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!

Measurements anyone?

I feel a little bit giddy inside over this latest DIY.  I've seen these all over Pinterest!  And to me, it seems so useful for two reasons...

A:  I don't know about anyone else but I have a toddler who loves to get into my miscellaneous kitchen drawer and play with my baster and measuring cups. She's cute and staying away from things in my kitchen that would kill her, so I let her and just wash them a million times. But she also loses things sometimes. Which means I have three sets of measuring cups and spoons and none of them are complete... AND... I don't even have ONE 1/4 tsp!

B:  I always find myself thinking, "how many tablespoons are in a 1/4 cup? Can't I just do 1/4 cup?!"  (And yes... I know that somehow I lost an "S".  It's in the works)

Wonder no more!!! I have a delightful friend who just happens to be able to do anything... Even cut vinyl! Add that to world markets beautiful and affordable measuring cups and spoons, some hooks... And we have THIS beautiful masterpiece!

Let's just look at it for a moment...  It's so pretty!

.........

Thanks for humoring me. 😜

I used some command hooks for the cups but they didn't work for the spoons so I had to break out some tiny little hooks.  I actually might replace the command hooks. The real hooks look so much nicer!

Ghetto sewing trick

I'm not a precise seamstress. I hate patterns and I don't always follow the rules. But I have been sewing a long time (since I was about 8) and I have a few tricks up my proverbial sleeve... This is one of my faves!

When unpicking a seam you inevitably have all these little stray threads torturing you!  I hate them. I used to just leave them instead of picking all the stupid little buggars out. Which takes a million years. 

Until... Drumroll please... This is big...

The lint roller!!!

(If you thought of this 10 years ago, don't tell me. 😜)

Roll it over your picked out seam...

Viola!!! No more million tiny threads! And it takes about a minute. Sigh... It's the little things. Am I right?!

Hanging a Skateboard

Having a tween (man I really HATE that word!) makes decorating this room a challenge. He has an opinion and I want it to be something he can grow into. Enter, useful decor!  I've incorporated a few items that he uses as decor. One of them is the new skateboard he got for Christmas!  

This is an easy-peasy project!  Use a hack saw, or really whatever saw you want, to cut some PVC pipe in half and hang the two halves on the wall with some screws and wall anchors. 

Then just set the skateboard in the new "hangers". 

LOVE it!