The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

...well, maybe YOU haven't been waiting for it, but Jared and I sure have been. And that, my friends, is the day our bathroom is finished enough to show off some pictures! It is essentially done, there are just a few little details (like putting the door back on, etc.) left to do. I totally forgot to take before pictures, so I took pictures of our downstairs bathroom to help show the difference (the two bathrooms were pretty much the same).

BEFORE - Our vanity with lovely faux marble laminate

AFTER - Our new vanity complete with granite countertop and pump-style faucet

BEFORE - I don't even know what to call the metal that our fixtures were before. Faux...something!
AFTER - We replaced all of the fixtures with brushed nickel

BEFORE - And now, to prepare you for what I feel is the biggest transformation of the whole project....this is the faux marble, now in large scale, being repeated in the shower. But remember, this is the downstairs bathroom that is still in fairly good shape. The upstairs tub surround is what prompted this whole remodel to begin with. It was warped and letting water in behind it, so the best word to describe our shower was - YUCK!

AFTER - Oh yes, you're seeing it right. That would be a window where there wasn't one before. We owe our new-found source of daylight to none other than Bob the Builder. Believe me, Bob did much more than the window - he was a HUGE help to us! Then Dad was responsible for teaching me how to tile - we tiled the floor together (well, HE tiled the floor and I mostly watched). Mom taught me how important the measuring is, and helped me be patient enough to get through that while Dad helped Jared get acquainted with the tile saw. Then Jared and I were left to our own devices and so, between the two of us, we got the surround tiled. We decided to take it all the way to the ceiling and I think it made a huge difference. Speaking of the floor, this is the tile. It's much prettier in person. I couldn't take a before picture from the downstairs bathroom because one of the previous owners upgraded the flooring in that bathroom to tile from the original linoleum (which - I assume - was the off-white loveliness that we had upstairs before the remodel).

One other major upgrade (major to ME, at least) was our medicine cabinet. Before, it had been a HUGE medicine cabinet/mirror that was obviously intended to be installed IN the wall. But (for reasons that were unknown until Bob cut into the wall to install our new mirror) instead they just mounted the whole thing to the wall, which intruded into our already-tiny bathroom. So yeah, when Bob opened up the wall, he discovered an air pipe that he had to re-route. He was a good sport about the whole thing. I am SO excited about the medicine cabinet that is flush with the wall.

Speaking of FLUSH...

...Gavin doesn't care one way or the other about how the bathroom looks, as long as there's a toilet to flush!!

More Summer Fun

I mentioned on our last post that we were going to be having a campout in my parents' backyard for the Fourth of July. So, here are some pictures from that (I still can't find my camera, so these are still shots I saved from the video that I took - sorry for the poor quality).


I think Gavin had a hard time deciding what was the most fun about camping in Mamaw and Pappy's backyard ---

Eating NUMMY foil dinners...

Eating even NUMMIER s'mores...

...only after first experimenting to see if the s'mores were to play with or to eat!

Hanging out with Pappy - especially when food or drink was to be had, as in this case (but believe me, Pappy, he would hang out with you regardless!)

Dancing to Uncle Mike's tunes

Playing in...

...and around the tents. Holy cow, did these boys love the tents!

But I must say that, if I were judging Gavin's favorite part of this trip, it would HAVE to be playing in Mamaw's fountain!

You can't see in this picture, but Uncle Mike had set out a bunch of his wet hiking gear on the deck banister to dry out, and then Gavin figured out how to squirt the fountain - which ended up landing right on Mike's stuff. (Mike, you just thought it was taking a long time to dry, didn't you??)

Anyway, we had a great Fourth of July. Gavin didn't mind the fireworks too much. He started fussing during each one when they started making the popping noises, but he ended up being able to suffer through the MASSIVE fireworks display we had! I think the grand total for this year's pyrotechnics display was six fireworks - and Mike set off three at once! :) But, you know, I think it was the perfect amount for everyone involved (the kids AND the adults).