Houston, we have a problem…..

Need a tile floor torn up?  No problem, I’m your girl.  Just give me a crow bar.  I have a lot of aggression to get rid of.

Need a countertop refinished?  NOooooo problem, call me.

Wall paper stripped? Cabinets sanded and repainted? Help with plumbing?   Dude, I am all over it.

Do you need to rehang the cabinet doors that you have spent hours sanding, priming and repainting so that they will look JUST like that little picture you’ve had in  your head, for, oh, I don’t know, 2 years or so?

Yeah.  You should call someone else.

Because I SUCK at that.  Can someone explain why?

Luckily I have an awesome husband (who also happens to be hot as hell) who told me to take a walk after trying to hang four cabinet doors which would NOT hang correctly no matter WHAT I DID and really, the damn things hung there before so what the HELL was the problem and why couldn’t I get them to hang correctly – and CLOSE (aren't cabinet doors supposed to CLOSE FOR GOD’S SAKE???  THEY CLOSED BEFORE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!  )   and not be crooked???????

{Deep Breath}

He took the screwdriver from me and voila…..

 

        

Without flash, and with – WOW!  What a difference!!

              

 

Bottom line? I’m like the Gambler – I know when to walk away – and I know when to fold…

And I know when to turn things over to my hubby who has a much higher patience level than me…with SOME things….. :)

 

He also caulked the tub….

 

The end result???  A VERY happy Deb :)

 

A Sneak Peek…..

Just a little hint of what’s to come…..

I went with a different color.  It’s actually the color of my office at work and I have always loved it….it’s a very warm beige in my office but came out darker in the bathroom.  My office has a ton of very big windows, but the bath only has one small one.  Hence, the darker color.

I really love it.

 

I painted the ceiling the same color.  It makes such a difference and the room looks more spacious.

My resurfaced countertops – my price and joy. You can see the texture look in this picture.

Brian installed the faucets today.

 

 

 

All in all, it’s shaping up nicely. 

Tomorrow, we tile.

We are SO CLOSE….

I might just have a working bathroom by next weekend – OMG!!!!

 

The trim has been sanded and painted, I just put the last coat of paint on the walls and ceiling and Brian is on his way to pick up the saw to lay the tile.  The faucets will be going in today, the caulking will be done tomorrow (hopefully), the shower curtain arrived (it’s too cute!) but the shower rod had to be sent back (the color was not what I hoped it was) and the replacement is on the way.  I have one more mirror to paint, some drawer and cabinet pulls to put on (once I decide which ones I will be using) and then we’ll load everything in and install the toilet – OMG OMG OMG!!! We’re almost there!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for pictures – hopefully tomorrow…..

A bit of progress......

First we had a tub.....

Then we had tub walls......



Then we had drywall....





And FINALLY, fixtures....

And now, we pick out paint. I had a color in my mind, but couldn't find it in real life, so I was going to go with yellow.

Then I found this soft, light, warm taupe that matches the color veins in the light globes and is very close to what I envisioned. The color looks pink in these pictures, but it's not.

This weekend the mud will be finished and sanded and hopefully I can paint. Once the paint is done, the tile floor will be laid.

MAYBE this bathroom will be done by April.

Maybe.

My very own "Picasso"

We traveled to the Delaplaine Arts Center today.




This is a painting on the Carroll Creek Bridge as viewed from inside the gallery, at the proper angle.

And here it is from straight on.



I went out in the rain to get these pictures because I thought it was so cool.



But WAIT!! What's that? Why, it's Olivia Henry.....

Look at that!!!
Olivia was one of only three students from her school chosen to show her artwork at the
All County Art Show

We meandered through the exhibits......

Until we came to this...

"A Cubist Portrait"

By Olivia Henry

"Le Artiste"

We are so incredibly proud!



Way to go Pookie!! We love you SO MUCH!

WHERE IS SPRING?

We're ready.

Gulp.

I just got my student loan statement.

Apparently they would like to be paid back beginning in July.

Which would be fine, if I had an extra $400+ laying around every month, but, um, I don't.

And I have to pay them for the next ten years (YIKES!!)

I almost vomited.

I'm serious.

So, I am going to get a second job.
Just a little one - like teaching a few classes at the local community college or bartending a few nights a month.

What else was I going to do with all the free time I'll have after May? Ha!

This only reinforces my decision that no matter what - come hell or high water - my two girls will not have to worry about how to pay for their education.

I will not allow them to start their adult lives and professional careers with tens of thousands of dollars of debt that they will have to pay back for their first ten or more years out of college.

I'll do whatever is necessary to make sure they get their education debt free.

I have eight years. If I work hard, I should have my loans paid off just in time for me to start making payments on Olivia's, should that be necessary. It's a small price to pay to make sure my girls get a good education and don't make decisions they will later regret because of the inability to pay for school, the inability to pay back loans or by taking a job (or jobs) to pay off the debt they incurred to gain a college degree.

And as much as I appreciate my degree and the hard work I've put into it and maybe, just maybe, I got a little more out of it than some of my peers because I was an adult student, with a career and a family, I also know that I sacrificed a lot of time with my babies and my husband over the last 10+ years. I don't want my girls to experience the same guilt I have for spending so much time on school after being at work all day. But that's the only way I could afford it.

I don't want that for them.

I want them to to go to college, experience college, spend a semester in Europe, experience life and decide where to go from there.

When they have families, I want them to enjoy them, not worry about taking money away from their babies to pay for classes or feel horrible for not spending enough time with their children because of homework, or a paper, or a project, or sacrifice family vacations for tuition.......

I did all that for my Bachelor's Degree. But I didn't have any debt.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the hefty tuition for my Graduate degree, so I paid for it all with loans.

Once again, I'm taking money that would otherwise support our family and using it pay loans for MY education.

I can only hope that someday it will be worth it.

And this concludes our pity party for the day. We will be back to our regularly scheduled prgram along with an update on the bathroom (finally!) tomorrow.

Thank you.

Things I didn't count on.

Yesterday Brian went to the store in the morning to get those last few (yeah right) things he needed for the installation of the tub.

He got home around noon and I was anticipating that the tub installation would begin toot sweet.

I didn't count on the Terps.

They played at 1:30. Right smack dab in the middle of the day.

SO.... I went shopping and ran some errands.

I got home around 4:30 and was informed by Daddy and Brian that the tub didn't fit. Apparently it's narrower than the old tub. so 2x4's and shimming were necessary. We didn't have any extra 2 x 4' laying around. Why?

I didn't count on the tub being just a smidge too narrow so that the plumbing would fit.

I also didn't count on the fact that the Terps would suck up, oh ALL of the afternoon, so that by the time this was discovered, there was no way any installation was going to take place.

Another day wasted.

I was not a very happy person yesterday evening.

This morning we woke to the sun shining, the birds singing, and me on a mission to get that GOD FORSAKEN TUB IN NO MATTER WHAT!

It's in.

However, we ran into a few other minor issues. Like some plumbing that needed to be replaced, some wall braces which needed to be made, MORE shimming that needed to be done....{SIGH}

Long story short, the tub is in but the tub walls are not.

And now my husband tells me there's a leak in one of the pipes in the wall so, until that's fixed, we won't have water upstairs. Oh, and did I mention? To get to the leak, he has to cut a hole in the drywall in the hallway.

I didn't count on that.