August 20, 2012
Memorable moment Monday
That moment when you realize you got your dates wrong…
…and we’ll be another full week without a kitchen sink or countertops. Oof.
April 9, 2011
My husband is amazing.
Not only did he move forward with renovating our bedroom (by himself), but he actually accomplished the entire thing in ONE WEEK, while working full time and one man down!
Here’s the timeline:
- Saturday – I packed up the bedroom and we moved into the guest room. S and his brother moved all of the furniture from our bedroom into the nursery and demo’d the entire room down to the studs. My father re-did some of the electrical and they started putting up insulation.
- Sunday – Electrical and insulation finished. S called a handyman friend of his who miraculously was free to help us for the week and they got the drywall up and the first coat of plaster on the walls.
- Monday – Sanding and second coat of plaster; baseboards and crown molding started.
- Tuesday – Baseboards and crown finished; window sills and trim started. Walls primed.
- Wednesday – Window sills and trim finished; first coat of paint on the walls.
- Thursday – Ceiling and trim painted.
- Friday – Second coat of paint on walls and trim.
- Saturday (today) – Carpet will be installed (while we’re at childbirth class!) – the only thing that S isn’t doing by himself. And we’ll be moving back into our room tonight!!
Part of the reason S moved things along so quickly is just so it wouldn’t be hanging over his head for too long, but the main reason can be summarized in two words…FULL BED.
We’ve been sleeping in the full bed in our guest room all week – which you wouldn’t think was that much smaller than our queen – but add in my belly and pregnancy pillow, and the dog and cat who think that the guest room bed is their personal throne and sleeping arrangements have been very tight. LOL 😛
Poor S is also a few inches too long for a full and had to sleep on the inside of the bed so that I could get up and down to go to the bathroom during the night…so he would have done ANYTHING to get us back in our bed by the end of this weekend.
I’ll post pictures later on tonight!
November 22, 2009
I never thought I’d say this…
…but I’m SICK of shopping. 😛
S and I left our house at 10am today, and I didn’t pull back in the driveway until 5pm. We were on the hunt for a bedding set for the guest room, and coordinating paint and carpet, along with the few bits and pieces needed to finish up the bathroom and guestroom renovation. S’s best friend from Ireland arrives on Friday (oh, and we’re also hosting Thanksgiving ;-)), so we have some incentive to wrap things up!
We hit up Tar.get, Low.e’s, and Wal.mart before S lost patience. Came back home and S went to work sanding the plaster in the guest room, and I went back out…to Home G.oods, another Tar.get (bedding, success!), and Home De.pot (where S joined me to pick out the paint and bring the carpet home in his work van).
We just came home, made pizza, and started laundry…and now we’re watching football, praying that the Pats win! It’s been a busy weekend, and we did NOT get as much done as we had hoped. We always do this, delay until we HAVE to get something done, and then make ourselves crazy trying to do it. It’s going to be a busy few days… 😉
October 9, 2009
Home stretch
Sorry friends, didn’t mean to make you wait allllll week for a new post! I had good intentions to post IF/bathroom/IF/bathroom posts on a regular basis…but then I actually had to help with the bathroom this week, which meant that I was too tired to get up and into work on time most days this week, which then meant that I didn’t have time to do my blogging at work! Anyways, moving on. 😉
SO much has happened with the bathroom this week…besides the fact that we finally moved back home after three weeks at my parents’ house!!
– The walls and ceiling have been plastered and sanded
– The last of the tile has been installed
– The linen closets (2 of them!!) have been purchased, built, and installed
– The window blind and shower curtain have been hung
– The TOILET has been re-installed
– The paint has been chosen and purchased
– The towel hooks, toilet paper rod, vanity hardware, new toilet seat, and overhead light/fan fixture have all been chosen and purchased (notice how I’m emphasizing “chosen”? That’s the rough part with yours truly…)
– The tub has been christened…wait, what? Oops, sorry…TMI 😉
The plan for the weekend is to finish grouting the last batch of tile, prime and paint the walls, ceiling, and trim, screw the vanity and linen closets into permanent position, and then wait for the granite countertop to be measured and installed early next week! Then all that will be left to do is install the sink faucet and vanity hardware, hang the towel hooks and toilet paper rod, and accessorize!! 😉
Here’s a picture to tide you all over as we enter the home stretch…
October 3, 2009
We have tile!
The bathroom is really starting to come together, slowly but surely! S worked on the tile all week, and my mom and I started cleaning it off last night in preparation for the grout.
Some pics:
This is the view from the door. That green wall will be plastered and painted a pale silvery gray.
And this is our new tub surround! S is going to do the grout today and tomorrow and then things should really start to come together. After the tile is all done, we can put the toilet in and then the vanity can get fitted for the countertop. Hopefully we’re less than a week away from fully done!
Here, I saved the best picture for last…
Not the best picture, but I just had to share. See how filthy S is? Now imagine what the rest of my house looked like… 😉
September 22, 2009
More pics and an update
Our friend finally left yesterday (S actually drove him back up to Maine because his wife had left without him on Sunday ;-)) and this is what my bathroom looked like after they were done for the night (time stamp – Monday at 9pm).
(Don’t get too excited, the toilet’s only in there temporarily, lol.)
And a view of the new vanity:
Despite the fact that they got SO much done (that I made absolutely NO contribution to), I still had a mini-meltdown after work yesterday. A long time ago, we agreed to dog sit this coming weekend, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into with the bathroom. Then, just yesterday, I found out that by “weekend” our friends actually meant Wednesday night to Sunday. Ahhhh! We absolutely don’t mind, but that means that we have to be back in the house by tomorrow (!), and we’re definitely not ready. So our plan now is to put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and keep the dogs downstairs – we’ll sleep downstairs too, on the pull out couch in the living room. I’m going over to the house tonight to do a macro clean, and S (and our lifesaver friend B) are going to continue working away.
I’m just glad that I decided to take Friday off…I’ll take one last shower at my parents’ on Wednesday night and then hope for the best! 😉
September 20, 2009
Bathroom photos
This is what my bathroom looks like as of 9pm Sunday night, after a long weekend of work. Don’t worry, not my work…the only thing I did was load the dumpster! 😉 (The photos aren’t great quality – took them with my iPhone.)
The upstairs hallway, how you know you’ve entered the construction zone.
My dad and our friend working on the plumbing.
The new wall between the bathroom and guest room.
Wide view of the bathroom…that pipe is where the old wall used to be!
Our sexy new tub!!!
The guys’ goal for tonight is to turn the water on, check the new pipes for leaks, and fill the tub – anybody need a bath? 😉
Recap
Wow, it’s been a long time since I last posted. Lots has happened since then…
Had a fantastic “wine o’weekend” with S and some friends. S has a client who offered us the use of her house on the Cape, in return for picking up and re-upholstering some furniture. It was an eventful trip – S’s van broke down halfway there, and even though we have AAA, we had to wait for hours until the towing company could get a second vehicle to tow the attached U-HAUL trailer. We left around 7pm, and what was supposed to be an under two hour drive turned into almost six. We arrived around 1am, driving down a pitch-dark dirt road and trying to guess which house was ours. Finally S went to investigate and said, “Yeah, this is the one.” “So the key worked?” “No, it was open…” LOL! Luckily we found a note to S, so we knew we were safe…but can you imagine? Busting into someone’s house at 1am, with them asleep upstairs? It rained for most of the weekend, but we had two fantastically lazy days, filled with food, friends, and a lobster pot full of sangria. 😉
Then we spent this past week preparing for the bathroom remodel. Monday we picked out our faucets and tub/shower fixtures, Tuesday we chose the countertop (black granite with subtle gray flecks), Wednesday we moved in with my folks…and demo began Thursday! Construction began in earnest on Friday – my dad did the electrical, S finished the demo, and then our contractor family friend arrived Friday night. Saturday was spent moving and replacing plumbing, and putting up the sheetrock for the wall to the guest room, and today (hopefully!) the will be tub going in. This process has made me realize what wonderful friends (and family!) we have. Our friends have given up their whole weekend just to help us (and my parents have given up any semblance of peace at their house for the foreseeable future ;-)).
Oh, just got a call from S…gotta make a Home Depot run! I’ll try to post some pictures tomorrow…
Happy Sunday everybody!
September 4, 2009
More bathroom
I realized I haven’t given a bathroom update this week, and I didn’t want any of you to feel left out of the insanity – I mean, fun! 😉 Regrettably, just because I haven’t mentioned the renovations lately, doesn’t mean that all is sunshine and light at my house…
Last Friday, we made last minute plans with some good friends of ours, and ended up talking about our bathroom renovations over dinner. This couple just recently finished a big kitchen remodel, which they largely did themselves, so S spent the night asking our guy friend questions about this or that, while I commiserated with my girl friend about the chaos and mess! 😛 We decided to continue our night back at our place…one thing led to another…and before we knew it, S and B were demo-ing the bathroom wall! And I mean, really demolishing it…B and C stayed overnight, but had to sleep on the pull-out couch in our living room because the guest room then had a nice view of the toilet!
Saturday, S and I finished the rest of the demo, and then S framed out the new wall on Sunday.
Next steps – my dad has to pull the electrical through the studs, and then S will put up the sheetrock for the new wall. And save the date, the official remodel begins on September 17th! We’ll move out that Wednesday, S will spend Thursday demo-ing the rest of the bathroom (tub, tiles, etc.), and then our family friend arrives Friday to do the plumbing and help S install the new tub, sink, etc. The beginning of the following week we’ll be tiling and painting, and then we should be back in by Wednesday or so.
I just can’t wait until it’s all DONE…
Life by the Day 