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I’m here … I’m treading water, ya’ll, and my legs are getting tired …

… sooooo tired …

I’ve been trying to balance working full time (and trying to grasp a job in a field I know nothing about but am learning more about every day) and trying to get our bathrooms (as in plural, as in TWO) back together again.

We’re getting close.

Oh so very close.

“We” painted (remember, when I say “we”, you think “Kevin”).

Actually. Kevin painted the room, I painted the windows. (I’m a better painter than what this picture shows. This was before “we” scraped the windows – they actually look pretty good).

We painted our back bathroom a soft yellow.

That’s right. Yellow.

It’s like the color of a lemon drop (remember that candy?). It goes really well with our java-colored cabinet. We have another large cabinet to put back in there that “we” need to paint and put in there. “We” also need to put some towel racks up, the toilet in, and “we” (actually, I did help with that) just hung up a huge mirror over the sink this evening. Oh. And Kevin hung some vertical blinds, too.

I’ll take pictures of the finished project next time – once we have this blasted thing FINISHED.

“We” also painted the front bathroom a soft lime green.

That’s right. Lime green.

We thought the soft green would also look really sharp with our java-colored sink we plan on putting in there.

I painted the door (it was pretty gross, actually) and we bought some mosaic globes for our sconces that I LOVE. Only, they don’t give off enough light, so Kevin (I won’t even pretend there’s a “we” in this aspect of the project) will have to go into the attic this weekend and put in another light so it doesn’t throw the toilet area into shadow. I have a shower curtain for the shower that I’m really looking forward to putting up, as well.

The electrician is supposed to come by tomorrow and finish his job, (hook up the lights, the vent fans [the boys are looking forward to this because apparently SOMEONE, *ahem*, is stinking up the joint], and another outlet in the back bathroom.

The tile guy (OUR awesome tile guy), is coming on Thursday to do our floors.

So HOPEFULLY, our bathrooms will nearly be done by this weekend.

Our construction guys still need to install a corner shelf for the front shower, and there’s a small patch of ceiling that needs to be finished in the front bathroom, but FOR THE MOST PART (do not deny me the small pleasures in life, people!!), we are nearly done.

I’ll take you on another video tour once everything gets put back together again.

This past weekend was non-stop motion for me and Kevin. He painted and did his thing, I gave the house a good cleaning because OMGosh, the dust was unbelievable.

Then we both went back to work today.

I’m pooped. But happy. Because our bathrooms are really turning out better than we hoped for. Sure. We had a few snags and setbacks and it’s only taken about TWO WEEKS longer than we had planned, but we’re nearly done now and I will KILL Kevin if he comes up with anymore home improvement projects in the next ten years or so.

It’s now 8:30 – bed time.

I WISH I were kidding.

*s

I went to bed at 8:00 o’clock last night …

… actually, it was 7:58. I hadn’t slept well the night before and I was BRAIN DEAD. Wednesday was pretty crazy at work and it took every last brain cell (which, I only have about 15 to begin with), to get through the day.

You know how you can tell about how many hours of sleep you need in order to feel “good”? Well. I think ten is MY magic number.

If I only had TIME to get ten hours of sleep a night …

The bathrooms are coming along … more slowly now, but we’re getting there.

The sheet rock/tile guy came yesterday and worked on patching up our walls. He’ll finish patching the walls today. He also put the backer board down in the back bathroom and will likely tile that room today. I imagine he’ll put the toilet in as well so he can take the toilet out of the front bathroom and put the backer board down in that room. (They HAVE to leave us at least ONE toilet, right??)

The plumbing has been rerouted and everything has been switched around. So, the hard part is done (I think). Kevin got under the house this past weekend and rerouted the pipes to make a vent in the front bathroom – it looks like he’s going to have to get under the house again this weekend and fix the back bathroom vent. Apparently, the floor vents weren’t part of our contract. *sigh*

We’re going on two weeks now and I’m SO READY TO HAVE OUR BATHROOMS BACK. However, we’re pretty pleased with how they’re turning out and I’m looking forward to the “beautifying” stage.

Dude seems to like going to college. He’s taking three classes: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. His first class is at 9:00 and he’s usually home around 1:00. (I’m assuming, since I’m never here). He also picks Jazz up from school every day. And he took Jazz to the dentist yesterday to get a wire clipped. I really appreciate his flexibility as it takes some pressure off me and Kevin. I do worry about them running around, but honestly, I just try not to think about it.

He’s been selling a lot of books in the book store. He also sold a piece of electronic equipment that my dad gave him to list on eBay. So he’s been busy packing up stuff – he’s also been busy upgrading his computer equipment. I sort of lectured him about saving his money instead of spending it, but then Kevin sort of vetos my lecture with, “it’s his money, he can spend it as he sees fit.” Which is true, but he’s also a 19-year old man who needs to start thinking about getting a steady job and MOVING OUT at some point. I love my son, but I refuse to support him the rest of his life – or well into his twenties, whichever comes first.

We have a scheduling meeting at Jazz’s school tonight – SENIOR YEAR HERE WE COME!!!!! I can’t believe he’s going to be a senior. There are about three classes/credits HE MUST have this next year in order to graduate. I don’t think these particular classes are offered in the summer months, so HE MUST have these classes. I hope he gets into them, otherwise, I’m going to have to talk to his counselor and make it happen.

As it stands now, Jazz will NOT have to take any summer classes this go around. He’s taken summer classes for the past two summers now and I know he’s really looking forward to NOT taking classes this summer. I hope it works out that way.

Crap. It’s now 6:44 and I haven’t even taken a shower yet. I need to get moving – I have a LOT of work to do. (As Kevin likes to “affectionately” tell me on a daily basi

Construction is messy, isn’t it? Remind me again why we’re doing this??

You wouldn’t believe the dust build up … or maybe you would. It’s especially apparent when you have dark hardwood floors. When the sunlight shines through the windows and bounces off the floors it’s enough to make you pause, widen your eyes, and gasp in shock.

I have spent an insane amount of time this past week dry mopping and vacuuming the carpets than I have spent in the past two months combined. I know it’s part of the process but … wow. It makes you wonder just how much dust accumulates under NORMAL circumstances.

Kevin is cutting a vent hole in the front bathroom right now. I don’t know why our construction guys haven’t done it yet but I think the tile guy is supposed to come on Wednesday and we sort of need that vent hole since the front bathroom has been cut in half and no longer has one.

We’ve all taken a shower in the new shower now and I pretty much hate it. Not the shower itself, but the shower head facing the curtain is NOT going to work; Kevin completely soaked the floor this morning. We are going to buy a hose this weekend and hook it up so that it hangs on the left wall. That way, people can soap up and then spray off without constantly worrying whether the floor is being soaked or not. When Kevin designed the plans for our remodel, he never thought that the left wall would be rock and cinder blocks. We could have put the shower on the other side of the room, where the toilet is now, but Kevin didn’t want the focus of the room to be on the toilet when people entered the room.

Check back later and I’ll take you on a video tour of the bathrooms – when I’ve taken a shower myself. I’ve been busy catching up on some email requests this morning (because I’m still maintaining nine school websites after my “day” job) as well as doing about fifteen loads of laundry consisting mainly of towels. We’ve been going through a lot of towels wiping up messes and excess water.

*Side note: It rained a lot yesterday and our fireplace leaked A LOT. Like the most it’s leaked in, well, ever. Kevin went up into the attic to see what was going on and the plastic he had spread out in that area had completely disintegrated so that it was a waterfall up there. That’s next on our house-maintenance agenda – get that damn fireplace leak fixed once and for all. It’s been our Achilles’ heel ever since we moved into this house 19 1/2 years ago. The leak was so bad, it even soaked the hearth rug AND my new hardwood floor – I was pretty upset about that, but luckily, I heard the dripping and was able to clean it up before it had sat around for too long. It could have been worse; I could have waken UP to a huge mess and it could have soaked into the wood all night. In addition to the fireplace leak, we discovered that the faucets in the utility room had somehow worked themselves loose (Kevin thinks it might be because the construction guys have been turning the water on and off so many times this past week). I went to do a load of towels and was surprised to discover that they were completely soaked. Luckily, those towels had been there to soak up the water because again, I could have woken up to a room full of water this morning; when it rains it pours, I guess. (Ha!)

Oh well. We’ll make it work – “we” always do. (I.E. Kevin).

0 Comments on When It Rains, It Leaks as of 1/1/1900

I’m too tired to take pictures of our evolving bathroom. It was one heck of a week.

Who am I kidding, EVERY week is one heck of a week.

I’m going to Branson tomorrow – with a nurse and an MA.

That won’t be awkward.

Anyway …

The front bathroom is coming along nicely. We have a toilet in the front bathroom and the shower is now functional, too.

*Side note on the toilet: It sucks. At least, it doesn’t flush as well as our old one did. Kevin told me it has something to do with yet another asinine government regulation – the whole can’t flush too much or we’ll kill our planet nonsense. How is it saving energy to flush a toilet five times instead of two? Seriously … government is so stupid.

Jazz will be the first one to break our new shower in tonight. We’re now exclusively using the front bathroom. The back bathroom was completely gutted today – much to my surprise and horror.

(Horror because I MEANT to clean everything up [i.e. toilet mainly] before they got to that part, but no one warned me and … UGH. Don’t you know remodeling bathrooms must be NASTY?!?)

The electrician came out and put the wiring for the sconce lights in the front bathroom … only, we hadn’t picked them out yet. I just got back from Lowe’s (Kevin is at band practice), and I picked out some sconces I liked. It’ll be interesting to see if Kevin agrees with my choice since we rarely agree on anything style wise and end up compromising (i.e. Kevin usually gets his way).

I also bought the mirror to put over our sink – WHICH, by the way, looks pretty damn nice in that bathroom, I’ve got to say. I wasn’t sure about buying a sink with a small cabinet but I’m so glad Kevin got his way (again) and talked me into it because it really does look nice in there. I also found a cabinet with three small straw baskets on shelves that I think will look pretty fabulous on the wall behind the toilet. I’m a little concerned about the walls – I think the wall guy is going to mud the parts of the wall he added/fixed and leave the rest of the walls to us. We (Kevin always gets annoyed when I say “we” when it really means “him”), textured the walls and though they looked cool, we’re so over textured walls, which means, “we” will have to sand the walls down and mud before “we” repaint. (Actually – I sort of like painting).

The construction guys are going to put a corner shelf in our shower. We had initially asked for a shelf to be built into the shower, but again, those dang walls are too thin to do anything like that, so we’ll have to compromise (again) and go for the corner shelf. Which is sort of cool, I guess, and is certainly better than having a shower caddy.

I don’t know when the tile guy is going to show up and do his magic – hopefully soon.

So the front bathroom is nearly finished – or as finished as it will be before we get in there to paint and add our own finishing touches. I’m looking forward to seeing how much of the back bathroom the guys get done before the weekend.