bathroom

The newest addition in the bathroom make over. Piece by piece it is coming back together. So, I found this vanity on craigslist earlier this year (just the bottom part) for $25. It was new and it was originally a light oak looking color. I wanted it white, so I did a lot of reading on various blogs about how best to paint something like this, which isn't all reall wood. I started with Kilz spray primer. Had to do several coats. Then I spray painted in white. I still didn't like how the paint seemed to be soaking into the cabinet doors, which were real wood. I ended up brushing paint on the front and then applying some polycrilic. It isn't super fancy (hey, neither are we!), but it definitely works.

I had been looking and looking trying to find a vanity top on craigslist as well, but didn't have any luck. So, we picked up the top from Lowes. Black granite top with sink. On sale. All the hardware is in brushed nickel.

I still keep going back and forth on the wall treatment. First I wanted bead board, then I just wanted it painted (to get it done!), then I decided I liked board and batten better. So, now I just can't decide if I want to do the board and batten or if it would make the bathroom seem smaller. I don't know.

All I need for the bathroom to be fully functional is a new shower rod and shower curtain and the mirror (which I have, we just need to build a frame for it).

The other perks some where down the road would be: change outlets and switches to white; new toilet from this century; board and batten; new door and trim in white

I need to get some before and after shots of the bathroom...

sneek peak

This may not be a very exciting picture to you, but it is so exciting to ME! As you remember, I started on our bathroom project waaaayyyyy back at the beginning of the year. As with most projects like these, I think..."this won't be very hard" or "this won't take us too long". And then I am forced to realize that I married Justin for a reason. To learn patience (a virtue in which I am very deficient). I could only do so much of the project on my own. I needed him to do the mudding/taping/sanding step. For my birthday, he finally got that part finished, along with adding some texture. We did texture in a spray can this time. It was so much faster and easier than when we used the big ol' hopper thing up in Newport. However, the fumes from those cans were unbelievably strong. They stunk up the entire house, top to bottom.

So, back to the picture. Originally, I was going to go for an aqua type color, but then I saw this color on a blog somewhere and I fell in love with it. It's called Cumberland Fog by Behr. I didn't even think twice about it and sure enough, I still love it now that it's on my walls. I have gone down to the bathroom several times just to gaze at it. It makes me feel happy inside. *sigh*

I was also thinking of scrapping the original idea to put up bead board (mostly because my impatience was getting the best of me), but now that I see the blue...I just think the white will be so pretty with it. Yay!

this is what I want....

First off, this is what I have...

a large rock wall. I really, REALLY want a mantle.
Even just a mantel shelf would be great!
Something like these...

Now. How do you go about installing a mantel shelf when the
rock is already in place. It's not real rock, so I hear it comes off easily,
but I'm not sure how easy it would be to take it off in one uniform section.
HELP!

this is a beauty

I would love this:



Rarely do I look at the Pottery Barn catalog or website. Too expensive. However, today I was looking online for white beds and came across this. I fell in love. We have been feeling (literally) the need/want for a new bed lately (lots of weird back pains going on). We have a small home and an even smaller bedroom and I thought this would be a fantastic solution for extra storage space. Six good size drawers right in the bed. Awesome! I wonder if we could DIY this bed and make it for less??? (stop rolling your eyes Justin!)

What do you think?

Kate's Room

Here is Miss Kate's room. So cute!

We didn't do much to it, just freshened up

the paint, rearranged, and added some decor.

Michelle has introduced me to spray paint-

LOVE IT!

Bedroom

Okay. Here are some updates on our house projects.

We have been working our little...or big, buns off this week.

Friday night we (Michelle and I) took out the carpet in

the Master bedroom. You might have to click on the first

picture to see it well, but a serious crime was committed indeed.

That crime being that this carpet had remained

in our home for two years TOO long!!! Look how nasty it is! Yikes.

Two innocent lives were taken during this heinous act.
Check out the groovy floor we found underneath the carpet.
Justin worked really hard on getting the carpet in. He was

so frustrated that he even said the "P" word...TWICE! Those

of you who know Justin, know he just does not swear,

so he must have been really irritated. It made me laugh.

More groovy floor

Ahhh...finally...a peaceful refuge for the night!
We're almost done
Just a few finishing touches to do
I'd like to thank my sponsors: Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target,

TJMaxx and Home Depot.

And most importantly Michelle...my hero!

Bathroom Vanity

Yay! We have a completely beautiful and working

bathroom vanity! Did I mention it works? I don't know

why the below picture is so orange looking. I am so happy~

Bathroom Update

Yay! We have a bathroom floor!

This is "loose lay" vinyl flooring. No glue required at all!

Good job Justin! You're the MAN!

I have to admit, I will be somewhat disappointed if we end

up moving and aren't able to enjoy this long awaited bathroom.

It has been a long time coming man!

Bathroom Update

I realized I haven't put any updates of the bathroom up lately.

I know, I am sure all of you are keeping track, right?

Anyway, here is what the bathroom looked like when we

gutted it back in March of '07. The only thing that

would make you appreciate these pictures more, is if I had

some of the pictures of what the bathroom looked like before

we gutted it. However, those pics are on our old computer, so

you will just have to use your best imagination. It was an absolute

nightmare of a bathroom. So gross and ugly! Before we moved in

I came over with a bottle of Kaboom and used the entire thing

on the old cast iron tub that was a nice shade of black dirt. It did

help quite a bit, at least enough to where we weren't afraid to put

our feet in the tub. Everything about the bathroom was just nasty.

This is where the tub and shower were. There used to be a

window in the shower, but we insulated and covered it with our

new shower. We thought if we tried to cut a hole for it, our

surround would end up looking really white trash.

So this is the new shower/tub. We like it.

We decided to get a brand new toilet because we weren't

sure how many butts had been on the one that was there.

The toilet used to be where the sink is (once we get a sink)

(okay, why is it double spacing now???? how annoying!)

This is where the vanity/sink will go...someday

The wall that the reflection is on didn't use to be there.

We added that wall and actually made what was the

bathroom smaller, but more efficient use of space.

This is looking out from the bathroom door-

What you are looking at also used to be part of the bathroom.

One of the reasons we chose to make the bathroom space

smaller, was to add this linen closet. One thing this old house is

lacking is storage space. Absolutely nowhere for towels, sheets, etc.

The side of the linen closet (on the Left) Can't wait to have that done!

All we need now is to get the flooring in and the vanity along with the trimmings

and we will be set!

bathroom update

We finally got the texturing of the bathroom to a live-able state. Only took us FOUR tries. Next time we'll know better. Anyway, we were able to paint the walls and put the light fixtures in. Now we need flooring and a vanity/sink-top and we will pretty much be set. Stay tuned for photos...

texturing catastrophe

FINALLY! We are texturing the bathroom! I have really been on Justin's case lately to get this blasted bathroom done. We gutted it in March 2007! A year later it is still not finished. Anyway, I was ecstatic that we were going to have textured walls and was planning out my trip to the hardware store to pick paint colors, when much to my (our) dismay the texturing didn't quite go as planned. Whoever said this was easy is full of bologna! Our test batch was perfect...or so we thought. So we mixed a bunch more and got ready to blast away. It was full of chunks and was just really bad. We quickly scraped a bunch of it off the walls and mixed another batch, this time more carefully so as to avoid the chunks. Yeah, well, it looked more like splattering wet paint on the walls-super drippy and just altogether a huge let down. Poor Justin, bless his heart. We'll get it next time hunny!

Look how excited he is right here...before the "incident". Thanks for all your hard work babe!