"new" flooring

While we have a dumpster here during the bathroom renovation, I took the opportunity to rip out some of the carpet in the house.  There is hardwood floor underneath it all, but we'll be re-carpeting the family room and stairs so that still has the old carpet.  But the hallway looks amazing!  The floors are in pretty good shape, minus the small nail holes from the tack strips.

Before

After

We've been working on the bathroom all weekend - it's really coming together!  I'll have pictures of that tomorrow I hope!

flash

For my birthday this year, my parents got me a DSLR camera.  It's the Canon XS (1000D).  I *love* it.  Our Italy pictures would not have been nearly as good with another camera, I'm sure of it.

Recently I've been wanting an external flash - I know from a couple of friends who have DSLRs that it makes a HUGE difference.  It was delivered today and you tell me if you see the difference...

Needless to say, I now *love* my camera and the flash

tile - part 2

Today, the husband and myself finished the tile in the bathroom.  I laid the tile while T made the cuts.  It was pretty much smooth sailing except for a couple cuts we had to make around the plumbing and our little cutout shelf wasn't easy.  But, it looks great and we love the way it turned out!

it was raining, so T made himself a little tent

all done (minus grout)!

(blue painters tape = keeping bats out)

that little contraption in the cutout is holding the top tiles in place while the thin-set dries

so in love with the glass tile in the back of our cut-out shelf!

it doesn't look so dark in person...my flash isn't good in that tight space

Sometime this week we'll grout the floor and the shower and then we'll be ready to move the vanity in and for the plumber to come back and hook everything up!

tile - part 1

Hubs stayed home from work today while the Verizon guy was here installing FiOS.  He took the opportunity to lay tile on the bathroom floor.  It looks awesome!  I'm biased, but I think he did a great job - especially considering it's his first tile job.

He needs to grout it and then this weekend he'll do the shower!

overdue update - landscaping

I just realized I never shared pictures of our landscaping!  Last year, if you look back, we did the front walkway and patio.  This year we got to plant new landscaping!  Of course within a couple of weeks we entered a 2-month long heat wave (90+ for half the month of July, basically above 85 all the other days, and very little rain).  I think the plants made it though.  I guess we'll find out for sure next year!

 I hit an electrical wire while digging one of the holes.  This is what MrT had to do to bury it

Another hole uncovered this monstrosity.  Solid cement.

Before

After

Apparently I have no pictures of the following with mulch...

And finally, some of the beautiful flowers from our plants!

This is a type of hydrangea.  The flowers are a really pale green right now and will turn pink in the fall!

Since I love progress shots so much...here's a mini photo-timeline...

Before - when we bought the house

Last year - when we'd redone everything, sans landscaping

And finally, done!

let there be light

I. love. it.  Now I just need the vanity to get installed below it!

We also bought all the tile yesterday.  Here is the floor tile:

and the shower tile with decorative tile that will go in the middle

one step at a time...

gut bathroom........done
new plumbing........done
new electrical.........done
new tub................done
new insulation.......done
new sheet rock......done
new vent fan.........done
ceiling painted.......done
walls primed..........done
walls painted.........DONE!

what we have left is installing the new vanity light fixture, tiling the floor and shower, then installing the vanity and getting the plumber to come back to hook up the sinks, shower, and toilet.  Then the finish work (trim, fixtures, etc).

The new paint is hard to see without something to compare it too.  It's very pale on it's own, so you need something white to really see it.  We needed something light because everything else is dark - the vanity is cherry, top is a black granite, tile is a dark tan, etc.  We went through a lot of samples before deciding on the color.  We ended up with Benjamin Moore - Constellation.  It's one of their new Affinity colors and it goes great with everything.

story of a bathroom renovation - unfinished

(click to see larger)

lots of progress this weekend

we were busy little homeowners this weekend - working away on our bathroom.  Saturday consisted of new electrical work, new insulation, new vent installed, and most of the sheetrock being hung (you saw those pictures yesterday).  Today we (OK, the husband), finished hanging the sheetrock as well as the cement board in the shower.  T then built a nice little cut-out/shelf in the shower wall.  I also succeeded in picking out a paint color as well as starting the process of spackling the walls.  Hopefully by the end of the week the walls will be ready to be primed and painted.

beautiful new walls - no, they will not be purple at the end of this project

shower/tub with the nice little shelf T built

where the vanity will go

the final color choice

after using scrap sheetrock to paint all my samples on, this is the winner.  And luckily, this is the color that allows us to not have to buy new towels