Summer Break (Somewhat Literally) Is Over!

So, we decided to take the summer off from working on the house, mostly because, without air conditioning, it was simply to hot inside to function.  Instead, we focused on maintaining the yard and hanging out on the sailboat.  I'd say we were sailing, but the wind did not cooperate this year.  Oh, well.

In other news, when we ready to start working on the house again, the hubs broke his back.  The ladder on which he was standing (13' above the ground) broke, and he fell.  By the grace of God, his breaks (L1, L2, L3, and L4) did not require surgery and did not cause him permanent injury.  He was in quite a bit of pain for several weeks, and was out of work for several days (yes, only days - can you believe it?), but he is otherwise unscathed.  These are photos he took of, as he calls it, "the scene of the crime."

A few weeks after his fall, I slipped on the back steps to the deck and broke my ... pride.  I still have a large goose egg on my posterior (3 1/2 weeks post fall) and bruising, but most of the color has left.  Also, I am far more comfortable than I have been.  As long as no one touches it, I'm okay.  I'll spare you any photos. (;

And so, now that we're both mostly healed, we've begun home projects again.  The first involved the hubs crawling into the rear crawl space under the house to connect pipes.  He installed our temporary kitchen sink!  One of the base cabinets is standing next to it, and we have a propane camp stove (with oven!) to prepare meals.  Our first non-microwaved meal cooked indoors?  Grilled cheese sammiches!  Oh, how I've missed the simpler things!

 

 

 

I even did a few dishes!

It's Potty Time!

Yes, I'm that silly. (=

Today, we primed the bathroom floor to seal it.  Then we installed faux linoleum (purchased on sale from the remnants at Menards), and then the hubs put in our brand new toilet (under $89.00 at the Home Depot).

The flooring comes in 12' wide rolls.  We got a 12' x 12' piece.  First, we had to unroll it in a clean area, so we took it to the front rooms downstairs.

Then, we measured and cut a 6' x 6' piece.  The bathroom floor isn't exactly that size, but it is larger than 5' at its widest and at its deepest.  So, we knew this would give us full coverage.

We didn't get a fancy toilet.  How fancy do they really need to be anyway?  But it's brand new, and it's ours ... some assembly required.

And then we put it all together.  (and we forgot to take the bottle of cleaner out of the shot.)

Before and after:

Isn't it beautimous?!?  The cabinet door and drawers are in the front bedroom floor right now for cleaning.  We're also thinking we'll paint the cabinet white to add a bit more brightness to the room.  We shall see.

Transformation Time!

Happy Saturday!  It's time for actual paint!  I absolutely love how transformative a simple coat of paint is.  I get super excited (and sometimes a tiny bit terrified) just prepping for it.  Today, we finished painting the upstairs bathroom.  Just as a reminder, this is what it looked like before:

First, I went ahead and painted the ceiling and the short wall with semi-gloss in white.  Since it's a bathroom, I want a paint that's going to hold up to moisture and whatever else life throws at it.

 

It's white, so it kind of blends in with the primer, but it's shiny. (=

Once that dried, I moved my tape lines to protect what I painted in the morning, so I could start putting up color.

Hubs helped again with taping the high up spots.

I'll let you in on a little secret.  I do not spend piles of cash on paint.  I visit paint websites to find colors I like, and then I find the cheapest paint in the finish I want (semi-gloss, satin, etc.) in a trusted name.  In this case, I went with Glidden paint in semi-gloss.  The color I chose for the bathroom is Gulf Waters by Behr.  It's bright, but not too bright.  And since I kept the short wall white (and all of the trim), it doesn't overpower the small space.

Time to remove the tape!

Isn't that better?

Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day!  And happy Wednesday!  I may or may not have mentioned (cannot recall) that I took off from work for the entire first week of February and every Wednesday in the month as well with the intention of putting in time at the house.  If I neglected to mention it, I apologize.  But it's Wednesday!

The hubs dropped me off at the house early this morning on his way to a half day at work.  I got some lovely shots of the sunrise through the front bedroom window (to compliment the sunset photos I took the other night).  I put them together into collages to save on space, but the effect is the same.  Sigh ...

Better than that, today I got to crack open the 5-gallon bucket of primer I bought at the Home Depot a couple of weeks ago.  I chose Zinzer oil-based primer.  Zinzer is a trusted name that kills mold and other icky stuff, and the oil-based version of their primer will work under (and over) both oil-based and latex paints.  So we don't have to worry about what the previous owners used.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Before I cracked open the primer, I did a little spot cleaning in the laundry room, mostly because I'm tired of seeing how icky it is every time I walk through.  This is what it looked like before:

  

 This is after I started working on it:

It took a bit of scrubbing.  I honestly do not know how it got as icky as it did.  Still, nothing a bit of cleaner and muscle won't cure.

And THEN the bathroom upstairs ... This is before-ish.  The hubs already cleaned the walls and surfaces and remudded the drywall seams.

I had him remove the existing toilet, so it would be easier to tape and paint.

He stuffed a couple of old rags into the hole to help keep any gasses from coming up the pipe and into the bathroom.

Next, I taped around everything that wasn't getting painted.

While I was taping and priming, hubs was working on drywall seams in the back bedroom and the landing.  He drew a heart in the drywall dust on his shirt for Valentine's Day. (=

And then he helped me by priming all the places I couldn't reach.

Look at how pretty it is just not being shockingly yellow!

Well, except for that one spot that I had the hubs go back and get.

Did you all know that oil-based primers and paints don't wash off with warm soapy water like latex primers and paints do?

Yeah, that's a thing.  Guess we'll be picking up a bottle of mineral spirits.  Hahaha ...

On this last day of my vacation, I pulled more staples in the front bedroom floor.  I really don't like them.  I mean REALLY don't like them.  The normal size staples (like the size in your average desk stapler) aren't too bad at first.  You just grab hold of them with a pair of pliers and give them a yank.  After a little while, though, your hand starts to cramp, and it's all downhill from there.  The other staples are very narrow and very long.  They hold onto the floor boards as if their lives depended on it, and they Do. Not. Let. Go.  Seriously, on one of them I could feel the floor board lifting, but the staple didn't budge.  I had to call in the hubs to get those.

The highlight of my day was watching the sun set from the back bedroom window.  Truly beautiful.