I HAVE A SINK!

Approximately 1 year, 1 month and 20 days after beginning this blog I have a fully functioning bathroom! The sink is done! We can now was our hands in the bathroom! YEAH!
We are still working with no trim, no outlet and temporary lighting situation but I have a fully functioning shower, bath, toilet and sink! There are not words for how exciting this has been!

In other exciting news I found curtains to match Isabelle's room. They need a little sewing so as soon as I find the camera battery charger, and get the sewing done I will post photos of the sink, the curtains and our pumpkin patch!

It's HERE!

The Vanity is here and it's GORGEOUS!

B-A-T-H

We will no longer say "Bath" at our house, it will only be spelled out. If you say "bath" in our house you will have to immediately be forced to give one little princess a bath. Tonight at 7:15 I said "Isabelle do you want a bath tonight" she started a 50 yard dash to the bathroom. She looks over the edge, gets the bottle of Johnson's baby wash and throws the whole bottle in the tub and says, "Bath? Bath!" So be warned, if you say "Wow what a nice Bath tub" you will be rolling up your sleeves and giving Isabelle a B-A-T-H.

Too Much for one day?

Here it is, the almost finished product of out labors!
I can't believe how well it turned out considering it's was Todd's first time tiling. Little does he know how many plans other family members have for him now that he can tile!



Here you can see the bathroom color and the tile together.

This is looking from the bedroom to the hallway.

This is the color on 3 walls of the bedroom.

And here is where the two paint colors meet. Now we are just waiting on the vanity, refinishing the original wood flooring and then we can put up the trim. It's all very exciting, but it was really worn us out. For the past week and a few days we have just relaxing and worked on getting more important things, like laundry, done.

Surprise

I know I said I wouldn't be posting this week but I just have so much to tell you that if I waited until next week it would be typing for hours! So here goes...

Isabelle took her first bath at home in the new bath tub. It was hilarious. It was like a swimming pool for her and she loved it!

After Isabelle went to bed on Monday night Todd and I scrapped down the pop corn texture on the ceiling in the main level bedroom so that the contractor who is going to mud and tape the walls while we are gone can also put an orange peel texture on the ceiling and walls. Hopefully too if he has time everything will be primed when we get home!! fingers crossed. So above is the before and below is the after scrapping.

It only took an hour and a half which isn't too bad. What else would we be doing 7 hours before we leave for phoenix??

Here is Todd scrapping. We got it done and now we make plans for what we want to get done when we get home. As soon as I'm unpacked I believe a paint brush will be stuck in my hand. It's amazing how much progress Todd has made in the past 3 weeks!

So Long..

Farewell dear friends, don't worry it's just for a week and I promise to come back this lots of pictures and stories. We leave tomorrow for a 4 day trip to Phoenix. We are very excited and trying to get things done as home as fast as possible.
Now you might ask, how is the renovation going to get done while we are away. Well fear not! the drywall is all up and we have a contractor coming to mud and tape all the joints and put an orange peel texture on the walls and ceiling. So when we come back it will be ready for primer and paint! YEAH! I hope you all have a wonderful week and Promise to bring warm weather home with me, it's supposed to be in the 80's while we are down there. My bones are ready to be thawed out.
I hope that you all have a great week!

Toilet Paper Savings

The quote below is a solicitation comment that I got on one of my recent posts:
" David said...
The ultimate bathroom retreat is not complete without a bidet or better yet.......a portable bathroom bidet sprayer. The hand sprayer gives you superior control and water volume and if the bathroom was not designed to allow for a bidet it offers the convenience of installation on the existing toilet AND you don't have to get up and move every time! You will pay for it many times over in toilet paper savings. "

I was laughing so hard at the part that I will pay for the toilet many times over in toilet paper savings! OK you are talking to a girl who has trouble peeing outside if there isn't an available toilet. If I can't keep my own pee off my pants how am I going to do with a sprayer in my own bathroom. I just picture myself walking out of the bathroom with dripping hair and a sad look on my face and Todd saying, "Sprayer got you again, huh?" and I would say, "Yep" and the thought of all the money we would be saving on not using toilet paper would not be consoling in the least!

So David thank you for the thought, and although this blog is open to any suggestions on our remodeling however I can tell we will not be getting a bidet or a sprayer on our toilet.

Painted Turtle

This is the tile for the Bathroom and the paint color for the bathroom.

Tile and paint again.

Here are the three paint colors for the bathroom, hallway and bedroom. I'm nervous now that everything that we have bought will come together and look terrible and cheap. I also started looking for a shower curtain. I haven't found one yet but still looking. Where do you shop for bath accessories??

Also note the difference in the brown color in these photos. They are all the same paint chip but they look totally different.

Progress and Vocabulary

So I don't have any pictures today of our remodel but I can tell you we have made a lot of progress in the last week. The cement board is up around the tub, there is a brand new window in the bathroom and in the bedroom. We have a vanity and top along with all the fixtures we need including a toilet. We picked out paint and now I just wait patiently as Todd ticks things off of the to do list. He officially entered week 3 of the lay off. Which if we all do our math correctly leaves him 2 weeks to finish the bathroom. However we leave next Tuesday for Phoenix for 4 days, 3 nights quick trip to support everyone's favorite baseball team!
We have a family member who works for the Milwaukee Brewers and will be in Phoenix for their spring training. So we are making a trip down to see her and the team play. We are all excited. It will be Isabelle's first trip on an air plane. Don't worry there will be copious pictures from the trip.
In other Isabelle news she has starts to say so many new words this past week it's incredible. She can say animal, apple, and her first sentence "Hi Baby!" and this morning she said "Hi Dad." Todd was frying up some bacon when she said this and he turned to look at me with bewildered amazement and then a knowing look that we are now all in trouble. It's like a switch has been flicked on. I can't wait to see what she comes up with this week.
I will post more photos tomorrow however Todd wanted to clean up the construction zone before I put pictures up.

Oh sweet bath tub, how I love thee

This was last Friday morning. The sub floor was down.
And a wall was put up


And this morning we got to sit in the bath tub for the first time!

Words cannot describe how large the bath tub is. I LOVE IT even more today! Literally Todd and I can sit almost side by side. the foreshortening on the photo above doesn't let you see how long the tub actually is.

Yesterday Todd and I spent the afternoon at Home Depot and Menards picking out tile, fixtures and vanities. You will see a lot of progress this week! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Bath House

This is what I came home to on Tuesday night! It's out of the box!

Here it is! Can you believe it! I can't!

Todd wouldn't let me sit in it because he needs to put a grout base below it. It was really hard to not get in and just sit there!


Seriously there is room for the whole family in the bath tub. I'm not even joking.

Oh sweet bathtub we have been waiting for you for so long!

So today on day 3 of the layoff. Todd will be pouring the grout foundation below the tub. The lay the Luann wood that will go beneath the laminate wood flooring.

On Sunday Todd and I will be going to Home Depot to pick out tiles for the shower and a vanity.

Seriously it took every fiber in my body to no go get a glass of wine and just go and sit in the tub.

Isabelle should be able to have her first bath in the tub next week! YEAH!

Tuesday Morning

This was the bathroom on Tuesday Morning.

That in the big box with the motor is my(our) bathtub.

Do you see how big it looks in the box! I can't wait to unwrap it!


Also lets note the beautiful french door! It brings so much light into the bedroom area.

The State of Our Union

As of today I am the bread winner in the family. This is not a surprise or a bad thing by any means. Todd has taken a 5 week voluntary layoff from his job. During which time he is going to FINISH THE BATHROOMS! Did anyone notice the S on the end of bathrooms. That's right PLURAL. God willing my ever so handy husband is going to finish the main level bathroom for which this blog was originally started and to make over our upper level bathroom as well. (I just about crapped my pants when he mentioned that because we have not been able to use the shower in the main level for well over a year. AND since August we have only had 1 room that even resembled a bathroom.) So cross your fingers, toes, legs and arms that a miracle will happen in our home in the next month.

The other part of Todd's being home that I am really going to enjoy is not having to rush around in the morning to get Isabelle and I ready to head off to work and daycare. Isabelle will still be going to daycare but Todd can get her dressed and fed all while I get ready for work. That and we can spend a little time together every morning as a family. Secretly I'm more excited for this than my bathrooms, which I have learned to live with.

IT'S HERE!

The tub is here. We received a notification in the mail that the tub has arrived and we can pick it up when ever we want. Todd will be picking it up tomorrow on his day off! YEAH! It's here!
And now I'm suddenly weighed down but all the new choices that have to be made. Oh goodness.
I have the tub and the flooring picked out, however now we need a toilet, a vanity, shower head, faucet,sink faucet, tile for the surround. CRAP CRAP CRAP so much to do! But none the less the tub is here and we are excited!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

We have found a bath tub!

Now we just need to special order it and it will come some time in January. Yes I am completely admitting defeat. I told Todd when we started this in AUGUST I wanted it done in OCTOBER. Now I will be lucky if it's done in March. However for this whirlpool bath it will be well worth the wait. Other new revelations that came with the bath include the fact that we will be doing a tile surround. not something we really wanted to do however I think it will be the best choice in the long run However that adds a whole new set of decisions to make. What kind of tile? What color? What size? But we finally have some progress! YEAH!

Busy Busy Weekend

We made progress on the house this weekend and many other things. First of all and most importantly Todd and his brothers and a friend put a patio door in the back bedroom this weekend. They also put in a header for where the eventual opening between the living room and "bedroom" will be. This is great progress! we can now talk about insulating and sheet rocking in the bedroom. Which none of that will happen until we find our fixtures for the bathroom. However knowing this is going to be a slow going process I'm on my way out of town this weekend. So Todd will be a bachelor... hopefully a hard working bachelor!

Note: I will put of these photos when I get them from Andrea because of course my camera battery died on Saturday afternoon. However it didn't die before we took a ton of cute pictures of my niece and Iz with the pumpkins. I will put those up as well when I charge the battery.

My Mom and I also cut out the pieces for Isabelle's bee costume for Halloween. My sister in law and mother were going to sew it together on Sunday. I haven't heard yet how that went- but good I hope! It should be pretty dang cute. So for all who live close plan on a little buzzing on Halloween. As I'm typing this I'm making a mental list of all those we will have to visit on Halloween! Good thing it's a Friday night!

So instead of continuing to tell you about the other pictures I'm going to stop here. Sigh and make mental notes of all the things I need to do before I leave for Chicago this weekend with a friend and Isabelle!

I've called in a designer and she's walking.

I'm lucky enough to have an interior designer as one of my best friends. So this is a warning to her- I will be calling again very soon needing words advice! We still haven't done anything to the room however I did find out that my bath exists. Now can I afford it? We'll see.


Also Miss Isabelle has decided that it's time to begin walking. She isn't doing it all on her own yet but she can push things around like none other. I think it was a good buy! This toy also turns into a riding toy and she really likes that.

"How is the renovation going?"

OK folks I'm going to admit it. WE have done NOTHING in the torn apart rooms for about 3 weeks now and it is looking like it will be another 2 or 3 before anything more gets done.

Living on a farm means there are many other responsibilities that those inside your front door. On the average farm there might be time for more renovation however on our farm we are becoming day by day more industrious with the things we have around us.

Let me back up. We live on Neumann Ave. My brother in-law and his family live 1/3rd of a mile from our house and then in the other direction 1/3 of a mile of my in-laws house. In some areas they might call it a "compound" we however call it home! The in-laws have 200+ acres of farm land and they keep Steers and Sheep at our house because they don't have a barn. On the 200+ acres we plant hay as well as about 5 acres of pumpkins and squash that we sell. We are always trying to expand our products to sell in the fall. Last year Todd decided to start keeping bees.

Todd's grandfather used to keep bees and one summer even had 1 TON of honey- yes 2,000lbs! Most of the equipment was in one of the sheds. Todd took it down, cleaned it up and ordered some bees. (do you know they will mail you bees- Thank goodness I'm not a mail man!) Last year the spoils were about 60 lbs of honey. However those bees did not make it through the winter. So this spring he started over with 3 new hives. One of the hives swarmed in June and he now has 4 hives and so far this year with 1 extraction he has over 80 lbs of honey and is anticipating that much from the 2nd extraction. He is even selling it at our local country store just 4 miles down the road.

Also Todd has started making his own beer, not to mention making sausage and jerky. So between caring for the farm, cash crops like honey and pumpkins and making and drinking beer our bathroom is no further than it was 3 weeks ago.

The construction is contained in our home and if I close a door I don't have to look at it which is great. However I think after this weekend I will get the itch to start anything including insulating the walls.

Ignorance was my bliss.

So Todd and I were going to go to Lowes together, he arrived earlier than I did and said that it was pretty much the same things that we had seen at previous places so I didn't go.



All I want is a 1 piece shower and tub with a whirlpool. Is it really all that much to ask. Apparently it is and therefore I'm ignoring the major detail of the bathtub and moving on to color schemes and styles for the bathroom.



However I'm finding this to be difficult as well because this will be the beginning of our "style" for our home and there are many different styles that I like, however I'm not sure that I want to live with one of those styles forever. I wish wall color could be changed like you change your shoes.

I love all of those photos above and it would be wonderful to start my days by brushing my teeth, washing my face and getting ready to face the day in any of those rooms. However which one of those rooms could I live with for a LONG TIME??

Sweet goodness, I want to go back to the preremodel when I had idylic visions and could say things like "When we remodel we will do this...".

1 week Ago

So this week our renovation has come to halt. Which has made me realize why we didn't start all of this earlier- Life gets in the way for example:

Our house has finally recovered from being gone for 3 weeks; although the laundry is waiting for me when I get home everything else is CLEAN! (The joy that a clean house brings is amazing, probably because in a clean house I can have a quiet mind!)

And more importantly our daughter now pulls herself up to standing next to things and can dance. As soon as I figure out how to put up a video I will.

Also the Olympics are on. Four years ago Todd and I got married and we spent our honeymoon at home watching the olympics. So this week we have been relaxing, enjoying each others company and watching the wonderful USA athletes.

All of these things will delay our progress. I am now realizing 2 things-

1) This whole remodeling this is going to take a LONG TIME. (I think that Todd will be happy that I have come to that realization.)

2) This blog will not only contain the milestones of our renovation but the milestones in our family as well. (Which means there will be videos of Iz dancing and doing other HILARIOUS things!)

The photo below is for everyones enjoyment! SO BIG!