POWDER ROOM RE-DO

I never realized when we decided to homeschool how all of those around-the-house projects that I always want to do would have to wait until summer! But thats okay - it makes me think about using my time a little more wisely. It also makes my hubby happier that I don't do quite as many of them either. He is not the handy-man type of guy, so fortunately he married a handy-woman type of lady!! But he does do this certain eye-rolling thing whenever I mention another one of my project ideas. But he has an incredibly genious mind (which I don't have) - so we make a good team. Ever since we moved into this house I have DESPISED the icky ucky white little porcelain tiles in ALL of the bathrooms. They show every little hair, dirt, dog hair - it's so gross. So - yesterday, I decided to take the matter into my own hands. It was time for a RE-DO!!! See those disgusting floors???

And if you look closely at the above picture, you can see how the wall is just mangled. The other side of this wall is the garage and I think it makes the drywall in the bathroom subject to lots of extreme temperature changes, which has somewhat deteriorated the drywall in there. We only have the problem on that one wall, and only the bottom half. We have NEVER been able to keep any kind of toilet paper holder on the wall in there. Either that or we have very aggressive toilet-paper-unrollers living in this house. So - that wall has been patched, and repatched, and repainted too many times. Apparently, when little girls sit on the potty next to a wall that has been patched, they feel a certain need to add their own decorations to the patches, and even create new holes - see what I mean??

Seriously?? I have even gone so far as to wallpaper the entire bathroom to cover the icky wall problem. Then said little girls feel the need to pick at the wallpaper when on said potty and we then have another situation. Now my girls are not necessarily the destructive type. I mean, they rarely even break a toy - so what is this about??? Maybe I need to put a magazine rack in there??

Introducing - the solution to both bathroom problems!!! No more nasty white floors and a permanent fix-it solution to bathroom-wall-vandalizing!!

Now that's about a million times better. And guess who did this wonderful little re-do?? That would be ME!! ME, MYSELF, and I!!! And I started it just 24 little hours ago. I found this wonderful tile that is a faux stone, that is able to be cut without a wet-saw, and you can grout in between them! I was just giddy with excitement. Plus, they are a wonderful shade of ....shall I say.... DIRT. Yes, I prefer to camoflauge the dirt around here. AND, you can lay them right over the existing tile. So while my big girls were off at camp - I put little Miss Boo in front of the TV for the day (which I shudder at the thought of) - but I got over the guilt pretty quickly and got to work. Anyway, she didn't end up watching much of it, she preferred to entertain herself and was actually a big help at times. Laying all the tiles and getting the cuts just right was the tricky part. I think I got up and down off that floor about 893 times. Then I got to the art of grouting. That was fun, I have to admit it.

Next Boo and I painted all the wainscoting and the all the trim in the bathroom. She is pretty handy with the paintbrush.

And then the wainscoting was put on the wall. Other than a minor crisis when the hubs decided to apply a little caulk to the corner, it was finished and looked wonderful!!

He can budget millions of dollars for multi-million dollar companies, but don't hand the man a caulk-gun. Thanks for trying dear.

Next on the list - a tiled kitchen backsplash!!!