The Bathroom: Tragedy and Triumph

Have you ever woken up, on the right side of the bed, only to discover, a few minutes later, that life is more like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed? I had one of those days last Thursday. It started off great enough. The sun was streaming through the window and I felt great. But as I walked into the bathroom, I noticed a puddle on the floor. Instantly I thought it had come from one of our three dogs. But then remembered that two of the dogs slept in their little kennels at night and the other dog had slept with me in my room. Door closed. It couldn't have been them.

So after a bit of searching, I discovered that the pipes underneath of the sink were leaking. In two places. And had been for days.

How did I not know?

A big giant container that holds my hair supplies and extra beauty junk was catching all of the water. And was about to overflow.

Oh dismay!!

My husband was out of town and all of the plumbers that I knew (and I know many) were all laid off and had moved away from town. I was sunk. My husband would be home later that night and I dreaded the conversation of telling him about the pipes.

Thankfully he took it well. It was no biggie to him. Whew!
So last weekend, we did some minor renovations.

 The Hot holding the culprit. I mean, hello hole in the pipe! It's totally eaten through! And can you believe we had this same issue with our toilet and kitchen sink. All new piping. Same exact problem. Sort of makes you think twice about drinking the water here!

So glad my husband is training to be a plumber. What would we do if he weren't? Be spending way to much money on repairs, that's for sure! And FYI. That orange thing on the ground is a Sham-Wow. Amazing! Definatly came in handy with this project.

Clunk a junk grossness!! Oh my, disgusting. Note the aggression taken out on the taps. It was fun to beat on those things!

 

New taps! We measured and wanted to replace the whole vanity and sink but it just wasn't going to work right now. Soon we hope to gut this whole bathroom. I can't wait to take a sledgehammer to that tile.

I thought I'd show you some of my decorations around this room too.

 I love this bird. Is his face not so cute? My mother-n-law actually bought the same bird, not knowing that I did. Fun!

 I hung this shelf awhile ago and put some decorations that I had laying around the house. I collect fruit jars so I added a few in here. The one holding the Q-tips is a Canadian crown jar.

 You probably saw this plate rack in my dining room awhile ago. I decided to move it in here to hold some beauty products that I received from the family of one of the little girls I babysat in December. The product packaging sort of matches this bathroom.

 Gotta have some extra TP.

His and Hers towel racks. His is empty as he is gone for the week. I bought these at the dollar store.

 And under the sink. Note the shiny new pipes! But please ignore the stains on the bottom of the vanity. I don't have the gumption to paint them out as again, this whole bathroom is getting trashed hopefully soon. I replaced the big bucket that held my other supplies (as the supplies and bucket were ruined). The bag holds my blow dryer, straightener, curling iron, brush, mirror and hair products. I have to do my hair in the living room as my blow dryer plug doesn't fit into the only outlet of our bathroom. The bag makes it easier to transport.

Ylang Ylang Shower Spray by Method. I bought a large refill jug for $2.88 at a liquidation store. I ran next door and bought the spray bottle at the dollar store. This spray smells amazing and makes the whole room smell awesome. This bathroom can use all the help it can get!

 And finally, the real triumph here. These men's Gillette shampoo were onsale at a drug store for $1.47 this week. I price matched at Walmart. They were originally $4.76 for each bottle. So $14.28 for all three bottles. The price match made them $4.41. But! I had a coupon for $5 off when you bought three gillette men's products. So basically, I got "paid" to buy the shampoo! Crazy!! Hope my hubby likes it. :)

Have an awesome day ya'll. Thanks for sticking around for this ridiculously long post!

How To Caulk - How Not To Caulk

I must begin this post by prefacing that we have one of the world's ugliest bathrooms. I have seriously contemplated submitting our nightmare of a room to HGTV or some other design-type show to get a makeover. And one day, I may just do that. If you want to see the full mostrosity head here. Why on earth I ever posted photos of the whole thing, I will not know. But all I can say is that it was back when I first started blogging.

Re-caulking our bathtub has been a project that I've wanted to tackle since first moving in. Parts of the caulking were totally ripped up and missing, stained (what??) and freakishly bad. The previous caulkers did an awful, uneven job and I just wanted it fixed. Fast forward one and a half years and I finally recaulked.

Here's a breakdown of how-to and how-not-to caulk. And just a head's up....it's pretty easy!


How To Caulk

Step 1. Remove Old Caulking

Get into your work duds. Plug in your ipod or flip on a good CD. Grab a sharp box cutter that has a few blades and get into your bathtub. Begin cutting out the caulking. Slice it, cut it, and then scrape off and remaining bits. It took me about an hour and a half to cut it all out from around the tub, the sides of the tub and wall, the front of the tub and around the soap holder.

Gross, eh?

There will be caulking all over. Big strips, little strips, and teeny tiny particles of it. Because I'm either really lazy or a total genuis, I used my vaccuum cleaner's hose attatchment to suck all the caulking up. Really it was great to get into the crevices and remove all the caulking bits and any stray water droplets.

Supplies Needed:
Good Music
Box Cutter
Extra Blades
Vaccuum Cleaner



Step 2. Prep For Re-Caulking

Grab painters tape and tape off where you want your caulk lines to be. At this point, you decide how thick you want the line. Press your tape down good. And, you do not want to even attempt to caulk without painter's tape. Really. You get nice, clean, straight lines by using it.



Take a ridiculous amount of gangsta shot with your "big gun".

Get a small bowl of water. You'll need this when you smooth out your caulking. Grab yourself a plastic bag and make sure you are in your work clothes. Grab your caulk. You must break the seal of the caulk itself. You'll need something long and slim - like a bamboo skewer - to break the seal. Stick it into the nozzel of the caulk and press. You'll hear a pop letting you know you broke the seal. Load caulk into the caulk gun. You're ready to go!

Supplies:
Painter's Tape
Bowl of Water
Plastic bag
Work Clothes
Caulk For Bathtubs
Caulk Gun
Skewer


Step 3. Caulking

Pick your start point. Get into the tub - or whereever it is comfortable for you - and squeeze out a line. Wet your finger and smooth out caulking. Run your finger over caulk line. Remove tape and stick it in your bag. Repeat until you are done.

Caulking will likely begin to harden in 30 minutes and cure in 24 hours. I did mine at 10:30 pm and was able to take a shower the next morning without a problem.






How Not To Caulk

Step 1. Intimidation
Don't think you can't do it. You can! It's easy. And if you make a mistake, just repeat step one, two and three the following day. Think of caulking like Elmer's glue for your bathtub. My hubby is a plumber and he said that I did a good job. So that was definatly encouraging.


Step 2. Wearing the Wrong Clothes
When I began to caulk, I was in my pajamas. Not even thinking that I could possibly ruin my clothes. Dumb idea.


Step 3. Breaking the Seal
Not realizing how I needed to break the seal on my caulk tube. No skewers in the house. Pencils were to thick. What did I use? The stick from a mini-American flag that I got at a baseball game for my brother-n-law's birthday. Yikes.


Step 4. Forgetting the Garbage
I started caulking and removing the tape before I realized I needed a place for the caulking to go. DUMB! There I am, running through the house, caulking all over me, looking for a bag. Awfully not smart on my part.


Step 5. Dying of Smell
Open your windows! Definatly have some ventillation or wear a mask. The stuff stinks awfully bad.


Step 6. Making Too Thick Caulking Lines
I wasn't satisfied with some of the caulking lines that I had made and kept going over them over and over. So as a result, I have some caulking lines that are wonky and much wider than others. I remind myself that it really is no big deal. We plan on remodeling the bathroom within a year anyways. Who really cares?


Step 7. Removing the Caulking Off Yourself
Just let it dry. Don't bother washing your hands and trying to remove wet caulking. It really is just like Elmer's glue. Let it dry and then peel it off yourself. When I finally peeled everything off, my hands were really soft. Exfoliation! You could always avoid this by wearing latex or rubber gloves


There ya go! The how-to and how-not-too of caulking. Let me know if you tackle this sort of project. It really is easy!

And P.S. My hubby read this post and called me the "Caulking Princess". :o)

Our Cozy Home - The Bathroom

This weekend has been full of inspiration for me. I am ready to tackle some major projects in our home. That involves three very different rooms.


1. Our Den/Man Room/Roger Raglin Room (as we call it)

2. Our Laundry Room

3. Our Bathroom


Today I am going to show you the pix of my bathroom. Here are the befores. And when I say befores, I mean, watch out. Be afraid, be very afraid. This room is a total nightmare in my eyes. I once read a blogger complaining about her "builder beige" bathroom. And I almost wanted to scream 'I would love a builder beige bathroom! You don't know how good you've got it!' The great thing about having an out of date bathroom is the chance for a redo. And it all has to go. You'll see. We're talking all new fixtures, flooring, lighting, electrical, counters or removal of them and walls. That's the short list. You'll see.

The reason I can share this joy with you, is that yesterday Shane said that our next big project is fixing our bathroom. You'll see that truly it will be a total redo. I'm excited for the prospect of it all. Truly we may not be able to do it until the spring (we've got to save our pennys) but just that thought fuels me on!

So without further ado...here is our bathroom!



I am so sorry that this photo is on it's side. I tried to fix all of that before I printed my photo cd. Don't worry, you'll see close-ups. *evil laugh*





Our counter top and sink. Don't you just love the orange sink against the brown and yellow tiled wall? I think the beige sink just sets the tones off. *puke* Funny thing though, I had begged Shane to have cream, pink and brown towels for our home. This was about a year before we got married. He finally consented. My dreams were of rod-iron accessories, creamy walls and a light, airy feel to the space. Little did I know that those colors would soon be the bain of my existance but truly, match this room perfectly. Also note the FIXED soap dish and tooth brush holder peices GLUED to the wall above the sink. Ugh.




Say hello to my little friend. Yeah right. A pink toilet with a mismatched/broken lid. Oh it's awful people. I can't wait for this beast to go. He's given us so many problems. For instance, when my family came to visit (4 guests in our home for the weekend), the toilet handle decides to FALL OFF. It broke! No flushing possibilities. Oh minus the fact that you had to reach your hand in the tank to pull that goofy chain. Thankfully hubby quickly got that taken care of. Again, note the FIXED pink towel bar above the toilet.



And finally, a close up of the tile that covers all four walls. It goes from tub to ceiling when it comes to our pink bathtub. This is all going to have to be removed. As well, our electric outlet doesn't really work in the bath and when it does, my blowdryer plug is just too big for the outlet that comes out of the light over the bathroom mirror. Make sense? Not to me either. I do my hair and makeup in my living room. Every. Day.


So there you have it my lovely friends. My bathroom. I am greatful that we have one...kind of. But will be so happy to have it redone. When I find some inspirational pix online, I'll be sure to post.

Have a great Fall day everyone! -Mandi