Hall Bath Remodel

The hall bathroom is nearly done! Hopefully these pictures will do it justice. I was trying not to use my flash, so I had to edit them quite a bit. Yuck...I still need to put some effort into learning photography, don't I???!

By the way, I still need to paint the frame of the mirror I am hanging above the vanity, buy some hardware for the cabinet, and buy a vent cover. But technically, it is done!



Oh, and I need to choose a shower curtain. I am just not sure??? Help me out please. :) Surely the rest of you are more decisive than I am!

My first option is a blue silk panel with embroidery on it. It matches the walls well. This is Ethan's favorite, by the way. :)


I would iron it if it ends up staying, by the way. :)

The next option is a blue, tan, and chocolate stripe curtain. It is a Nautica pattern, which I like a lot. But does it go? Hmmm....not sure.


My original plan was a white curtain. This one from Target is quilted, which I love. Is it too plain?

So tell me what you think. Be honest! Should I just keep looking? I do have an opinion, but I think it will be fun to hear what you think!

I know the majority of you reading won't comment, so I'm including a poll for ya. Nice and anonymous.

Which shower curtain would YOU choose?
	silk with embroidered flowers
	white quilted
	nautica stripe
	something totally different
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Hall Bath Remodel

I forgot to take before pictures, but you remember that hall bath, don't you? Cracked tub, dated 70's wood vanity with rotted wood and a door hanging off, cracked marble countertop. To our credit, when we moved in (of course, that was 5 years ago), we stripped all the purple butterfly wallpaper, painted the walls a neutral shade, and put in a new lighting fixture and towel bars (which we are keeping). I think everything else is going though. :)

Since this is what is going on in my life right now, I'll share some of the work in progress. I was able to sneak a couple pics during the crew's lunch break.


The tub is in! Granted, this is just a regular, ol' tub, but to me, it is beautiful! No cracks means no leaks, and that is a good thing.


As you can see, they have drywalled the tub surround, and have started mud and taping it. As I type this, I can hear the cement board being installed on the floor for tile. Yeah, it's really loud around here, and of course it happens to be nap time too. :)

Oh, so the contractor told Dave today that he would be done with the dry wall this week, so if we want to, we could paint this weekend. Paint????!!! What color am I painting this bathroom?! I have just been thinking about tile and countertops for the last couple weeks.

Help me too!

So I'm totally copying my sister Ruth, but I need a little help. We both are looking for new living room furniture, and she had the good sense to ask her friends for help. And woah, the response was amazing, so I'm thinking, what was I doing, trying to figure this out by myself??? Let's see what YOU ALL think!

First of all, we are wanting to buy new living room furniture in order to have more seating in our living room. We have a couch and a chair in there right now, plus a tv, and Dave would like it to be a more comfortable room for fellowshipping with our friends. A room that invites people to stay and talk. We have a Bible study here too, so comfortable seating for that would be nice too. So the tv is going, and we'll cram as much furniture as we can without it looking too crowded. I am thinking maybe a couch, loveseat, chair and ottoman. Maybe even 2 chairs. Thoughts?

My style is Pottery Barn look-alike, I think. I don't want to spend nearly that much money, but I like the relaxed, traditional style they use. I am not a huge fan of exposed legs on sofas, but I have seen a few cute ones...and I can always paint them black, right? :)

So here are some that have caught my eye.

#1 - The leather-look-alike, microfiber, I think. Ruth has this one on her list too.


#2 - I liked the fabric on this one, but isn't it strangely similar to what I currently have?


#3 - This is some kind of faux leather too - not my fav


#4 - I hadn't seen this option until tonight. On the sales floor it was only shown in a sectional, so I pictured a couple angles here. It is available as a sofa, loveseat, chair, etc... and has lots of microfiber color options. And I like the tiny, black legs on this.



#5 - I love this set. It's in a fabric that is similar to what we have now, woven chenile. Warmer tones though. It also has a chair and ottoman. You can see better pictures here and here.


#6 - The beautiful (expensive) leather set. This was my favorite of all the leather I've seen.


#7 - Design my own. Tonight I looked through a Flexsteel catalog at the furniture store and found a few options. Here and here and here
and here too. There are tons of fabric options for these, microfiber, velvet, cloth, etc... Shawna has agreed to help me, if I go this route, so never fear, if you send me in this direction, you wouldn't be setting me up for failure. :)

So there you have it. Any advice for me? What would you do?

A little more tidy

Remember that overgrown backyard that was difficult to mow? Here's what it looks like now. We had a pile of bricks in the shed left from the previous owners, and it made a nice border for the landscaping. We placed landscaping paper down around the bushes before we laid the mulch. This should keep the bed relatively weed free! And I am all about that.

As for the garden, we considered tearing it out altogether, but opted for keeping it for future bursts of energy that convince us try gardening again. This year it wasn't an option, but I'm sure I'll get the gardening bug again someday!

Pardon the little dumbfounded boy in front of the garden. He would not move for this picture!

Weekend Warriors

Dave and I have been cleaning up the yard the past couple weekends. We have a lot of landscaping and many, many trees, all of which were overgrown, making it really difficult to mow. And since that's my job these days, I was particularly interested in trimming things up. Here are before shots of what the backyard looked like (this is the north east edge).

The first picture is of my sadly overgrown garden. That's all weeds, baby.


This is the east side of our backyard. See how the grass goes between and behind all those bushes? It had to go.

The bush on the left blocked our view of our neighbors' backyard, which is probably why the previous owners planted it. But since Ethan plays over there, I prefer to be able to watch his every move. He's only 3, you know!

Man, looking at these pictures, I'm realizing that our yard looked like such a jungle! It's a little embarrassing...

I'll post the after pictures tomorrow, when my husband brings the camera home. :)