It’s been forever since I’ve been here to get you an update on everything! First up, the rental house updates that we worked on this past spring/summer. Ready to dive into some photos!?
Alright, as a bit of a refresher, we purchased this home back in 2018. Back then, we lived in the upstairs part-time while we renovated the basement into a separate apartment. Once the basement was done, we moved down there (part-time still) and rented the upstairs out. Finally, once we moved into town permanently, we rented the basement as an Airbnb and kept the upstairs with long-term tenants.
Which brings us to this past spring, when our most recent tenants moved out. We had a lot of updates and maintenance to do, and spent most of our time working on the kitchen.
But, a lot of the time and money also went to updating the rest of the upstairs to prep it for new tenants. The biggest (and most expensive) change was refinishing the hardwood floors.
When we moved in, the floors were a honey-oaky colour, and I painted most of the walls a dark brown (PARA Colour Journey Cast Iron).
With the dark floors, I knew the walls would look really nice in a lighter colour. (Benjamin Moore, Balboa Mist)
Honestly, everything needed to be cleaned and refreshed – but the biggest pain was definitely painting the ceilings!
The photo above shows the similar view of how we had it for the past tenants. Dark walls in the main living room, with blue (SICO Blue Slate) for the entry and hallway.
We did finish everything in the kitchen compared to how I shared it at the end of the Spring One Room Challenge. Essentially, adding the toe kicks, trimming the top, installing the faucet/plumbing, etc.
Not sure if I ever shared the photo above on the blog before, but that’s how the kitchen looked when we were living upstairs. The fridge barely worked, we brought a freezer up from the basement, and there wasn’t a door blocking the staircase yet.
Reconfiguring the space opened it up a lot without sacrificing cabinet space. (Honestly, there are more cabinets and storage than there was before).
We’ve added new appliances (even replaced the dishwasher, which was, surprise, broken).
Not much changed in the hallway other than the new tile floors. The hallway went through a big transformation a few years ago, and other than new coats of paint on the white and cleaning up the blue walls, it’s pretty much the same.
The bedrooms are the same colour as they were before (PARA Colour Journey Sailcloth), but with a fresh coat of paint. The ceilings, trim and doors were all painted too.
We also updated the light fixtures and/or swapped them around from other rooms in the house. You may notice that this bedroom’s fixture (before photo, top-right) is now above the kitchen sink.
The (recently updated) bathroom needed a clean-up and silicone re-application. The one before yellowed right away, so I’ve chosen a non-yellowing kind. Fingers crossed that it works!
Once the rental house updates were almost complete, I took all these photos and posted the apartment online to rent (Facebook). I had over 80 inquiries!!! (Although half of those were people in the wrong city of who never replied beyond my “yes it’s still available”). Of the people who were local and interested, I did a bunch of in-person showings and had them fill out applications.
From there, honestly it was so hard to go through and choose our next tenant. So many of the people I met with were really good candidates. In the end, we’re happy with who we have and hopefully the rental goes well for the next year+
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