When my parents and I started the condo hunt again this year, one of the things we were looking for was a place that didn’t need a lot of work. We knew that most places would need some slight cosmetic work, but the goal was to not have a big remodel job for whatever place I got. The main reason behind that was because I work full-time (technically more than full-time with all my jobs) so I can’t really manage a big remodel project.
And when we found the condo I got, the original plan was not to do a lot of work. There were a few things we wanted to do, but nothing too crazy especially when compared to some of the other places we looked at. But that plan changed a bit when we decided that it would be better to just do the work before I moved in and get all the things done that are on the list. This still is considered cosmetic work, but it’s more extensive than originally thought.
So my parents came down to LA last month to help me get things started, especially with finding a contractor and starting to pick out materials. After that visit, we didn’t know when they would be down to LA again, but there were a few more things they wanted to help me with in person so they were back in town this past weekend.
For the first 2 days that they were here, I was working so I didn’t see them too much. I saw them briefly the second day they were here when they stopped by while I was working so I could choose a few things and we went to dinner after I was done with work. But the third day they were here was our big day to get a lot of stuff done for the condo. We had a list of places to go and things to get done, and we knew it would be a pretty full day.
The first stop for us that day was to go to the tile store again. I had already picked out the counter and backsplash for the kitchen as well as the tile I wanted as the bathtub surround. But I still needed to pick out floor tile for the bathroom and a backsplash for the bathroom sink. I had an idea for the bathroom sink and found the perfect tile for that. And for the floor, we went pretty simple and basic since a lot of the other tile is unique and interesting. And then we actually had to order the tile and materials since the last time we only picked things out. Fortunately, the contractor we picked had detailed notes of the square footage of each area so we were able to work with the tile store to figure out the exact number of each tile we needed (plus allowing some overage in case we need it). I’m so excited to see how the bathroom will look when it’s done because we picked out some amazing things!
The next stop was our biggest one and that was to go to Home Depot. I’m so lucky that my mom had done remodels in the past and she had a very organized list of all the things we needed to do. And this was to find a lot of the things that I’ve never had to consider since I’ve always had rentals. So we needed to get a kitchen faucet, bathroom faucet, shower/tub controls, bathroom fan, and things like that. We also looked at drawer pulls for the kitchen and picked out the ones I liked, but we only bought a little thing of those since we don’t know exactly how many we need. But at least now I know exactly what to go back to buy when we have the final number.
This was a lot of stuff to get, but it’s getting a lot of things done that we would need to buy. And going to Home Depot that day was perfect timing because the day before I got a coupon from the store as a new homeowner that gave us 15% off! We did have some issues with the coupon (mainly due to me forgetting about it until we were walking out), but after some help from their customer service desk we were able to get our discount. And I’m glad we did since this was probably the biggest shopping trip we would have there.
After that, we went to a lamp store and found a good dining room light and bathroom light. We also found a light for the other bathroom, but we didn’t order it since we needed to measure something first. But I’ll be ordering it online soon.
After doing so much on that day, we only had one more stop to do the next day. I met up with my parents at the vanity store to order the bathroom vanity. And that was the fastest thing we had done since we had already picked out what we wanted to get and just had to pick the finish and order it. I think we were done in about 15 minutes at that store.
And after the vanity store, my parents headed back to the Bay Area. We have almost everything picked out now. There are a few things we picked out that need to still be ordered, but that will be simple. And I think we really only have 3 or 4 things left to plan before we have everything decided. Now, we are just waiting on approval from the HOA so we can get started on the work. I can’t wait for that to happen because I also know the sooner we get started the sooner I will move to my new place!
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