Other Projects...

I have had some other projects I've been doing, but haven't had time to share them. Here are a few:

Our cabinets have suffered from water damage. After some research, I determined I could re-vanish them myself.

A little "sanding" and vanishing later and I have like new cabinets!


My sisters silently complained about my messy utility drawer, so I looked at separators at Ikea, but thought they were a little pricey.

So I bought a sheet of foam board at Hobby Lobby for less than $2
and used some white duct tape and vua-la!

I have been looking at blogs that have done the fake wainscoting or board and baton for a long time. I finally got up the courage to mention it to Curtis in conjunction with a way to keep the kids coats off the floor and he said yes!

I got to use a neighbors electric nail gun! It was so fun and easy! I only did this corner for now. Eventually I want to bring it up the stairs.

Today I felt like being crafty so I made some bibs. I have three friends on the street who are all due around the same time as me, but they are all having girls. I can't make just one, that wouldn't be fair!

Bathroom Remodel

Long ago, well not SO long ago, it was since Claire has been around, I told Curtis that the next time he got me pregnant he needs to remodel the bathroom with a nice big tub for me. Well, he held true to his promise. We used our tax return to rip out the old dinky tub and install a separate tub and shower.

Before

During

After

We hired the work to be done by Steve at Creative Tile Works. It was so nice to not have to do the whole project like usual and he did it all: ripping out, plumbing, framing, tiling, electrical and drywall. It has been a couple of weeks and things aren't quite done. Steve took longer than he thought to finish and he had to do a job out of town for a week. He thought the shower was usable, but that same day this happened:

A leak!
That's in our ceiling in the family room downstairs, under our bathroom. Steve knows exactly what happened and will be back on Monday to fix it and to finish up the drywall work and caulking. In the mean time, the bath has been calling my name, yet it sits empty, waiting.

A Trip to Washington

My sister Becca moved to an old farm house in Camas, WA several months ago. I was glad when the opportunity arose that I could go visit her and help get some remodeling done.

We first painted and re-textured the family room walls, then we ripped out the 35 year old hideous carpet to find vinyl tiles stuck to the original hardwood floors. Who does that and why? I then spent 2 days on the floor with a blow torch and a scraper getting off that retched black tar paper. I got to use one of those big floor sanders for a whole day, we put up trim and then spent two more days staining and vanishing, sanding, varnishing, sanding and vanishing some more. You might think I'm crazy, but I had a lot of fun. I think Curtis was grateful that I was getting my remodeling bug worked out at Becca's house and on Becca's dime rather than on his. =)

Before

During

After

Claire turned one while we were there. She really enjoyed her fresh fruit with real whipped cream, mmm!

I loved the weather and the beautiful trees and wild blackberries in Washington. I didn't really want to come back to barren Utah, but the weather here has cooled down a little and I'm accepting that this is where I need to be right now.