apartment – Francois et Moi

Top 5 Ways to Paint More Efficiently

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 11:00:45 +0000

Ready to paint your space? Get our tried & true advice on how to paint more efficiently–everything from room prep to our thoughts on ‘cutting-in’. This post is created in partnership with Handy Products. Thank you for supporting brands I truly love and personally use. We are off and running painting the upstairs apartment! If you’re just tuning in, our house is a duplex, and for the last 5 years, we’ve been renting it out (best decision we ever made as 1st time home buyers!) But with both Ken and I working from home, and baby #2 arriving in less than two months, we’re at the point where we need more space. Thus, we aren’t renting it out any longer and instead living in our entire home. There’s nothing like the preeminent arrival of a baby to spark Tasmanian Devil-style motivation for wrapping up ALL projects and honey-dew lists ever discussed. Ever. Am I right?! The nesting bug is REAL, guys. With lots to do and not a lot of time in which to do it, Ken and I pulled together this quick, but thorough list of how we could paint our upstairs as efficiently as possible. These tips, which […]

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Duplex Growing Pains

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 02:27:43 +0000

Between working from home and a 2nd baby on the way, we’re feeling duplex growing pains! Come see what’s next for our little Tudor duplex! As you guys know our house is a duplex and we’ve been renting out the upstairs apartment over the last 5 years (which I highly recommend!) The rental income paid a big part of our monthly mortgage (and allowed us to put more down each month). It helped us buy in a neighborhood we were otherwise priced out of, and it allowed me to work part time so I could be home with our daughter more. All to say, owner-occupying our duplex has been an awesome experience. However, this year with Ken and I both working from home and preparing for baby #2’s arrival, we’re starting to feel the need for a bit more space. With everything going on, we’ve decided 2020 isn’t our year to pick up and move. Instead, we’re staying put and annexing the upstairs apartment as a cohesive part of our house. Here’s a look at the empty space up there right now. There’s about 800 sf that will work great for our office/guest room, a 2nd family hang-out space, a […]

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Francois Renovates: Upstairs Apartment

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 20:31:58 +0000

This post is part of an ongoing series, Francois Renovates. Find the other posts in this series here. As you guys are probably well aware by now, our home is a duplex. We own the whole thing, live on the main floor, and rent out the upstairs apartment. Here are the BEFORE shots of the kitchen from the seller’s listing last summer (courtesy of Zillow). That vintage metal wash basin was awesome, but it was standing alone with so much wasted space around it in this big room. Storage space in the rest of the apartment was also lacking, so we knew it was important to capitalize on the potential here, especially if we wanted to attract a good tenant. Oh, and remember the plastic faux hammered tin backsplash that kept falling down in the first floor kitchen? Same beauties were taped to the wall up here too! And now for the AFTER! Needless to say our upstairs renovation budget was quite a bit smaller than that of the first floor’s. (Remember we had just purchased our first home and were renovating the entire first floor as well.) The goal here wasn’t to completely redesign the space, but […]

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Housekeeping!

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 12:45:53 +0000

Hello and Happy Monday! I apologize for the radio silence this past week. Things have been absolutely car-eh-zay over here. Lots of changes. In addition to Ken and I moving to a new place, Francois et Moi also moved…over to a self-hosted WordPress.org site that is! You might notice a few tweaks to the site design which hopefully make it easier to browse more content on the homepage with one swift scroll of the mouse. WordPress.com was a fantastic and user-friendly blogger’s jumping off point, but it was limiting in many ways, so I’m pumped to be able to stretch my little blogger legs and introduce different types of posts and additional plugins on to Francois et Moi. And also be ad-free for awhile. Eeek! So exciting. As for our physical address, we’re not totally settled, i.e. we still need art on the walls, but here are a few shots of our new place. More wide angle shots and bedroom images will follow as soon as the last of the boxes have been cleared (moving is a freaking lot of work!). Check back on Wednesday as I’ll be sharing the DIY process behind how I made our new, danish inspired coffee table. Have a great start to the […]

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Apartment Scheming

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 12:59:24 +0000

Happy Monday! Ken and I are counting down the days until we move into our new place in the North Loop, and of course my mind is running wild placing furniture, brainstorming ideas on how to maximize the square footage (we’re downsizing slightly), and styling our new digs in a way that makes it feel like home. I’ve compiled a few ideas that have caught my eye: some are high end (dream on), others are surprisingly affordable, but all are swoon-worthy! a. Paper Message Center | b. Small Space Hallway Console | c. Metal Barstools | d. Wall-to-wall Bookshelves | e. Sheepskin | f. Mulberry Wall Art | g. Bedside Sconce | h. Mid-century Desk

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Urban Digs

francoisetmoiblog@gmail.com — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 13:15:05 +0000

Happy Friday to you! As I mentioned earlier this month, Ken and I have begun the exciting, but laborious process of house hunting, and while we have begun looking, we’re nowhere near closing on a home. So when we received the notice that our apartment lease was coming up for renewal, instead of signing another lease, as we’ve done the last 4 years, we decided it might be fun to move a bit closer to the action and spend a year relishing our great metropolis in the Minneapolis North Loop. And all the while continuing the house hunt. We both agreed the process of buying a home takes time, and we didn’t want to rush into anything. It was a decision made over old-fashioneds at Borough on our two year anniversary after realizing how much time we already spend in this area for both work and play. On the weekends we always find ourselves hopping on Cedar Lake Trail with our bikes en route to check out the farmer’s market, a new restaurant or brewery, or reenact our very first date at Acme Comedy Club. There’s such an energy and creative mix in the North Loop that I can’t wait to be apart of! We officially signed a lease […]

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