bathtub magic

ok, i am just gonna say it; i'm awesome... seriously, after 4 weeks of painting nightmares i did something super sweet and i am excited...

as i have mentioned, the previous owners were totes cray-cray (totally crazy for us you old folks) for 2 things: varnish and mustard yellow... fortunately i have pretty much conquered the varnish dragon and today was a major victory in my war on mustard yellow... first, let me introduce you to my guest bathtub:

snazzy... we were originally going to take out the tub and replace it but that would mean spending the money for the tub, removing and retiling all around the tub, and dealing with who-knows-what when we pull the tub out (since we have started in this old ugly house we have come to realize that there is always something terrible lurking under any "easy" project)... so, after some poking around on the internet we came up with the idea of painting the tub... we figured that if it went badly we would just go back to the original plan...

first, we pulled out all of the old gross caulking and removed the broken tiles:

next i had to clean the tub... the directions said that the cleaning solution was "highly irritating" to skin so i made sure to wear proper gloves and be extra careful... the cleaning process went as follows:
1. scrub with solution

2. rinse, dry, and scrub with steel wool...

3. rinse again and repeat 2 more time for a total of 3 cleanings

that was the cleanest flippin tub you ever saw... next i taped off the tile (sort of... keep reading) and said a prayer... the box said the first coat should be thin and would not cover completely so i was only mildly concerned when it came out like this:

after waiting 15-30 min. (NO more NO less) i started on the next coat... it took a while, i made sure to mist lightly over and over again, but here is the final product:

OH EM GEE ITS BEAUTIFUL!!!! i am so stoked... i seriously went back and looked at it about 5 more times... now it has to sit for 72 hours and hopefully it will stay beautiful... there is just one teensy issue...

apparently i painted the fool out of the tile.. but the box says let it dry and then remove excess with lacquer thinner so i will let you know how that goes!

hodge podge weekend

peter and i struggled a bit this weekend... as a matter of fact sunday afternoon we decided to go home and watch movies (after peter started threatening to put the house on the market)... we did manage to get some stuff accomplished though... well actually peter got stuff accomplished, after looking at the pics i realized that i pretty much floated around doing nothing... i did manage to paint the dining room the most lovely blue-gray...

peter was a champ though... first he built some super sweet shelves for my pots to sit on:

next, he built the walls in the cabinets surrounding the stove (which is waiting in my parents garage for its new home):

because we are putting in a combined stove and oven unit we needed to build a wall to hide the back of it... peter began by studding it out (which, by the way, means something totally different to a construction guy and a farm girl, lol)

then we got some bead board and....

ta da! wall up... now i will paint it and then we will put up a breakfast bar on top of it... yay...

here's a bonus, this is how peter finds a screw:

*sigh*
we also started on the guest bathroom, here is our plan:
     1. rip out the sink and replace it
     2. take out the lanolium and remove whatever weird tile is hiding under it
     3. replace the horrid mustard bathtub
     4. tile the floor in the bathroom and in the hall/laundry

here are the befores of the bath:

first to go is the sink (which, bee tee dubs weighs at least 100 pounds):

then we ripped out the lanolium and the tile... the tile was almost too good to be true:

man-oh-man i wish i could have seen that in its full glory... after removing the tile, we decided we needed to relax for the rest of the afternoon so we rented some movies and put on our sweats.. best day so far i think ;)

there is a dead person in my garden

i am convinced its true... my suspicions began the first weekend we got the house... remember my sweet sanding station:

well, as i was sanding (and sanding, and sanding) i began to notice a foul odor wafting from the hole between the retaining walls

this required some further investigation...

oh, i see the problem, the former homeowners threw all of their garbage in their garden...

 seriously, who does that? but upon closer inspection i see the REAL problem:

there it is, the dead body... it smells terrible... i have no intentions of opening it up... as a matter of fact i fully plan on filling up the hole with dirt and planting flowers in it... hopefully dirt will cover up the stinkiness.

diy backsplash

before i begin this post, i need to clear something up.... i measured the sink hole... its true... apparently i was not clear on that point so now you know... ; ) 

i have this new obsession with stainless steel tile, i love it as a backsplash... its easy to clean, temperature-safe, and not to mention beautiful:

le gasp... unfortunately they are also crazy expensive... but have no fear, better homes and gardens is here! i get their weekly email and looky what they sent me:

 yay yay yay!! super cheap stainless steel backsplash made with aluminum roof flashing!!! it is $15 a roll and that is about our price range... so we headed to our favorite blue-themed home improvement store (the orange one is from the devil) and got a roll:

then we got to work cutting out the window and plug holes

then we got some liquid nails and glued  that sucker right to the wall:

we wanted a more sleek and  modern look so we didn't distress it (the idea picture shows it distressed)... ok let me explain the paint situation for a minute... when we ripped the cabinets down the backs were totally disgusting so we ripped them off too... i assumed (foolishly) that we would be putting new backs on so i only painted the walls where i thought they would be seen... but then peter put up the cabinets and we had this situation going on:

which of course looks stupid... so then i had to paint the walls behind the cabinets white so they look like they have backs... there is also one more "oopsie" in this pic, can you see it?

we are dumb... i don't know why we thought the cabinet ended there, it clearly does not... oh well, we will figure some out some crazy solution... meanwhile here is the kitchen so far:

we are getting so close!!!!!!!!!!!!!

meltdown city

ok, you know how everyone has that one thing they've always dreamed of owning? it could be a front-loading washing machine, a crazy shower head, or a beautiful brass bed (if there are any men reading this, you may not have any idea what i am talking about, but i know for a fact all you ladies had something pop into your head)... for me, that one thing is butcher block countertops.... i love them... i love the way they look, the way they smell, the fact that they are warm and homey, yet still classic and a beautiful eclectic mix with modern fixtures... just look at them

obsessed.... so off we went to ikea to finally get my beloved countertops and i was flying high... we had 3 things on our list:

     1. countertops

     2. sink

     3. shelves to recoup storage from the cabinets we removed

 i  we decided to head out at around 6:00pm friday night... i we figured we would be going against traffic and we really didn't want to fight the weekend crowd... so into ikea i skipped, completely nasty from a long day of construction, hand in hand with my hubby (who did not skip)... we dashed straight upstairs to the kitchen section and dutifully waited for the lady to help us... but then disaster struck... she announced that ikea is sold out of ALL butcher block countertops WORLDWIDE.

yes you heard me, WORLDWIDE.

before i continue this story let me first say that i had already had an emotional day in regards to our kitchen cabinets... after sanding for DAYS and 2 coats of paint the cabinets looked like crap... i don't know how else to say it... they have these weird bubbles in them and drips and stupid specks of who-knows-what... so when that lady announced that there would be no beautiful rich wooden countertops i was crushed...

i cried.

big. fat. tears.

poor peter... who knows what the people in the store thought he had just done to me, but he stood stoically by my side while i lost it in the ikea showroom...

i finally pulled it together and we decided to go with cheap white countertops until the wood ones come in (in at least 10 weeks)... so while we were telling the lady what we needed, we mentioned we needed a sink too... guess what? they don't have it... yep you heard me... fine, whatever... i don't care about anything anymore... peter picked out another sink and we headed downstairs to get the shelves and the (stupid ugly horrible) countertops... we get to aisle 1 bin 49, and guess what? they are out of the shelves.... i hate my life. and ikea.

the next day peter installed the counterops and got the plumbing ready for the sink... first we had to measure for the hole and then we cut... ok peter cut:

but apparently our measurements were a little off:

for some reason, this sends peter over the edge... the sink-hole is too much for him... i don't want to tell tales but he may have even said a really bad word... and then gone outside for a while... so i stepped up and did some "pinch-cutting" (i am so lame) and voila:

we have a sink!! woop woop! next we drilled a hole for the faucet (putting painter's tape on vinyl before cutting it keeps it from chipping):

and in goes our sweet new faucet! (please note the sweet product placement, we are hoping for a sponsorship)

then peter did something to the pipes (who knows what) and we have water!

too bad he forgot he had loosened the drain pipe, oops

but that was an easy fix and after many trials, we are almost cookin' with gas.

it is happening!!!!!!!!

i know i am late on my post... sorry! but i (along with pretty much everyone i live with) have been working my little tail off, and the house is actually showing signs of livability....

my great-grandmother, Mommy Ike, liked to eat her dessert before dinner... so in honor of her i will tell you about the best part first.... friday i had to work until about 1, so peter rounded up my brother chris and his BFF's benjo (my niece calls him "banjo".. adorbs) and richie and they started without me... by the time i got there something magical had happened: THE RED CARPET WAS GONE!!!!!!!

oh man, so exciting.... look at these angels from heaven:

                                                                

its amazing what teenage boys will do for free food....

 unfortunately, we then had to load it up and take it to the dump... we did that saturday and once again boys showed up to help... this time my brother nick and richie (the one with NO SHOES on... *sigh*) came to help:

red carpet, i banish you!!!!! be gone!!!!!! that felt good. (for me probably not for them)

while ripping up the carpet we discovered some interesting artifacts... first, we have the original vinyl flooring in the kitchen:

i kind of like it... next, we found bits of the original carpet:

can you imagine???? i thought it couldn't get any worse than the red, but as we dig deeper into this old ugly house i am realizing it can always get worse..

you may have noticed on the pictures above that i have painted painted painted.... i went with a light gray ("misty moonstone" dreamy) and a glossy white trim for the main areas.... i am following my dreams in the kitchen and going green ("spearmint green" to be exact) here are some before and afters:

oh boy, oh boy!!! it is killing me not to put the trim up in the kitchen but apparently i'm "not allowed to" because "trim is hard"... fine, whatever....

ok i have a whole other post's worth of stuff to tell you, but i have to go to the house and meet the AIR CONDITIONER MAN!!!!!! WAHOOO!!!! i will post the rest this evening, stay tuned tough because there is an amazing ikea meltdown coming (oh yes, crying and everything) and you don't want to miss it...