My beautiful bathroom tile

OMG I love this tile job so much! I am so glad that I went back to doing it this way. If you don't remember what it looked like before, take a look at this post. Here's how it's looking now. Yippee!



I was a little surprised at how few places just carry plain white porcelain tile. Apparently that is not "in" right now. I am trying to do something a little retro looking in there, so the stuff that is popular right now (very stone looking) wouldn't work. Anyway, Tile Shop had nothing that would work for me and the guy there was an asshole anyway, so I ended up just getting this at Home Depot. It was cheaper anyway and it looks just like I want it to.

More done in the living room...

I think the last major trace of pink is gone from the living room and I couldn't be happier! Yippee! The good news is that the living room is very close to being done and I'm loving how it looks. The bad news is that James and I both wasted a lot of time painting these shutters and then I didn't even end up using them.

The living room had these built in cabinets that ran along the wall with the fireplace. The top 3 shelves were closed up with shutters, and the bottom shelf had a wood door with a big ugly knob on it, which is unfortunately not visible in this picture.



So... I took off all the shutters and James spray painted them. I then took them and did a couple coats of regular paint, and in the end they looked presentable. I went to take off the bottom doors and realized that I'd never get them back on again. I asked James what he thought about leaving the bottom part open. He thought it was a good idea, and I started to think of things I could put down there so I didn't just have a big empty space near the floor.

As we started to attempt to put the shutter doors back on, and realized this wasn't going to be a fun task either, James suggested I just leave ALL the doors off, and have built in bookcases. Great idea! Sometimes it takes 2 brains to figure out the best way to do something. So, here's how it looks now, all painted and finshed and ready to go. I was going to buy a bookshelf anyway, so this saves me space and money!



I'm also just so glad that the sheetrock is all finished. I was so sick of looking at all this insulation, as seen below. I can't even believe that it's been 5 freakin' months since I had that done. Gawd I'm slow!!



On another note, my shower is almost done!! It's all tiled and waiting to be grouted. I can't wait to post some pics!

Who has purple floors?

This girl, that's who!

Here's my basement, or at least a corner of it.



As you can see, the floor was a sad lookin' piece of work! I knew it needed to be painted but I didn't want to go with a traditional gray cement paint. So I ended up painting it the plummy gray that I was considering (and have now rejected) for the outside of the house. My basement is so pretty now!

Poodles, giraffes, roosters and elephants

It was a sad day at my house last week when my friend James and I started working on making part of the basement another bedroom. Sad because it meant I had to lose this AWESOME wallpaper. Lucky for me it was put up on boards that were attached to the wood wall behind it, so we were able to save a piece of it. It's in the garage now, I might just have to mount it out there.

I just wish I knew the story behind this. Dancing elephants, alcoholic giraffes, a slutty poodle and a rooster with a top hat and cane, all interspersed with giant cocktails. Who thought this would be a good idea for wallpaper? Who gave it the OK for production? Were there drugs involved? And who buys this stuff? So many questions. Here is my wallpaper in happier times.

Kitchen light

When I got this house, the previous owner had put a drop ceiling in the kitchen. I couldn't figure out why someone would do this, but when I removed it I saw what was going on, though I'm not sure if it was to cover up the damage or the horrible avocado green paint job. Who knows what happened here.



So, I chipped away what I could and got out my trusty joint compound and fixed it up as well as I could. I did get a bigger light that would cover some of the damaged area since I couldn't get it perfect, but I think it looks pretty good!

New Stuff!

I totally had one of those OMG new homeowner moments a couple days ago when I brought home my brand new washer and dryer (and water heater). I just looked at them and smiled and thought "these are MY washer and dryer". I've never owned a washer and dryer before. Pretty fun! I am getting these three appliances and a new single laundry tub put in on Tuesday. Yay!

Front Entry

This isn't even totally done but I'm kind of in the middle of projects right now and don't have much to show. The entryway was, like everything else, coated in this horrible Pepto pink. Who does this? Anyway, I went with this kind of mushroomy brown color. I think it looks nice against the white trim. It looked like chocolate cake batter in the can, and it looked delicious.



You can see the roll of vinyl flooring that is going in there too. I'm just waiting until the hardwood floors are refinished to put it down.