Bathroom Update

Rob's been hard at work on the bathroom lately, putting in the new tile floor and tiling some of the walls too.



He is planning on grouting all the wall tiles tonight and then the tiling will all be done- woohoo!



It looks fantastic already.  He has done such a great job.  I have been teasing him though about the new condition he has developed- I call it "Tiling Tourette's".  He will be in there working away on his tiles and all of a sudden I'll hear a string of bad words come flying out of his mouth.  Luckily, since it is associated with tiling and he is almost done with that, he will be cured soon.  I think we will be able to get the toilet and sink in this weekend.  After that, we can take down the open wire shelves and start painting in there and be done!  I keep waiting for something to go wrong so this project will take longer because it is going too fast (for one of our projects).  I guess this whole thing though is the project gone wrong because originally, the project was only to replace a toilet.  Now we've done brand new tile on the floor and walls, have a new toilet and sink and new paint.  So yeah, looks like the original 1 day toilet switcharoo project already backfired on us and I don't have anything else to worry about!  We do have to pick a color still for the paint.  We were talking about a grayish-blue and now today Rob says green.  Green goes better with the rest of the house (we use it in every room) so I think he is right.  Now to find just the right green...

It is so hot here lately.  Rex and I have been to the pool several times in the last week.  We had to leave early one day though because SOMEONE POOPED IN THE POOL!!  Agh! No joke, not a Baby Ruth prank or anything- it was the real deal. It was in the little toddler pool area and the lifeguards cleared the place out in a hurry and it took a few minutes for me to realize what was going on.  But once I figured it out, we got the heck out of there and came back home.  Nasty.  I guess something slid out of someone's Little Swimmers'.  Thank goodness we were on the other side of the pool.  We'll wait a while before we go back and make sure all the chemicals in the pool have had plenty of time to work their magic.

Here are a few pictures of the boys, just for fun.






So I guess that's about it for us.  Just trying to stay cool and making our bathroom all shiny and pretty and smelling fresh again!

Happy 4th Birthday to Rex!

Rex turned 4 yesterday- woohoo!  He started the day off by going out to breakfast with Daddy and then came home to find the house all decorated with streamers, signs, banners for his special day.  He kept saying "Wow!" over and over and then told me, "Thank you mommy for putting my birthday up" (not a typo- just how he said it) and he told me that again today.  SO cute!!!  I would decorate the house for him everyday if only he knew how that melts my heart.  We all went out to dinner where he had a cheeseburger and chocolate milk (his favorites) and then went back home for cake and ice cream and presents.



He got a new scooter...



But first Daddy had to put it together- with one of his helpful assistants.



We got him a doctor's set and coat since he likes to play doctor on everyone- and some monkeys too.



But the funniest part of the night was when he opened his stomp rocket and thought it was a CPAP machine (for sleep apnea) like Papa uses.  I was laughing so, so, so much.  Like who would get a 4 year old one of those?



He got it figured out eventually though.



So it was a fun day overall and I think Rex really had a good time.  The stomp rocket's future is in jeopardy after he almost took out my right eye with it this morning.  It's been banished to outside and threats have been made if it ever hits me again.  It is a fun toy, we just don't need to shoot it at mommy anymore.  Father's Day was this past Sunday and we had a nice dinner for Rob that night- after he worked all day tiling the bathroom floor.  I don't feel too bad since he was not around for most of Mother's Day and I had to take care of the boys by myself and didn't get any cards or gifts.  I got some belated flowers though which was nice.  Rob got a new DeWalt drill so he can keep making progress on the bathroom remodel.  I also tried to make him a picture like this-

Source: tipjunkie.com via Shelby on Pinterest

But this was all I got with an uncooperative 2 and 4 year old.



Oh well.  I decided to save the signs for two years and we will try again!

Another Simple DIY Project

Rob and I swore that we would be doing no major projects around the house this year.  The family project took a lot out of us and we needed a break.  We recently got a new garage door and that was supposed to be our biggest thing this year- and that's not bad because someone else did ALL the work.  Well, we made it halfway through the year and now we have a big project again.  About two weeks ago we thought we would build a pergola over part of our backyard patio.  After working on that for a while, we decided our half-bath needed attention more than the backyard did.  Despite trying to spruce it up, it has never been an area I have been totally happy with.  Here it is at its best.



Not so bad, I know (be glad you can't smell it though).  Rex is restricted to using the half-bath only and let's just say it was not so fresh in there.  The toilet is original (pretty sure on that) and needed to be replaced anyhow.  We thought there were some flooring issues too that would have to be addressed in the immediate toilet vicinity but still we were not anticipating too much work to be done in there.  We had extra floor tiles and picked up a new toilet at Lowe's and began our project this past Sunday.  As Rob began to peel up the vinyl floor tiles we installed 3.5 years ago, we realized we had a MAJOR problem.  I am trying to be delicate here but I can't find any other way to put it- all the times my darling boy had missed the toilet, the pee went in between those tiles and soaked into the flooring below.  This wasn't a total surprise because I couldn't ever get rid of the pee smell and I suspected that is what was going on.  I just didn't think it would be so bad.  There was only option left.  Get rid of all of it.

So here's what the bathroom looks like today.

The washer and dryer have been removed and put on craigslist since we don't use them anyhow.  The toilet and sink cabinet were both demo'ed and removed.  We probably still have more flooring to remove and we are currently in a debate over what to do about the shelves and cabinets still on the wall.  I say take it all out and start fresh but Rob is worried about all the wall patching he will have to do.  I understand, but I still think they need to go.  We have our floor tile picked out and a sink too.  After a lot of shopping around and discussion, we have decided to go with a pedestal sink in there for easier clean-up.  Same reason for going with tile on the floor now.  And most likely there will be tile on the wall too.  I told Rob, "I want impermeable surfaces in here so this doesn't ever happen again."  I still have another boy to potty-train!  I did however convince Rob we don't need to install a floor drain in the middle of the room so the whole place could just be hosed down.  Funny, but not necessary.

Let's discuss smell neutralization for a moment though.  It was horrible in there and we were worried everything down to, and including, the subfloor was going to have to go.  We sprayed everything down with a white vinegar/water solution then used some ZorbX and the smell is totally gone now, less than 48 hours later.  I don't know what in the heck they use in the ZorbX but that stuff is a miracle in a bottle.  If you have a smelly place and need some help with it, get some of this stuff at Lowe's.

So much for no major projects this year.  This is really just going to be phase 1 of the bathroom overhaul. In a few years we will move the sink over where the washer and dryer used to be (right next to the door) and have a shower in there too.  But that requires a plumber and a lot more work and money that we are not up for right now.  And we don't really need the shower in there at this point anyhow.  Looks like I will have a lot to blog about for home projects again now!