Shower Shampoo Nook

When I was planning out this bathroom remodel I had an incredible idea.  Let's build a nook between the studs! I've seen it done before. Instead of a shelf or one of those hanging things, a nook!  This would be an awesome solution to our small space issues. It looked so simple. I watched MANY videos and read just as many DIY blogs. Easy peasy... I got this. 

Next time I say this, someone should hit me upside the head. I'm glad we are doing it.  It really is the perfect solution to our problems.  But it was not simple, easy or quick!  It took as long as tiling the big wall!  Or longer... It also had some weird issues to troubleshoot. Here's my recap and how to. 

First I cut 2x4's the right length to go between the studs and then screwed them in through the opposite side. So far... Not bad

Next came cement board... Uhhhh... This stuff was not as easy to cut as I thought it would be. Which lead to the first tricky part. I ended up scoring the board where the shelves opened up and then scoring an x through the middle. Then... A good ol hammer to break it out. This worked but wasn't pretty. So I bought a jigsaw blade with very large teeth and that did the job much better. Just go slow. 

Once I had enough cement board cut and put in place to over the whole thing, (again, easier said than done) I used mesh tape and thinset to seal all the cracks and corners. 

I ended up doing two thin layers of thinset to make sure I sealed the tape in well.  

But... There is NO WAY I'm taking chances on anything leaking in this shower. 

So...

I covered the whole thing in two layers of Redguard. This stuff is basically liquid rubber. It seals up any cracks or crevices where water could potentially get in. I feel confident that this nook will not be the cause of any leaks.  

Next came the fun part. (And by fun I mean terrible.). It actually is fun because it's one of the last steps and it's so satisfying to see the tile up.  But there were so many weird parts to this. We are using subway tile. So the corners needed quarter round tile. (This was not fun to cut angled pieces for the corners...) But I wanted to do something different for the shelf. Ideally, I wanted it to be one seamless price of tile. That was not to be. I couldn't find a 14" piece that matched. So, my solution was to use matching edge tile for the shelves. Worked out perfect for the spacing. 

It's not perfect but I love it! 

 I haven't cleaned it up yet and it's obviously not grouted. I can't wait to get all the rest of the tile up!!!

You gotta be brave to DIY

It's true. There's a lot of failure. A lot of projects don't work out and you have to; live with it, abandon it, fix it, or try again. (There's some life metaphors in there if you're feeling deep.)

Tonight was a failure night. I found an AMAZING frame at a yard sale that is perfect for the mirror in the bathroom we are remodeling. Here she is...

It was gold before but I painted and distressed it. Then I went to habitat for humanity ReStore to buy a mirror to cut down and fit inside. In the past, I take the mirror to a glass shop and they cut it. But I thought I'd be brave and try to DIY it. 

This tool is $2 at Home Depot. 

It's exactly what they use in the glass shops. I followed the directions and snapped the mirror after scoring it. It was perfect!  Except for one corner didn't snap straight. DANG!  I thought maybe I could tap it with a hammer and it would snap off...  Then this happened...

So on Monday I will be going back to the ReStore to get another mirror. This time I might go to the glass shop to have it cut.  ;)

The roof... The roof... The roof is on... That is all!

It is finished!  When we bought The Little House, the roof was excluded from our insurance policy. It was that bad... Here's a look. 

The rough patch on the porch was repeated all over. 

We were told that it could maybe make it another two years when we purchased it... And we milked EVERY day out of that promise. But every time it rained I prayed! We never had a leak... Thank goodness!  But we didn't want to take any more chances so Spyman took some time off of work and we went to work. A dumpster was delivered and we started scraping off the old shingles. 

Whew!  It has been such hard work!  I don't feel qualified to give any kind of tutorial on this except that, if you have a couple thousand extra dollars, you should absolutely pay someone to do this. ;)

Here we are... A week later and the last nail is hammered. We are tucked safely inside the little house with no fear of the coming storms!

Here are some before and afters. I can just picture it when we get new siding up!!!

Bathroom electrical nightmares

This bathroom was wired for one outlet, a fan and an overhead light. All switches and outlets were beige and very old. We are slowly replacing all of them in the house. Some aren't even wired correctly! But that's beside the point. The point is, I've been getting an education in wiring! 

The bathroom had no vanity light. What?!  Every bathroom needs one of those! I figured that since we had the wall partially open it shouldn't be too hard. Drill a hole and drop a wire where we want the light. Bring it over and tap it into the existing electrical. And... That's exactly how it works!  But it's not as simple as it seemed... Cry...

Here is the wall before.  Also, before I patched drywall. 

And here we are with my dropped wire. (Also, an electrical box usually gets put in too. However, there are a few missing those in this house too!)

This part was fairly simple. I thought I was on easy street...

Then this happened...

And I just realized I didn't get a shot of all the craziness in this box. But trust me!  It was crazy!  I'm not even sure how everything was working and not starting our house on fire!  (Also, you might notice that is not a GFCI outlet. In a bathroom where water is everywhere, this is a must).

At this point I let Spyman take over. He made a valiant effort, but after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the new electrical box was in and it looked pretty... But nothing worked.  Sad!

So we took a day off and played. Then, after Spyman went to work, I watched a million YouTube videos about electrical work. Then I deconstructed the whole thing and reassembled it. 

Now the switches worked but not my outlet. Cry again! Also, the closet light didn't work either. I knew where I went wrong but I needed a break again... A week later I finally fixed it and everything works.  Slick as snot. ;)

And I have a vanity light!

We still need to move the box up a little, which is why it's not in the wall yet. But we get a little closer every day!

I'm not going to pretend to tell you how to do this since I'm not a professional, but it is pretty easy and makes sense once you figure it out. And a million YouTube videos will help you.

DIY Mercury Glass

I found the perfect pendant light for the bathroom!  It is a beautiful Mercury glass pendant. And I scored it for $29!

I also scored a sweet new vanity light for only $14.  But I had to buy the glass shades for it. I knew I wanted Mercury glass. So I went hunting. And I found them... Anywhere from $18-$79 apiece... And I needed two!  (This would totally negate the sweet deal I found) Then I remembered seeing DIY Mercury tutorials online. And found these sweet gems for $2.50 each. 

I thought... Let's give it a try!

Every tutorial called for vinegar and water. I had no vinegar but thought that maybe a little soapy water would do the trick, so I subbed for that. So here's what you need:

Glass shades

Tape

Spray bottle filled with soapy water

Krylon looking glass spray paint

First, I taped off the outside of my globes

Then turned them upside down and misted them lightly with the soapy water. I practiced on cardboard to make sure I got the most pattern right. Then I lightly sprayed the looking glass paint. 

I gotta say... This stuff is cool. I sprayed a couple of light coats and then misted the inside one more time with my soapy water and began waiting for it to dry. 

Tick tock...

And...

It totally worked!!!  I love it!  I think that the soapy water was a good choice. It provides resist and eats away a little at the paint on the back end. I'm so happy with the finished product!

Certain jobs just suck

I've been putting off this job... Mostly this has all been fun. Even the hard jobs. But mudding drywall sucks. 

One of the previous owners GLUED wood trim to the corners of this bathroom. WHY?! 

So when Spyman ripped out all that trim it damaged the walls. Before I can paint, I have to fix the walls. (Cry) luckily, the trim against the ceiling was done well so we are leaving it. It makes a nice little crown. It just needed a coat of paint and I will have to caulk it later.

Mudding isn't too hard. Just time consuming and since these walls aren't textured it's a perfectionists worst nightmare. Here's the key though. Lots of light coats!  Put a light coat on, about 2" wide, and let it dry. It's ok if it's not perfect!  That's what three more coats and sanding are for! Each coat should work out farther until you're 6-8" wide. 

Here's the middle coat (top half is only on its second coat) drying as we speak. I'll return to show you the finished product!

Also, since we added a new ceiling to the shower, we needed some nice corner trim to finish it off. Same idea...

Before

 

After (or in process actually) 

This Womans Work

As my husband and I were mixing concrete for our shower pan, (he did most of the mixing while I poured the pan and smoothed everything out) we started talking about women's work. Here's how the convo went down:

SpyMan: This is Womans work. (He was working pretty hard mixing the cement. Lol!)

Me: I don't think that this is what my grandmothers would have thought of as Womans work... But they're progressive ladies so I think they would approve. 

SpyMan: (gets thoughtful for a minute) I'm just trying to think what my grandmother would have thought. I think she would just be happy we are doing it together. 

And that, folks, is why I hit the husband jackpot!  He has had some good women raise him!  The bulk of this remodel falls to me.  But for the big jobs, we work side by side. We get our hands dirty and we talk and laugh (and get really pissed when something doesn't work out, or breaks, or falls on our foot). Womens work is whatever work a woman is doing. And I sure love working side by side with such a good man! And I KNOW all our grandmas would get on board with That! So here's a glimpse of our shower pan... It's so pretty!