DIYODS - do it your own damn self!

We live in a very small flat here that consists of one single room with integrated kitchen, and a separate bath and corridor, all tucked together on 30sqm. When I moved in here, this was one of your typical student's flats: Ugly carpet, greasy kitchen counters, etc etc. Although I am only renting the place I jumped into some major renovating action (thinking they can't take it too badly, after all I'm improving the place!), putting in laminate flooring, painting all the walls and changing other important details (like ripping out the ugly bathroom cabinet and replacing the stone windowsill with a wooden one).

Something that bugged me ever since those early days was a part of the kitchen counter that was closed up and seemed to have empty space behind it. Empty, unused space in my tiny kitchen! It makes me teary to think about it. But then, I just never managed to figure out how to take that board away.

This morning I felt the glory of the DIY-gods shine down on me and decided to give it another try. With Trev's help we finally got that bugger out:

Hallelujah! It needed some major cleaning, since they didn't bother to do any finishing work behind the scenes apparently.

And of course there were places that hadn't seen a dustrag in the past 50years

But that's all a blur behind the pinky-pink glasses of triumph and two words written in golden letters: STORAGE SPACE

Finally, all the recycling containers have a real home. It feels so relieving when stuff that has been homeless for so long finally gets a real place to stay. And because it still doesn't look exactly nice, I whipped up a little curtain to make it all neat.

Powered with that early morning success, I got some dreaded tasks done during the rest of the day and in the evening even dared myself to try and find a nicer theme for the blog. I have never liked ho busy the last one seemed, and I think the current one improves it heaps. I'm still testing the waters though, we'll see if I still like it a few days from now.
The only problem with energy-filled days like today is that I inevitably stay up waaay too long and the day after will be filled with headaches and puffy eyes from too little sleep. Off to bed, then!