Monday, June 20, 2011

Busted!

Over the weekend, we confirmed our suspicion that Keeper Boy no longer believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. While it is a sad milestone for us, we were not surprised. We were shocked, actually, that he still appeared to believe... even two or three years ago.

When we asked him about it after seeing his response to the question "Do you believe in Santa Claus" on Facebook (and his response of "No"), he said he hasn't believed since he was about 10. But he was afraid if he told us he wouldn't get as many presents.

Fair enough.

Today he brought home some writing from his English class this year. I loved his essay about his memory of losing a tooth. I wasn't prepared for the end, and I thought it was great. Enjoy!

One time when I was younger, my tooth fell out while I was eating pudding with gummy worms. I had gotten my bowl of chocolate pudding, added my multi-colored gummi worms. I had sat down at the table with my bowl and waited for the speaker to stop talking. She concluded her speech and told everyone to dig in. I got a spoonful of pudding. Then I got distracted and put down my spoon. I showed my friend my tooth that was dangling by a thread. He said I should yank it out. "No way!" I exclaimed. Then I went back and sat at my table. I scooped some worms in the pudding. I shoved it in my mouth and bit. Pain shot through my mouth for a second. Then I felt something small drop onto my tongue. I reached into the depths of my big mouth. I took hold of the unidentified object and pulled it out. Cradled in my fingers was my tooth!

Later on, I put it under my pillow later in the day and left it there until morning. I ate my dinner very slowly. That took FOREVER! Then I got ready to go to bed. I layed [sic] down and fell asleep immediately.

Later on the next day, after finding my dollar, I went to the pool. I took my wallet with me to buy a snack. It had to be something small because I knew I had a 1 dollar bill in there and that was it. At break I went to the snack bar. I opened my wallet to find no dollar left in there. I knew where it was. It was under my pillow. I don't trust my "Santas" or "Tooth Fairys" anymore.

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 17 -- DONE!

I think we're done. All's that's left is the final walk-through on Monday. Oh, and they are going to replace the hinges on the door. Oh, and we have to figure out where we want to mount the toilet paper holder. But the water works where it's supposed to, and it's beautiful. Better yet, the boys can get all of their stuff out of our bathroom!! Woo hoo!





Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 15 -- Fixtures!

Today, we got a light over the tub, a new ceiling fan, an outlet, a switch for the fan, and a shower head/spigot. Oh, and a toilet! Almost done!



Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 14 -- Counter Top!!

OMG!! It's so awesome!! Behold:




It looks a darker in the picture than it really is. The close-up is closer to the actual colors... grays, black, blue.

They also grouted the tile around the shower today and it looks great!

Tomorrow: I guess we'll have a toilet and faucets and such. Woo hoo!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 13 -- Tile almost done!

The tile is all in around the tub, including the blue glass, and the tile in the niche. No grout yet, though. I guess that'll happen tomorrow. But even with the spacers still in and no grout, it looks so cool!


I can't wait to come home tomorrow and see the counter top!!!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 12 -- Cabinet!

Today the cabinet was installed and measurements were taken for the countertop.


Tomorrow: The tile guys will be back to finish the tile around the tub. Meanwhile, our countertop is being cut at the granite place. Woo hoo!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

DAY 11 - Grout and more tile!

Today the guys came back and grouted the floor. They intended to finish the tile around the tub, too, so they could put the small blue glass squares in on Monday morning; however, they ran out of tile. :-( They need three more tiles. Bummer. But the floor looks awesome!!




Up on Monday: Finish the tile around the tub, and install the cabinet...

Friday, June 10, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

DAY 10 - Tile!

Today tile was laid on the floor and (two rows) around the tub. The bare strip between the two rows of tile will be a row of 2-inch square blue glass tiles. There will be another row above what is in this picture the top row.



Tomorrow the tile will be finished, and (I'm assuming) grouted.

Up Monday: cabinet install and final measurement for the granite countertop.

We're getting there!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 9 - Paint

I'm really glad we went with the "darker" color because even this is lighter than we thought it would be (although it's darker in person than it appears in the photo). The color is Krypton, and it's a mid-tone gray.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Project Hawaii

I have resigned myself to the fact that Project Hawaii is an epic fail. Well, maybe not epic, but definitely a failure. I've lost about five pounds since January. Pathetic, really. So I can fit into a few of the clothes I wanted to fit into before leaving for Hawaii, but not many. Sigh.

I have many excuses for why I didn't lose the weight... slammed at work, busy running the kids around, sick, shin splints, blah... blah... blah. But the fact is I didn't do what I needed to do, I guess. I got serious about the exercise part about a month ago and until about a week ago, that was going really well. I am doing better with the food intake, but apparently not well enough.

So... I will go to Hawaii, and I will look back on the pictures and see that I had a good time, and try not to notice how "fluffy" I am in them. :-(

The Great Bathroom Remodel

DAY 8 - Primer and Paint

Today the walls got primed, and the ceiling was painted. The dump trailer also re-appeared in our driveway.


Tomorrow is wall paint (Krypton!).

Friday and Monday: tile.

We are also getting the niche in the shower at no cost because of the freezer snafu of last week (wherein in a circuit was tripped/shut off unbeknownst to us and we lost everything in our chest freezer after it was off for the better part of a week).

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

DAY 7 - ???

Well, the drywall guy was here and set up when I left this morning; however, it doesn't look any different to me tonight than it did last night. So I'm not sure what he did.

Today we got a choice between two tile designs for around the tub... option 1 was the one we had come up with at the beginning of the project, and option 2 is a new one the designer proposed. I think we're going to go with option 2. It spreads the glass tile out into two rows (above and below the other tile), rather having them together in two rows.

And I think we're going to stick with the Kypton colored paint. We had thought we were going to go lighter, but the designer, the project manager, and the owner of the contracting company we are using all think the two lighter shades will be TOO light. We liked the Krypton from the start; we were just worried about it being too dark. But they're the professionals, so if they think it'll be good, who are we to argue?

Monday, June 6, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

Day 5 - Day of Rest

No work was done on Friday.

Day 6 - Drywall

Not much to say about drywall. It's there. The seam goo is drying, I presume.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Great Bathroom Remodel

DAY 4 - Electric

We have an electric box in place of the old one that will house two switches (one for the lights over the sink, and one for the bucket lights over the shower), and a timer for the fan. And we have a new electric box that will house a new outlet that is actually in a location that is usable! Woo hoo!!


The sheet rock that will be hung tomorrow is sitting outside... hope it doesn't rain tonight!!

The Great Bathroom Remodel

We are having our upstairs hall bathroom remodeled... by professionals... our first home improvement that we have not done ourselves, had my dad do, or had my dad help with. It's a big deal! :)

The project started on Monday with demolition... down to the studs. It will be done before we leave for Hawaii. Woo hoo!

I'll try to report progress every day. Today is Day 4, so below are updates from the first couple of days.

DAY 0: BEFORE
Taking a page out of my parents' book, we drew on the walls in the days leading up to the start of the project.




DAY 1: DEMOLITION!


During demolition, this was discovered in the wall. Might explain why there is no consistency in the span of the studs in our house!


DAY 2: DELIVERY
No progress IN the bathroom on Day 2, but our garage magically filled up with "stuff" to complete the project while we were at work! Here's a sample of the decor. (The dark spot on the tile is a shadow from the sink pipe.)



DAY 3: PLUMBING

We came home to new pipes and a bathtub!