design time

I am trying to plan the layout for our main floor bathroom. This is going to be a busy room... I want it to look sharp. We are planning to have our laundry in it, toilet, sink and a shower. Why a shower in our main floor bathroom you ask...
Our upstairs en suite bathroom has a shower and bath, but the other upstairs bathroom only has a tub. The angled ceiling doesn't allow for a shower. So we thought instead of always having our kids use our bathroom we would put a shower in the main floor bathroom. Also... if we ever have a hot tub, then guest don't need to use our en suite either.

The dimensions are 7 feet by 8 feet 10 inches. If need be I could steal space on either direction, but I am trying not to.  But this is what I have so far. The only thing i don't really like about this layout is that you walk in and see the toilet wall... I don't even know if that is a thing... maybe it's just my thing.
The pink space is the shower, the blue is the washer and dryer with the sink above. I have been trying to search for picture were people have done this, (used the washer and dryer as the base for the sink vanity) but its hard to find. I think it because the w & d are deeper then a normal counter. (w & d are 32" deep normal counters are around 22") We are going to hide this with a dummy wall for uppers, with cupboards on either side and a mirror in the middle. (Bottom right of pictures) W & Ds are also highier, but we are tall people so this maybe would be better for us anyway.
I don't know... this is just what I am think now. But I have to decide by the end of the day because plumbing is getting done this weekend!
Also done this week were the basement wall, where the beams used to be, were poured. Windows are in... deciding on the front windows still. (A whole other story... I'll write about it once the problem has been solved) The doors are not in yet though. And interior framing is being done. Getting quotes on electricians.
It's moving along!

Reused and Refurbished

With our upstairs renovation I was so excited to refinish the baseboards. Baseboards are one of the key selling points of a century old house... at least they were definitely one of the reasons I fell in love with our home! So I decided it was worth it to strip down the 5 layers of paint and save these gorgeous detailed hunks of wood.
I think i finished 3 baseboards and then me and my husband were blessed with the best surprise... I was pregnant! Needless to say, dealing with old paint was not advised for me and my lovely husband finished my task. I think this probably added an extra 3 months on to our reno... but look at the pictures... totally worth it!

We are planning on reusing as much of the solid wood from on main floor too. We have taken down all the baseboards and window trim and i have started sanding them down already. It's much easier this time because they are stained and not paints, and they do not have as many groves.

 

 These are the baseboards I have sanded...

 

 This is my huge stack that I have left to sand!

We are also saving our oak flooring. They came out pretty easily, it took us (me, jonas and his parents) two days to get all the nails out. We wont quite have enough for the whole main floor, so we will have to try to match them up and have a seam somewhere that is not too obvious. Hopefully this works out and doesn't look patchy.

Now I have to think about stain colors for the floors and trim work!

I've got the joy joy joy....

Joy deep down in my heart.
Thats a lyric from a song we sing at church.... but what I mean to say is happy thanksgiving everyone!
(photos are my thanksgiving table setting, this is at my parents house, were we are currently living while our house in under construction)

We had my husbands thanksgiving get together last weekend and my parent went on a trip this week, so my siblings and I decided to have our own thanksgiving and invite friends. We decided this on Friday and invited people for Saturday. We had a pretty good turn out considering the short notice. I think on thanksgiving weekend everyone thinks everyone else is busy with family, so no one makes other plans... which worked out perfect for us!

I made the little turkey with an oreo that i stuck 5 candy corns to with icing. (i cut off the white tip of the candy corn) then I used a white tip of the candy corn for a nose on a chocolate malt ball, stuck on with icing. The red part is a cut up jujube and icing for the eyes. Reeses pieces iced on to the oreo, and the malt ball iced on to the reeses pieces. Kind of cute, eh?

It was so fun... here are a few photos to prove it: