Bella Lime : In the Beginning

Hello loves

Once upon a time this blog was intended to document the renovation of our townhouse before we put it on the market .... my first POST

I really fell short on documenting the journey at the time but I was a busy new mom trying to get my home ready for market.

SO I thought now 4 months almost to the day later I would show you darlings what we did to Mini Casa M to get it ready to put on the market.

Here we go

Our little townhouse was located in Kitsilano which is a neighbourhood pretty much located in downtown Vancouver.

Kits Beach a 10 min walk from the Town House

It was the perfect location for us at the time. We were newly-ish married (2 years),
with our first child (7 months).

We could walk to everything the clothing and home decor shops, a brand new pretty IGA grocery store was a block away from us and oh the coffee shops!1 (I miss those the most so many options)

My Favourite coffee shop in Kits- Arbutus Coffee Photo found on Jay Banks

It was perfect but we had a beautiful beagle named SNOOPY You can read about our super pup HERE

Now Mr Snoops was a rescue pup who could not be left alone. If we did leave him alone he would bark and bay for the entire time we were gone ....OHH the letters the strata sent to us. They were awful.

So we found ourselves being held a little bit hostage in the townhouse. If we wanted to go out together as a family snoopy had to be with us, which meant we could only go places where he could come. Before we had lil J people would be inviting me out for diner or girls night out or even just to hangout when Mr M was working but I couldn't go because someone had to be with Snoops. It was frustrating for us and sometimes I feel like I missed out on the KITS life a little bit- that being said I would never trade in our time with Snoopa he really was one of the best pups around.

So after a year of townhouse living with Snoopa we decided that the best thing for all of us would be to move out to the Suburbs and buy a house with a yard. We would be happy because we could leave Snoops without him disturbing anyone and he would have a yard to enjoy. Win win

Alright back to the "To Market" Prep on the Townhouse...

Here is a list of everything we tackled:

we put granite countertops in the kitchen and changed out the faucet.
repainted the entire townhouse (well professionals did).
decluttered I mean really (capital D) Decluttered.
replaced the laminate with a darker one and for the love of me I still don't now why we did this.
carpeted the stairs from the entrance to the 2nd floor... Mr. M and I still shake our heads at that ridiculous decision.. I mean seriously the ENTRANCE stairs ?!

I think at that time I was watching too many home staging shows. We even took out our tube TV for showings! I mean seriously who does That? -

All in the reno/redo cost about $10,000!

Would we do that again? NO WAY !! If I am going to put $10,000 into my home it is going to be for me to enjoy not someone else.
Did it help with the sale of the place NOPE ? The location was really the selling point.

So the before pictures are brutal.. they are from MOVE in day to Mini Casa M apparently I didn't take any picture between move in day and "To Market" day.

UGLY counter top and hideous faucet

just pretty much all bad.

and here is the redo.. everything is light and bright!! At least I was able to enjoy those beautiful floor to ceiling curtains... I am soo sad that those didn't get to come with us,

Living room SANS TV- honestly who does that?

Dinning room with new light fixture- I can't believe how sparse this room looks I wish there was a picture of the room with the area rug we had. The rug added texture and warmth to the space. This picture is definitely not giving the feeling of warmth but the window treatments are DIVINE!!

Master Bedroom

Our Rooftop deck

Lil J's first room

Once Mini Casa M was listed we knew we had to knock lil J's nursery down to bare bones but stylish bare bones.. we moved that book shelf upstairs and placed the queen ann chair into our room and we also removed the change table.. so all he was left with was his crib, a dresser and the super adorable canvas monkey bin by 3 Sprouts .... and then after 4 months of non stop showings and hearing the same thing about the small size of the 2nd bedroom, we decided to paint over the vibrant super fun green with a tranquil greywhite-

to this day I wish I could remember what Benjamin Moore colour it was. I LOVED the calmness that paint gave the room. And just so you know the paint did not change the size of the room.