by the time I had a larger space I was a little better equipped to silicon the larger area. 


Kitchen Backsplash: Before/After






So my fiance put up some stick on sheets from Wal-Mart years ago, which I opposed... I haven't been happy with, and I've had this idea in my head since I started working in a granite shop. 

Whelp... the right piece came along... I call this my "Upcycled Titanium granite backsplash with custom hand-made metal brackets."

Aka. I pulled this piece out of the dumpster and got my buddy to make the metal brackets. I also helped because after he made them I bent them a little bit more in a giant clamp type thingy and with a huge oversized wrench... so I helped with the fabrication.   

Again, I didn't fuck anything up tooooo bad, but I made a couple mistakes. One of my wall anchors (behind the brackets) exploded upon insertion and I thought I was really hooped. But I gently put another one in, and it held well, albeit not flush with the wall and a little crooked. At least the thing went it and held, though. So that bracket is a little away from the granite, but because I've siliconed the granite to the wall, the brackets are really just for looks and as a safety back-up.

Also, the silicon bead underneath the large piece of granite and the arborite is a little rough in one spot... but it was hard to get in there behind the tap... and no water will get in.... sssssooo I'm okay with it. 

My fiance wasn't too stoked about the granite backsplash because I kind of just did it and didn't give her much input.... well... I wanted it done, sorry. The stickers from Wal-Mart looked/functioned like shit and were not cutting it for me.

It's also kind of a miracle this all came together so well, I think, because we just randomly picked the cheapest/easiest arborite top to get. Jesus, knowing what I know after working in the granite shop, I probably would have picked a completely different top... but we just went for it and grabbed the cheapest/what was in stock, I think it was actually some left over shit they were getting rid of, haha.  

So as a result of the new BS, I had some bare walls.... and I wanted to create some more counter space... so I took away the knife holder and utensil holder and made these, and added hooks:









I bought the marble tiles for the entire BS but after deciding that was way too much work, I went back to my original idea of grabbing a perfect sized piece of granite. 

So with the bare walls, and wanting a knife holder, I bought a magnetic strip, added the tiles, and fastened that bad boy to the wall. I also made this little piece of "art" with the marble tiles and a quartzite square. Really opened up that corner of the kitchen not having a utensil holder (with a bunch of useless and stupid utensils) and wooden knife holder taking up space. 

Kitchen Table is next for the kitchen. I have now made the style of the kitchen "Eccelctic Rustic Modern."

I didn't really take any before/after pictures of the bathroom but I was pretty proud of that as well. Especially upcycling the mirror and vanity/tap choice, haha. 

There it is... that's the beginning. Kind of using this thread as my own visual reference as well. Still to do are the hallway foors, and various other projects/upgrades. 

Questions, comments? Looks shitty? Looks good? What would you have done differently? 

Pro-tips?

I'm about to change a light fixture for the first time. If I never update this thread again, you will know why. 

I really like those cabinets. I recently bought a new place and I hate the cabinets, countertop and floor in my kitchen. That's definitely on my to do list. Although, I'll be most likely paying people to do the work. As I don't have the skill or time.
As for the condo or apartment debate, if you own it's a condo. Show some pride in what you've bought man😜

Really digging those cabinets as well. Surprised the fiancee went for them -- that strikes me as more of a bachelor pad look. Fantastic work, love seeing pictures like this -- inspires me to start planning the backlog on my house.

Seeing the before pics of the kitchen cabinets and floor... that would have driven me nuts daily. Again nice work.

I love everything except the under cabinet light being plugged in and all that slack. Any way to run a box in the cabinet so you can hide it? When we redid our basement we went with the vinyl planks for flooring as well. Looks really nice and isn't expensive. I had Home Depot install it though, I'll do smaller projects and be lazy about the others!

Looks great! Ballin ass condo yo!  

Where's the fish tank?!?!?!?!?!

Awesome job. The before/after pictures of the kitchen are like what you'd see on one of those reno shows  .

P.S. - you're probably fine, but the fridge may run harder/less effective if combating the heater next to it.

Nice work!   Definitely an improvement over the original set up! How long did it take you to complete the project?

Thanks everyone!! I'll try to answer to everyone's comments and questions...
 
Thanks.... only thing different about the cabinets is a coat of paint and some (well chosen) knobs!

I hear you... we got lucky because my fiance's father is very handy and he knows how to do all that stuff. He replaced the counter top and hooked up the plumbing. No fucking way I could have done that. 

The floor I had an fine time with, though. 

Condo it is   

 
Thanks! It's actually the same colour paint as the walls (look on the right hand side), so we just went for it, not really planning with the colour of the counter top or anything. 

Had I actually been thinking about it, I would have gotten a totally different top, but like I said, we got the top for super cheap (Like, just over $400???) and the fact that my fiances dad could install it was gold. So we kind of worked around them.

They don't completely fit, but they work. There's actually a little brown in the floor, so they kind of almost go together. 

You can do it!!! What's on your backlog? I still have lots of stuff to do... we can encourage eachother. 

I found I had a burnout after my initial "reno" and bathroom. I basically burnt out after all the painting and bathroom gong show.... I might update thred later with that, for posterity's sake. 

After I chilled for a bit, and thought about all the shit I wanted to do and wrote it down, I started back up again. It feels great to get shit accomplished. I started with some little things...

Even "installing" a door stopper made me feel like a champ! Baby steps!

No doubt man, it WAS driving me nuts. Hence my motivation to actually get on my hands an knees and install floor!... I literally almost cried when we first walked into the place it was so nasty. A full on paint/reno was needed. I refused to walk on the kitchen floor in bare feet it was so nasty. 
 
Fair, same here. Thinking about it, I could (at the very least) tidy up the slack and put a hook underneath the cabit to hide the cord. That's what I'll do. 

We considered running a box for the lighting, but our electician (fiances dad) had other shit I wanted him to do that I thought was more important. Swapping electrical boxes, etc. so it never happened. There was other stuff I wanted him to do electrically, so unfortunately that got left.   

I hear you on the installation thing! I've got the hallway to do so I will at least look into installation options before going full on myself... 

 
Thanks dawg! My goal is to strive for ballin'... I feel as thought this confirms I'm on the right track. 

Also, any interaction I have with people I always drop it in, now. "Oh, thanks for the groceries, I'm going to take them back to my CONDO now."

​


I'm not a fan of confining live animals in prison for pleasure.... and it took up a fuck ton of space! (I asked that we not set it up and put live fish into it to begin with) Sorry fishies, they went to a "better home", literally, we didn't kill them. 

Thank you!!! The before and after photos are quite the contrast. I almost forgot what it looked like (I blocked it out, haha) until I found that old picture. 

AND... that was after we painted the ceilng!!!      If you notice the white paint, it was literally beige/yellow before. 

In terms of the fridge... you mean the white one in the second photo? I jsut slid it on that side of the room to take a picture of the floor. We did move it back... (after getting  anew one) but thank you for the heads up!  

Also... for reference... it's a SMALL kitchen. That fridge is a pretty small one, only 12-13 QF?. When it was on the showroom floor it looked like a mini firdge, haha. 

So I didn't have a TON of space to "reno", haha. 
 
Thank you! I'm actually kind of glad I found a couple before photo's.... keeps me grateful/thankful for actually taking the time/effort to fix it up. Feels nicer.

Technically speaking.... it's taken almost 3 years, hahaha. 

We bought the place in Oct. 2016 and started reno'ing then. 

As I said, started with the paint, but the counter-tops/painting & raising the cupboards was done pretty quickly. Then I did the kitchen floor maybe 1.5 years ago? Jan 2018 according to my phone, great guess!!!

Then JUST recently (motivation for starting this thread) completed the backsplash. 

In the meantime (after the counter-top but before the floor) we had the bathroom completely re-done in August 2017. 

I guess you could consider the bathroom a FULL ON renovation.... because we completely replaced the tub/shower, floor, and vanity.

THAT was fucked. The guys had to cut the existing tube/surround into four pieces to remove it. Then there was like a 3 inch gap between the new surround and the fucking hole they cut around the whole thing. 

FUCK if I knew how to fix it. After contemplating doing it myself I was like "fuck this", and got a handy man to come in and fill the gap. He did it properly (with pieces of drywall) and did a second coat of mud as well.  I did the final coat of mud and sanded.   

I also put the floor down. Plumbers installed the toilet/vanity after I put the floor down. They were totally cool to rip out the vanity, toilet, and the existing floor... then leave while I put the floor down. Then they came back that afternoon and put the toilet back in and like a week later they did the vanity.  

Then I upcycled the mirror that was there, and whammy. 

So yeah.... 3 years.    

Looks good dude, anyone who attempts their own work is A-ok in my book.

A lot of people say "home repair is easy, I just dont have the time" which I dont buy. Just say you cant handle it (or dont want to)

Im 3 yrs deep and 200k into my remodel and I am 85% done   everything from stucco, to doors, to plumbing, to electrical to landscape. 

Most of which I learned from books, other tradesmen and youtube (except electrical). 

Keep up the good work!

Thanks mang!!

One of the things I'm most proud of about the kitchen floor is the transition. I don't know why... I guess I like because it looks like it was done by a "professional" or at least someone who knew what the hell they were doing, haha. 

Fuck... if there's one thing I've learned is that everything is HARDER than I expect it to be. If I think it's going to be "easy" I am usually wrong. 

Everything takes longer than expected and provides more obstacles than I thought of. But in the end, I've learned something. 

Yeah... that's quite a bit larger of a project, haha. I'm not working on anything THAT crazy. As I said, for the big big stuff I got the plumber/professionals in.

I mean... I did have some electrical work done too. We needed to have our breaker box checked for the condo, so I had a company install a humidity sensor fan control switch thing in the bathroom as well...... also got them to replace the thermostat at the same time     .... which I prroooooobably could have done myself.

BUT... I did just (Sunday) replace an overhead light fixture in the kitchen... so there's something I did myself, haha. And a good confidence booster for doing more electrical things myself.

One more light fixture, and a baseboard heater replacement and I'm pretty much done on the electrical.... 

I think you may've found your calling tbh... that kitchen looks amazing imho.

Thanks mang!!!  

"Calling"? I don't know, haha... But it's all come together nicely, thanks! The floor was perfect. I mean, obviously it's the companies' job to make easy floors, but there was still quite a bit of planning and organizing (3 different sizzes of plank) to make sure the colours/pieces worked. And I kind of made sure to keep some of the nicer, darker, pieces for the middle. 

And really... there's juuuuuuuuust enough brown in the floor to work with the "cream/beige/coffee" in the countertop. 

Got lucky on that one, haha!

Lesson learned. Don't buy cheap shitty countertops without at least sort of thinking about the colour of everything else first. 

But also... anyone out there reading this thinking they have a shitty kitchen/or are unhappy with their space... Even a coat of paint does WONDERS I've learned. Go for it! 

But it's like opening Pandora's Box, hahaha... once you upgrade one thing, everything else usually must fall into place. 

Not sure if I mentioned this, but we actually bought the new "stainless steel" (plastic sides, haha, but black is what we wanted) fridge first and I had no plans to put the floor down.... But once we got it into the kitchen I was like "Well fuck, I don't even want to leave this fridge on this disgusting floor   .... I guess I have to put a new floor down right NOW, now.".... so I did.  

Upgraded Side Table...

BEFORE


AFTER. Titanium granite top, painted black. 






Question Block Door Stopper:

So, the idiot who lived in this place before us apparently hated fixing things and instead of putting a real door stopper up and fixing a door knob sized hole in the wall he put a square sized piece of particle board up with screws so he could bounce the door off it. Well when I painted the room a while back I didn't want to bother with a drywall patch and yet another shitty twangy door stopper, I decided to "re-purpose" the square and painted this... Consequently I have a bunch of clothes hanging on the the door and it doesn't smash the block anyways, so it's all good.