Renovating the Budapest Apartment: The Humble Beginnings

It is almost May, and in a little over a month I am heading over to Europe. One of the things I am looking forward to this year is to finish our Budapest apartment. The renovations started last summer and I only got to see the very beginning in person. We left in July and since then it has just been emails, pictures and Skype.

Here I stand, June 2012 in the gutted ruins of the apartment. There is no floor, no windows, just rubble and dirt. This place has a long way to go!

A bit of a blurry photo of what is now the bathroom and the bedroom.

We knocked out walls and erected new ones, and changed all doors and windows.

The "view" from the now-bedroom into what will be the kitchen and dining area.

There was still a fair amount of rubble

Looks scary, doesn't it? How is this going to turn into the lovely place I envisioned?

Looking from the future living room into the dining area.

This was taken at my last visit in July. The concrete floor is poured and the plumbing is in place.

There were still no windows or doors, in fact, this old doorway ends up getting walled in.

Some of the interior walls have been put up already.

Two more windows were added to the original one in the middle. This semi-circle will be the dining area. 

The wall between the kitchen and bedroom is up. My little boy is standing in what is to be the kitchen.

The bathroom walls are up too.

The dining area from the outside. Can't wait to see it with the windows in place.

The garden path and piles of construction materials.

This is the interior hallway, with the old door to the apartment on the left.

This was the state I last laid eyes on the place. Fast forward ten months, and here I am in April, so looking forward to seeing the almost-completed apartment come June. But until then, not to fear, dear readers, I have some other pictures to share of the progress: coming in the next installment, I will post photos I received over the course of the year by email.  Hopefully by the time I get to Budapest, only the finishing touches remain! Aloha!