Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Bathroom Adventure 2012 or 20 days with a Porta Potty!

As promised here is a day by day play of our lovely new bathroom....
Before the beginning....
 Because our house had a "header" problem, 
(meaning we had a 6 inch dip in flooring from the kitchen to the bathroom)
we had to rip off a deck so Doug Moe could repair it.
Here is what we found...a boat load of bricks!
Awesome!
Look at that nice stack....
Stay tuned to see what we used some of them for.
Hint: It is NOT a pizza oven as I hoped for...sad sad sad

Soooo, here is the before picture of our tiny little bathroom.
Remodeling did not increase the size, though,
just the ease of accessibility for Grandpa (John's dad)
and some much needed updating and flooring!

If you can overlook the PINK tub,
and uneven flooring, 
and (under the flooring) holes right to the basement
It really was kind of cute!

I used to tease John that I was going to keep a bathrobe in the basement
for the inevitable time I fell through while taking a shower!
I would have been MAD, but at least not naked!
Naked and mad is a bad combination.
Not at all flattering....
I was so sure we were at least going to lose a cat or a kid through the spongy floor,
but we never did!

DAY 1
TOTAL GUTTING....WOW!
and 
more importantly,
PORTA POTTY!
We are also using the RV's bathroom.
Although the shower is small,
it is very nice to have a place to actually shower that does not involve the hose..... 




Bathroom Adventure Day 2
We've got a floor (plywood) and part of a wall....
but most importantly, we have a LEVEL kitchen and bathroom...
the house no longer sinks on the NE corner!




Bathroom Adventure 
Day 4...electrician came and LOOKED and measured

Day 5...plumber came out and LOOKED and measured

Meanwhile back at the porta potty......
We put up PURPLE PORTA POTTY lights,
Hey, I could market those beauties!


Bathroom Adventure Day 6....electrical work....
Exciting development....there will be an actual OUTLET in bathroom....
I've always wanted one of those new fangled things!

Day 7...Sunday, everyone needs a day off...

Day 8...ceiling light and exhaust fan aperture , another 1st!
 Plus some plumbing in place, shower stall partially installed...

Bathroom Adventure Day 9
SHEET ROCK!
It's beginning to look like a real room!


Bathroom Adventure Day 10
NOT A GOOD DAY
Sheet rock just drying
Porta potty SUPER STINKY
RV potty almost full and a bit odiferous, also....GRRRRR!
PLUS the AC in the RV won't stay on in this heat....109 degrees in there....owwwww!

Day 11
Sheet rock sanded and muddled again...looking good!
AND Kimos cleaned porta potty and John emptied the RV black water into our septic tank!
And we learned a few tricks to keep the air on when needed the most....whew!

Things are smelling so much nicer here! 
This is not a glamorous remodel....wish someone would have told me!










 and we have a DOOR!


Bathroom Adventure Day 14
Contractor only had time to cut shelves which allowed me time to find storage solutions
Here are those nice tidy little canvas boxes from Target and Menards.
We will have 8 filled with all the stuff that used to be in the closet.
And because the beautiful and large medicine cabinet we chose
will not work, all that stuff will also be in smaller canvas baskets.
One for each of us...


Bathroom Adventure Day 15
Tadadada! We have a working bathroom! Lots of finishing work to do but we can actually FLUSH!


and a shower that works.....
yay...yay..yay!!!!!!

now skip ahead a few days....
Bathroom Adventure Day 20
Well, this is it, Folks!
I actually have a completed(nearly), functional, BEAUTIFUL bathroom! There is a vent, and an outlet, and real water pressure along with a functioning window! Thank you to Doug Moe and his crew, to my patient and flexible family, Kimos for the spic and span porta potty (except for day 10), my hubby who joined us for 4:00am painting and kept the RV cool and clean, and my father-in-law who funded the majority of this endeavor! I LOVE IT!



And finally, here are the bricks...
The contractors filled in an old unused doorway to the basement!
The NEW DECK is snazzy...a blog for another day!
There are some left,
maybe I can build a mini pizza oven!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Indianapolis Grandbaby Fix


Finally! 
First of all, I am finally blogging again!
Yay!  My laptop is taking a charge...keep your fingers crossed....
Secondly, We (Sorcha and I and my Mom)  finally got to travel to Indy to see
the most adorable little grand baby ever...
Wren!  

Be warned, there are TONS of pics in this blog...
She is just sooooo cute!
and smart...
and sweet...
and clever...
and (well, you get it...I was totally enthralled by her!)

When our bathroom was completed
(remember it was totally gutted and rebuilt...a blog for another day)
we made our get-a-way,
So  after almost 600 miles,
breakfast with Lee in the Dells,

and several stops
 (Great Grandma Charlotte needs to stretch a lot)

We finally arrived just as Shae and Wren were starting their 
bed time routine.

reading books...

checking us out...
and all the gifts people back home sent for her.
Here she is clutching a bag of barrettes from my sister,
Auntie Stacy.
I bribed her with my necklace 

 checking out Great Grandma....
 and Auntie Sorcha...
 Just look at that face!

Bath time
 More books
 and goodnight kisses
 she loved Sorcha!
 We laughed ourselves silly when Wren crawled into Sorcha's lap
and signed tentatively and hopefully for milk!
Ha!  

Tuesday morning piggy tails
didn't stay in long...

 Great Grandma joined us again.
Wren did not like her dark classes and cried
every time GG came in the room....

Wren already knows how to "swipe" the ipad to change
the screen...amazing!


I LOVE this little family!
Chris worked most of the time so I was glad
to get this pic....
 This is Chris' brother, Matt; sister-in-law, Josie; and
their baby, Macy!

 More Sorcha time...
 and goofy Mama...

 Chris' parents, Wren's Grandpa and Grandma Tilson

Kiss good night...

Wednesday we visited the Farmers' Market...
Love that this pic has the monument right in the background...



 This is Wren's Auntie Donna (Grandma Tilson's sister)
She works for a honey "factory"
Yummy!

Wren's first LETTERBOX!
It was called Giraffes in the Round
It was found right across the street from the monument  
in the rather large round-a-bout
 This statue is really a lady...a real lady

We then went to the Children's Museum
AWESOME!!!!!
 There are 4 floors of learning and imagination!

Bumble Bee greeted us!

Here is a HUGE water clock

This is the FIREWORKS of GLASS
later in the blog you will see pics of us UNDERNEATH it...
COOL!

Our first official "room" was the HOT WHEELS room...
GG and Wren are watching the racing lights...

Playing with hot wheels
 These are life size hot wheels...NICE!


Wren loved DRIVING!



Our second "room" was the Egypt area.
I loved how we had to walk into the plane first...
 What a short flight!


 Finally we landed....

 Wren loved the little oven and the flat bread...
 She fed this donkey over and over...
but she did not want to ride on him!






Riding on a crocodile!



Taking a lunch break,
we packed a lunch...MMMMMM!

Our 3rd stop was the dinosaur room....





One of my favorite areas was the 
digging for fossils area...
 Just look at my little paleontologist 







 Sorcha liked this one...one of the newest dinosaur finds
named after Harry Potter books


Next time I wish to visit here....the clay soldiers of  China

This was my favorite....

We actually stepped INTO a kaleidoscope...
 We had to lay on this bench that turned around and around
I am a dork!

 This is what we saw....
AMAZING!!!!!!






These dinosaurs are outside looking in....
How cool!


 Thursday morning we made playdo...
at first Wren thought we were crazy smooshing it.
But soon she got the hang of it!
 We also played with side walk chalk.
But man, it was HOT and DRY in Indy.
Almost all the lawns are completely brown.
And no one can water without a huge fine.
Water shortages are scary!


Tadadada!   Wren is going to be a big sister in December!

We were lucky enough to go with Wren and Shae to the library program
they attend every Thursday.
Here she is doing Itsy Bitsy Spider.
I tell you, she is so SMART!



 Cousins at the library...

 Aw....

Our time went too fast!
Here is our last good bye snuggle....

I soooo miss this little girl!
But Shae and Chris and Wren will be home in August.
YAY!!!!

WELCOME!

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