Bathroom Bump-Up: That weird, mostly-done stage

Every project hits this point. The big changes are done and all that's left is a bunch of piddly mini-projects that will take more time than you realize but no one will notice. I personally guarantee that no one has ever walked into a freshly renovated bathroom and first admired the grout-sealing job, for example. Unless that person was a grout-sealant salesperson.

But, it's all the little things you have to do, like seal grout, touch up trim, putty over nail holes and bust out the painter's caulk (which! Fixes everything! Gap in the trim? Ugly plaster to tile seam? Painter's caulk that bizzo!).

We do have three big, fun things left to do:

1. Hang the mirror (we have to caulk the trim first and we've been hunting down some seriously secure hanging doo-dads for it. It's a 15lb framed mirror and so we want to make sure no little curious hands (or wandering cat butts) can knock it down and require us to spend a perfectly good Saturday in the ER - I'll share how we secure it in case anyone else is looking to do the same).
2. Scrape and re-grout the shower. We left this until last because, frankly, it's going to suck. There are a lot of grout lines to scrape (previous DIYers failed to seal the grout, so it is NASTY like whoa), but the regrouting shouldn't be horrible.
3. Shopping! I think I'll do a TJ Maxx shopping spree this weekend for:
• Window dressing (the glass is frosted, but a valance or roman shade would look nice)
• New shower curtain (because what was I thinking with that thing?) 
• Rug
• Soap dispenser
• Shelves for above the toilet
• Fancy, spa-like knick-knacks for those shelves
• Curved shower curtain rod

What's your least favorite part of the project? This is definitely at the bottom of my list, right before priming but after paying for all this junk.

Bathroom Bumpup: Bright, open spaces

Here at the Bigger, Better, Best house, we don't give up easily. When faced like a minor obstacle (like having one very uncooperative toilet), we don't spend much time hyperventilating and throwing ourselves on the couch with deep "Woe is me!" sighs (the time limit on that is ten minutes). Instead, we look around the shambles of our sole bathroom and say, what else can we do?

So, we painted. From a nice, but dingy green...

And sick, sad pale ceiling...

To a sharply nautical blue and stark white ceiling!

The trim is still that greasy off-white, but not for long.

Hubs also installed the new light, which, is almost impossible for a photography newbie like myself to take a decent picture of. It's shiny and bright and lovely, though.

It might not be a functioning bathroom yet, but it is starting to look like one!

Branding the baby's room

The mural! Based on the tree I used as the grounding graphic force for our wedding, I created a super adorable baby room mural. I mean, I spent $75 for a very talented gal on Etsy to develop my wedding invites and this tree and really, I'm just trying to get the most bang for my buck by making this tree our family logo. (Our family also has a few favorite fonts that fit our "brand," too in case you were wondering. I'm clearly that bizarre.)

I mentioned before that painting this wasn't too bad, even for an art dunce like myself. A nice projector, a sharp pencil and a steady hand is all it took to create:

Ooooooo!

Ahhhhhh!

For those of you curious, Hubs is the green bird, I'm the yellow bird and Baby BBB is the teal bird. Hubs (bless his heart!) originally asked to be painted with the markings of a sun conure. After perusing the paint selections, though, he realized he didn't want to upstage the kiddo's bird and also, he did not want his wife/artiste to have a conniption fit trying to replicate nature's beautiful bounty. Hubs is a wise, wise man.

I did two coats, but there are still lots of great brush strokes, which only add to the tree-ness of it all. I can't wait to camp out in here every night and stare at this sucker while I'm in a sleep deprived zombie state.

Now that this is done, the baby's room work is on hold for a few days while we finish the bathroom. Then, the floors need to get refinished (barf). That's on the calendar for next weekend. I can only imagine how excited you all are to read about the whole sand, buff, seal thang. I'll make it fun, I promise.

Bathroom Bumpup: Toilet Toils

Once the bathroom floor was all set, we were in a frenzied rush to install the new toilet that resulted in a potentially ripped and corroded pipe behind the wall, requiring not one, but two "Holy shit, what time does Home Depot close on New Year's Eve?" (answer: 5:00 p.m.) and "CRAP! What about Menard's?" (8:00 p.m., bless their discount-hardware-sellin' hearts) moments. Sadly, at 9:00 (after all hardware stores closed to ring in the new year), we realized we were one pipe short of a working toilet.

The horror.

And so, we set about living toilet-less for a third night, confident that our troubles would be gone by 9:00 the next morning when Home Depot reopened.

The short-lived (foreshadowing!) joy. 

I woke up on New Year's Day to the most glorious sound known to DIYers of a one bathroom home: the sound of a toilet flushing, because Hubs got up early and exchanged the short pipe for a full-length one, thus ending my reign as Queen of the Throne-less.

A cat in a fresh-out-of-the-box toilet.

Sadly, this joy was only temporary. After two days of bliss, we noticed a small leak. Upon trying to fix the leak, we realized how horrendously old and nasty the phlange (the piece that connects floor to toilet) was.  A quick call to our back-up emergency plumber revealed that because the pipe was original to the house, it might not be fixable without (brace yourself) going at it through our basement ceiling. You know the one - it's the ceiling we spent hours crippling ourselves over as we rebuilt it just two years ago.

Now, we were potty-less for a fourth night. We laughed, we cried, we binged on Jimmy John's.

Ken, our plumber, came to inspect the toilet yesterday. Lo and behold, his original diagnosis was worst-case scenario and it's actually a really easy fix. Stranger things have happened, right? This old heap of bricks sometimes magically cures itself.

AND SO.

We have a functioning toilet again. I hope my dainty and ladylike musings on this subject haven't turned you off my blog forever. I just felt compelled to share the trials and truths of this harrowing tale with you all. And really, what you don't know about those four dark nights is saving my dignity.

After all, a true lady doesn't kpiss and tell.

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.