Home Projects: Basement Bathroom

The husband and I have spent a lot of time thinking about the changes we want to make to our new home. We're fortunate in that our home is in very good shape and we won't have any big projects that require our immediate attention. Eventually, we want to completely renovate the kitchen and dining room area, but we're not going to do much more than think about that project for the next few years.

Instead, we're going to tackle more manageable, cost-friendly projects like the bathroom in the basement and converting the storage room into a guest bedroom/office space. We'll start with the bathroom.

First up, the homemade vanity, complete with a lovely glass mirror, overhead lights that don't coordinate with any other fixtures in the room, and a cloth "door." What's that on the wallpaper border, you ask? Deer prancing through a forest.

Just to the right of the sink area is a closet that houses the water softener and some shelving. I'm all for extra storage space, but this particular closet is a little annoying. We'll have to work with it, though, because we don't have any other options. We're hoping to replace the shower curtain with a real door.

The depths of the closet.

The shower and toilet area. I'd love to replace that door with a wall, but I've been informed that's not possible. Apparently the only access to the shower is through that space, which means it needs to be accessible. Maybe a coat of white paint would make it look better?

I appreciate the fact that this was probably the man's bathroom (based on toiletries in the room and the amount of camo hanging in the storage room), but the wallpaper is just horrendous. I've spent some time reading about wallpaper removal and I'm determined to make it one of the first big projects I tackle.

Any advice on prepping walls that were once covered in wallpaper for paint? Any changes you'd make?

Weekend in Review

We had a great weekend! We met up with friends at a county fair on Friday night. Saturday morning I attended a lovely bridal shower for a friend whose wedding is coming up in August. That night we met my parents for dinner and (finally!) had an opportunity to show my dad our new house. On Sunday, we made a trip to Lowe's to pick up some material to fill the nail holes in our apartment and then checked out home maintenance books at Barnes and Noble. Sunday night we met up with some of my college friends at the Happy Gnome to celebrate a newly minted DDS degree.

Any recommendations for home maintenance books? I picked up the Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual from the local library this morning. We want to look all of our options over before we invest in something to add to our personal library. Send us your recommendations!

My "vacation" is off to an awesome start! But not really.

I woke up at 4:00 AM with runny eyes, a cough, and a raw nose. Those have to be signs of allergies, right?

I didn't want to wake my husband up and I really wasn't that tired, so I got up and started my day. I opened my email and the first thing I saw was a reminder notice for one of my loans. What a downer. My first day of vacation and it starts with paying my loans. I'm never in a good mood on loan payment day.

At 6:00 AM, I ran to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for a poor man's soup (ham and black bean). When I got home I cut into a jalapeno, removed the seeds, and diced it. At some point shortly after cutting the pepper, I rubbed my nose. My raw nose.

After adding the pepper to the soup, I went about gathering all of our financial statements we've collected in a number of hiding places over the last THREE YEARS. During this process, I realized my nose was really hot. Burning hot. Because my brain apparently doesn't function properly after waking up at 4:00 AM, it took me a good ten minutes to realize my nose wasn't burning from my allergies. Instead, during that time I rubbed my nose and the surrounding area with a thick salve thinking it would help to reduce the burning sensation. When the pain started spreading from my nose to my upper lip and inner cheeks, I realized what had happened. That was 30 minutes ago. My upper lip is still tingling.

This day is off to an awesome start.

Chez Larsson

I'm spending most of my day traveling westward, and probably won't have much time to write later in the day as I have a few errands to run and band practice. Check out the Chez Larsson blog, one of my new finds. A low key Swedish design blog that also provides Swedish vocabulary words = awesome.

Catching Up

I must say that the past week was a blur for me.

Last Wednesday, we committed to our most major investment yet: a new home! We are very excited about the house, the yard, the neighborhood and are very much looking forward to the end of August when we close.

We were surprised by how fast the process went. Two Wednesdays ago, we were casually looking at homes with our Realtor when she announced she had added a home to our "visit list" that had just been reduced in price that morning. She thought we would really like it, and we did! We loved it! She also thought that the reduced price would make it move off the market quickly, so we arranged a second showing for later in the evening and had our parents come check it out. The next morning we made an offer. Twenty-four hours later, it was accepted! We actually spent more time researching SLR digital cameras than we did our house!

I put together a photo tour of our home. Let me know if you want the link.

Last Friday, I had a job interview at a school in the TC area. I won't know anything about the interview until the end of the month...

And today . . .

. . . I finally earned the status of PhD Candidate! FINALLY!

I'm taking the next few days "off." We have several projects that have been on hold for many months, I have a bridal shower gift to make by Saturday, and I need to spend some time celebrating!

Holy cow, this week is flying by.

Trust me, this is very, very good.

Unfortunately, it means almost no time for anything other than focusing on the task(s) at hand. I'll be pretty busy through next Wednesday, so it might be a while before I find some time to invest in my blog.

I have great news to share . . . so check back next week!

Distractions

I'm running on very little sleep. Yet, I am very much awake, energized and ready to tackle the day. In lieu of a more informative post, I'm going to provide you with a list of sites I often visit. I guarantee they will provide excellent distractions from work, researching and wedding planning.

Bubble Spinner
*A truly excellent way to kill time on sleepless mornings. Just before 6:00 AM, I scored my all time high score: 1350. You will find it difficult to stop playing.

This Young House
*This blog maintained by individuals exceptionally skilled and trained in home renovation and providing design inspiration. I check in on This Young House daily. I also check Bower Power every once in a while.

The comment sections of newspaper websites
*Okay, this is probably not so exciting to 98% of you, but I find myself easily distracted by the comments people make on news articles. This is especially true for my hometown newspaper (sorry folks, not going to post the hyperlink), but also true of the Strib and the NYT. I've hyperlinked to an article from the NYT about nuns.

Becker
*I still love checking elite wedding photography sites, even if I'm no longer looking for inspiration for our own wedding. Wouldn't it be fun to be a professional photographer?

PurposeGames
*Games that are both educational and addictive.

Playing with furniture.

That's it for now. The husband is getting up, which means it's time our day has started!