First, Justin took advantage of the moderate temperatures outside on Saturday to drywall our bathroom. It was nice for him to be able to cut the drywall outside and keep a lot of the mess out there. This was a big project and I have to admit that I wasn't much help.
As you can see in the pictures, there is a pretty good size pipe in the wall just behind our bathroom door. What you probably can't tell is that one section of the pipe sticks out a little farther that the rest of the pipe (thus the hole cut in the drywall to allow that part of the pipe to stick out).
The question was how were we going to deal with this. (Apparently, the previous owners managed to bend the paneling around it a little and we didn't notice.) The original thought was to put a little door down there as a cleanout option (that would never have to be used). Then Justin had a great idea...just put an air vent cover over it...simple, fast, and looks good (who cares that we don't have central air so have no need for an air recirculation vent).
Justin also had to work on updating an electrical switch in the bathroom before he could put the drywall in on that wall.
It was time for Justin to rest a little bit after that! Although we still have to do the taping and mudding, priming and painting, it feels so much better to have actual walls in our bathroom instead of exposed studs and lathe!
Sunday we decided to take down our Christmas decorations. I usually like to keep the decorations up a little longer but I wanted it all down early this year so I don't have to worry about it when the baby arrives.
We also decided to put together the crib that we are borrowing from my parents for Garytt's new room. We have decided to keep Garytt in a crib a while longer based on recommendations from both pediatricians and friends with kids who struggeled to transition to a toddler bed.
As least now if the baby were to arrive a little early, we would have two beds ready to go, even if the rest of Garytt's room isn't quite ready.
Monday we took advantage of Justin having the day off by doing tons and tons of painting! We had a few areas in both our formal living room and dining room that needed touching up. So, Justin pulled out the paint and touched up those areas while Garytt napped and I was down in our basement painting boards for the "crown molding" in Garytt's new room. We have decided to do just a basic board at the ceiling line because we thought it would be easier...
It took me quite a while and about 6 coats of paint to get the boards white.
After Garytt's nap, Justin put them up in his new room. Well, unfortunately, the ceiling tiles are not perfectly straight, so there are a few issues we will have to fix. But for now, it is what it is.
Meanwhile, we also painted a few more coats on the dresser for Garytt's room (we are almost done finally) and the wall behind the TV in the family room. This is one of the walls that my sister and mom helped to prep while they were in town. We had to finish the sanding and tape off the wall before we could paint but that didn't take too long. Then it was time to paint.
There were two issues...do you use a roller on such a small amount of wall space (I probably would have) and how do you paint around the rock fireplace that doesn't allow you to tape off? Justin wanted to just hand paint the area because it is such a small wall. Then we had to pull out a tiny brush to go around the rock fireplace...tedious but not as bad as we thought. We shared the responsibility of this project...Justin painted high (as I didn't want to be up on a step stool) and I painted down low...and as evident by the TV, G was watching Nemo.
The color choice came about totally by accident... I wasn't really sure what color I wanted to paint there but then we were at Lowe's and they had Valspar Signature quarts in this blue color that reminded me of a dark denim on clearance for about $2.50. Um...yeah, I'm totally all over clearance paint when I think it can work in our decor. I thought that a denim color would look nice in our country/western, casual family room!
Now I just need to hang pictures and redecorate the mantle (it was decorated for Christmas but looks empty now).
Ok, so a side note...I don't do a ton of shopping at Lowe's because I have found through our home projects that Menards is more helpful in general, but I totally dig the "Oops!" paint section in Lowe's! So far, our dining room and family room have been painted with discounted paint. But I purchased discounted paint nearly six months ago for the bathroom and office because I found it and knew what color I wanted. Then when my family was in town and helped in the bathroom, it was discussed that we might want a tan color to go with the color I chose for the bathroom...yeah, I found a tan just this past weekend at Lowe's for $5 a gallon. So, I have purchased 5 gallons and 1 quart of nice paint for less than the cost of one gallon of the paint at full price! (The guys at the paint counter at Lowe's might think I'm a bit strange considering how often I check the discounted paint and rarely buy a paint color of my actual choice.)
Of course, with all this work, we had to vacuum and clean nearly the whole house. And there is always the chore of doing laundry. So, it was a busy, busy weekend, but I have to say that we really did get a lot done in just three days.
We did take some time to relax (obviously not a lot) and play with Garytt. Garytt got some new bath time toys for Christmas. So, we decided to try out the Crayola bath finger paints. The box said that it turn into soap when you add water. So, we thought that would be great fun to let him play with it and then just soap him up...easy cheesy...
Well, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...apparently, we should have read the box a little better...yeah it's not tear-free soap. Yikes! Poor Garytt got his first experience with the horrible sting of soap in the eyes. I really can't believe they market a product like this for kids and don't make the soap tear-free...geez. Obviously, I didn't get a picture of the breakdown because I was helping to flush out his eyes.
We decided to put those finger paints away for awhile. We pulled out the bath crayons the next night. This was much more successful! And they actually wiped off the tub and wall very easily.
We hope that everyone enjoyed a safe and happy New Year's! Maybe next year we will ring in the new year with drinks and football!
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