Another Window...

I thought it would be fitting on Friday the 13th to post about our latest window mishap.  You already know about our sliding door and the broken French door window insert, and now we can add to that list a car window.  That's right.  One single piece of pea gravel shot a single hole through the driver's side window of one of our cars.  Cue the shatter sound effect.

Guest Bathroom: Goodies So Far

Boy, water damage and drywall are pretty boring.  Why don't we talk about something more fun, like the goodies we've gotten so far for the bathrooms!

Our first purchase, even before we dove in headfirst and discovered *&%# water damage did anything to the bathroom, was a yard sale light fixture.  We love yard sales (I was so excited for yard sale weather that it was even on our spring to do list), and we especially love yard sales in nice neighborhoods.  We really lucked out with this particular yard sale; the newly-built home we happened upon belonged to a contractor who was trying to get rid of items from other home renovations.  (Let me just say that this house was gorgeous.  A little modern for my taste, but I have a feeling I'll be seeing this house in Better Homes & Gardens soon.)  There was tons of stuff we would have loved to take home, but ultimately this light fixture called our names.  Originally marked at $10, but the owner didn't blink an eye when I asked if she'd take $5 instead.  Score!!  Considering most of the full-price fixtures we were looking at were at least $40, we're considering this a steal.  I'm writing a separate post about cleaning it up and installing it (once we get that far...).  One shade looks a little wonky in this picture, but it just wasn't screwed on right when we bought it.

Guest Bathroom: Drywall, Oh Drywall

I've always said (usually from reading another DIY blog) that I never wanted to have anything to do with drywall.  Hanging, mudding, floating, or any of those other drywall terms.  Well, incidentally, I have the best husband in the world-- our guest bathroom has needed extensive drywall repairs so far and he has done every bit of it.  Can I get a round of applause for my handy, handsome, husband??  My schedule last week kept me from helping much, but I have since gotten my hands dirty (wallpaper, oh wallpaper.... more about that next week).

So the last chapter of our bathroom reno left us with gaping holes in both bathroom walls, both from our janky light fixture and the mildew issue shared by both bathrooms.  Oh yeah, then there's the wallpaper that was slapped right on top of the unprepared drywall (it sounds like felony assault, huh?).

Let's start with the wall above the vanity.  You'll notice two things here:  (a) the hole where our Hollywood light strip used to be and (b) the bare spot where our mirror used to be.  The old light strip was actually held on by CAULK if you can believe it, so Mr. GI had to do some brainstorming to figure out a solution for our new light fixture.  (Funny enough, Young House Love was dealing with a light fixture problem of their own at about the same time!)

One Year!

 

Image here

It's hard for me to believe I've been doing this blogging thing for a year now.  So hard, in fact, that I actually missed my blog birthday last Thursday.  It's been a blast so far being able to share our adventures with you (you can read most of our first-year projects here or check out our project page), becoming a little bit Internet Famous, and meeting new friends along the way!

Happy first birthday, little blog of mine!  While we're at it, how many of you have started new blogs in the last year?  Veterans, any tips for me?  And what do y'all want to see more of in the second year?

Guest Bathroom: More Than We Bargained For

So I alluded last week to the fact that we (a) had already started the bathroom rehaul and (b) might have found ourselves in a little deeper than we meant to be. We spent the afternoon last Monday shopping around for supplies, brainstorming, and getting excited about the new bathroom we'd have soon.  It all started so innocently, with Mr. Great Indoors taking out the baseboard in the guest bathroom.

Day 1 PLAN:

Remove baseboards to prep for flooring installation

Install light fixture

Sounds simple enough, right?

Day 1 ACTUAL:

Remove baseboards

Discover water damage on baseboard behind the toilet

Rip out dry wall in guest bathroom

Rip up vinyl in guest bathroom to find moisture underneath

See water damage goes through to the other side of the wall (i.e., the master bathroom)

Rip out dry wall in master bathroom

Take a breather before we burn down the house

Attempt to install light fixture

Discover old light fixture was held onto wall by caulk.  That's right:  caulk.  There's actually a gaping hole in the wall that prevents us from hanging the light fixture we bought over the weekend.

Call it a night before anything rash happens

Springing Around the House!

Despite the bathroom posts this week, I know I've been MIA for the last few months (Seven posts in the past three months?  Despicable.).  My work schedule has been absolutely nuts, and I haven't had much spare time to do anything.  But finally I had some time to be in the house in the past week, which I guess was obvious since we've started the bathroom.

So what better to do with a few spare minutes last week than spring decorating?  :-)

Guest Bathroom: The Before

I shared my dream for the guest bathroom the other day, and now it's time to show you how it's starting, particularly since I only had one measly before picture in the last post.

Here's the view from the main hallway.