DIY Balcony (cuz our landlords a jerk) 

What a great idea!!! You solved the problem without benefiting the landlord! Win win. 😂❤

Your landlord played himself by using interior paint for outdoors. It doesn't last, so it's more work for him to renew it constantly than if he did it properly in the first place. And he made himself look like an incompetent jerk...

My new obsession is watching DIYs for apartments that thumbs their noses at landlords. This is so satisfying, and much safer for Sploot McGee!

You should think about getting a mat for under the BBQ so grease doesn’t get onto your beautiful new flooring 😊

Several years ago there was a horrible, deadly balcony collapse in our area that miraculously resulted in many apartment slumlords making balcony repairs. A sad way to wake-up apartment building owners.

Maybe if you have enough varnish left, you could also repaint the table? Honestly the water beads after you varnished the tiles was perfection to the eyes and soul. 😍

Yay, IKEA trip! I'm always amazed by how many landlords get into owning property, but don't learn how to maintain properties before they do. Which means they wind up spending money and time on things like paint which is not meant for outdoor cement floors. I am so delighted that you found a solution which looks great, works great, and that you can take with you when you leave for good. Also fun to have a saltier than normal video 😊🤬

I have these tiles and love them. When i bought my house there was fake grass glued to the deck (shudder). I didn't have time/money to resurface the entire deck, I knew it would need re-waterproofing in a few years and I needed a temporary fix, so I bought these and put them down and they looked amazing. I wish I had thought to varnish them like you did, but even so it took a good few years for them to look grey and sad. When we actually needed to re-waterproof we just took them all up and while the were up we sanded them down and applied an oil deck stain before putting them back - they look like new. I would recommend next time you're in Ikea grab another box and stick them in your shed so you have spares. I found there's the occasional faulty boards that bow or come loose, not many but it's nice to have replacements.

Your landlord get's zero benefit from your labor, I hear?! Music to my ears!! Smart sollution!

I'm not surprised the strawberry survived. Where I live we have long, cold, and snowy winters. And yet, strawberries grow wild and are basically a weed. 🎉

💕The good thing about those tiles is the fact you can take them with you if you move💕

A happy, healthy Cannelle is worth every penny! Thank you for the reminder that varnish exists to protect things. Beautiful results.

Bravo!👏🏽 Well done! Landlords...unless you take them to court, work wont be done... ask me about it! It is being a big issue here in Montreal. Love your enthusiasm, keep up your positive attitude and gorgeous work💙💐💙

This was really great. I learned a long time ago that landlords for the most part are cheap and lazy and therefore anything I wanted done was going to have to be done by me. Great job.😊

What a perfect sized balcony. And what a wonderful vibrant local community.

Oh Girl, I love your can do attitude and your willingness to embrace power tools. 😊

A great solution to the problem. I especially like that you can remove it and take it with you. Hope you can move to Nova Scotia permanently soon.

Oh, I thought you were going to scrape and paint! You came up with an elegant solution, which looks fantastic! I'm so glad you can take it with you and leave him the crappy floors.

To the other person in the chat during the live stream that was asking if the peach/orange flower Shannon planted was a begonia... I finally got a good look at it, and yes, it IS a begonia! I love that color, never seen a color like it here in the States! I would love to get a couple of those! I have a couple planters out in front of my house that have nothing in them... I would love to plant them with begonias, especially that soft peach colored one!

Brilliant way to deal with the deck: I love that you can take it with you and that your landlord doesn’t get rewarded for his laziness and disdain.

What a great way to start my day🌞🌻. I truly enjoyed the video!!!! I live in the states which is very different from living in a busy multi cultural Montreal, etc. So I really enjoy seeing where you live and hearing about how you have your little neighborhood Facebook group was cool. I adore your dog. There’s nothing better in the world than dogs and babies❣️❣️ I live in the Willamette Valley in Oregon the Pacific Northwest not too far from the coast. It’s more laid-back yet growing city. I’ve lived a quiet, simple life and I really enjoy living vicariously through you while seeing how you live and what you do and what is it like in the different places , you live at with you traveling so much for work and now your new projects. I love your personality and I really enjoy watching you and Phil together❣️❣️ I really enjoy your precious Dog being such a big part of your regular videos. BTW I absolutely love that. I never know what your videos going to be about❣️ I enjoy them all❣️❣️❣️ Just in case you you are interested, I am a 61 year-old Mama/Nana😜. I thought you just might be interested in who watches your video what your audience is made up of😃. Thanks to the three of you again🌻🌻🌻 I almost completely forgot to mention that I love what you did on the balcony for the floors. I learned so much from you. I never even knew IKEA made such a thing. But the truth is, I’ve never been to an IKEA store because I would have to travel a couple hours to get to Portland, Oregon , where there is an IKEA. But that’s some thing. I really at least just ones want to experience IKEA definitely was revolutionary and always coming up with something new and amazing.

I love how you pre-emptively address potential trolls about varnishing. That won't stop them, but it's HILARIOUS for the rest of us! Corgi content is always the BEST and your landlord is a jackass. Also, that Wardian Case at Ikea without glass and filled with fake plants was pretty funny. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward would be rolling in his unmarked grave. ;-)

When I saw the video title page with a very miffed looking Shannon Makes I knew it was going to be an interesting video. Like always you didn't disappoint. Talk about a win win situation. You cover up the crappy paint job and not more paint chips everywhere. Plus its asceticly pleasing to look at. As Rachel Makesy might say the chefs kiss. Canelle approves and the land lord doesn't benefit from it. When you said you backed yourself into a corner I immediately thought of Karolina Zebrowska when she was finishing the floor in her flat and left the snacks on the opposite side of the room. 😂 I used something very similar to those ties years ago to make a kind of pool deck for my kids to stand on so they wouldn't have to get their feet dirty before climbing the ladder to get in the pool plus it was a place to put sandals so that they didn't have to traverse across the hot ground to the house when they got out. It did its job for several years. Considering they were just cheap tiles from Amazon and I didn't think of vanishing them and sitting in the Arizona sun, which to say can be brutal is sn understatement. We moved the pool into the back yard last year and they came apart trying to free them from the ground and the plants that tried to grow through them. I may do it again this year. Especially since we got a new pool and put in a new location. If nothing else it will help keep the mud factor down. This time I'm going to take a lesson from you and varnish them to help make them last longer. As always another great video, looking forward to next week's.

Perfection as always. The balcony makeover is beautiful. Question: Do you miss speaking French when you are in Nova Scotia? I'm making an assumption, based on the French speaking population in Nova Scotia is only about three percent. Of course you can still speak French with Phil and Cannelle. I love it when you give us a tour of your Montreal neighborhood, it's so beautiful. The only thing good about having a crappy landlord, is becoming a good one when your duplex is ready to rent. You did a lot of work in this video, thanks for sharing it with us. Have a wonderful week ahead. (We really need to get you to a hundred k, you're so close)

I really like the tile you picked. They could have a whole product line for dogs: Runnen; Zoomen; Splooten.

Absolutely wonderful! Loved your choices. Always enjoy your puppy dog on your channel. So happy! Thank you for sharing a different journey!

I often work with my plants without gloves. When I pull weeds here in North Carolina, USA, I'm forced to wear gloves to protect myself from sharp weeds. Working with soil with bare hands is good for the human - body and soul!

As someone who has bought ikea wooden outdoor stuff before, you totally need to varnish it. I don't even really know what they do, but it's basically one step above being unfinished.

Great transformation of the balcony! And the fact that it doesn't benefit the landlord's property value is a win-win! 😉

The floor looks fantastic! And the planter refurbishing and replanting is so great Many landlords are the pits

I’ve had the exact same Ikea floor on my Swedish balcony for 8 years now, I lightly sand and oil them every spring, I never bothered protecting it against the snow or the rain, and it still looks awesome !

Your joy of life is lovely to behold.

As the wife of a property manager and the daughter-in-law of the owner of said 200+ properties, let me just say that all are not that way. My FIL won’t rent anything he wouldn’t live in. He has a maintenance crew that responds within 24 hours to most non-emergency complaints save weekends. They are meticulous about upkeep. They do pest control, fire alarm and air filter checks monthly. In fact, when there was a fire in one of three townhouses, the fire investigator said he had never seen such thorough maintenance logs in his career. This is also why they have a waiting list for their properties and long running tenants. I realize this is not the norm though. It is great you found a way to beautify your space without benefiting your landlord. This is another great video.

Just a suggestion: That umbrella…they can be very dangerous! Consider putting a screw or something in it to hold it if the wind gets too bad. Don’t want to be a downer but a lady was killed by one on our USA beaches a few yrs ago when the wind picked it up and impelled her with it! I know….i am so sorry…but I am an old woman and I just want to watch over you young people!

Liked. Shared. Commented. Trying to wait patiently for it to start! 😂

if you have time or space, i would plant nasturtiums. they are bright orange and red and they make these beautiful cascades. most people try to trellis them Up, but i have found them even more beautiful if you let them fall Down. i get a couple of pool noodles from the dollar store and put them on the edge of the window boxes so that the trailing vines have a nice round thing to fall over rather than a sharp edge. also, you can eat them. theyre kind of peppery and look great in salads

anybody who wants to say you don't need to varnish your wooden outdoor furniture etc, just gotta ask: which would be better? low maintenance outdoor wooden stuff that only needs touching up every few years or so, or high maintenance outdoor wooden stuff that needs re-waxing every 2-3 months? sun and rain damage to wood is no joke. your balcony glow up is amazing Shannon.

FYI, begonia flowers are edible! They taste kind of lemony and you can use them to garnish meals or for whimsical salads. Personally, I like them with fish.

Starlings nested in the bathroom vent at our old house every year. No matter what steps we took to dissuade them, they figured out how to get in and raise their babies. Smart birds and so noisy. I love the flooring. I used to work at IKEA so I have very mixed feelings about spending my money there, but they have some really good shit. Beautiful transformation!

i love propagating plants from cuttings!!! it sio fun and comparativy cheapand so rewarding to see them grow. such a fun video to see you plant stuff, love your vibe:)

You speak fluent French! At least, I think it is French, lol. How did I miss this so cool

The beautiful orange begonia can be brought in in winter and will live a long life.🌻

So funny! That first plant you showed that survived the winter was also the first one to show up in my planters after the winter here in Central Norway :) It flowered first too!

That turned out beautiful. The wood is so much better than the paint. That umbrella is so happy. The plants really turned out nice too. Great job!!!

I have a heap of these tiles that i bought, gosh almost 20 years ago from Ikea when I moved like you I packed them all up and put them into storage until I worked out what I was going to do with them, lol I totally forgot about them, until this video. It is one of IKEA’s most popular tile really, best part is you can add to it if the new place they are going to be used need more, they have not changed the tile at all. The veranda looks great at least you will get many years of use from them, and yep I too varnished mine, the thought of them just looking tacky after just a few months in the Aussie sun is not a great look. I used a roller for speed as well and the brush for the finished look. What they say work smarter not harder 😹😹😹

You can keep the wood pieces you cut out and glue them back later (you probably already figured that out)

Looks wonderful! Thanks for motivating me to work on my own questionable space.

Can’t wait to visit Montreal this week. Loving the street art

Those tiles will dramatically reduce sun glare. Impressed!

I love that you put your total edit time. The struggle is real. lol.

I love that it looks gorgeous, helps with puppy safety, and doesn't benefit your landlord when you leave! Thanks as always for the extra work you put in your videos to make them aesthetic and the cc readable 😊 it is noticed

Great job, and much healthier for Puppy too, as well as less stress for you all now as well... Helpful hint: All Plastics can be protected/revived with a wipe over with a 'pertoleum helly', (Vaseline is not only one of the manufactured Brand names, but the generic term we use here in Australia) :) Wipe on, work in, and buff off for a rejuvenated piece. Works for anything plastic, plant pots, refridgerator drawers etc :)

I know all about jerk landlord, i had to pay for a new countertop, faucet,sink,ventahood, 2 ceiling fans, 4 lights, kitchen and living room flooring, bathroom vanity and light, new outlets and light switches and all the paint. AND I HAD TO DO ALL THE WORK MYSELF!!! My apt. is now beautiful.

I didn't realize that Ronas came that small, we only have the massive ones here! It's adorable! Also, I feel the automated voice pain. "Turn left onto Vanieure Parkway" Does she mean Vanier? Siri, call Michel Beauchamp. "Calling Michael Beecham" Who?

Love the inclusion of reality here! Also loved to hear un peu francaise!

How does Shannon have time to spend 35 hours editing 1 video (and doing a video a week), filming b roll, a job, and all these renovation projects?? Her 24 hours is definitely longer than mine!

6:58 lol the pain of the bilingual person and Google Maps is REAL. Signed A Welsh Speaker whose parents live in Wales still.

Love that you always take care of your things, no matter how much they cost or whatever condition you find them in :)

I love what you have done with your balcony! Beautiful without benefiting the landlord - d’une pierre, deux coups! C’est la 1ere fois que je t’entends parler français sur tes vidéos. J’aurais dû m’en douter, vu que tu vis à Montréal, mais je ne peux m’empêcher de trouver ça génial parce que, de ce que j’entends , tu es parfaitement bilingue. Mon anglais est plutôt moyen. 😄 Bises depuis la France. ❤

Your downstairs neighbors loving it to because when wind blows the chips fall on them.

In some cities, a landlord like that could be in very serious legal trouble. This could mean fines, but may also mean actual jail time.

I stayed in a 2nd floor Montreal apartment for 2 weeks, while working on a writing project. I was on the 2nd floor balcony most of the time. What a fabulous cultural feature!!!

Just don't ever have more than the 4 of you out there at any one time. Too many stories about crowded decks collapsing. Have Fun! Be Safe!

It looks amazing. ❤ I don't understand why landlords are so shortsighted. My balcony has been flooded for three years. I think I've had a handful of dry days in that time. Eventually, the integrity of the building will be compromised. 🤷‍♀️

loved hearing the bits of french you spoke in there! made me wonder what language/s cannelle responds to?

Great transformation Shannon, looks lovely. You do great work. Enjoy

From the intro I thought you were just going to repaint with a better paint. This is a much better solution! Love that you found something you can take with you so your landlord doesn’t get any benefit!

I love how the universal landlord special is to slap a bunch of paint that isn’t appropriate for what they’re using it for over anything and everything. At every apartment I’ve lived in it’s been latex interior paint which in humid south Texas means the walls sweat and/or doors/cabinets/etc just stick to everything

LL is a cheap slacker. It's not hard to clean that up. If it's cement a good powerwash would clean it up, dry well, paint on sealer, dry,paint on 2 coats of cement paint, dry throughly, and apply sealer. But....I love your solution, though.

Very nice! (Did you have any stain left over...the tabletop says, "Give me some lovin' too!")

I get that you don't want to do anything to benefit the landlord, but that comes with a high cost. A little too high. Seems like it would have been far more cost efficient to rent or even buy a pressure washer to just get rid of the paint altogether. Even just a garden hose with a pressure nozzle would've done the job. or why not just buy a gallon of paint off the mis-mixed paint shelf at Home Depot and repaint it with a fun design? If your landlord is already using house paint as you say, he's not going to care if you do the same. Even outdoor carpet from a carpet store would've been less money. Not that what you did doesn't look great, because it does. There are just many ways to tackle this dilemma without involving your landlord. If your concerned about not getting your deposit back when you move, chances are, if he's that kind of landlord, you won't get back anyway. Seems to me, your main priority was making sure the landlord got no benefit from your work which is understandable but a little too spiteful.

I love how you reused a number of items and got some for free! Great work!

Princess, you need to get someone to CLEAN inside and outside your rented apartment since everyone seems to make such a horrible mess !! Your dog should have been trained to stand on a mat and have paws and coat and nose cleaned before coming inside. Also, all humans yikes, hope you don't have children or that children Services is watching too...yikes

Great flip! Hope the Landlord doesn't retaliate for calling him out in public. ACK. You are brave! :)

It isn’t very smart for you to call your landlord a jerk on RU-vid. I don’t know about Montreal law, but landlords over the border in New York State could kick you out just for being a fool.

The balcony looks fantastic. I love the fact that you did this for the safety of your very sweet corgi. I'm sorry your landlord is such a jerk. Someday, you will have your house ready to move into and you can tell him where he can stick it. That will be a day worth celebrating!!

I would not inflict myself on a wee fragile plant, I either under water it or kill it with kindness by over watering, I'm afraid it's fake plants for me. But I love your balcony, love the bright colours. ❤

Just a little advice from someone who's had those wooden tiles for years. They need a few adjustments after a while and it's good to have a couple of spares for the future. Oiling them twice a year will make them soft and easy to clean. Last tip. Enjoy your new balcony. It's beautiful.

If your landlord is such a jerk why don’t you move? I hope he sees this and evicts you. All you whiners love blaming someone else for your lives instead of doing something about your supposed issues.

I hate amateur landlords. They give good landlords a bad name.

Honestly, if you were less snarky about everyone and everything I would enjoy your videos more. I find the negative second guessing of everyone's opinions and motives dispiriting and a little tiresome. By the ways it's not just this video but most of your videos where you do this.

I'm so glad Conelle ( feel like I'm spelling her name wrong) is safe now. That looks so nice! Yeah your landlord sounds like jerk. I'm sorry. That is frustrating.

balcony looks lovely, shame you can't say the same for the landlord lol

The landlord should maintain the painted balcony floor, for sure. But some of the other comments here are the typical tenant expecting their landlord to upgrade stuff at the landlords expense. That is wrong. When someone moves into an apartment, the landlord needs to pay for anything that is broken, no longer functioning, etc. They don't need to buy anyone an upgraded faucet just because the tenant wants a new one. That's on the tenants dime.

That looks fabulous! What a wonderful solution to the problem. And knowing it will go with you when you leave is the cherry on top! Ignore the folks that tell you everything you do is wrong! So far, you seem to know what you are doing, and if it doesn’t work out, you learn from it and move on. It’s amazing how plants can survive in the harshest conditions!! So lucky to live in such a great community! Sharing tools, information, and extra resources with neighbors is lovely!! That Landlord was WAY out of line showing up without 24 hr notice! You have every right to refuse him. Well, at least here in the States! Thanks for another great video!!

I love your balcony. You had the best of both worlds in Nova Scotia and Montreal. I am in the go through province of NB.

You can use something like a teak oil as a substitute for varnish. All together, I think it looks fantastic! Hope it allows you to enjoy your balcony more fully!

I absolutely love the transform! Sorry your lamdlord sucks that sounds very common unfortunately.

Check your local renters rights laws. In some places if the landlord is negligent you can conduct repairs and take the cost of repairs out of your rent and they can't go after you for the rent.

People like him is why the term ''landlord special'' exists 🤬.....

Now I too want to spruce up my balcony. I'm in the process of painting the metal banister. I want to put planters on my balcony right now, not wait two weeks.

In Australia I would be using linseed oil to protect the wood tiles. No snow in most of the country.

Ça faisait longtemps que j'espérais t'entendre parler français un jour dans une vidéo (avec ton super accent québécois !) ☺

Beautiful transformation! Once again, your bendiness came in handy :) Game of twister tile laying agility. Cannelle approved reno. Happy puppy, happy home.

I am never sad to have to buy another power tool either lol. I have to say that is a really big patio for an apartment. I would say the good side of having a jerk for a landlord is having the talent, desire and ability to outshine the jerk. Shannon does this with loads of personality and flair.

You can really screw that jerk of a landlord who lets you have a dog and go buy your own house and get out of his. Then you can do whatever you want in your own house.

I like everything you did, every choice, especially the floor tiles, in fact I’d like to try that maybe. To be brutally honest, the table and chairs would drive me nuts now. I thought maybe you would have stained the table to match and got three more Ikea chairs and stained them or maybe just have painted them a cheery color.. This is not a criticism, just someone who loves to spend other peoples money 😂😂 I agree with someone who commented on not all landlords are like yours, we have the best guy ever. 😅 PS: I would give my first born child to have that little storage closet on our balcony.

Since we moved to another state, the closest IKEA is over 6 hours away. Living vicariously during your outing.

Sorry your balcony was full of junk and looked like shit. Don't blame landlord for the way you keep it! You are a renter did you not know what you were getting? I call BS!

Great job. Totally sweet. Enjoy! 🐕🌭🦴🏵️🌸🌺