Bathroom Bumpup: Ain't No Grout About It

Once the floor tiles in the bathroom were set, it was time to grout so that we could install the new toilet and end the madness and generally unladylike atmosphere that not having a toilet in your own home brings. Luckily, grouting is really, really, brain-meltingly easy. 

Swipe some grout over the tiles.

 Let it sit.

 Sponge off the haze twice.

Ba da bing, ba da boom. You got a new floor.

In which I resolve

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. It just seems kind of arbitrary, so I usually prefer to make goals and deadlines based on how my year roles, not the calendar.

Maybe it's the fact that 2013 is going to be so obviously loaded with change and goodness that has me a little more resolved. Maybe I'm old and weak and more susceptible to media hype. I can't really tell, but here are my resolutions for 2013:

1. Grow, birth and love a healthy, happy baby. Obviously. Is it too much to ask that I have fun while doing these things? I like to think not: Party on, Sober-30th-Birthday! Rock out, Active Labor! Whooooooo hooo, Fourth Trimester!
2. Participate in the Des Moines Half Marathon (which should be about six months post-baby). I don't need to run the whole thing and if I finish totally dead stinkin' last (Less-Than-Fun-Fact: I was the second to last woman in my age group to finish the Drake Relays Half last spring. What I'm saying is: I know the bitter taste of almost-losing.), I won't even care. I just want to try. I miss running my guts out every Saturday morning and working toward a big goal. Also, I miss thighs that aren't a fire hazard in corduroys. 
3. Knit before it gets too hot. I have to finish remaking Hubs' Christmas stocking, make the newbie one and finally make Hubs a scarf that I promised him way back when he first gifted me with the knitting class that got all this started (cough, cough two years ago).
4. Slow down. Things are about to get real up in here and I'd like to take more time to stop, look around and be all "Holy crap, how did I get so damn lucky?" every now and again. Not really measurable, but these are New Year's Resolutions, not a marketing plan.

What about you guys? Link to your "goal posts" in the comments! (Like how I got all sporty right at the end, there?)

Pregnant in Paint Clothes

While Hubs was dutifully demo-ing and rebuilding the bathroom, I was in the next room over, getting the baby room all ready for some artistry. I wore my respirator and cracked the windows (despite seriously freezing temps), plus took breaks after each wall to keep baby seven kinds of safe. 

This second picture shows the true color much better than the first. It's Behr's Natural Gray. In dimmer lights, it seems a little purple-y, but once we get some art on the walls and furniture in, it should be less noticeable. But, if we're being honest here, I love the purpleness and don't think it will be much of a problem because I'm pretty sure real man-babies lives in sorta purple rooms.

With the walls gray and the trim nice and white, it was time for me to tap into my inner artiste. Long-time readers may remember our wedding logo, which I plastered on everything like the good little branding nerd that I am. That same logo is being revived in mural form for the kiddo's room. The one change? Obviously, we're adding a third bird to the mix, which means homeslice is about to freestyle and leave the safe confines of tracing. 

I borrowed a projector, traced out the swirly swoops of the tree branches, moved and resized the birds and then, took a big deep breath and got to painting.

The first few swipes were terrifying. I'm not a gal known for my artistic prowess, but here I was, doing my best to not eff up my first-born's room.

(Side note: Isn't the best part of Christmas break NEVER wearing real pants? I went jeans-free for nine full days, minus a short break to meet Brittney and her dudes for brunch.)

The whole tracing and first coat took me just about two-hours and was fueled by one decaf frappucino and the Nappy Roots station on Pandora. Stay tuned for the reveal of the full tree in all her majestic glory. This single act of semi-art is also sure to leave me in a puddle of tears when the time comes to sell this little spit of land, though I think if I can get enough traction on Pinterest, it may add value. Right? That's a valid sales strategy, isn't it?

Spoiler alert: I amazed myself and this mural is the bomb dot com, y'all. Once the baby sees this, he's going to expect a much higher level of craft-i-tude than I normally posses.

Bathroom Bump Up: One frap, two fraps, three faps FLOOR

Happy Almost-New Year! Hope your holidays have been super fun. I spent the first part of the week down south, celebrating with these good looking jammie models:

Once we returned to the north on Thursday, it was all business. The bathroom got its day in the sun, literally. Here is Hubs hauling our 60-year old toilet to the curb. I'm pretty sure angels sang as we put it out of its misery.

Then, it was time to pull up the linoleum (which is harder than we thought, but luckily, our bathroom is small so there wasn't too much swearing going on) and lay fresh backerboard to support the new tiles.

With the backerboard down, Hubs was able to start laying and cutting tile. We were lucky enough to borrow a wet tile saw from a friend, so we saved the rental fee. All we needed to do was buy a nice new blade so our porcelain floor tiles and marble countertop would have good cuts.

We went with over-sized subway tiles in a dark gray for the floor. While Hubs did the hard work, I photographed and did frap runs. I learned that Starbucks DOES make decaf frappucinos, which has probably revolutionized the rest of this pregnancy.

Obviously, with no toilet and freshly-laid tiles, the bathroom (again, our one and only) was out of commission. Since I wasn't helping, I thought running to the gym for a shower would be a great idea. After a particularly sweaty treadmill session, the joke was on me because the showers were all closed for a weekly deep clean. 

This, combined with my super fun respirator made for one heckuva Saturday night.

It took just about three hours for Hubs to cut and lay all these glorious floor tiles.

The thinset needs to dry for 24 hours and then it's grout time! Then, obviously, it is shower time. Thank goodness for face wipes and dry shampoo.

This is normal, right?

Yesterday, we got hit with a blizzard. Fourteen inches of heavy, wet snow (that poor Hubs shoveled solo - and was bad ass enough to refuse the help of kindly strangers who offered to let him borrow their snow blower. Hubs is an ox.) fell overnight and it made for one curious kitten.

You may remember Niles, our adorable trash-eating rescue cat. He has a thirst for adventure that knows no bounds.

So, when we caught him staring wistfully out the sliding doors at all that snow, we knew what he wanted. That little weirdo wanted to get out and play in it.

That's normal, right? Most cats really want to get sopping wet and cold, frolicking in the snow, yeah?

 Did you get blizzard-ed? How'd you entertain yourself?

Baby steps!

Last Saturday, we made some small, but significant progress. It was a decent 50-degree day, so I cracked open the windows and painted the ceiling in the nursery-to-be.

Here it is before my handy work. Dingy and sad!

And after. Excuse the bad lighting, but trust that it is crisp and white.

The best part of painting a room top to bottom is not having to stay in the lines. Since I was just slapping paint around the edges, I was able to finish up pretty quick. Then, I finally moved everything out of the closets in this room and found new homes for all our crap (note: if you want any old polos, office supplies or bike gear, head to the Goodwill in Urbandale stat! About 80% of our stuff found its way there.).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Hubs was wreaking havoc on the tile walls.

 He ripped down the tile and will soon skimcoat the plaster to even it out so the wainscoating will sit nice and even.

Feeling inspired, he didn't stop there. He also removed the countertop overhang - the part that inexplicably went over the toilet - and cut a backerboard to size for the new countertop.

Our potty looks pretty squat and pathetic without its counter overlord.

And for fun: a bump picture! Here I am in the midst of work:

And all cleaned up with my favorite inflatable penguin:

Just about ready to hit 22 weeks: still lifting regularly, running about 7-9 (turtleslow) miles each week, taking Bradley Method classes and now a serious sock bun devotee.

Up next, I'll be working on taking the blonde trim to a shiny white and Hubs will be removing the mirror and skimcoating before we hop on the rebuilding train! This week, work is moving slow as I still need to get Christmas cards out, bake cookies, nap, etc. Napping is key.

A Weekend of Doing

Of course, right after I clicked "publish" on that last blog, my phone rings. Who could it be but Kevin at Home Depot telling me my back-ordered tiles miraculously arrived ahead of schedule. Oh, happy day!

So, now with tiles at the ready and a guest room nearly cleared of all non-baby junk, we are ready for a weekend of getting shit done.

Tonight, we'll bust out some errands and then tomorrow, Hubs and I will go our separate ways - he will demo the bathroom while I paint the baby's room. Trim will be a crisp white (finally! to match the rest of the house) and walls will be Behr's Natural Gray (or a color-matched version of a low/no-VOC paint).



Hubs is hoping to rip the tile off the bathroom walls and put up beadboard in its place. Who knows what other magic might happen during our flurry of anticipated productivity.

Please, sweet readers, tell me your weekend is looking more exciting than mine. If it doesn't, I will probably cry once for you, once for me, then drown my sorrows in sugar cookies.