Our new home updates finally done!

In a previous post, I shared about the stove with the double oven I had ordered.  Unfortunately it never did not arrive.  I investigated a little more to discover that it may not arrive for a very long time.  One store told me that a company that manufactured parts went belly up.  Not sure how true that was but I do know that there is a serious appliance shortage and so I decided to get my money back and buy the first stove I could get my hands on -- as long as it had a convection oven.  So I had to settle -- and now I do have a decent stove that I can get back into clay production.

I also finished the other updates in our condo.  The kitchen is nearly done -- I repainted all the cabinets and added hardware to match the Ikea Cabinets I installed at the one end.  I plan to replace the countertops someday but will have to wait another year or so but am happy with it for now.  You can see the photos below showing before and after the renovations and see the huge difference.

Kitchen - "Before"

Kitchen - "After"

Kitchen - "Before"

Kitchen - "After"

We also had an electrician come in and change out all the light fixtures so everything is now more modern plus energy saving LED.  The track lighting in the kitchen is LED and a real improvement over the old fluorescent bulbs.

The last thing I had to do was repair the ceiling.  I purchased these cool ceiling tiles that glue up.  Installing them looked real easy in the video but were a bit more of a challenge.  After the first few tiles were put up I got the hang of it and even enjoyed the challenge.  I felt all the going up and down the ladder was great exercise until at the end while installing the last few pieces I had pulled a muscle.  It was quite painful and put me out of commission for a couple of weeks.  All in all, I feel pretty good about how it turned out and would definitely do it again if needed.  Below is a picture of the finished ceiling.

I also made a few more changes to my studio.  I discovered that the floors in our building are not that sound proof after replacing the old carpet with laminate flooring and using the highest grade under-lay.  The people who live one floor down spend a lot of time in the same room below and as it is my main working studio, I did not want to be an annoyance so I found this really nice area rug that was a perfect fit.  I also found the sheer curtain valance to hang on the window and now the room is cozier than ever!

I love the french doors that separate the studio from the dining room.  To make the room more private, I add this privacy film to each of the window panes.  Now if we have company I can close the doors to hide my work (and mess) without blocking out all the light.

And lastly, we added a new and updated light fixture for the dining room.  This piece is soooo cool.  It is a called a "Fandelier".  It is a chandelier and ceiling fan combined.  It comes with a remote control and when you turn the fan (3 speeds) on, the hidden acrylic blades above pop out and retract when turned off!  How cool is that?!

"Fandelier"

So most of our renos are complete and is nice that I can again focus more on my clay.  The other nice bonus is our condo apartment actually has it's own furnace and central air conditioning.  My mom and I both decided that it was really important for comfort.  It is paying off at the moment with our extreme heat wave this week.  We have had extreme temperatures for several days now and expected to stay that way for a bit longer.  Our area has actually broke records for high temperatures this time of year for all across Canada!  Tomorrow it is suppose to peak at 48 C  or  118 F!

Tomorrow I will share with you some of the items I have finally finished off in the new Pantone colors.  Stay tuned!