Sunday, March 22, 2015

Goodbye Little Condo

When Ethan and I bought our current condo, it was very...beige.  And the old owners had a misguided affinity for track lighting.  While we were perusing the online condo listings, Ethan put our current condo on the "NO" list.  I secretly emailed our Realtor and asked her to add it back to the "YES" list.

When we walked in, it was love at first sight for me.  Ethan looked at me and said "I thought I told you I didn't want to look at this one".  I saw past the gray and burnt orange sponge paint accent wall, and knew that it could be bright and cheerful and fun with a little love.  I loved the condo, and Ethan loves me, so by default he had to learn to love the condo, too.

BEFORE (from the Zillow listing).  Check out that sweet track lighting!


AFTER four coats of paint (textured sponge paint is tough to cover!!!).  We replaced track lighting with recessed lighting and that sexy chandelier. The chandelier took multiple drill bits and a lot of patience from my Father In Law to successfully install on a concrete ceiling.  I plan to have at least two of the exact same chandelier in my new kitchen.


We did a lot of work on the condo over the last two and a half years.  We did boring stuff like put in a new hot water heater with an overflow tank.  We did fun stuff like pick out brand new white oak hardwood floors.  We did necessary stuff like install blackout shades in the bedroom (we had to block out the greenish yellow glow from the BP sign across the street).  

My Father In Law, Henry, (I'm sure I'll be mentioning him a LOT more as we work on the row house) built this awesome cabinet that slides in right next to the fireplace.  Ethan designed it and measured it out, and then Henry showed up a few months later with a fully assembled cabinet, custom built to our specifications, complete with knobs from Anthropologie.  Check out the little cut out in the bottom right corner to accommodate the baseboard.  The painting above the cabinet is from one of our favorite local artists, Pridon Goisashvili.


And we painted.  A lot.  Every single inch of surface, including baseboards and ceilings, had to be repainted.  Did I mention that it took four coats of paint on the walls?


Here's another BEFORE shot of the guest bedroom from the Zillow listing.  Before we painted, Ethan and I wore sunglasses in this room.  










Four coats of pain later, and the guest bedroom is a subtle light blue.

We also shopped and decorated.  A lot.  Spending a lot of money is totally okay because it's for the HOUSE.  And your house is an INVESTMENT.  So really, shopping and decorating is just like paying yourself dividends.

Our master bedroom was the last room we addressed.  We found a lot of gems on One Kings Lane like the pictures above the bed, lamps, trunk bedside table (which doubles as our filing cabinet), and bench at the end of the bed.  The Amish bed came from an amazing company called Dutch Crafters.  We bought multiple pieces from Dutch Crafters and have been extremely pleased with the quality.  The Restoration Hardware quilt is just the right amount of warmth and doesn't show Sophie pawprints.  



I am going to miss this place.  Ethan and I have had a lot of great times here and made a lot of great memories.  We also learned that we both love to decorate and have really great taste (at least we think so).

Moving day is a week and a half away.  After surviving the cut throat world that is the DC row house market, we've emerged with a few battle scars and only a small fear of complete financial ruin.  We're ready to take on the new, bigger challenges in our 108 year old row house like moving walls, installing bathrooms, and getting the laundry room out of the kitchen.