Seanna (n. shaw-nuh)

All it needs is accessories

First, this is what we started with, sorta:

Here is the inspiration bathroom:

I think it's quite a bit smaller than our bathroom but you get the general idea.  Did I mention before that the floor is mosaic tile and costs like $6 per square foot?  Plus, I don't really like it.  Yay!  I liked everything else except the light fixture, though.  And that basket hanging on the wall is odd.  I just have to finish accessorizing and our version is done. 

And this is how things look today:

 

Now that I have taken these, I see that the worker men hung the doors back up kinda funny.  Figures!

So, other than a trash can, a toothbrush holder and some other foofy things on the counters, and towels underneath, I think we're pretty much done.  I do need to put a towel holder up but for now there's a hook on the back of the door and that's good enough for the kind of use this room gets.  You can see how the outlet was going to mess with my rectangular mirror idea.  Plus, like my fabulous husband said, everything in there was square so a little breaking up with ovals was not a bad thing. 

So the only things that stayed, literally, were the hot water heater, the closet doors and main door, and the shutters.  Everything else was torn out down to the subflooring and drywall and in some cases, clear down to the studs. Even the little knobs on the closet doors are new.  I did not take a photo of the shower stall but it's your basic 4 inch white ceramic tile.  I think it's in one of the other, in-progress photos, although not grouted.

FINALLY!!

Mission accomplished: Mirrors acquired

Not that I have a photo of them yet.  The bathroom has a level and a pair of pliers and some rags and various other yucky stuff all over the counters.  The shutters have been painted and exactly half of them have been reinstalled.  One mirror is up; the other is not.  I'm starting to think half-done is our signature look. 

To go with the inspiration photo (which is somewhere below here on the blog), I thought I needed rectangular mirrors.  Unfortunately, there is an electrical outlet that would probably pose a problem with rectangular mirrors. Plus, my fabulous husband found oval mirrors on super clearance for 20 bucks each.  Yay!  I just had to apply something to make the copper detailing on them look like brushed nickel and after some unfortunate silvery fingerprints and scraping, it's approximately good enough.  My specialty!  Because we saved so much on the mirrors, I promptly ordered a dozen large bath towels, in white of course, and a metal trash can.  Both were on super clearance. And a $35.99 down comforter that I found on overstock.com but that's kind of not the bathroom story. It's just that little Paigey has informed me that she WILL be taking her favorite blanket with her to UT month after next, and that will leave us with a comforterless bed in Fina's old room, which used to be Paigey's old room and soon will be her room again. And the occasional guest room. But no longer will it be comforterless. 

Now I just need pillows.  I bought a bunch last year, like FOUR I think.  Now we are short again.  Hmmm.  Let me go find a rocket scientist and ask her to help me figure out how that happened...

Despite being the last one to bed, I was the first one up.  I made coffee in my new coffeemaker, which makes the most awesome sound as it grinds the beans.  While that was going on, I did the dishes.  This is highly unusual but I'm also not used to coffee taking so long.  It tastes better, though. But I miss my old leaky Bunn. 

Today is another glorious day off.  Other than getting the remaining bathroom mirror up (which I will not be doing) and putting up the other two shutters (which I will also not be doing), I don't have much on the agenda except maybe a little cleaning.  So basically all that's up for today in terms of productive pursuits is possibly a little bit of cleaning.  That should leave a lot of time for reading and napping and movie watching, although I have been watching entirely too much TV lately.  That's not normal for me, but I think I do tend to watch more in the summer. 

Ooh but I do have one other thing I need to finalize and that's the girls' birthday and graduation present.  I have not heard back from a lady about a house and I need to get that nailed down so I can present them with their gifts finally.  Not that I am getting them a house.  But the plan is to go here:

Then, the day after we get back, we will be trotting off to the airport to pick up our little Austrian from last year!  Should be a fun couple of weeks. IF I CAN EVER GET EVERYTHING ALL NAILED DOWN.

Hey, speaking of Tybee Island, did you know you can rent Paula Deen's cottage when they are "not using it?"  Or that John Cougar (Melloncamp) has a house there?  I think Sandra Bullock does, too.  It was also the location for a recent major motion picture that I would probably never see but for that fact and still may not.  I find its young star rather hard to watch.  I do like Greg Kinnear, though.  We'll see. 

OK that's enough for one Saturday.  My incredibly busy day awaits...

I started to post on this last week on June 8th

It was the day before my children turned into adults. Well, technically anyway.  It was also a few days before Fina left. Things were pretty busy.  They still are, but they have calmed down considerably.  I was sort of musing about how it felt not to have minor children anymore and how it hadn't occurred to me to wonder about that until fairly recently, maybe in the last year or so.   Turns out, it feels great.  It doesn't seem like the smartest thing in the world, to have 3 little kids under the age of 3 when you're 25. But then they grow up, and you're 43.  Then it seems like a stroke of pure, mad genius.  So, I'm good with it.  I also like that Paige and Emily (hey we can name them now that they are adults now, right?  I've been easing into that in the last few months anyway) are going off in a few months.  Of course, I will miss them just like I miss their big sister, but I think it's healthy and good that they are starting their next adventures far enough away that they will need to live there.  It's also neat, but weird, that they will be about 2-3 hours away from each other, with us in the middle.  Nashville and Knoxville.  And then little old Cookeville. 

I have photos of the birthday celebration and much more, but as we know, they are elsewhere.  And I am comfortable where I am.  Plus, I never really started this thing for the photos.  It's always been about the words.  I think I've gotten away from that in the last year or so and I miss it.  I'll probably throw one in just for fun, though.  (Ha threw in a bunch--thanks, Internet!)

My fabulous husband is off trying to hunt down mirrors for the new bathroom downstairs.  I found some that I liked but I think my favorite (reasonably priced) one is too small:

Isn't it cute, though?  Maybe it could go on the wall perpendicular to where the mirrors need to be.  It is awfully cute.  I actually think it would be OK and sort of stylish but it's also $90 and for that I can just get the ones that come with the vanity, you know?  Then there is this one:

I like it but I think the frame is a bit too wide.  I dunno.  It would be OK I think.  If I could just get any one I wanted I would probably get this one, though:

Yeah, that right there is about $600 worth of reflective fabulousness.  I just don't see the point of that, do you?  Well, I see the point but I was thinking more like $100 total.  I could even do it for $10 if I spray painted the foofy oval mirrors that were there before.  It may happen, who knows.   Just plain old espresso-colored rectangular mirrors should not be such a difficult get.

I suppose I should be off to start my workday (night).  I woke up with a pretty irritated eye and so I had to take out my contact.  I just went to the eye doctor week before last, too.  Hmph.  He plays the recorder and dresses up in renaissance clothing. Not when he is being an eye doctor, duh!  Apparently he showed up for one of Emily's classes that way and she recognized him despite the disguise. He is a smart guy.  He has an old wooden ice box that I've considered committing a felony to break in and acquire but alas, my better nature kicks in and I only consider, then reject the idea. Why did I start in about the eye doctor?  Oh yeah.  So I have one contact in and one out.  This should be fun.  I wonder what my boss would say if I called in and pled severe vision impairment.  Oh, wait.  I know exactly what she'd say.  After she stopped laughing hysterically.  And she'd be right.  Sooooo, it's off with me.   

So the bathroom is almost done

But of course, not quite.  They are coming back on Monday to finish up after a several-week absence while we celebrated the girls' graduation and had company, etc.  I will post photos of the graduation fun soon.  P was in this morning's newspaper, yay!  

Anyway, here are some photos from about the 75% complete phase.  There are now two vanities in there but I'm too lazy to go back in and photograph it again until it's all the way done.  This one was before the shower was grouted:

   

Here's one from the other end of the bathroom looking out. You can see where the second vanity is supposed to go from the plumbing:

 

And here's the other part of the project, the hardwood flooring throughout most of the rest of the bottom floor:

 

I think after tomorrow it should be just about finished, so I will take photos when I have it all accessorized and spiffed up. 

I think since I started using my facebook account I have been sorely neglecting this blog but I kind of like the blog better.  I need to get back to it.

Upcoming this week:

• Girlies who turn 18.
• A bittersweet farewell to Fina on Thursday morning.
• Finalizing summer plans for the above-mentioned 18-year-olds.
• Probably some extra hours at work.

Fina is almost all done packing.  She has been away most of last week and will be away some of this week too, hanging out with her friends.  Awwwwww.  They have been doing a lot of swimming and just general hanging out.  There are going to be tears at the airport, that's for sure!

Time to get to work.  It's my standard Sunday drill.  I'm actually kind of looking forward to it today, though.  Yesterday and most of Friday I just lounged around like a slug and watched movies.  Time to be a productive member of middle Tennessee for at least a little while.

Ashley is taking me shopping

I have never met Ashley, but I'm told she'll be taking me shopping for fun stuff like new flooring, a new vanity in the bathroom, paint colors and maybe a new bathtub.  The original bathtub is huge and pink.  Anything would be an improvement. I have a sneaking suspicion that I am going to be stuck with it, though. 

I was heretofore not aware that one needed an Ashley to take one shopping for these things. However, it seems as though it will be an interesting exercise and perhaps something about the abominable hole of wood, rot and exposed plumbing that is currently my bathroom led the construction men to believe that I needed an Ashley Intervention. 

My insurance company just called to let me know they approved the claim and are sending out the check today.  Apparently it will include money for a new floor in my living room, where the floor is pristine and undamaged, the dining room (same status) and hallway.  There is about maybe 8 square feet of floor damage outside of the bathroom, but apparently they think 400 or 500 sf need to be replaced to make it all match.  Ohdarn. Now is a prudent time for me to admit that I really did not like the floor that was there.  It is one of perhaps 4 floors in the entire house we had yet to replace, coincidentally.   There are two bedrooms downstairs with carpet existent from when we bought the house and then the upstairs bathroom with its awesome 1970s vinyl (I actually like the vinyl; it's blue and mint green and I say it's coming back in style).  Then there is was the vinyl floor in the bathroom downstairs and the aforementioned laminate flooring in the main living areas of the house.  The rest of it is new, so it only has our germs, misuse and neglect.  Yay! Once they finish with this project, only the two bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs will have the mark of the previous owner.  Well and the little landing upstairs, I guess.  It will probably not be replaced.  Oh well, it matches Charlie the cat, so she will still have a place for self-camouflage.

And today is American Tax Deadline Day, and of course I need to file our taxes and those of my mother. I don't think I have ever waited quite this long to get my mom's done so this was really a stellar year.  I will do what I do nearly every year for ours: File the automatic extension.  My mother's will take approximately 10 minutes to do and then maybe 15 minutes to print out and put together for her.  Yup, I am not a procrastinator, not at all. She told me last night that if I didn't get them filed they would throw her in jail, but she doesn't care because they will feed her three times a day and do her laundry.  Even though I told her she doesn't even really have to file them if she doesn't want to; she will just lose out on the small refund she gets every year.  She lets me do her taxes, but she doesn't believe me when I tell her she won't go to jail if they are not done.  Awesome. Speaking of my mom, did I mention she took a fall last month and spent two days in the hospital with some small intracranial bleeds and a broken nose?  Yup.  She's pretty much back to normal now, though.  She still looks like we beat her up, but she's back to normal with everything else.

Ah, procrastination is an art form.  But if I don't take care of my mom's taxes I will be subjected to another art form:  Nagging.  I must be off to do my daughterly duty.

Life with one bathroom and three teenage girls, Part One

So far, things are tolerable.  It helps to know that there is another bathroom available over at my mom's part of the house, but that would be reserved for desperation only. Still, it's nice to have the "desperation option."  Kind of like those oxygen masks that drop down when the plane is somehow careening toward an untoward conclusion.  Ok, maybe not.  Maybe it's more like when you need a Plan B for dessert when you are having company and you're not sure you are handy enough with a torch to pull off the creme brulee. Not that I have ever made that, or even own a torch.  I do have  a fire extinguisher, though.  Safety first! My own schedule is sort of opposite everyone else's most of the time so it doesn't really bother me, although I have to head to the office next week to do some training for a few days.  It should be OK, though. 

Looks like we are winding down our Year with Fina.  Her dad, I know, is in the countdown mode and is very ready for his daughter to come back home.  I think Fina is ready, too.  Not that she is not enjoying her time here; she seems to find springtime in Tennessee very beautiful and spends a lot of time outdoors with her friends, but I think she is ready to get back to her "real" life.  I asked her yesterday what she would have done if she arrived here with the bathroom being in such a state of chaos and grossness, and she just looked at me and said, "I think I would have figured it out..."  Ha, smartass!

Speaking of exchange students who became part of the family, apparently we are going to be seeing C again soon.  Late summer for a few weeks.  That should be fun!  Looking forward to it, C.  Hopefully the bathroom will be put back to rights by then.  Yikes, it had better be.  The situation is so awful that the cats can access the outdoors from a hole in the floor under the tub.  That is just so....I don't know.  Well, yes I do.  It's so "Why even bother with an indoor bathroom, or electricity or running water while you're at it."  That's what it is.  At least the 3 jet engine drying fans are gone.  And the Zip Wall.  In its place are bare floorboards, splinters and the aforementioned hole.  At least we can close the door, but there is a wide gap underneath the door.  I imagine mice, squirrels and all manner of vermin will make their way in soon if things don't start happening, reconstruction wise.

Speaking of that, yesterday my fabulous husband and I went out and looked at bathroom fixtures and flooring.  Ah yes, it was a romantic outing.  Actually it was kind of fun because after that we went to visit Oldest Child at her job and the husband got lost and had to turn around like 10 times.  Awesome.  I had tears from laughing so hard.  It got to the point where he wouldn't even say anything.  He would just stop and execute a three-point turn.  Very enjoyable.  The sun was shining, I was being entertained, and we had just enjoyed a lovely late lunch at the local watering hole.

I must be off.  As usual, today is a work day.  I was going to ride around in my car with the NEW IPOD ADAPTOR one of the children bought me, but that ship may have sailed for today.  Hopefully tomorrow will be as pretty as today and I can test it out then.  Enjoy your Sunday!  Enjoy your hole-less, splinter-free bathrooms that actually have toilets in them!

My downstairs bathroom is being torn out as we speak

 

It's times like these when my slothful nature pays off.  It has been on the long list to renovate since we moved in, but all I really did with it was tear off the wallpaper and paint the walls and redo the mirrors with a coat of paint.  

We had a water leak and the entire bathroom has to be torn out.  So does the hallway.  That means a new floor in the hallway and dining room.  I noticed the floor was messed up on Easter Sunday and the guy came out to fix the leak. For FREE.  Turns out it was the wrong leak so then the master plumber had to come out the next day and fix the real problem leak.  Then it became obvious that things were messed up on a larger-order magnitude.  Then my boss and this other guy at work told me to call my homeowner's insurance company.  That honestly would never have occurred to me.  Genius!

I don't know how this will ultimately turn out but our insurance company, USAA, had these water mitigation specialists over here so fast I barely had time to think about it.  They are putting up a barrier and drying the bathroom first and then they will come and figure out how to rebuild my bathroom and also my hallway and dining room floors. 

Think how mad I would be if we had put the money into new bathroom fixtures and a new bathroom floor.  It would all be coming out right about now.

The construction company guy who is here now says they practically live in Clarksville because they get so much business from USAA, which he said was by far the #1 insurance company out there.  They were on the phone to make the arrangements to come over less than an hour after USAA contacted them. 

That's good, since we pay like a zillion dollars a year for homeowner's insurance and have for a lonnnnnnng time.  But this is why we don't bargain shop when it comes to stuff like this. 

Hopefully they will continue to come through for us.  We shall see.  I must go, the scary loud nail gun is being deployed 5 feet from where I sit.  Photos of the birthday party soon, I promise.  Signing out from incipient mold damage central.....

What was in the giant box

Getting a bit of a late start this morning.  It's the busy part of my week again.  We are just about ready for the yard sale this week but will still have to do some last minute pricing on Friday.  The sale starts Saturday at 7:00.  I think I'm going to throw some more scrapbook stuff in, just in case anybody who comes by happens to dig that kind of thing.  It will be such a huge relief to get the staging area completely cleaned out.  Feels like a big accomplishment.

 

So I mentioned a big box came yesterday:

I was actually a little worried, so huge was the box.  There's not a ton of open wall space on the walls in the Teen Cave, and I knew this was art for the TC.  I left the box for the children to open.  This is what they found: 

Neat wrapped-canvas photo of a lighthouse, right?  That in itself is cool enough.  Love the blue sky and the beautiful rich red of the lighthouse.  But wait.  This is no ordinary lighthouse photo.  Let's look a little closer.

Why, there seem to be people in this photo as well.  Little teeny tiny people at the base of the photo.  Who are these people?

Why, it's P, E, Little K and B!!  I think this was a little over three years ago at the Ponce Inlet lighthouse in Central Florida. Maybe 3.5 years ago?  It cracks me up how P&E are doing the same thing with their right leg.  How very twinny of them.

Thank you so much, Carol. It's PERFECT.  That was the first thing to go up on the walls in that room.  The girls are so thrilled.  I almost don't want to put anything else up on the walls now.  Just that in its singular glory.  But I already dragged up 3-4 other framed photos, so...one of these days!

Deal of the Week

This funky little table was originally $379.99 at HomeDecorators but I found it at their online outlet yesterday for $37.99.  I'm not kidding.  Now, it's not 100% what I would have picked out for the Teen Cave, but the color is just about perfect and at 90% off for a solid wood Pfaltzgraff table, I snatched it up immediately.  I checked this morning and they have increased the price to around $60.  Still a great deal.  Just not 90% off.  I figured there was no way I was ever going to do better than 90% off unless I came across something that was free.  I've really been stalking all my "deal" haunts to end up with this result.  It will be good to chill out and just look for a great deal on a sofa or small sectional now.  And a few chairs. 

So yesterday was 12 of 12 day and I am here to report it will be the MOST boring 12 of 12 ever.  I had to resort to taking photos of what I was cooking (pasta salad and spaghetti sauce--see, even that was boring!).  I would share the photos with you, but I left my camera upstairs.  Lots of shots of my new office, but that was also boring since I have to be careful what I allow in the photos (for you stalkers out there, how YOU doin'?).  Anyway, I did document my day.  My boring, boring day.  It was even a little boring for ME.

Today I am off to a staff meeting and a department meeting and a mandatory cancer policy meeting.  Don't be jealous.  It's not until this afternoon.  Then I have to do some paperwork and it'll be another fun evening of working.  I am trying to save my four-hour day for tomorrow, but I may break down and use it today.  Just depends.  Tomorrow would be better since I have Fridays and Saturdays off, and Sunday would be best of all but that seems sort of mean so I probably won't do that.  No need to be taking advantage.  They usually really need me around on Sundays. 

My 18-year-old is learning all about the perils of emailing at work.  Her friend was denied a promotion (well, going from part-time to full-time) and given a last warning because their company email system quarantined an email going from the friend to my child.  It contained the word "beaner."  What in the world?  These girls need to not be talking about such things.  Not that my daughter was, since the email never reached her to begin with.  It was a good lesson for her to learn without any ramifications for her, I guess.   Really, they need to stop using the company email system for personal emails, duh.  They work in the same room, for heaven's sake.  Anyway, so if you work for a corporate entity, try not to work the word "beaner" into your emails or they might be quarantined.  I guess it could have been worse, but honestly.  Beaner?  That's just not very nice.

I am off to live the promise of my meeting-filled day.  I told you not to be jealous. 

Heh, update

So, we've done as much as we can do today, I think.  The walls are pretty much all primed.  Ceiling, too.  We're down to rolling two coats of the actual paint, and then trim work up near the ceiling.  Don't need to worry about trim work down near the floor because there are no baseboards yet.  We just need to go down far enough that the new baseboards will cover anything not painted.  It still took four of us about 4 hours to get that done.  Yeah, so there's no way those guys could have gotten it all done in just a few hours.  It will still take three or four of us another two hours to roll the walls with one coat of paint and then another two hours for the second coat...then at least 3 hours for the trim up near the ceiling.  Hmph.  "Few hours to roll them walls," my butt.  It took like a whole hour just to clean up the mess in there, sheesh.

It cracks me up to think of the main contractor guy walking in there in the morning and seeing the walls all Kilzed and primed and ready to paint.  Then he's going to want to paint.  Umno.  You guys need to hang doors and prepare the underlayment for the vinyl.  Let's just leave the painting to the professional amateurs.

Turns out we probably will not need the two gallons of ceiling paint, but that's okay because we'll certainly need it when we go to paint the upstairs, and there will be at least two gallons of primer left over, which we will also be able to use upstairs.  Wonder if there will be leftover paint, too.  That's okay-beats running out, especially since the closest Home Depot is like 80 miles away...