Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...The End of the PROJECT

As the last days of February were quickly approaching, so was the end of the PROJECT.  After the solution of the electrical issue and the patching of the dry wall that had to be cut into as a result, some repainting was necessary.

It was now time for me to produce the mirror that I should have chosen and purchased weeks ago.  The problem was that I couldn't find a mirror that looked right with the shiny chrome finished lights and faucets.  I finally had a chance to run to Lowe's with my three young gals and I thought I'd found "the one."  As it turned out, "the one" looked way too...something with the lights. 

So the next morning my Man accompanied me and Molly back to Lowe's to return the mirror and chose new lights which would make matching a mirror an easier job and would, hopefully, add a trendy touch to things.  We chose lights identical in style to the chrome finished ones that we were replacing, but in an "oil rubbed bronze" finish.  This change in style warranted a new ceiling light, which was more difficult and in the end found me taking apart one light fixture and adding a different globe to it to "create" something closer to the picture I had in my mind. 

          

Finally, we entered the mirror aisle and promptly came to the ironic conclusion that the mirror we'd just returned was the one that best matched our new lighting scheme! So, we repurchased our return, and took it all home to Larry to install.

(Come on...we're all thinkin' it:  How many men does it take. . .)

Voila!

...and there was light!

And then. . .after a diligent search for a stud...and the readjustment of the hardware on the back of the mirror (because only one stud was located...fill in your own punchline here __________)...

...there was a reflection. 

Oh, what a reflection.  Please note that this particular picture was snapped well before breakfast was served.  This was Larry's last day with us and time was certainly of the essence!

After the hanging of the mirror and a few minor details were seen to, it was time to tell Pappa good bye.  The tears...the pitiful faces...it's a good thing they've got each other...

...they just weren't sure if they could face Monday without him!

Meanwhile, back in the bathroom, I was snapping pictures...I thought I'd be like HGTV and do that before and after thing.

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

I was floored by all of the decisions there were to make during the PROJECT.  I cannot imagine ever being able to make the decisions that must be necessary to build an entire house.  Choosing to knobs on the cabinet was almost more than I could handle (my decision making abilities that day were perhaps impaired by the four children in the knob aisle with me...helping.)  There was but one major decision left to be made and that was:  Who would be the first person to take the coveted "FIRST LUXURIOUS BATH" in the new tub?

Happily, that one was a no-brainer.  It was, of course...

...the PROJECT Supervisor. 

She had done all the heavy lifting on this job.

And so, dear Reader, we come to the end of the PROJECT.  Thanks for following our episodes and adventures.

And THANK YOU PAPPA for all of your hard work.  You did a great job on this very special, VERY important part of

The Wright Place!

Blogging the Bathroom...Episode #87

On Friday we said good bye to Pappa, my very able father-in-law.  He packed his bags, sipped some tea, cleaned his tools, loaded his vehicle, wiped the snow from his vehicle, loaded the tools, hugged the children, and bid us a loving farewell.

Every Friday for the last 4 weeks Pappa has told us good bye, but this Friday was different because the following Monday, unlike every Monday for the past 4 weeks, Pappa would not be returning to us and the PROJECT.  Friday the PROJECT was complete.

Before I jump right to the ending, however, let me fill in the middle.  (Just like Ben & Jerry do...tap, tap,...is this thing on?)

When last we were in the bathroom, the shower tiling had just been completed to rave reviews.  Next the crown molding was added...

It was then time for the installation of the bathroom cabinet.

What a mighty fine Man.  Look at him hauling that beautiful cabinet up the basement stairs.  Maybe his strength is in his toboggan...

...or maybe it's in his father!!  After the cabinet was set, the clothes chute was cut out and pipes were connected. Then it was time for us to be exposed to something we thought we'd never have to set eyes on or feet on ever again...

...the old green tiled floor whose grout always stuck to our bare feet as we walked upon it.  We're talkin' nightmares here.  Larry and my Man had installed a new floor a few years ago to rescue us from the green tile, but that floor had to be replaced as the new additions did not have the same "footprints" as the old things.  So, down went the new flooring.

Things were rolling along beautifully, and it came time to light the place.  I had been planning on using my existing lights, so I dusted them off, handed them to my father-in-law who installed them lickety-split.  I was cleaning up from lunch when I heard, "Oh no...that's a problem." 

I peeked around the corner to check things out and was relieved to see that the PROJECT manager was already on the scene.

 

 Somehow, the vanity lights were shining brightly whether the switch was turned on or off.  This would prove more problematic than just fixing a wire or two as I had, at first, thought.  This little "bump in the road" would add a few days to the length in the project as my father-in-law had to cut into the freshly painted drywall, find the electric boxes and fix the problem. 

"I'm calling to report a problem.  Yes, sir...mmmmhummmm yup, that drywall's gonna have to go...let's move it!...

...Well, it looks like another three or four days should do it..."

The wiring was a simple fix and the task of patching the cut was performed with surgical skill.  The bathroom was repainted by my Man and we were back in business!

However...the reinstalled light fixtures were not to have a long life on the new wall...

I'll have to finish this in the next post.  I hate to "be continued" but let me just say it involved no fewer than three trips to Lowe's, an irate baby, a wilted thirtysomething, and a very heavy mirror. 

Tiles and Smiles...the PROJECT continues...

When last we left the bathroom at the Wright Place, paint was drying, tile was setting, and outside, it was snowing...a lot.  As of this evening, plaster is drying, water is running, lights are shining and outside, it is snowing...a lot. 

My able father-in-law has performed many wonders in that bathroom, not the least of which is the installation of ceramic tile surrounding the shower.  I think I heard him say that this was the first time he's ever tried anything like this. 

When you consider his methods, it's no wonder things are lookin' good!

My bathroom tile is more level than my dining room table I'm tellin' ya. 

"The Apprentice"

We learned that the larger tiles are much, much easier to place than the smaller ones.  Think greased pig meets gritting teeth. 

After the grout is applied, it must dry and then the extraneous bits  are cleaned off of the tile and wall.   

Look how far we've come...

...the before...

and the after...

I am thrilled with the finished product...

...and so is the PROJECT supervisor!

Color My World, or at Least My Bathroom

It is easier to choose a name for a child than it is to choose a paint color.  To make matters even more difficult, the paint colors come with names--cute names, historical names, noble names, food-associated names, even coffee-related names abound. 

Before I continue, however, look and see what's been happening with the PROJECT.

When I returned home from my parents', I found that things were shaping up quite a bit...

Plumbing and electrical work had been completed.  Walls were going up instead of coming down. 

The building inspector was very impressed...

And look...

...my new best friend has moved in!  Nice to meet ya new tub-not-made-of-ice-cold-cast-iron, can't wait to get to know you!

Unfortunately, it was not yet time for the faucet to be installed, which made my new friend unusable.  Soooooo...

...over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we did go...again.  Eventually, with the aid of much snow blowing and a shovel or two, we returned home to find...

...tile! 

Those white dots are spacers which hold each tile in place while the "glue" on the back dries.  The spacers can be purchased in a number of sizes.  I think these were 1/8 of an inch.  Only two rows at a time can be installed so that the tiles don't all slide into the tub!  (A girl can sure learn a lot while she takes pictures of her father-in-law doing all of the work!)

While each set of tile rows dried, the walls were "primed" or is it "primered". 

All that white made the room seem so full of possibility, so ready for the brilliant color that had been carefully and thoughtfully selected.  Which brings me back to my earlier assertion that it is easier to name a child than to pick a paint.

The color I thought I wanted ended up being the very same color as the "border" tiles for the shower so I asked my Man to bring some paint chips in that general color family back from Lowe's on his next trip. 

Now, my Man loves a good "paint name".  He can still remember the names of the paint colors in our first home.  "Cabin red," he would tell you, was the name of the color of our room and "Crushed Strawberry" graced the wall of one of the kid's rooms. "Urban Putty" was the name of a color he adored on the wall of a friend's home in North Carolina.  In our current home we have Cabin Red (its a good one!), Almond Oil, Sauteed Mushroom, and many many more.  We are "colors on the wall" kind of people, so it was difficult to settle on a necessary neutral for the bathroom.  Neutral sounds so simple doesn't it?  Ha!

Do you know how many colors of neutral there are?  After choosing a darkish-neutral answering to the stately name of "Churchill Hotel something or other", my Man took off to snag a gallon.

He made me go with him on the next trip.  The next trip, the one on which we were to choose a different color.  A few moments before we began the next trip, I peeked into the bathroom to see what the "Churchill Hotel something or other" looked like.  My Man had already trimmed and painted the better part of one wall and that wall was a glowing GOLDEN YELLOW. 

We left Larry and all four children in a cloud of aggravated dust and drove straight to the paint chip section of Lowe's.  After much, much deliberation, we chose one of the 456 Ecrus and waited patiently while the paint mixer-upper did his work.  But don't you know, that little dot that they place on the paint lid to show you the color in the can was the same color that had caused this encore trip in the first place!

Happily, the paint mixer-upper was willing to let us have a "do over" and we began anew.  Finally, after many fun names, but unworthy colors like Oatmeal, Cattail, Mocha, Coffee, Antique Lace, Barley, Khaki, and Wicker had been cast aside, we made our selection "Stone 2".  We took the blandly named paint chip to the paint mixer-upper who looked at us and said, "Is that your final answer?" (Just kidding!) 

Paint in hand, we headed home, and my painter Man put Stone to walls.  "Stone" as it would happen turned out to be the very color of the border tiles for the shower surround that we were hoping to avoid originally.  Oh well, it looks good and I'm not facing the paint guy again, forgiving as he was! 

"Stone 2" does not make for breath-taking photography, but...

...there you have it in all of its...glory?

There was one color that I really, really thought was perfectly named for use in a bathroom.  I so very much wanted it to work in ours, but it was not to be. 

"Warm Buff"

Just screams cozy new bathroom, don't ya think?

The PROJECT!

It has been figured that on average, a person spends approximately 30 minutes per day in the bathroom with fifteen minutes devoted to personal hygiene and fifteen to er...make use of the facilities.  I'd like to know who this person is who only spends 30 minutes per day in the bathroom.  I'm gonna guess that the individual in question does not have children and a man with whom they inevitably share their bathroom time. 

I think I spend 30 minutes per day in my bathroom begging one child or another to make an exit.  It is also within the realm of possibility that 30 minutes of my daily bathroom time is spent bathing others.  There's also time spent digging dried toothpaste from the sink and/or the carpet and don't forget the surprisingly important task of draining the tub toys (which ensures that the children are the only examples of growing life-forms in the tub)!  Does anybody wanna guess how long we all are in the bathroom at the same time on SUNDAY mornings?  Waaaay longer than than one half of an hour.

And what of time spent putting the "icing on the cake"?  On the advice of a time management book, I once timed myself to see how long it took me to apply my make-up.  Four minutes.  Four minutes, that is, without Molly's help.  She L-O-V-E-S loves helping me.  I often sneak into the bathroom and attempt to open the drawer with my cosmetics in it and slap on the stuff before being discovered, but I'm rarely successful.  It's a good day when I can catch her before she makes a chew toy out of my blush brush...gack!

What if a gal is having a bad hair day?  That, in itself, could add 30 minutes!

Anyway...if you are the kind of person who manages to spend an average of 30 or so minutes in your bathroom per day and if you live to the ripe old age of 85, you will have spent one and three quarter years of your life in the bathroom.

As we considered the age of our home and the number of generations who have already spent their year and three-quarters in our bathroom, we decided that our hard-working room needed a full scale make-over. 

Let me give you a tour of the "before"...

Not bad, until you look closely at the drawers and the little (from this far back) gaps around their edges. The cause of these gaps should be no surprise if you take note of the blue stool and the toy lurking on the floor...

My favorite feature of this bathroom is....

...the clothes chute! 

I can't wait for it to be usable again.  I miss it like I miss my dishwasher when it freezes up on me!

The "surround" of the shower is difficult to keep clean and is coming loose from the wall.  Not attractive.

It takes a brave woman to post pictures of her shower --washcloths and all-- and look at all of those bottles!  No wonder it takes me soooooo much longer than 30 minutes to get my game-face on!

And finally...

...the vanity and a good look at the walls. 

I defy you to name that color.  My children have called it many, many less than complimentary names since I chose the color a few years ago.  It is something like a mauve that really wants to be brown.  I was looking, unsuccessfully it turns out, for a nice contrast to the green counter top.  Oh well...

I really don't need to concern myself with that green counter top anymore...

...or the funny colored walls for that matter.

It was at this point that I ceased taking pictures and ran home to mamma! 

All of this remodeling wonderful-ness is being brought to you by the letter L as in Larry, my very able father-in-law!

He works for sweet tea and baby hugs. Two things we here at the Wright Place can abundantly supply!