Work In Progress

Our little house is a work in progress.
We always knew it would be and we were happy with that.
There is the garden to sort, bathroom, painting all over the house inside and out. Woodwork that needs replacing. Carpet to eventually be replaced etc etc.
I know for some this would drive them mental, but for us we are happy to just potter along and do things as we get to them.
Ok sometimes I am sure we could do with a little motivation, and yes life does just seem to wizz past us but we are getting there.
Of course unemployment does not help this situation at all!

1 little area that always needed sorting was the bathroom window.
It was fine and stable, does not leak and opens when needed.
However it was clear glass in the window.
Yep, someone in their ultimate wisdom had never put in frosted glass?
Now this didn't cause too many embarrassing situations as the window is actually higher than you realised once you got out on the driveway.
But we still discussed the fact we needed to get frosted glass in there at some stage.

The solution was presented to us by a friend....don't change the glass just place a frosted sticker on the window.
Steve finally remembered, after about 2 years, to find a website and low and behold they did all manner of different patterns on a frosted sheet that sticks to your window.
Very easy to install and very easy to remove if no longer required?

And guess what....due to the horrible weather that is hitting New Zealand as I type, he put it in place today and it took all of 15 minutes.

Now I can shower in peace knowing that no one can see me whilst there!

Just Gotta Tell You....

As you are aware my bathroom is a work in progress.....!
Well Steve decided that he would put the mirror up this weekend.
So here is what my bathroom looks like now...

I love it

Productive Weekend

This weekend has been very productive!
Over at my mum's place she has had 3 burly firemen fixing up her deck for her.
Over here I have been mowing the lawn so my husband could get productive, ok so he thought my style of mowing was a little odd

But hey, it was midday and stinking hot, so the umbrella was very useful.
This was all so my husband could get his stuff done........like our bathroom?

April last year we had a new bathroom installed, got rid of the old bath and shower unit and installed new ones.
We even went so far as to choose new tiles for the wall decoration, all that was left was for the painting to be done.
Thus the problem, Steve said he would do it all. Well I had no problem with that apart from the fact I didn't realise that it would take a year for it to get finished!

So this weekend I cleared the calendar, oh and next weekend just in case, and told him we had nothing to do and he was to be painting. Well it worked.

I have a painted bathroom, only problem is, it will probably take another year before it is totally finished though because we still need the tiles up around the vanity and shower and Steve has never tiled before!

Maybe he will learn fast for next weekend.

Now on searching back through my pictures I can find ones of the bathroom during renovations and ones from today with it all painted, I do not seem to be able to find any middle time pictures, so here are the best I could get.....!

Now I just have to wait for the tiling to be done before I finally have a mirror in my bathroom and lights to go over the top of it!

At least all the light sockets are finally screwed on flush to the wall and not hanging out waiting for the paint to go on behind them!

The boys of course wanted to get in and help today, so we sectioned off a little piece in the hallway and allowed Alex to have a go. It was a little bit of a test as well because Steve wanted to see if it was possible to paint over the pink wallpaper and get a good result?

It looks ok but I still think we will have to take the paper off the wall and then paint.

This has proved that maybe I will get some of the little sections of the kitchen that need painting done. Steve liked the suggestions I made, even discussed whether we wanted to put some of the colour from the bathroom into the kitchen? Would go very nicely with the bench top, so may get some little areas of the wall made colour and the rest a cream.
Will keep you posted, but at least Steve can now get a bottle of wine from my dad seeing as that is what he said yesterday if Steve did actually manage to get the room painted today.

Bath Time

As many of you may recall, we have been redoing our bathroom.

Ok it is not totally finished, in that it still needs painting! One day Steve will get round to it, although it has been a little too cold to paint. Damp and wet does not make for great ideal paint enviroments!

Anyway, we were actually brave when redoing the bathroom in that we took out the bath and have not replaced it!

We have just a shower in the house now.

We looked at how many times we used it and found it was about once every 6-8 weeks and even then it was just the boys jumping in for a splash around.

So the decision was made and the bath disappeared.

However, the other evening, Alex wanted a bath, he had had a rough day and you could tell it would calm him.

When the boys were little, we actually used a 50l fish box in the bath, saved us having to fill the huge bath with all that water for such a little person. It worked well, Ben used to love his deep bath.

So Steve came up with the wonderful idea of getting the bin out again, and so the boys had a shower bath instead.

Kept everyone happy, although I am going to have to make sure the bin disappears again soon, because they seem to want a bin bath more than a shower now!

Goodbye

Goodbye to the shower and the vanity with the black tile surround.

Goodbye to the pink bath.

Goodbye to the sink that had no working hot water tap.

Goodbye to the black lino on the floor and the black vinyl wallpaper with little pink flowers.

Hello to the nice builders, plumber and electrician who are now installing our new bathroom.

Bathroom Competition

We didn't win...but I had a lovely breakfast at the restaurant the radio station invited us all to.

We had to be there at 7am and as you arrived they asked you to turn off your phones.

We then procedded to sit there and have a lovely cooked breakfast with all the drinks you wanted for the next hour and a half whilst they kept making up half cocked excuses as to why Bunty, radio dj was not there yet.

Finally at about 8.15am, just as people where beginning to get fidgety, he arrived.

Talked to us all there, ask how breakfast was etc and then asked us all to come outside.

As we poured out on to the pavement, so a truck arrived in front of us.

They lifted the side up to reveal an old bathroom in pieces on the back of the truck, well it was old, until one of the ladies gasped and screamed because she realised that in fact it was her bathroom that was in pieces on the truck!

Turns out, her husband knew about this, because he was the one who let them in at 7.05am this morning so they could rip out the bathroom and bring it to her at the restaurant. Turns out the visit we had earlier in the month was to see who was the person with the most desperate bathroom in need of a make over. We couldn't have our phones on in case a neighbour tried to call to find out what was going on etc and the restaurant couldn't have the radio on because the whole time, everyone else listening, knew that someone in Hamilton was having their bathroom ripped out!

Looking at the state of the stuff on the back of the truck, she needed it.

Yes our bathroom is a mess, but it is actually still very liveable, well ok, we can't get hot water in the basin, and the bath takes 30 minutes to fill, I can't stand the black tiles round the basin or the black wallpaper, but it is still clean looking.

Her shower base was a mess, the cupboard doors were peeling and missing handles, she definitely needed it.

So I had a fun morning at someone elses expense at a nice restaurant, what better way to start the weekend, oh apart from the fact I then had to come on up to work afterwards!

Bathroom

The bathroom is one of the rooms in the hosue that I would love to see sorted next, ok, not that many of the rooms have been sorted yet, but that is the one I would like to do next. Mainly because it is like the kitchen in that it is a big job, but also because it is a busy room and used all the time.

The layout of the bathroom is more or less fine, just can't stand the black vinel wallpaper, black tiles round the vanity and pink & peach bathroom furniture!

A few months ago we heard about a competition to win a new bathroom at one of the local bathroom shops, so I went along to check it out. Turns out that all you had to do was enter your name on a piece of paper and be prepared for someone from the shop to come view your bathroom.

So what did I have to lose from entering, so I did.

At the beginning of November someone from the shop called to say we had been drawn as one of the top 20 finalists. Could they please organise a date and time for someone to visit and have a look. Get a feel for what we wanted to do etc etc. The finalist would be drawn at the end of the month.

Now the shop is not your basic bathroom design place, the stuff is well out of our normal price range and not exactly the style I would have choosen, Contemporary European Design, but then if we win, I am sure I will find something that we will approve of.

The man came and measured the bathroom, asked me a few questions. Asked if I would be interested in a quote from the building people even if we didn't win, which of course I said yes to. You see when they say you win a new bathroom, they mean a new bathroom, not just the units to go in it, but the building work, plumbing and painting, in fact your bathroom would be totally made over.

So last week I got a call from the radio station covering the competition to tell me that there is a breakfast this coming Friday ay 7am, and could I please come along to it because this is where the winner will be annouced.

So on friday at 7, I will be all dressed ready for work, because I will have to skip off to work after breakfast, and I will sit and patiently wait to see if we win a new bathroom.

Would be so cool to win, one less thing to pay for.

Will keep you posted....