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Renovating at the farmette


It's a rainy day at the farmette. Wasn't supposed to precipitate until later today, so our patio furniture pads got soaked through the night. Crap. Oh, well, they'll dry.

We recently completed a couple of snazzy renovations and I thought I'd take you through them.

As most know, we've been incrementally fixing up the old girl ever since we moved in seven years ago. Can't fathom how the time has gone by.

We've done the bedroom, the bathrooms, the deck, the living room and the sunroom. My office was almost the last thing to be tarted up on the main floor.

Above is the 'before' photo. Note the bilious colour of the walls and the 1980s border on the ceiling - yuck.

You can't see it, but the walls were actually several shades of that green - due to having pictures in various odd places over the years. They were also pocked with chips and the corner had an enormous crack in it. Given the age of the house (150-something), it's all lathe and plaster, so a bit uneven.

So the facelift was overdue, and this summer we again engaged our amazing cat-sitter/painter Kelli Kinsman. She's truly meticulous and reconditioned the whole room for a very affordable price. Since I'm a freelance writer, I always count costs in gigs, so this was about a two-and-a-half article job.

Now, it's a fresh, buttery yellow and the light bounces all around the room. And the damn border is gone, gone, gone! Rob even oiled the hardwood floor, so it's all shiny and renewed, too. A lovely place to ply my trade, if I do say so myself.

We also had the kitchen counter and backsplash replaced - for a price that was in the range of writing an entire website...which, luckily, I did this summer.

Our old counter had worn down to the nub... there was actually a hole forming in one spot, and I never did like the bland, boring beige backsplash.

So earlier in the summer, we bit the bullet, went to Hanover Kitchen and Bath and picked out a quartz counter. Plus a fancy, undermounted sink. Then, we went to Cuneo's where we chose some nice subway tiling and a row of 'bling'.

It only took two weeks from the time the guy came and measured the area to the installation of the counter. The backsplash took a bit longer - we messed up the calculations and had to order more tile. But it, too, eventually got done - with pretty spanky results.

Now that we've blown the renovation wad for 2019, we're looking forward to hunkering down for the fall. Until next week.


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