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Honey, Where's the Couch?

Getting Ready to Sell with the Experts in Staging So far, for The Renovator and me, at the end of renovating comes the sale of the house. We find ourselves preparing for that stage now. I like to think I have a decent sense of design and decor. Afterall, I am in charge of all…

Filling small holes and dents in drywall

By Ronda Payne

They make us crazy – those little holes and dents that come from everyday life. Fixing them is easy, in fact, I thought a blog post about it would be pretty dull, but then a friend mentioned that she didn’t have a clue how to fill the dents and small holes. For us, this is…

Vacation in Renovation

By Ronda Payne

Revelling in the Good Renovations of Others Last post, I mentioned that it was our anniversary. To celebrate, The Renovator and I went to a fabulous little Guesthouse (too nice to call a B&B) in Sooke, BC. It’s called Cooper’s Cove – www.cooperscove.com and it was fabulous. Our weekend included breakfast both mornings, a gourmet dinner on the…

Why does Wallpaper stick so well?

By Ronda Payne

Happy Anniversary to The Renovator and I! Today is our wedding anniversary and we celebrated with a lovely dinner out. 🙂 Not that it’s a favorite anniversary topic, but it’s happening right now in our house – wallpaper removal. The Renovator doesn’t do wallpaper. That’s my job. Wallpaper, by its very nature, is stuck to…

Mole Bombing

By Ronda Payne

Move on, rotten mole, move on. At long last, finally a new post. It took me a while to find the video footage I wanted. Don’t tell Warner Bros. They might bust me! 🙂 So, the long and the short of it is that we had a problem with a very persistent mole. Watch the…

Neighbourly Advice on Renovating

By Ronda Payne

Your neighbours know when you’re renovating. Whether it’s seeing the Home Depot bags or watching you put the new light fixture box out at the curb or catching a glimpse of you cutting trim in the garage, they know that you’re up to something, and they want to know more about it. Sometimes you can…

Renovating and Staying or Moving

By Ronda Payne

Better known as ‘Should I Stay or Should I go?” When I bought house #2, my plan was to live there quite happily alone with the dog and cat, until Mr. Right came along. I expected this process to take approximately 2 years. I would then date Mr. Right for a year and a half before he…

Renovator, know thy tools

By Ronda Payne

Sorry dear readers, this one is a bit longer than usual, but bare with me and skim it if it makes it easier! Renovating means different things to different people. To some, it’s a new coat of paint, new trim and some decorative accessories. To others, it’s demolition, dust, lots of time, money and energy. One…

Red Wine Stains, on the Ceiling?

By Ronda Payne

Don’t ask how they got there. If you have them, you know how it happened and to be honest, it’s a little unbelievable that something as simple as a pushed in cork could cause such a ruckus. So there we are – The Renovator and I – in our recently finished kitchen. We have a…

Spouse Collaboration and a Paver Patio

By Ronda Payne

Quite some time ago the Renovator ripped the “red-neck” white painted wood deck (I use the term deck loosely) down. Complete with hole infested corrugated plastic roof, the neighbors were as happy to see it go as we were. In its place, we decided that a 10′ x 10′ ground-level patio made of pavers would…

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