Project complete!

L drew these horrible little creatures on the tiles
the night before they were ripped off.

We've already established that I have a tendency towards rigidity and really dislike change (especially change that is beyond my control/sphere of influence).  It's been a month of changes--big ones, little ones, most of which would be merely a blip on the radar for other brains, but to my brain, an atomic explosion. Many of the changes have been good, but nonetheless a minor struggle for me to accept.  Even positive changes are challenging for me.

Our bathroom is done!  For the first time in months, we don't have contractors' tools and equipment strung about our house. We don't have a variety of men traipsing through whenever we are at home. Our belongings are almost all returned to where they belong.  We are still waiting for a shelving unit that I ordered to arrive, and then we can get all of our bathroom supplies put back and in order.  We have a list of smaller repairs/projects that we will plug away at, now that we have a reliable carpenter that we like (finally!) and more importantly that our animals are comfortable with.  These are smaller, less invasive, and not on the second floor, which for some reason is my private, special floor, and projects in that space make me feel very stressed and invaded.

The bathroom took longer than it was supposed to and cost significantly more than expected, but these seem to be constants with projects done in older homes.  It turned out very well. It's not the bathroom of my dreams, but it is a perfectly attractive bathroom that ideally meets our family's functional requirements, so it was a success.



We had two rather serendipitous decisions that really contributed to making the finished product fabulous.  Our carpenter, Mark S, told me that though they had all of tiles removed from the walls, the remaining glue was proving a very slow, difficult removal.  He offered an option that would be much quicker and less expensive than manually scraping all of the glue from all of the walls--beadboard wainscoting.  I love the look, and it's fits with the period of the house (keeping things as authentic to the house's original architecture is very important to me--I don't like modern).  As soon as I saw the finished wainscoting, I was in love, and it almost made losing one of the windows in the bathroom bearable (I was very weepy about that--I love windows).

The next decision was the color. We were really struggling with the choice of paint color, and we were supposed to make our decision over the weekend, so it would be ready for him to paint by Tuesday. We couldn't decide.  More accurately, we decided several times, and I changed my mind. I was leaning toward a gray, but considering a light green, and L was really pushing for blue. So when he arrived Monday and asked if we had our paint color selected, I hedged a "sort of" answer. He had a gallon of very good quality paint that another client selected but didn't end up using, and he offered it to us if we liked it. We smeared a streak across the wall, and it wasn't bad, so I said we'd go for it. When you're a couple thousand over budget, I really appreciate $50 of free paint.  The paint was a light blue color, so L was happy. It wasn't my first choice, but I didn't hate it.  However, when all was painted, I loved it. It looks fabulous in the room, pops very well with the white trim/wainscoting, and we are all very happy with it.

We reused and repurposed everything that we could. I spray painted and reused the medicine chest and the picture frames that were in there. We kept the same light fixtures, sink, and tub--just replacing the plumbing and wiring as needed. The chandelier is new, because we didn't previously have any overhead lighting in there, and that is one of my favorite things. We repainted and reupholstered the vanity (desk) and mirror. Much to L's dismay, we're also sticking with the same shower curtain, rug, towels, etc., because I can't justify replacing perfectly functional objects.

The other project that was going on at the same time as the bathroom (and was necessitated by the bathroom) was my closet remodel. In order to get at the plumbing for the tub, they had to cut a big access panel in my closet wall. That meant that everything we own had to come out of that closet (that was not a fun job).  Since the contents of our bathroom and contractor equipment was taking up essentially every bit of space on our second floor, finding spots for my clothes (that wouldn't invite cat pee from our stressed cats) was challenging.  I stuffed things everywhere, which made getting dressed for work for two weeks quite challenging!  Since we had everything out of the closet, I moved on to one of the many tasks on my to do list--one that's been on the list for about ten years--and install a closet organizer so we could use our limited closet space more efficiently.  I was able to do that myself, while the guys worked on the bathroom.  I just used a simple ClosetMaid system, but it's infinitely customizable, and I was able to get the maximum storage space and efficiency out of that closet.  I highly recommend this system as an affordable, fairly easy installation, that can make a huge difference.  M & I are so happy with our "new" closet!

During this chaotic, stressful time period, I had two other changes, which threw me a bit.  My cell phone and my camera each died within a week of each other. Both had been going for a while, but I take great pleasure out of using things until they are absolutely unusable, and was determined to keep them going as long as possible.  It's like they ganged up and decided to quit during the peak of our remodeling stress just to fuck with me. What are the odds that they would both go in the same week?! [Perhaps the long-predicted rebellion and coup of computers has started!!]

Logically neither is a big deal. I had enough points that a cell phone replacement was free, and other than the painful two hours spent at the cell phone store (why must everything take so extraordinarily long there!!?) getting the new phone and everything switched over, I wasn't out much. I hate the change, though. I would happily have used my old cell phone for at least another ten years. I knew it well, including all of it's many flaws. It was good enough. I'm very aware of the tremendous environmental costs of manufacturing and disposing of the overwhelming number of cell phones. I hate to contribute to that. I don't like our disposable, throw away culture. I much prefer using one thing thoroughly, completely, until it cannot be used anymore, and then replacing it with another good-enough version.  Getting to know and feel comfortable with another device, takes energy that I didn't really have at the time.

The camera--I still haven't replaced, and that's been part of the blogging problem. I can't take a good picture with a cell phone. Even my new phone is supposed to have a very nice camera, but it doesn't have a good, true zoom, and it doesn't seem to have a stabilizer function. It's driving me nuts to not have a camera. I've missed so many good pictures in the last few weeks. I haven't had the time to research a replacement camera, and with the bathroom going over budget, I'm not in a rush to spend more money.  I borrowed L's camera yesterday, so I could start taking pictures.  It doesn't have all of the options/features that my camera has, which frustrates me, but at least I can get a clear shot.  I loved my camera. It's served me very well for nine years!

Finally, over my blogging break, we attended our annual Heartland Farm Sanctuary Gala.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed a delicious meal. For me, as always, the high point of the night was the fabulous dessert. It's pathetic how much I love dessert and I would be embarrassed for people to know how much time I spend thinking about desserts and surfing for recipes.  It was a very exciting night, because HFS announced that they were purchasing the beautiful land that they've been leasing and will be able to upgrade the facilities as needed.