Lily Sunday!

She's my favorite.

Bathroom Project Update

Here's where we're at right now...

The company that was contracted to do the work on our bathroom came back out (5 separate times) to fix the drywall, patch around the shower, patch all the holes and tape and mud everything. They even sanded it all down (which is terribly messy and a pain) before wrapping up their job. I probably won't go through Lowe's ever again, but I will call this company directly if I need more work done in my home.

Our blank slate

My mom and I before tackling the rest of the project. Excuse my disaster of a basement please.

More blank slate

Finally painting!

I happen to enjoy painting and was so glad this color came out the perfect shade of gray.

Holding the luan down while it dries. Very excited to tile.

Lining up the tiles. These are vinyl sticky tiles and you place them the same as regular tiles, just without grout. They rock.

You've got to weigh those down too when your basement floor isn't exactly even.

The tiles are laid out and stuck!

Once grouted, you can't even tell they aren't real tile!

So, the room is painted, the floor is down. And Sunday came very quickly so it was time for my parents to go home. Hopefully they will make it back one more time before Mr. L gets home and I'll have a finished bathroom to show him!

Thank God Spiders Can't Fly...

 Via

My day started by sleeping through my alarm. Awesome. So I hurried, got ready and left for work. I actually managed to get there at the right time and sat down at my desk to open my computer. I looked down at my hands when I put them on the keyboard AND THERE WAS A SPIDER ON THE SLEEVE OF MY SWEATER!!!!! I'm not even kidding when I say that I lost my shit...thank god no one was in the testing office. I tore my sweater off (it was a cardigan, I did not get naked at work), threw it on the floor, all the while yelling at the spider ("How dare he be on my arm! How dare he scare the living daylights out of me tat 7:30 in the morning") and then realized I didn't know where it went. So then I had to look around the desk area until I found the thing and smushed it. Needless to say, I started the testing session late...

Where in the world did I pick up a spider. I mean, I know they are all over our house (that and crickets, they are everywhere), but it's not like I was rolling around outside before I came to work. I put the sweater on, grabbed my water from the fridge and got in the car. Then I drove the 12 minutes to work WITHOUT a spider on my arm...I'm pretty sure of that considering I hold my arms in front of me when I drive like everyone else, so I would have seen the sneaky little thing. Then I got out of the car, walked into the building (without rubbing up against any spider-covered walls) and in my office. SO WHERE DID HE COME FROM? Regardless, I now feel itchy and am pretty sure his whole spider family is coming for their revenge...

Yuck.

So how are YOU doing?

Bathroom Project

I started reading blogs about two or three years ago. I can't remember why I started or which blog I read first. Many of the blogs I read now are about home improvement, interior design, and decorating. I LOVE those things, but don't know how to do much at my own home. This is probably why I like seeing other people's homes so much.

I've never done a real renovation project before...until now.

When Mr L and I purchased our current home, we were able to pick out all the specifics: counter tops, cabinets, flooring, etc. It's a three level townhouse, so we have a finished basement on the bottom level. The model home also came with a full bathroom down there. The builders wanted a large amount of money to finish that bathroom...something like $3500. We were already at the top of our budget, so we said "No thank you, we'll finish it ourselves, for much cheaper. It will be our first home project!"

Flash forward over a year later and we finally decided to start planning the room. The builders had "roughed" the room in for us. The plumbing was all there, as well as the drywall and a light fixture. We realized very quickly that the room did not have an exhaust system, shut off valves, or even an electrical outlet. After a trip to Lowe's, we decided to let the professionals handle the tub/shower, exhaust system and electrical issues.

Now flash forward about two more weeks. Mr L gets put on a deployment (that we were not expecting) and now I have to handle the scheduling and finishing of this bathroom.

I thought that by letting a big company like Lowe's handle all the main stuff, it would be a super easy transition to the "fun" stuff (paint, flooring, etc). Unfortunately, my experience with Lowe's was TERRIBLE. The person in charge of scheduling gave me a confirmed date/time for the people to show up and it turns out he just made it up...he never called the contracting company, never told them anything about us, never told them about our room. It took a bunch of last minute calls, lots of stress and some not very nice attitude from me to have the construction begin.

We did not pay for the drywall to be fixed because were were assured that they would be able to do everything without destruction to the drywall that was in place.

The tub/shower after installation.

The ceiling we were assured would be left alone.

More of the ceiling that had already been in one piece.

My parents and I decided to fix the ceiling ourselves.

Just a note - fixing drywall on a ceiling is best left to professionals.

After it was over, I made another not-so-nice call to Lowe's. I COMPLETELY understand that the work they did required them to cut around the tub and pull half the ceiling down. However, this is not what I signed the contract for and it was not the work I agreed to. If they would have explained what the process involved (like I assumed they did when we paid for the work), this would not be a problem. But they did not. We had to leave the bathroom as it was while I wait for the company to schedule a time to fix all the drywall...

The two week project just turned into a nightmare.