Bathroom Renovation: Part Deux

Cory continued his dilligent work on our bathroom this week. Finally, the nasty shower tile and that absolutely disgusting shower door are history. The tub is gone, too. Hooray! Since we're transforming it into a large shower, he had to move the drain to the center of the floor. Now we wait for the concrete to dry in order to proceed to the next step, which will be the pouring of the shower base. Hopefully Jeremy will be doing that Monday.

I'm still a little bit nervous at having 50% of our bathrooms in utter destruction at this precarious time, but it's most certainly too late for misgivings now, as you can see by the picture. As long as everything gets put back together before baby decides to arrive, then we're good. Meanwhile, I just need to try to relax and deal with the mess. It's really not too bad so far, we just keep the door shut. Besides the layer of dust on everything, you wouldn't even know that anything interesting is going on in there.

I can't wait to see the whole thing come together!

His chariot awaits... and more

We continue to prepare for baby, and time is running short. His "travel system" arrived last week, in a box (and in pieces), of course. The unit is made by Chicco, and contains the infant carrier (otherwise known as a "punkin seat"), car seat, and stroller. Cory dutifully put it together on one of his "snow days", and schooled me in its operation when I got home from work. He was so cute, pushing it out to the kitchen to show me as soon as I walked in the door. I finally got around to snapping a picture of it this week. It's hard to believe he'll be riding around in it in less than two months (or so we hope). Thanks, Patt....errr....Grandma!

Cory's other major accomplishment occurred earlier this week, when he began demolition on our nasty, mold-infused, disintegrating bathroom. His friend, Jeremy, came in Monday to measure and order the tile (don't worry, he does this for a living). Here's what we've picked out.

Deep chocolate matte brown for the floor (didn't get a pick of this one).

A polished, variegated rectangular ceramic for the shower walls (we will use it horizontally and offset, like subway tile) in various creams and caramels:

A lovely mocha picotee-edged mosaic for the shower floor:

It took me three trips to the tile store and lots of mulling it over to finally pick these out. Now if it looks terrible we will all know who to blame.

The plumber then came on Thursday to fix our guest shower which we'll use while the project is ongoing in the master bath. Two dismantled showers and one hole in the hallway drywall later (long story), we are on our way. This is what it looks like in the master bath for now. I will have to learn to live with this for a bit, because you know how DIY projects can be. It still startles me when I walk in there.

One more reason for the baby NOT to decide to make an early appearance! We're crossing our fingers...

Design Your Life

I recently decided to take an online class (at Big Picture Scrapbooking) by Cathy Zielske, one of my favorite scrapbooking design gurus of all time. Her class focuses on the composition and design of pages, an area in which I need definite improvement in order to be happy with my creations. Cathy's philosophy is that of simplicity... letting photos tell the stories of our lives, big and small. Learning to do more with less product and in less time is appealing to me, especially with the new arrival preparing to compete with my scrapping time. I will have more to scrap about than ever once he comes along (and way less time to do so), but I am determined to document the beginning of his life with words, photos, and art...

As time-consuming as scrapbooking is, it is a creative outlet for me and something I enjoy immensely. The whole process combines the things I love. How delighted was I when Cathy's first assignment allowed me to put these all together on a page! Cathy provided the template, or "sketch", including the artwork in the center, and gave her students the freedom to develop the rest. This is what I came up with:

It took me three days, but I LOVE this page. I used many things from my stash, things that I had been saving for the "right" page (like the chocolate milk bottle top from a Studio Calico kit some months back), pictures and alphas that I love. Each square highlights something that I love about scrapping, or a reason why I do it.

Here's another layout I did for class. Another all-time favorite:

Cathy's class is 12 weeks long, so obviously I will miss out on the last portion. I am so glad I decided to do this! Off to work on Week #2...

Happy New Year

Once upon a time, I loved New Year's resolutions. For the past several years, though, I resisted the urge to make them. I reasoned that if something was important and worth doing, one should just do it and not wait for some magical time of year to make a dramatic announcement of those goals/hopes/dreams. Now that I have a whole new perspective on myself, life, and the future, I am beginning to think again that New Year's resolutions are not such a bad thing. Why not embrace the chance to improve your life, even if in a trivial way?

Look at the date of my last blog post and guess what one of my New Year's resolutions might happen to be...

I'll spare myself and everyone else the pronouncements, and just say that I hope to keep up with my blogging in 2010. I think that there will be a lot more to report in the coming year...


What I did today (I'm recording this here for posterity, not because it was particularly interesting):

• Got up early (not by choice, pregnancy insomnia strikes again)
• Enjoyed some quiet time with my computer and a cup of coffee
• Put away the Christmas decorations
• Cleaned the living room (like a madwoman, with Cory as a reluctant accomplice)
• Took some self-portraits in honor of the New Year and my growing belly
• Met Deb to give her the kids' suitcase that Ian forgot at our house last week
• Did some shopping at Clay Terrace and Michael's craft store
• Surprised Cory with a Stuffed Pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner (he was so happy)
• Laundry, laundry, laundry
• Worked on my scrapbook design online course
• Planned a few scrapbook pages
• Changed my avatar on my Studio Calico profile
• Updated my blog

Here's to the little things in life, and the lazy days at home that I'm sure will soon be a thing of the past... Happy New Year!