Today we're excited to share with you a very adorable before and after of the home of North Vancouver's Natalie and Jason Bjordal and family. Jason is the owner of Bjordal Construction Ltd., and a framing contractor and Natalie is a fellow blogger, maker and event planner.  We've been watching in anticipation their reno for the past few years and loved at how it all turned out; you may recall we featured their daughter Penny's bedroom (an IKEA Bunk Fort) last spring.  We asked Natalie if she would like to share a guest post of the rest of the reno here on Poppytalk. So here it is. Thank you Natalie, let's take a look! 
~Jan



The townhouse is located right beside Capilano University. Our real estate agent Brooke Clarke brought our attention to this fixer upper when we were searching and I never really thought to look around that area. We were actually so lucky to get this townhouse. There were several interested when we put in the offer because we bought at the height of all the real estate craziness. Brooke suggested we write a letter and give them a family photo with our offer so it would make ours stand out a little more. To our surprise they picked us with a lower offer than the others because they wanted it to go to a nice young family!

Our place is just short of 2000 sqft which is so much space compared to the new townhouses that are being built right now. The biggest thing that made us fall in love with it was that it was a corner unit so you had more privacy, more windows with more natural light coming through and you are surrounded by trees because it backs out onto a green belt!

We moved in just a month before June was born. So we have lived here for 3 years in July.

The townhouse was in major need of TLC. The previous owners had burnt orange kitchen cabinets with vinyl tile to match, avocado green walls, stained popcorn ceilings, carpet everywhere that had the scent of cat pee and cigarette smoke. Everything was pretty original so it needed a ton of work but we like projects like that, because It means we can start from scratch and put our own style and taste into the renovations.

My husband is the owner of Bjordal Construction Ltd. He is a wood framing contractor. He put in all the flooring in the unit and we contracted out the painting and the removal of popcorn ceilings to our guy Luis of Pro-touch Painting. My husband updated all the lighting and did all the custom shelving in the living room and office. He did all of this after work and on the weekends..he is the absolute best and works so hard. We only had a month to do all of this because June was due in August.

We contracted out the upstairs and basement bathroom to our family friend Tim. Jason and I were going to do all of it but it got so tricky once we had June and he got very busy with work! So to save our sanity we hired someone ;)

The whole townhouse from start to finish took 2 1/2 years because we slowly took on room by room.

Jason fought me on budget all the time but I spent money in the right areas. I do love a white tile and thank the lord the ones I used were cheap because we tiled a lot.


The Kitchen

— The kitchen cabinets are from Ikea as well as the leather pulls
— Flooring is wide plank brushed white oak
—Tile is from Olympia tile and I used the Snow White matte square tile with dark grey grout. I used the same tile in the upstairs bathroom with a light grey grout.
—Paint color is BEHR Ultra Pure White
— all the appliances are from whirlpool
—Tim did our custom trim around the pass through between the kitchen and and living room from extra flooring we had left. We also added some floating shelves on the other side of the kitchen using the flooring too so it would all tie in together.



Upstairs Bathroom

— Matte black light fixtures, faucets, shower set and mirrors were all from Wayfair.
— White matte Penny rounds in the upstairs bathroom floor with penny round details in back of the the built in shelving in the shower and ceiling.
— Tile is from Olympia tile, Snow White matte square tile with light grey grout. I used the same tile in the kitchen. I decided to go all out the the tiling in the bathroom to make it look bigger and it did!
— White vanity is from Ikea




Powder room:

— white matte hexagon tile is from Olympia Tile with light grey grout.
— Matte black faucet is from Wayfair
—round mirror is from Homesense
Jason made the concrete countertop in the powder room himself..what a guy ;))



Basement bathroom:

—For the wood paneled wall we used the leftover brushed oak flooring.
— grey hexagon tile from Olympia tile.
—vanity, storage cabinet and faucet is from IKEA
—light fixture is CB2
—round mirror from Homesense
—we also got Tim to make a built in bench which you can’t see in the photo. It actually opens up for more towel storage!



The Living Room

—light plug in fixtures are from Homesense
— that vintage blue mid-century chair I sanded and restrained myself. It was my grandpas and we found it in the barn at my cabin. I got it recovered with a nice blue patterned fabric ;)
— sofa is from IKEA and throws are from MUDCLOTH on Etsy..I love them!!
— if we stayed at this townhouse I would have tiled the fireplace and put in a nice weathered wood mantle. We didn’t get to this project!









Kids Rooms





The Basement




The Patios





Natalie and Jason have just sold this townhouse and we also just found out they have a new house/new project starting in Woodlands up the Indian Arm!  (See below).  Thanks again Natalie and Jason, can't wait to see what you do with this one!  Stay tuned!




Follow Natalie on Instagram:
@nataliebjordal