The master bathroom is done and we're building Guest House!

It has been forever since my last update and the more time that goes by the more overwhelming it seems to update!  I'll try to just cover the highlights to keep it as short as I can.

First up, the master bathroom is finished.  Yeee-Haw!!! It's always super exciting to have a room completely done because that's only happened twice so far, lol!

It's been finished for a while now and I still haven't decorated or put anything over the toilet.  I'm thinking open shelves there for bath towels and as far as decorating goes it need some color but I kind of hate decorating with knick-knacks so I'll just live with it for a while longer like it is while I think about what I want.  

It's practically covered in small white tiles which even though they come in 12" x 12" sheets they're still quite fiddly and I'm pretty sure installing them had Jeff questioning his entire existence. Thankfully, he managed to endure to the end.  I tried to pick some classic designs that I won't hate in five or ten years but I think I'll have to quit Pinterest once the house is finished or the house will never be finished, if you know what I mean!

The shower doors were a steal we found in the returns at Lowe's which saved us 50%!  There wasn't anything wrong with them so we're thrilled to have gotten such a great deal.

Next up is the master bedroom and closet.  The bedroom is finished except for base trim and outlets but it has become our work room for the time being so it's a complete disaster right now.  We finally made a wood floor decision that I couldn't be happier with so I'll fill you in on that later.

The closet is a smallish 8' x 7' and will have a vanity in it with a gray granite counter that has little purple/amethyst color flecks all over it.  Jeff was surprised by my granite selection but I think it's girly which is perfect for a vanity.

We're almost done building all the shelves and drawers for it so hopefully it won't be long before we move into it.

Last, but definitely not least, we are building a guest house for my parents!  Actually, we hired a builder, Jeff Royer, to build it because we don't have time to do it ourselves and my parents are funding the whole project as their kind of retirement home away from home. They'll be keeping their house in town and visiting us more often here and there.

I had so much fun designing this house because it had to be small as it is sitting catty cornered to our house on our property and they had a list of desires that made it pretty challenging, like two bathrooms, a layout to possibly accommodate a baby grand piano, a tall wall of windows with view and all the full sized amenities of home all in under 800 square feet...and it has to be pretty!  I actually love design challenges with lots of boundaries and limitations because it requires so much more creativity to make it work than a blank slate where the sky's the limit.

We've been talking about getting them out here for the past few years and now that's it's actually happening we're all really excited.  They live less than an hour away (in the same house they've lived in for over 40 years) and they could have built a lake house or bought an RV and traveled the country or so many other really cool things, but the fact that they want to spend more time with us than any of those other things is pretty awesome.  They're living proof that people and relationships matter so much more than any other earthly possessions God gives us and it's worth the time and effort to always make the best of those relationships and really enjoy them!

This is such an exciting time for us so I'm going to try to start posting more often to stay on top of things but you can also follow me on Instagram where I post from time to time. Oh, and Jeff started vlogging on Youtube so you can catch up with us there too!  (That's a whole other story in itself!) Talk to you all again soon!

Galvanized corrugated metal shower surround Q & A

This post is way past due.  I've continued to receive lots of emails and a lot more visits to my piddly blog because of this one thing than I otherwise ever would have.  Jeff is no longer surprised when I call him at work for the answers to the questions people have for us and I'm very glad to do it because sometimes a tutorial just isn't enough and goodness knows I'm not the best tutorial maker/writer.

I'll go over the most common questions that people continue to ask about our galvanized corrugated metal shower surround (boy, that was a mouthful!)  The most common one is "How's it holding up?"

It's holding up great and we haven't had one single issue with the functionality of it.  The metal is galvanized and the screws are stainless steel so there's zero rust and the flashing and channeling are working like they should.  And remember, it's been our only shower for over three and a half years and there are seven of us so it gets used more than the average shower.

We have well water that is very hard and leaves mineral deposits on everything it touches if it isn't wiped up before it dries and I'm no Martha so my shower does gather mineral deposits...among other things.  The nice thing about the galvanized metal is it already has a mottled finish to it which does help conceal some of my inept housekeeping skills. 

When it was brand new it had a very shiny, mirror-like quality to it which is a bit more subtle now. (To see what it looked like over three years ago click here and here.)   However, it still looks good in my opinion.

This is what it looks like today.  This is the best I can do for a picture right now.  I've been crazy sick these last few days and the whole bathroom needs a good cleaning but I'm just too tired to and felt like blogging about it anyway.

That leads me to another common question, "How do you clean it?"  Because of the hard water I've used CLR on it several times which is pretty harsh stuff but said to be fine for occasional use on galvanized metal but my favorite cleaner (surprisingly to me) has become a half and half mixture of white vinegar and palm olive.  I fill a dish scrubber just like this one with the solution.  (Thank you pinterest and whoever came up with this brilliant idea in the first place!)

I have found it's best to clean it just after someone has use the shower, while the surround is still wet, rather than while I'm taking one, because it gives the vinegar more time to work on the mineral deposits before I rinse it off.

And the last question people commonly ask is, "Would you do it again?"  The answer is yes.  It's a unique look that we don't see everywhere, it would be so extremely easy to change if we ever get tired of it, and it was very affordable and easy to install.

Those are the most common questions I get and thought it was worth sharing.  If anyone ever has more questions don't hesitate to leave it in the comments or email me.

   

Bathroom update

Where do I begin...
My bathroom is still coming along, just a lot slower now.  Remember I said that would most likely happen. 
Now we've decided that rather than finishing an entire project we prefer starting as many projects as we can and then run around in circles adding a little here and there to each one in a chaotic manner.  It just makes sense.  We like to call it circuit building and circuit decorating.  We got the idea from circuit training which works so well on getting into good physical shape, we thought we'd apply it to our house too because what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Back to my bathroom.  The kids fear I've gone a little ruffle crazy and Jeff says he likes it.  He knows who butters his bread.  Anyway, here's my latest ruffled project.

Disregard the unfinished yada, yada and blah, blah, blah.  We're busy.

I made these the same way I made the pillows.

Now, if you like it but you'd rather buy one, how about this one from Anthropologie for only $98.

Or this one from Target for only $26.99.

It is very similar to the one used in my bathroom inspiration picture from Country Living.

After rubbing the fingerprints right off my fingers making what few ruffles I did, I would recommend buying one.  Those of you who've ever made ruffles know what I'm talking about. 

Speaking of my fingerprintless, delicate little fingers...they're also now covered in blisters and calluses because I shoveled 9,000 pounds of concrete making a concrete floor for our well house turned tornado shelter. 

Yes I did.

Upcoming features:

1950's oven (to be finished today,)

more pillows

tornado shelter,

light fixtures, 

gardening

and quite possibly, none of the above. 

For more great ideas, please visit:

Pine wood floors in the bathroom

Aside from a few necessary projects here and there, we've decided to focus on one room at a time.  It's a way to get quicker gratification which is motivation for us to keep going.  Within a couple of weeks of moving into our very much unfinished cottage, we started to feel pretty overwhelmed at all of the work left to do.  Because we need showers and other fully functional bathroom plumbing more than we need to eat, we decided to try to finish the bathroom before any of the other rooms including the kitchen.  We've done a few things along the way, all over the house, like a kitchen sink and dishwasher, but our main focus is going to be the bathroom.  Now that I've announced that to the world, the bathroom is most likely fixing to come to a screeching halt.  That seems to be how it usually goes.  Murphy's law.

Jeff finished the shower surround last weekend and then, within just a couple of hours, he laid the pine wood floor too!  We decided to go with pine for a few reasons.  All of them good.

First thing we did was get down a half a dozen 1"x12"x14' boards from our stash upstairs and take them outside where Jeff began bossing me around yelling things like, "You grab that end of the stack and lets carry them waaaaayyyy, way, over to the barn!"  Then he snorted, "What do you mean they're too heavy?!"  Followed by, "One at a time?!" Then he hefted them down the hill all by himself while I followed him to the barn and gently reminded him that he married a woman, not a man, and he might as well have asked me to hold a car up while he changed a tire real quick and that he was eventually going to be the death of me and that sometimes I wonder if he wished I were a man so he could yell out crazy demands at me that wouldn't sometimes make me cry like, "I need the wrench, those are curved-jaw pliers" because how would he feel if I asked him to pass me my egg beaters and he handed me a whisk.  I wouldn't say anything to him, I'd just improvise, make do and just appreciate that he was helping me.  Then I told him that I was going to tell everyone in blogland how mean and bossy he could be and then everyone would find out what he was really like.  Then I asked him nicely to hold still while I took his picture. 

 

He's so sweet. 

As I mentioned earlier, these boards are 1x12's but actually they're more like less than 1 by11 1/4's.   We wanted various widths of boards so we cut about two thirds of the boards into roughly 7" and 4" wide strips and the other third of the boards, we cut down the middle to make them roughly 5 1/2" wide.

Then Jeff cut out the knot holes and any knots that looked like they would be a problem for us down the road.  This also gave us varied lengths to work with which adds to the look and texture of the finished floor.

Normally he would have used the chop saw for this, but it was extremely cold outside and Jeff has a very steady hand so they all turned out straight anyway.

Once he got them cut, he began laying them down and nailing them in.  Precisely cut lengths were not necessary on all of the boards because most of them end under the tub and will eventually be covered.

We have radiant floor heat so he had to choose a nail length that wouldn't go through the subfloor and pierce any of the water filled pex tubing.   I'll have to do a post about our radiant floor heating system sometime.  I know that sounds boring but I'm sure there are a few people who might be curious about it and it is WONDERFUL! 

Now it's ready for stain.

We chose Minwax Early American.  It's brown.  Not reddish or yellowish brown, just brown.

Then a day later we sealed it.  Because pine is so soft we went with a low gloss, penetrating sealer.

And here it is.  It's a bad picture but all my pictures are bad, I assume you're used to it by now.

The room still has a ways to go, but we took some big leaps towards the finish line last weekend.

Bath surround is done!

Country Living

Isn't this a beautiful bathroom?  I love the creative use of the fireplace mantel and all of the painted pressed tin.  I had an antique claw foot tub once.  I love how romantic they look.  Look being the operative word.  They really are made to only fit one adult person at a time.  That's fine though.  I'm more of a shower person.  Also preferably one person at a time.  Sorry shnookums.  (Don't feel bad for him...we have five kids (although he would say we have a one-hundred percent success rate.  Ha!))  That's my V-Day contribution.

Moving on... 

 Country Living

I also ♥love♥ this blue cabinet.  We're currently making due by using a couple of bookcases for bathroom storage, but we designed it to be deep enough to hold a piece of storage style furniture.  While looking for more inspiration I came across Car Moebel, a German furniture and housewares company.  It was filled with eye candy!  Here's a little sample of what I found there.

I'd gladly put anyone of these pieces in my bathroom.
  Look at some of the other beautiful things they sell.

These things make me even more eager for Spring.

Mm, mm, mm.

Jeff finished the surround last night by making a hole with a hole saw for the shower faucet and caulking everything in.

Now guess what he's working on right now.  The floor!  We're going with a wood floor in there and I'll be sharing that with you all soon.

Be sure to visit The Inspired Room to see some great inspiration!

Galvanized corrugated metal shower surround

Update:  Please click here for more information about our shower surround.


We started our shower surround project a while back but Jeff decided he wanted to redo it. He's a perfectionist which translates into, "Let's do this as many times as we can."

Actually, he decided to add flashing in the corners to help protect the pine from the water. We wouldn't want water to get behind the metal and start growing mold. No, no, no. So, we took down what we had up and started over.

First we cut strips of this white pvc wood trim to fit around the perimeter of the tub.  We cut it to also fit the depth of z channel. 

This is the z channel.  It will sit on top of the plastic wood trim and work as a water barrier.

Now for the flashing.  We didn't use actual flashing, but roof ridge left over from our roof.  Jeff just bent it into a 90° with his big ol' man hands and cut off that rippled piece on the edges with tin snips.

Then he screwed them up to the wall with stainless steel screws.

Now, as we speak, he's screwing up panels of galvanized corrugated metal.  It looks like it's going to get finished sometime today so now I need a pretty shower curtain and a light fixture and we need finish the front of the tub (it's still completely open) and then we need to etc etc...it just never ends, does it?

I'll show you the finished results in sometime in the next couple of days.

Check out Make your Monday at Twice Remembered Cottage.
                 Metamorphasis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Corrugated metal in the bathroom

Are you all sick of seeing these picture yet?  Sorry.   

It seems like we're settling into a groove of one, maybe one and a half projects, somewhat finished per weekend.  Last weekend it was hanging this light.

(Thank you Reggie!)

Here's what our shower looks like right now.  I'm hoping that this is the project that gets somewhat finished this weekend.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Budget wise, this has been our slimmest week yet, but things should start to level out for us pretty soon and spring is right around the corner (I hope!) so I can start opening up some paint cans.  I have too many brains that are still developing around here to do any painting until I can open up the windows.

Budget Wrap Up

These are our last five days for working on the house before we move in.  Our plans on what we want to have done before then have been constantly changing.  Now, however, it's all being finalized and strictly directed by our last $2,500.  I'm sure you're all curious how much everything has cost us to date.  So am I.  Let's get out a pen and paper and see what we can figure out.  Here's a list of the funds we used to build the house:  $15,000 inheritance from grandma Jones and $6,500 in good old credit cards, totaling $21,500.  Then there's the $31,500 loan for the land.  That gives us a grand total of $53,000.

For the house itself, we originally planned on spending only $15,000 but that meant doing without things like interior walls, a second floor bathroom (or at least part of one) and going with sheetrock on the walls instead of pine planks.  It also didn't include purchasing all of our windows and doors upfront or unexpected expenses like upgrading the electrical wiring, well pump, and well house.  We also included in the house budget:  utilities (electricity only), monthly land payments, and the gas money to drive to and from the project all for the past six months.  This totaled approximately $3,200.  Jeff may have a few corrections to make to this little improv list but, more or less, I think that about covers it.

Take a look here to see what our initial plan was. 
http://cottagedreamers.blogspot.com/2009/08/phase-one.html

I think we've managed to come out ahead, depending on how you look at it.  Yes, we went over our $15,000 budget and now we have credit card debt, BUT, the house is much closer to completion and our overall debt is being so greatly reduced that it's worth it. ($31,500 for land plus $6,500 credit card = $38,000 debt versus the balance of our current mortgage of $104,000 means a reduction of $66,000 of debt!!!)  The credit card debt should be easy enough to pay back quickly and the money for the rest of the work we need to do to finish the house will come from our own pockets as we can afford it.  We're so close to the end of the line time wise as well as financially that at this point I may not have kitchen cabinets.  If I do, we'll only get lower cabinets to begin with and the temporary counter tops will be made of plywood until spring or summer when we can do our concrete counter tops.  This is no big deal to me, I'm just ready to move in.  Plus, I've lived in a house without a kitchen before (for four months, no less!)  At this point, we'll only have a toilet upstairs without walls or anything.  Don't worry, the downstairs bathroom will have everything plus walls, except the door.  (Visitors beware, but feel free to use our bucket in the woods!)  The main deal with that is, with so many girls in the house, we must have more than one toilet!  Having the toilet out there in the open will only push us to get the upstairs finished all the sooner, hopefully!  For the time being, my floors throughout the house will be painted advantech flooring, unsanded.  There just isn't enough time to sand them.  Which reminds me, yesterday, our friend Chad Miller (not to be confused with Chad, the doctor's husband) and his father-in-law, Sid, helped Jeff all day on the house.  Chad Miller also talked Jeff into painting the walls and ceilings before we move in instead of after.  (Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!)  AND, we've never even met Chad Miller's father-in-law before.  He just came to help out of the kindness of his heart!  (Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!)  Sid also works for a local cabinet company and took measurements of our kitchen to see what he can find for us for cabinets when we're ready.  I've been amazed at how kind and helpful people have been throughout this whole process!

Anyway, back to our haves and have-nots.  The second floor will not be anywhere near finished when we move in.  There won't be any bedrooms or walls yet.  But, like I said earlier, there will be a toilet up there.  The end.  Oh, and a hot water heater.  The end. We have interior doors but, for the sake of time, they probably won't be installed until sometime after we move in.  We won't have all of our light fixtures right away, but I have lots of lamps.  The fireplace flue will cost another $1,000 so that will have to wait but we only had to pay $320.00 for a never before used, pre-owned fireplace that had a retail price of $2,000.  We don't have exterior siding on the house but we have most of the materials already (our privacy fence pickets!)  There will still be a lot of work to do once we've moved in, but the biggest hurdles will all be behind us.  I consider myself blessed and my "haves" list the winner.

P.S.  Bathroom update.  I said, not too long ago, that we were going to hang sheetrock in the bathroom, but we decided to do the pine wood in there too. 

We'll primer and paint the wood, as well as, caulk between them to try to keep moisture out.  Then for the bathtub surround, we're planning to use corrugated metal like someone did in this bathroom:

Courtesy of Country Living