What do you think?

I was looking at this blog the other day and thought that it really didn’t have a winter-y feel, so I changed the look.  What do y’all think?  The new header photo is one of mine, just as the old one was too.

On the bathroom front, after a minor incident involving the tub surround that we were planning to return to M*nards, things have been going quite well.  Since it is our only bathroom, the toilet is still functional; however, it is the only thing that remains unchanged and in the room.  Everything else has been stripped to bare studs and removed.  Photos can be found here.  Hopefully, with a little luck, we will be able to start putting things (like drywall and a light fixture) back in this weekend.

Over Our Heads

Chad and I have done some minor work on our house, mostly painting and flooring. (See here for photos.) We have managed to do most of the work ourselves without too many arguments. We started a new project last weekend – one that may be too big for us.

A couple of years ago we had a minor flood in the bathroom. Easily fixable, we replaced the sticky toilet valve that caused the flood, washed everything that had gotten soaked on the floor, sucked up and disposed of all of the water and pulled up the vinyl flooring to allow the sub-floor to dry properly. Once the floor had dried out good (about 6 months), we replaced the sheet vinyl flooring and, while we were at it, the old toilet (which has found a new home as a planter in our backyard) and crusty looking faucet on the sink. No big deal, right?

Sure, we all know how that goes. Replace one thing and then the rest of it looks dingy and old so it has to be replaced too. Chad and I decided to hold off on replacing the bathtub and shower surround as long as possible. Well, it’s time has come. I discovered a couple of places where water was getting into the shower walls, causing the surround to bubble away from the wall. So last Sunday we went to the local home improvement store and picked out a new tub and shower surround. Since we were ripping everything apart anyway, we decided to change out the tub/shower faucet too. Upon our arrival home, Chad and I set to work ripping out the old stuff. (At this point I need to mention that we are having dinner with another couple at our house on Saturday. As in 6 days from beginning this project. 2 days from now.)

We started tearing off the old tub surround and discovered it was glued to plywood which has been screwed to who-knows-what underneath. Unfortunately, the paneling in the rest of the room is also glued to plywood, which is screwed to who-knows-what (we haven’t ripped off that many layers yet). The problem? The tub is attached to the studs beneath all of these layers – meaning they all have to come off to get it out.

So what should have been a few days, quick swap has now turned into a several week (let’s hope it doesn’t get into months!) dust-filled, expensive, hard work ordeal that should leave us with a brand new bathroom. And did I mention that this is the only bathroom in our house? Yep, that’s right. The. Only. One.

Help in any form would be greatly appreciated – especially if anyone can hang drywall!

Eight things for 2008

I had this great post planned to welcome in the new year, but work and other problems have prevented me from getting it up. So instead I’m giving you a list – 8 things that I’m really excited about for 2008.

1. My brother’s wedding. I only have the one sibling (and he’s younger than me), so this is a pretty big event. Especially since I got married at the courthouse on a Thursday without any of my family present. Chad is going to be the best man and I’m taking the pictures so there will be plenty to do!
2. New babies. A couple of friends are expecting babies this year. Who doesn’t love a baby – especially when they get cranky you can send them home?
3. Another wedding. One of my best friends is getting married a week after my brother. I’m a bridesmaid (or is it bridesmatron?) so there will be plenty to do for this one too, but we’re also doing some fun things.
4. Our 5th wedding anniversary. As of now we’re not doing anything like taking a trip (a replacement honeymoon for the one we spent in Vegas sharing a hotel room with 3 of Chad’s guy friends perhaps?) but it just doesn’t seem possible that we’ve been married that long. I’m hoping we’ll do something to make the day special – dinner at a nice restaurant or flowers at work (or maybe both – hint, hint Chad).
5. Treadle sewing machine. Chad bought me a 100 year old treadle sewing machine last summer (for practically nothing!) and I haven’t had a chance to get it cleaned up. Once it’s had a good cleaning and has been oiled, the plan is to move it into the living room where I can piece quilt tops in the evenings and visit with Chad. The upstairs sewing room isn’t really big enough for 2 people and it’s hard to carry on a conversation over my electric sewing machine(s) anyway. This way we can still enjoy our evenings and I can get some work done too. I’m still keeping my current machine, but it will be upstairs in the sewing room and used mostly for quilting.
6. Home repairs/remodels. As always, we have several home projects planned for this year. We’re hoping that we don’t have another one forced on us like we did last year with the town and the storm ditch. We’re hoping to finish the bathroom we started a couple of years ago (just needs a new tub/shower), finish replacing windows and get a deck built off of the kitchen. That should be enough to keep us busy all summer, but if not, we should probably try to paint the house too.
7. New quilt ideas. I love trying new patterns. With the new babies that are arriving this year (see #2), I will be making several baby quilts. Since I’d hate for siblings to have the same quilts, I’ll be looking for different patterns than I’ve used in the past. I also like to make the quilts big enough so that they can be used for more than a year or two, so I have a larger pool of patterns to choose from. And for the first time, I’m trying a block of the month group. I’ve chosen a focus fabric and a background. Each month I’ll get the pattern for a block with 1 or 2 smaller pieces of fabric that are needed to complete that block. At the end of the year I’ll have 12 finished blocks to complete the quilt top. I’m really excited about this!
8. New technology. I just got a new cell phone. I’m hoping to be able to get a couple of new toys for my camera. We gave my dad an iP*d for Christmas – now he has to get a new computer so that he can add music to it. Once he makes that purchase, I’ll get to help him set things up and introduce him to the wonders of the internet.

So there it is. My list for 2008.