DONE!

Hubby finished the bathroom by 3 pm right on schedule, he rocks! (All except the molding, but I will let that slide until Monday!) He left to go hike the Appalachian Trail (brrrr!) at 3 pm. They will get up there at about 10 pm and have an hour hike in to their camp for the night. Yah, what a way to relax, huh? Go hiking in February in the snow... gotta admit that if I wasn't at home with the kids I would be there with him, but for now, my pack hangs lonely on the wall (at least I sent him with a flask of Laphroig scotch to keep warm)! But that's okay, I have a new bathroom and I'm putting the kids to bed and grabbing a glass of wine and giving the dogs a pedi-pedi, then giving myself a mani/pedi!

Sorry, no photos... hubby took my camera! You will have to wait to virtually snoop through my new medicine chest :)

Almost done...

Now comes the fun part! Tonight we are putting in the cabinets, new light fixture, etc. It all needs to be done by 3 p.m. tomorrow. Sailor/Husband is leaving then for a winter hike in the Appalachian Mountians for a few days, so I imposed the deadline before we started this project so I wouldn't be stuck holding the putty knife! It looks like we'll make it, all the messy stuff is done, the shower is caulked in and even works! We'll be working until 10 pm for sure, but we'll be done by tomorrow, yay!

Pictorial Update:

me sporting my kids' bandana with skulls and flames... Finn said it would make me paint faster

Side-project hubby did today for the dogs, I have been planning this for awhile! I am always coming up with ideas of stuff to make that others can't necessarily picture until it's built, but hubby is great at not questioning my ideas and making them come to life. Great space saver, but would only work with dogs that are friendly dinner companions LOL

Dinner for hungry husband tonight, had to get some veggies & protein in him before tomorrow's backpacking trip. Chicken stir-fry w/frozen garden veggies and potstickers with chili & garlic sauce. Actually got the kids to try a potsticker and a green bean tonight by bribing them with popsicles.

Gotta go, hubby will think I'm slackin' off...

Our version of the Winter Olympics

Yesterday I thought I was going to beat my personal best time to D.C. of 2 hours, 45 minutes, but it was not to be! I left at 6:30 am and jetted all the way up to almost there, before traffic came to a standstill! Accident? Nope. Rush Hour? Nope. Get this one... there was snow blowing out of the trees in the median, I think everyone thought it was a blizzard and stomped on the brakes, which, in an actual blizzard is not the best way to handle that situation, lol. So that 2 mile long "median blizzard" put me behind and I ended up at 2 hours, 50 minutes! But, WOW, they have alot of snow up there. Kenneth, I can't imagine how your city is handling it all, and finding places to put it. Ours is melting in between storms, so we never have it on the ground more than a day or so. Excuse the photos, they were taken with my iPhone, which has terrible photo capabilities!

Sunrise, leaving my city to head across the Chesapeake Bay

The Happiest Place on Earth (for me!)

Mecca for organizational OCD freaks like me

I pulled in 15 minutes before the store opened and parked next to the door on Subaru Alley. Ever notice how many of us there are there? Count sometime, it's pretty funny stuff.

So upon arrival, my plan was to make a beeline for Bathrooms, get all my cabinets, load up, then go back to surf the store. Two kitchens, and a prior bathroom has taught me that speed is an issue, or else when you get to the warehouse the essential items will be gone! Like cabinets, check - frames & legs, nope! I am sure many of you are familiar with this scenario, but it takes on a whole 'nuther level of stress when you have to travel 3 hours to get here. Well, to my utter amazement, everything was in stock! I quickly loaded up the car, then returned to enjoy the rest of my shopping day sans kids, husband & dogs! Let me tell you, it was DIVINE!

Here's my bathroom! It's utterly amazing the amount of crap that will fit on these little carts. Seems to me that after dropping that much money one should get a Hummer-Limo style cart. Or perhaps an armed escort.

The rest of the day I was able to pick up a few other things for the bathroom, bins, towels, a rug, all that other stuff that will make it "mine". After about an hour of shopping, I did notice that I happened to be singing a bunch of really old Prince tunes to myself, and thought "omg, it's on a loop!" We're talking pre-Purple Rain stuff! Thought for a minute the store manager might have relocated from the Twin Cities IKEA, lol.... we do love our hometown boy Prince up there. On the way home, I stopped at Starbucks and got to see 2 girls that were really too old to be dressed like 80's punk rockers argue about the proper way to drink "real espresso". One said "real Europeans" don't put sugar in their espresso, to which the other argued "really? - cuz I was in France and they have sugar there..." it was amusing. Traffic on the way home was bumper to bumper for about 35 miles, but I had awesome music to jam to. First, I jammed to Boy George and then flipped the channel to more Boy George! I lovelovelove Boy George so that was fun. Then I got to hear Safety Dance, a little Duran Duran, and E.L.O.! This 80's girl was in heaven! Usually, I hate traveling between cities and flipping the station constantly but this trip luck was with me. Have I ever mentioned that my husband loves Boy George? Well, he does, and Cindi Lauper is a close second, lol. I started to talk to myself after about an hour. I think there has only been one other time I have had that much time to myself, and it was another IKEA trip for my kids' bathroom. Got home by 8 pm, and hubby had the new floor in!

Today, I got all the new cabinets put together, hubby has been drywalling and sanding drywall all day, so the divorce dust is everywhere. (Ask any married couple who has done a large remodel what divorce dust is, lol). Now he is under the house in the dark with a headlamp trying to install the new shower drain. He is determined to take a shower in it tonight, never mind nothing else in the bathroom is done yet. He needs one, too!

As of 5 p.m., drywall has been sanded, he's getting it ready for me to paint hopefully tomorrow. See my sleek new toilet in the background?

I was going to take a picture of my new cabinets I have been putting together today, but I think you will have to wait:)

Here's a few pics of the kids' bathroom (which is really the master bedroom) we did one year ago. It's small, so the 4 of us sharing it has been interesting. We put a deep soaking tub in it for resale value, but the main bath is getting a shower only instead of tub.

Gotta go sweep up the divorce dust... again....

A quick update...

I haven't posted in 5 days and it's due to this!

(removing old tub)

and this!

Yes, it's that bad! New subfloor needed, but my shower arrived today, those are pieces of it in the back.

Unfortunately, it's already 8 pm and I still have to sketch out my cabinet layout since I am leaving at 6 am for IKEA in D.C. to get all my cabinets and faucet, lights, etc. I get to go by myself so I will actually get accomplished what I set out to do without whiny kids! I have been waiting for the weather to hold out, but can't wait any longer, hubby will have the floor and toilet installed tomorrow and will be ready for the cabinets. We have rain here, but I hear they will get snow there, but hopefully the roads will be ok. I-95 should be fine and I drive a Subaru, but what worries me are all the Florida plates up and down the interstate, lol! Kind of like Seattle people fear the AZ plates in the rain :)!

I have had a request from Mama Pea of A Homegrown Journal for an update on my "learning to knit" progress. Remember, you asked for it (cringe!)

What is it? It's a "needle case"!!

With my type A/OCD personality, I figured I simply could not learn to knit without proper organization. My husband thinks I'm crazy...

And speaking of crazy, how cool is it that my husband is learning to crochet?! It's not that foreign to him since he is a whiz with nautical knotwork, making hammocks, etc, so he is progressing quicker than I.

Pillow hubby crocheted

Dogs taking ownership of pillow. Marley likes it when he is out to sea, I think it's like her "woobie", smells like her daddy's hands! Dumb little Sprocket doesn't care about anything other than Marley being next to her, she's her "mommy".

Story about husband's fascination with knotwork: During our "honeymoon", we stayed at a cabin near a lake in Western Virginia. There was a communal dock everyone at the resort could tie up at. One evening, we walked down to the dock to check on our kayak and watch the sun set, and he bent down next to each cleat on that dock and tidied up and properly "flemished" everyones guy lines and coiled them neatly on the dock. I wish now I would have taken a picture of it, and better yet, seen the other peoples' faces the next morning when they went down to the dock!

I still need to go take car seats out of my car and make room for IKEA stuff, but just wanted to let you all know... I'm still here, and reading your blogs is my only sanity every morning as I step over tools, flooring, plywood, and all that has invaded my home over the last week!