Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Oct 29, 2019

Bathroom Remodel Part Two, Record Cold-16 Degrees Tomorrow Morning!



Bathroom Remodel Part Two-
I took a vacation yesterday to be home for the flooring installer. So far our bathroom remodel is going smoothly! After emptying everything out I went ahead and started on the prep for painting. There were some nail holes, a few little indentations but the primary work was for the area where the sheet rock have been damaged removing the back splash. When I installed the back splash I used construction adhesive, thinking  it would be a much longer before we remodeled. Prepping the damaged sheet rock I basically did two things, spackled to smooth everything out and then used a texturizing spray. I've done plenty of spackling and Dave had used the spray so I knew what to expect. I did the spackling, got things fairly smooth, let it dry I came back then sanded. I and did a little more sparkling in a few other areas as well. Here's the 1st spackling-


 Next the texturing spray applied, dries white-


We used Homax Wall Texture spray, about $10.00, used 3/4 of the can-



It's a great idea to warm up the can  of texturizing spray. The sounds kind of funny but it's actually on the directions. I put the can in a pitcher of very warm (not hot) water. I went outside and practiced on a piece of cardboard. I textured the sheet rock as best as I could to match. I had already decided to not worry about getting a perfect match on 45 year old sheet rock! One of my saving graces is that the IKEA cabinets are taller than American cabinets by a couple of inches. With the thick porcelain counter top / sink I didn't have to repair/match quite as much ,since some of it wouldn't show. I worked on starting to paint the bathroom while that dried. Here you can see the old, lighter blue and the new darker blue/gray


The ceiling was a dirty looking light brown (smoke stains?) all painted! I was going to do the ceiling in a bright white, but decided to go for simple, one color! It's Ace Hardware's Bouyant Blue-


With our LED lighting in the bathroom, and no window, it may look different in my photos. I tried to color correct, but hard to match sometimes-


I painted the ceiling first, then worked on the walls and a brush work. Since we were replacing the flooring you didn't have to worry about dripping on it,  I did put down a tarp to protect the carpeted area going into the bedroom-


Next I painted the re-textured area to see how it would look. I still wasn't very happy with it ,but the good news is you can use it over paint. I textured again and let that dry. I  took a break to start some split pea soup with ham for dinner. It came out great and we had cheddar biscuits with it, yum on a cold night! After dinner I went back to check the area since it had dried and went ahead and did another coat of paint. It looks a lot better which I was happy with! Again I had decided to sort of live with whatever wasn't totally perfect. I know I'm a bit OCD, ha ha, and have a tendency to focus on one little tiny area on the wall. I must say I really love the wall color, a soft blue with gray which was a very hard color to find.






After dinner we got the rack over the toilet, new white exhaust vent cover and medicine cabinet hung back up-


I wanted to give the thrifted rack above a fresh coat of white paint but it was way too cold outside, maybe in the spring, it's easy to take down. We kept the light fixture since it was in great shape and I like it-


The new vinyl plank flooring is called Rockport, as close to gray as we could get, wish it was a little lighter, but it works. It's grayer in natural light-


Ikea cabinet is in place, Dave's finishing the plumbing hook up-


New toilet!


Currently our house really looks like a bomb went off since we had to move a lot of the furniture out of our two spare bedrooms to get the carpet re-stretched while our flooring guy was here. We basically had to empty the bedrooms as much as possible. There a lot of places that charge an arm and a leg to do that, but since we already had him working on a job here he didn't charge us very much. I love working with small local businesses since their customer service is so much better!




Watch for the full bathroom reveal this weekend!!!



Record Cold-16 Degrees Tomorrow Morning!
It was 23 degrees yesterday morning, with a high of 31, so cold and gray! Today was 30 when I got off work. Tomorrow morning the forecast is 16 degrees, a possible record cold. This is WAY too early! We haven't drained our pond yet, so that will be fun. We brought in our pumpkin and Mum off the front porch so they wouldn't freeze solid. Anya is laying in front of the kitchen heater next to me, and the heat's on in the coop. Luckily my hens Ellie and Rosie are almost done molting! I hope this isn't a sign of things to come! We're ready, glad I bought the extra heavy comforter!

Oct 26, 2019

Bathroom Demolition Has Begun! Simple Halloween Decor, 19 Degrees Coming-Winter Is Here!!!


Cabinet is gone!

Bathroom Demolition Has Begun! 
We started demoing our small master bedroom bathroom today! It's been an easy job so far, no big surprises. Here's what we're tackling ... We pulled of the medicine cabinet and towel rod. I pulled the back splash off, which damaged some of the sheet rock, spackle and texturing spray will fix that-


Old flooring, new coming Monday!


Old cabinet, circa 1970's-


Old bathroom, with new Ikea medicine cabinet bought last year. We will re-use-


Mini rack I may keep-


Dave pulling cabinet doors-


Pulled off cabinet rack over old toilet-


Pulled exhaust fan ceiling vent, will clean interior, wash cover and paint around-


Dry fit new Ikea cabinet-


Putting together drawers- 


New Kohler toilet-



Construction stuff on deck-





Side table with favorite Cheshire Cat!

Simple Halloween Decor-
I love Halloween, and with our kids gone we do more outside for the trick or treaters, but I still have some fun things! Here's a peek, with 90% of it thrifted over the years-

Black Crow and Cheshire cat a few years ago from Factorydirectcraft.com, lots of great stuff there! 

 Living room table



Entry way

Happy Day of The Dead too! 



Front of the house



Dollar store witches in the peach tree

We have two of these on either side of the front garage, stalks from our corn patch



Tea towel around my mum


I forgot to get a photo of our entryway Halloween lights, purple and black, with bats and pumpkins on our front post. Cute after dark!

Driveway, that's it!!!




19 Degrees Coming,Winter Is Here !!!
It's late in the day and 49 degrees with a 30-40 mph wind! It's cold!!! I've plugged in the chicken waterer after Dave dragged out our extra heavy duty cord. We have a porch light, reptile ceramic disc heater and infared heater bulb hard wired in. Since both hens are molting I'll turn it on tonight. They have lots of food and had treats today. Our house is ready, cars too. Bye bye summer blouses for work! I got out our hats and gloves last weekend knowing this was coming. I think with our cooler summer we may be in for a brutally cold winter. I hope I'm wrong, but time will tell. I do like a LITTLE snow, but hoping there's not too much. Don't want a repeat of Boise 2016's Snowmageddon! Lasted for months and poor Dave just kept shoveling-





So pretty though!


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