Completed Bathroom

We finished the hall bathroom remodel months ago but I haven't posted the results. I still don't feel like it is complete because the decor isn't exactly finished, but who knows how long it will take me to finish that and the basic remodel stuff is done so it is time to reveal it.

This weekend was the one year anniversary of owning our home, so in celebration I promised myself that I was going to post about some more of the remodels we have done.

To begin, here is the before and after. I wish we had taken more "before" pictures - oh well, lesson learned. To summarize the before: half carpet, half laminate, awful tile with nasty grout and caulking, lilac walls, dated cabinets, and nonexistent decor.

Here's the shower tile close up.

If you want to see how we got to this point you can read about it here and here and here.

The next step was grouting. Luckily it was easy to choose the color because we had seen a sample board at Home Depot (where we bought the tile). Scooter got me started, but then I did it all by myself - poor Scooter was so sad to leave and go up to his office to study. Doing house projects is sometimes a lot more fun than studying.

I was shocked at what a ridiculously huge mess this made. I guess it shouldn't have been such a surprise. First you fill the cracks then you sponge it off. Over and over and over and over...

Eventually it looks like it should. Then you have to let it dry, then buff the film off, then seal it. Last you have to caulk any cracks that there might be.

This was the tub after I had been cleaning it for a while. Gross huh? Don't worry though because it is sparkling clean now.

To recap the tile: Before and After

Next step - paint. We primed the bathroom and then spent hours debating what color to paint it. Turns out that picking a tan is more difficult than I thought. I didn't want anything that looked too peachy-pink. I also didn't want anything too dark because it is already a small bathroom. After buying and testing two or three samples we finally decided.

Then there were the cabinets to refinish. After doing the entertainment center this was really a piece of cake. All that was needed was some time.



At this point we really felt like we were done, but actually finishing took a long time and a lot of details. Painting and reinstalling the trim, reinstalling the toilet, trying to find towels and a shower curtain to match, etc.

We are really happy with the finished product. It isn't perfect, but it is a million times better than it used to be.




Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the mirror. Previously it was just attached to the wall with little clips. Scooter had the idea to make a frame for it. He designed and built this frame that we stained. I think it is creative and it turned out really nice. I like how you can see the color of the wall though the holes in it.




We are so glad we decided to tackle this project ourselves. It saved us a lot of money, it was fun (when we weren't pulling our hair out), we are really proud of it, and it gave us confidence to tackle lots of other projects. In fact we have done a lot more that I'll try to post about later this week. Actually, we had so many projects going at once that I had to put my foot down and insist that Scooter not destroy anything else in the house until we had finished all existing projects.

He has the destruction bug so bad that it has become dangerous to leave him home for too long without checking on him. He did really well until the other night I came home and one of our light fixtures was missing and the wires were just hanging from the ceiling. If I'm completely honest I have the remodel bug as well. Mine has manifested itself in the form of incessant painting and furniture rearranging. In fact, since beginning this post I have already stopped to rearrange my bedroom slightly. We have a fever and the only cure is more projects!

Utah (In September... Better Late Than Never)

In September I went to Utah for a much needed visit. It was nice to go home just for a visit, not because of an event. It was really relaxing. I've been meaning to make a post for a long time, but never got around to it. So, the least I can do is to post these pictures that I uploaded a long time ago.

Notable events during my visit:

I finally got to meet Jon Ostalaza - the exchange student from northern Spain that is living with my parents this year. He is awesome and couldn't be more suited to our family - he already feels like a part of our clan.

Baby Eli had to spend a few days in the hospital. Read about it here and here.

We took a trip to Lake Powell.

Brad asked my dad if he could marry Rachelle. Yay! I got my wish for Rachelle. I really like Brad as soon as I met him.

So, without further ado or comment and no particular order the previously mentioned and uploaded photos...

Brighter Blue

Scooter and I have been wanting to paint our front door since we moved into our house. It was a blue/gray color that was called "Storm Cloud." How depressing. We considered a number of colors. I knew I didn't want a neutral color - I wanted something bright. We thought about red - lots of people have red doors, but somehow I didn't think red would look right.

One day it occurred to me that we had some left over bright blue paint from another project. I told Scooter I thought it might look cute on the front door. He agreed that we could try it sometime. When he came out of his office a few hours later he was surprised to find that it was done. It is quite bright but we are surprised by how much we like it. It makes our house look more cheery and welcoming. The longer we look at it the more we like it.

Before

After


From depressing gray to cheery blue.

My Husband Is Podcasted!

When Scooter was at Oxford getting his Masters he wrote a paper. It was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery in July. Maybe I'm biased, but I think that being the primary author on a paper that was submitted to that distinguished journal before you've even started medical school is pretty special. I'm kinda proud of him - can you tell? If you want to read the abstract you can click here.

Tonight I was exploring the JNS website and came across this. It is a podcast of Scooter's paper! Go ahead - listen to it. It is fun to listen to the serious narrator say "Scooter." Just publishing it was cool, but having it included in a podcast is even better!

Great job babe. Here's to hoping there are many more to come.

Josie's Visit

This is Josie. Isn't she darling? She is one of Scooter's sisters. Not only is she darling, but she is extremely hard-working as well. She is also one of the most thoughtful people I know. She came out for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time with her. We were really busy and did a lot of things but only took pictures of one of our activities so I will apologize for all of the pictures pretty much looking the same. We took her a little gathering at the medical school then we went downtown to the Power and Light district for dinner at The Peachtree and gelato afterward at Cosentino's (their gelato is the real thing and the passion fruit is to die for!).

The next day we went to tour some of the homes in the Parade of Homes. It was so much fun and we all got lots of ideas about what our homes would look like if we had a million dollars to spend on it. One trend we noticed was that the size of the master bathrooms and closets was almost ridiculously large. The master suite took up a third or more of the level of the home on which it resided. It would sure be nice though. I kicked Scooter completely out of our closet months ago. He gets a few drawers in the dresser, but 95% of his clothes he keeps in his office closet. He really is a good sport about it.

We went down to the Louisburg Cider Mill like we did last year. It really is a charming little place. Looks like it might be fast becoming an autumn tradition. The cider donuts are to die for and the cider is even better.

We did some other things but mostly we just wanted that hard-working girl to relax! Thanks for coming Josie! We love you!



Anyone else want to come for a visit? This whole medical school thing makes it virtually impossible for Scooter to leave Kansas City, but if anyone else has a hankering for a little Plowman-time consider yourself invited!