Sorry It’s Been So Long

I just wanted to give you all an update on what has been going on in our lives.  We have been married over four months now, and I have to say I feel no different.  Well, other than going through the dreaded process of changing my name on everything, which still isn’t completely done.  I told myself that the last two times would be my last.  the first time I got married it was going to be forever…wasn’t going to go through what my parents did.  Got divorced, and vowed to never get married again.  Then my knight in shining armor appeared out of the blue, and that he is.  Well, except for getting that wedding video edited and downloaded so I could share it with you all like I said I would.   No really, he really is a great companion, father, and handyman.  What more can you really ask for?  Anyhow, we have been doing all the things that married people do, as we were before we even made the big move.  Below is a wedding day picture I drew of us.

Recently, our big project has been the remodel of the bathroom.  The paint on the ceiling and wallpaper on the walls had been peeling pretty much since I shortly moved in here, and everything was really outdated but we were putting things off until we had the extra cash around to remodel.  That was until the sink stopped up.  I made my handyman aware of this and as usual, he immediately went to the sink and took the pipes apart ready to clear out another clog.  Well, there wasn’t a clog there…turns out that there was a bunch of back-up (which now explains the slight odor coming from the sink) that was a result of the drain pipe that goes down through the floor and to the basement being corroded and rusted out, I guess.  My handyman knows all the details.  This required taking the sink out to get the problem fixed. And, this in turn started our bathroom project a little sooner than expected.  Since we were taking the old sink out, we should go ahead and put the sink that mom and Bruce were going to give us from their bathroom (they will soon be doing a remodel as well) in it’s place.  And, since we had to do this, we might as well replace the crappy stained linoleum.  Heck, why don’t we just go ahead and finish taking all the wallpaper and tiles off the wall, repaint, and put up the wall paneling up that I have been wanting in the tile’s place.  Oh wait, if we do this the shower surround will look like crap since it is all yellowed from age and the paneling will be white.  And the old cracked fluorescent light above the medicine cabinet really needs replaced.  Don’t forget the exhaust fan light that no longer has a cover over the light because it broke.  So, Scott started tearing everything down…tiles, wallpaper, flooring, shower walls, light fixtures, exhaust fan, paint from ceiling, etc.  The room was completely bare with the exception of our toilet and tub, which no longer had the faucet or knobs for it since they needed to be taken off for the shower walls to come down.  We basically had a clean slate.  May well have replaced the toilet and tub, but it would have been quite the task to take the tub out and put a new one in…probably would have required some walls coming down, and the toilet (knock on wood) seems to be in good shape.

Once Scott got everything torn down and out of there, it was my turn to begin the painting process.  Trouble was noticed in the very beginning.  The Kilz didn’t seem to want to stick to the ceiling.  Scott got some Kilz in a spray can and we tried that…seemed to work.  So, then began the process of putting on the ceiling paint (recommended for bathrooms).  Yikes…the kilz is peeling off!  So, Scott scrapes it all off for me, we wipe down the ceiling again, thinking that maybe it was the bleach we used to clean the mildew off the ceiling, and I tried again.  Same thing!  We have wasted two days on a ceiling!  So, we decided that we will be putting paneling on the ceiling that matches the paneling on the lower half of our walls, and I moved on to the walls.  This, thank goodness moved pretty smoothly.  Scott then proceeded to put the new exhaust fan in (we bought this a few years ago with intentions of putting it in and doing all this sooner).  Well, it was totally the wrong size.  So, Scott set out on the hunt for another exhaust fan that would work.  All he could find was a fan that would require us to make a larger hole in the ceiling for one side, and patching up another.  Guess they don’t make that size fan anymore!  The next day, I came home from work to find a new exhaust fan in the ceiling.  YAY!

Now, for the shower walls.  It was about 9:30 pm before we unpacked the new walls.  OMG!!!  The walls are paper thin, and they were cracked in several places.  That wasn’t going to work!  But, we couldn’t do anything that night since Menard’s was closed and we needed to wait for a pay day anyhow to upgrade the walls when we returned them. I guess you get what you pay for…the walls were only $70.00.  In the meantime, I started laying the tiles on the floor, and came up one tile short (I made a few mistakes and wasted a couple tiles).  But, once I picked up a few spare at Menard’s the following day, the floor was laid.  Once we got paid, we went to Menard’s and got walls that were thicker, and of course $200.00, that I had already picked out on my previous trip soon to get the extra tiles, some light bulbs, and oh yeah…a new heat register.  Scott went to put the first wall up, braced it overnight, and when we took the brace off the following morning it seemed to be holding.  About an hour later I went in and saw that it was starting to separate from the wall.  What?!?!  By this time I had already been in tears a few times over this bathroom (it began with the ceiling) …I don’t handle things not working out too well, especially when I have to shower in a dingy basement.  We concluded after talking to several people that we needed a different glue.  The glue girl at Menard’s must not have known what she was talking about.  But, just to be safe, we are also going to buy some paneling to go on the wall before the shower wall to provide a nice smooth surface, and to hopefully hold things better.  And, I insisted on A LOT of glue!  We tried this, and braced it for well over 24 hours before slowly taking off the braces, as if taking them off quickly would mean the walls wouldn’t stick.  They stuck..but the true test is waiting a few hours, lesson learned from before.  A few hours later the wall was still sticking strong, so Scott proceeded with the 2nd wall and we waited another 24 hours.  It stuck!!!  I made a trip to Lowes to get a few more tubes of glue.  And then, the final back wall was put into place.  Yep, it was sticking the next day too.  YAY!!!  Scott then worked at cutting out space for the window in the wall. 

I must admit, we have slowed down a little bit and are still running in to little glitches here and there, but there can’t be many more problems left, right?  First glitch being finding a window kit for the shower window.  Not much luck at finding one anywhere that wouldn’t take forever to get, so we are sealing it up using our creativity.  We don’t need no stinkin’ kit!!  This is still in the process, but I think it will work out great.  I have a handy man, you know!  But, we have been noticing water on the floor after showers and baths.  Last night, I finally pinned down where it was coming from while giving Jonathan his bath.  It is coming out from between the shower wall and our wall where we haven’t caulked yet.  I called Scott in, and he believes it is because of the faucet leaking.  I hope this is all it is.  He will be picking up a new faucet after work today.  Keep your fingers crossed for us, will ya?  Anyhow, I am kind of glad we didn’t caulk that small area yet, or the water would just be collecting back there…can you imagine?  It isn’t good that water is back there at all, but would be so much worse if it didn’t have an escape.

Anyhow, we still have the molding to put up after the window area and faucet are fixed, the door still needs put on (can’t wait for a private shower and toilet again), and the ceiling still needs done (I hope that process doesn’t mess up what we have done so far).  And I thought this would be done in a weekend (well over three weeks ago).

Jonathan has also been keeping us quite busy, but thanks to my mom and dad, we have gotten some relief from dealing with both him and the bathroom on some days.  Jonathan is in what I like to call "brat mode".  He wants what he wants and if you don’t get it for him, or allow him to do what he wants you can expect a fit.  A lot of time-outs have been the result of this, which seems to slowly be working.  If you know him, you know he can’t stand to sit still!  But, it is a work in progress. The potty training process isn’t going so well either.  I know the little stubborn butt knows what he needs to do, but just refuses to do it…probably because it requires sitting still for a short period of time.  We will get there though…I hope!  He also isn’t getting along really well with Belle.  He loves her, don’t get me wrong, but chases her around the house a lot too.  If you take your eye off him for a minute, he is chasing her.  And then we wonders why she nips at him.  This is a process that is causing me much more anxiety than the potty training.  I discipline him for chasing her, and I discipline her for nipping at him.  She only nips at him when he is not a threat to her and is walking/running in the opposite direction of her….not when he is doing something to provoke it.  I’m about to pull my hair out over this, and Scott is about to beat a dog with a sledgehammer (yes, he actually said this – jokingly I hope).  Other than that (I know I sound so negative about Jonny in this blog) he is my little angel, and my reason for living…he needs his mommy!  I miss him when he is gone, no matter how bad he was before he left; my heart breaks when he cries, as well as when he refuses to give or take a huggy or kissy. The thought of ever losing him is unbearable to me.  I’ve had numerous times where I have been an uncontrollable mess just imagining what it would be like if something happened to Jonny…usually whenever I hear of tragic things happening to other children.  And, I cherish every single adorable little thing he does, or milestone in his life when he shows me how much he is growing.  And, I dread the growing up part at the same time…wanting him to stay little forever so I never have to let him go.  Especially since my dream of having another child may never happen. 

Anyhow, sorry the update was so long but I had a lot of updating to do.  I hope to post some pictures of our completed bathroom soon!

Love,

Angie