Staging New Hampshire

For those of you who hate those metal radiators, or for those of you that have a property with radiators with dented, rusted or missing parts...this post is for you.

Our daughter recently purchased her first home, a bank owned condo, which needed a lot of work.  One of the more satisfying projects during our condo transformation was to build custom radiator covers. 

Several of the existing radiators were missing parts.

After a visit to Home Depot and a search through the

internet for replacement parts, we discovered just how

expensive it would be to restore them.

My husband, Rick, decided to make custom

radiator covers using wood.  They were not that

difficult or expensive to build and he used trim

pieces that we had on hand. Best of all, they

 look beautiful!

Here is a closeup showing the 1 x 5 pine

used for the top and end pieces.  Trim casing was

used for the front. 

He left space above and below the casing board

for air circulation.

When you are making home improvements to a home built in 1880 you come across some interesting features.  For instance, closets.  Closets back then were not very deep, not deep enough to hang coats on hangers like we do today. 

The closets in our project condo have hooks running across the back wall and are not very functional or practical. 

This closet in the Master bedroom was not deep enough to hang clothes.  Adding shelves made this closet more functional, giving us much needed storage space.

A similar closet in the living room was also made more functional by adding shelves.  A perfect place to store DVD's since it is right next to the tv.

In case you are wondering, we got the wood shelving from the bookcase that was originally in the dining room.

The bookcase was removed in order to cut through the wall and create a breakfast bar.

There is no other place in the condo to use this piece, so we used it's pieces.

This condo is really a blend of past and present.  It has charm and character and will make a very happy home!

Original "Before" photos of entire condo

Part 2  Dog Hair in the Microwave

Part 3  A New Door and More Paint

Part 4  Kitchen Tile, Nasty Carpet, Nana's Dresser

Part 5  Nana's Dresser Goes Heavy Metal

Part 6  What a Difference a Light Makes

Part 7  You Don't Always Get it Right The First Time 

Every home improvement job has the potential for that moment where you stand back and take in what you have done and it just doesn't thrill you.  This is what happened in the kitchen of our project condo.

In Part 4 of this series, there are pictures of the new kitchen tile.  We originally tiled the wall with brown tiles and randomly threw in some bone colored tiles.  We painted the kitchen with Ben Moore, Ashley Gray (actually a shade of tan). 

After some consideration, we decided that we didn't like the randomly placed bone colored tiles on the wall.  Luckily it was early enough in the tiling process and there were only seven tiles to be removed. 

 We also decided that the room needed some additional

color and because the counter top is blue, we used

Ben Moore Bachelor Blue.

 We loved the colors so much that we used them in the bathroom also.

The original vanity was too close to the toilet, causing you to have to sit sideways on the toilet.  We moved the vanity one foot to the left.  The original lighting, two cheap, chrome sconces, were mounted too low.  We purchased the new lighting fixture, brushed nickel to match the faucet and existing towel bars, for $25.

Original "Before" photos of entire condo

Part 2  Dog Hair in the Microwave

Part 3  A New Door and More Paint

Part 4  Kitchen Tile, Nasty Carpet, Nana's Dresser

Part 5  Nana's Dresser Goes Heavy Metal

Part 6  What a Difference a Light Makes

Realtors and Stagers are always looking for inexpensive, easy to follow ideas on decorating vacants and rentals.  Here is a quick way to dress a window with items you probably already have.

My daughter's new bedroom has windows that are small and sit just above a shelf.  She thought that she couldn't use her panels from her previous apartment, but I came up with an easy way to use the old and save her the money of buying new.

You can use any panel

  Fold lengthwise in half.  Remove or tuck in tabs so they don't show.

We folded lengthwise again because her window is small.  You could use after only folding once.    Use Clip-on Rings to hold all the layers in place and hang on rod.

When it comes to "bang for your buck" nothing beats painting...however, coming in at a close second would be, my favorite improvement...updating the light fixtures.  My experience has been that most sellers never even consider the light fixtures and what an impact they can make.

This is an area where a little money spent can make a huge difference and add tremendous perceived value to the home.

In our condo transformation, we replaced all the fixtures at a total cost of:  $317.00.  This price includes all the lights shown below, plus a bathroom light not shown.

    FOYER

    LIVING ROOM

    DINING ROOM

    KITCHEN  (There are two of these)

    MASTER BEDROOM

This condo is not for sale, but it is a great example of what changing the lights can do for increasing the value of the property.  Which pictures would you rather have representing your property on MLS.

Original "Before" photos of entire condo

Part 2  Dog Hair in the Microwave

Part 3  A New Door and More Paint

Part 4  Kitchen Tile, Nasty Carpet, Nana's Dresser

Part 5  Nana's Dresser Goes Heavy Metal

Another weekend spent at the condo we are helping my daughter remodel.  Lots of progress this week.  More painting, of course...will the painting ever end?    More work on the tile, it is complete in the kitchen and a small amount of tile in the bath is next on the list. 

All new light fixtures were purchased and installed.  I will have the lighting pictures in my next post. 

The master bedroom furniture is complete.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the bedroom furniture was Nana's, purchased in 1939.  It was in very good condition, just too dated for my daughter.  I forgot to take a "before" but remembered in time to get this shot just after it was sanded:

Note the trim piece across the bottom and the

dated hardware.

Here is the updated, welcome to 2008, model after it's makeover:

We used Ben Moore Impervo oil based paint.  It is

fabulous.  I have done many other pieces with it.

We refinished two dressers, two nightstands and a

mirror for a beautiful new Master Bedroom.  Photos of the completed room will be in a future post.

As I stated above there was a lot of painting going on and we actually made a decision to change direction and repaint an area a different color.  We brought blue into the condo and I will post on that when I have "after" photos of the complete work.

To catch up on previous posts regarding this condo transformation:

Original "before" photos of entire condo.

Part 2  Dog Hair in the Microwave

Part 3  A New Door and More Paint

Part 4  Kitchen Tile, Nasty Carpet, Nana's Dresser

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I just read a post by Ann Cummings...Green at Being Green where she discusses her recent contributions to our attempts at being a green society.  She mentioned that she uses paper bags and hasn't yet gone so far as to start using fabric bags for her groceries.  As I commented on her post I realized that my information could be useful to the rest of the Rainers out there and so here I am...

In an attempt to be "good" and green (after viewing an Oprah show on the subject) I decided to make the sacrafice and get some fabric bags.  What a pain, I thought, having to remember to bring them, find a place to keep them...I wondered if it would be worth it.

I found these bags, made by One Bag at a Time at my local health food store and bought 5.

I love these bags!  I can't believe how much they hold.  They are strong and have a plastic insert that sits on the bottom for strength, but you can lay the bags flat for storage.  They are super easy to carry, take up less room in the car than the 10 or 12 plastic bags.  I empty the food out and then put them back in the car so they are there when I need them.

They are awesome for carrying staging props!

Visit their website for more info and for store locations.

By the way, according to their website, it takes 70% more global warming gasses to make a paper bag instead of a plastic bag.  Also, paper bags do not biodegrade in landfills. 

We spent all day Saturday and Sunday at the condo and I have lots of photos to share with you.  We are very excited about the kitchen, where the most dramatic transformation is taking place.

We have tile on our little breakfast bar and kitchen wall. 

  It isn't grouted yet, but looks great.

  The white squares on the wall are ivory tiles, not missing tiles.  We are randomly placing ivory throughout the brown to coordinate with the ivory trim on the bar. 

We also started painting the kitchen...Ben Moore Ashley Gray   (Which is actually more tan than gray)

Closets were painted!	Nasty carpet was pulled up from cellar stairs!
Furniture refinishing has begun...we are refinishing Nana's bedroom set to give it a modern style.	We painted it black, removed the trim piece from the bottom and updated the hardware.

I received these photos in an email and just had to share them.  The "subject" of the email is "If Women Controlled The World" and I think my fellow stagers will appreciate them...

Now, you have to admit to using at least one

of these tools!

I thought these were funny, hope you enjoyed them!

Welcome to Day Three of our "not so extreme makeover" renovations.  Our transformation is moving right along.  We now have a painted living room and a new front door.   

 As you can see, the old door was anything but secure...a piece of key was actually stuck in the lock.

 It has seen some abuse for sure and it is time for retirement!

 Nice...much better!   

                            Living Room gets painted.  

A very warm shade of Ben Moore  Ashley Gray

We will be working all weekend so stay tuned for more updates.

 To see all of the "before" photos, visit:  Watch as we Transform This Dover, NH Condo 

To see photos from Day One and Day Two  visit:  Dog Hair in the Microwave...Dover NH Condo Part 2

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