Bathroom

There is also a bathroom in the house we bought, gee imagine that.  This bathroom needed a little love.  Here's what it looked like when we bought the house.

 

Not bad, but the big cabinet made it feel smaller than it was and the wood from the eighties was making me sad.   Also, the sink and cabinet were newer (sorry didn't get a good view but you'll see it later) and the medicine cabinet really didn't match.  Also, the tub was damaged from the apparent removal of a shower door.  

First, I removed the medicine cabinet and stained it to match the sink vanity, which happened to be the same stain from the kitchen, so that was basically free as I had some left from the kitchen cabinets. I replaced the brass handle on the medicine cabinet with a $1.90 brushed nickle one.  I removed the large cabinet from the wall.  Then, I removed the wood light bar.  Finally,

I painted that wall to cover all the removed areas.

It was looking much better, and except for a hole caused when the cabinet came down, which I patched and painted and put a picture over it for good measure.

Now for the bathtub, this was a bit more challenging.  The tube was filthy and chipped.  I first cleaned it with a scrubber, then I bought some magical stuff called Porc-a-Fix.  http://www.fixture-fix.com/ Call this lady and she will help you match the color of your tub.  I had to use the filler and the glaze, but it worked very well.  I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.  It took about two days because you have to apply, let cure, sand, and repeat.  It was worth it though because I spent $21.50 and a few minutes a day for two days.

Then I added some rugs I found at a thrift store for $4, shower curtain rings at the same thrift store for $1.  A picture from a different thrift store for $3, and a new shower curtain and rod, total of  $32 completed the look.  Here's my bathroom. I bought a brushed nickle light bar for $30 and attached that over the hole in the wall left by the ugly one.  I got LED light bulbs for that.  Those were expensive but I'm very happy with how they look.  There were six of those at $8 each.  I got new towel hooks, TP holder and a new towel bar.  Total $38 for the set that matched the brushed nickle.  For those who don't want to do the math, total cost of renovation $179.40.  Here's the completed view.  I also bought new towels for $50 for 4 bath towels, two hand towels, and four wash cloths at the JC Penney Home Store sale.  That was optional.  Then the total is $229.40 for a new bathroom.

A new kitchen

So we recently bought a new rental, well, not new, it was built in 1980, but new to us.  If you've been thinking "Gee, I wonder where they've been?"  Now you know.  We remodeled the kitchen, on a pretty tight budget because I wanted to get new appliances.  Here's what we did and how it turned out.

Before:

As you can see the cabinets needed help, the lighting was awful, the appliances had to go and the counter top was not good.  Here's what we did.
First we stained the cabinets with a all on one, stain and polyurethane.  I got a reddish stain, and I spent about $13.  This is after we finished the cabinets.

Then, we painted the counters with a special paint.  I'm not impressed with it.  I looks great, but I don't think it will be very durable, so I will likely have to come up with a new solution in a couple years, but for $20 for the whole kitchen it's hard to beat.  Here's the counters after.

Then we replaced the lights.  The one over the sink made the biggest difference, the one in the middle of the kitchen matches it.

We got new appliances, I like white and we got the dishwasher for $399 because it had been returned to Lowe's because the lady didn't like how her dishes fit in it!  It's a $600 Bosch dishwasher and it's nice a quiet with low water usage.  Here's the finished kitchen.

 

You might be a mom...

So for a while now my husband has been saying things that end with "you might be a mom." in his best Jeff Foxworthy impression.  Here are some of my favorites.



1.  If your idea of peace and quiet is to go to the bathroom with the door closed, you might be a mom.

2.  If you "take a break" by taking the trash out, you might be a mom.

3.  If you are cleaning up at 2 am after someone else was sick and there was no alcohol involved, you might be a mom.


4.  If you spent the night with two guys, and are thankful that you spent the whole night sleeping, you might be a mom.

5.  If you shower with two guys, who are not your husband, and just wish you could shower by yourself, you might be a mom.

I probably should have saved this for Mother's Day, but here it is.  Enjoy!

SPRING

Some people, probably most people (no I do not have statistical data to reference) like spring.  In fact I know many people that eagerly await the arrival of spring every year. I am not one of these people.  I have many reasons that I don't like spring, I am not going to lie, they vary from really good reasons, to lame selfish reasons.  They exist and they are valid, but I'm trying.  So, as I enter the worst time of year, to be followed by the second worst time of year, or what other people call summer, I am trying to be happy.  Here are some reasons that I found to help me try to like spring.

1.  I now have a metal roof.  This means that when the winds hit 90 plus miles per hour (I wish I were exaggerating) I don't have to worry about shingles blowing off of my house.

2.  My son and I planted heirloom carrots.  We are actually excited to grow them, eat them, and make carrot cake.

3.  There is a bird nest, with eggs, in the broken part of the trim on my house.  This means that I can't fix it right now!

4.  I'm already done with the girls' Easter dresses for the year.  This means that I might have time to make myself a new dress.  I haven't done this in over three years and I'm getting excited.

5.  The main reason that I'm enjoying spring is that my youngest is now two and he's starting to really get this potty thing.  I'm actually seeing the possibility of a future without diapers.  That's probably another entry altogether.

I hope this helps the one other person in the world that doesn't like spring.  For those of you who do like spring, enjoy it while it lasts.  It will be winter again in about seven months.  I will be counting down the days...