Link to a second blog

I have thought that Avri has such a greater purpose than to keep me on the straight and narrow! I have watched her grow leaps and bounds this last year and I want to share that with some one, any one who ever thought some thing was not possible, or that life is to hard! I started to document her life on my blog and decided she deserved her own! So for anyone who read any of the first posts I wrote they are now on the "A life without limits" blog link! Her life has been so full so far that it will take me a few days to get caught up to her current life!

One more view of the bathroom before it's done

Still not all the way done, but so very close. I have to grout just a couple more spots. Then seal and enhance it. I am thinking the paint is the hardest decision I have had to make so far. I think the paint could make or break the whole bathroom. I also have handles and one more front piece for the cabinets.

Give me one more day!

So we have light at the end of the tunnel. The only thing left to do is grout about half of it! I won't go on and on about how much I hate grouting especially with black grout. I am going to need all new shirts when I am done. I have ruined a new shirt every day, I can say my work looks good but I make huge messes doing it. I don't know how those pro's tile and grout with out getting it all over them. I find myself cleaning crap out of my hair and sad to say bra? The guy who has done the electrical and framing came over in the middle of me grouting and I had my shoes off. He looked right at my feet and asked me if I was grouting with my toes. I was standing in the tub while I rinsed the walls off and did not realize that I had turned my feet totally black! I guess this project has turned me into a mad woman on a mission.

Bathroom getting close!

I started tiling the counter top today at 11:30 am and stopped at 6:00 pm for a food break. I got about a square foot done. I am cutting all the tiles very small and random and then putting them together. It was like putting a 1,000 piece puzzle together. I had my little level out and made sure every tile was level. Matt has been out of town the last couple days, and he came home and went straight to the bathroom. The first thing he did was got out his level and started checking. Ha....perfect! I think he was very surprised. He has little faith in me!

The shower is done, I just have to grout inside the shelves. When I grouted the shower, I put all the black grout on and then Matt asked me if I wanted to go out to eat. I had been working on the bathroom with no breaks. I had had not eaten anything yet, and it was 7:30pm. He said just leave the wall and wipe it down when we get back. I took him up on it, and I still have not got all the grout scrubbed off. So far 1 week of scrubbing with acid, hard scrubbing. I have scrubbed one brush down to nothing and gone through 2 scrub pads and one sponge and about 10 fingers. So I have to say dinner although tasty was not worth it!

Women doing a mans job!

SO the drama with my bathroom remodel continues! My friend came over to help me after only getting half a wall up in an afternoon. I had a bunch of tiles already cut, so I thought we would mix us up some thin set. So I have this drill and this long paddle that attaches to it. So I get it all put together and get the thin set in the 5 gallon bucket, I add the water, tell my friend to hold the bucket so it does not spin. First big mistake. I added to much water and the stuff flies all over my kitchen. The next hour is spent cleaning up thin set from the floor and walls. I had so much thin set on my pant leg that it was pulling my pants down. So we get the mess cleaned up and take it out side to try again. We get it all set up and my friend gets down and is holding the bucket. I turn on the drill and this time the thin set is so thick that the drill is ripped out of my hand and knocks my friend right in the four head. She is half crying half laughing as this purple knot starts to form on her head. We did not give up, we got our thin set mixed and began to set the tiles.

lessons learned in remodeling!

This bathroom remodel has been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be! I came into this idea thinking I would just do it and it would be a breeze! Boy was I wrong! I started out with 16x16 size tiles. I chose the classic slate. I saw this wall made out of this slate at home depot and it was half the price of other slates I had seen and the wall was beautiful, so i went with it. I bought 56 boxes. The sample wall had mostly black in it with a few deep purple swirls, but when we got home and started to open boxes and lay tiles out to see what this wall was going to look like with full tiles. My husband came in and freaked out because the colors were so different. He said it looked like we went around to every tile store and got free samples because we could not afford to go buy cases. So thats when the tears started.

So the plan with this bathroom is to completely gut it and start all over. My husbands main concern with the window wall was that at night people driving by could see my silhouette. I think he was worried people would think it was me when it was him. So we framed in the window. No more peep shows! This bathroom is so tiny. My plan is to redesign the bathroom with effects that would make it appear larger. I am having all my shelves built into the walls. I am having all new lighting installed, and lots of mirrors. The difference when this bathroom is done is going to blow you away!

I have always hated my master bathroom. It can hardly even be called a master bathroom. It is so small. My husband is the safe guy. He like to think small simple and resale. I like to think big, extreme and some thing I love. So this is Matts safe bathroom. The one thing that is not safe about this bathroom is the ever clogging toilet and the growing cracks on the bottom of the bathtub, and lets not forget the sink it is chipped and rusted. If rubbed just right during a good cleaning it can slice right through your fingers! So with the long list of things to be replaced the only logical answer is to gut it and start over.