kitchen reno | Hicks House

Since the condo is officially on the rental market and after all the talk the last few weeks of all the work that we’ve been doing to the condo I thought it was about time to show you some before and afters. Since I’m new to this blog thing and didn’t get before shots (in my defense most of the work started pre-blog) I tracked down the original MLS photos from when Ken bought the condo back in late 2009.

Some rooms are more drastically changed than others, personally I think it looks much more updated in person than the pictures convey… but maybe I’m biased.

I actually like the original exterior shot better…

So maybe not the best photo to start with since the previous agent took a better exterior shot… but it’s a condo there is only so much we can do to the outside… Moving the agents car before taking the photo so it’s not in the lower corner should have been one of the things done.

I’m not sure you can tell in this picture but there used to be nasty wallpaper

In addition to removing the wallpaper and painting the walls, the weird wood window valance was also removed (Ken literally just grabbed on and pulled it off), as was that old corner TV. We stopped short of de-almondizing the kitchen. We completely realize this badly needs to be done. But we’re renting and that’s a huge expense… so almond EVERYTHING is.

Another room from the kitchen facing the living room

It’s easier to see the nasty 80’s fabulous wallpaper that used to be in there from this angle. Also, is that a corded phone?! We don’t even own one of those.

Right off the kitchen is the dining room which got a fresh coat of paint, more modern curtains, white trim and a brushed nickel chandelier in place of that old brass one. (extra points if you can spot Chloe’s photo bomb)

living room

This room’s biggest problem was the furniture layout, it didn’t make any sense, we also removed those wall mirrors, replaced the carpet painted the walls, and the trim (that wood piece didn’t get done before the photo shoot… the TV was too heavy)

In addition to saying adios to the toothpaste green color in favor of a dark cool grey, we also painted the trim white and replaced the carpeting.

second bedroom

One of the bigger projects, in addition to patching all the walls (we mainly used this as a gym and some weights may have collided with the wall), painting the walls a more neutral color, and painting all the trim; Ken also made this awesome built in desk in one of the two closets.

upstairs bathroom

Another de-wallpapering project. The previous owner LOVED their wallpaper! This room got a coat of a cool light gray, white trim new doors and just to the left of this shot used to be a brass shower sliding door. (Eww it even had frosted glass) That was removed in favor of a bowed out shower curtain rod and modern white, and gray curtain. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of the new shower but I have an old one just to give you nightmares…

AHHHHHH!!!!

Here’s some bonus photos I don’t have before’s of:

upstairs hall. Hello pretty white trim!

downstairs hall, the white trim and new doors look fabulous if you ask me

another de-wallpapering project

I have mixed feelings about the half bath. Granted this is a terrible photo. We picked this paint color out two years ago and just got around to putting it up. Now neither of us like it… it may be safe to say we hate it (which is odd because as you know orange is my favorite color). I’m pretty sure if it went up when we first bought it I may have liked it. Hopefully whoever rents it likes it better than we do.

So what do you think? Two months of hard work, better before or after?

Due to the fact that we bought the completed house from the builder we were able to negotiate some unusual things into our contract, and one of those things was replacing the Formica counter tops that were already in the kitchen with granite.

What we didn’t anticipate was the large decision that this was going to entail which set off “The Great Granite Debate!” Of all the finishing touches throughout the home, the cabinets and counter tops are most likely the most permanent features in the home. They are the most expensive and time consuming to change out later, so whatever decision we went with we knew we had to love it for a long long looong time, as these counters are here for the long haul.

So off we went to Classic Stone in Plantsville CT. All of the research we did online suggested bringing a drawer front or something from the kitchen to help you pick a granite color that best compliments your cabinets. Since we do not technically own the cabinets yet this was not an option, so we had to wing it.

Another part of the conundrum the cabinets are not the color we’d always envisioned so the granite I had in my mind didn’t jive with the existing cabinets. Had we started from ground zero and built this house from the ground up I would have gone with a much darker cabinet. But the cabinets we have are a glazed maple (shown in the photos) that have a darker coloring within the grooves of the door than on the flat surface, and we want to compliment them the best we can.

We were however able to narrow it down to three options and bring samples to the house to compare to actual granite. Let me know your favorite (I apologize for the horrendous quality of these photographs, the granite was extremely reflective and I’m a bad photographer)