I pledge allegiance to our bathroom

The room in our house that has had the most amount of time invested in it for the least result is for sure our guest bathroom. First I was determined to make it purplish blue. The first time, that was a monster fail. Mark and I scraped the entire room and I took a second stab at it with oil based primer. That time the paint stuck -but almost two years later, I was so over the purple.

There's something about walking by a room when the door is opened and all of a sudden, BAM! IT'S PURPLE!

We are not in a position to gut the bathroom and redo it entirely, so over this 4th of July weekend, I decided to see what I could do with the shell that we had -a blue tiled shower/tub and an old, severely over-painted vanity.

I first started with the walls and some Killz. It took 2 coats of heavy duty stain blocking primer to block out the purple.

In between coats, I had the brilliant idea of starting to peel off the white paint that I had sloppily applied to the vanity when we first bought the house.

The previous owners must have switched from pulls to knobs, because on each drawer or cabinet, there were 3 holes. The extra holes had been hidden by small white ceramic rings, but I decided just the knobs looked much better and filled the holes with putty.

Cut to 2am on Saturday morning. I was tired and high on paint fumes.

I continued the project on Saturday, with 2 coats of Glidden's Arctic Blue. The color tied perfectly with the tile in the shower and was much more subtle and serene than its purple predecessor, Behr's Endure.

I then redirected my attention to the vanity. I had hand-scraped all that I could. It was time to bust out the hand sander. I sanded the entire thing through who knows how many coats. I didn't ever get down to the wood, but since I knew I was just repainting it, that wasn't necessary. It just had to be smooth.

I applied 2 coats of Killz and then 2 coats of Behr Pure White (Satin Kitchen and Bath). The transformation is remarkable.

While it's definitely not my dream bathroom, it's a bathroom that we can absolutely live with, and doesn't hurt the resale value of our home the way it may have before. Mark has already installed a nice white cabinet above the toilet that adds more dimension (and storage) to the room. Overall it was well worth the weekend of work it took, and I think I'll leave this room alone for a while. :)

We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming to celebrate Dad!

It all started last Wednesday when I received a call at work from mom -unexpected, but not unheard of. In a calm and collected (stay strong for your daughter) voice, she informed me that dad and her were on a walk on Tuesday, during which he experienced sudden chest pains. He went in to see the doctor, and after multiple tests, learned that he had a 95% blockage in his heart and would need to undergo a triple bypass.

It was shocking to say the least. Dad -the person who doesn't touch fried food with a ten foot pole, the man that eats more fruits and vegetables than a million hungry caterpillars, the man that exercises regularly, the man that is supposed to be invincible- was in need of open heart surgery. I burst into tears. Mom continued to explain that he was in the hospital and that the surgery would take place on Thursday. I immediately booked a ticket to get me to Austin Weds night.

I called Mark and explained what was going on. He rushed home, packed me a suitcase, (did a great job, I might add,) and headed to pick me up from work. When we arrived at LAX, my phone rang. It was dad.

Dad: Is there any chance you can cancel the ticket?

Me: Why?

Dad: I feel fine! If I wasn't stuck in this hospital, I'd be at home gardening!

It was the first time I had laughed in hours.

Me: Dad, I'm coming to Austin. I want to be there.

He accepted my decision and I was Austin bound.

I was unable to see him until Thursday morning. Mom, Tali and I spent Thursday by his bedside until it was time for him to go in.

The doctors and nurses at the Heart Hospital of Austin were amazing. They were in and out of his room, checking his blood pressure, pulse, and all that good stuff every hour. They answered all of our (mostly Tali's) questions and reassured us that all should go smoothly.

And it did! Better than smoothly. Dad was in surgery for less than three hours. We were given constant updates on how he was doing. When we were finally able to see him Thursday night, he was still under the affects of the anesthesia, but come Friday morning, he was good as new. Dad was labeled the star patient there. He only took the pain meds for one day, needed no encouragement to get out of bed and walk around, and grumbled about it not once.

He was able to go home on Monday morning and has been doing great ever since.

This has served as a serious wake-up call for me. This is in my genes. My grandmother underwent a quadruple bypass about fifteen years ago and is still going strong. Now dad. Will a time come when I'll have to have something like this done? Who knows? All we (we being everyone really) can do is take care of ourselves to the best of our ability and take comfort in the fact that medical technology has come a long way, and just hope for the best.

Since I was little, whenever people would come over to my house for the first time, I'd always go around showing them all of the amazing things dad created. Dad has never been one to brag, so I guess I've always taken it upon myself to brag on his behalf. His talent is remarkable, and I want to take this opportunity to share a recent project he just finished.

I don't have much in terms of before shots, but the bathroom was long overdue for an update.

Before: Yellowed "white" cabinets with gold fixtures

After:

The amazing bathtub/plant holder

Window looking out from the shower to the bathtub

Meticulous tile work

Beautiful dark cherry cabinets and detail throughout

My photos don't do this bathroom justice. This is 5-star hotel quality, and dad did it all himself. It may be a little while before he's able to get back to undertaking projects of this magnitude, but unlike the governator, he'll be back for sure.

Get'er Done

We had such a busy weekend! Tons got accomplished (mostly thanks to Mark and our good friend Ryan).

First and foremost, I can no longer refer to our abode as the "Peach Palace" because Mark and Ryan painted the house! It is now painted Dunn Edwards' "Floating Lily Pad." It looks like a completely different house!
Sometime in the next few years, I would like to add a stone facade to the bottom half of the front of the house. Something like this. We also plan to eventually get a new front door. We're thinking a dark wood with wrought iron details.

Next on the list, Ryan helped install some under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. I call it the "I'm not waiting up for you" light.

We also finally got the mirror back up in our guest bathroom. Remember that snafu we had with the mold behind the mirror that I discovered when I was prepping the mirror for molding? That wasn't the molding I was going for... We fixed all of the problems, but the mirror had been sitting in our hallway for over six months. Well no more! I repainted the new drywall, and Mark and Ryan got the mirror and the molding up, and it looks fantastic! We also finally hung a towel bar and a hook so that towels don't have to be draped over the shower curtain rod.

I also spent some time sanding and painting cabinet doors for the bathroom, Mark installed a nice new medicine cabinet, and let's not forget the lovely new house numbers next to our front door.

There's nothing like hosting visitors to light a fire under our tucheses...

Lola's first trip to Home Depot

I'm Blue'n'daboodeeaboodai

Ok, I never really knew the words to that song, but it's the only catchy title I could come up with on this lovely Sunday mornin'. I spent the day painting our guest bathroom (again). This time there was no messing around. I painted two coats of Killz (as in the fumes from this stuff killz me) oil based primer. I followed that by two coats of Behr Endure, a lovely purplish blue.
The finished product was much more successful than the first time around. The cabinets will be next. They need to be stripped and repainted as the paint is coming off in sheets. We will also be picking up some white moulding to wrap the mirror with. Woah! Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This is some of the artwork we picked out for the bath. First is a photo of bluebonnets that Tali gave me when I left my sweet home of Texas for California, and reminded me that the bluebonnets would be waiting for me should I decide to return.

The second is entitled "Shiiiiiiitshark." I bought this gocco print on Etsy from Argyle Whale and thought it was super appropriate. Most people know that Mark and my "couples name" is "Shark." The irony is that I am terrified of sharks...

Today we will be chillin', hitting up Homegoods for some art/accessories, bbqing with our friends, and then I have my last pre-playoffs softball game this evening. Weekends are the best!

It's PINK.

Last night, Mark and I met with our friend Dave, who will be doing all of the work for our master bathroom. Just to give you an idea of what he's working with, here's a before shot of our shower.

Yep! That's a pink shower! The floor is currently covered in sticky linoleum tiles that we had to put down in order to get approved for the loan. Prior to that, it was bare.

The bathroom is pretty small, about 25-30 sq ft, not including the shower. There are some built in cabinets to the right of the shower that are pretty sorry looking, but salvageable according to Dave.

So what do we have planned, you ask? Well, we thought we'd keep it pretty simple and classic. We've chosen a 2x4 neutral tile for the shower and a matching 12x12 for the floor. The tile will carry all the way to the ceiling in the shower. We've decided to repipe the shower head to come down straight from the ceiling. The vanity will be a dark espresso and all fixtures will be a brushed silver.

As for paint, we found all (most) of our colors last night!!! The bathroom will be painted in Glidden's Cafe Latte -neutral and taupe-ish.

Sewer re-pipe to be completed on Friday, garage install on Friday, HVAC (asbestos, re-ducting, a/c and heat install) to start next week. Phew!