The condo unit was staged beautifully. The previous owners, both of whom had passed away prior to the sale, had bought into the association as the units were being built in 1981. They were able to be right in the midst of the contractors, working with the designers to make it their own space. Because of this, we have a few amenities that no other unit has, such as a window in our dining room and an outlet in the main closet (they had placed a deep freeze there). They also picked out the carpet, fixtures, appliances, and wallpaper as the unit was built.
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As you can see, there's a tremendous amount of wallpaper and wall to wall carpeting. We had an assessor come take a look and with no structural damage, I thought it would be easy peasy to redecorate!
Unfortunately, as we tackled the kitchen and the main bath, we realized that there was no priming done behind the wallpaper. It was laid directly on the drywall. It didn't take long before our energy to continue burnt out. It also didn't help that I was getting more and more pregnant with Benjamin and couldn't handle all the fumes of wallpaper remover and paint. We left the kitchen half done with the wallpaper removed, a shody wall painting job, and cabinet faces repainted, and the main bath has half the wallpaper down.
This was supposed to be the year for finishing the remodel. However, we have had water damage to our unit seep down from the attic. This has damaged our walls and ceilings. I'm not going to be able to move forward with any cosmetic work until the structural work has been taken care of. Unfortunately, the condo association doesn't think that this work is a priority because they've taken care of the attic damage and "it won't get any worse" in my unit. It may be a year or two before they deem it worth fixing.
I wish I could say my condo looks as nice and clean as the seller's staging, but alas, I have 3 cats, a baby, and a husband. It will never look that good!
