Sooo close to a finished bathroom!!!

Lots of pics to follow but it's getting closer and closer! 

A few thoughts about the stone we picked for the shower. I wanted full sheets of color backed glass or high gloss acrylic panels. Unfortunately at $1000 per panel X 3 panels + shipping of $500 I was unwilling to spend that kind of cash. 

So we went to lowes. And I realized I wanted the glossy surface however I could get it. I also wanted large tiles and I love marble AND they were on sale. Lol. So while holding a marble tile I was highly disappointed in the selection of small scale tile. I didn't want something large that might crack easily on the floor. So while looking around I thought this polished river rock looked awesome next to the marble. 😍 so that's what I went with. Then while looking at this polished River Rock on Pinterest for grout color ideas I found all different colors and hated all but this dark grey grout. So... I went with dark grey. 

Hanging tile sucks. I'll just say it first the walls were not totally square so we ended up having to cut slivers of marble to fit the gap on the 1 wall corner that wasn't square. I'm sure it was a nightmare. The husband did the cutting. 

I used spacers and leveled it all while installing. The tiles were 98% level and flat to the walls. The next day when I went to check it a LOT of them had shifted some even coming away from the wall 🙄😕😟 yes I left the spacers in over night. Not sure wtf happened but eh it is what it is I'm not pulling them out and doing it again at this point. 

Grouting also SUCKS! The big tiles weren't so bad to grout and clean off. The river rock was a bitch. The bright shiny stones have little cracks and crevices and of course the grout stuck in all those and was generally just a huge pain in the ass to wipe clean. At the end we gave up and went to bed. After working all day today we both came home and tackled the shower to remove the extra grout that hardened to a cement like covering. We used a spatula to scrape the biggest part off and then I grabbed the buffer for waxing the car and used it to buff the stones. It's mostly done. Hubby installed the shower head and all that's left is sealing the stone and grout and caulking all the edges. Oh and installing the door 😍

Shower Floor mostly in...

Well hubby had to work yesterday. But once he got home he mixed up the mastic for the floor tile. 

The floor stones are now in. Today I was going to grout the floor then started watching youtube videos and they all install the walls and the floor and then grout all at once. So since we had been messing around with getting last minute stuff at lowes by the time we got home we were over it and called it a day. 

Well I called it a day he kept working and pulled out the bathroom vanities and ran plumbing for the new sinks. Needless to say the only thing left in there working is the toilet. Yay I get to brush my teeth in the kitchen sink for the remainder of this project! Oh well could be worse. 

This is the current state of the bathroom. 

I did try finding someone in this area who installs the glass walls and it's not happening unless I want to pay $1000 a wall :) and I'm to cheap to pay that. So I did find some shiny white marble tiles that I think will look just as awesome! 

Since he has to work late for the next week my new plan is to get the walls finished primered and painted before next weekend when my friend is going to come over and put the floor in. Yes floor before shower finishing probably. But I've already pushed him off 2 weeks. It's time to finish this crap and get er done! 😜

I'm hoping Eric doesn't have to work next Saturday or I really will have to push the floor off another week! 

Update shower pan poured.

First off I would like to say that mixing concrete sucks. It's dusty and much harder than the pros make it look! So if you don't have enough upper body strength to stir mud around that's not super wet then you should probably hire this part out. 

We got it done though Eric did the majority of the concrete mixing but I did the majority of the install and smooth and angle towards the drain. It's not perfect but it will work for us. I'm not expecting perfection. I want it to be pretty and functional. I think it will all work out. 

So anyway here's after pouring and mixing :) 

I plan on putting the tiles in the floor tomorrow. Yay! Progress! 

Slow going- pop corn ceiling gone

Well DIY work to remodel a bathroom is slow work. 

Go to work all day and come home and work a little at night. The past few days has seen the popcorn ceiling disappear. With lots of help from the kids to scrape it all off and boring the steamer from my bff. Today I got the first coat of primer on and you can tell a huge difference! The rest of this post will just be photos so you can scan through the amazing transformation of the ceiling ;) 

Kenny scraping the ceiling...

Lots of divots from scraping...

Mud applied...( I forgot to take a pic of the sanding process. But Kenny did go back and sand it relatively smooth while I was at work Tuesday 😍

First coat of primer applied to ceiling and a few empty walls....

Check back later for more exciting updates! 

The ugly tub is gone!

While I was running around for work today the hubby was super busy! 

I got several texts with pics today. 

What I feared could have been a major problem in the shower turned out to be kind of minor. 

This concerned me when I saw it. Gross black mold! 

When he sent this pic he said "oops I broke the tub lol" 

But thankfully it all seemed to be concentrated at the tub line. Which means that the water was getting between the surround and the wall. So taking it all out is the next step. 

We went to Menards to see what they have in the way of standard and custom glass doors. This space is 43" which is Not a standard size. Which means if we go custom, it's looking to cost $700+ just for the door. 

Another option is to build the door frame out and use something in a standard size like this. 

That's not horrible but it's not exactly what I want. I don't want to close off the space any more than I have to. 

I mean look at that dark hole now. I don't like dark and tight in the shower I want something bright and open. 

We briefly talked about moving the plumbing to the back wall and opening up this whole corner. But then we get into the issue of having to fix the ceiling which would mean scraping all the "popcorn" off the ceiling and I'm trying to keep that off the to do list for now. 

I'm not sure why I want to avoid that but apparently I do. (Or so I'm told). 

However at this point we are going to wait until the local glass guy can come out and give me an estimate on a seamless shower and then figure out if my vision is in the budget. 

Thank god we have another bathroom to use in the meantime. 

Here's another inspiration pic for the feel I am going for. 

The Bathroom remodel begins

So we moved into our little farm house two years ago. We knew coming in that the bathroom would need to be remodeled eventually. After living  with what we have and re-caulking the tub surround over and over and over again I have finally had enough of that.

Up until this point I have been in school and money has been tight. But after graduating and getting a pretty decent job we've been able to save some money. So now we are going to blow it all on the bathroom in the cheapest way possible. My wonderful hubby is very handy when it comes to making my visions a reality. So what is to follow in the upcoming weeks is the process that mainly he will be doing. Thank God for him and his energy lol. 

This is the bathroom currently. It doesn't look HORRIBLE. Just dated. Until you look closer. 

No matter how much I scrub it never looks clean. And yes I've used all different cleaners. The caulk has been replaced numerous times. And within a few weeks it always seems to be moldy and cracked. Which makes us think that behind these old walls is probably leakage and mold and lots of yuck. 

The shower head was a cheap replacement for the previous unusable head and has done an ok job. But still isn't on par with what we really want. 

The vanity was bad. The top is dull and scratched all to hell. I did what I could and painted it. I had Eric install a shelf in the weird gap between the cabinets. But really it's just not good use of the space. (Overlook the mess I need to see my stuff or it doesn't get used, pretend you don't see personal items...) 

So the inspiration for this room is from Pinterest. I love Pinterest as much as I love Ikea 😜 

I really love this look. We already have the huge mirror. Which Eric plans on framing out for me. And my bestie Jess went with me to ikea this past weekend and I picked up these Vanities and tops. 

 I also LOVE the tinted glass look and no seams on this shower. I'm still trying to find a retailer that makes these. 

But demo officially starts tomorrow. While I'm at work the hubby plans on stripping the shower down to studs. Once we figure out what's needed for that he will be ripping out the current vinyl and fixing any floor boards before I have new vinyl installed. 

I'm pretty optimistic at this point that it will all work out. However let's call this a happy start and see what happens. Wish us luck I have a feeling we are going to need it! 

Thrift store find!

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I love shoes and I collect clothes like they are going out of style. 

I've been following a few people in blog land for their clothing posts for ladies over 40. Look it up its a thing I swear! 

I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to look like an old lady because of how I dress. So keep that in mind as I pepper this blog with photos and posts about the way I dress. 

I'm a thrift store shopper. I do buy some things new, and I usually cringe every time I pay full price. But the thing is, if you have time to go to thrift stores, you can find some awesome brands at cheap prices. 

For example: 

This is not my photo, but I bought these exact boots at Goodwill. In my size. For $5. Big deal? Yep, originally this LAMB BY Gwen Stefani bootie cost $395. So yeah, awesome find. 

I'm blessed to have a job that takes me all over central Indiana. There are literally over 20 goodwill stores in my monthly commute. I've only been to half a dozen so far. But I always find a good deal. 

So yes go to the thrift stores. Take your time and walk around you might find something awesome!