The Waterpark is closed...For no more renovations

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted, but it has been just a little crazy around the house. I told you about the beginnings of our bathroom renovations, and I think we were into day number four. Well, we went well into week number three before it was all done. There were no major issues, thankfully. But, our contractor was not as familiar with the work as we had hoped he would be.

The plumbers were in and out and did a great job. Next, the shower walls went up. By next, I mean five days later. There was some prep work to be done, in all fairness, such as drywall. I remember my dad helping with many renovations through the church when we were growing up and he got to help with the drywall installation, mudding, and sanding. If you can avoid it, do so at all costs. I don't think all the dust has settled yet.

We decided to help speed things up (and hopefully recover some on the budget) by doing some of the painting ourselves, so we made sure to get that done overnight for them. When the tile went down, the toilet came up, so we had to relocate to a hotel for a couple of nights. I said I would take a bath in a bucket, but I was not about to do anything else in a bucket. I do have my limits. While the toilet was out, it sat on the porch. I did not. After the tile dried and the grout went in, the toilet returned to its rightful and private location. Luckily that happened on a Friday, so we were able to come home for the weekend.

That just happened to be a busy weekend at work for me too, as we had an event that I had to be at. It was a short 16 hour day. Sunday morning we were at Lowe's when they opened, with a list of supplies we needed. We had to get things back on track and get our bathroom back. We had opted for beadboard, which the contractor put up on Friday as well, but I told him what type of molding I was thinking of to finish it. It was obvious that it would be into the next week before that would happen. So baseboard and chair rail molding were on our list. We picked up a few other supplies and headed back home. As I unloaded the building of all my power tools , Mick began painting all the trim, then I measured what I needed and began cutting and installing it. The day flew by, and a few storms blew in, but we got all the trim in, with the exception of a couple of small sections. Then we hung the mirror, changed out the door knob, set the vanity, caulked and touched up the paint on all the trim. We figured we saved about 3 days worth of work. The next day when Scott arrived to begin working, he was a bit shocked at the work we had gotten done. He almost offered me a job as a finish carpenter and said he would pay me $40 an hour. Now we knew what we had just saved on the budget too.

That did speed things up quite a bit and they were done the next day. We finished up with the small details of hanging the towel bars and medicine cabinet. Our work lasted a few more evenings. In the end, we are extremely happy with how it turned out.

It did remind me of renovations that we did at home in the late 80's. My parents put in all new windows, a new roof, siding, and remodeled the bathroom and kitchen. This process began in late summer with ordering the windows and getting the roof replaced and siding put on. The windows did not arrive until the week of Thanksgiving. Mom was excited to have all new windows that would tilt in and easily slide up and down, and best of all they were insulated. All the windows were installed except the big picture window in the living room. The took the old window out and tossed it into the dumpster and when they dry fitted the new one, it did not fit. It had been made wrong and would have to be remade, asap. The best they could do was board up a 6-foot x 6-foot hole in the living room wall. Mom was less than not happy. They did manage to get a window built withing a few days into the next week and installed it. We put up the Christmas tree right away. It had become a tradition for us to come home from Grandmaw Barton's and put up the tree on Thanksgiving day. That year it was a little bit delayed.

Now they had to finish the bathroom and kitchen renovations. I don't remember too many issues, but I do remember a new toilet sitting in the living room for several days, right next to the Christmas tree. Along with all the new appliances, my parents had recently had a new water softener installed in the kitchen closet. One night, mom and I were wallpapering the kitchen and about 2am that damn thing kicked on. We thought someone was outside the backdoor doing something and the only weapons we had handy were a wallpaper brush and a utility knife. The only good thing about it coming on was that it woke us up a bit and we were able to finish the job.

Our Christmas toilet. My cat, CeCe was fascinated by this thing being in the living room. Notice the boxes of Christmas lights next to it.

Home renovations are not fun. I have never heard anyone exclaim how much they love them, but I have to say that mom and I did have fun wallpapering that night, and Mick and I did have a good time working on the bathroom trim. There is a sense of accomplishment that you feel when you work with your hands to feather your nest. Even the flaws become endearing reminders of giving it your best.

Well, here are a few pictures of the "after" of our bathroom. Next, the kitchen.

MacBeth and the other cats have all figured out that they can crawl under the sink base. Now they have a new place to hide.