Ágúst and Ben's flat renovations

Bad on me

2010-10-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't really do a good job documenting the process, but just in case anyone is interested, here is how the guesthouse turned out!

New beginnings

2010-05-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

Agust and I moved back to Iceland, and we have been renting a tiny 3x3 meter room in a shared house with 5 other roommates while we looked for a place to buy. The wait is over, we found a place, done all the paperwork, and money parts, and we move in 5 days! This will be a whole new renovation project you can all follow along with!

The new place is 2x larger than the one in germany. 3 floors, with a fireplace, greenhouse room, guest house, and backyard. Truly a great house. Our first project is to install a shower in the guesthouse, and convert the half bath on the ground floor into a master bathroom by knocking down a wall and losing one small bedroom.

Kitchen finished!

2009-07-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

The final parts came and have been installed, now our super awesome cabinets light up, and we have an exhaust fan over the oven top so that steam and smells get sucked away.

Behold!

The frosted glass cabinets have lights inside the bottom that cast light inside the cabinet, and down below. The exhaust fan also has a light built in. It means we only ever turn on the overhead light when we're searching for something. It's very cozy with just these lights, and the small wall light on the opposite wall is turned on.

We also took delivery on our bed. We had this built for us at the local carpenter's. We picked the plan, the wood type (it's solid maple wood) and the stain (this is two coats of stain). The bed is incredibly solid, and I love the simple square design. Very masculine. We will be getting a cream colored area rug to put under the foot of the bed to create a bit of separation between the dark wood of the floor and the dark wood of the bed.

Kitchen is almost done

2009-05-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

Finally an update. We had to wait on the company installing the kitchen to deliver it before we could get to this step, but it's soooo nice to have a kitchen finally. A stove of my own, a fridge, dishwasher, a real sink! (we were using the bathroom sink till now, it was the only running water other than the tub and toilet)

The kitchen is still missing some parts. The exhaust fan over the stove didn't get delivered, and the electrical parts to plug in the glass cabinets didn't come either. The frosted glass cabinets have fluorescent tubes inside, it's really pretty when it works. I'm also having to spackel and paint areas that I thought were going to be covered, but aren't.

Tables, lamps, and chairs are all courtesy of Ikea. There is a wall lamp that will be installed in that small white protrusion in these two photos, but I have to wait till I get a drill to install it.

I love how the fridge is built into the wall of the kitchen. I don't like the freestanding "LOOK AT ME, I'M A FRIDGE" types, so this was a big draw of this kitchen.

Dishwasher and oven match the scheme too.

Kitchen a bit further

2009-03-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

The kitchen is now painted.

We took the measurements from the side that has the sink and electrical inputs to a kitchen customization place, and ordered this.

It will be installed on the 23 of this month, till then I still have to get my water from the bathroom sink. *cry

Also, here is what our (big) balcony looks like:

From inside the flat looking out:

From the open door looking out:

From the corner looking around to the main portion:

All the way at the far edge looking out over the private back yard (we can use it too):

The rest of the Before photos

2009-03-22T02:41:00.000-07:00

The Kitchen:
Tiles on the floor stay
Tiles on the wall go
Wallpaper is already removed
Adhesive is being washed off now
Primer comes next
Colored Paint next (ceiling and left wall will be cream, all the rest coffee)
New ceiling lamp needs to be purchased and installed
New entire kitchen comes on April 23 (all appliances and cabinets) Luckily this will be professionally installed

The living room:

Bianca helping by squatting on torn off wallpaper:

Agust, despite doing very little work, stops to pose with MY mask on as if he was working in the dust filled room.

The Hallway, which sadly still looks just like this. It has the most work still to do.

Tons to do!

2009-03-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Agust and I moved to Germany, and we found an awesome flat, but boy it needs a lot of work. This is the bedroom on the 2nd or 3rd day. We had already started removing the hideous wallpaper.

Things that needed doing:
Remove all wallpaper
Scrape up stuck on carpet padding from old carpet
Sponge walls with soapy water and scrape off excess adhesive and paper
Repair walls with spackle
Sand walls smooth
Paint with primer
Mask off the edges of the coffee walls with masking tape
Paint cream walls and ceiling
Install ceiling light
Reverse masking tape so that cream walls and ceiling are now masked off
Paint coffee walls
Install new light switches and sockets
Lay plastic vapor layer over the floor
Lay sound proofing foam over the floor
Lay the laminate (way more complicated than it sounds, lots of cutting and sanding and hammering)
Install the trim (definitely the hardest part so far, my fingers are raw from the little metal clips)

Now, 3 weeks later, here is the same room:

We're going with a coffee and cream theme. Every room will have a cream colored ceiling, and one or two cream walls, then the rest the chocolate coffee brown. The flooring is just Ikea laminate, but we're on a budget and it looks nice for now. The trim is a cream Ahorn color, and all the light switches are a matching coffee brown. We intend to use all large diffuse light sources like this in the house, no bare bulbs allowed.