Of Bathrooms: Indoors & Out!

Hubby got home last night and I got my camera back! Here's the new bath!

My new sink rocks! Makes me want to floss more. My husband laughed when I put up the extendable shaving mirror... I have always wanted one of those, don't really know why, they are just cool...

He also returned with some photos on the camera from his "guys only" weekend:

This is where they left my car... you should have seen it when he pulled back in the driveway last night, it's caked with mud.

The cabin they hiked into, 3 hour hike through the snow to get there from where the car was parked. It's owned by the Appalachian Trail Club, who does maintenance on the primitive shelters and trails in the area. Although this had no heat and an outhouse, this is definitely not one of the primitive ones! It had a fireplace and wood cookstove inside to provide a little heat.

Sailor/Father/Husband

I know there are alot of outhouse art fans out there, this one is photogenic! I may enlarge it and frame it for my new bathroom!

View from the outhouse/privvy

Roaring fire, was 20 degrees in the stone house/cabin!

He was wrecked when he got back last night, lasted long enough to strew backpacking gear and dirty laundry around the house and mess up my bathroom, then fell asleep!

So now it's back to catching up on the garden stuff, namely, my next seed sowing! I have been neglecting that the past week with the remodeling but will dive back into it tomorrow morning.

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!

You might be a redneck...

...if your bathtub and 1978 vanity is currenly residing in the front yard, can you tell we don't have an HOA? :)

Bathroom reno is sloooow going due to my husband working 14 hour days and when he's home the weather is either snowing or icy rain, so all the cutting work keeps getting put off. He's not allowed to get sawdust all over my house this time!

And what's this? AGAIN??

just 15 minutes later, it's coming down fast

My kids are already at school, so it will be interesting to see how the lovely city of Virginia Beach handles this one. Perhaps they will just keep the kids overnight for me? A busy mom can dream, can't I? (and for those of you up nort' wondering... yes, this is considered an emergency by Virginia Beach standards, lol! If this winter keeps up the way it has, maybe it won't be such a novelty next year. You should see our roads, they have been plowing with front end loaders with the teeth on the bucket :)!)

Random Catch-Up

I have not fallen off the face of the earth, just been really busy! Hubby came home 3 days earlier than expected so that was a nice surprise for the kids. They were on another snow day so they were able to go with me down to the pier to pick him up. It always reminds me of the doors opening after school (on a massive scale) with everyone pouring out when the ship gets in, and it's funny watching the kids say "There he is!" 500-600 times, since they all look alike!

We spent one day just hanging out, went to dinner and did our bi-yearly stock up on socks & underwear for the kids and shoe shopping for mommy & daddy, yay! It sounds boring now that I am typing it, but it was kind of fun since we never do that kind of thing together, usually it's just me. Real "clothes shopping" is a rarity here, we detest malls. I haven't been to a mall in almost 2 years, and even that was just to get hubby's eyeglasses. I usually do my shopping either online at REI or at one of the local outdoor shops. You can tell I am not a clothes horse, I'm happy with a new pair of yoga pants or fleece top, LOL. Hubby couldn't find any shoes he liked that day but I got a new pair of those negative-heel rocker shoes. They are extremely ugly but are way comfortable and after walking in them all day cleaning house I felt like I had a workout! Now the trick is to remember not to walk in them out to the garden and get them all dirty! We also went to 2 local "real yarn stores", where hubby picked out some yarn and is crocheting a hat or something. I spent too much on yarn, but I will eventually use it. I'm still horrible at knitting, but I really like it!

We also went to a Habitat for Humanity store that was next door to the yarn store just to see what we could find. We now have a good source of old recycled windows if we ever get around to building a greenhouse! While we were excited over that, this is what Loch found and was excited about:

According to him "We NEED one of these, mom!" Apparently it's a space transporter of some kind. (He didn't believe me when I told him what it really was)

Not much happening on the seedling front. The Basil, Thyme, mystery seed, Artichoke and some Oriental Greens have sprouted, but most of the others say 15-25 days germination, and it appears they have every intention of sticking to that story!

Purple Romagna Artichoke

We heard a rumor that hubby's deployment is going to be moved back again, so we (I) decided that the bathroom needs to be remodeled NOW! It's the only room in the house that hasn't been stripped back to the studs and redone, and we have been waiting and waiting and waiting, since his schedule has not allowed it, and financially we were still recovering from the kitchen and the rest of the house (and kitchen in our rental next door!). I don't think the financial recovery is going to happen any time soon, but we are getting on with it despite! It bothers me that if we should have to sell due to a military move we will get talked down in price due to the 1978 bathroom that doesn't jive real well with the "Dwell" theme that's going on in the rest of the house, LOL. So on Saturday morning we went and bought our flooring and new toilet, and I ordered a full size shower unit that will replace the tub. I bought it online and ended up with free shipping and a discount and thus am only spending half of what it cost to special order it through a local big box store. Shipping is bonus, too, since the business is in D.C. it will be here in just 2-3 days. By Saturday afternoon, hubby was demo-ing the bathroom, good riddance, 1978!

Here is is before the demo started

Kids "helping"

Of course by Saturday evening, hubby was ready to rip out the floor and start replacing the sub-floor, and wouldn't you know it, another snow storm! So his plans to set up the saw and all the other stuff he needs outside will have to wait (we don't have a garage!). It started out with freezing rain, then by 2 pm the snow was coming down fast and blowing 40 mph winds.

The snow had just about all melted from last weekend, but here it comes again!

Marley after playing in the snow, I think her nostrils were packed full of it!

It struck me as I was driving down the section of road near our house how much it actually looks like I'm back home again! Very strange for our area.

Yesterday was a blur... late Saturday night Loch woke up sick. A stomach bug or some 24 hour virus, but he was vomiting all night which is really rare for him. So rare I think it scared him quite a bit. No fever, but just vomiting and tiredness. It was all gone by bedtime last night, but I stayed busy scrubbing everything in sight yesterday! Finn told me Loch was eating raw pizza dough Friday night as daddy was making pizzas, so that could be it, or it was just some quick virus. It's over now, thankfully! I went out and bought him a beanbag chair and called it "the sick room" since I wouldn't let him sit on the couch, is that mean? LOL

I expect to be pretty busy this week with the bathroom demo, baking Valentine's Day stuff for the kids' classes, and a trip to IKEA to get bathroom cabinets. I love IKEA, and buy just about everything there, but our IKEA is 3 hours away one direction up in D.C., so that's always a big trip that has to be perfectly planned out so I don't forget anything. I had planned to go this past Saturday, but the storm prevented me. I make the trip by myself so I don't have kids whining while I am trying to make sure I have all my cabinets and pieces, it's actually kind of relaxing spending 6 hours in the car by myself! And my husband LOVES that I go alone, since he never looks forward to any drive more than 20 minutes. I will try and keep updating at least with pics this week!