Baby steps toward a finished house

We are on the 20 year plan.... In terms of our rehab. We have only been here for two and a half years, but have moved mountains to make this dump livable. When we moved in the "kitchen" was rotten to the core with termite damage, requiring us to enlist the help of a small, unpaid army to help us rebuild it in the dead of winter. That was the worst of it house-wide, but the remainder has been far from easy.

But it is the bathroom that has taken the longest. We gutted it early on. Lived with it like that for a year. Then we gutted some more, replaced all of the plumbing, laid a new sub-floor and lived with it again. Then we drywalled and installed cement board and lived with it again. In all this time, we have survived with only a toilet and tub (you can see from the pictures why no sink was better than the nasty one that was here). The new sink went in about 2 months ago. What a luxury.

We had big plans to tile on our own. It would have been the first time for either of us to do this kind of work. And although we are pretty handy, are best skills are in the demo and finishing departments: drywalling, plastering, caulking, painting and the like. Well, apparently our lack of tiling experience was keeping my father-in-law up at night, because without prompting, he came to the rescue. We were offered the services of tiling professional, at no cost to us. And this week, after enduring another round of dust and inconvenience, we now have a fully tiled bathroom!!!

It wouldn't be like us to finish the bathroom completely. We still need to cut down the doors and order and install trim. But this is a huge improvement to how we have been forced to bathe for the last two years.

Here are some "before" and "after" pics for your viewing pleasure.





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All is well on the roomie-front. I have been having some discomfort that feels a little like a belt strapped around my lower abdomen. But I am chalking it up to a combo of growth spurt and digestive slowdown. A newer development is that the roomie has changed his schedule drastically - either that or I am just getting that much more sensitive. I used to feel his activity more in the morning and at night. While he is still very busy at those times, I am getting a lot of movement throughout the day. It is, frankly, a bit worrisome. I am afraid I am growing a hyperactive spazzzzz. The kicks are getting stronger, more shocking to my belly, and more uncomfortable. I can only imagine it will get worse as he gets even stronger. Let's hope he is wimpy like his pops:)

DH leaves for India in 6 days and my anxiety level is starting to spike. I am a total baby about being alone, even if it does mean stretching out on our new queen sized bed. I hope the 18 days will fly on by. Before I know it, he will be home and we will both be scrambling to prepare for the fall semester.