it's done!

the bathroom is done. well, functional at least. we need to still put in the baseboards and some artwork, but we can use it and it looks pretty.

so check it out. before:



after (about the same angle, just different camera):


some more photos 'cuz you know you wanna see it from every angle :)

so you can see the light fixture:


a bit more of the floor:


from the tub angle:


i'll spare you all the details of the triumphs and losses, but it's my first big renovation, and over all it turned out pretty good. the sink wasn't nearly as hard to install as i thought it would be, but it does take two people. the artwork we'll have in there is stuff that i took (from fayla's follies of course!), i just need to find frames and choose what to include. thanks for following along. next blog post will have nothing to do with bathrooms!

bathroom renovation part 2

but really this is part 3 because i didn't post part 2...so part 2 was to put down the tile.



voila! that was easy! well, not really, but there it is.

and then we needed to take down the wall that was behind the sink. why you ask? because we're putting in a pedestal sink and i need to put in a beam to screw the sink into. and since i was taking out about 40 inches of the wall, why not take out 73 inches so that we can have the medicine cabinet recessed. there's still some straightening i need to do and the braces need to go in for both the sink and the medicine cabinet, but now the innards of the house are exposed for all to see!

from the hallway...


from the tub...



once the supports are up, we'll re-wallboard this area (i bought the stuff for bathrooms, even though the rest of the bathroom doesn't have the "wet" board, this area will at least), texturize the new wall and the bit that looks unfinished in these pics (so it matches the rest of the room) and then paint. we have some ideas, but i won't share those just yet. i also need to smooth out the ceiling and paint that (white) and the final step will be to put up new base boards and trim.

then the fun begins, shower curtain, towel holders, etc. yipee!!

spring cleaning

in an effort to be more green, i've been changing over my cleaning products to ones that won't harm the environment. a couple difficulties with this are that they aren't cheap and how to decide which ones to use?! there are so many out there and back to "they aren't cheap" if they don't work, you don't want to just throw it away.

so i've gone to my green resources, my mom & my baby sister. they are always looking for better, greener cleaning products and if it's in their budgets, then they'll try it. so here's what we've come up with...

dish soap - method. cleans the best, easy to find, and one of my book club friends told me that america's test kitchen just put out that this was their favorite too!

floor cleaner - castille soap (the link is to the brand you can find at target). not sure about using it on wood floors (so don't blame me...), but tile and vinyl. it's the best. cleans well, and you can find it now at target in the cosmetics aisle.

counter top cleaner - mrs. meyer's. wow. no more scrubbing. seriously this stuff has changed my life. also easy to find.

have you found a green product that you like? leave a comment and share what it is!

bathroom renovation

i know it's been a while, but i was unemployed for 6 months and there really wasn't anything to write about except job hunting, and how boring is that?! so now i'm back, employed and knee deep into the latest home improvement project. (you can see the first one here.) now we're renovating our guest bathroom! i've been wanting to make some changes in there since i bought the house and now we're doing it. here's a "before photo" from when i was having the house inspected before it was purchased.



not very exciting and i probably should have taken some recent ones before we really started, but you get the idea...booor-ing!

we took out the mirror above the vanity. it was just a plain mirror screwed in above the vanity. and replaced it with a 3 door-mirrored medicine cabinet. then we removed the vanity.



ahhhh. that was easy. except for the valves that needed to be replaced, but since i had run into that issue before, it was easily fixed. in that photo, they are fixed -- the bucket was sitting there for extra insurance.

then we removed the toilet so we could get all the old floor up, it came up quite easily once i had the proper tools. here are a few views.

from the hallway:


from the shower:


another from the hallway:


next, we tile...

a tale

this is a story about a dog, a cat and a third four-legged creature. i'm not sure what to call it, but i'm sure you'll form your own opinion once you read this post and i'd love to hear that opinion.

a few weeks back, we had the back door open as we were making dinner because it was a beautiful evening and this way the animals can easily go out or in depending on their mood. we don't have a screen door on this door, but will someday. i put a new rug down in front of the sink admired it briefly and then left the room briefly. when i returned, my music man said to me, "i'm not sure i want to tell you what i just saw." now, i thought that the dog peed on my new rug which wouldn't be the end of the world except for the fact that she hasn't peed in the house for like a year. sorry, back to the story....

but tell me he did. evidently our precious laila was playing with something over by the OPEN door. when she lost her grip on it, it ran straight for the stove and dove under. all that was seen was a tail and some legs. eeek!! a mouse? well. ok. let me get back to the story. so we tip-toe around the stove for a few days, then sorta forget about it. then remember, you know how it goes. then one day, fina is sitting on that new rug (which she NEVER does) and is staring under the stove. hmmmm. then she gets up and starts smelling under the fridge. hmmmm. we're guessing she might have seen our visitor. ok. this is good. this is what a cat does. so i make a deal with her. if she catches the thing, kills it and DOESN'T leave it dead on our pillows, i will feed her wet food for a week. i think she understands.

again, we kinda forget about our visitor. and then 4.30 one morning we are awakened by a squeaking coming down the hallway. my music man jumps up on the bed, turns on the light. and sure enough, there's fina with the visitor in her mouth. ok, decision time, does he pick her up and put them both outside all the while taking the risk that fina will keep the thing in her mouth? no time to think because fina drops it. the visitor runs into the bathroom (the one without a toilet -- that's a story for another time) and fina runs after it. remember folks, it's 4.30 IN THE MORNING! my music man grabs the bucket and the plunger and tries to catch the thing. it runs out, into the bedroom, then into the closet. at this point, i say, lock the cat and the visitor in the closet, shove a towel under the door and let them have it out. we'll deal with it in the morning. but no, my hero goes in there after it. catches it and throws it outside. we're back in bed by 4.45.

phew that was a close one.

but now the question is, was it a mouse? was it a rat? was it a field mouse. this sucker was not one of those cute tiny mice you see at the pet store. this was a fat sucker. without a tail (we think fina may have gotten that in the scuffle). i guess we'll never know.

PS - camping photos

brief update

because it's been almost a week and i've been on such a roll with posting at least once a week (sometimes twice!), i thought i would give you a brief update.

first, where did the week go? the tulips have all died, but i enjoyed them every day they were alive.

i replaced both toilets in the house! w00t! let me tell you, it was a HUGE "5-minute-project". after multiple calls to my brother-in-law, a few tears and a frantic call to a plumber, they are both fully functional, and i would have to say that they work even better than the old ones. however, that project did consume the majority of my long weekend.

we did get a start on our garden though! on one of the many trips to the hardware store, we bought 4 kinds of peppers (3 of which are seeds), two basil plants, one cilantro plant and some cactus seeds. getting started on the garden!

guess that's it for now. have a lovely rest of the week, and a new more exciting update is in the works -- promise!

gardening: 101

well, to be honest, i'm not going to teach you to garden. i don't even know what i'm doing -- i'm winging it as someone i know (mom? dad?) would say. BUT, we did get our garden turned over. those of you that have read this blog from the beginning, remember my first attempt at a garden. and as fun as that was, i didn't count on the fact that last year would be so rainy and muddy and that the dog would take over the back yard. and in recent months, we have discovered that she can hop the garden fence -- not good if you want to actually grow something in the garden. so we've moved it and enlarged it. now it's on the east side of the house which gets loads of sun, but afternoon shade -- a good thing here in ATX.

we've also plotted out what we're planting and where and i've even put the rosemary in it's spot already. so we're on our way. i'd post a photo, but it's really not that pretty (nothing's planted yet), and it's literally only turned over. we still plan to cover it with the leaves from the yard and then a layer of mulch over that. then come planting time, we'll turn it all over and our veggies will be happy [fingers crossed!].

so what are you planting this year?

laundry room

at long last...i've been promising this to you all for ages now, and finally, it's here. before and after photos for your enjoyment.



that part in the back of the room that is a different color than the rest of the wall was where the shelf was. i took that down, obviously. and the ceiling (there is no photo, sorry) was popcorned. i took that down as well and painted it.




my mom made the curtains and helped me hang the shelves.



voila! pretty good, right? makes laundry a much more enjoyable experience. in fact, i'm in the middle of a load right now...

the floor had a horrible vinyl tile on it. and when my first washer broke i replaced it with some more vinyl tile. so when i re-did the room, i decided to put ceramic tile down, and i did! all by myself. i'd show you a photo, but there's not much to see since there's a washer and dryer sitting on top of the tile job.

i hope it was worth the wait!

lots going on

lots been going on here.

i've been to my first ACL (Austin City Limits) festival this past weekend! it was a great time, but so very tiring. you can see all the photos here. we got to hear bob dylan. took him a while to warm up his voice, but at least now i can say i heard bob dylan live!

i also built a bookcase! yup. me. bookcase. pretty impressive, right? now i just have to fill it up. i'm sure that won't be difficult. this is all in an effort to get the study up and running with all of our stuff, the extra tv and a couch. it's pretty full.
once the furniture is in its proper place, i'll take a photo to compare to what it used to look like. pretty exciting.

next, we're getting ready for my music man's mother to come for a visit. she'll be here the last weekend in september. looking forward to that visit, but need to get the guest room workable. i've been putting that off while we got the study orgainzed, but now time's a tickin.

garden!

here it is!



it's not perfect. and probably not going to last 30 years, but it'll do for now.