Bathroom Remodel Part 1

Part 2 might take awhile to get to you because this is exhausting. There is no part of me that wants to work a full day at my job and then come home and work on the bathroom. This weekend I will finally start taping and mudding while my husband in class to get certified to ride his motorcycle.

I didn’t get a before picture of the bathroom before my dad went all Godzilla and just started tearing it apart, but it was a bad bathroom. It was the only room in the house I was embarrassed to show people and we only have the one. There was a cast iron tub that your knees almost touched while you were on the toilet and two people had to squeeze past each other if you needed to be in the bathroom at the same time. So tore the whole thing out, right down to the studs. (Plaster walls were fun to destroy.)

It felt good to tear everything out except the cast iron tub. That required a LOT of effort with a sledgehammer.

The old tub/shower just had a very old plastic insert lining the walls. We got fancy with some tiles:

If I can avoid tile work for the rest of my life, I probably will. At the same time, it looks SO much nicer.

You know you’re an adult when you get super pumped for new floors (previously linoleum) AND a new toilet:

That’s the progress on the bathroom thus far, the thing keeping me away so much for the past few weeks.

Like I said, now we just have to tape, mud, primer, paint and install the new sink.

Now that I’ve listed that out, it seems like a lot.

Wood Projects June 2020

Hey everyone! Hopefully you didn’t melt during those few weeks of extreme heat. I don’t think our AC shut off for 2 weeks straight. It just could not get the temp in the house to less than 80 no matter how hard it tried.

Beginning during my staycation and ending the very first few days of July, I completed not one but two wood projects before it became too hot to hang out in the garage.

The first was a Father’s Day present for my dad. He hunts and he requested that I make him a gun rack a few weeks before. I thought he was just kidding but decided to do it anyway. Turns out he wasn’t and he had full confidence that I could do it. That was not something I shared in during the process. There was a hell of a lot of swearing involved but in the end, I like how it turned out.

I probably looked like a bit of a psycho to my neighbors walking around my driveway and garage with my husband’s shotgun under my arm. :3

The second was just a little pallet wood project I decided to fiddle around with. One of those projects where I didn’t particularly care if I screwed up because I had plenty of back up material. I kept the first results since they didn’t turn out too shabby. Mr. C&M hung them in his office and they’re now used to display some sweet candle holders my aunt and uncle gave me years ago.

What do you think?

Coffee & A Chat – Staycation

Good morning you beautiful sirens and stud muffins! What has me in such a good mood? I haven’t worked in a week!

As an essential employee (pharmacy), I only quarantined on my days off and on one of those days, I always had to grocery shop. Luckily, I haven’t gotten sick (yet anyway). But as time wore on, customers became less and less nice. At first, people thanked us left and right for working through this pandemic and then gradually, they got pissed off that they still couldn’t come inside. You see, in Michigan, as soon as the governor lifted the stay at home order, people thought that that meant the virus no longer exists. It’s been real fun.

That all brings us to ME, and how I told my boss that I HATE the general public and needed a vacation, even if I couldn’t go anywhere and he happily agreed. In fact, he said, “Why not take it sooner rather than later?” So I did. I have a great boss and in the entire 8.5 years I’ve worked for him, I’ve never once told him I hated the public. I think he took that very seriously.

So, what does a C&M do on a staycation? Well the intent was a whole hell of a lot more than I actually got done. We had a very nasty storm last week that brought down very large branches out of our ancient maple trees. That made a lot of the week doing clean up. Not so bad since it’s been fairly nice outside and the pups have loved the hell out of it.

One other major project happened. Two weeks ago today, our roommate moved out. Amicable and long overdue. So we turned his old bedroom into Mr. C&M’s new home office to work and game out of. Since he works at home, I can officially be inside now without worrying about making too much noise or the dogs barking in the background of his calls. 😀

The roommate chose this color, which I was fine with BUT he painted the damn ceiling!

That ceiling took THREE coats of paint WITH primer to cover up.

Why black and white? Because why the hell not? We’ve both wanted a black room since we were teenagers and were always told no by our parents. NOW WE OWN THE PLACE AND NO ONE CAN STOP US!

I’ve also been working on some wood projects that I’ll post in the future when they’re done. The toughest one being a Father’s Day present I’m working on. I’m a perfectionist but I don’t have the wood working stills to back it up yet and it’s frustrating the hell out of me.

What big projects have you accomplished recently?? It can be anything!

Fenced in Those Wiley Hounddogs

If there is one thing I would suggest to anyone considering a DIY chain-link fence project for their home, it would be, hire someone else to do it. Especially, if your property contained an amount of rocks under the dirt that you thought could only exist in the mountains.

I didn’t intend on an impromptu hiatus but let me tell you, even with 6 people tackling this project, it whooped our asses.

It’s a huge relief to have this finally done. Not only do the dogs get to wander freely about without a leash or myself wandering after them, but it will also keep any other dogs from wandering into our yard. (This has become a big fear since a recent dog attack on a family dog several months ago.) The dogs appear to approve and Ozzy has picked out several prime laying around locations.

Now, I’m going to go try to catch up on some of your blogs before I take off on a long weekend adventure with Ignited Moth and her beau.

Wood Project #2

Pinterest really is a black hole of ideas. If only I had more time, I would be a DIY machine when it comes to wood projects. But alas, on top of work, I’m currently trying to nurse a sick husband back to health, so time is not on my side.

This was a fairly easy project that involves candle votives, hot glue and lots and lots of sticks. Luckily, our yard is incredibly giving in the stick department. I have to do some final glue touch ups before I can give these as a birthday present to my aunt but I really liked how they turned out.

What do you think? Cute or ridiculous?

Power Tools, A Girl’s Best Friend

I’m 100% certain that that title is a lie, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

Last autumn, I decided that my new hobby would be wood working. I’m not even sure that that’s the proper term for it, I want to make stuff with wood! Starting with pallet wood until I get better. However, I decided this right before cold weather hit and you were not about to find me out in the garage in the cold.

Spring forward to my birthday in which my dad bought me a Sawsall and a Skilsaw, and instead of pallet wood we bought a 10 foot piece of birch to fiddle with.

My grandfather LOVED building furniture and was good at it. I have several of his pieces to this day. He taught my dad a lot of the trade but it’s not my dad’s passion. My dad however, is super excited to pass on their knowledge to me and I’m happy to absorb it. Hopefully, it becomes my new hobby because people keep giving me power tools left and right.

Here’s my first project with my dad. It’s a couch arm cover. It functions both as a place to set drinks and other things, and protection for the couch from Ozzy standing on one arm to stare out of the living room window at people walking by. It’s nothing fancy but I did learn some cool tricks to hide screws.

What do you think of my first attempt at building something?