Bathroom Reno's

Putting a bathroom back together is much harder than tearing it apart. Let's just say there were a few nervous break down tears. My beautiful large tub. It is 38" wide in the middle. Well not exactly 38". I made the discouvering that the measurements on the box is not necessarily completely true. The tub is 24" deep, but that means from the bottom of the tub to the top of the tile flange and not how deep the tub actually is. The tub was actually very tricky to get into place because it is wider and deeper than the previous tub. The trick is to roll the tub into place.

These are my sinks and counter in the linen closet. It was soooo heavy that we had to get the movers to carry it upstairs.

This is my dad and the dog zack in the chaos called the living room.
More chaos in the dining room.
Me installing the denssheild behind the tub. It's better than concrete board. It's lighter and easier to cut and install and more water tight. Even if water gets behind the tile, the denssheild never rots.
My dad contemplating how to get the 60 and 1/8" vanity into the hole that goes from 60 and 1/4" to 59 and 3/4". We ultimately decided only to put the drywall above the vanity on one side to give the extra bit of room we needed.

Zack supervising the work.
The vanity in place. It actually went in pretty smoothly.

The counter and sinks is never coming out without a sledge hammer. Besides being incredibly heavy, it is wedged in.

Me tiling and yes I'm wearing a shower cap. I didn't want to mess up my hair.
I started off putting the morter on the walls, but found that it was alot easier to back butter the tiles and then place them on the wall. I'm glad I went with large tiles. It was so much work. This was one of my nervous break down days. I was a basket case by the end of the day and I still wasn't done.

Me putting the last tile in place. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
The shower done!

My friend Laura teaching me how to grout.

More grouting.
The beginnings of the cork floor. The key is to make paper templates for the curve around the tub. This part actually went in very easily.
The hard part was putting in the last row. When I bought it, they failed to mention that I needed a pull bar to click in the last row against the wall. I ended up going to 5 different hardware stores looking for one, because every where was sold out.

My done tub and walls. I was painted the one Saturday night till 11:30, so I could have a shower the next day for church. This was another one of my nervous breakdown days. I just really wished I had some moral support. I love my shower, but I'm not sure I ever want to do renovation again.

My mostly finished sinks. I still need to caulk along the tiles.
My new light fixture.
New towel racks. I still have a bunch of finishing to do like base boards and trim etc... The fan is a serious problem, because it has to be install from the attic. For now I'm just keeping the window open.

Right now I just feel like renovating and moving at the same time is just a bad idea. I might feel differently a couple of months from now, but I'm writing it down so I remember, so I never do this to myself again.

Outsmarted

I bought a heavy duty tape dispenser for my boxes and have been completely outsmarted. Why on earth would they sell a tape dispenser without instructions on how to load the stupid thing? I went to the scotch tape website to see if they had any instructions and nothing! So now I have a totally useless tape dispenser and I'm still fighting with the roll of tape and scissors. URG!

A better frame of mind

I'm in a much better frame of mind now and decided to take off my previous post. I think all the stress of buying and renovating my house, just pushed my frustrations of dating over the edge. Now that I'm thinking clearly again, I've decided to issue an invitation to all my friends that want me to visit. I have one free plane ticket any where in North America and will use that ticket to visit the person that can find someone for me to date that meets the following criteria.

1. Worthy priesthood holder and all that that implies.
2. Smart. I would ideally like someone smarter than me, but will settle for as smart. Also, smart in different ways than me would be ideal.
3. Has a sense of humour. When the dishwasher explodes and I'm up to my armpits in suds, does he swear or does he have a hard time running to shut the water off because he is laughing.
4. Has a means to support a family. This doesn't need to be luxurious, a modest home and lifestyle is all that is required.
5. Completely irrational about how beautiful I am. Please feel free to show my picture from my blog.

My wish list:

1. Willing to relocate to Edmonton
2. Loves to camp and canoe
3. Enjoys art and opera
4. Willingness to have a diversified palette.
5. Preferably never been married. Or at least no ex-wife that I would have to deal with. I don't have a problem with kids, I just want to be the only mum.

So start looking, get your husbands looking, leave no stone unturned. As a side note: included in my visit will be one night of babysitting so you and your husband can have a hot date.

Bathroom Demolition

This is my friend Rebecca's husband Terry. She was good enough to spare him for the day to help me out. He was in charge of capping off the plumbing. Note the hole in the wall. There was the appearance of the access panel for the bathtub there, but when Terry removed the panel the wall was completely solid. Needless to say a hole was cut. This is my friend Marlene, the demolition expert. She has been known to tear down walls while her husband is at work. It's a good thing her husband is a put back together expert. Next to her is my neighbour and very good friend Jason. He was getting a little frustrated with my constant reminders to wear the safety glasses I bought for everyone.
This is Terry pulling the tub out. We thought this was going to be the biggest problem, but it turned out to be fairly easy.

Jason trying to drain the toilet. A small funny. I asked Jason multiple times if he had shut off the toilet valve. He assured me that if had. So I'm down in the basement turning the water back one to test to see if the caps worked that Terry put one. And all of a sudden I hear "TURN THE WATER OFF! TURN THE WATER OFF!". I get upstairs and guess who didn't turn the valve to the toilet off and was now a little bit wet.
This is the rotten wax seal from the toilet. Turns out the toilet was leaking and the floor around the toilet was rotten and the dry wall from the ceiling in the half bath below was rotten.

Taking out the sub-floor. This turned out to be the hardest part of the day. If the rest of the house is build as well as the sub-floor was, I have nothing to worry about.

This is the hole and plumbing for the toilet.
This is the plumbing for the sinks.

Or should I say the bank's house

Tonight I signed all the paper work for the house. Everyone told me that I would probably be having an anxiety attack while I was signing and would second guess myself, but this just feels right. My lawyer, who happens to be one of my best friend's husband, kept commenting on how calm I was. I think the Lord knew that I would need time, and so it took me over a year to find the right place and get my money together. Not to mention the 5 weeks of haggling over the price. As I was signing all the forms I couldn't help but think how unnecessary all this would be if everyone were honest.

I think I may also be starting to have decision overload. Between picking paint and counter tops and outlet covers, I'm starting to worry that I will make the wrong choice. I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter in the end, but I can't help being a little crazy.

My house

I just bought a townhouse. I get possession on July 31st. It's in what Americans call Escrow. All the pictures are for my mum's benefit who gave me my wedding money to help with the down payment. Let's just say, if I get married anytime in the next few years, it will be peanut butter sandwiches. The picture don't do justice to the dirt, although it is much better than I thought is was going to be given what it looked like when I bought it. The tenants had 2 cats and all that that implies. It is a great location. I'm now a little further from church and the temple (17 minute walk), but closer the the grocery store, bank, library, dry cleaners (17 minute walk). Across the street is a great park that has the best playground equipment according to my primary kids. The bus stop is just out at the end of the complex. So let the tour begin.

My house is right ahead, with the blue car in front. My parking spot is next to it.
This is the front entry.
Turn right and here is the half bath. I really like having a bathroom right as you walk in for those times that you are pee-pee dancing from the bus stop. My plan to redo do this bathroom next year.

Turn left from the front entry and you are in the kitchen. I'm so excited to have a double sink.
The appliances are a little old, but still work. I won't even begin to describe the disgustingness of the burners.
The fridge is empty, but still smells.
This would be the cabinets that I will keep bumping my head into. Why would someone put cabinets at both doors to the kitchen? I plan to put a kitchen table underneath to try and force myself to walk around instead of trying to cut corners. The cabinets are very ugly.

This is the dinning room. The door on the right is to the kitchen and the window on the left looks out on to my back patio. It's large enough for me to put all the leafs in my table and to have my china cabinet and one day a buffet.

Turn around from the last picture and this is the step down into my living room. I'm painting the entire house with the exception of my bedroom and the bathrooms, a creaming yellow called cornsilk.
This is the ugly fire place. Another one of my projects. I want to redo the mantle and ledge.

Next we go down into the basement. This is going to be my sewing room/library for now. My long term plan is to make this my tv room, but since I'm going to rent out the bedrooms to help pay for all my renovations, I will be sewing in the basement.

I love my laundry room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can wait not to pay 4$ a load.
The unfinished half of the basement. I place for my camping stuff, food storage and Christmas decorations.
My furnace and hot water heater.
More space for storage.
And still more storage space.

The stairs to the second floor. Note that there is a landing and the stairs turn and go downstairs. This is going to be the tricky part for painting. I only have an articulating ladder, no scaffolding. I found a special edging roller which I'm hoping with work. If you have any suggestions for painting high walls over stairs let me know.

This is my bedroom. I'm going to paint it Raspberry Lemonade, ie pink. I decided this is the only time I'm going to get pink room, because the minute I'm married I will be painting again.
The extremely ugly closet doors. Yet another thing I'm planning to replace eventually.

The iron burn in the medium size bedroom. I plan to replace all the carpet hopefully in the next 2 years.
The medium size bedroom.
The small bedroom.
The linen closet.

The awful vanity. I'm putting in a maple vanity that is stained cherry. It turns out my mum has the exact same one. The flooring is going to be natural ribbon cork. Cork is great here because it is warm on the feet in the winter, without having to be in in-floor heating.
The reason why I got such a good price on the place. I'm gutting the entire bathroom. Aside from the massive whole in the wall, this bathroom ranks up there of one of the dirtiest bathrooms I've seen. And that is saying something given what I saw on my mission. I'm putting in plain white tile with a glass blue accent row. The walls are going to be painted blue to match the accent row.
The tub in going to be a soaker tub.
The toilet is replusive. I'm putting in a Toto toilet. My plumber friend said that they are the best low flush out there.
This medicine chest in is a wall that separates the toilet and the vanity. The wall holds the venting for the plumbing so I can't take it down. I'm going to take out the chest and just fill the fix the hole.