Remodeling, reusing, renewing, rewarding!

Never thought about blogging about all the things I have done around the house until I read about The Pintester Movement .

Soooo, since we have been in the house together I have been slowly remodeling each room to reflect my (our) tastes as opposed to his ex's. Not hard to do as they didn't do much of anything but paint a few rooms. Our latest endeavor was the boys/guest bathroom. I got the idea for the walls from this pin on Pinterest: FabulousHomeBlog

Then it was just getting my husband motivated to help me with it.....

This is how the bathroom looked when we started:

 

First thing was to get rid of the ugly green/brown ceramic tile! Good way to get out your frustrations....

What a job!

 New under-layment going down....

In the original post showing these walls, they didn't put wood on the walls, just the strips. We wanted a more finished look so we choose to put 1/4" luan board on the walls. We used a height of 5 ft.

Below we have the walls done and the strips added. We also have the new flooring in. It

is a laminate whitewashed wood. The strips are 3/16" hardboard.

 Here is a view from the tub...

All painted! It took one coat of primer and two coats of white paint. Notice we added a rail along the top.

For the vanity I found an old (inexpensive) dresser at an antique store. Don't you love those drawer pulls?

They reminded me of boobs and butts. :)

 I stripped it and painted it white.

 I also found an antique mirror and did the same thing. This was for a dresser top so the two sides fold in.

The dresser/vanity and mirror installed. I had to use a bar sink in order to fit the dresser top, but I like it as it is deeper than a regular bathroom sink. I thought I would lose a lot of the drawer space but my husband found a way to modify the drawers so that every one of them are useable! The mirror is hung using a French cleat system. The only thing we didn't replace is the light fixture.

another view...

The artwork  I chose for the boys. The prints I found online, the frames at Michaels....

Boris, Norris & Horace

The final result:

I found the rug, which is made from old blue jeans at the same antique store I found the dresser. I still need to find something to put on the back of the toilet. The principle users of this bath are 9 & 11 yr old boys so it has to be somewhat kid friendly.  Total cost of the materials, including the dresser, mirror, artwork, new shower curtain, rug & towels was around $750.00.

Next project is a dining room table and chairs I found on Craigs List that needs to be refinished. Stay tuned....

As time goes by...

Holy moly! It's been, once again, over a year since I've updated this blog. As you can see I really suck at the blog thing. Life is so full and busy! I love it. I, however, signed up to do this Pintester Movement thing ( http://archive.aweber.com/pintesterweekly/6IODU/h/Pintester_Weekly.htm ) about a project whose conception arose from a Pin I saw on Pinterest so figured I should update this before that all comes down the pipe.

A lot has happened in the past year. Dan and I got married on July 21st. We kept it a secret from practically everyone, our kids, our siblings, even our mothers! It was perfect. He proposed to me at my family reunion and we married 5 min. later. My cousin, whose home the reunion was at, was the only one who knew what was going on and was instrumental in helping us get things organized. We married on her beach, barefoot, with our children standing beside us. It was a special reunion, a celebration of the 100th year since my Grandfather came to America. He was supposed to sail on the Titanic but traded tickets with his best friend, who was to sail on an earlier ship. Fate was with my grandfather that day! We were *this close* to not being here!

We have settled into our home, made some changes (the Pinterest boards helping). We have also settled into our married life together. Our bonds with each other and the kids have grown and strengthened. We have knit ourselves into a 'family'. Not that there haven't been speed bumps along the way, as there have been. However, we get them smoothed out and cruise on down the road together.

Dan was offered a new position at work and absolutely LOVES it. Doing what he loves (and at times hates) more than anything in the world. As he says so often during a frustrating moment..."Computers will be the death of me yet".  They can be so fantastically annoying at times, but he is very good at getting them figured out.

A few nights ago we had to deal with a dog that tangled with a skunk....ewwwww. Nasty stuff.  I got the remedy for that from Pinterest and it worked like a charm! My daughters say I am obsessed with Pinterest. They may be correct in that assessment. There are just so many great ideas on that site.

One thing I've learned in the past year is that nothing in our life is guaranteed.Things change in a heartbeat. Family members are diagnosed with cancer, a child finally gets a job using their degree, things come and go, as do friends. What it all boils down to, for me at least, is to learn to cherish each moment you have. Enjoy it , savor it, embrace it, LIVE it. You never know how many more moments you'll have. Don't forget to tell the people you love that you love them. Don't assume they know, tell them anyway, often.