Tile, grout, and plaster

Friday was the final plaster day and also tile and grout day!!!  

The tile pre-grout

Tile pre-grout around the toilet pipes

Tile post-grout - yay!!!!

The narrow strip of wood between the tile and the hardwood floors Carl was able to stain almost the same exact color as the existing floors and now you won't see the tile from the outside of the bathroom when the door is closed.  I love that he is so thoughtful with attention to details.

The final plaster coat - looks awesome!!

No plaster in the shower where the walls are going to be put up on Monday!!!

The special hidey hole opening that Carl is going to disguise for us, in case we ever need to have emergency water shut off access.  Again, details!!!

Final tile post-grout near the toilet pipes!!

1st grade Thanksgiving Feast luncheon

1st grade hosts a Thanksgiving luncheon for students and one family member.  I was in Molly's class earlier in the week and cooked with many students to make the corn bread.  They did such an amazing job cooking, I might see if Mrs. Appel will let me come back and bake again with them!!

The hallways were lined with long, festively decorated tables, lots of food getting loaded onto them!!

Each student in Molly's class made a placemat to use for their lunch.  Molly's was priceless!

Getting in the line, ready to try it all!

All four classes, serving a delicious meal!

Molly's friend, Dillon, and his mom Terri are taking ALL the mashed potatoes!!!

The breads, desserts and sauces (cranberry and apple!!)

Lunching in the classroom, the kids thought it was great to eat here instead of the cafeteria!

Mmmmmmmmm!!!!

A sampling of what we enjoyed

Me and Molly!!!!  (a rare picture of the blogger!!)

Final wiring then drywall!!!

Now we move on to the last part of the walls before plastering begins!!!  We are getting rid of our traditional door in favor of a pocket door - this will make the bathroom seem larger and give us more wall space.  As a result, they had to screw the framing for the new door into the wall.  Out in the hallway, this is what it looked like....

I told they kids that Kurt and Carl got mad and used a gun to shoot the walls, leaving bullet holes.  Caleb stood slack jawed, so I had to quickly make sure he understood it was a JOKE!!!


This is the inside of the bathroom, where the metal framing is for the door.  I am very excited about this feature!!!

The other biggie that happened this day was that the base for the shower went in!!!  Yay!!  This was the first time that I had seen a really big piece of the pattern I chose, and I LOVE LOVE it!!!  The shower walls and the countertop/sink will be the same as well.  It is going to look smashing!

This is the wall where the new vanity is going to be, along with the new medicine cabinet.  We have tons of switches and outlets now.  I never thought I would be this excited about wiring.

Next day.....

Drywall!!!  Now it actually starts looking like a room again - here is the hole for the medicine cabinet.

Walls near the shower.....

The ceiling where the heater/light/fan/exhaust is located (see my other 2 can lights??)

The entire wall is drywalled!!!!!

Yippee, more drywall!!!

Drywall all in the toilet alcove!!!  (I am too excited, can you tell??)

Potter and Molly are STARS!!

Molly and Potter were invited to Caleb's school this morning (a half day for them means out by 10:30) to participate in Caleb's class activities.  Potter chose to play the mandolin, Molly chose to read one of her favorite stories.  My children make me proud all of the time, but I have not been as proud of them as I was today in a seriously long time.  

Caleb and Delani are in the Native American hut, covering up with animal skins.

Caleb had every single animal skin on himself

Molly reading a favorite book 'A Letter for Amy' to Caleb's class

Potter did an AMAZING job with the mandolin.  He was able to improvise and play songs, correctly mind you, that he had never played before.  The kids had a lot of requests and he was able to do them all.  Well, not the Hanna Montana request.

Loving what he is doing!!

His grand finale!!!

Let the demo begin!!!

Here is the play by play:

Medicine cabinet gone, as are a few of the tiles on the wall (oh, how I hate that there are tiles all over the walls in each of the bathrooms in this house.  Well now, there will only be tiles left in one bathroom)

Wall next to the toilet has been demoed...

Carl gets the fun job of taking out aggression on the wall

Here is the baseboard heat that will soon be gone, so that we can put an actual vanity on this wall.

Sad lightbulb above where the old medicine cabinet used to live

One of the new light fixtures on the ceiling

All those blue boxes are the electrical switches and outlets.  After I uploaded this picture, I noticed that both of the drills are aimed directly at me.  It looks funny to me :)

The new heater/vent/fan/light.  Potter loves Kurt for installing this for him!!!

Where an old outlet used to be, but had to be moved over.  We are putting in a pocket door instead.  And I can put my whole arm from outside the bathroom in the hall, to inside the bathroom.   The kids find this really amusing!

Pre-bathroom demolition

The children are getting a new bathroom, upstairs, for them to share.  This bathroom has had its share of issues, the biggest being the time that it had a massive leak into our dining room and we had to cut a huge hole in the dining room ceiling to get it all fixed up.  These are the before pictures, what we've been living with in the tiny, terribly dated, bathroom.

You can see the ugly little one inch tiles in a rainbow of shades of white and brown.  Barf.  

Here is a better shot of the tiles, but you can also see the lovely (not) pedestal sink, with its skinny little frail legs.

The toilet is the only redeeming feature of this bathroom.  We replaced it only a couple of years ago, so it is going to stay in this bathroom, the white color obviously fitting in no matter what else we choose.

This is the inside of the shower, horrid fake marbling on the fiberglass walls, a very dim light.

The floor of the shower is some sort of terrazzo that probably weighs about a ton.  It is also in these gorgeous shades of brown.

I am standing inside the shower.  Looking up.  The inside trim of the shower fell off approximately 10 minutes after we bought the house.  So it has looked like this for 6 years now.  Sigh.  It will be gone soon.

We did repaint the walls, after we took off THREE LAYERS OF THE MOST OBNOXIOUS 70s WALLPAPER EVER!!  It has been this color for a couple years.  We also replaced the light fixture recently, but sadly, it won't match the new color scheme.  Anybody want a bathroom light???

We are most likely going to repaint the shutters, which we like for privacy, even though it is the second story, you just don't feel right leaving them open when you are naked and in the shower.    See ugly, squeaky medicine cabinet?  It'll be gone too.

Better picture of the medicine cabinet.

We had a little plumbing issue a couple years back.  We had to remove several tiles for the plumber to reach the part that needed fixing.  We never put these tiles back on, it would have been awful to try to do well.

Exhaust fan that sounds like you are on a turbo prop plane?  Goodbye!!!

Walls around the shower door, these will be gone and make the shower seem more spacious and less claustrophobic.