Meg vs. Decor: Mini bedroom makeover

My mother-in-law took me shopping for my birthday, and I picked out some new things for our bedroom, since our old bedding was getting pretty dingy (and I was getting pretty sick of it). I realize that white is a dangerous color with my little ones, but I feel like I need to surround myself with bright, clean things if I am going to be in this house all day, every day. I also put up our new blinds. They look SO much better than the old honey-colored ones! Now I just need to get some kind of treatments on the windows and put something on the walls! Here is my work so far:

Before

After

I fell in love with this puzzle piece printable, which I also used to make John's anniversary card. You can find it on this cute blog here.

Meg vs. Myself: 30 by 30

Happy birthday to me! To celebrate my 29th birthday, I decided to come up with 30 things I want to do before I turn 30 in one year. The hubs helped me out with #6 already by taking me to see Les Mis in San Francisco as an early birthday gift last week, so we are off to a good start! Coming up with these goals has made me really grateful for everything that I've been able to do and experience so far in my life, which enables me to focus on a lot of fun things this year. Lucky me! I'll keep up on this list in a new "30 x 30" tab and post about how my plans and projects continue. Wish me luck!

1. Finish up all of our major home repairs.
2. Decorate my house as though I were planning on staying here.
3. Run a ½ marathon.
4. Sew an article of clothing from scratch and wear it.
5. Get a professional pedicure.
6. See Les Miserables on stage.
7. Get life insurance.
8. Read War and Peace.
9. Learn how to hit a golf ball and not look like an idiot (I don’t even aspire to try to get it in the hole).
10. Ride a horse. (Not on a pony ride or guided by someone else.)
11. See Yosemite.
12. Decorate my house for all the major holidays and celebrate with my kids.
13. Grow a successful harvest of something other than zucchini.
14. Catch a fish.
15. Make a pretty makizushi.
16. Have only one child in diapers.
17. Date my husband – plan something every week, no matter how short the time.
18. Do/try at least half of the things I have pinned on Pinterest. (That’s a lot; I’m pushing a thousand pins, though I won’t count things in the category “Dream Home,” etc.)
19. Learn Pachelbel’s Canon in D on the piano.
20. Establish and maintain a routine to keep my house clean and organized.
21. “Upcycle” or purge all the clothes in my pile.
22. Have a yard where I enjoy spending time with my family.
23. Stay on a budget for more than a month.
24. Start accruing real food storage (done on purpose, stuff we can survive on and will actually eat).
25. Learn to cook a palatable steak for my husband.
26. Read one (non-picture) book each in Japanese and Spanish.
27. Write 100 posts for my family history blogs, and get what little I have done in some semblance of order.
28. Finish translating articles for my cleft blog in Spanish, and update both blogs.
29. Learn how to do my makeup for realsies and find products that I like and can afford.
30. Create a wardrobe I am pleased with and get rid of everything else. (Tricky, since I am in the “I am constantly changing sizes” phase of life.)

John vs. The Bathroom: Continuing around the bath

John has been working tirelessly at the tiling. A lot of the time involved is spent figuring out how to do all the things he's never done before--mitering, specialty cuts, balancing shelves, etc. etc. Here again is the progress:

I spent last night taping and plastering around the ceiling joint (until I ran out of plaster, that is) so John can finish the last line around the tub and do the last tub wall. More pictures to come! I am still really happy with how it is turning out. So much better than the old walls! Remember these?

A shudder just went down my spine.

John vs. The Bathroom: First tiles!

John has been hard at work, and he first wall of tiles is done! I love how it is turning out.

 The very first row.

 The first wall! That end cap on the molding tiles was a beast, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. 

My honey sawing away.

John vs. The Bathroom: Progress

Here is the pictoral account of John's progress over the last two weeks. I was gone one week at my mom's place, and now I am mostly doing damage control trying to keep up with the boys, keep the mess under control, and help out where I can. There have been A LOT of trips to the hardware store!

Ripping out the old green board and the lathe and plaster behind it.

Had to clip the old wire mesh and separate the wall from the ceiling.

The tile border wouldn't come off, and John found mold on the bottom of the wall, so out came the bottom foot of lathe and plaster around the bathroom perimeter.

Vapor barrier went up over the bathtub surround.

Then cement board went up all around.

The tiling has finally begun, so pictures will be forthcoming. John also painted the baby room while we were gone, and little guy is enjoying a much nicer view now. I have the best hubby ever, and he is learning a lot. Thank goodness for a good friend that has been mentoring him through the whole process.

Meg and John vs. The Bathroom: Demo Day 1

After dinner tonight we got down to business. We cleaned out the mess,

Took out the fixtures (gross!),

Ripped down cheap vinyl lining,

 

 and removed old, improperly-installed green board to find the disaster hidden underneath.

The wall with the plumbing is still untouched because we have to find the local shutoff valve. We think it is under the house, but it isn't accessible from the crawl space in our room, so tomorrow John is going through the much smaller crawl space that lets in from the toy room. My hero.

This is quickly (but I suppose not surprisingly) turning from our re-tile the bath project to our re-model the bathroom project. Let's hope it looks okay when we are through!

Meg vs. The Bathroom: New goals

A friend that is going to help us re-tile our tub surround came over today to give us some guidance on the demolition we need to do to prepare. It is looking like a lot. Then he put some more ambitious ideas on our heads for this bathroom remodel. So... all of our current goals are being thrown out the window, and our goal for the next week before I take off for my mom's house is to get the bathroom all stripped down and patched and ready to tile. If I can find the chargers for either of our cameras, I will post pictures. I seriously cannot hold on to those things for some reason!

Buh-bye poorly-installed vinyl shower liner!