Tiling the walls proved to be an interesting experience because the walls were all wonky. I don’t know if they were built that way or became that way as the house settled, but I do know that it took forever for the guys to figure out what to do about it.

In order to have level tiles they nailed level boards around the wall, near the floor. The challenge was that the floor slanted too so they had to figure out where to put the boards so there wouldn’t be a huge gap on one side of the wall.

Laying the wall tiles took much longer than laying the floor tiles. There were fewer cuts to make, but the tiles were smaller and harder to line up. I think they did a fantastic job!

Almost done! Once all the tiles were laid they had to dry overnight before we could grout them. But the floor had dried so we could grout it right away. I don’t know why I keep saying “we”. I did hardly anything except keep the kids out of the way, make sure everyone was fed, and keep things fairly clean while they were working. Teacher, Dad and Uncle Jon are the ones who did all the hard work. They’re so awesome!

Here’s Teacher finishing up grouting the floor. Grouting doesn’t sound hard: apply the grout on the diagonal, wait several minutes, then wash the excess off the tiles. What they don’t tell you is that it’s like washing sand out of a kid’s hair - it just won’t go away. You rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and there’s still grit left.

But it’s sooooo worth it when it’s done!

A bathroom barely alive. We can rebuild it. We have the technology. We have the capability. Better than it was before. Better . . . stronger . . . faster. OK, not bigger, not stronger and certainly not faster, but you get the idea.

Friday morning Teacher and Dad began tiling the bathroom floor. Dad had tiled the kitchen walls in their previous house, and Teacher learned quickly as he went along. I did my part and stayed out of the way!

Dad used a water saw borrowed from Uncle Jon to cut the tiles. I’m tellin’ ya, that Uncle Jon has everything! This tile goes by the toilet so it needs a circular cut.

Teacher used his Dremel tool to make more detailed cuts, like around the sink water and drain lines. The Dremel tool is one of the best investments we’ve ever made - if your kids are ever in a pine car derby you NEED a Dremel!

OK, so the bathroom isn’t going to be Bionic, but it is gonna be awesome! I could tell that from the moment the first tile was laid. It’s so pretty already, I can’t wait to see the walls!

He’s my best friend. He holds me when I cry and makes me laugh until I pee my pants. He’s the father of our children. He’s my soul mate. He keeps me warm at night and feeds me when I’m hungry. He keeps me grounded. He makes my heart go pitter-pat even after 20+ years of marriage. He’s my everything. I can’t imagine life without him.

Did I mention he’s the father of our kids?

The daycare was closed July 3 & 4 so we planned to tear apart the bathroom Wednesday night. Teacher started peeling tiles off the walls as the last daycare child and mom were walking out to their car. My Dad came over right after they left, carrying a bottle of Diet Pepsi. You can always tell when my Dad is planning to work because he’ll be wearing a tattered t-shirt, paint-spattered jeans, and carrying a bottle of Diet Pepsi. When I was a kid he drank iced tea when he worked and I was his official iced tea maker. I knew the exact amount of water, instant tea and ice cubes to make it the way he liked. He must have switched to soda after I moved out because no-one else could make iced tea as well as I did. Or maybe he just got sick of iced tea. Personally I think it’s cuz I made it best. But I digress…

Uncle Jon showed up to help too. He looks awfully excited about ripping apart the bathroom, doesn’t he? He’s still single ladies - handsome, good job, cute house, very funny, loves kids, buys flowers for no reason, he’d make a great boyfriend!

Uncle Jon doesn’t bring soda when he comes to work, he brings his tools. He’s got some serious tools - you tell his favorite store is Sears. I don’t even know what half of those things are, but they sure look like trouble!

Lookie - nekkid walls! It wasn’t long before the tiles were history, woo hoo! Yeah, I’m a little excited about this project. Can you tell? Z-Man and I cleaned up the mess while the men ran to the hardware store. He was so proud to be working like the big guys!

Oh yuck - that is just really gross. Moving on quickly…

Ahhh, much better! The sewer hole is still pretty ewwwey, but the new subfloor looks nice and clean. Almost clean enough to eat off! …Well, maybe not THAT clean.

After finishing the new subfloor they removed the sink and completed the Destruction Phase. On to Reconstruction!

This is our main floor bathroom. Actually it’s a closet disguised as a bathroom. I’ve seen airplane bathrooms bigger than our 3″ x 3 1/2″ cubbyhole! But the small size does have its advantages - you can clean all the walls, the floor and wash your hands in the sink all without getting off the toilet. Trust me, I oughta know. Like the art? Jo-Bear painted it in First Grade and it’s been hanging in the bathroom ever since. I love hanging my kids’ art all around the house.

When we bought the house the bathroom was painted glossy white with U-G-L-Y plastic tiles on the walls and institutional linoleum tile on the floor. After painting the walls and plastic tile a nice cream color we installed stick-down tiles on the floor. We used stick-downs because they were quick and easy, and looked better than what had been there. What we didn’t realize was how kids regularly peeing on the floor and washing their hands a thousand times a day would affect the tiles. My spilling 5 gallons of vinegar water while washing the floor probably didn’t help either. After almost 10 years of being flooded with any number of liquids the tiles started getting un-stuck and all manner of nasty liquids found their way underneath. Then the bathroom started smelling all manner of nasty - no matter how often I cleaned it or what I cleaned it with.

Teacher and I had been talking about redoing the bathroom for a while but never had both time and money at the same time. You know how it is: when you have the time you don’t have the money and when you have the money you don’t have the time. Finally this summer everything came together and we set aside Fourth of July weekend to work on the bathroom.

The weekend before Fourth of July Teacher and I took a trip to Home Depot to check out flooring. We wanted something easy to clean that would hold up to high traffic and look nice… tile was the ticket! After spending an eternity comparing tile color, texture and material we finally found the perfect ones and purchased samples to bring home. We were on our way to a new bathroom!

To be continued…

If you’ve been reading my blog you’ll know that Teacher and I are trying to make green choices whenever we can. That’s why I was so excited to discover that our hosting company, Elemental Muse, is using the wind to power its servers!

Read all the details in Elemental Muse’s blog, then take a moment to calculate your carbon footprint.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in Lovely Nails getting French tips for the first time in my life and watching the Weather Channel. Only because it was on, I’m not addicted to it like our friend Bill is. I swear it! A nasty storm was supposed to hit within half an hour so as soon as my nails were dry I rushed out, racing the storm home. Well, not really racing because I only went “a little bit” over the speed limit. I smudged two of my nails putting on the seatbelt - darnit - but made it in plenty of time. No tickets yet, bwa-ha-ha!

Teacher and College Boy were cleaning out the gutters so I warned them about the approaching storm. Being guys they weren’t afraid of any storm and were determined to finish with the gutters so they kept working. I scrambled around the back yard gathering up toys to stash safely in the shed. Where were the kids and why weren’t they helping? Not a clue. I think they know when there’s work to do and go into hiding.

I finished just in time - one minute there was nothing, the next minute the sky opened up and it started pouring. I mean POURING!

The thunder, lightening and rain convinced Teacher and College Boy that it was time to come inside. About 5 seconds later the hail hit:

Oh my poor Brunnera!

Oh my poor Petunias!

Bring it on Mother Nature - our gutters are clean and work great! Umm… but hold the tornadoes until the basement is done, ‘K?

OK, right off the bat I’m going to admit that I’m the lowest of the low. I totally suck, big-time. I haven’t posted in forever. OMG, has it really been a month? I’m crawling into a hole now… The only excuse I have is that I’m busy. Sounds pretty pathetic - I mean, we’re all busy aren’t we? But honestly, ever since January I’ve been telling myself “Once summer gets here it’ll be better. Once summer gets here I’ll have time to catch up. Once summer gets here…” Unfortunately the reality is that summer is half over and it’s not better. I’m still not caught up. I still don’t have time. And all I have to look forward to is the beginning of fall and school-year activities. Stresses me out just thinking about it… so I won’t. And you can’t make me!

I wanted to come up with a Top Ten list of things to catch you up with the happenings in our zoo, but I really stink at top ten lists so I thought I’d spare you the agony. You can thank me later.

If I had done a Top Ten list this would be #5 because I was #5 at one point in the Blackhat Fish SEO contest. I didn’t expect to win - honestly, no sour grapes here - my goal was to do what I knew how to do and see where I ended up. I’m not sure exactly what my ranking was when the contest ended because I forgot what day it ended so I didn’t look. Too busy, I’m telling you! I also discovered that there are different databases that Google results are pulled from so a site may have one ranking in one database and another one in a different database. Interesting, huh? Makes it even harder to figure out what my final ranking was. But in any case I’m happy with my results even if I didn’t win buko bucks. How the heck do you spell “buko” anyway? Bucko? Booko? Boucko? Beats me…

I could have put this as #2 because we have two major home improvement projects we’re working on this summer. One is to remodel the main floor bathroom. We spent Fourth of July weekend working on that. I’ll write a separate post with photos later about it later but for now I’ll just say that it’s almost done… almost…

The other project is to remodel the basement playroom. This spring’s torrential rains and melting snow found their way into the finished part of our basement for the first time in the 9 years we’ve owned this house. Now we need to replace the carpeting but first we need to get to it so Teacher and I have launched a massive purging effort. It’ll be a long project, but I think it’ll be worth it when it’s done. I’ll take photos and post about that project as we go along.

So anyway, that’s all for now. I’m done with daycare early today, I have clothes to hang on the line, and a bathroom to paint. Catch ya later… PROMISE!