As some of you may or may not know, we have officially started the remodel of our bathroom and master closet!! Now, this sounds fun and exciting (and it is), but it has also been crazy, tiring, and humorous. So let's get started . . .
The beginning took place last Friday. Our contractor, Joey and his buddy Mike arrived bright and early ready to get started - the plan for the day . . . demo! And demo they did. They managed to get the ugly bathroom from this . . .
to this . . .
And the master closet (with the ugly arch) from this . . .
to this in just 1 short day! Now that is progress!
And in addition to getting all the demo done in one day, I walked in around 4:15pm Friday night to see Mike (yes people, Mike is a he) down on all fours vacuuming my carpet with his huge shop vac - I almost fell over. Who knew a man could clean up after himself (please take notes Travis)!! So all in all Friday was a huge success and everything went just the way (or better than expected) we had planned - off to a good start! That is where the "good" and "easy" talk ends. Fast forward to Friday night around 10:00pm. Trav and I are laying in bed when I feel my stomach starting to get a little crampy (is that a word?) and bloated. I jokingly roll over and say to Trav, "watch, now that we have no bathroom up here I'll probably get my period" - we laugh and go to bed. And wouldn't you know it, about 3:00am, I wake up with some more cramps and instantly I know, it is "period time!" Damn it, this wasn't supposed to happen for another week and a half, but of course, nothing every goes as planned. So I whip on my bathrobe and head downstairs to take care of business - you never realize the "small" conveniences you have until they are gone (and just for the record, it's been 4 days/nights of this tramping up and down stairs - it's getting old!). The whole period thing should have been a sign of things to come, but because I was hoping against all odds that everything would go perfectly, I put it out of my mind. So Saturday rolls around. Grandpa Doug is driving home from Chicago to help Trav with a few things that absolutely need to get done by Monday so Joey and Mike can come back and continue on with their stuff. So what needs to get done you ask? Well, plumbing, installing a huge tub, electrical, and a few other various things. Now this would be hard on a full 2 day schedule, but because Doug is driving home from Chicago and then driving back on Sunday, the 2 days are actually more like 1 or 1and 1/2 - this could get hairy! When Doug does finally arrive around 1:00pm Saturday, the guys get right to work. Somewhere during their work, Trav thought it would be a great idea to add another light in the bar area downstairs because apparently, "it will be REALLY easy with the bathroom floor opened up." For the record, anytime Trav says something is going to be easy or simple, we should just know that it won't be. By the end of the day Saturday, it was close to 11:00pm before some of the "must haves" were crossed off the list. The big item completed for the day . . . the plumbing and installation of the new tub. Let's just say it's done, but it wasn't pretty. I heard more "f-bombs", "god damn its", and a whole slew of other "choice" words while that thing was being put it. Actually (and I know the guys probably wouldn't agree with this because after all, they were the ones working while I was just sitting around), it was almost comical listening as the guys told the tub "f-you" or when I saw them sawing away at a piece of misplaced wood while screaming the words, "f-ing wood" - hey, whatever gets the job done! And to Doug, thank you for all of your help - without you we would never be able to do half the "projects" we've done in our house. And just so you know, every time I sit in my 6 foot, 17" soaker tub, I'll think of you and all you hard work, then I'll laugh as I remember how you were flailing that saw around trying blindly to cut the "f-ing wood" - ahh, the memories!!! And here is a picture of that wonderful tub in it's new home at the end of day 2.
Day 3 was Sunday. Doug and Trav got up early and started right in. There was still a lot of electrical to do (remember that "easy" light that they were going to install downstairs - yeah, it was turing into a real headache!), and in addition to that, there was still some electric issues in the bathroom and master closet plus a few smaller plumbing projects to do. Throw in the fact that this all had to be done by roughly 2:00pm (Doug still had a 7-8 hr drive back to Chicago that day), and the kids had their Christmas program at church which we all planned to attend, and things weren't looking so great. And just to make matters worse, when I attempted to do some laundry that morning, the washing machine decided not to work - just great! When this happened, I was a little hesitant to tell Trav or Doug especially based on their previous day and all the vulgarities I heard come out of their mouths, but in the end, I decided to throw it out there as I was getting ready to leave with the kids for church (I figured that way I miss out on all the "fun" stuff). Well, 2 days later, the washing machine still doesn't work "all the way" (the warm/cold and cold/cold settings work, just not the hot/cold), but I am still able to wash clothes, so we're just going to go with it. Like I've said in the past, it always feels like once you decide to do a major remodel and spend some money that you've been saving, something else always breaks or comes up and then all of our savings and planning just go out the door! Here's hoping that "door" stays shut awhile because I am in no mood to purchase a new washing machine anytime soon! By 2:00pm Sunday, Trav and Doug managed to get all the "major" stuff accomplished (along with attending the church Christmas program and shoveling a small amount of food into their mouths for lunch) so when Doug left, Trav still had a few things to wrap up, but they were all things he was capable of doing on his own - guess he's kind of turning into my very own handyman! Thanks again Doug for everything you do and have done for us - hope you enjoyed your "sleepover" at our place for the weekend, we enjoyed having you.
Day 4 - Monday. Joey and Mike were back at it. Pleased with the progress over the weekend, they picked right back up and installed all the sheetrock and durock, and finished off some of the minor plumbing that still needed to be corrected. With that they called it a day and left one bit of homework for Trav . . . Red Guard the shower/tub area so that's what he did. Here is the end of day 4. Tile will start being set tomorrow!!
And here is where we have another "unexpected" pop up. By the end of day 4 (Monday night), I was downstairs getting the kids ready for bed when I noticed a few ants. I thought this was weird considering I've never seen ants in the middle of winter, some I grabbed a tissue and picked up the 4 or 5 ants I saw and left it at that. Well, once the kids were down, I decided to go back to the same area and see if anymore ants were crawling around and to my utter dismay, there were another 4 or 5 scurrying across the tile. By now I was annoyed so I jumped in the car and headed out to buy some ants traps. When I got home, I put out 4 or 5 "baits" in the area and went back upstairs to watch some tv before going to bed. But because I can never leave things alone, I went back downstairs about 20 minutes later to find dozens of ants in my "baits" - what the hell! So now I'm crazy mad about these ants so I put out another 10 or so baits and wait to see what happens. During this time, Trav is finishing the Red Guard and I'm starting to notice the house stinks (think really bad fumes). So I decide to put towels in front of the girls' bedroom doors and in front of the bathroom. This is when Trav and I decide that it is best not to sleep in our bedroom (which is completely open to the bathroom at this point) so we decide he'll sleep down in Ryan's bed while I'll crash on the couch just to make sure no one is breathing in toxic fumes all night. So off we head to bed, but not before I check on the ants once again. By now, there is an ant village in our basement - the little suckers are everywhere (and I am completely disgusted)! Knowing there is nothing I can do about it other then wait, I finally make myself go to sleep on the couch. And I'll tell you right now, it's not easy falling asleep when all you can think about is a million little ants crawling everywhere, but I managed. Then 3:00 am rolled around and as usual when I have my "time of the month", I woke up and headed downstairs to take care of business and check on the ants. I almost didn't want to look because I knew it wouldn't be good, but I did, and of course, it was worse! There were ants as far as the eye could see (okay, maybe that's a stretch, but you get the idea, there were a LOT of ants). So I put out some more baits (by now there had to be close to 20) and made myself go back to sleep. The sleep was short lived because it took forever to fall back asleep (think crawling ants again), and the morning came too soon. The first thing I did was the "ant inventory", then I started making some calls. Twenty minutes later I had the Orkin man scheduled to get out here and kill these ants! As it turns out, these ants are usually dormant during the winter (but they are still in your house - gross), but because of the remodel, the poor little ants might have been "aggravated" by all the disturbances - like I care, I just want them gone. So now I'm on the Orkin quarterly plan to keep this house ant free - wasn't planning on paying someone money to spray my house for ants (especially not in the winter), but desperate times call for desperate measures! Game on ants - this is our house, time for you to leave (and yes, Queen Ant, I mean you!).
That's all for now. Updates on days 5 - whenever coming soon (let's hope for a small number). And hopefully no more updates on ants - they just need to go away forever!
