Rental Reno - The Kitchen

Part 3 of the renovation of our rental cottage was to makeover the kitchen.  Here are the before photos (be warned - you may need sunglasses for the bright yellow cupboards)

Bright yellow cupboards.

The tenant had dropped a slow cooker onto the ceramic hot plates and smashed it.  The problem was all the control knobs for the cook plate were on the oven, so we had to replace both.

Massive brass ring pulls and hinges.  Really old dishwasher that doesn't work properly.

More frilly valances.

but it's not all bad - a lovely big pantry.

The bones of the kitchen were good.  It's just the yellow and brass had to go.  So I grabbed a tin of Dulux Aqua enamel in Whisper White and went to work.  Here is the after.

 

I painted all the cupboards and hinges white.  I used a metal primer spray on the hinges and Zinsser 123 Bulls Eye primer on the cupboards, followed by Dulux Whisper White in gloss enamel.

 I replaced all the handles with black shell pulls.

I tried to leave as much of the timber features as I could but I had to paint out the trim on top of the pantry as there was just too detail to cut around.

The kitchen never had a splash back, so I bought these white subway tiles for 59cents each at Bunnings and had a tiler install them.

A new Omega stainless steel oven and ceramic cook top.

I pulled down the frilly valance.  The window is bare but it looks onto a very private back patio area.

A new Omega stainless steel dishwasher.

I can't believe how good the kitchen looks.  It really makes a difference to the whole house.

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Rental Reno - The Bathrooms

Part 2 of renovating our rental cottage was the bathrooms.  We did not want to go to the expense of replacing the bathrooms, so we just did some repairs and maintenance, then spruced them up a little.

This is the Master Bedroom ensuite before:

There is only one towel rail and do you like the green gecko/frog stickers on the shower screen?

The floor tiles were still in good condition.

The only storage was this shelf on the side wall that had rusted.

There was damage to the wall where the shower was leaking and nobody had reported it to us!!!!  So we called in Megasealed to repair the shower leak and seal the shower base.  They guarantee the shower will not leak for 15 years. 

I removed the stickers from the shower screen and gave the whole shower recess a really good scrub (look you can see my reflection in the clean shiny glass).

Ensuite - After

We painted the walls and added a new toilet roll holder and double towel rail.

We pulled down the rusty shelf unit and mirror and replaced them with a mirror vanity cupboard from Highgrove Bathrooms.

That looks better.  Now for the main bathroom.  Here is the before...

This room was basically ok.  Whilst the tiles aren't very pretty they are clean and sound.  The timber vanity has aged well and the shower screen is still good.  All we had to do was paint the walls, add a new towel rail and remove the frangipani stickers on the mirror.

There is a separate toilet next to the bathroom - did nothing escape stickers?

To comply with water regulations, we changed the toilet to one with a dual flush cistern.  This closed coupled suite was only $149 from Highgrove bathrooms.

What a difference a coat of paint makes!  My lovely painter Frank hung all the towel rails for me and even chipped away all the broken tiles where the toilet floor meets the parquetry and painted the join to neaten it up.

Part 3 The Kitchen Transformation Coming Next - This was definitely the biggest change in the house.

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Renovating our Rental Cottage

We have a little house that we rent out.  I like to call it the rental cottage - it just rolls off the tongue a little sweeter than investment property.  It's not a pretty country cottage.  It's a basic and boring brick and tile rectangle house in the middle/outer suburbs of Brisbane.

We have rented it our for the past 7 years, and to be honest we have neglected it.  When we returned from our time in London, I decided to be pro-active and inspect the property - well I was shocked to see how much it had declined.  It is located in a lovely quiet residential street on a quarter-acre block, close to shops and transport, and the house has good bones.  When it became vacant last month, we decided to give it some love and a face lift.

Part One - The Living Areas

Here are some pictures of the living areas of the house before.

My son looking suitably bored - poor kid, it was his birthday the day I dragged the kids down to photograph the house.  Note the very tragic striped curtains with frilly valance, however the parquetry floors are great and have worn so well.

The exposed brick arch just screams 1970-80's, but there is not much I can do about it.  The paint on the walls is lemon yellow above the dado rail and a peachy pink colour below - as Kath & Kim would say ...nice, unusual, different? (I apologise that non-Australians may not get the humour)

Roman blinds that you hit your head on as you walk out the sliding door.

For 5 days straight, my painter Frank & I spent our days at the house.  Whist he painted nearly every inch of the house, I set to work on many tasks.

The Living Areas - After

Frank painted all the walls in Dulux Antique White.  He painted the skirting boards and some of the trims in Antique White and others were left as stained timber so they would be a feature.

I replaced the curtains with some textured coffee/mushroom coloured curtains on a chrome pole from Curtain Wonderland.

I polished the parquetry floors with wood floor polish and now they shine.

The roman blinds were replaced with a roller blind.

We left the timber accents in the hallway.

Frank painted the front door black for me.  I've always liked pictures of black doors.

Coming Next - Part 2: The Bathrooms

Recycled Bottle Vase

Here's a quick, easy and tasty project.  I bought these Italian fruit juices in the deli section of the supermarket.

Now here's the best bit - drink it.  When you are done just soak the label off.

Now you have a cute plain glass bottle.  I played around with a couple of designs and in the end settled for this.

The round decorative scroll is from The Graphics Fairy.  The number one is in Academy Engraved LET font. 

Once I was happy with the design I printed it onto clear water-slide decal paper that I have had sitting in my paper drawer for about 5 years.  Let the ink dry for half an hour, then give the decal two coats of clear gloss spray sealer (I use Krylon).  Cut out the design and soak it in water for about 30 seconds, then place the decal on the bottle and slide it off the paper backing.  Finally blot the decal with paper towel to remove excess water and air bubbles.  For further instructions, there are numerous how to videos on You Tube including this one.  Here's how it turned out...

Pretty huh?

I put it on my desk so I have something pretty to look at whilst I type this blog post.

The best thing is now I know how easy it use to use water-slide decals I can do some more projects.

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French Lavender Pictures

Many years ago I bought a set of four French lavender pictures.  I love them as much today as I did when I bought them.

Each print depicts a scene of French farmhouses and lavender fields.

The frames have a lovely washed/weathered appearance.

The pictures are only prints but they have a texture that makes them look more like an oil painting on canvas.

They hang in my master bedroom, above my grandmother's secretaire.  I enjoy looking at them every morning when I put my perfume on.  It's nice to get pleasure from simple little things.

It's a beautiful day in Brisbane today.  The sun is shining and there are only 4 weeks left until the kids start their summer holidays.  Better make the most of it.

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