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

bathroom progress

the mess that is our upstairs hallway right now

new insulation installed by yours truly

and if you look closely, you can see the electrical boxes installed by Hubs

little hole = old light

big hole = new vent fan/light (currently being installed by Hubs)

and, just because I like looking at it - our new vanity (not being put in until next weekend maybe?)

awesome feature - drawers INSIDE the cabinet

We had a bit of a water mystery earlier this week.  Monday and Tuesday morning, the plumber was here, blah blah blah.  Wednesday morning I realize the water in our second bathroom isn't getting hot.  great.  it's barely lukewarm (not cold, but definitely not warm).  Hubs thinks maybe the hot water tank (which was turned off all day Tuesday) just hadn't finished heating up the water.  Thursday, same thing.  On his way to work, Hubs calls.  He had an epiphany - the new shower valve upstairs doesn't have a handle yet, so we can't stop water from running through it (it's a mixing valve).  He has me run a little test - turn on every other faucet in/around the house (including outside hoses) on cold and then try the shower.  Sure enough - hot water.  Friday morning he also found the valve that shuts off just the upstairs water, which allows us to use our water normally again - no more turning on all the faucets just to take a shower!

Oh, and we had another bat in the house (refer to this post).  It's been almost a year and a half since our last bat sighting.  I'm just glad we can fully explain this one - bathroom is exposed to the attic, so that must have been how it got in the house, then Hubs thinks it crawled under the door.  While I was so mad the night it happened (Wednesday night), it was definitely the least traumatic of our bat episodes.  We saw it, opened the front door, and within a couple of minutes, it had flown outside.  That makes 4 bats in 2 years.  That makes me unhappy.

On a very happy note - I have to give a shout out to my good friend, J.  She and her husband welcomed their first child, a bouncing baby boy, this past Tuesday.  Little Jameson (Jamie) was born on July 27 (6 days late) weighing in at 7lbs 5 oz.  I got to meet him on Wednesday night and he's just perfectly adorable and looks just like his daddy.  I can't wait to watch the little bugger grow up! 

more house renovations

let's ignore the fact that I haven't done a recap of the last leg of our Italy trip.

Instead, I'm going to talk about our bathroom renovation :)

We've been planning this for months now (since March) and it's finally underway!  Over the past couple of months we have bought all of the new stuff (vanity, tub, fixtures, etc).  Last week we hired a plumber and things have been moving right along since then.  This past weekend while I was walking in the Susan G Komen 3-Day for the Cure (post to come about that later), my husband and father-in-law demo-ed the existing bathroom.

Old bathroom:

current bathroom:

no more gross tub/shower!

brand new beautiful tub!

new plumbing for shower

new plumbing for double vanity

This weekend we will hopefully get a lot done - once the electrical work is done and the sheet rock is up and painted, we can move in the vanity, then tile the floor/shower and then the plumber can come back and hook everything up!  sounds simple, right?