Under Construction

I have been MIA for a very good reason - several, actually. For one, I have been quite busy building myself a bathroom. There is only one bathroom in this house, and it has been a bathroom in name only. The toilet has never worked properly since we've owned this place - you had to pour a bucket of water into it in order to flush its contents. The bathtub has had holes in it, and the faucet and drain leaked terribly. The sink was falling apart, and it also leaked. The floor was rotten - quite literally. Several years ago I bought tiles, a new toilet, cabinetry, paint, and everything else I would need to remodel it, with the exception of a new bathtub and sink. (I did have them picked out, though!) The real holdup has been getting my husband to do the plumbing. I don't know why the project has frightened him so, but he has resisted me the whole way. I finally couldn't take it anymore, and when my daughter came out to visit, we decided that enough was enough. My other daughter's husband agreed to help me with anything I couldn't do, and he loaned me the money I needed to get the greenboard, bathtub, sink and backerboard. For kicks and grins, we also bought new lights and a new exhaust fan! By God, we were going to have a REAL BATHROOM in this house!

Becki and Patrick set about ripping out the old bathroom. My husband set up a temporary toilet downstairs... it is not very private, but it works pretty well. We have been bathing the kids in the kitchen sink for the past few weeks while the work has been going on. They LOVE it! Back to the remodeling: The kids ripped out the old bathroom, all the way down to the studs and subflooring. Becki had to return home that day, but it was cool that she got to help get it rolling. We ended up replacing some of the subflooring. The previous owner had allowed a leaky toilet to go untended for apparently a very long time and the subfloor was damaged severely. Jon taught patrick how to weld/solder/braize, so Patrick fixed some seriously flawed water pipes. They redesigned the drainage pipes, adding in a more appropriate vent access, and installed the new center valve for the tub.

Then I got to do my thing. I put in new walls and a new floor. I now have ceramic tiles on the floor and greenboard walls and ceiling. Pat put in the new exhaust fan and lights after I painted the walls, and a new WORKING toilet and sink after I tiled the floor. It is so nice to have a toilet that actually flushes! I have cement backerboard installed around the bathtub waiting for a tile surround, but I have injured my hand pretty severely doing some catering, so Patrick is going to finish the tile work for me. I am SO excited!!! Within the next few days the work will be complete! All I have to do after the tile is put up baseboards, towel bars and a new door. The door may actually be a little while, but I'll set up a curtain until we can buy one.

During this time I have also been involved in two weddings. One was for a friend of my daughter's, and for that one I just made wedding cakes. The other was for one of my dearest girlfriends, and I had the joy of catering that one, in addition to making the wedding cake and jewelry for the bridal party. That was fun! I overdid it a little, though, between the weddings and the constructions, and have apparently blown out a tendon in my hand. So I'm not doing anything for a little while, so I can give it time to heal.

I guess it's obvious that I took pain meds tonight. I'm rambling like crazy. I don't think anyone even reads this blog, and that's okay, but I really wanted to make sure I got on here and documented why I've been MIA for the past several weeks. I am hoping to be able to get online everyday again... I missed this creative outlet and look forward to start journalling again.