Monday, May 19, 2014

A Day Trip to Almonte, ON | The Handmade Harvest

A couple weekends back we ventured off the Almonte, ON for the first time. Well, let me just say we fell in love. Why hadn't we been there sooner?

Amongst all of the chaos in our lives right now... lowering our back deck, taking down fences, adding fences, building an outdoor kitchen and gardening... and, well lets not forget, a very busy 5 month old - who thinks he should be running around playing but has yet to learn how to crawl! Okay it's really not THAT bad... But it's making it nearly impossible for me to get on my blog.

Anyways, here I am. And here's our little trip to the most beautiful little town. We made our first stop at the Handmade Harvest craft show. A show unique enough that you must apply to get accepted. It was like a real life Etsy by far! (photos courtesy of my little iphone - I apologize for the lack of quality)






After spending our life savings, just kidding, we ventured over to the "main" street for some lunch and shopping. That's when we discovered the cute little cafes, bakery and gift shops, including the Tin Barn Market, Hello Yellow and Doree's Habit.










I don't think these pictures can even explain to you how nice of a town this was and what great shopping. Basically, I'll be going back as soon as I have an excuse too - which might not be until the fall - Handmade Harvest of course. But I will return Almonte - I promise you!



Thursday, May 1, 2014

The "New" Bathroom on a Budget (Less Than $1000) | Before & After

Well, it's done. Well sorta. We didn't do the closet or laundry area... but the rest is finished and worthy of sharing! To recap on the progress, here are the previous posts... Planning for a new bathroomBathroom renovations part 1.

With an initial goal of $500, I quickly realized that wasn't going to be possible. So, I upped that to $750. Before I break down the final costs of what is completed to date... here's what the bathroom now looks like.




First we tore everything out (here). That always seems to be the easy part. Before I show you the good, here's a quick view of the bad. Shutter.




Everything... and I mean everything was horrible. The only thing that stayed was the paint colour... and that's only because we had actually painted it when we had moved in. Here's the original colour.




Dust is flying in this picture... likely because we were in the middle of renovating the whole upstairs of the house. It's pretty painful to look back through the pictures... I can't believe we saw what we have now underneath all of that paint and horribleness. 

But we did. And because we did, here's the bathroom now!










There's a place for towels to hang, toilet paper to roll... no more cracked and, did I mention, cold tile. It's perfect - to us. Anyways, here's the breakdown on costs.

Click Tile Floor - $260 (End of the Roll)
Vanity (dresser) - $50 (used - Kijiji)
Sink - $70 (Ikea)
Faucet - $50 (Ikea - sale price)
Toilet - $90 (Home Depot Canada)
Wainscotting/Trim (DIY coming soon) - Approx. $150 (Home Depot - Canada)
Pendant Lights - $52 for 2 (At Home Depot Canada)
Mirror - $30 (Lowes USA)
Paint - $50 (Lowes Canada)
Shower Curtain / Hooks - Approx. $50 - I lost the receipt (Target Canada)
Curtain Rod - $30 (Home Depot Canada)
Other (Plumbing, Electrical, Hooks) - $30




Drumroll Please.... That leaves the grand total of the makeover at $912! A bathroom renovation for under $1000! And, I only went over my $750 estimate by $162... not too bad, considering we did splurge in a few areas!

Well, that's it. I finally managed to get something share-worthy on the blog! ;)