Finishing what I started, part 1

This side table my mom gave me was kinda rickety, the drawer bottom slid out of place when you tried to open the drawer, and it had scratches and water rings all over the top.

 

 

I used it as a bedside table in my room for a long time, but that faulty drawer bottom with a handsy toddler was a messy combination. I fwas thankful to find that the table legs were attached with bolts rather than nails, so a few turns of a wrench was all it took to make it solid. Then I sanded down the top completely. All the scratches and rings disappeared to reveal a gorgeous walnut top. 

 

The top got two coats of walnut stain and a couple coats of a wiping varnish. The rest of the table got primer and paint. I also ran a thin bead of glue along the back edge of the drawer bottom and clamped it. Now the drawer slides easily and the bottom doesn't fall out. It now resides in Clara's room and holds bedtime essentials - a lamp for reading, her Bobby bear, and a basket of books. I think it turned out pretty well.

While my family was in town

I've been working on a long update post, but there is a problem with Blogger and I can't access my unpublished drafts. Boo. In short, my brother-in-law and sister made short (but dirty) work of the attic floors:

In case you can't tell, they look fan-flipping-tastic. I'm pretty excited.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, they installed the first piece of a 3-part baseboard in Clara's room. I don't have pictures of this, but it is just a 1x6 around the perimeter of the room. I say "just" a 1x6, but moulding installation is never that simple.

For my part, I managed to do not much more than applying Redgard waterproofing membrane to the shower. I was dragging my feet on that project because I was nervous about screwing up, but it was easier to deal with than I had imagined. It goes on bright pink (think Pepto-Bismol) and dries red. The stuff is pretty pricey ($135 for the 3.5 gallon bucket I bought), but it's a small price to pay to guard against rotted studs in a few years. Two coats probably would have been fine, but I did three to the walls and more to corners of the niches and anywhere that needed more. I've heard nothing but good things about the product's performance, so hopefully I'm all set.

Now that my self-imposed completion deadline has come and gone (home to Louisiana), I have been slacking a little. The girls haven't been napping, so my work time has been nil. I'm anxious to get this thing wrapped up so I can start on the next great parenting adventure known as potty-training. Yikes.

Tiling, cont'd

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped I would, but I started on the floor tile today. It's looking pretty good but not without mistakes charm. I'm starting to better appreciate all those individually-laid mosaic tile floors all over Europe.

Tiling away

 The wall tile is really coming along. I'll have to finish fussing with the bathtub area (leak testing and waterproofing the backerboard) before I can go much further with it. I'll probably lay the floor tile while I look for the waterproofing product. Anyway, this is the wall tile as of quitting time last night (pardon the mess. I didn't get a chance to clean up because I had to make dinner and feed Evie). I obviously have some cuts to make, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's shaping up so far.

I hope all you mamas out there had a wonderful, relaxing Mother's Day. We took Tom's parents out to dinner, but other than that it was a pretty typical day around here. That is, we planned to go to the early Mass to give ourselves a good stretch of time to work, stayed up too late and went to the late service instead, spent several hours working on a solution to the problem at hand, found several other mistakes to add to the repair list,  realized we needed one small but crucial item from Lowe's to fix the first problem, and spent far too long in the Lowe's plumbing section trying to figure out why the pictures on the boxes never really seem to indicate what is actually inside the box. In other words, not a whole lot got done other than accumulating rage over such shoddy workmanship from the previous crew.

Today wasn't a whole lot better, but I did manage to get the back bedroom cleared out and vacuumed. I also assembled the bed that my aunt gave me (off-topic, but I was not "gifted" the bed; it was given to me. "Gift" should be used as a noun, not a verb, despite the dictionary's acknowledgment of its use as a verb in the 17th century. Seriously, I want to scream every time I see that.) We'll move our bed's mattress to that room and upgrade our mattress. We've got three weeks until six members of my family arrive, and I'm trying not to stress out about it. I'm trying to get an operational bathroom for them so we don't have 8 people sharing one bathroom without a door. I mean, really. A bathroom with a door? That's the kind of luxury I'm trying to afford my guests!

This picture has nothing to do with the text above. I love having a little bouquet of peonies by the door, especially since they were clipped from my own garden, and I thought this post could use a little bit of prettiness.

Repaying the (sleep) deficit

The kids have been on a sleep deficit since we left for New York a few days ago. They both have a little touch of a cold and have been cranky and unwilling to settle down for the night much less a nap. Today the exhaustion finally caught up with them and I had four hours of uninterrupted worktime. I didn't let the lack of floor tiles stop my progress in the bathroom. I got more backerboard up on the walls and started the wall tiles, leaving a small gap at the bottom for the floor tile to slide underneath for a clean edge without having to cut any tile.

This is the wall behind the toilet. Even if I don't get the entire bathroom done before my family comes, I want to at least be able to install the toilet, so that side of the room is top priority. Plus, since this is my first tiling attempt, this wall would be the least visible if I messed up. Tomorrow I'll get out that wet saw and start making some cuts!

Indecision 2012

Like every good Cannon girl, I change my mind. A lot. Indecision followed by second guessing  is a way of life. Instead of this tile:

Source

for the hall bath's floors, I decided to get this tile:

Source

I like the idea of the pinwheel tile, but on a floor I much prefer the hex. I had settled on the pinwheel tile originally because Tom liked it better. Then I realized that Tom doesn't notice anything decor-wise unless I point it out to him specifically. Unfortunately, the hex tile is special order. I put in the order yesterday and it should get here by May 21. The bathroom is starting to come together!