Finally Finished

This is hopefully my last post about my one and only bathroom.  Click HERE to read a previous post.

To bring you up to speed... months ago when I had already started purchasing items for my kitchen renovation, I noticed that there was an odd spot on the ugly pine floors right next to the toilet.  I felt this and realized the wood was rotten.  Uh Oh!  I decided  I needed to go ahead and get the bathroom done before I fell through the floor while sitting on the toilet.  I have HATED the bathroom in my house since I bought the place; the light was hideous (me not adding missing bulbs didn't help), the mirror builders grade, the old POS vanity, and the super grungy pine floors better suited to a cabin in the woods. Since I was already going to get the floor replaced I decided I would go ahead and replace the light, mirror, vanity, and toilet.  The 1950's ceramic tub and decent square white tile would be left alone.  

Flash back to the beginning of April. The contractor is supposed to start on my house this morning.  I get a call around lunch from him telling me I need to come by and look at some things in the house. I ask if this is bad.  "Could be worse" he answered. I had a co-worker who has been a home inspector for years come with me to make sure whatever he had to tell me was true and honest.  I don't want to get scammed for being the naive homeowner that I am.  Basically we get there and he has already started the bathroom demo.  He found all kinds of rotten wood; from a supporting wall to the sill of the house.  He also found that it was rotten under the tub too, which meant the tub had to come out. Sad day indeed.  This is one of the problems with owning a 93 year old house.  You open something up and notice all the rot and decay that needs to be redone. The main reason for all the rotting had to do with the toilet pipe being attached to nothing so basically it just moved slightly all the time so water was always leaking out. 

Basically what should have been a quick remodel tuned into a major renovation.  I had to stay at friends house for 2 weeks since this is my house's one and only bathroom. Staying in a friends small 800 sq foot house with me, her, her 2 anti-dog cats, and my brand new adopted great dane Moose was a bit difficult, but we managed.  Now I have a nice new bathroom with no plans to redo it any time soon.   

The things I had done:

- New tile floor (also new subfloor) which is penny round from The Tile Store

- New toilet 

- New tub

- New vanity (Godmorgon from Ikea)

- New mirror (Molger from Ikea)

- New overhead light (indoor/outdoor light from Home Depot - I might replace this, I'm not sure I like it here)

-New shower curtain (Restoration Hardware)

- New trashcan  (SimpleHuman)

-Wall and ceiling repainted (Moonshine by Benjamin Moore) 

Things to do: 

-new door handle (Bella has chewed up the one on the door)

-hang art

-hang towel holder

-hang a window shade

Just a few pictures of the (mostly) finished product (click on any of the pictures to make them bigger):

and some comparison shots from what it looked like to now:

Kitchen Confidential

Well, my kitchen is finally finished and my house is mostly back in order, other than the massive amounts of art that haven't been rehung.  I wanted to show you some after shots of the space as well as some comparison views.  First off, the remodel took a lot longer than it should have.  This isn't due to the kitchen, but due to massive amounts of rotting wood hidden behind the bathroom walls and under the bathroom floor.  Yay 93 year old house! Here is the link back to my last kitchen post.  I will post about the bathroom next time.

Anyhoo, the things I redid this time (I had already repainted bottom cabinets grey, replaced hardware, and painted the fridge):
-New counter tops (On the main stretch it was a lovely patterned Formica and it is now Glacier White Corian, on the microwave stretch is it is now butcher block)
-New sink (went from a shallow 5 inch two bowl, to a 9 inch one bowl)
-New faucet (short to crazy tall)
-Microwave is up on a shelf (not wasting valuable space)
-White subway tile back splash with dark grey grout (possibly my favorite feature)
-Ceiling and walls painted pale grey
-New track lighting
-Open shelving repainted white (still need to do the inside of the dish area open shelving)

Last things that need to be done are to get a new range, hang up artwork, paint the insides of the main open shelving, and paint the upper cabinets and put new hardware on them.  Then I can call this kitchen finished.

Here are the pictures (click on any pictures to make them bigger):

And some comparison shots of what the kitchen either looked like before I bought the house or before this round of work was done (click on any pictures to make them bigger):

Welcome Home ze' Moose

Ooops, I did it again.  I welcomed another new animal into the household.  Since Bella has been living with my parents full time because of her aversion to my house (I'll share that story some time soon) and since Hobie the lab left to join his dad up north and since Tommy the cat is lovely,  but isn't a dog I felt I needed another warm body with me.  This is where you meet ze' Moose.

Basically I was sort of kind of looking for another dane, but kept backing out.  I emailed a local rescue after I saw an extremely crappy pic of him just asking how he was with dogs, cats, and people.  the lady emailed me back, but I never responded.  Right before I had to drive Hobie up to Knoxville to give him back to his dad the lady emailed again saying Zeus (Moose's former name) would be at Petsmart @ perimeter the following day if I wanted to meet him.  I was going to back out and then decide "what the hey, it can't hurt".  The following day, after suffering from Hobie withdrawals (I mentioned him HERE), I went to meet Zeus (Moose).  He seemed nice enough, but I was still going to let him slip out of my life.  The rescue lady asked me to fill out an application though so being the good follower I did.  She called me two hours later to tell me I was accepted to adopt him.

Errrr, don't you need to actually check with my vet and references to make sure I'm not bullshitting.

Anyhoo, we made plans for me to pick him up.  They allowed me to take a week to essentially foster him and make a decision.  To be honest I wasn't planning on keeping him.  I don't think I made the final decision until the day the week was up.  The reason I wasn't going to keep him is because he was (is) super needy in the house. He is constantly on me like white on rice and doesn't give up. Some people may like this quality, but I can't stand a super needy anything, be it man, dog, or friend.  Also he wasn't (isn't) Bella.  The reasons I did decide to keep him are simple.  Moose is great with dogs, ignores cats, and loves people.  Those are important traits for a dog to have.  He also is very easy going.

Right now we are in a training class. Luckily I had him stay at the training peoples farm a couple of weekends ago so they could drill in the basics. I now realize what they meant when they told me "[he's] stubborn"  when I picked him up.  Moose and I have had a trying time with the commands, but hopefully he will pick things up.

Without further ado meet Moose: