Ideas for the Bathroom

I said yesterday that I would have some pictures of our house renovation up today, but unfortunately I'm not quite ready yet. I've been working on painting the three sets of shelves in the bathroom. I have two of them finished, but I want the last one to be ready before I put up some pictures!

I still wanted to have a post for today, so I thought I would show you all what I'm planning for the bathroom. I've never lived somewhere that didn't have any enclosed cabinet space in the bathroom before. I'm trying to get creative on storage for the bathroom so that it looks neat and tidy and so that we don't have medications and things just sitting out all over the place!

I've always been... well, less than neat and tidy all the time so as I unpack and organize my house I'm trying to really be realistic about storage. I want everything to have a place so that I can keep everything in its place! Here is what I'm thinking about for the bathroom:

This is the bathroom set we have right now. We have the soap dispenser, toothbrush holder, and shower curtain in this pattern. I really like it and we just got them for our wedding last year, so everything is going to be centered around this. We're going to paint the walls green and the shelves and trim will be cream to help keep things light.

Bed, Bath & Beyond

In the Pottery Barn catalog I received a few weeks there was a close up on the shelf area of this bathroom and I fell in love. This was very close to the idea I had for my bathroom, so it's a good inspiration picture! I love the canisters and jars on the shelves. My plan is to have different jars, canisters, and baskets on each shelf so that they all match on one shelf but each shelf is different. Did that make sense?

Pottery Barn

I want small baskets like this one on the shelves to hold toothpaste, hair spray, medications, hair brushes, combs, etc. so that they aren't all sitting out looking messy. I'll use the clear jars for items such as cotton balls, q-tips, and other items that will be uniform in one jar.

IKEA

One of the three sets of shelves has three rows and is much deeper and larger than the rest. I want to keep my towels and washcloths on two rows and then my hair straightener, blow dryer, and other larger items on the third row. However, I don't want them sitting out so I want to get lined baskets like these for each row. One basket just like these (but longer) will fit perfectly on each row.

Pottery Barn

Finally, I would really like a hamper that matches all of the wicker baskets in the room. I'm in love with this one right now.

 Bed, Bath & Beyond

What do you think? Any ideas or suggestions? And don't forget to check back over the weekend to see the pretty new paint on the shelves!

I'm still here!

Happy Tuesday! And why is it happy, you ask? Because it is not Monday and therefore it is one day closer to Friday. You have to find the bright side!

Another bright side is that we've finally made some more progress on the house! Things have slowed down since we moved in because we've been exhausted. We've been taking some time off and we haven't even been unpacking as much as we should have been. But, Joey's been working on the house a bit and I've been unpacking here and there and it'll all get done eventually. We're really enjoying not having to work at a break neck pace anymore!

This is a project we finished awhile back, but I never put up official before and after pictures!

Didn't he do an amazing job? I love how the tile looks and the nice shiny new fixtures! The bathtub itself is stained beyond repair (you can see it in the bottom 'After' picture there) so we'll be getting it refinished in the not too distant future.

Pretty! We'll get nicer fixtures later, for the time being we just wanted new ones.

Joey painted the bedroom closet this weekend and patched that hole that was being covered with... cardboard and duct tape. The paint is still drying in the after picture, so it looks a little splotchy. It looks great now! We're still planning on putting in a new bar, painting the trim and replacing the door.

I finally bought Joey his birthday present. It was only... three weeks late. Eep. However, he loves it and has been cooking up a storm on his new grill/smoker.

Grilling some delicious burgers.

While he was grilling, I wandered around the yard and took some pictures.

One of five little mushrooms growing on our picnic table that is badly in need of a new coat of paint.

We have this plant in the yard that has huuuuuuuge leaves.

That's all for today my lovelies! I'll be posting again tomorrow about my dream yard, so come back and check it out!

And go click that "follow" button if you don't follow me already!

Tile & 2 Days to Move In

Good morning chickadees! How is everybody today? I am tired and stressed, thanks for asking! But, the end is in sight and that is a fabulous feeling!

Most of what I've been doing has been boring (cleaning the house and packing the apartment) so I won't bore you with that, other than to say that I am a packing rock star.

Yesterday I took a break from the boring stuff to work on pretty-fying the house again. Megan (who is awesome, no lie) came by to help me paint for a few hours!

Super Megan! She is the butt-saving hero.

This should be gorgeous when the walls are finished and the trim is actually painted instead of just primed!

Between the two of us, we got more trim and windows primed, the living room (mostly) painted green, and the bedroom (mostly) painted green as well! The mostly just means that I either A) couldn't get to a few spots due to furniture still being in the room and I couldn't move it by myself to paint behind or B) I just completely ran out of green paint... depending on which room we're talking about. However, the vast majority of each of these rooms is painted now!

Green!

So much better than the yellowed white that these walls used to be.

The color isn't really coming through in some of these pictures, it was way too bright outside when I took them. But this is the color the walls are...

What is even more exciting than the paint (which is exciting, don't get me wrong) is the fact that Joey is 99% of the way done with the tile! Remember this bathroom before? When it was stained old plastic tile stuff that looked horrible?

Here it is now...

It hasn't been caulked yet and the grout is drying so it looks darker right now... but seriously, how good is my hubby?

I want to die it's so pretty. Ok, then I couldn't take showers in it or stand and admire his handiwork... but you get the point.

The movers are coming on Wednesday morning and here's our list to do before they show up:

1. Clean up debris and construction material from floors of house.
2. Clean all floors in house.
3. Finish wiping down cabinets and counters in house.
4. Caulk and seal the bathtub.
5. Finish packing apartment.

Eeep. Not going to panic... not going to panic...

This and That. 8 Days til Move In

Check out Joey's mad photo skills.

We only have one of those flowers in the yard, but it's beautiful! We're down to only having 8 days to go until the move... and we're getting incredibly nervous. Not much has been packed and not a single room at the house is finished entirely. So... anyone want to paint? Anyone? Anyone?

Really, we can move in without it being painted. The only things that absolutely must be done before next Wednesday are:

1. Pack up the apartment
2. Finish the bathtub
3. Clean the entire house. (It's very dusty, still has assorted items in it that need removed, and the floors need a good hard clean)

Really, that's it... it's a lot. But that is all that has to be done. I'd love the whole place to be painted and happy... but I really don't see that happening. It can all be painted after we move in, so that's good at least.

Joey had some amazing progress with the bathtub yesterday. Look at that beautiful tile! I can't wait until he starts putting the trim up, it's going to look amazing!

The before picture for the fixtures.

He also switched out the fixtures yesterday. They were not so pretty before and the calcium was affecting how usable the fixtures were.

Shiny and new!

He'll put the nozzle and knobs on after he puts up the backer board and tiles. He also secured the pipe leading up to the shower head. Someone along the line took a shortcut and just let it stand free without support.

See... it just kind of stands there. Now it's fixed!

He was also awesome enough to remove one of the window air conditioning units that didn't work and was just looking terrible... now it's gone and ready to be primed and painted!

Ick.

I spent time cleaning. Some of the dust I cleaned yesterday was literally older than I was. Here's a reminder people: you should clean the top of your refrigerator. Dust gets really hard to remove when it's been there for 20 to 30 years. I wiped down the top of the fridge, the insides of some of the cabinets, the air conditioners, and most of the window frames (yes, those have to be cleaned too... and if you wait years, they really really need cleaned).

I got tired of cleaning and painted some window trim. I did two of these suckers and this is the smaller of the two. Unfortunately, I think that my painting days are over until I get everything else done. That Kilz just makes all of the old damaged wood look clean, so I keep tricking myself into thinking that needs to be done before move in... but it really doesn't.

Bam!

I started packing up the apartment yesterday too. I feel better about having a bit more of it done, but there is still so much to do there. I had a slight mental break down and just kept saying "it can't get done! We don't have time!" until Joey banished me from the house and sent me to go get a massage. I need to have more mental breakdowns if that's what I get! haha.

Tonight I have a Girl Scout leader training I have to go to, so we aren't going to do any work at the house. Joey is going to pack and do some dishes and cleaning while I'm gone. Isn't he a good hubby? And when I get home I'll keep trucking right along with the packing!


PS. I have 9 followers now! Who wants to make me super happy and be my 10th?

Shopping Trips and Injuries

I took the hubby on a surprise shopping trip yesterday! Ok, so really I got him in the car and wouldn't tell him where we were going... but that counts, right? Here is a sneak peak of some of the goodies we picked up!

Vinyl Tile for bathroom floor

Bathroom sink

Kitchen sink (we'll buy a fancy one later)

Welcome mat!

We also picked up some supplies (boring, but necessary) and some plane jane faceplate covers for light switches and electrical sockets. The old ones were all yellowed and I want them to look crisp and clean!

We (finally) got (almost) everything moved out of that house! That turned into probably the biggest, most stressful, most infuriating debacle so far in my life, but most everything has been packed and removed from the house. If you need any furniture... there is a ton on my street corner for free.

Through all of this unnecessary packing of stuff that wasn't mine, I really messed up my shoulder/arm. I'm going to try and get to the doctor tomorrow. But, one way or the other I still have to pack my entire apartment up, paint the house, and help Joey any way I can... all in 9 days! Oh goodness... think happy thoughts for me, I'm going to need them!


(And leave me comments and subscribe! Maybe that'll fix my arm? Good thoughts can do that, right?)

Painting and Tile

I think yesterday was the first day that someone could walk into the house and really see what we did without us having to tell them. We've been working on so many projects that just aren't as big and impressive, so it was nice to finally get to some big projects!

Joey put some more backer board up. He couldn't put it up on the side of the shower with the knobs and shower head... mostly because we didn't have those things and it would have been difficult to do! However, we were able to go buy new shower fixtures last night, so he can work on finishing the backer board soon!

He also started working on putting tile up! I'm really excited about this. I honestly was worried that this shower would never look good, but he proved me wrong!

I'm still amazed he knows how to do this stuff.

Pretty tile!

Yesterday's progress!

While he was doing that, I worked on emptying out the study as much as I could. Then I started painting!

Seriously in love with this color.

I finished painting the walls in the study! I still need to caulk around the trim, then prime, and paint the trim and door. And Joey needs to get the ceiling painted, but this room is looking so much closer to done!

I had enough time after that to begin painting the kitchen as well! I only have one picture from this progress, but the color looks amazing in here too!

Beginnings of a Bathroom and The Garage Sale

My darling wonderful amazing husband was able to start on the bathroom today! Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay! (Was that enough yays?)

I have been looking forward to this more than anything else because that bathroom literally looked like a scene from a horror movie. There were weird red stains and splotches on the ceiling, stains on the walls, and the toilet and bathtub were their own little nightmare worlds. I didn't want to post the before pictures of this room until some progress had been made so that I didn't hear "Dear God Rachel, what on earth were you thinking?" and instead I might hear "Wow Rachel, you have an amazing husband who knows how to do so many handy dandy things!" Or... you know, something like that.

Are you ready for this? Cue the horror music...

Yup... that was scary. The bathroom is still a work in progress, but I have to say this is the only time I've ever heard of a wall being removed and the area looking better. Yeah. Here are some in between shots...

The walls are slowly disappearing...

All gone!

Seriously, doesn't that look better?

And a few of my Darling Joey putting the backer board up! He used extra strong liquid nails to attach the backer board to the studs, then he put screws in every 4 inches along each of the studs. This has to be super sturdy because the tile will be attached to this wall.

He removed all the mildew and the walls! He's my hero!

Beautiful, fresh, clean backer board.

And I wasn't just sitting idle while he completed all this work! I spent the last two days having a garage sale to get rid of unwanted items in the house as well as some items that I didn't want anymore from all of my stuff.

Not as much stuff out the second day into this.

We got rid of everything (between selling it and goodwill), and thank goodness for that because carrying it all in and out was getting tiring. And now it's all gone from the house. Now there is only... a whole bunch left to remove. Sigh. I have to keep reminding myself that progress is being made and that we are accomplishing something.

****At some point in the near future I'm going to have a giveaway. However, I'm not going to do one until I have more followers and it will only be open to followers. So, if you aren't a follower but you read my blog... go click on the little "Follow" button on the right! It'll make me happy!****