Sandra's blog: The beginning of the remodeling

In November 2007, I decided to start looking for my own place to live at. I wanted to stay in or just out of (the North side) of Brussels; the area where I was born at, where I grew up and that has quite some Dutch-speaking people and not too many criminal minds. After a short while, it was clear that renting would be way too expensive, so I started looking into buying. After downsizing on my dream-home a bit, I found a nice 1-bedroom apartment, built about 9 years ago, just a few streets from where I grew up. I liked the idea of staying in that neighborhood because it meant I didn’t have to change doctors, pharmacy, stores and whatnot.

When I first visited the apartment in December 2007, it was in the evening and there wasn’t too much light. Everything looked really nice, and I had the impression that only a bit of painting would be in order (+ adding a little sink in the powder room).
When the sale finally came through in the beginning of April 2008 (one must love the slow Belgian administration!) and I had a better look at it with lots of light, the list of things to do/ change just started growing.

Hallway

Nice big entrance hallway. Large space, but not useful because of the huge heating element in it. Oh, wait a minute, maybe we could take it out, so that I can use it as my home office? But then… the outlets are on the wrong wall, so maybe some outlets can be added on the other wall? Oh, the floor has to go out for that… ehm, is that really so much work to do? Pretty please daddy???

Kitchen

Nice spacious and sunny kitchen!!!! But oh my goodness, were those people midgets??? The counters are way too low for (tall) me! So, could we perhaps change that? And add a breakfast “bar” in front of the window because the view is wonderful?

Oh, and when the counters end up higher, the upper cabinets will be hanging too low, so can those also be hung higher? Oh, if we do that, we’ll need to change the tiles on the walls? That’s ok, I didn’t really liked the original ones to begin with.
And while we are at it, could we change the flooring? I don’t like wood in the kitchen and would prefer a tile floor…

Living room

Nice sunny living room. Not too big though, so will have to think well about what furniture I will buy to optimize the space.
Only thing that needs to be done is adding outlets. Lots of them! And repair the cracks in the wall.

And take out the door to the hallway, so that it wouldn’t be freezing cold in the hallway after taking out the heating unit there and so I wouldn’t be too claustrophobic in the living room.
Actually, I just want one big space.

Bedroom

Very large bedroom! Nothing needs to be done. Except maybe add the cable-thing for a TV?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/sandravb79/appt/P1030693.jpg

Oh, and maybe we could take out that door to the bathroom and replace it with a sliding door so that I wouldn’t loose too much space and have more closet-space??

Bathroom

Looked very nice while it was dark. Didn’t look too nice when there was light.
The wall tiles are very very damaged, don’t know if they will ever turn out well. The shower head is not in a very handy spot if you actually want to take showers in there. The faucet, well… it’s so old-fashioned, I’m wondering where they still found that to buy 9 years ago, same with the sink faucets.
Mirrors above the sink: hate it, hate the mirror and the ugly light and I can never believe that power outlet is save. And where am I supposed to stock all my stuff?
And while we are at it, can the floor be renewed too??? Pretty please daddy?

Powder room

Not bad, I just would like a little sink in there so that I and visitors can wash hands in there.

Laundry room

Not bad, will turn that into laundry room/ pantry. Eventually, in the meanwhile my laundry is outsourced. And it will be used as junk room.