I'm not sure what we were thinking when we decided to try to tackle this project before the baby came. I guess I do...kind of. I figured if we waited until after the baby it would be months and months. And I really kind of hated the look of this bathroom. So we went for it. Everything has taken longer than we thought, we have made a million trips to Menards and Brennan has done like 90% of the work. My dad helped him with the counter top and sink installation. And I did a lot of the white paint on the vanity and the trim work. Unfortunately this project more or less took place during my sorest weeks of pregnancy and I just wasn't much help, except to boss him around. ;)
This was not a complete gut and redo by any means. More like a little facelift. And please bear in mind that we are so new to this. Pretty much just making it up as we go along and calling my dad a lot. But I'm pretty excited about the results.
Before:
During:
After:
I'm kind of sad about how these pictures turned out. I just can't seem to find a good setting for the bathroom. Maybe if Brennan takes better ones when he gets home I'll update this post.
Another attempt with another setting. I think it's worse though.
So what all did we do? Pretty much as little as possible. :)
The light fixture was horrendous so we thought we would get a new one of those. But then Brennan had the idea of just spray painting the one we had and buying new bulb covers. Brilliant! And totally a money saver.
We painted the vanity and the trim work white.
Installed wainscoting and painted that white.
Painted the walls gray. We had some leftover gray mistinted paint that we had used (mixed with a lot of white) in our living room. We mixed it with a lot less white paint this time.
Installed a new counter, sink and faucet.
Then we got new towel hooks (we still can't decide where to put the last two. One under each canvas? Or clustered a little closer to the shower? If you have an opinion, let me know!) and knobs for the drawers and cupboards (yet to be installed).
And lastly we re-grouted the floor. Ideally we would have replaced the flooring but there just wasn't time for that big of a project. Or rather enough time for me to make up my mind on new flooring. Hahaha.
Eventually we plan to replace the two doors with white ones, but for now we will just live with it the way it is.
Oh man, I almost forgot about the back splash! We didn't originally plan to do one but the stock counter we got ended up being too deep. Oops! Which meant we had to cut off the built in "back splash" the scars of which would need to be covered by something. We were really discouraged by how expensive nice back splashes seemed to be. Then we stumbled upon these little subway tiles at Menards. It ended up being a really affordable addition to the redo and I love back splashes. I also don't think it would have looked very good without it with the gray on the walls being so dark and the counter being dark too. It's nice to divide those with some white. Nice job Brennan!
This is the biggest redo project we have ever done and I think it turned out really well. I think Brennan learned a lot and there is a certain kind of satisfaction in doing this kind of work yourself. Yay for (pretty much) getting it done before the baby arrived!
I guess it's time to recap the rest of September before life gets even crazier. I still can't believe October is actually here. I think this September might have been the fastest month of my life! There isn't a lot to show or say about the last couple of weeks but I'll share the random pictures we did take.
Declan wet the bed a few times in just a week or two. It was quite strange because he hasn't had any trouble with that since he was first potty trained back in February. One day I didn't manage to get his sheets and washed and back on his bed before nap time so I told him he could sleep in Tatum's bed (the top bunk). He thought it was the coolest thing ever so I had to take a picture of him in there.
I told the kids we could go to "the red park" on a Saturday. It's one of their favorite parks but it's at an elementary school so we don't get to go as often as we used to. Tatum asked if we could ride our bikes and when I tried to tell her it was too far she pointed out that we had done it before. So they convinced Brennan to ride my back so Declan could come along and ride with them while I drove there. (No way am I getting on a bike at this point in my pregnancy.)
A last minute play date at a park we don't often go to. Declan loved this "motorcycle". Unfortunately he took quite a fall on one of the sand diggers seen in the background of this picture. He smacked his ear on the bar on his way down. The poor kid was in a lot of pain but thankfully it didn't last long.
We finally made it down to the Children's Museum! It was such a quiet afternoon there. We didn't have long to play but it made me recommit to getting there more often-they loved it!
Movie night. During the week. It's a new tradition around here and one I plan to keep for awhile. Brennan just got called to be Young Men's president (what timing!) and he is also in a spike ball league/tournament. They both occur on the same night of the week so it has started to be movie night for the three of us.
Tatum and Declan were outside playing and came and told us they found a little frog. Well I wouldn't say he was very little but they sure did find a frog. He was stuck in our window well so Brennan rescued him and we took him to a park to set him free.
Tatum really wanted to hold him, but really didn't want to hold him. :)
Thinking about it...
Thinking about it...
Doing it!
Not too sure about it.
Even less sure about it.
Notice that Declan doesn't even hesitate, he does NOT want to hold the frog and he isn't ashamed to admit it.
The kids and I stopped at Target "real quick" one day after preschool. I didn't get a cart because it was going to be so fast. Rookie mistake. I let them convince me to go to the Halloween aisle AND the toys! We were there for ages! But the costumes were fun.
My wonderful friend, Krystal, threw me a baby shower a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't expecting any sort of shower at all since I already have two kids and both genders. But she threw the cutest little shower. I let Tatum come with me and I think she thought that was pretty neat. Here she is decorating a onesie with Krystal's help, and somehow I chopped off Krystal's head. :/
She had a delicious ice cream bar, onesies to decorate and a little quiz about me. It was small, simple and perfect.
During the baby shower, Brennan took Declan to Wendy's for a frosty. On the wear there they got into an accident! I couldn't believe it when Crystal showed me the picture he posted on instagram during the shower. Luckily no one was hurt.
Declan was thrilled to get his ice cream after. And still loves to tell people about how the guy in the truck was driving crazy and crashed into them.
I finally finished the craft Stacy brought to the reunion. Pretty pathetic since it only took me about 15 minutes haha.
Declan is obsessed with the color orange, probably because it was the only one he could identify for a long time. But one day, completely on accident, I totally filled his requested orange plate with all orange foods. I swear our lunches are usually a bit more colorful than this.
The kids got to go to the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop with Brennan. Perfect Saturday morning for all four of us! :)
Tatum's face. :)
Another day, another stop at Menards. It's amazing how many times we have had to go to Menards just for a few small home projects. I love that store and I hate it. The kids and I tried to kill time in a big open display area while Brennan looked for what we needed.
We also made it to the Halloween aisle, somehow.
On the bright side we randomly found a chair there for our living room for a good price. So that was exciting!
Eating some leftover apple turnovers and apple cider from grandma's for FHE.
These kids love to play games. This Arthur one we inherited from Crystal is a favorite. I'm trying to say "yes" whenever I possibly can right now since I'm afraid that's not going to be an option pretty soon.
We have pretty much had 2 years of uninterrupted sleep. Of course there is the occasional night time wake up but it has been very rare for a very long time. Until the last couple of weeks. Almost every night it seems one of the kids joins us in bed or needs us for one thing or another. It's like they are prepping us for a newborn. Thanks a lot kids, but I don't need prep I just need sleep!
It is so funny to me what the kids will find to entertain themselves. I was cleaning out the garage one afternoon and they played with this stroller for ages.
This pictures makes me laugh so hard. It feels like forever since this kid rode in a stroller and he looks giant!
Clean garage! It feels so good. We seem to have constantly had a project going on and it's always set up in the garage and it's just felt so messy and crowded. It feels so good to have it cleaned out and organized.
We took the kids for ice cream at Culver's one night after forcing them through some errands. They also thought they were going to the PlayStation with dad that day but some things came up at work that wouldn't allow for that. So yes we were bribing them with ice cream. :)
One night, I can't remember when or why, the kids spent the night at my parent's house. Mom had given them glow bracelets and Declan fell asleep with his over his mouth and nose, haha.
More costume fun at the store.
One day Declan and I were at the library and he was having a blast with the train table. He hadn't been able to play for very long when it was time to pick up Tatum. I felt bad making him leave already but Brennan came to the rescue. He left work and swung by and picked her up and then took her to Capriotti's for lunch. She thought it was the greatest.
Besides Primary songs the only songs my kids seem to know are ones from our reunion mixes where everyone contributes their favorite song. Here's Declan singing a bit of "Fire", one of his favorites.
For some reason lately he likes to tell everyone that his dad is the maddest in the family, I might have mentioned that in my last post. One morning he was telling me all about it.
And a favorite Primary song to finish out the month.
