the family reunion

John and I spent the weekend in Nashville for his big family reunion. The weather was H-O-T and I mean hot, but time with this crowd is few and far between.

 John's first cousins are spread out all over the southeast. Rare treat to all be together. What a fun weekend!

delight

If you have ever wondered what the happiest woman on the Earth looks like. This.Is.IT

What a gift to have a front row seat to watch this Grandmother so in love.

Waving to boats. swinging. good afternoon nap

bathroom before...part 2

drum roll please.....

are you ready to see the AFTER!?!

ha! me too.

The bathroom project continues! John and I removed all of the tile from our tub surround and bathroom floor. We were anxious to see what kind of damage we were going to have to repair. Much to our surprise the faucet wall, (where we thought the most damage would be) was actually in the best shape, but the back wall left lots to be desired.

Since our plan was to tile all the way to the ceiling, and there was water damage, we decided to remove all of the drywall and replaced any insulation with mold or mildew. Holmes would NOT have approved of the original install!

Tearing things apart is much more fun than putting it back together! Actually, we knew almost nothing about re-tiling our bathroom.  My generous in-laws kindly offered to come help us put our little humpty dumpty back together again. Luckily for us, John's dad is a tile expert! Expertise, help, and great tools were just what we needed.

John and I worked and worked in hopes of getting everything prepped for the tile, but sadly when his parents arrived this is what our tub surround looked like.

Late Friday night John and I took a little detour from our itinerary and broke down at Home Depot. We had a cart full of supplies as well as another rolling cart full of seven pieces of backer board. You learn who your good friends are when you call them late on a Friday night to pick you (and ALL of your supplies!) up! THANK YOU WHEELER! Luckily, just a dead battery, but needless to say that changed our time frame a little bit. AND we learned early the next morning that you can't get in to John's trunk with out the beep beep (like that technical term?) seriously, jeep, put a key hole on the trunk!

Now, for the tile. It was a steal of a deal. Seriously. So low budget it fit in ours. Remember the pig? Not dream tile, but this was clearance material that a client bought and did not need all of it. Since it was clearance it could not be returned, so I bought it from the client. Win win for us both!
 
Wish I had a picture of the two Johns hard at work or meticulously laying out their game plan, but unfortunately(ha!) Jenny and I set out for a day of shopping and fun. Pretty great deal if you ask me!

Progress day one...

progress day 2...

learning from the best, John was able to do this fancy work around our toilet

The floor was complete and the tub surround brought nothing but headaches. They got most of the hardibacker installed, but were worried about the bend in the pipe and thought it would be best to call in a professional. I quickly agreed because the alternative could mean no water in our house. I think you all know how I feel about places with out bathrooms.

Thank you Jenny and John for all of your help AND a wonderful weekend!!

...to be continued

'til the cow comes home

Several months ago when I went to Scott's I fell in love with a cow. Not an actual cow, but an incredible oil painting. Love at first site. Sadly, the beautiful painting was out of my budget and did not get to come home with me.
Last year, House Beautiful featured an awesome home in Texas which featured none other, than a COW as the show stopper above the mantle.

Months past and I still have not forgotten about the cows.

The painting, Gorgeous Grace, by Linda St. Clair.

This weekend I decided I would attempt to paint my own cow inspired by the image in House Beautiful. Random? yes. But when you suffer from bathroom renovation project A.D.D the only solution is to paint a cow. After our morning coffee, I looked at John and said "well...I think I need to paint a cow today". Yet another reason why I love him. His response, "Absolutely". 

To me, the tricky part about painting something yourself is knowing when to stop. I reach a point that I feel like I'm one brush stroke away from disaster...or masterpiece. I just don't know when to quit. She is not perfect by any stretch, but she IS a cow. What do you think?

***after seeing a picture of this painting, I feel like I need to move the eyes down just a little bit. what do you think? agree? or NOT worth it?

the vampires made me do it

they made me stay up. all. night. long.
Do I like vampires? Nope. Werewolves? Nope.

...movies?! not really.

BUT, I do love the excitement, the hype, the fellowship, and even the mile long line of teenage girls anxiously waiting to support their "team". Kind of gives you that "day after Thanksgiving early bird special sale" rush. Fun to be out with all the crazies! I'm proud to call some of these crazies my dear friends.

Plus, who could pass up the opportunity for some teen beat worthy paper goods?!

Apparently, not me.

He cares.

He is in control.

He is the provider.

I have a great big god who is in the business of details.

I want to share a little story, not to boast or broadcast details of our finances, but instead share what I believe to be another little detail He provides to let us know how much we are loved.

John and I have been expecting a check out side of our monthly earnings. My wheels have been spinning like crazy as to the best use of this money. Now, I have NO trouble at all spending money, but there are several different directions that would be beneficial, productive, or necessary for the money to be allocated.

We are not talking about a huge sum by any means. Again, this is about the details.

As I waited on the check, honestly I started to get stressed. Naturally, I think I can control. That I must account for everything on my list for it to all balance in the end. That I have provided this money. Did I pray about how He would have us use the money? Sadly, I only found myself praying for it to arrive!

So wrong.

Life happens and stuff is not always as we plan. Not always an earth shattering detour, sometimes as simple as dead car batteries and extra bills, but "the list" does not always balance.

John and I finally made our game plan as to what we thought would be best to do with our check. I made the deposit, took out cash set aside to complete our project, transferred money a few places. Still stressed forgetting that I am not in control. I was stressed I wasn't getting to "mark off" as much off of my original list and resided to the fact that it did not all balance. Maybe next month. The last major thing we needed to pay was our car tags, both due at the end of this month. I felt confident that the money would have to come from some where else even though I originally hoped otherwise.

John and I discussed all the amounts of money being shifted around in cyber space and he was planning to handle car tags right after work. Flustered, I told him he would probably have to transfer other money etc etc and that after it was all said and done $224.32 would be deposited in to our checking account.

$224.32

John called with a chuckle yesterday afternoon when he processed the car tags.

Totalling $224.06

I take comfort knowing He cares about details. Details SO small as my little checking account. Not only does He provide, but He provides abundantly. No, .26 cents is not what I would call an abundance. But there is such a parallel to our lives. He knows our needs, and even when we think we are in control, how wonderful to know He fills them. perfectly. What a reminder of the great big god we serve.

bathroom before...part 1

Shortly after my last post, John and I started a little bathroom "update". This project to me is honestly kind of like playing dress up with a pig. You can fluff and add a little sparkle, but at the end of the day...it is still a pig. Meaning this isn't my dream bath and the "after bath" won't be either. We aren't dealing with dream spaces, or dream budgets, but it sure is fun putting our own little spin on the place we call home.

Sounds ungrateful. Not my intention. I love my house. I am thankful for my house. BUT it is nothing like I imagined myself living in. I'm not much of a cookie cutter "pop-up" house kind of girl, but you've got to start somewhere, and I'm very thankful I got to start here.

I need to find some pictures from when we first bought our house to give you full appreciation for our progress. Y'all know me. I am impatient and impulsive when it comes to my home (and probably everything else). Sadly, I did not photograph the native men and their palm trees (no kidding) on the wallpaper the day I painted over them with left over paint from our living room. The cabinets were builder white with your good ol' contractor special brass pulls.

SO, all that said, before these "before" pictures I haphazardly painted the wallpaper (gasp! oh the shame) with left over paint (you wouldn't want the natives watching you either!), painted the vanity and replaced the knobs to update just a t-tiny bit. Probably not my best idea to post a project that is not yet complete, but surely it will all come together and there will actually be an "after" post to share.

We don't do much entertaining in our bathroom, so odds are you've probably never seen it. Come on in and take a look. You'll be greeted with this B-E-A-U-TIFUL berber carpet. This carpet isn't my favorite (that is another post) but honestly, I just don't understand who had the grand idea of incorporating carpet in to the bathroom. It has seen its day, tattered and torn. This picture really gives it a little more credit than it deserves.

Look at the breathtaking light fixtures above our gi-normous mirror. In all its flower etched, brass glory. We were the proud owners of two of these fixtures and I am pretty sure in the almost four years we have lived here only one of the fixtures actually worked. The dark walls + lights that don't work = not ideal.

disclaimer: this picture wasn't taken until after the demo was well under way = LOTS of dust

Now, to give you a feel for the space this is looking down the room with the vanity now behind you. You entered to the left and the bathtub is to your right. The doors painted the same as the vanity and the lone brass knob. Again. Years. One knob. Easy fix..but SO easy to put off replacing.

The most annoying part of this bathroom is the TILE. Yes I sell tile. I enjoy pretty things, but anyone could tell you this wasn't quite right. Again, builder grade. White matte 6"x6". We can deal. We knew what we were getting in to buying our house...but I would like to shake the hand of the man that grouted our tile. Maybe he ran out of grout and opted for the near by toothpaste? Annoying. BOTH of our bathrooms look this good. Jealous? And, you would think I would be just the one to tell you how to get your grout clean. (enter "get grout clean" joke here) but no luck. It always looked yucky.

NOW, for the real reason this project transformed from a "want" to a "need". The darling hubs fell while showering one morning. Funny. You can laugh. Only now that we know he is okay. Seriously, I thought he died. Not kidding. But thank God he did not. He fought the faucet and he won. The faucet (and the tile around it) were now crooked and broken. Livable yes. But we just knew water was pouring down the wall when this lovely spot started to appear.

There you have it. Vanity, carpet, tile, damaged wall. Our luxurious master bath in a nut shell. So, we did one any impatient and impulsive person would do, and got out our tools. Should have taken a picture of us in our his and hers safety goggles, earplugs and gloves.

Step one! NO MORE CARPET!

Step 2: No more tile! (fear the man feet that destroyed lots of it!)

Sweet Atticus Essig had the honor of being a house guest during all the noise, destruction and chaos. I'm sure he went home and told his mom and dad about how crazy we are. We tried to put him to work, but he just cheered us on from the cold concrete slab.

To be continued... I sure do hope there is progress to show you soon!!