Friday, July 25, 2008

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.

4 comments:

Mel said...

I love love love all of the changes, especially the great tile work and the new sink! I’m super envious of the exposed brick you have too. I don’t know how you survived without a shower for all that time…I guess you just learn to adapt?

Also glad to hear that roomie is well. I bet he’s going to be a big “talker” in-utero and as mild as a lamb once he’s born. Just my guess! Take care of yourself, and have a great weekend.

jenn said...

I love the after of the sink- the exposed brick is great! I have it in my kitchen too!

I can't wait to see the finished product, but it'a already better progress than I've had in my house in a while!
I also bet that the roomie will be calm as can be when out- or at least I hope so!

jenn said...

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments & support- and what the heck are you doing up so early on a saturday?! I have an excuse! ;o) (Oh wait- I guess you do to! Forgot about that whole Roomie might not let you sleep that much anymore thing!)

sara said...

I'm way late on reading and replying so I already saw your more recent post. But I wanted to say what an awesome job you guys did with the bathroom! It is absolutely gorgeous - and the fact that you guys can do any of the work yourselves makes me gaze in awe. You guys can do an amazing job - that couldn't of been an easy task. You have a great sense of style with the decor in there - the sink kicks butt and I love the exposed brick in the background. Gorgeous and such clean lines. Great job!