Bathroom

Did you get tired of waiting? I did. I figured that the bathroom might not ever get completely finished, so I should go ahead and post about it. It looks finished in the pictures (unless you look very closely). There is just some touch-up painting and a few pieces of trim to put up. Otherwise, it's great and I love it!

Here's looking into the bathroom before.
The sink was directly to the left of the door, with the water heater next to it in the corner. The toilet was across from the water heater. The bathtub was straight inside the door.

Here's another shot looking at the corner of the bathroom. You can see the cabinets hanging above the toilet. This was basically the only storage in the bathroom.

This is another shot of the bathtub.


You can't see the floor very well in any of these pictures, but it was a cheap blue linoleum. It was coming up in most parts and just looked nasty, regardless of how much I cleaned it. The paneling was white with pink and blue flowers.

And looking into the bathroom now:
This technically is looking towards the back corner where the bathtub was before. We put up white beadboard about 5 feet up and painted the rest a smokey blue color. Because the bathroom is so small, we decided to go with a pedestal sink. I love the glass shelf above the sink! The toilet is directly in front of the door and the window is in the same place as before. The hardwood floor is the same as what we put in the laundry room.

Another shot looking towards where the toilet, water heater, and sink were before:
As you know, the bathtub was in the bathroom before. We did buy an attachment to make it into a shower also. The shower curtain was a bit of a splurge, but we had trouble finding one that Chris and I both liked.

For storage, Chris found this piece at a used furniture store. It was an antique white color, but I painted it bright white. It works really well in the bathroom. It's to the left as you walk in the door, across from the sink. (So, if you're standing at the sink, the cabinet is to your back.)
And that's the new bathroom, folks!

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Decorating on a Budget

Slowly but surely, we're pulling our belongings out of storage. A couple of weeks ago we got out most of our home decor items and went to work decorating the house.

One of my favorite decorative items are these apothecary jars. My lovely husband purchased the biggest two for me on a preaching trip a while back. I picked up the medium-sized one at Old Time Pottery and the small one was here at Grandma's house.


I kind of liked the way they looked empty on top of the TV, but Chris thought they were too boring. We've had them filled with fruit, pine cones, Christmas ornaments, acorns, and other various decorative items according to the season. However, I wanted to try something new.

I headed to my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and Michaels and gathered the necessary materials. For less than $20, we now have filled jars!

The little jar has sea shells that I bought at Dollar General for $1 for a big bag. The medium jar is some moss and painted eggs. I bought the moss at Dollar General for $1 and the eggs came from Hobby Lobby for 3 for $1. I'm not entirely happy with the way the eggs turned out. The paint color I chose was a little off and the eggs were a bit bigger than I wanted, but I might change them out in the future. The other medium/large jar has plastic pears. These were on clearance at Hobby Lobby for around $5 (I lost my receipt and can't remember exactly.)

The biggest jar is filled with paper-covered balls that I made. I recently made some and sent to a friend for her birthday. After a vague and apparently intriguing post, some have asked about how I made them.

Paper-Covered Ball Tutorial

First, you need a ball for the base. I found these raffia balls at Dollar Tree (8 for $1), but you could also use Styrofoam balls.

Next, you need some scrapbook paper cut in strips. I used 4 strips that were 1 1/2" x 5" and 4 strips that were 1" x 5". (Note: Mine are different lengths in this picture because I was using scraps.)

Start gluing the paper onto the ball, starting with the 1 1/2" strips. Using hot glue on one end of the strip, stick in the center of the top of the ball.
Glue another 1 1/2" strip touching it.
Wrap the strips around to the bottom of the ball and glue both ends.
Repeat with the other two 1 1/2" strips going the opposite direction.

Now you will have little gaps between the strips.

(Sorry for the blurry picture. I was trying to move quickly.)

This is when you use the 1" strips, following the same procedure.
Sometimes the gaps are wider than the paper. If this happens, you just have to get over your OCD tendencies and embrace the uniqueness.
Once you are finished, you will have a pretty paper-covered ball (and probably a few burn marks from the hot glue)!

Just to sum it all up and emphasize how easy this project is, these are the only materials you will need for this project!


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Menu Planning Monday

A lot of the blogs I read participate in Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm An Organizing Junkie. I thought I would join in the fun!


Monday: Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, carrots

Tuesday: Mexican casserole, refried beans, chips & salsa (homemade salsa from our neighbor...it's yummy!)

Wednesday: Grilled pork chops, grilled potatoes, spinach

Thursday: Smothered Chicken Yumminess (Named by yours truly), rice, broccoli

Friday: Ham Steak Kabobs, corn

A Girls' Weekend

This past weekend our niece came to stay with me and Grandma. Chris had to go out of town for a preaching appointment, so we took the opportunity to have a Girls' Weekend. It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted by Sunday afternoon! Katelynn is a sweet girl with A LOT of energy!

Saturday morning we took a trip to Target. Uncle Chris had asked her to do some chores for him in the morning and she earned $4! She couldn't wait to spend it! We loaded Grandma up and took a trip to Target. It was quite a lesson that all the "good stuff" costs a lot of money!

Once we got home, we painted this little wall hanging that I found on clearance at Michaels. We took turns painting and I helped her with all the 'hard' parts.


I think it turned out quite cute! She was very excited to hang it in her bedroom!

After we were done painting, Katelynn wanted to help make supper. She wanted to make it all by herself, but needed a little help with the oven. Here she is making a surprise appetizer... skewered hot dog bites with cheese! YUM!



She even decorated the table for us! Here's the yummy spread. Hot dog kabobs, Doritos and cheese, pepperoni pizza, chocolate chip cookies, and cherry kool-aid. It was quite the gourmet meal!



After we cleaned up from supper, she wanted to give me a make-over so I could look younger. I pulled out the make up and hair accessories and she went to work. After she got done, she wanted me to make her look older.



When we were both done, we tried to take a picture of us together. It was kind of difficult!



We spent the rest of the evening watching the movie "Princess Protection Program." Sunday morning we went to church. She was very good at church and even got really excited when we sang "Amazing Grace," because she knew some of the words. After church was over Katelynn said, "I want to come to church with you again. Your church is fun!" It was cute!

We had a fun weekend together! I meant to get some pictures of Katelynn and Grandma together, but never did. :( Here's a sweet picture of Grandma with Wesley. She likes to have him get in her lap so she can talk to him. It's so sweet!

It's almost done...

The laundry room is very close to being finished. We just have to put up trim and do some decorating things. I absolutely LOVE the color! We decided to go with aqua instead of yellow. The aqua was going to be for the bathroom, but we decided to go with a different look for the bathroom.

Here is a before shot of the laundry room. This is what you saw standing at the door into the laundry room. It was a mess! I certainly was not motivated to be in here for longer than 2.1 seconds.


And now from the same spot....Ahhhhhh, much better!

The "laundry" sign is going to be hung on the wall eventually. On the far left you can see the water heater closet Chris built. The water heater previously took up residence in the bathroom. This is a much better place for it. We still need to put the door on the closet though.

Next is a before shot standing in the back corner of the room, looking toward the back door.

An after shot from the same spot....

It is so much more organized! The cabinets came out of the bathroom. They are kind of a dingy white right now, but I'm going to paint them bright white. The trashcan is an old one Grandma had and I spray painted it red. (Don't you love the Diet Coke box sticking out? A common sight in the Crouse House!)

The new back door is one of my favorite things about the new laundry room. It lets in so much more light!

Another before shot standing at the back door and looking across the laundry room.


Once again, you can see that it was basically a catch-all room. I'm determined to keep it more organized now!

And now.....

This is from the same spot, but focused more towards the back wall. You can really see the new hardwood floors in this picture. They are great! They were "free" because they were left over from a job Chris recently finished.


This beautiful room makes me want to do laundry more often! I can't wait to get all the finishing touches done and really enjoy it!

Update

We have walls....and a floor!


I put on my painting clothes today and will get started on that as soon as the mud dries. We're getting so close to being done!

Bathtub Facelift

We are going to reuse the old clawfoot tub that has been in the bathroom forever. It's in really good shape and I love the look of it. It just needed a little bit of a face lift.

Before:

So, with the help of a few cans of spray paint, I think it's looking much better! I can't wait to get it in place and hook the faucet and shower component to it!

After:

I don't know why, but this picture cracks me up!

Bathroom and Laundry Room Renovation Update

We've been working hard for the past 4 days on renovating the bathroom and laundry room. Well, Chris has been working hard and I'm just around to offer assistance when needed and keep the dog occupied.

All in all, things are going pretty well. Some things are taking longer than expected, but we're still on target to be finished this weekend.

Friday we spent tearing out the laundry room. Saturday we ripped the bathroom apart. We had to take the floors all the way out due to rotted floors. On Sunday Chris worked on leveling the house. Monday he finished the leveling and worked on the plumbing. Today he worked on the plumbing some more.

The hardware stores have become a home away from home for us! If I count correctly, we've made 7 trips to Lowe's, 1 trip to Home Depot, and 5 trips to the local grocery/carry-all store (ironically also called Lowe's).

Here are a few pictures to show the progress:

Laundry Room Before & Now

This is looking into the laundry room. The only big difference in there right now is that Chris built a closet for the water heater. It was in the bathroom taking up a lot of room. We also ripped the floor down to the plywood in the laundry room to prepare for new flooring.

Bathroom Before & Now:

This is looking into the bathroom. As you can see, it doesn't exactly resemble a bathroom right now. The floors were ripped out down to the joists. The picture above was actually taken on Saturday. The picture below is a current picture of the bathroom. It was taken from outside. Chris ripped part of the wall out where the window was. Now we have a walk-in bathroom!


Parts of our bathroom have taken up residence in the yard. Very classy!


This is a picture to show you just how badly the house needed leveling. This is right outside the laundry room. See those two pieces of wood on top of that cinder block? Those weren't there before. That beam was about 4 inches off the cinder block. This happens to be where the washing machine was located. So, every time we washed a load of laundry, the washing machine would go to bouncing and making all kinds of racket! Thankfully that has been fixed!



Here's another sneak peek at something I've been working on for the laundry room!

Laundry Room Remodeling

Well, the remodeling in our house is about to begin. First up is the bathroom and laundry room. Laundry isn't the most exciting thing in the world, so I would like to have an inspiring, cheerful, and happy room in which to do this needed task. I spend a lot (ok, maybe a little too much) time reading crafting blogs. This has actually proven to be quite useful because I come up with a lot of inspiration. Today I'm going to share with you some dreams I have for my laundry room.

Photo courtesy of: A Scrapbook of Me

Ok, let me wipe the drool off my chin.....What do I love about this laundry room?

1. Look at that washer and dryer. I have a unhealthy affection for those. However, they're a little beyond our budget right now. I need to keep saving my pennies.

2. Moving past the washer and dryer. I LOVE those jars on the counter. We don't use powder laundry detergent, but I'm considering buying some just to set out in a jar. Is that ridiculous? And the clothespins...how adorable!

3. I would love to have enough room for a little folding area. This picnic table is very cute, but we don't have nearly enough room!

4. I also love how light and airy this room looks.

Photo courtesy of: A Scrapbook of Me

This is a bit of a different look. Not as light and airy, but VERY cute! Here's what I love about this:

1. That sink is awesome. I love the pop of color with the painted legs. And the faucet in the wall....very attractive!

2. I like the beadboard. We're planning to have beadboard in the bathroom and maybe a few other places in the house, so we'll probably skip on the laundry room.

3. I love letters and monograms used for decorating. This could be another way to bring in a pop of color.

Photo courtesy of: Torie Jane

Ok, this isn't a picture of a laundry room, but how adorable is this!?! I want one. It would look so cute on a little shelf in the laundry room. Plus, having all my housekeeping supplies organized in a cute little bucket like that might inspire me to do a better job with the housekeeping...maybe.

Photo courtesy of: kevinandamanda.com

1. I love baskets. I really like for things to be organized and what better way than with cute baskets!

2. Two words: washer. dryer.

3. I like the bright paint choice. We're going to do a cheery yellow color in ours.

4. Cabinets above the washer and dryer. Storage is always useful.

Photo courtesy of: Centsational Girl

1. I love that chandelier! It just makes the room fun and whimsical!

2. We have one window in the laundry room and I'm hoping to make a cute little curtain for it. I like this style. I want fabric with a little pattern to it.

3. The rug really anchors the whole room. It adds an extra layer and pop of color to the room.

Ok...let's snap back to reality. It's fun to dream and plan! Do you have dreams for a laundry room? Share your ideas and thoughts!

Stay tuned for pictures of how our laundry room remodel actually turns out!