So many hobbies!

The final product!

My family requested pictures of the finished bathroom.  I was planning on waiting until all the artwork was up but that may be a while.  Enjoy:

Sanibel Sandcastle

There is a guy who comes to Sanibel the same week every year and practices his castle building.  I've heard the rumor that he's perfecting his technique to become a champion sandcastle builder.  I've never actually met him so I can't say for certain.  Every year, his castles become better and more elaborate.

Even the back is beautiful!

I've been asked to post pictures of the bathroom with its new paint job.  It seems rather boring to me but here they are.  These will be the last pictures until the bathroom is completed and decorated.

Painting is all abou the prep work.  Most of the time "painting" is spent spackling holes, sanding, sweeping, vaccuming, washing the walls, taping off the parts you don't want painted, and putting up/down plastic so you don't get paint all over the place.  The actual painting only took me maybe half an hour or so.  I have a few spots that need touching up but for the most part, the painting is done.  I think I did a pretty good job.

Sunny is better than cloudy

As usual, Sanibel Island was beautiful, sunny and warm.  My two sisters and I and my parents had a great time together.  We visited several beaches, talked, laughed, collected shells and made some shell mirrors.  One of my sisters and my nephew got me addicted to the game Plants vs. Zombies and I played it far too much.  If you have a tablet or an iPad, try it.  The game is a blast.

On Wednesday, we took a ferry to the island Cayo Costa.  It's a pretty isolated island and we went for the shelling.

The view was pretty nice, too.  I was hunting for Baby Ears.  I've only ever found them on Cayo Costa.

That trip wiped me out.  Between the sun, the wind and all the fresh air, I was exhausted by the time we got back.  I slept nine and a half hours that night.  I was tired but the adventure and the shells were worth it.

When I wasn't shelling, I was working on a couple of shell mirrors.  Some of the shells I found on the beach, some I bought, some were given to me and some were left-over shells from last year.  It takes more shells to cover a mirror than you might think.  (I borrowed my mom's hot glue gun to affix the shells to the frame.)

First, I sprayed the frame white.  The mirror needs to be cleaned yet; some of the paint got under the paper I used to cover the mirror.

I decided to use last year's mirror and this year's mirrors to decorate my "new" bathroom.  Objects work better in odd numbers which meant I needed to make another mirror:

This time I didn't paint the frame white.  I wanted it to disappear in the background.  The round mirror is only 7 or 8 inches in diameter.  It's a cute little thing.

Speaking of bathrooms, this is what greeted me when I got home last night:

A completed shower surround...

and a tiled floor.  It's now my job to paint the bathroom.  I picked up the paint today.  Now I need to prep the walls:  fill any holes, sand down any high points,  take down the towel rods, vacuum the bathroom and wipe down the walls, and finally tape off the edges and cover all the nice new tiling and the new toilet to protect them from any wayward drops of paint.

I'm both happy to be home (I really missed my babies) and sad that Florida has now been replaced with cold, clouds and snow.  It was great to spend time with my sisters and parents.  We laughed a lot and had a great time.  I really love my family a lot.  No one gets you like your family does.  You share the same sense of humor and know the same stories.  I really miss them now that I'm home.  I can't wait until next year.

Because Dad wants to see it, too.

Okay, so Dad wants to see the progress, too.  Here you go, Dad.  Before, the bathroom didn't have a fan and the years of too-much moisture in the bathroom had cracked the paint and plaster and it really looked terrible.  So, they covered the ceiling with a new piece of drywall to make it nice and smooth. 

They also put up drywall to cover the gaping hole behind the sink.  There was a vanity and sink here before the gutting.  I'm going to have a lot of work to do to clean up that area before I paint.  To save money, I'll be painting the walls and ceiling myself. I've already picked out the paint.  To look at it, it just looks white, but when you compare it to another "white," you can see it has a touch of blue in it.  The only color in the new bathroom will come from towels, shower curtain and any artwork I hang.  I'm pretty sure at least one shell mirror will be going up on the wall.  Don't worry, I'll take pictures.

I have one more day of work and then I'm off to sunny Florida.  It's been so bitterly cold here, Florida is going to feel like paradise.  I can't wait!

Brrrr!

It has been more than cold here the last couple of days.  Yesterday, it was -15F with the wind chill.  Far too cold to be outside.  Had I been able to, I would have stayed home from work.  Since that wasn't an option, out I went.  Even the car groaned in protest when I started it.  The bitter cold makes going to Florida on Saturday that much sweeter.

Not much to report with the bathroom.  The inspector was there yesterday to check on everything that goes behind the drywall.  Unfortunately, the bathroom didn't pass inspection because there wasn't a ladder there for him to use.  Why he didn't bring his own ladder since he must need to use one often is beyond me.  I don't know how much not passing will set the job back.  I'd imagine you need to schedule inspections in advance and that rescheduling will cost us time. 

I have nothing blog-worthy to report.  It's been so cold lately that I haven't done anything in the evenings beyond changing out of work clothes, eating dinner and hunkering under a blanket on the couch.  I'm trying to find a knitting project to take to Florida.  I'm kind of over knitting socks but I'm loving the squishy warmth of the pair I'm wearing right now.  Socks are mindless knitting for the most part and I have some lovely sock yarn marinating in my yarn stash.  Hmm.  Shawl or socks?  Since I'm going to be with my family most of my knitting time, I need a pattern that doesn't take a lot of thought.  I don't do intricate patterns well when I have distractions.  Any suggestions?

As requested

I am in the midst of a bathroom remodel.  The old bathroom was pretty gross.  No matter how much I cleaned the tub, the caulking was never clean.  Monday they pretty much gutted the bathroom.  It used to look like this:

This is after the gutting and replacing the window and the insulation:

This is where the vanity and the medicine cabinet used to be:

The only original things left in the bathroom are the tub and the toilet.  The tub will be staying and the toilet will eventually be replaced with a new one.  I can live without a shower but not without a toilet.  I'll be showering at the gym or freezing while having a sponge bath.  It's cold in Michigan right now and I keep the temp in my condo at a nippy 68F.

So far, they've put in a new window, new insulation, framed out the shower surround and worked on the plumbing.  I've got another 4+ weeks of this.  When it's done, there will be a tiled shower surround, new toilet, new pedestal sink, tiled floor, new medicine cabinet and a fan.  I'm excited to have it finished but I'm not too thrilled with the in between stuff.  I'll be going to Florida in a little over a week and when I get back, I'll be painting.  The whole bathroom will be white with chrome accents.  The only color will be from my towels and whatever I hang on the wall.  It's going to be gorgeous!