Bedroom and Hall reno!

Posted on August 1, 2017 by amandalouisewyatt

So, it has again been a long time between posts… but still plenty going on. I have’t done any reveal of the new floorplan downstairs, it was a pretty major change through just adding a hall way. Our objective was to gain a central hall with access to three bedrooms. It was a maze before as you will see by the before and after floorplan.

I have a video before on my computer so once I get that I will do a proper comparison. The change is pretty massive!

We still have a way to go with details and styling, quite empty but we’ll get there. A reminder of the before of our bedroom and the hall –

Here is some after pics –

And we have now moved downstair so now upstairs is a playroom/spare bedroom –

Is it the same house?

Posted on March 24, 2015 by amandalouisewyatt

Total Remodel Before and After

Well, it has been a while since I last blogged, mainly because I haven’t been doing much apart from growing a big baby in my belly which is soon to pop. However, we can now officially say that all structural work upstairs is complete! It actually has been done for months but I have been lazy, I have had a lot of requests to share the progress, so here we go.

We have a lot of styling stuff still to do it is a bit stark and sterile right now so things like artwork, rugs, cushions, finishing off the kitchen island and also some new furniture. Still I will stick with Scandinavian Minimalism but there is still much more character to add. But what you can see is that the build is complete. Including moving the kitchen, removing walls, new windows etc etc.

The house has been revalued and having just finished the top floor, we have significantly increased the value by 1 000 000SEK. This is around 5 times our renovation investment.

Right now, we have moved our bedroom upstairs and set up for the little one in the room that was formally the kitchen. Later on, this will be turned in to a guest bedroom/playroom and we will move into our master bedroom downstairs.

For now though, we have other focuses and Fredrik’s attention is turning to the Garden as Summer approaches. So there is still going to be progress!

Once the styling is done, I can make a before and after video and show some more detail shots. It is just a slight change….

Wall to the left knocked down and a few other improvements…

Amazing Renovation

The door and window replaced… walls knocked down to make space for open plan living/dining:

These walls removed to make way for the kitchen…

The old kitchen in its previous location has now become a bedroom.

The landing at the top of the stairs is completely changed. Will share better photos once the stairs are done!

‘You now have the best house in the Neighbourhood’

Posted on July 6, 2014 by amandalouisewyatt

It was a risk, buying a house that looked like complete and utter #”%&, but we saw the potential. At first it wasn’t fun to see our friend’s reactions when they saw the house. Even with all of the warning that it is a full renovation, very run down, when people saw it there was only comments of ‘Oh. Wow. This is really a project.’ and it was actually like people felt sorry for us. It freaked people out, I think some people actually felt uncomfortable. We didn’t buy this thinking it would be easy, but we knew it would be rewarding and we knew we could make it amazing.

Maybe we are a little crazy, but we always had a vision and now it is finally starting to shine through. The new render on the facade is now complete and suddenly everyone is seeing what we knew would happen all along. It was one year ago that we moved in and now the neighbours are stopping in the street and saying ‘What a tranformation’ and ‘You now have the best house in the Neighbourhood’. While I wouldn’t go that far yet, it is shaping up to be a spectacular home and we are so proud.

Below are the before and after photos of the outside of the house. In these photos you can also see that the garden has been somewhat tamed in the last year, allowing for the house to actually be seen.

Now to get the top floor finished… 🙂

Concrete Benchtop 2.0

Posted on July 5, 2014 by amandalouisewyatt

Those who read our previous blog on DIY benchtops maybe want to see the finished product, well after our first attempt, the result was:

This wasn’t fun… we had used a steel reinforcement mesh which obviously wasn’t strong enough and we were only three people trying to move it. The weight is all centred in the middle due to the cut outs, so as soon as we transferred the weight… BANG (not a happy Amanda).

I was ready to go out and buy a benchtop but Fredrik talked me in to one last attempt. This time, we used a lot more steel reinforcement and rigged it up so that they wouldn’t sink to the bottom, very important as the bottom is actually the top!

So here is what we did –

This time we learnt from our mistake and had 4 guys to lift all 250 plus kilograms of it in to place. It was a struggle, but the result was WELL worth it. The below photos are before sanding and treating. Will show the final result when I show the final kitchen! 🙂

Bathroom Renovation: Before and After

Posted on May 11, 2014 by amandalouisewyatt

Finally, it is time to share the complete journey of the bathroom renovation. The truth is that it has been finished for months, but I have been too lazy to put together the video.

Eventually, this will be our guest bathroom but for the time being it is our only bathroom. This is a very small space but shows how making smart decisions can create a feeling of space. The large tiles and colour palette really help. This was also all done for less that 25 000SEK ($4000), which including all tapware, porcelain, floor heating is quite an achievement.

So we did everything, new pipes, floor heating, waterproofing, tiles etc etc etc. One might say it is a slight improvement… It is amazing what you can do when you want to! 🙂

So here is the before and after. Be prepared to be impressed! 🙂

The process from beginning to end… be warned my filming can cause dizziness:

Some more detailed photos:

Kitchen Time!

Posted on March 30, 2014 by amandalouisewyatt

I feel kind of helpless while the guys work hard outside digging up the garden so I decided to order the last appliances for our kitchen. Sticking to what I am good at… shopping! 🙂 We will start installing the kitchen at Easter, so here are some sneak peaks at what you will see when it is done.

Remember my early design of the floor plan? We have still stuck with this, so here is a reminder of where the kitchen will be located on the upstairs floor plan:

This is an idea of how the layout of the kitchen will be. I did this before we even moved in to the house, almost 1 year ago. Pretty proud that I haven’t changed my mind on the layout, just some details.

We have ordered these cupboards called Öresund from Marbodal, and there will wall of cupboards will look very similar to this with all appliances integrated, but the stove top will be in the kitchen island, not the nook as in this photo. Our kitchen island will also be different from this and we will have concrete benchtops. I swear this picture is not where I got the inspiration for the kitchen from, I saw this after I did the design! 😉

I just ordered my dream stove top from tretti.se, it is white glass which I think will look amazing with our concrete benchtops… this will be placed in the kitchen island:

We also didn’t want to have the extraction fan hanging in the middle of the room, so we have gone for a Thermex Metz Maxi, which is integrated in to the ceiling and the engine is external so it is quiet. Really important in open plan living. This is the black version, I can’t find a photo of the white one we are getting anywhere, but this will give you a good idea!

This is the fun stuff! I get really excited to think that we are getting so close to getting a brand new kitchen installed. Feels like it is going to be a bit of an upgrade from our current kitchen, don’t you agree?

Renovation Restart…

Posted on March 2, 2014 by amandalouisewyatt

We have had a bit of downtime since Christmas when it comes to the remodel, and I think that is really important otherwise I think this project would drive us mad and it is probably the best advice experienced renovators have given us… take breaks! After coming back from the US and Mexico where we had an awesome holiday we struggled to get our mojo back, but with the new season of The Block being released we have suddenly found our motivation again and it feels really good.

Now we have finally started to get the plaster on the walls upstairs, the kitchen is getting ordered this week and the new windows for downstairs. Pretty glad that Spring has come early this year as it means we have a bit more time to some of the boring stuff like drainage around the house.

We sometimes forget how much progress we have made, but here is something that really shows it. Below is a photo of how the upstairs living area was before, this is it when we moved in, it was three rooms:

This is it now… it is one amazing room with ceiling window, spotlights, new walls, new heating…. it is virtually a completely new house:

This doesn’t happen all by itself… here are some progress shots:

We have also done a rough renovation of the room I used to call ‘the crime scene’ as it was pretty damn gross! It is amazing what a coat of paint can do!

Before:

After:

Living in a Construction Zone

Posted on November 16, 2013 by amandalouisewyatt

Living in the middle of a house that is being completely remodeled has its moments, you buy a house that is around 160m2 and you can only live in around 25m2, but it will all be worth it in the end. Most people are shocked when the see the scope of the project we have taken on, but everyone is always amazed at the progress. Our Real Estate Agent told us that this will be best house in the area if we go through with the plans we have, so it should pay off in the end.

Right now we have an old kitchen (which works REALLY well, plus we put in a dishwasher just because I am a bit precious), old yucky toilet, hideous shower and then a cosy, slightly renovated, room with our sofa, bed, TVs (yep we have two in one room) and then a room where I can have some clothes etc. It sure is cosy, but I think it works, it is clean as it could be (I have emptied about 20 bleach bottles cleaning the shower alone!). The thing I miss the most is having a nice shower, I mean the shower works, the water is hot and clean but it isn’t really relaxing being surrounded with old pipes and very interesting orange walls! In these photos, you can see it for yourself. I could have done the photoshoot on a day when it was all tidy, but why not show it at its worst, on the day when the sheets are in the wash and clothes are everywhere! 🙂

On a more exciting note, we now have all of the pieces for the basin and cabinet in our bathroom. This one was designed by Amanda, made by Fredrik! We couldn’t find anything that matched the vision I had in my head that was going to fit in such a small space so instead we found all of the individual pieces and made our own custom bathroom basin and cabinet. I think it is going to look awesome!

Bathroom Sneak Peak

Posted on November 14, 2013 by amandalouisewyatt

So our first fully renovated room is nearly complete. I have been documenting the whole process so once it is done, I will do a complete blog about it, but it is getting exciting so I wanted to share a sneak peak. This was before, inside the door on the right:

The tiles are now nearly all in place, just some grout, mirror, finishing of the fine details like corners and below are the basin, tap, shower head and toilet we have bought which will soon be installed… wiiiihaaaa!

photo (3)

Soon, the full finished room will be revealed! 🙂

Installing New Windows

Posted on September 4, 2013 by amandalouisewyatt

The progress continues. Now we have completed the installation of new windows on the top floor! 🙂 We have just a new balcony door to go. We chose triple glazed windows from Elitfönster which are aluminium, these are grey outside and white inside. We chose these for a number of reasons, first of all they will keep the heat in and sound out. Also aluminum ages much better. We chose to not have all opening windows, some due to safety and others due to cost. Windows that open are significantly more expensive so we made sure that we strategically placed windows to allow for proper airflow.

Even though the finishing touches are not complete it has made a huge difference. Check it out in the pics below…

Back door/window

Before and After