Farm House Love Episode 4

Well hello there, Friends. Since we last met, winter has come and gone. Well, mostly gone. It did snow today, but nothing like the picture above.

We had a long, wet winter and I have been enjoying spring more than I can ever remember in my life.

The goat babies survived winter well in Gunny's dog house. The Bunnery Sergeant didn't need his house because he spent his days snug inside, guarding the house and sleeping on the couch I'm sure, although that is unauthorized behavior. 

Peanut Head made the goats this see saw to help keep their boredom at bay, although the girls had to coax them onto it for awhile before they would play like it was really their idea.

These frosty horse lips make me weak in the knees.

I haven't been back to blog in so long because I really wanted to have some progress to show on the bathroom. We have made progress, but our work stalled big time, and we got busy with other things. We have done a lot though, just not much on the bathroom. Yet.

All that is left now is the tub/shower surround. It's really the most intimidating part because there's so much that can go wrong. Plumbing problems and vertical tile slippage are just a couple that come to mind and plague my dreams.

We finally finished with demolition when we removed the plaster walls. That was a long, tedious job and it had to be done in stages. Peanut Head had to cut through the wall with a metal grinder because the plaster in old houses like this are adhered to a metal mesh. Or maybe it's just our house. What do I know?

Here's how it went down. One day we'd make a vertical cut from tub to ceiling, with Peanut Head cutting and me holding the shop vac next to the blade to catch the ginormous plaster dust cloud he was generating. Then he would take a hammer to that vertical section and rip it all out. That section would fill up our trash can for the week and then we'd have to wait for the next trash pick up. It was hot, sweaty, dusty work, and the bathroom had to be cleaned after each session.

In all, that process was repeated and took at least a month of weekends and trash pick up cycles.

Once the plaster was out, Peanut Head put me to work pulling out a million rusted nails. The nails took FOR. EVER. That was on account of most of the nails were rotted through with rust from all the water seeping into the wall. The nail heads would sheer off in the hammer claw and I would curse and scream at them. I ended up getting most of the nails out with a fencing tool, of which I do not know the name, but it was one scary looking dude.

Once that was done, Peanut Head put new, not asbestos insulation in the exterior wall and slapped a new piece of plywood over it. Now he is working on the plumbing and building boxes for the shampoo and all that jazz.

We've also done some more trim work. There's a lot of trim work, and all of it needs to be sanded, painted, filled, caulked, and painted again. It's time-consuming, but the finished product is well worth the time spent.

Peanut Head also installed this new larger outlet. I love that it has a little night light built right into it.

I put this bit of vinyl up, and I dang near slit my wrists in frustration trying to get it to stick to the wall. There's not much texture on the wall, and the paint is semi-gloss, so it did not want to stick. What finally ended up working for me was to take my hairdryer to it. I don't want to say it is now melted to the wall, but it sure is suctioned on there real good. Well. I sound like a hillbilly, don't I?

I also made these little bathroom signs. Yes, I think the one on the top right is a little too high and to the right. I must fix that.

I put these together pretty quickly with some cute fonts in Photoshop and then I had them printed as 8x10 photo prints. Then I Mod Podged them to canvas that I painted black on the edges. For the final touch I took a white paint pen and drew a dashed border around the edges. Super cheap art with helpful public service announcements.

This one is my favorite because I'm a little bitter about the toilet paper.

And this one is just plain necessary because some people, (yes, probably in this house just saying) need help with their personal hygiene and care and keeping of their ding dang selves. 😐

That concludes the bathroom update for now. As soon as I hit publish, I will start my next post on the project I started while I was spinning my wheels on the bathroom. Because I like to start new projects before the last one is finished. Doesn't everyone do that?

Bathroom Refresh Unveiled

Last week I shared my Rubber Ducky bathroom with you, and my plans to refresh it. Peanut Head and I have been working hard and we're ready to share it with you . . . as well of some of our challenges. Aren't there always challenges?

This is where my inspiration started, with this shower curtain from Target. I searched for weeks for the right shower curtain. I was looking for something grown up but not too stuffy, and it had to go with neutral paint. Also, it couldn't require a theme. I tend to get into trouble with themes.

I'm sorry that it's a little wrinkly, but it's right out of the bag here and I'm not the type to iron. Besides, after a week of showers, it'll be nice and smooth. I'm counting on it.

So, the shower curtain was the inspiration which then led me to painting two of the walls a sage green and two of the walls a light tan color.

Then I found these towels at Target (ON SALE!!!) and everything else just started falling into place.

Well, mostly. Remember I told you that we weren't going to knock out any walls or anything major like that? Well, since we removed the mirrored cabinet we lost some storage so we decided we were going to put in a smaller medicine cabinet, which Peanut Head was going to recess into the wall.

Which meant a hole.

Which started out small, like this, and then got a little bigger.

Then he installed this lovely medicine cabinet with trim that matched our existing cabinets.

And we loved it.

Until Thing 1 decided to hang from it while attempting to reach over my pile of construction debris on the floor. She was trying to get to her toothbrush. An honest mistake. Mine, not hers.

So picture the door hanging by one hinge, completely ripped off the recessed mount cabinet. That wasn't going to work. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of that. I think I was too busy keeping my composure while my blood pressure was having a party inside my head.

It turned out okay in the end, because we found this nicer mirrored cabinet at Home Depot.

And it was only a tinsy bit smaller than the hole. If you're six feet or taller, you can see the screws on the top. That's not a problem for us though, we don't let Peanut Head in this bathroom anyway. Well, unless he needs to fix something.

Next we talked about replacing the sink.

And we did. I love our new sink, free of toothpaste. The girls have been warned that my head will pop off and chase them around the house if it doesn't stay that way.

Our second challenge was the countertop. We purchased a very nice Corian-type countertop with an undermount sink which I loved.

But it didn't fit our cabinet. It turns out our bathroom cabinets are not a standard size. Oh joy. So, with tears in my eyes, we returned that countertop and resigned ourselves to laminate. It would have been too expensive to have a countertop custom made for us, and we weren't prepared to sink that type of money into this bathroom in the first place. We were just refreshing it. Doing our part to stimulate the economy and be sensible at the same time and all that.

So we found this lovely laminate countertop that Peanut Head was able to cut to size.

Ahem. This lovely KITCHEN countertop that Peanut Head was able to cut to size length-wise before we realized that, Gee, this countertop sticks out four inches farther than our other countertop. What the heck?! Seriously, Bob Vila doesn't say measure twice, cut once for nothing.

Lucky for us, Peanut Head is resourceful and was able to cut out those few inches depth-wise. Once I crammed some khaki caulking into the tinsy crack, it's hardly noticeable. I am the Caulking Queen, let me tell you. It's because I'm anal.

Here's the new light bar. I love it because it doesn't blind me when I'm trying to trim my nose hairs. Not really, I don't have nose hairs like that.

They're on my neck.

And here is the new, nondescript little stool for the little shorties.

A couple new rugs.

This is my favorite. It's another Target find and it's so plush, I want to sleep on it.

And let's not forget the new cabinet hardware.

Such a little thing that makes such a big difference.

Now, I need your help. I have this bare wall area, a little over the toilet and a lot adjacent to it. I need something there. Should I get a picture or two, or something functional? Talk to me, my bloggy friends.

Rubber Ducky, You're the One . . .

This is the rubber ducky soap dispenser in our main bathroom--the bathroom the girls use. This little guy is the inspiration behind the decor of the entire bathroom. A bathroom we are getting ready to refresh you could say. I say refresh because there will be no ripping out of walls, or toilets, or floors. Just a little updating.

I'm going to be sharing some pictures of this bathroom with you before all that takes place, but I feel obligated to warn you that it's a little over the top. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I have a tendency to take a theme and carry it a little too far. At least when decorating with a juvenile focus. You could say I'm a little immature, and I wouldn't hold it against you.

Okay, get ready.

This is a peek into the bathroom from the hallway. The sponging on the wall is a little . . . busy.

But this next part is my absolute favorite part of the bathroom. The part that the girls and I will miss the most. It's the Rubber Ducky song (as sung by Ernie from Sesame Street), and it wraps around the entire bathroom at the top of the wall.

Please, won't you sing it with me?

And that's a wrap. The girls and I have been singing it a lot lately because we know that by this time next week, it'll be gone. It's so sad . . .

But I am a little excited to do some updating in the bathroom, and while I'm at it, a little decluttering and organizing. My favorite.

Before I give you a little peek into what's going to change, won't you join me on a little good-bye tour?

First off, the duck border. I modeled these little guys after the soap dispenser. Of course.

And look, he's on a little stool too. This stool has seen better days. We used it a lot when the girls were little and we had to provide hours of supervised bath play. Ugh, I don't miss that. Both Peanut Head and I have fallen off it a time or two, so it has cracked and broken, then been mightily put back together by the Peanut Head himself. He's so handy.

These days the girls just use it to get things they shouldn't be getting, and to see the mirror when they're brushing their teeth and combing their hair. We will need to find a more subdued counterpart to take its place.

Oh, I'm going to miss this too. I've named this picture "Annie Get Your Gun" because Annika is extremely ticked off in that little bath tub. Oh the indignity!

Now for the things that must go.

This nasty vanity cabinet. I do like the three fold out mirrors, I will miss those. And the storage. But let face it, it's an eyesore. Take it away!

Oh yes, and the 80s light bar over the vanity that you can't see. It's gone too.

This ginormous towel bar served it's purpose when we didn't have a bathroom downstairs and our guests had to share it with the girls. That's no longer an issue though, so let's remove this focal point, shall we?

Okay, here's another little glimpse of my insanity. In my quest to make everything just ducky, I even appliqued ducks onto the towels. I'm getting a little sick of the ducks now. They're leaving.

The counter top is leaving. It's white laminate. I don't mind laminate, I just don't like white laminate. We have it in both bathrooms and the kitchen. Seriously, why? Who even thought this up? It's dumb and that's all I'm going to say about it.

The sink. Never mind that it's dirty. Those girls make me want to rip my hair out with the toothpaste they're always leaving all over the sink. And the counter. And the cabinets. And the walls. You think I'm kidding?

But we're not removing the sink because it's dirty. It's chipped and tired so we're going to retire it.

This hair dryer/curling iron rack. Do I really need this? No, it must go.

Ack, barf, snort! I don't like these handles, and I never did. They're cheap to replace so they're out of here.

So, this bathroom is what I'm going to be focusing on this week. Make sure you check back with me next week to see if I've conquered it. Well, not by myself, you know. I have a healthy respect for electricity and power tools, so Peanut Head gets to do that part. And all the parts that require cutting, mounting, ripping, and plumbing. Geez, he's going to be busy, isn't he? But I'm going to be there doing my part as the married we, supporting him. And I get to paint too. And buy stuff. Oh goody!

Check back next week and see how we did. Go to 5 Minutes for Mom for more Tackle it Tuesday posts.

If you want to see the unveil, go here.

Now I leave you with a little Ernie for your viewing pleasure. And because I love him. Have a nice day.