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.

I've been working on a Super Secret Project....

Maybe you've been wondering where I've been...or maybe not. Either way, here's the scoop:

Okay, so Ande's parents are pretty much the best parents in the world. They have been SO wonderful to us, and even before Ande and I were married, they accepted me, Bubber, and Bug into their family as though we'd always been there. Seriously, if there is anything we ever need at all, Ande's mom and dad are the first ones to offer help, whether it's a prayer, kind word of advice, baby-sitting service, or even financial help. I feel truly blessed to have them in my life.

My mother in law also reads my blog, which is why I couldn't write about this until now.

Ande's brother and his family live in Oklahoma (right near Amanda!!), and recently went to visit them. I found out about this trip back in January, and that's when the wheels started turning.

You see, my in-laws have the ugliest kitchen. EVER. Seriously. You don't believe me? Check this out:

This is after about half of the tile has been removed...I didn't think to take a true "before" picture.

This is after the first of several layers of wallpaper were taken off. Again, no "before" picture (yes, I realize I'm a little slow...). The one wall has not had wallpaper since I've known Ande, as he apparently stripped it off years ago...

Yeah, can you see what I'm saying? UG-LEE.

So, way back in January, I started thinking, "What if Ande and I could take down those ugly plastic tiles and wallpaper, and do some painting and stuff??" I knew it would be a big job, but this kitchen was just crying out for help! I didn't mention it to Ande's mom and dad, but did say something or another about it to Ande on more than one occasion.

Ande's parents left several weeks ago (I believe it was June 26th). Sometime shortly after that, we went over to their house and I decided that it was time to get serious. I started pulling those yucky plastic tiles off the wall. Ande and the girls started peeling wallpaper. There were about 3 or 4 layers of wallpaper, and under the tiles was this adhesive that did NOT want to come off.

You can just see a strip of green patterned wallpaper at the top of this picture...that's what covered the walls before we started. Oh, and the pattern was textured, too. LOVELY. Under that was some sort of floral pattern with a blue background, and of course the ivy print underneath that. At some point there was also a print that had kitchen appliances all over it, although it was mostly removed and we only found bits and pieces of it.

Ande ended up buying a floor scraper and scraping the stuff off the wall, which took him about two days. Taking the remaining wallpaper off took about the same amount of time.

Before

After

Did I mention that Ande's parents had NO IDEA what was going on at their house?


In the process, we discovered that this kitchen has been a mulititude of colors. You've seen the green, but there was also pink (as pictured on the right wall below), pale blue, yellow, and another lighter shade of green.



So we got the walls cleaned off, and holes patched. I cleaned out all of the cabinets so that I could paint. (That alone took two days) I was even the victim of an adhesive-related injury. My arm got stuck to one of the shelves that had TWO layers of contact paper to remove. Don't think that adhesive stuff is dangerous? I had a bruise the size of a baseball on my arm from it! (and no, there will NOT be a picture of that)

The insides of the upper cabinets were a lovely shade of salmon, while complimented by this garish contact paper. Then I dropped the bomb on Ande. I wanted him to build a new tile countertop. I mean, you can't redecorate a kitchen and leave this:

Yes, that countertop is PINK.

I had done some research online, and found several sites that showed step-by-step how to install a tile countertop. You know, since neither Ande or I had EVER done anything like it before. Ande was able to borrow a wet saw from a friend (Thanks, Jackster!), and his friend even came over to show him how to use it and give a few pointers.

New countertop base made of 3/4" plywood and 1/2" cement board

Tile and backsplash has been laid
After a bit of a rough start, and a few minor mistakes, we (okay, ANDE) got the counter installed. At this point, it was now a couple of weeks into the in-law's trip. I panicked when I got a call from Ande's mom telling me that they were going to be home probably the next day (which would have been July 18). You see, they STILL didn't know what was going on.

I tried not to freak out too much, and ended up calling her back and asking if they could stay away for a couple more days. I didn't tell her what we were up to, just that there was a project going on, and she needed to be gone a few more days. Let me tell you, my heart sank a little when she asked, "You're not painting the house are you? Because I haven't decided what color I'd like." "Uh, no, we're not doing that...." I said (it wasn't entirely a lie, since we weren't painting the whole HOUSE, just the kitchen...)


We got the grout done on Sunday night.

Ande, the Tile Master

Monday afternoon, Ande came on his lunch break to install the sink. It didn't fit. WHAT!?!? PANIC SETTING IN!! PARENTS COMING HOME IN A FEW HOURS!!!!!

And that, my friends, is where I have to leave the story off for today....(man, don't you just HATE IT when you're left hanging like that?)

This is how we roll...

Yep, that's right. We are officialy REDNECKS the proud owners of a new mini-motorhome. This 1978 beauty has all of the amenities - bathroom, refrigerator, stove, sink... It is very economical, too. It gets 3 gallons/mile. HA HA!! We haven't actually figured out what kind of mileage it gets. I'm sure it's NOT good, though.

Ande and I bought this gem from a guy he used to do a Bible Study with. We picked it up last weekend, and have (as you can see) already started the "remodel". As you can see by the pictures, the decor is a little, uh, lacking. I think you'd call it "Nascar Chic" (I call it U~G~L~Y)

View from the front / View from the rear

After a little cleanup/removal of curtains & cushions

I have already picked out the fabric for the cushions (I'll post pics of that later), and we went looking last night to find the most suitable ceiling/wall material. I think we've pretty much settled on 1/4" birch plywood (which we will probably stain). We've got some linoleum in our garage that I think we're going to use for the floor. I'm excited about it, because I can already visualize what it COULD look like. Fortunately I know how to sew, and Ande is pretty good with woodworking, so between the two of us it should turn out pretty nice. We will be leaving the exterior alone, keeping with the "Early American White Trash" look.

It's got a tiny bathroom, as you can see. As it is, you can shave, shower, and sit on the potty all at the same time! Ande is trying to talk me into making the bathroom bigger, so that it actually has a shower that doesn't have a toilet in the middle of it...

Make sure to light a match when you're done....

I seriously have to wonder what on earth the previous owners were thinking - we found bright green, pink, and purple paint throughout the camper (although the people we bought it from painted over everything with white paint). And do you think anyone could TAPE OFF THE STUFF YOU WOULDN'T WANT PAINT ON? Apparently not.

What is with the floor tile stuck on the front of this perfectly nice stainless steel stove/oven?

You might be wondering why we would buy a motorhome - well, we're really hoping to help Ande's amp business grow by traveling to different amp shows whenever we can, and rather than buying a trailer to hitch to the back of his car or my van to haul his amps, it really made more sense to us to buy a motorhome, so that we can also eat/sleep in it, and have plenty of room for the amps as well.

I'll be posting more pictures as we go through to process of renovating the camper.

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