Final touch

To add to the finishing touches to our bathroom, we were going to have Lisa's dad build us a shelf. We had a nice piece of chopping block left over from our kitchen redo, and thought we could put it to good use.
Today, however, at a rummage sale in town, we found a little shelf that kinda matched our size and style. And it could be ours for just $1.50! What a deal. Now look how cute it looks, complete with a camellia from our yard.


Lisa's pride and joy this week has been our final harvest of peppers, the only thing we did right this summer. Look at them all!


Now they are all diced and ready for easy wintertime meals:

So yummy! Now on to one of our favorite holidays -- Thanksgiving! Stay tuned to hear all about our tasty treats!






In loving memory of Lulu. We miss you.

Voila!

Sorry to be so slow in getting the finished bathroom photos posted -- between a trip to Canada, getting married, throwing a party (or 2), and finding a new job, we've been busy! We'll be sure to post a few shots from BC soon. And if you haven't already seen, check these out by our awesome wedding photographer:

http://www.laraeichhorn.com/photography/weddings/wendy-and-lisas-elopement/

Sooo.....back to the bathroom. It looks fabulous. I know many of you got to see it for the first time in person (yay!), but for those of you who haven't seen, here ya go.

First, The Way We Were:

ewww....

They Way We Are:

Can you believe it is the same space? It looks straight out of a magazine. Here are more:




No more pink tub!!!!!!





Now what do we do??????

Progress!

We have made incredible progress in the past week or so. The plumbing has been re-done, a wall has been rebuilt, and the drywall has been smoothed and sanded.

We moved the placement of the lights, so here Lisa is repairing the old holes. We even got a few coats of primer up-- look at how nice:


We almost didn't pass the test, but the Inspector Kitties finally OK'd the work:



We started tiling! This is a very exciting step in the process. The prep work was a bear but the actual tiling is kind of fun. We'll see what we think once we start the grout...


If I get a chance, I'll try to post another photo later today -- we may have an "oohh, ahhh" moment!

Demo, 99% complete

We are making progress. All but the plywood under our 2nd toilet has been pulled out, and most of it is already at the dump. The demo phase is the worst -- lots of mess and it always looks worse before it gets better! Here are a few fun photos:

Most of the subfloor has been repaired (we discovered a rather large hole right underneath the toilet -- it's a wonder we never fell through!):


Look at our new plumbing, and we finally have outlets! No more hair drying in the guest room:

When we ripped out the tile in the 1/2 bath, we left a very nice open wall in between the 2 bathrooms. So, we just tacked up a towel for privacy!:


Here we are scraping about 10 layers of paint off the wall. As you can see, the original color was pink. When we moved in, it was seafoam green, and it took us 4 coats of white to cover it up. There was another white and I think a beige layer in there, too. We're pretty sure some of those layers have to be lead-based:


Then all the walls of the small bathroom were removed, including the one the sink was attached to! There was an attempt to keep this one working at least for a few more days, but unfortunately it has seen its end. It is currently hanging out in our carport, and I hear it trembles in fear when it hears Lisa's car approaching:


So what is still working in our bathrooms you may ask? Well, the shower still works (that's cardboard behind the plastic protecting the beams and insulation):

The toilet, although I hear that might be coming out soon. Good thing Food Lion is nearby!:


And here is our new bathroom sink, aka the kitchen sink. It's kind of like camping.


I think we may have just about reached the valley, and the only way to go from here is up!

Demo phase, 70% complete

This was taken around 4 PM yesterday:

That big pink square is where the mirror used to be. Those brown streaks? Fifty years of nicotine stains. Gross.
We tried to stop for happy hour, but it was too cathartic ripping out that awful vanity so we kept going. Here we are hauling out one of the sinks:


I hated those sinks. They are now sitting at the curb -- maybe someone in the Morehead City area would like a pair of pink porcelain planters? I have a feeling they will be reunited with their cousins, the Pink Toilet sisters, in the local dump.

And voila, the current state of things:


I like this photo because Caretta is hiding the wood rot on the floor. There's another spot by the bathtub -- both spots we were mostly aware of, but it's still unnerving to have to look right at it. Especially when the hole it creates leads right to your crawl space. I hope we don't lose any cats down there, or gain some new critters coming up!

Here we go again

Lisa's parents are down in NC again, their home away from home, for the next 3 months. We worked them to death last year with our kitchen remodel and new roof, but they are gluttons for punishment and are ready to help us tackle our bathrooms. We got right to it this weekend, and tile is already flying off the walls. This is really the last room that needs serious help, so it is so exciting (and scary!) to get it started. The transformation of 211 Virginia Ave is almost complete.

Just to remind you how terribly the bathroom needs help, here are a few "before" photos:


Mmmm....pink tile countertop...

If this sink wasn't all gunked up with hard water and rust stains, and had decent water pressure, it would be cool and retro. It is pretty awful, though. And pink. Have you noticed a theme with our house yet? The new bathroom is going to be very anti-pink. Probably no warm colors in the scheme at all. In my head it looks beautiful...we shall see soon!

Destruction has begun -- not an easy task with wire mesh and about 2 inches of concrete attached to the tile:


We managed to get the toilet out, remove the rest of the wall behind it, and put the toilet back (it may be a few days until the drywall phase. Don't worry, though, we didn't work all day. Today was a beautiful beach day and we did manage to sneak some leisure time in:


Stay tuned for updates!

Infestation

Yesterday I noticed our parsley plants had become party central to a whole family of caterpillars. Today, annoyed with the destruction they were causing, started to yank them off one-by-one and tossed them into the yard. Those of you who know me well know I have difficulty killing insects -- I've been known to collect cockroaches in paper towel and place them humanely outside. I know they will come right back in, but I just can't kill them. Don't make me.


Plus, these caterpillars were beautiful. They kept shooting their stink glands at me when I tried to pull them away from the plant -- luckily not too strong but 2 hours later, I am still smelling a bit of caterpillar funk....About the time I had finished cleaning off one of the plants, I got nervous that these caterpillars could be Monarchs or something. They were just too pretty.


So I ran inside, did some research, and discovered they are Black Swallowtail butterflies. Horrified with myself, I ran back outside, picked the biggest caterpillars out of the yard (thank God I didn't kill them!) and put them back on the parsley. Sorry to see my parsley go, but it's cheap and easily obtained at the supermarket. I want butterflies!

If I am observant, I'll try to take photos as the caterpillars make their chrysalises (chrysalisi?).

Here's a Google image of a Swallowtail. Coincidentally, the site I pulled the picture from was from Northwest Ohio nature!

A Happy (and Beautiful) 4th

We had gorgeous weather over the 4th of July weekend. Besides getting into the garden and doing some much needed weeding, we found some free time to appreciate where we live. The beach was just beautiful:



The water was this amazing shade of green -- really light close to shore and then darker further off. It wasn't terribly clear, but the color was kind of mesmerizing. We wondered if there had been a chemical spill nearby, but decided ignorance is bliss. We'll let you know if we turn radioactive!!

Fort Tomato

While Lisa's parents were here this past week, they got our shade cloth erected over our cherokee tomatoes -- something Lisa and I have been putting off for weeks. We bought the cloth this spring, which provides 30% shade, knowing that it was necessary to give the tomatoes a bit of a break from all that scorching sun once summer rolled around. The cloth, of course, sat in its box while our tomatoes became sadder and sadder.

Luckily, the tent is finally up and since the cherokees seem to be hanging in there pretty well, I hope they might catch a second wind. The recent rain and dramatic drop in humidity and temperature are a plus, too.


We have quite a few fruits still ripening, and new flowers, too:


Unfortunately, it was too late for the paste tomatoes:


Yikes.

It wouldn't be 4th of July without corn on the cob. We have a few ears growing:


The close-up distorts the perspective-- these ears are about the size of my thumb (maybe slightly bigger). Oh well, maybe they'd be good in a stir fry? ;)


Some days I think we should just stick to peppers. Check this out -- there are at least 7 peppers on this one plant alone:


The great thing about chilies is that they freeze really well. We pre-dice them and freeze them in little storage bags. Definitely comes in handy over the winter!

Pepper Rowe: