Ottawa Renovations:
Before and After

Ottawa Renovations: Before and After

Basic Renovations to Increase the Property Value

Recently, some good opportunities came up and thus we decided to move back East close to where we grew up. But to do that meant we had to sell our house here in Ottawa and buy another one in Nova Scotia.

Basement Bedroom #4 that I added

The housing market here in Ottawa has been pretty strong for many years and was still pretty hot when we listed our house despite various slow downs in the real estate markets all across the country.

After consulting with our agent we decided to do some basic cosmetic renovations to the house to increase the value of the property and make it easier to sell before we listed. When we purchased the house in 2007, we paid $260,000 for it with the intent of renovating it over time (some of which happened slowly over time). The house was a split level ranch detached unit that was customized with a large addition, providing yet another split level and a large garage / workshop to it. The interior and decor was very dated, kind of 70’s style (wall to wall carpet, strange colors, etc.) but that didn’t bother us at the time as this would be our first house and was all we could really afford in this neighborhood at the time.

After several weeks of renovations and investing about $15,000 we were able to sell the house in only 4 days after listing it for $370,000. Below I have included some photos of the house before and after we renovated it to show the big difference. Renovations included replacing all floors, painting the walls throughout, finishing the stairs, replacing the counter-tops, updating all plumbing, electrical, adding a fourth bedroom, replacing the deck etc.

It was kind of like one of those renovating shows that you see on television and was pretty fun to have the opportunity to do. Below are some photos of the house before we moved in (on the left) and then photos of the house after we had finished all of the renovations and prepared the place for the real estate market.

Before (left photos) – After (right photos)

Wall to wall carpet with an industrial hotel look … the livingroom before

Dining Room before Dining Room after

the kitchen before renos the kitchen afterrenos

the kitchenette before renos the kitchenette after renos

Before (left photos) – After (right photos)

master bedroom upper level before master bedroom upper level after

The second bedroom before we moved in The second bedroom after the renovations

master bedroom lower level before we moved in master bedroom lower level after the renovations
The master bedroom with an open concept upper and lower level was one of the neat unique featured of the house.

Family room in the basement before we moved in
Not every place is lucky enough to come with Ralphs carpet!

Spot where I would build the 4th bedroom in the basement the 4th bedroom that I added in the basement
The fourth bedroom was built mainly to balance out the 2 bedrooms per level, and was the first project in the house that I tackled shortly after moving in.
3rd bedroom before we moved in 3rd bedroom after renovations

Main floor bathroom before we moved in Main floor bathroom after renovations

So as you can see from the before photos on the left and the after photos on the right, there was a lot of work involved to bring the house up to what we thought it should be. Funny though that all though I did some work from time to time as we could afford it and I had the time, the house didn’t really become all that nice until we decided to leave!

Ottawa Renovations: Before and After