The Scene In Which The 1930s Leave The Building (aka Renovations Day 1)

Contrary to many home improvements that I've made over the years here at my historic condo (built in 1890, renovated in 1980, and worked on ever since), THIS week's projects have actually been in the works for several months.

Unlike the replacement of both furnaces, the time my kitchen ceiling fell in, the leaky skylight, the leaky roof, or the cat-attacked third floor carpeting, THIS project I actually WANTED to do, PLANNED to do, SAVED to do, and had a TIMELINE to do.

For this place? That's pretty unheard of.

Oh, you want to know what we're doing? Crazy!

(drumroll please)......this week, BOTH BATHROOMS are being completely torn out and re-done, as well as a couple other miscellaneous finishing tasks around the house!!

Our list includes:

1) Installation of a new kitchen sink that matches the appliances and decor better (changing from a silver sink in a white-and-wood kitchen to a raised-edge ceramic farm-sink-esque look)

2) Installation of a new dishwasher that (wait for it, waaaaaait for it...) WORKS.

3) Installation of a new piece of trim around the step-up kitchen, which has been 5 years in the making after the dudes from Lowe's just put the old, non-matching-but-already-cut-and-we-don't-care piece back up after redoing my kitchen before I moved in.

4)Installation of a new light in the kitchen- an item that was added this morning after the demo in the room above caused the bulbs to, um....fall and shatter. Which became the final straw for a fixture I didn't install and have never loved, whose bulbs cost me $10 to replace. Gone.

5) COMPLETE RENOVATION of the downstairs bath, including:
- Ripping out the ugly built-in fiberboard vanity
- Ripping out the cute, but dated and nonmatching to the rest of the house, 1930s blue tile
- Ripping out the 1980s built-in fluorescent tube lighting. No, I am not kidding.
- Repairing the rotted subflooring (the impetus, in fact, for this room getting redone)
- Laying down new ceramic tile
- Installing new light fixtures
- Installing a new freestanding wooden sink unit with awesome ceramic bowl
- Painting over the paint job I did when I moved in back in 2005 (this is my DIY for the space)

6) COMPLETE RENOVATION of the upstairs bath, including:
- Ripping out the cute but dated 1930s tile
- Ripping out the ugly AND dated 1980s shower, which was conveniently tiled OVER the 1930s tile for extra work. Rock on, 1980s contractors.
- Removing the trim in the bathroom, which was/is the ONLY location in the house where the previous owners painted the historic trim white (Thankfully). This trim will be stripped and re-done to match the wooden trim in the rest of the house.
- Completely re-tiling my floor with two sizes of ceramic tile in a pinwheel pattern
- Adding four posts to the shower's corners
- Completely re-tiling the shower, including the addition of three built-in shelves, and some awesome mosaic work.

I am so excited to see this all come together!! More updates to follow!!