Poor Woman's Condo Renovation Project

So, first place to work on is kitchen.  It had ugly uneven stucco, and because the walls were hand-applied plaster, it was uneven, not like sheets of drywalls, there were some water damages and paint was peeling.. basically it was ugly.  So I started the demolition.  It was fairly easy - walls came loose very easily.  Just it was super messy.


It is always an issue for me to either get materials or getting rid of construction garbage - because I don't drive and I always have to find someone who can help me out.  Mainly one of my friends and in-laws have been very helpful and I'm forever grateful.

Hello!
Since this is my first post I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Meg and I bought a unrenovated condo in 2012.  The reason is very simple, I couldn't afford a renovated condo.  The building was built in 1928 and it has 4 units in the building, the former owners of the building converted the building into condos.

When I bought the condo I was going to do the renovation at my own pace.  I have done some reno work in the past and I have many years of woodworking experience, I was gonna do the most of the work (except for plumbing and wiring and majour framing) myself.

But when I moved in (I couldn't afford to pay mortgage and rent at the same time so I had to move) to my condo I had so much stuff and I used up one and only bedroom to store my belongings and it quickly became a storage space.  Money was very tight and I somewhat realized that the renovation wouldn't go very smoothly.  Still I started attacking the kitchen.

First the kitchen was really in bad condition - the cabinets were very old and melamine counter top was warped and cracked from water damage.  On top of it the ceiling had stucco finish and it was uneven and so ugly.  I just couldn't stand it so with help from my friend I started demolishing the walls and ceiling.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - it also had sticky linoleum tiles, and when I peeled some loose parts, underneath was hard wood floor so I attempted on removing them.  But most of the pieces were still attached pretty well to the floor and it was so hard to remove them, so I surfed the net and the best solution seemed to be the dry ice.  The problem was I couldn't find the place to buy.  So next solution was to buy the solvents for the tiles, which was pretty easy to get.  I got one at Home Depot.

This is how my renovation project started.  Most of the time money was a big issue for me and it halted for a very long time, then something happened and I had to keep going, etc etc... And now it's year 2015 and it's not finished.  So I thought ok I should record what happened to at least enjoy the process.

It's still ongoing and things are getting more complicated and I have no idea when this will end but hopefully this blog can make someone feel better!