Mara Krueger
- Dec 19, 2019
- 3 min read

Duplex Wars - Latest update and Bathroom Plans

Finally getting around to spilling all the most recent progress updates and plans for the Duplex project!

First, just to give you some perspective and back story the whole building was in really rough shape from the get go, serious drywall damage, smoke residue damage on many of the walls, water issues, uneven flooring, poor mechanicals, carpeting and mold in the bathrooms, outdated plumbing and electrical you name it. It was nearly impossible to keep much of anything and because so much had to come out, it made more sense to start fresh than to try and patch things in. This also gives us the peace of mind that everything is done correctly and is up to code.

Secondly, Geddy has been basically begging me to design a space himself for quite awhile now. I definitely ask for his input and opinion constantly throughout our projects, but for the most part, I'm very particular. So, giving him full reign makes my OCD freak out just a bit haha, poor guy, he really does have good style! Anyway, when we picked up this property we thought why not face off and each design one of the two units? But I mean how cool is that, a Duplex design war between husband and wife?! We both have had a lot of fun with the rivalry and teasing that's come a long with it so far. Our endgame at the moment is that we'd like to keep the duplex and rent out one unit and potentially airbnb the second...that's still up in the air though and would be a whole new hurdle for us if we chose to go that route. We shall see!

As things stand now, we're focused on getting the place wrapped up. Drywall was finished up yesterday, they do still have a little more patching to do in the main stairwells, but the units themselves are done; our painter started today and is already so far along! I'm blown away at how much progress he's made! SO exciting.

All of our kitchen cabinets were delivered this afternoon, we designed and ordered them from Ikea. While we were hoping to use Semihandmade and would have loved to work with them again, we chose to use the Ikea fronts to save money on the overall cost since this will be a rental. We tweaked the layouts and styles many times to get the best layouts and bang for our buck before ordering. Overall they were SUPER affordable.

Now, on to the bathrooms. We finished up our mood boards for each, see below. We may tweak a few minor things yet, not sure. But, we are hoping to order the rest of the materials for them this week! As we talked about a week or so ago on our instagram stories, we are choosing to go with a sheet vinyl in the bathrooms and pantry/laundry rooms for the simple fact that they are SUPER budget friendly, easy to install, easy to clean, and hold up really really well in in rentals. It helps that there are so many great trendy options out there now too! The hexagon marble option is the Mannington brand and the gray herringbone option with gold grout is the Mohawk brand.

Mara - Upper Unit Left

Geddy - Lower Unit Right