This blog post is all about our first home, the–agonizing–home renos we did, and my new favourite home accessory: my bObi Classic vacuum! (I don’t know if I could ever live without a robot vacuum again.)
This is actually hard for me to post because our home is definitely NOT finished. Our “Before and After” should really be called “Before and Waiting-on-more-money-to-accomplish-all-our-projects”. I’m definitely trying to stop focusing on all the flaws/unfinished projects in our house and striving to remember how far it’s come and how much Jarryd and I have learned along the way!
With that said, don’t expect too much because 1) the home renos are more on the minimal side and 2) we DIY’d everything (except for the bathroom plumbing) so it’s far from perfect. Enjoy!!
Our First Home
When Jarryd and I moved back to Canada, we decided we’d move into my parents house while we were on the hunt for our first home. (Thanks Mom and Dad, sooo much!) In October of 2018 we got possession of a house that checked all of our practical homeowner boxes such as: natural gas heating, central air conditioning, garage, fenced in backyard, safe location, ect.
It’s a 1,100 sq ft split level home that was built in the 1970s–the carpeted walls in the basement certainly prove that, haha! It’s also not too big and not too small, the perfect size for our little family of two.
We immediately began home renos and decided it would be best to move in only after we were done the renos. So we FINALLY moved into our house at the end of January. We’ve been living here for four months now and it’s finally starting to feel like home for us. Hanging pictures on the walls and tossing throw pillows here and there definitely helps.
Our biggest home renos took place on the upstairs level, so I’ll show you that first!
The Office
Before…
BEFORE 
DURING
The beautiful before, featuring popcorn ceilings, an outdated ceiling fan, old baseboards (practically come off themselves), gross carpet, and layers upon layers of paint colours.
AFTER!
As you can see, we replaced the flooring with laminate, installed new baseboards, I scraped off ALL the popcorn ceilings, we installed a new LED ceiling light fixture, and most obviously: gave the walls a fresh and bright coat of paint!
And see that circle chair?? I bought that back in the midst of high school and it’s officially back in style. So glad I kept it all these years. 😉
Anyway, I have alot of hopes and dreams for this office. I’d love to hang some artwork on the walls!
Master Bedroom
Before…
What is with the two-toned walls? And why are they the worst colours on planet earth?
The carpet was super stained and ripped so that definitely had to go. Jarryd and my Dad worked so hard on the floors, ripping out the carpet, scraping off the old underlay, getting rid of–almost–all the squeaks in the floor, and installing the new laminate! New flooring made all the difference in our home renos.
AFTER!
We sold ALL of our furniture back in Maryland, US so we’ve had to buy new everything. The full-length mirror I got for $10 on VarageSale (I was so pumped!), and two white chairs for $50!
And our new remote-controlled ceiling fan from Canadian Tire was a splurge for us, but absolutely worth it. (I love air movement while I sleep.)
I also can’t WAIT to get an area rug in here–I need my bedroom to feel more cozy!
Before…
After!
Another thing I did was I spray painted all the outlet covers registers, and the bathroom fan covers a nice glossy white. (And they look brand new too!) It definitely saved me a few bucks from having to buy all new ones!
So, not everything got painted white 😛 I painted our bathrooms light blue! The door on the left is our ensuite 1/2 bath, and the door on the right is our walk-in closet which we tore the shelves out of so I have clothes in boxes on the floor at the moment.
Ensuite Bathroom
Before & After
We are really happy with how our ensuite bathroom turned out! Tiny rooms like that feel a whole ‘lot bigger when the popcorn ceilings are scraped off and the walls are painted a lighter colour.
Upstairs Hallway
Classic wedding photos. I may hang a full-length mirror there one day…
Heading Down to the Main Floor…
Before & After
We ripped out the gross carpet on the stairs, and I painted all the walls a Simply White by BM. Getting our stairs finished is definitely on the to-do list for us…
Living Room & Dining Room Area
Before & After
I love having a fireplace, but I feel like it’s in a very awkward part of the house, you can’t really centre furniture around it because it’s right between the two rooms. So instead we have to have our couch right in front of it 😛
And shoutout to my brother for giving us his old couches!! This was a huge money saver for us!
(After publishing this blog post, our new area rug arrived at the front door, so of course we had to do some rearranging in the living room and take new photos!) We are LOVING having an area rug! It truly makes all the difference in the cozy-and-comfortable-meter for me.
Having a fireplace and a mantle I can decorate is super fun–we’ve never had that before!!
Also, maybe y’all can help me with this: I’m considering white washing the fireplace one day because I feel like its’ sort of grimy looking. I feel like white would make it look cleaner. What do you think??
Kitchen (Where the magic happens!)
Before & After
I’ll never understand it…why would someone want brown-orange toned floors, orange cabinets, orange curtains, orange fireplace, and orange walls?!
I seriously couldn’t WAIT to get my hands on those walls and get them all white–which I think really compliments the maple cabinets. Speaking of, we got really lucky with this house in that the kitchen got renovated right before we moved in! It has a beautiful faucet, lots of counter space and SOFT-CLOSE drawers and cabinets! I love my kitchen!
Perfect For Food Photography
I love the openness of this area and how bright it gets in the afternoons/evenings! Our apartment kitchen back in Maryland was sooo dark–I always had to have a light on to see decently, but here it’s definitely not the case!
I actually take all of my food photos between the dining room table and the french doors because the light is SO good! This location is super ideal because it’s right next to the kitchen, and any food photographers out there know that sprinting between the camera and the kitchen for more ingredients is an normal occurrence, so the shorter the sprint the better! 😉
Check out my How to Style Food for Food Photography post if you’re interested in this topic! 🙂
A very unique kitchen island, that’s for sure. Also, am I the only person left on this earth who doesn’t mind white appliances? Stainless steel ovens, dishwashers, and fridges are ridiculously annoying to clean–especially once kids are in the picture!
My view from where I do all my baking. I love to have Spotify playing on the TV or a good show while I bake desserts.
Taking Care of Our Home
Everyone, Meet bObi!
Picture this: you’re sitting down and enjoying your first sip of hot coffee in the morning and someone ELSE is sweeping your floor FOR you! An intelligent floor cleaner, formally known as bObi by Bobsweep is something I never knew I’d rely on until I had one.
I absolutely LOVE my bObi. Even as I write this blog post, bObi is busy sweeping up the floors around my feet in the office. It’s awesome.
Disclosure: Bobsweep sent me a bObi vacuum cleaner to review, and all of my opinions are honest and straight from the heart! I’ve been using her consistently for two months now and I’m so pleased with the results!!
Why I LOVE My bObi Floor Cleaner:
As someone who spends ALOT of time in the kitchen throwin’ flour and sugar around, bObi is a lifesaver for me! And besides the fact that I never have to sweep and vacuum my floors on the regular anymore, there’s many reasons why I just LOVE having my bObi around:
- bObi is the perfect height, she fits under our couches AND our bed. Meaning, no more forgotten dust bunnies collecting underneath those places ever again!
- You can program exact dates of the week and times that you want bObi to clean.
- She’s quieter than an actual vacuum cleaner/central vac.
- Once her juices (batteries) are at a low 15% , she automatically goes on the hunt for her charging station.
- STAIR DETECTION. Oh my word, the first time bObi headed toward the stairs I almost had a heart attack because I just assumed she’d go crashing down–but nope! She’s smart and senses danger. 😉
- You can control bObi using her touchscreen buttons or using her remote! You can control her speed, her cleaning, and even move her around with the touch of a button.
- Large dust bin–I empty it maybe once every other week? (It helps not having any pets.)
- bObi has a UV light that sterilizes the floor as as she goes–whaaat!?
- Long lasting battery (mine’s going on a run-time of 2 hours!)
- She doesn’t just pick up small crumbs and dust, I’ve seen full-sized Doritos and Pretzels inside of her dust bin. Impressive, I must say. 😉
Good To Know Things:
With bObi, you definitely need to prep the room before you send her cleaning, like move anything she could get tangled in. I hang my little rugs on the chairs because the rugs are super thin and even have tassels which bObi gets caught in.
Even my curtains I like to hang up because they’re super long and lightweight, cheap curtains from IKEA that bObi could easily get a hold of. If I had more heavy-duty curtains it’d be nothing to worry about!
If I have alot of crumbs under the dining room table, I’m better off getting all 6 chairs off the floor because otherwise she’ll spend all her time and juices trying to go through that maze of chairs!
You can read more about the bObi Classic model here!
In Conclusion of the Home Renos…
There are still some rooms (including the backyard!) I haven’t shown you guys, mostly because they’re REALLY far from done, so what’s the point? It’s something to look forward to I suppose. 😛 And like I said, there’s still so much we want to do to our humble abode. (I’m always accepting monetary donations hahah–kidding?)
During this home renos adventure, I definitely confirmed with myself how much I do not like DIY. (I did one DIY project before this, which actually turned out pretty great!) And to be honest, I never wanted a fixer upper, I always wanted a move-in-ready home that I didn’t have to do ANYTHING to. But this house was calling our names and it fit the budget. All I know is that I hope we never install our own flooring or trim ever again because it messy, stressful, and the results weren’t as flawless as we’d hoped for.
SAY HELLO!
I’d love to hear from you!! What were your thoughts on our home renos? Are you a lover of all things DIY or someone who has fixed up their own home? HOW did you do it? Do you also own a bObi vacuum cleaner? Tell me all about it in the comments below or message me on Instagram or my Contact page. Thank you so much for stopping by!
