Renovation Update

Ready. Set. Blog!  I have about 10 minutes in which to convey this.  The renovation has been going well.  I've been painting and doing some major wallpaper removal. Never, ever put up wallpaper.  I don't care how pretty you think it is.  It's not pretty coming off!  My finger tips feel ultra smooth because of the harsh chemicals that I had to use to get off all of that paste.  It took me three days to do it.  I would get tired of scraping and go to paint the living room, then tired of painting so go back to the dining room to remove wall paper.  It's finally all off and Nick sanded down the wall for me.  Because of the paste, the wall was very glossy and smooth. My dad suggested sanding it down a little bit just so the paint has something to adhere to.  I've filled in all the holes with plaster where the wallpaper peeled off the old paint so now it is ready for painting.

Tonight we are going to a friend's birthday dinner, but I plan to go to the condo to paint for 45 minutes before heading to the restaurant.  I've gotten a pretty good technique going, so hopefully I get get a lot done.  At the beginning of all of this I really disliked painting, but now it's not so bad.  The color of the living room walls is a little bit pinkish in the sunlight, but the correct color of taupe in indoor light. Since the room gets a lot of sun, I'm not super fond of it, but I'm not about to go and do it over again!

Here are a couple of pictures of the bathroom and kitchen that I didn't post before.  The bathroom is small and the tiles are ugly, but I figured that I don't spend that much time in the bathroom anyway so it won't be so bad.  I'm really hoping to get the countertops changed in the kitchen and to get a new stove.  The dishwasher can stay, but I need an oven with a window.

This is the flooring sample I picked.  The HOA is really strict about sound proofing your floors.  This one comes with a foam underlayment attached, which means that I can't add another layer of foam to the floor because it won't lay correctly.  I hope the foam is thick enough because this was my number one pick.  I submitted a sample yesterday.  I hope they approve it otherwise I might just cave and get carpet.  It seems like the HOA doesn't want you to get hard floors because they make it so difficult.