Renovation Madness

For a house that was technically “move-in ready,” I somehow ended up spending the last five months in a permanent state of renovation.

Some of the changes are hard to explain properly, so maybe the before-and-after photos will do a better job. Not everything I tackled myself, I did hire professionals for the big jobs, but I am proud to say that with lots of video watching and my practical mom to help me, I was able to do some things I had not done before.

Before I even moved in, I had the living room repainted. The heavy black ceiling beams became a soft cream white, and the walls were painted a muted sage green. It completely changed the atmosphere — suddenly the room felt brighter, calmer, and much more like my home.

Before any furniture was assembled, Mom and I painted both my bedroom and the kitchen. I really wanted my bedroom to feel like mine, so I added curtains, replaced the light fixture, and slowly made the space feel personal instead of temporary.

Then we tackled the bathroom thing.

The gas heating system sits inside the bathroom, hidden behind a strange box built around the pipes. It annoyed me from the first day I saw it, so I decided to rebuild it. Considering I drew up exactly how I thought I could make it fit in the space and then having to actually make the wood pieces fit, never having done wood work before — and the space was incredibly limited— I was ridiculously proud when mom and me finally finished it. No one else even noticed the difference, of course. Which somehow made it funnier.

The bathroom tiles were another challenge. They were a deep yellow-and-blue combination that made the whole room feel stuck in another decade. After falling down a rabbit hole of DIY videos, I discovered inexpensive roll vinyl flooring and decided to give it a try. Once again, Mom and I underestimated how difficult it would be.

The vinyl was far stiffer than expected, a few tears had to be creatively hidden, and there were definitely moments of frustration — but in the end, the room looked so much fresher and brighter that it felt worth every struggle. And it was done on an absolute bargain.

The hallway project, was supposed to be just painting and really a fun project.

I had this very specific picture in my head of how I wanted it to look, but the walls had other plans. They were uneven, damaged, and layered with old wallpaper, so for nearly two weeks we spent every evening sanding, patching holes, rebuilding damaged sections, priming, and adding texture- which looked so much easier in the video, just rolling it on. Let me tell you it needed strength and afterwards we had structure everywhere, on our arms, and faces, in the haird and on the floor too.

But finally we got to the fun part, painting.

Dark blue on the bottom. Sandy beige on top.

Separated by molding strips that looked far easier to install in online tutorials than they were in real life. Nothing in an old house is perfectly straight, so there was a lot of improvising — and quite a bit of paint strategically hiding imperfections.

Then the last bit, I wanted someting vintage looking to hold my jackets and match my picture frames, but I could simply not find one to buy, so instead I stained wood myself, added hooks, and built something simple instead. Honestly, I love it more than anything I could have bought.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I decided to replace the front-facing windows because the wooden frames were deteriorating and parts of the sealant had started developing mold.

But as soon as contractors started giving estimates, one issue led to another.

The upstairs window siding also needed replacing. Then strange black stains suddenly appeared on the carpet upstairs. Thankfully it turned out not to be mold, but by that point I knew I couldn’t comfortably rent the apartment out in that condition. If someone was going to live there, I wanted it to feel cared for. Unfortunately, the old carpet had been fully glued down.

That meant the flooring company not only had to level the floor and install vinyl planks, but also remove the carpet using a special machine that sounded like it was actively demolishing the house. The noise was unbelievable.

The price nearly doubled, and honestly, there were moments where it felt like the renovations would never end.

At the same time, I was trying to sort out the old furniture left by the previous owner. Some I sold, some I gave away — but nobody wanted the enormous three-door wooden wardrobe.

So before the flooring could go in we had to naturally dismantled it.

And behind it? No wallpaper. Just two giant bare patches across the walls.

At that point I could only laugh.

Eventually, though, things started coming together. The windows were installed, the upstairs flooring looked beautiful, the roof siding had been replaced, and the roof window was exchanged.

I finally found a painter who managed to source the exact wallpaper needed to repair the missing sections — to save money, and then to save even more Mom and I still handled all the priming and painting of those bedrooms ourselves.

Now there was only my tiny bedroom left to tackle. Tiny, dark, stained carpet, worn walls — it felt tired more than anything else.

We stripped the wallpaper, ripped out the carpet, removed the crown molding, re-wallpapered everything, had new flooring installed, and added fresh molding. Now it finally feels light and welcoming instead of forgotten.

All it really needs now are the finishing touches.

And while all of this was happening, spring arrived.

Which meant the backyard exploded, mostly weeds, but also some gems.

I mowed the lawn, cut back the wild blackberries-someone could have thought I was attacked by a tiger- if you ever tackled black berries you know what I am talking about.

Mom and me went plant shopping, going crazy with all the options. But the one thing not on the list I could not pass by was a dwarf cherry tree,

And so with every sunny weekend, I planted and tamed the parts of the backyard that were in my line of sight. I prepped the raised vegetable bed, my incredibly kind neighbors even filled it with goat manure for me before I added fresh planting soil.

Somehow, between the dust, paint, tools, and endless hardware store trips, things slowly began to bloom.

Now, five months into the year, it finally feels like I can breathe again.

There are still projects waiting for late summer and autumn, but for now life has become free again: keeping the blackberries under control, mowing the lawn occasionally, and watering vegetables and flowers in the evening.

And honestly, I don’t think I could have done any of this alone.

I’m incredibly grateful that my mom is still strong enough to do all of this with me. We’re both fiercely independent people, and we definitely don’t always share the same taste or ideas, but somewhere during all of these renovations we found a rhythm together.

After months of dust, paint, noise, and chaos, it finally feels like home.

Before Pictures

After Pictures

Garden Pictures