Bathrooms

Update on one year ago.
The day after Thanksgiving last year is when we had our estate sale in Athens Georgia. It looked like all of the other estate sales I have done. Tables in the house and people walking through and buying everything. I have since lost those pictures.  We knew we would be moving in a 20 foot truck so we sold just about everything we owned. It actually felt pretty good doing that.  Before the sale, Molly and Maggie went through all of their things and ended up selling quite a bit as well.   We decided to put our house on Zillow  December 18th.  I will blog about that later.



One cool thing about the City of Davenport, they pick up just about anything you don't want. We even have what I call, Scavengers. You leave what you don't want out on the curb the night before recycle day, and these scavenger trucks come around grabbing mostly metal, but also other great finds.  The scavengers did not want the basement toilet.  It wasn't anything I would donate to Habitat either.

Poor lonely toilet.

 We called a company to come out and take a look at the basement toilet plumbing. They had never seen anything like it before and couldn't wait to figure out how to fix it. We hired them and this is what they did.....jackhammer, attach PVC with a super duper clamp, and then cement it all in, like it should have been in the first place.

In the meantime, we had our furnace checked and found out two parts needed replacing which would come close to the cost of a new furnace. We decided to put in a new one since it was the original first one put in, 24 years ago. The furnace guy couldn't believe it.  We used the same company  as the toilet fixer so while the jackhammering was going on, our furnace was being replaced. The following picture is our old furnace.

It took from 7:45am to 7pm for the new furnace to get in place.  The following photo is sometime during the day.  You can see how much shorter the new furnace is (and how messy he was).

When the plumber was done with the cement, he noticed our water heater and how it was wrapped up in insulation. He took a good look at it and said we really needed a new one.  I thought it was funny that both guys were on the floor working, one on the furnace and one checking the water heater.

We decided to get a new water heater too.  $$$$$  Since the toilet cement had to sit for many days, the plumber said he would come out and put the new toilet in and help the other plumber put the water heater in, all in the same day.

The following is a game of can you find things different in the following two pictures?

The obvious difference is the new water heater but, it turns out the guy who put in the furnace, did everything wrong. When his boss came out to inspect it for our energy rebate, he couldn't believe what he saw and changed everything to the correct way for free.  When you look at the two photos, there is quite a difference.

Mike is happy to have a toilet in the basement.

Now what is happening upstairs?

I finished upholstering one chair! One more to go.

The bathroom is getting painted.

Bathroom Doctor.

 Mike and I finally pulled out the toilet (which is now the one downstairs) and pulled up the linoleum floor.   When my mom was designing this house, she picked this linoleum pattern because it would look so good against the wood floors.  She realized after the fact, that the bathroom floor would not be against the wood floors, but ended up next to the carpeted hallway. I would think about this every time I was in the bathroom. When we put in wood floors throughout the whole house, I would think about Mom and tell her out loud, her linoleum was now next to wood.  But now her linoleum is gone.

We have the cement board in.  It was like a puzzle. I now just have to screw it to the floor. I became very excited to hear my sister Sherry wanted to come help tile this coming weekend.  Can't wait to take pictures of that.

 By the way, the color you see is not pink. Jo and I chose a coral with a hint of red in it.

I am also getting settled in my new job as the Evaluation Coordinator at St. Ambrose University.  My office is in the oldest building on campus and I have two windows!!

My windows are the second and third one from the corner on the first floor, next to the sidewalk. I haven't decorated my office yet and my boss has questioned me on that. Guess I will have to go thrifting because I don't want to take anything out of the house.

One of the best things ever, is the University is next to a park. I walk there during my lunch hour.  One day I found Mom and Dad's brick there.

There are hundreds and hundreds of ducks. I was afraid to get closer for a picture because they think you are going to feed them and they swarm to you. It is scary.

Then I found a really large wood duck I didn't even know existed.

But now that it is extremely cold, I walk the indoor track. I don't have a picture of it but they just built the recreation center that opened a month before I was hired. I walk in my dress and walking shoes.  Which reminds me, I can't wear jeans to work like I could at UGA. I am slowly learning how to dress warm in my summer Georgia dresses.  Layers and layers. 

So Much Going On

We have had a very busy time since I last blogged.
I wanted to get as much done to the bathroom that I could before Jo and Gary came to help us out.
I continued to steam off wallpaper and also pulled out the medicine cabinet, which also housed the vanity lights.

I was going to put in the new light fixture but after pulling off the cabinet, I found the electricity was not centered. Another job for Gary.

We were excited to finally get Jo and Gary up here for a visit.  I had a list of things for Gary to do so he started work right away.  Jo and I helped as much as we could but ended up shopping most of the time.  Gary started with the bathroom door frame. He made it look so easy but I was afraid the house would fall in if I did it.

Gary then started on the sink. After looking for the perfect vanity and not having any luck, I decided to keep the one Mom had.  The problem was how low it was and once I put cement board and tile on the floor, the sink would be even lower.  Gary said he could add to the top to make it higher. As you can see from the following pictures, the sink ended up in the front yard.

The sink didn't stay there long though. We put it in  the pile to go to Sherry's house for her to take to the dump.  Habitat is picky about sinks and would not take this style. Later, Sherry told me they took it to their Wisconsin dump and someone picked it up for their house.  We were happy to hear Mom's sink was going to be used again.

 I wanted to get a new sink and counter so I headed off to Lowes a couple of weeks before Gary came.  Quartz would be too expensive but I discovered Onyx, which is a man made material that was a lot cheaper, like $700 cheaper. I ordered the sink hoping it would arrive before Gary got here. Lowes didn't think it would come in time but they did  put a rush order on it. Luckily, it came a day before Gary and Jo arrived. I was worried about my measuring but it fit right in.

Gary then hooked it all up without good lighting.  You can see where he added wood right below the sink to raise it up higher. I will be painting the vanity a coral color.

Gary also exchanged the almond switches and outlets to white in the bathroom and most of the kitchen as shown in the picture below with my beautiful smoothy I was making for everyone in the morning.

We took a break on Saturday because all of my sisters and two of our cousins came for lunch. We like getting together where we can to share stories and pictures.  Sandy had a picture of me I didn't even know existed. I remember that dress Grandma made for me.  It was one of my favorites.

They also shared an extra cool picture of their Dad, our Mom's brother, our uncle Jim.

And then here we all are, ending our day of fun, food, and stories.  Jo just happened to find a perfect license plate at a garage sale that day.

This was the same day Gary and Mike put up the former kitchen cabinets in the garage. I was so busy with my sisters and cousins that I didn't take any pictures of them doing that job.  This very minute as I am writing this, I ran out to take the following pictures which don't really show much, but it is too cold for me to go out and spend time in there to get a good picture.  I am just excited to have a garage. This is the first one Mike and I have ever had in our years together.

As I mentioned earlier, Jo and I did a lot of shopping at thrift stores and garage sales while they were here.   You can see the cats are wondering what the heck is taking their spot in front of the window.

Sherry once told me that if I ever found things to put plants in that are $1 or less, buy them and she will prepare that item with a plant in it from their greenhouse.  Once I told Jo this, we both were going crazy at the sales.  Sometimes I would find something really cool but I stuck to the rule of $1 or less.  Jo loved that zebra so much, she couldn't stick to the $1 rule.  The below picture is what we picked up during just one outing.

This is Jo after a full day of shopping. Sorry Jo, I just had to add this picture.  😊

After Jo and Gary left, I continued to work on the bathroom.

I have been making such a mess that it is starting to flow out into the hallway and bedrooms. This is embarrassing when a neighbor comes over, but they understand.

This weekend I was at a point where it was time to remove the toilet so I could pull the wallpaper behind it and start priming the walls. We decided to take the leaky toilet out of the basement and put the torn up bathroom's toilet in the basement. That way we would still have two working toilets in the house. Much to our surprise, when we pulled out the basement toilet, we found the main pipe was no longer connected to the toilet. Good thing we hadn't been using it since we moved in.  I don't know how to fix this so we will be calling a plumber to come and do this. 

The biggest news if you haven't already heard, I applied for a job at the local University. I wasn't going to look for a job until next year but I couldn't pass this one up. It was for a position in the Registrar's office at St. Ambrose University evaluating transfer credit, and other duties.  This was the same thing I did at the University of Georgia fifteen years ago, before I became an advisor. 

Right before Jo and Gary left, I received a call for an interview.  After the interview, I dug out an old tee shirt Mom had given me many, many years ago, and put it on.  I wore it everyday until I heard back from the Registrar that I got the job.  Good thing I heard the fourth day after and not any longer!

I just finished my first week as full time. So now the bathroom remodel is in slow motion, as is with all the projects I have going on.

So,  I may not be able to blog as much as I have been, but will try.