January 5, 2016

New Year, New Bathroom, New Hall!

Martie Big Creek Farmhouse Remodel after pics, bathroom remodel, beautiful transformation, hallway remodel, home improvements, New Bathroom, New Hall, paneling 14 Comments

Happy New Year! I got a new bathroom!  Ok, not really new, just a painted one. I got a new hall!  Ok, not really new, just a painted one.  But still!  Isn’t it exciting?

I’m a day late posting, but in the middle of my attempt to blog yesterday, Madre called with alarming news.  My sweet dog, Rock, was lifeless and whimpering.  I was terrified.  I called our Veterinarian, who sent someone out to pick him up (he’s at least 90 pounds, and was on Madre’s porch – 25 yards uphill from our vehicles. Coach was back at work today, so we were helpless).  Poor Rock was completely unresponsive by this point, eyes rolled back, tongue out.  I followed them into town, praying all the way, and found Rock still pretty much paralyzed, but still alive.  I had to leave him there, which was hard, but I knew he was in the best hands.  My Superman of a Vet instructed me to call in between 2:00 and 3:00 to check on him, which, of course, I did.  I got the news that Rocky was up and walking around!  I am headed in this morning to *hopefully* bring him home, but so thankful that he got to stay overnight for observation.  Prayers work, guys.  We’re still not sure what caused it, but it’s possible he could’ve gotten a poisoned mouse, or some poison that we thought would never be near him.  We don’t put any poison outside or anywhere near where our pups can get to it, but I’ve learned that mice like to tote their food around with them, so it’s possible he could’ve gotten into some that got dropped in transit.  We’ll be removing and safely disposing of all rodent poisons, and I’m back to planning outfits and names for all of our mice friends until I can come up with a safe solution.  Learn from our mistake!  No poison ANYWHERE if you have pets…it’s not worth the risk!  

New Bathroom!

Coach has been a busy, busy boy.  His Christmas break was hardly a break at all, aside from a 3-day trip to Sunny Florida to visit Daddy-O and JiJi that I had to beg and plead with him to take, just to get him to relax for a few days (that trip was awesome, by the way).  He worked like a mad man over the whole break, which is why I am able to present to you today the new year, new bathroom, new hall edition of A Hair In My Biscuit!

Another bathroom remodel so soon, you may ask?  Yes!  The master bath looks so pretty and new and clean, and the other tiny bathroom got jealous! Actually, Tigger and Pooh were the jealous ones, because “their” bathroom was pretty lackluster compared to our newly remodeled one. Now it really does look like a brand new bathroom! It started here: There is a mirror hanging above that hideous old sink cabinet, but it’s hung way up high, since it was Madre’s house and she is 6’3″ tall.  Tigger had finally grown enough to see the top of her head in the mirror, but nothing more.  We never got around to replacing it, because we knew we wanted to eventually paint in there. Just another reason we needed a new bathroom.

A few months ago, we had the massive sink cabinet replaced with this cute little pedastal-type basin and cabinet.

That sure did free up some room in there, but the bathroom as a whole still looked pretty much like crap (fitting, I suppose).  The paneling is very dated, and the blue paint was just not our style. The trim around the doors was actually the PVC-type stuff, which isn’t meant to be painted.  Madre, of course, painted it anyway, to fit her blue theme, and it was seriously scratched up. OH, how we needed a new bathroom.

Here’s another before shot, above the shower.

I chose a super-light grey paint, and we grabbed the kind with the primer already in it.

We decided to go with white for the doors and trim for a clean, crisp look.  Coach worked his magic, and the paneling and doors painted up nicely!  New, white trim around the doors and white molding finished the job!

The amazing after pics of our new bathroom!

Ok, so the ugly shower is still the same, but we can live with it.  It fits in the bathroom, which is a feat in and of itself!  The shower is clean, albeit old, and the water runs hot and strong out of our new shower head.

What more could we ask for in a new bathroom?

New Hall!

That’s not nearly all, guys.  Coach meant business!  Remember the hallway? Not just anyone can share a hallway remodel as fantastic as this!  We have before-before,

then midway before,

and now, we have after-before (because the flooring is still not completed)!

What a beautiful transformation!  Coach was a heck of a paint slinger over the past couple of weeks!  My favorite thing is the way he painted our “Cross and Bible” doors.  Madre had done some fancy tape and paint work on them in shades of green, so he tied in the grey by doing the same.  Coach took it a step further and painted the louvered doors on the hall closet gray, as well.  I absolutely love how it turned out!  Painting each little slat was no simple project, but Tigger stepped in and helped with her tiny hands and a tiny brush on the corners.

Just so you know, I did not stand around asking questions and snapping pictures like I usually do.  For much of this project I was cooking for Christmas, finishing up my handmade gifts, and tangling myself up in tape and wrapping paper (what’s known to most people as wrapping gifts).  Painting that tiny bathroom was a one man job, because there’s no way two people could fit in there at one time.  I did help Coach cut and hang the trim in the bathroom, but not without cussing a lot and telling him that I was getting a headache from all the math he was making me do.

As this house has shown us time and again, completing a project usually gets followed by some type of problem.  Only minutes after hanging the last piece of molding in the bathroom, Tigger alerted us to a dripping sound.  Apparently, one of the lines that takes hot water from the heater to the kitchen decided to spontaneously spring a leak.  The fun part was the way that water line runs under the stairs and then overhead in the kitchen, requiring my 6’3″ Coach to crawl around in the tiny attic crawlspace to fix it. We got it shut off before too much damage could be done, but we will definitely be painting the kitchen ceiling…again.  Thank goodness for Coach, Home Depot, and good friends, because Coach and his best good buddy got it all fixed yesterday (Sunday, since I lost yesterday with the dog scare),  just in time for their Christmas break to end today (yesterday)!

Lucky for me, the girls don’t start back until tomorrow (which is now today)!  I get got one more day with them to finish off the most wonderful, magical Christmas break I’ve had since I was a child (until my pup got sick). It was the first time in the girls’ lives that I got to be home with them for the whole break, and we all loved it so much! Today (yesterday), we spend gift cards (we still went, so we could avoid sitting around worrying – Rocky was in good hands, and we were basket-cases).  One last shopping and lunch trip before reality kicks in again (it was pretty fun, even with our worried minds and repeated phone calls to the Vet).

For the record, I wasn’t lazy while the water leak was being fixed, either!  On Wednesday I’ll be showing off even more home improvements!  My tiny kitchen has been waiting for me to show it some love for a while, although thankfully it was not asking for paint (until the water leaked on the ceiling). I broke out my organization skills, so stay tuned for the photographic evidence of the results midweek!

Pretty please, leave me a few words and let me know how you like all the work that Coach has done!  I will pass every comment along to him!  I would say that your positive feedback will keep him motivated, but we really are done for a while.  Once the weather turns warm again, the creaky, crooked floors will get their turn.

For the rest of winter, we shall sit back and enjoy the beauty of all the work we’ve already done in the warmth of our new-roof-new-insulation-new-heating-unit-fire-in-the-wood-stove home!!  You guys want to come over for hot chocolate?

X,O,X,O,   Martie

(If you’re the praying kind, please send one up for sweet Rocky.  I have every confidence in Dr. Wyatt Galbraith, D.V.M., Pulaski, Tennessee, but God is the ultimate healer.  I’m ready to bring my sweet boy home to his lonesome brother!)

This post is linked up with Wonderful Wednesday!