Real Estate: Historic Home in Waterloo, Ontario Gets a Major Makeover

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I’m sure you’ve come across many shocking before and after home renovations, but this one, I think, should be moved to the top of the list.

Up until one year ago, this house in Waterloo was a frat house. It was awful. Inside and out. The house was such a disaster that it made news beyond the city borders (e.g., on Narcity, Reddit). If you want to have a peak at how some 20-somethings like to live, check out this virtual tour. Warning: It’s awful.

But there’s really great news to share about this historic house. An ambitious and confident couple took on this project and have transformed it into a beautiful, three-story, single-family home. It’s absolutely lovely!

Images via Realtor.ca.

Uptown: Project ByeByeBifold – After

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Way back in December, I had a fight with one of my bifold doors. And that was the last push for me to replace it with a more convenient door set-up. I said #byebyebifold to those doors, and imagined a better door future for my home.

After meeting the Metrie team at Blogpodium last fall, I reached out to them with my disaster door dilemma, and they were generous to offer up some replacements. It’s now April, and I have had functioning double doors for a couple of months now. Oh, the changes that these doors have had to the look of my home and functionality of my space has been incredible!

The short piece of my advice I have is: If you’re contemplating a door upgrade, stop contemplating. Do it.

In my mind, I knew the Masonite Lincoln Park doors from Metrie were more modern than my plain slab doors, and I knew that upgraded hardware would add another level of modernity, but when everything came together, I really couldn’t believe the transformation. You don’t even want to know how many times I said “I love my doors!”

So, let’s take a walk down reno memory lane, shall we?

I had two of these basic bifold doors in my home:

I hated – yes, hated – them both!

The fight with my main floor bifold door resulted in this situation:

Upstairs, I had another bifold (the one on the left):

I lived with this bifold mess for a couple of months while I sorted out my replacement and installation plan.

And then…after installation day, a couple of days of painting, and new hardware, I ended up with this sleek transformation:

Because of a larger area of space, I was able to replace my upstairs bifold with a full-size door. This, too, has given me the impression that I have a bigger closet than before.

Look at those beauties! So modern! So efficient! The double door option works perfectly in my tight hallway. These doors open and close like a dream, and (to my surprise) my closet seems so much bigger because the doors fully open, and I can access every bit of the closet space. The doors and trim make my house feel brand new!

As anyone who has completed a renovation knows, one project will inevitably lead to another (or many others). While my main purpose with the interior door project was to replace two bifold doors, I ended up replacing all of the interior doors in my house. Why? Because I wanted everything to match, of course! And since the new bifold doors required new casing (frame around the door), I had to replace the casing on the other doors, too. And since the casing was more modern and substantial than my original baseboards (framing on the floor), I had to replace those, too! One after the other…after the other…after the other…

So I had original doors like this:

and this:

I ordered matching doors from Northfield Trim and Door here in Waterloo. I was thrilled when my doors arrived early one morning.

The doors arrived unpainted.

And after a weekend of painting, I had fresh, white doors everywhere in my home.

      

Aren’t they lovely? So darn modern!

I’m so grateful to Metrie and Northfield Trim and Door for collaborating on this project. I received incredible service along the way. Sending a special thanks especially to Justine, Jason, Bob, Mike, and Chris.

While part of this project was sponsored, all photos and opinions are my own.

One Room Challenge: Laundry Room – Before – Week 1

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Well, it’s official. I’m taking part in my first One Room Challenge (ORC) as a guest participant. If you’re unfamiliar with the One Room Challenge, it’s a twice-yearly event that happens in the design blogger community where design bloggers makeover a room in 6 weeks. 6!

Calling it Home started the challenge over a decade ago, and ever since, design bloggers have been putting their best foot forward.  There are two lines of participation at this point. First, on Wednesdays, a group of 20 featured participants will share their progress (see their week 1 posts). Then, on Thursdays, any design blogger can participate as a guest participant. You can check on everyone’s progress at the One Room Challenge site as well as on individual blogs.

So how will I participate this year? So what am I going to feature over the next 6 weeks? My combo laundry room/bathroom. And I’m pretty darn excited! (If you’re new to White Cabana, here’s a peek into my home.)

To be honest, I started this project weeks ago, but progress has been s…l…o…w. Given my work/life schedule and my lack of contractor contacts in Waterloo, renovating the space from top to bottom in 6 weeks wasn’t looking promising. 12 weeks, maybe. 🙂 But I can definitely feature it in 6 weeks! And that’s what I’m committed to doing.

Warning: This post contains some colourful before photos that may hurt your eyes.

Here’s what this room looked like on the day I took the first tour of my (future) house five years ago. Soon after I moved in, I removed the support bar (and about 30 others around my house), the shelf unit above the toilet, and the glass shelf. I also painted the wood strip on the sink cabinet and covered almost the whole floor with a big, white bath mat.

And then I lived with it. Year after year. I lived with a hideous pink/grey/gold laundry/bathroom. It hurt my eyes every time I had to do laundry.

Here’s what my space look liked a couple of weeks ago. Note the floral wallpaper. Awful. And the accordion door. Awful again. And the drop ceiling. Convenient but awful. And the lighting. Awful.

To be honest, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this space. It’s been great to have a finished laundry space and extra bathroom for guests. It’s also been really enjoyable for me to see people’s reactions when I show them this space. Easy entertainment. On the other hand, though, the wallpaper and floor combo has always made my eyes hurt. And I hate not having a big laundry sink. A little vanity just doesn’t cut it for my needs.

While I did hire tradespeople for this makeover, my DIY-loving self could not leave it to them to have all the fun. I spent about two weekends in demolition mode. We took everything back to the studs, so that I could have a blank slate.

The space is small, but the makeover is going to be mighty!

Here’s what the space looked like post-demo day:

I know it’s not pretty and tidy, but I actually like this part of the reno process. I like to see all the pipes exposed, to see how things were originally set up, and to think about ways to make things better.

I know the tradespeople I have hired are going to make it better than ever before. On the technical side, new electrical and new plumbing is being installed. I also said goodbye to the awful accordion door, and my framer installed a fabulous pocket door. Things are already looking bright.

As for my design plan?

I’m going with this marble-like ceramic hex tile on the floor:  this classic 4×12 subway tile on the walls:

this quartz counter on the cabinet:

this Blanco Urbena faucet on the sink:

My crew is also going to do some more reframing and add a heated floor. Hello luxury!

My custom cabinet is ready for pick-up, and my Blanco sink is going to look gorgeous on top of it. I have settled on a shower trim kit (finally…after buying and returning a couple). My original design plan continues to guide me, but I have had to make changes to it. Overall, my space’s design could be described as “a massive dose of white with a touch of grey”.

Thanks for following along my first One Room Challenge! If there’s anything specific you’d like to see or learn, let me know in the comments.