We got so much done today!

Bathroom is done (almost, lol). We even got the old silicone stripped off the tub and tub surround and put down new stuff. Boy does that make a difference. The bathroom would be completely done but we were mysteriously short 2 ft of baseboard. We have since found the baseboard when we cleaned out the disaster of a front porch. We have been storing all our work crap in there while we were doing the bathroom. Most of that crap has been moved to garage now, lol. So there is a 2 ft piece of baseboard left to be put on in the bathroom and then the paint touched up on it, and it will really be all done in there.

I decided that for now I am going to keep our white shelving unit in there. It looks fine when it's not all cluttered and since we will be selling the house soon, why buy a new linen shelf (the one I want is about $100) when I don't know if it will even go anywhere in our next house. We do want to buy a small shelf to put some decorative candles on for above the toilet though.

We also (and by we I mostly mean Chris, although I did help by standing on a piece of board every now and again) finished the porch floor. The tiles in there were the same as what used to be in my bathroom so it was in desperate need of a flooring makeover. These tiles were so easy to peel off though, each one came of whole, and it only took a few minutes. Chris is at this very moment putting the baseboards back on, that's how done the floor is! We still have to rehang the closet doors and although I would like to do that tonight yet, Chris is looking pretty tired and he has a First Aid course to study for tonight yet. We'll see.

Chris must not have hated working with me to do all these renos too much since one of the first things he asked me when the flooring was getting layed in the porch was which room was next, lol. He wants to do something in the kitchen, I'm not so sure. I'd just like to get my house back to being clean and uncluttered for at least a week first, lol.

Monster Trucks!

We thought about maybe travelling home to see Chris's parents today, but those plans changed once we got a call from a friend of Chris's. Every year this friend offers us free tickets to see the Monster Truck show, and believe it or not, our girls LOVE it! Today was the last day to go.

We find that the length of the show is too much and the seats are in the so called 'nosebleed' section, but we have fun anyways. Personally I like where our seats are each year. We're quite high up, but we can see over the whole track.

We arrived at 1pm to pick up our free tickets at the back entrance, and the show did not start until 2pm. We left at 5pm since Beth and Anna just could not stand any more. Having to sit for that long, combined with the noise and fumes was just too much. We watched the last of the monster truck free style and then left. There was still a demolition derby left to see (cars, not monster trucks), but we had to get out of there. We see one or two demo derby's every summer anyways, and Chris's brothers and brother in laws are often driving or in the pit crews at those ones, so it's more fun for the girls to watch those ones.

Don't be deceived by the name of the show leading you to believe it's all Monster Trucks though. Actually there is less time devoted to monster trucks than anything else, but they are what draws the crowds in. Along with the trucks there is motocross racing, super cycles, tough truck racing and souped up ride on lawn mower racing!

Here are a couple more pictures. Unfortunately I don't know how many more pics I'll be taking in the future since during the Monster Truck show the cars were not the only things that got crushed. Our camera experience and crunching of it's own when it got folded in an arena seat and now the LCD screen is cracked inside. The display just shows a mess of black and white now with cracks. It still takes pictures okay, you just have to use the old fashioned view finder and you can't changed any of the options on the menu. I guess we'll be camera shopping one of these days.

More from my Bathroom

We got back to work on the bathroom yesterday. We did start to have some mitre saw malfunctions though so we were unable to finish. We got the molding around the wainscoting up and one of the baseboards and 2 of the crown molding pieces. It looks so sharp! You'll see I got a new shower curtain as well. I saw a few with great designs which I would have loved, but thought since we'll be putting the house on the market soon that I should keep it simple and I went with plain white.

Before molding



After molding



Baseboard



Crown Molding

Day in the City

The kids are off school this week, Chris is off work today and this weekend. It was the perfect time to have a family day! We spent the morning just lazing around. In fact when a friend knocked on our front door this morning at about 10:30am, had he just walked in he would have found all five of us in my room laying in bed, talking and laughing. We quickly threw on some housecoats and answered the the door for our wake up call, lol.

So, after our company left and we were all cleaned up and dressed we headed off for our day in the city. First stop was to pick up some laminate for the porch floor. We haven't gotten around to finishing the bathroom and we already have plans to start a new room, lol. Next was off for a fancy lunch at Burger King. It was the kids' treat, they love the play area, and with the cold weather we've been having a chance to run and climb was great for them.

Since Old Navy was nearby we popped over to look for some jeans for Katie. She's so skinny it's one of the only places I can get pants that fit her. While we were in Old Navy, Chris took the other girls to Future Shop. The jeans were on a great sale (normally $29 a pair and on for 2 for $25, who could pass that up?), so I planned to get some for Beth as well. Katie found a couple pairs she liked and finished trying them on just in time to find Chris and the girls looking for us in the girls section of the store. Chris had found a great deal on a 1GB mp3 player (not free, like all you lucky USA buy.com shoppers, not even close to free actually, but whatever) so he picked that up for me since I had mentioned earlier in the day that we should give Beth my mp3 player (which is only 256mb) for her birthday and upgrading to a 1GB for myself. He also found the Lego Star Wars game for the girls for their gamecube. They had played the demo on the playstation and loved it. Chris loves shopping at Future Shop unattended by me, lol. But back to Old Navy jeans... I found a couple pairs for Beth to try on. The ones I had bought her in September were starting to get tight, so for a sale, I figured a couple more couldn't hurt. The size 5's were much too big in the waist, but oddly enough the size 6 slims fit her perfectly everywhere. How do they figure out their sizes? Anna's not a big fan of jeans so I didn't bother getting her to try any on, and we started to leave. Of course we walked by all the Valentine's themed clothes on sale and I picked up a pair of pyjama pants for $3.97 for myself and a pair of $1.97 boxers for Chris. I love sales!!

Next stop was the movies. We went to see Night at the Museum which is a GREAT family movie. It had a couple scary parts, but nothing gory scary or anything. The girls loved it (well Anna got a little bored) and so did Chris and I. I would definitely recommend this movie to everyone! I can't believe how much it costs to take a family of 5 to a new movie though. Usually we just take the kids to matinees at the cheap theatre, and although this was a matinee, the prices were no cheaper than the evening prices. It cost us $42 to all see the movie. That did not include snacks! At least it was a good movie, lol.

Finally, who can spend a family day in the city, and not hit Walmart. I have discovered that Chris loves a sale as much as I do. We were in the shoe isle looking for new ballet slippers for Beth when we found cute little boots in the the girls' sizes on for $5. I would have let them try them on and not have bought them, but Chris could not resist those puppy dog eyes. Cute boots, but maybe a little teenager-ish? They love them though.

They didn't have any in Anna's size though and she was almost in tears wishing she could get boots, so she found her own pair she wanted.

Not on sale, but you can never have enough pairs of rubber boots right? Funny thing is she loves her boots as much, if not more, than Katie and Beth love theirs.

No one was hungry after the movie treats so instead of hitting a restaurant before going home we picked up something easy we could make and headed back home. The girls picked at the food when we got home and then went to try out their new game while I charged my new mp3 player and loaded it with music. It was a great day.

Bathroom's at a standstill. I'm waiting on Chris to do some caulking so that I can finish painting. Once the wall is painted we can do the baseboards etc.

In other new, Beth and Anna are sick. They are coughing like crazy and it sounds awful. I just want to do all the coughing for them. It's worse at night when they are laying down so I give them cough suppressant before bed. I think it made Beth high though. About an hour after she fell asleep she woke up coughing and called "Daddy". Chris asked what she wanted and we both heard "Can I have some mushrooms?", he replied with a confused "What?" and she said "I'm Hungry." Chris went in and layed her back down, and she fell back asleep.

She doesn't even like mushrooms. I'll have to ask her if she remembers in the morning, lol.

So the kids are off school this week for February break. So far the kids have not made me too crazy, but I did need a bit of a nap this afternoon. We're all enjoying sleeping in and staying in our jammies til noon though. There's still 5 more days til school is back in. The kids also have next Monday off which drags the break out a bit longer. Chris has the weekend off so we might go somewhere for Sunday and Monday. We'd go earlier but both Katie and Beth have birthday parties to attend at the pool in town. That reminds me I have to check and see if I can find their bathing suits. They'll look awful silly arriving in their jammies.

Solution...A bucket.

I know I said a bucket wouldn't do it, but that's what we used. We didn't have to use it 'that' way though, lol. Chris wedged a bucket in the toilet tank and the put the part that fills the tank with water into the bucket. The float was also in the bucket, but the goal was to have the float so high, that no water would actually be taken into the tank. Chris hooked the toilet back up to the water and I turned the water on and not only were there no leaks in the sink pipes which had been taken off and put back on, but the tank did not fill with water. That's a good thing, because the tank was not actually connected to the toilet. To 'flush' we had to dump a bucket of water into the toilet and the water would slowly drain. Not a great long term solution by any means, but it worked for the evening.

While I was at preschool this morning, my wonderful husband zipped into the city, tried a couple stores and found a tank that would fit. Of course the salespeople at both stores tried to tell him you can't mix and match toilets and tanks, and one lady even told him no one in the city would sell him a tank without an attached toilet (yet they have separate prices...hmmm), but he did come home with just a tank, and it fits wonderfully. When I walked in the door after preschool he was almost done, he was just on his way downstairs to turn the water back on. And again, no leaks!

So I have a toilet which is great, and I have a pretty, almost finished bathroom, which is even better. But I know as soon as we get the very last thing done in the bathroom Chris will get his transfer notice and it will be official that I won't get to enjoy my bathroom for very long, lol.

Wall - done...Floor - almost done...Toilet- don't ask

We had a very productive day in our bathroom today and I bet that's something you don't hear people say out loud everyday!


We had the water off in the whole house for most of the day (it's still off) because our stupid house does not have separate shut offs for the toilet or bathroom sink (or kitchen sink for that matter). So while we were working we had not water, and no toilet. Luckily the kids were able to hold it from when they went after lunch when the water was shut off until our friends' kids got home from school so we could use their toilet. We also picked up Chinese and went there for supper and had one more potty break over there before bedtime. They are only a couple houses away so it's not too bad, but remember, it's -30C here, a quick trip to the potty means we have to get all dressed up in winter gear.

Anyways what we accomplished today was:

1. Wainscoting wall is up. We used some click together pine boards that are about 3" wide. It took quite a while to get them up. We debated working around the toilet tank but decided to take it off completely and do the boards completely behind the toilet. Aesthetically it was a good choice. However in reality, it was a bad choice. Now our toilet tank will NOT fit back on. It needs the extra 3/8" to move back to fit onto the toilet so it will seal and we can turn the water on. Honestly I have no idea what we are going to do. Chris wants to go into the city tomorrow and find a tank that will fit, but what about in the meantime? We're going to need water by tomorrow morning. I didn't shower today and I am supposed to be the helper at preschool tomorrow....I need to shower. The kids and I are going to need to pee in the morning or maybe even in the middle of the night. A bucket is just not going to do it. Ughhhh.


2. Flooring is down. We need to cut one strip for in front of the door but other than that it is complete. Unless we have to buy a completely new toilet, or have to move our toilet forward (which I do not think is easy and may require a real plumber). If we have to do either of those we are going to have to un-install the flooring and then do it all again later.


Otherwise my bathroom looks amazing! I love the floor, I love the wall, and I love the color. We still have lots of work left, like baseboards, crown molding, molding for on top of the wainscoting and touch ups and everything still needs silicone, but it looks so pretty. I'm going to get new towel bars and a new shower curtain to match as well, but that can wait for a while.

And just a reminder of what it looked like before:

The worst haircut ever...UPDATE.

A few people have asked about Anna's hair, how well it's been growing back since she cut it all be herself in August. If there was a contest for the worst self inflicted child's haircut, Anna would win, hands (or should I saw scissors) down. Most kids cut a chunk off the front, not great, but it usually grows out withing a couple of months, and with girls you can usually hide it with barrettes. Anna however cut a very large portion of hers off in the back. It was terrible. Here's a reminder:

She had it cut so close to her scalp, like a shave almost. It's grown a lot since then, but it still looks awful unfortunately. We're able to hide it with well placed pony tails and barrettes thank goodness, but I just want her hair back.

Here's a picture from the other morning. She had slept with the pony tails in which is why they are so loose and wild, but you can see how her hair has grown, probably about an inch or so longer than it was when she cut it

I am trying to convince her to get it cut at the salon but she tells me she likes it this way. I'm not going to make her get it done kicking and screaming, because although it probably impossible, it could look even worse. Nah, who I am kidding, it couldn't look worse.

More bathroom work

We finally got a chance to get back to working in our bathroom. Today we got the molding around the tub surround on and the window trim. It still needs to be siliconed but the look won't change too much after that is done.



Here is the tub before and after. Notice how dark it is in the after picture. It doesn't look like a lot of work but it took us all day. Well all afternoon I slept all morning because I felt like I was going to die of food poisoning or something. I'm much better now.

Tomorrow we are going to tackle the floor. Right now it's peel and stick tile, and we are replacing that with laminate. We don't know how much give for room we're going to have to replace the toilet over the laminate so we are tearing the tile out rather than putting the laminate right over top of the tile. It's stuck down pretty good. Took me a long time to get off the amount I did tonight, so it will be an all day job tomorrow. The tiles are 1'x1' but as you can see from the second picture you have to pry them up piece by piece.

And just for fun I'll throw in the pictures from the kitchen cabinets. We changed all the door and drawer handles last week. They were green plastic and are now a brushed metal. It's hard to tell from the pictures but they sure look a lot nicer.

Poor Daddy

I'm babysitting my nephews this weekend while my sister and brother in law move into their new house. They are so excited about this move and I cannot wait to see their new place. I thought it would be easier on them not to worry about the boys being in the way so I offered to keep them for a couple nights. It would give them a break and my girls LOVE to play with their cousins. Since we've been home they have played preschool (Beth was the teacher) and taken every toy the girls own out to play with. They are all having a ball.

Now, my girls have seen a baby boy's bum being changed a few times in their lives, but it never fails to amaze them. Beth and Anna watched intently as I changed one of the boys and Beth commented that boys had a noodley thing on their bums. Anna said it was a wiggly thing. I reminded them that it was called a penis and that a girl had a vagina. Beth then told Anna that ALL the boys have penises, even daddy, but his is bigger because mommy's is bigger too. Anna gave her the most disgusted look and then told her that daddy did not have a penis, he had a 'gina and some boys have 'ginas. Poor Daddy.