Staging Project

I apologize for the lack of blog posts last month, but October turned out to be quite busy!  I picked up a staging project for a town home the weekend before it was to list through a referral.  He assured me the timeline isn't usually this aggressive, but the client really wanted to list soon and have the open house by the next weekend!

So this is what happened:

• I went to assess the place with Kel on Saturday morning.
• Proceeded to acquire the things I had in mind for the project that same day.
• Went back to the house on Sunday to further discuss with the client what we needed her to do.
• Went in on Monday with all the things we needed and proceeded to stage her home.
• The photographer came in Monday afternoon to take pictures of the finished product for the listing.

By Thursday, the house was on the market.  The real estate agent informed me he already had multiple showings that night, as well as on Friday.  The open house that weekend was also a success with more than twenty interested parties attending.  By Tuesday, a bidding war had begun and the place was sold later that night!  I couldn't believe how fast it all unfolded.  Although the agent had told me the week before that this was his plan and the ideal situation, I had doubts on whether it would actually happen.

Below is a glimpse of what the main floor looked like when we first went in to assess the place.  I apologize for the poor picture quality, as my mind was already spinning with ideas and for some reason I thought the agent had took the "before" pictures already.  This was actually taken on my phone and served as my personal reference for the project.

Since the client was still going to be living there while her home was up for sale, we decided to do what we can to minimize the impact the staging would have on her life.  Afterall, you never know how long these things would take.  Below is the main floor after we staged it.  If you take a closer look at the before and after, you'll see that we did a lot of rearranging of what she already had, plus a few accent pieces to bring it all out.

And here, is the bedroom after we rearranged a few things.  Bringing her recliner upstairs not only gave the main floor more room, but shows that her master bedroom is big enough to serve two functions.

We were all quite happy with how much the new layout was able to open up the main floor and the quick sale was a good measurement of that!  

Summer Projects: The Front Porch

Kel and I've been wanting to redo the front porch since it was made of patio stones and weeds were poking through.  There was also a colony of ants living under the stones!  We decided that this year was the year to give it a new look.  I've been eyeing stamped concrete porches for a while, and got a contact from an old coworker.  The awesome thing about stamped concrete is that you can pick the pattern AND the colour you want!  We got in contact with Frank, who came and gave us an estimate for our front porch and flowerbed in late July.  We shopped around a bit, and by August, decided to go with him.  He was able to start work just after Labour Day and we were ecstatic.

When we first got the house, the front of our house looked like this:

We knew we had to change the windows since they were still original from when the house was built (circa 1956?) so while we were getting new windows, we got a new front door as well.

Below is the end of Day 1.  Frank came early in the morning, removed the patio stones, and started excavating.  He's put up the curvy border we've asked for on the porch, and the flowerbed, rounded at the end.  By our tree, you can see the new light post that Kel's put up this summer, too.

At the end of the second day, concrete's been poured and the pattern set.  We picked Arizona Flagstone for our pattern.

Close up of the pattern on our porch:

Frank came back to put in the colour the next day , but there wasn't a visible difference from the day before at this point, as there was still a good amount of concrete dust on the porch.  He told us he'd come back the next week to power wash the porch after the concrete's settled and seal.

So here it is, after Frank was completely done: the porch on the left, and the flowerbed on the right.

And here, from when we first bought the house, to what it looks like now:

Our Rug Fiasco... and Living Room Transformation!

It all started last year, when Kel and I were looking around for inspiration for an area rug for the living room.  We knew we needed a rug there, but just didn't know what kind.  At first, I was interested in the shaggy, microfiber look.  But we soon realized that it would only lead to having the bunnies graze on it, which is both bad for the rug and the health of Kingsley and Keiko.  Then back in November, while doing my regular online readings, I came upon this picture from Marcus Design and it struck a cord.

I never thought I'd want an animal print rug, but the splash of zebra seemed fitting!  The grey and white pattern didn't seem as "in your face" as the regular black and white.  It was subtle enough that it wouldn't be over the top, yet it adds a nice unique touch.  I went on to see what options were available out there and soon came upon this rug:

It was perfect!  We found it on RugsUSA and they had a sale! What timing!  I placed the order in early December and was excited, anticipating its arrival before Christmas.  I received the UPS tracking number the next day and checked on its status every few days waiting for it to change and provide me with the estimated arrival date.  Soon, I realized the status wasn't changing and contacted RugsUSA to find out what's going on. It took a couple of tries as their "live chat" support wasn't always online and was finally told that UPS had lost the package and placed a tracer on it.  It would take UPS ten business days to update their status and they'll contact me once that happens.  And... of course they didn't get back to me, so I had to contact them multiple times AGAIN to get an update.  What I heard this time was even worse.  Not only did UPS lose the package, but RugsUSA is saying they can't send me another one because the rug is now out of stock and discontinued.  Furthermore, they can't refund my money until their insurance claim comes through with UPS and of course that will take x days and they'll get back to me.  Right.  Of course they will.  Grrr.. after speaking with a few friends about the situation, I've taken the advice of calling Visa up to dispute the charge.  I no longer want to deal with RugsUSA and if this is what their customer service is like, I highly advise everyone to stay away from them.

During the whole ordeal, we found out that the rug that sparked this inspiration was actually from West Elm.  We went down to the store to see if we could pick one up, but they were discontinued as well.  However, their US website showed that they still had stock, so that's what we did.  So finally... TA DA...

Our transformation of the living room from when we first visited the house and decided to put down an offer:

To what it is now:

Our Foyer Transformation

I've been meaning to write this for a while, but we've been quite busy the past month hosting a series of mini housewarming parties starting with a pizza dinner for Kel's coworkers, to a potluck dinner party with our friends, then a dinner party with his relatives, and finally an early Christmas potluck for my coworkers.  One advantage to all this: our fridge has been jammed packed with leftovers week after week!  On with the post...

This is what our foyer looked like when we first acquired the house.  The fake white brick tiles on the walls; the gross brown carpet in the entranceway (seriously, who uses permanent carpet in the entrance?!); the ugly brown metal door with the mail slot; metal railing that was way too low for me to feel safe; oh, and they had a ceiling fan light fixture!  <-- And yes, we ripped it all out!

And here.. the long awaited for after pictures!  Wait for it... wait... :)

Our new door, with the frost pane and iron wrought.

The sexy new glass railing Kel put in.  He stained the banisters, and put in new treads for the steps, too!

Our new configuration in the foyer.  Isn't that curvy side table and stool cute?  We thought they look really cartoony. :)

Oh, and here's my bubble chandelier!  (How could BubBLeS not have a bubble chandelier? :)

AND.... altogether!