New Bathroom

The new bathroom is complete!!!!!!

I just took my first soak in my new tub with Aveeno Stress Relief Foaming Bath.  It was wonderful.  I haven't soaked in a tub in so many years, I couldn't remember what it felt like.  The water was perfect, almost scalding like I like it.  The aroma from the Aveeno was not over powering.  I read my Kindle and relaxed.  Then I showered using new shampoo and found that I really like the new Waterpik shower head over the old Delta one.  I even like the fact that the shower head is now barely within my reach. 

After my shower, I sat on my new ottoman,opened up my mom's old dressing table and dried/curled my hair. I have a lot of memories of her sitting at that table and getting ready to go out.  It is an old Ethan Allen piece from the 50's.

I love everything about the new bathroom.  The linen closet is so nice.  The old one was so narrow and deep I hated it.  This one is long and shallow with adjustable shelving.  I was able to get most of it all organized last night. 

I am hoping I can get everything moved out of my bedroom and be back in my bed (and not the couch) by tomorrow night. 

Remodel

The bathroom remodel continues.

John actually started the work around December 10 and told me he would be done by Christmas.  In fact, we had a bet.  I won, but I still bought him a case of beer.

Now New Year's has come and gone, and John is still here.  The bathroom looks simply amazing, but there are still a lot of details to finish, including buiding the shelving units for the new linen closet.  

Can you tell I love the rock detail in the floor?  I also like the tile baseboards.  No more wooden ones to paint.  Yeah!

I really don't mind that it is taking this long. John is so particular about details that it is worth the wait. 

I Miss my Toilet

My bathroom is still being remodeled and I miss my toilet. 

I feel like Goldilocks. 

The master bath toilet is too tall!

The Man Cave toilet is too cold and cramped!

My toilet is just right but it is currently sitting in the front yard. 

At this point all I want for Christmas is my toilet, in my bathroom. 

What Do I Really Need in the Bathroom?

I found out late today that my remodeler will be tearing out my bathroom tomorrow and I have been in a rush all evening to get everything cleared out of it.

My current bathroom has really deep cabinets and a deep linen closet. Tonight when I was cleaning out these cabinets on my hands and knees and reaching back as far as I could with my good arm, I found some things that have probably been back in those cabinets since we moved here in 1993. I never use those cabinets except for things I might need at a later date. There were hot rollers ... my hair is too short for rollers. Lots of velcro rollers, pony tail holders, barrettes, etc. I found some ace bandages, a finger splint, and a few other items from previous physical therapy treatments. All gone now.

My medicine cabinet was full of samples of items I never tried, old razors, and barber scissors. I cannot remember the last time I opened that cabinet.

The vanity drawers were known to me. I use them the most. The top one was full of soap slivers. I hate to throw away soap slivers, but I also will not use the soap when it gets to a certain size. I am always hesitant to throw out soap slivers, because I never know when I might run out of soap. Tonight I threw them away.

The bottom vanity drawer was full of an odd assortment of previous decor used in the bathroom. All of it gone now except some really pretty shower curtain rings I might use again in the new bathroom.

Under the sink was an assortment of products bought, not liked, but too full to throw away. Shampoos, bubble baths, body washes, facial scrubs, and conditioners. All gone now.

As I was cleaning I was trying to decide what I really need in the bathroom as far as cabinetry and such.

I know I must have a place where I can sit in a chair and read while I do my hair and makeup. I enjoy sitting in my little makeup area in the mornings and relaxing while I "InStyle" my hair.

I need a linen closet, but one that isn't so deep. Also, I need to figure out what to do about those top shelves I can never reach. They are pretty useless to me.

I need a mirror over the sink and makeup area, but not necessarily a medicine cabinet.

Drawers are nice for extra supplies. At least 3 towel bars. A niche in the shower for my shampoos and soap. No toilet paper holder on the wall. I hate those. I prefer the ones that sit on the floor and you can place several rolls on at once. You also avoid that stupid over/under argument.

I am sure there are other items, but I am going to bed now so I can clean out the rest of the bathroom in the morning.

OneThing Leads to Another

Started out only wanting a sliding glass door put in where the living room window was located...

• If you put in a sliding glass door it might as well lead out to a nice patio
• If you have a nice patio you want nice landscaping
• If you have the window left over from the sliding glass door you should take out part of the brick wall that adjoins the fireplace and install the window to allow more visual space so you can see the nice patio and new landscaping
• If you take out part of the brick wall for the window then the fireplace doesn't look balanced, so you build a custom bookcase on the opposite side of the fireplace
• When you took out part of the brick wall you had to remove some carpet, but it would be nice to have tile where you walk in the sliding glass door from the pool
• Now that you have completely taken off all the paneling on one wall and replaced it you might as well paint the entire living room, oh yeah, crown molding would look nice
• The living room is beautiful but the playroom next to it looks like a dungeon, so you remove the huge unused playroom fireplace completely
• Now all the paneling has to be removed because it cannot be matched
• That means paint has to be picked and might as well put crown molding in there too
• Tile has to be placed where the fireplace was because you cannot afford to carpet the entire house
• Tile also has to be placed where the built in bookcases were removed
• Might as well put tile inside both the outside doors
• The bathroom tile looks horrible next to the new tile, so we should tile the bathroom
• When the toilet is removed to place the tile a leak is found along with bad baseboard
• If you have to replace the baseboard then you might as well take out the vanity, sink, and medicine cabinet and put in new ones
• Now the paint looks horrible and so lets paint it to match the playroom
• Oh yeah, now the foyer needs work, so we will build some custom bookcases in there and repaint, add crown, etc.
• While all this is going on, a bad post is found on the front of the house ...

Still Remodeling

John, my Eldin Bernecky, started back on the playroom today.  All the paneling had to come down since we cannot find anything like it and we have a huge bald area where the fireplace used to be. We came to an agreement on the paint colors, along with the location of the new lights and the 2 ceiling fans before I went to work.

John and I also agreed on the paint colors for the foyer today and the trim that will go in that room. 

I can't wait to have my house back in place.  Even though John is extremely particular, always cleans up every night, and can be very funny to have around, it will be nice to know that I can safely wear my wonderful ratty robe again without worries that someone is going to walk into the house.

New Patio

I love my new patio.  I have been swinging in my porch swing and watching my color changing solar lights until almost 1:00 A.M. every day.

My critters disappeared while the bulk of the work was being done outside, but they are starting to return now.  

The birds did not have the feeders for a couple of weeks, but we filled the feeders late last week and now the birds are back.  I got tickled at a finch last night that was sliding down a piece of wood in a bucket.  He took the trip several times.  It was a very rough piece of wood, so I hope he had a mate to pick out the splinters. 

Still Remodeling

The remodeling project is still going on.  Everything looks great and John is really a good guy.  He had some other jobs pending so I told him to go work on those for a couple of days and then come back here since I am not in a big hurry. 

The current plan is to finish out the trimming and the bookcase this weekend so they can start painting next week.  The problem today is that the paint I picked for the mantel and bookcase was either mixed wrong or is nothing like the sample card.  We are going to try another coat, and if it is not better...back for another sample.

I miss quilting, but I am doing okay without the television and computer most of the time.

The new patio/deck is very nice and I have already spent many hours out there enjoying my swing, fountain, and the stars.

No Computer/No TV

I have not had a television to watch or a computer of my own since we started the remodeling.  My laptop stopped working just a couple of days after the remodeling started.  I am using my youngest's computer right now as the boys are out at some card tournament.

Not sure how much I miss the television since my shows are not on, but I do miss not being able to watch my new dvds.  

Can't say I miss the computer much since I am on it eight hours a day at work.  

I have been doing a lot more reading and listening to music.  

The downside is I really have no idea of what is going on in the world.  I don't have time to browse websites at work and I no longer get a newspaper.  

It may be another couple of weeks before the living room is set up again, and then we will probably start tearing out the fireplace in the playroom, so who knows what will happen then.  

It will probably be a long time before I can afford a laptop since I am trying to finish as much remodeling as I can, but at least my desktop will be set up again and I won't have to wait for a break in game play to borrow a computer.  

When We Get That Far

The new living room colors will be Sherwin Williams "Lime Granita" and "Great Green."

Of course we are not close to doing any painting yet since there is still a big hole in the wall.

What started out as removing a window for a sliding door and adding a patio has become:

• Removing part of the fireplace to add in the window I removed.  
• Having a custom bookcase built to cover the other side of the huge and hideous fireplace.
• Taking out all the bookcases in the playroom.
• Changing all the lights and adding a ceiling fan in the living room.
• New crown molding in living room.
• Painting walls and crown molding.
• Removing a couple of short brick walls outside.
• Adding a path from the patio to the pool.
• Moving and adding outlets to living room and outside.
• Painting playroom.

Each day I seem to find something new I want done. It has become a joke between John "the remodeler" and me.  "John, I want such and such done. That will cost me $5.00 right."  Today I added the bookcase.  I said "Bookcase. $5.00."  John said "$5.00, $5.00, $5.00."  

Oh well.  I did not enjoy my vacation this year, so I think I will make this my vacation home and just not go any where for the next ten years.  

I know it is going to be beautiful.  I don't even mind the work being done because John is really good about cleaning up his mess throughout the day and being very good about making sure his schedule works with mine and that he is not interfering with my life.  We made an agreement that he would always tell me what time he was arriving so I would know not to be in ratty robe.  It is working out great. 

As my friend Bryan said having John around is like having Eldin, the painter, in Murphy Brown around.  It really is like that these days.  John is very entertaining and pops up with some really funny things. He is also good about giving my youngest some pointers on the work he is doing.  I will miss him when the work is done.