The Walls Came Tumbling Down – Part 1

And now for something completely different….. I know this is not my usual blog post style but as promised to some of my friends, I wanted to blog about the process of making some changes in my home and my life.

I love change!!  I know a lot of people who don’t like change but I really do.  I feel very stuck if things are not moving forward in my life.   Sometimes, I just get bored and I want something new to happen.

Back in February of 2014 I started thinking about making some changes.  I wanted to move  to the Old East Village which is an up and coming trendy neighbourhood of older homes with some cool new businesses popping up.  I used to live in this neighbourhood and while we did refer to it as the “hood” it is a very diverse and wonderful neighbourhood and community.

I found a house I liked but my dreams were quickly dashed once my family members checked it out.  They thought it wasn’t a good move for me and were worried that I was going to make a mistake.  I know, I am an adult here and they do not pay my bills but my family is always very concerned about my wellbeing!!  Arghh!!   Definitely a bittersweet moment.   They instead encouraged me to make some changes in my home and to revisit the idea of taking down a couple of walls to open things up.

Anyway, no easy task.  So, yes, the walls came down and then what a mess.  After the walls came down of course I needed to replace the kitchen floor, had to get many of the walls patched and dry walled, had to repair the floor where the walls came down and of course had to have the whole place re painted (thank you to my partner who loves to paint).   So yes, I was living in clutter for quite awhile.  Yes, unfinished projects are clutter and I did allow it to be like that for quite a period of time.  It’s funny how it all became invisible after awhile.  Eventually, I had to act and get things moving to get it finished or it wasn’t going to happen but of course I had to consider the cost of everything and it is not cheap to take walls down and then do the renos.

Here are a couple of the before pictures:

This was the dining room looking into the hallway towards the bedrooms. This wall and doorway are gone but I still have the funky 70ish hippy curtain.

This is the rest of the wall which was on the inside of the living room space.  The doorway which is to the left goes into the kitchen.  This is the wall in the video (on the other side of the wall) that I was knocking down.  I also had a high table (you can see the edge of it here and it had 8 chairs) which I quite loved but it didn’t go well with the space especially once the wall was down, it was way too big.  I sold it to the young man who put in my new kitchen floor which helped to pay for that.  My new dining room table is one that my brother in law found in the garbage and picked it up for a family gathering in their backyard.  It was perfect for my space and it is sturdy (its old and they made things way better in the old days lol)

Here it is here

I decided to buy myself an island to put in between the kitchen and living room for added space.   And let me tell you….again my family insisted on “helping” – do you really want this, its too much money, let’s look around, yeah you get the drift – oh my!  I really hope they don’t read this. lol!!  My family means well but really, I know what to do with my life.   I love my island.  It’s really my favourite part.   Here is a picture of it looking out the front door and then looking at it from the front door.  I love it!!  Its really a great space to have a visit with friends with some hors d’oevres and wine or just a great dinner with my sweetie.

So, I continue to work on my home, de-cluttering and changing up my space which keeps me in my happy place.

Please stay tuned for part 2 which is about my kitchen and living room space and I bet you are wondering if I am loving my home and if I still would like to move?  What do you think?  Would you take down some walls to make a change in your life?