I just can't stop staring at my beautiful gutted bathroom...

Yes, there I am, smiling from ear to ear because at that moment, we were more than halfway finished with the gut. In previous photos, you've seen that we've already removed all the old lino and the thin cheap plywood it was attached to. The old tub was removed and replaced around December of 2004, so you can see why I'm pretty excited about finally moving ahead with the rest of our bathroom plans. Today, we ripped out the old tile top vanity and cabinet, an annoying and useless partition/nook (which we discovered today used to hold a stacking washer and dryer), old lighting wiring, and the old drywall. The bathroom seems so much bigger already and we haven't even moved the toilet yet!

Another thing that we discovered after pulling out the old drywall is that there use to be an even bigger window in there than the one we pulled out. I joked to hubs that the window that was in that bathroom just kept getting smaller and smaller until finally it just disappeared! Normally, I like the idea of having a window in our bathroom, but we had to remove it due to the fact that it was awkward being able to see people in the bathroom from our new dining room window. Yeah, I know..we could have just put up curtains or blinds, but what's the point if they're just going to stay closed all the time?

Here are the bathroom demo pics. There's a funny story behind the picture of hubs bent down on the floor. Like I mentioned, another discover that we made when we pulled down the drywall was that the bathroom was also once the home of a washer and dryer. Imagine pulling down drywall and suddenly discovering the exposed end of the big fat wire that use to connect to said appliances. The PO had just left them like that in the wall and we had no idea if they were live or not. At this point, I decided to go get the camera to take a picture because for some reason I thought I should, lol. Hubs goes to get his electrical current reader meter thing-a-bob. When I came back with my camera, he's all bent down like you see him in the photo. As he attaches the meter clamps to the possibly live wire, I snap the picture, the flash goes off, and poor hubs thought he was being electrocuted! That really gave us both a good laugh and probably will for a long time to come:)

Cool historic home site

It's 1 am. I should be sleeping now, but I've been sick and slept all day so here I am now wide awake.*sigh* Anyway, I found this neat site that lists historic homes for sale across the country. There are lots of photos of homes that have already been restored *or* are in need of restoration. If any of you are like me, you like to look at homes whether or not your intention is to buy.

Here is the link, followed by another link to one of the houses on there that I found intriguing...it was built in 1895, hasn't been inhabited for 60 years, it's massive and needs a t o n of work. Be sure to click on the "additional photos" link on that page. The first photo I posted here was the home in all it's grandeur in 1895...below is the house in it's current state..*sniff*
HistoricProperties.com


A Cool Old House

Hit the Deck

When we first moved here, we had plans of tearing our deck down and building a large family room in it's place. We have three growing girls that are almost 5, almost 6, and almost 11. We foresee entertaining lots of houseguests (read: giggly girly girls) in our home within the next few years. We weren't really crazy about our deck either...the way the boards were layed out was kind of weird and we just didn't care for the general design. AND it was just too big. That sounds nuts, but it really was. It was multi-tiered and the tiers consisted of the main large deck, a smaller teir off from our sunroom, and another tier on the other side of the deck which *never* was used.

Long story short, it just wasn't in our budget to build a family room so we've decided to get the rest of the house remodeled and then think about a new room a few years down the road. But, that means we have to keep the deck. We don't want to put money into replacing it now because we still have plans of adding on family room in the future and if we can't afford that four or five years down the road, we'll rebuild the entire deck then. For now, it needs a little TLC and a major makeover so we've been working on getting it in good repair. We tore down the useless third deck, replaced some warped boards and fencing, and then built new railing and seating to close off the portion of the deck where the step to the third part once was. We're going to add some lattice so that I can add some nice climbing vines here and there to soften the hard lines.

We have to let the pressure treated would dry for a couple more weeks and then we're going to stain it with a solid stain called "Barn Red". I can't WAIT to see how it's going to turn out. Maybe we just might be inclined to use the deck when it's all fixed up.:) Here are some pics:

Clearly, another "What have I done" moment

Today, a took a few photos of our dining room because I didn't remember ever taking any since we installed new windows in there earlier this year. I had taken some of the french doors, but not the windows, oddly enough. (Click here to see a photo page I put together shortly after that install...)

I decided to find a couple of "before" pictures to compare to my current "during/in progress" pictures. Honestly, after looking and comparing the photos, I'm a little sad. Not because I regret putting in the french doors and new windows (there's so much more light in the kitchen now, the pictures *don't* do the room justice) but because everything looked so nice and neat and orderly and clean in the "before" pics. There was no dust. The linoleum floor, albeit old and beaten up, was shiny and spotless. There were no clusters of paint cans in one corner and power tools in another...The walls were painted! *sigh*

Well, there's no going back now. Someday this house will be whole (and clean!) again! Ok, now for the "befores" followed by the "durings":

Bathroom photos at last!

They're not very pretty, but they'll give a bit of an idea of the deconstruction that's going on here.

First a before, then a during, of the bathroom.

A presentation for your viewing pleasure...and Don't you just love a great deal?

I'm so excited, not just because of cabinets and sinks we bought at Lowes today but also because of the dirt cheap price we paid for them! This is a photo of what we bought (we bought two). I just love the look - lots of classic country chic charm, eh? Just take a guess at how much they are at Lowes...keeping in mind that the sink comes with it...

Not $300, not $200, not even $100 - but just $98! Can you believe it? Apparently, even the Lowes associates are befuddled. Each one that I've talked to about this piece says they've double and triple checked the price, even called their main offices...and $98 is the true price. The associates have told me that the sink alone would cost over $250 and that the cabinet itself was produced by a very reputable cabinet producer who makes top of the line pieces. And this piece is very well made - VERY sturdy and solid and heavy. They just can't understand why the whole cabinet and sink would be so inexpensive. They say that a lot of people (like me) have asked them if the price was wrong, lol...even people who weren't in the market for a new cabinet but thought the pricing was curious. I was told that they are selling them like crazy, too.

I also bought the two matching vanity mirrors- just $38 each...another ridiculously low price considering that the other vanity mirrors were much more expensive. So, for two big mirrors and two cabinets with two big sinks, I paid $298! You can't beat that!

Soon, our bathroom will be just a shell. The new tub has been in for a few months, but that's the only thing that's gone into the bathroom. This weekend, hubby removed the window and just walled up the opening on the outside. I liked having natural light in the bathroom, but the bathroom sits perpendicular(ly?) to the dining room and just a few months ago, we installed some pretty big windows in the said dining room. Lol, that means you could look out the dining room window and into the bathroom - seeing through the bathroom vanity mirrow who was using the bathroom or taking a bath. It was all very funky like that. I'm sure that some bathroom blinds would have fixed that problem, but the bathroom window was very old and painted shut...it needed to come out anyway.

Anyhow, my daughter Sydney and I ripped up all the old linoleum and the thin wood backer under it. What's it called...luan? Next, we'll be ripping out a small, useless 2 1/2 foot partition that stands next to the current vanity. This will open up the bathroom alot - giving us plenty of room for our new cabinets. We'll be moving the toilet to the nook behind the tub, so that will give us even more space.

Before we ripped everything out of the bathroom, it was *ok* but seemed small because of the weird wall partitions. We did the tile on the countertop ourselves soon after we moved in - before that the previous owners had applied marble contact paper over yellow laminate...Ewww! We also added the farm style table leg to the vanity to give it a bit more charm. As you can see from the photo, much of the countertop is wasted space. Another sink could have gone where the lamp is in the picture, but with the toilet right there, it would be hard to access the sink. The cabinet itself is about 30 years old and was painted white before. We had to sand it down (previous owner didn't prime...the white paint was peeling) and then we painted it the deep cranberry color. Oh, I found a photo of the new tub...the tub sits right across from the vanity and in this photo, you can see the wall which forms the nook where we'll put the potty (try saying that 10 times fast!) The tile that's propped up on the tub will be what's going in the surround and on the floor.



It's kind of sad that my bathoom looks so awful now in comparison to before! What's the saying...things always get worse before the can get better?

I will have to post the awful *during* photo soon. Our poor bathroom looks like it's been chewed up and spit out! BUT...I have vision and now all the elements to put it all back together. Below is my design that I put together about a year ago. The only thing that has really changed is my plan for the wall color (go figure) and the fact that we won't have the slate countertop now. I already have all the supplies and fixtures below (except for the vanity light...I took it back because we'll need two now). My wall color will be an earthy orange that is similar to the floor tile. The wall and floor color will be broken by white beadboard which will go halfway up the wall. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all my extra 1 inch slate tiles!



I've taken photos of all the destruction going on here but hubby needs to re-upload our camera software that allows us to upload photos. I've tried, but with no success.