Home improvements

Since buying our condo last April, we hadn't made too many improvements to our new home. Not many were needed though. We had added a ceiling fan, decorated of course and put up some wooden blinds. This weekend we got to work though.

First to go was the 70s quartz sink vanity in our bedroom. As the guy who removed it said "you can tell it was top of the line in the 70s but now...." I had hated the yellow color with brown swirls, it reminded me of an old motel. However, because our sink size was an odd size at 42 inches, we had to go custom and couldn't do the Home Depot route. We found a granite and tile place in Gardena that was reasonable and we purchased and loaded my car trunk with a new golden granite top with sink. We then of course had to buy new faucet fixtures, which is fine since the others were like huge globes.

Before:

After:


Our cabinet doors under the sink meanwhile had been painted so many times they never seemed to close completely. So Raphael bought new fixtures after painstakingly chipping the paint off the old ones to remove them. With the new hinges the doors close just fine now, ridding the cabinets of their former warped look. Tomorrow I'm repainting the paint chipped areas.

We then moved on to the shower and removed the old knobs that were moldy inside, for a quick sprucing up. We didn't do this sooner since we thought we had to turn off the building's water supply, but a guy in the hardware store told us we could slip them off and on without worrying about that. Although, they were so old that just removing and turning the screws would turn on and off the water. Here is a photo after changing the first two and with the old one still on for a good comparison shot:

Additionally, we had crown molding installed in our living room and dining room area. There is a molding supply place nearby our home, so again we went out and purchased ones that resembled our baseboards and hired a "contractor" to put them up and paint them white for us. Our place is small so it didn't take too long, except we had to move all our furniture and cover it with tarps. Thus, the putting back and cleaning up after was a needed hassle. Here's our new molding, it's now hard to remember our place without it:

Another quick fix, we removed the plate like light above the vanity with a more modern dome with chrome fixtures. Raphael did this one, with me holding the flashlight. At first all our electricity in the room went out, but it all came back to normal once the new light was installed.
Before:

After:


Easter Sunday before working on the lights, we had headed to church in Beverly Hills (my first time there, since we usually go to Santa Monica) and although it wasn't my intentions it was perfect for some celeb spotting, lol. There were a bunch of faces I recognized from sitcoms, but ones I never knew the names for in the first place. I did recognize Timothy Olyphant, the handsome bad guy from Scream 2 and Live Free or Die Harder, who was there with his family. After church we brunched with friends at Literati 2, where the Bellini and champagne easily went to my head.

5 comments

  1. Nice home improvements - You can tell it's spring.
    April

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  2. Oh love the new changes in the house, so fun. I can't wait to do that stuff someday.

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  3. Great reno work! Very stylish updates :)

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  4. You folks are so handy! I can barely paint, and there are a few small things I should take care of around the house. After graduation, I will hit the Homo-Depot.

    durante vita

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  5. Well done! Nothing better than people that can do their own fixups. Looks great!

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