It gets darkest before dawn.

At least, I think that's the bullshit saying people use when they're sick to death of whatever situation they have themselves in.  I shouldn't complain. Things are actually going really, very well.  I'm just tired of living on a construction site.  It's been a year since Garth first ripped up our basement floor, leaving us with exposed, cracked sewer lines and only partial plumbing to half our house for six weeks.

This is why I'm getting a bit cranky.

Our entry before the reno:

 

Our entry as of about 10 minutes ago:

Even wrapped in plastic and covered in dust and crap our stairwell is fucking gorgeous.  It's why I bought this house.

We are almost there.  Really, we are.  Stubbes has finished their other job and are set to finish ours in two weeks.  I can't wait.  Here's where we were and where we're at now...

The Master Bedroom
 Our master bedroom really was so gorgeous to begin with, I'm really not even sure why we're renovating.  I just found the flower basket wallpaper to provide such a wonderful romantic mood.  With the ceiling tile and forrest green painted beadboard, I think the room provided a relaxing, almost bliss-inducing space in which to unwind, read a book and drift off to sleep.

Here we are, part way through our unneeded reno.   This photo was taken from the dressing room, looking into the bedroom.  The opening has been created to accommodate an archway similar to the one we have separating our living room from our entry.  The drywall at the ceiling and floor has been left unmudded as we're putting in 12" baseboards that mimic the original ones that didn't make it through the demolition.  We're also doing a sizeable crown moulding.  I'm still undecided if we want to take it further and do the picture frame moulding with chair rails. 

 

The Dressing Room

Originally, our dressing room was a teeny, tiny sponge paint explosion.  The people who lived in this house prior to us had their poor little boy sleep in this room.  I often wonder if he has nightmares of yellow blotches attacking him in the night. 

 

Okay, so it's not looking much different just yet, which is why I don't have a good picture of it yet.  Rest assured in  a few days, there's going to be some lovely custom cabinets in there and as soon as our washer and dryer are stuffed in said custom cabinets, we can get those walls repaired and painted out.

The Bathroom

Okay, this comes in two sections, but first I want to tell a story.  Our neighbours are lovely.  We adore them.  They are best couple friends with the couple who owned our house in the 90's and, incidentally, are responsible for all of the gorgeous decor decisions we're now eradicating.  Our ever so adorable neighbours one day exclaimed to us that straight couples like us LOVE buying houses from same sex couples because gay men know how to decorate.  They then looked at us with pity, our hetero natures barring us forever from knowing good taste.

Generalizations are not always accurate.  May I present to you my proof:

This little guy and his stenciled friends made their home in my shitter for far too long.  Faux Egyptian hieroglyphs everywhere.  I tinkled next to the sphinx.  I brushed my teeth under the keen eye of a scarab beetle.  King Tut perved at me while I showered.

Have you ever seen a more hideous scheme for a bathroom?  I am doubtful.  Please, prove me wrong and be the first ever to commentate on my blog!

The bathroom has been carved in half.  The old tub area is now part of the spa and will soon be reincarnated as a lovely shower with rain shower head.

And the other half will be a powder room with toilet, pedestal sink and no Egyptian hieroglyphs whatsoever.

 

The Spa!

Our spa used to feature maroon-painted, cat-pee stained floors, gas station bathroom wallpaper and a sponge painted tiled ceiling. Who wouldn't want to spend time in this room!

 

 

The "lights akimbo" look is so on-trend right now!

This room I am most excited about.  Aside from the giant, separate shower, we're also doing a lovely soaker tub along this wall here.

Our washstands from Restoration Hardware are going along this wall:

And I don't have a shot of it but we will be flanking either side of the window with built in shelving to store towels, toiletries and the like and it will also include a window seat!  Yayness!

As for the entryway, it is coming along nicely.  Before, it was covered in the residue of an attempted makeover on my part with some wallpaper and hope.  It didn't go as expected.  The sticky note on the chandelier says "keep me".  It's sitting beside our water softener in the basement with a tuft of pink insulation stick on it waiting to be dusted off and installed above our soaker tub.

And this is where we're at with this area today.  To celebrate, we finally picked up a settee that will be nestled in the corner.  We ended up going with the tight backed button tufted baby from The Bay. 

And that's our reno so far!  Stay tuned for a stairwell update (we bought wallpaper and Kurt's been busy!) as well as an ode to my husband, the grand sander.