I have waited for this my whole life...

Okay, well not my WHOLE life, but this project has been simmering on the back burner for 2 1/2 years.

When we first bought our house in 2006, Ande and I decided that we wanted to fix up the 1/2 bath off of our kitchen, for a number of reasons.

1. It was freakin' UGLY
2. It was going to be easier to tear it apart than to clean it
3. It was REALLY STINKING UGLY
4. Did I mention it was ugly?

It started out we were just going to take the paneling off the walls, maybe get a new vanity and medicine cabinet, and possibly put new linoleum in.

Once Ande started tearing the stuff out of the bathroom, he realized that the only hope in this room was to tear it completely out, down to the studs. So he did. Once he did that, we discovered that there were actually 3 places where we could have a water hook-up, plus 3 drainage pipes. It was around that time that we hatched the plan that we could convert our once cramped, UGLY bathroom into a laundry room/half bath combo.

We started out well. Bought all the supplies, including some SWEET marble floor tiles, that we got for about $6/box (works out to be just over $1/sq ft), AND a brand new LG front load washer and dryer set that we can stack to save room (and energy). So Ande got the room gutted, put pipes in place where they needed to go, and put up the drywall. He taped the drywall. Started mudding the drywall. Then he stopped. For 2 years.

Now, I partially blame myself, because I probably didn't really encourage him to continue on...you know how it is when someone does nice stuff for you and you want to do nice stuff back? Well, let's just say I wasn't really giving him too many reasons to want to work on the bathroom.

Recently I have been trying to be a better wife, and it's really started to pay off! Ande finally started working on the bathroom again. Here's a few pics (I have some "before" pics somewhere on a disk, if I find them I will post those so you can see where we started...)

Puckey was VERY excited to be getting to help Daddy work on the laundry room...

Showing me the screw that she would soon be handing to Daddy.

Hammering down an old nail that was sticking up so the cement board could go down.

I got to buy the primer last week, then I bought the paint this morning.

This is our bathroom with the primer, now just waiting for the opportunity to put the color on.

Once the walls are painted, we will be putting the marble down, then doing the trimwork. After that, we can hook up the plumbing and get our sink, toilet, and washer and dryer hooked up and ready to run.

Blast from the Past Friday

It's already Friday again? Holy cow, this week has just FLOWN by!! I've been busy working in the yard and trying to keep up with the housework. CRAZY times around here, let me tell you! Because I LOVE reminiscing about things, here's the Blast from the Past for this week...

This is me and my Grandma Martin. She was a wild one, known for dancing on the table at family reunions in days gone by, having a great sense of humor, and always having a fridge stocked with every flavor of Faygo imaginable. I know we're not supposed to pick favorites when it comes to relatives, but out of all of my grandparents, she certainly was my favorite!

I was 15 when this picture was taken, Christmas 1989. Look how stinkin' skinny I was!! I LOVED my hair back then...probably one of my fave hairdos I've had, VERY late 80's/early 90's to be sure! I remember I used to spend HOURS spiral curling my already permed hair to get it just right. These days rarely blow dry my hair, much less spend hours styling it. Oh how my priorities have changed...

Grandma is gone now, and I miss her. I'm glad I have lots of fun memories of her though.

I can REALLY see Puckey's resemblance to me in this picture. We have the same cheekbones. Well, when I'm skinny enough to HAVE cheekbones...LOL I'm working on that, and slowly but surely I WILL get there!

So there you have it, a Blast from MY Past...Have a great weekend!

Your Wednesday Tip O' The Day

Okay, so I missed the Tuesday Tip O' The Day AGAIN. I swear, I need to start just typing them up and scheduling them to post on Tuesdays...that way I won't miss them. Well, in theory. If I actually put that into practice it might just work.

Anyway...

For those moms in Genesee County with not a lot of money and small kids in need of entertaining, the Flint Children's Museum is having a "Dollar Day" tomorrow, Thursday May 14th. Admission is $1 each (kids one year and under are FREE). From what I know, there will also be some live animals there as well.

My kids never cease to crack me up

Okay, a little background - our 2 year old "Jib" is also called "Budgie" (among many, MANY other nicknames). I don't know where the name Budgie came from, but that's beside the point...

Now, I'm sure I'm not the only mom who's kids do it - all the grunting and straining and then subsequent STINKING...only to go to change the diaper and find just a little "smudge" in there. Our sweet little Jib (or Budgie) has been doing that a LOT lately. So yesterday Ande started calling her "Smudgie". (Classy, NO?)

During dinner I was talking to Jib, and I asked her if her name was "Smudgie", and she said, very proudly and with a HUGE grin on her face, "No, I FUDGIE!"

Let's just say it took SEVERAL minutes for us to stop laughing about that. Oh, the joys of dinner conversation at the Kirby home. HA!