I love frosting!

I don't mean the stuff you put on cakes, though I love that too!  I'm talking about window frosting, as in the stuff that peeping toms hate.  Light comes in, but you can't see anything!  That's what we decided to put on our big corner window in the bathroom to prevent people (like our little construction buddies next door who are building that big, beautiful house) from sneaking a peek.

The window film stuff is pretty easy to put on.  It's basically 5 steps:

1. Clean your window. The cleanest it's ever been. Seriously. Anything left on your window will show, so make sure they are "Terri Goss" clean. (I love you, mommy!)
2. Cut your window film to size.
3. Spray your super clean window with soapy water (few drops of dish detergent in a spray bottle filled with cold water).  The more soapy water you spray on, the easier time you'll have getting the window film on, though don't use half your spray bottle.
4. Peel off the backing of the film and stick it on the window.
5. Once on, squeegee all the air bubbles out (this step takes the longest, probably a whole 4 to 5 minutes).

Window pane number one:

See the bottom left corner? All nice and frosted!

Now with three panes frosted...bottom right the only one not frosted at this point.

Another view...(crazy lighting and flash turned it yellow!)

And, the last one...

Done!  

Easy, cheaper than buying new windows and completely moisture safe.  Now, we'll have to pretty that window up, remove the old curtain hardware and it'll be good as new!  Also, you can clean the frosted windows like any other window - with Windex or your favorite window cleaning agent.  

One flannel sheet window hanging down, 3 more to go!

Hallway Bathroom & Little Bedroom...

...have been completely destroyed!!

Sheetrock has been torn out...bathroom totally gutted...

The shower tub has been relocated to it's new position at the back of the bathroom...woo hoo for no more one person, awkward layout bathroom! (Besides the fact it's - at the moment - completely unusable!)

Living in a constant state of dust and destruction is fun...

I lie. It's hard, but in the end I think it will be worth it. (Cliff, on the other hand, isn't so sure...)

A Cliff in the Toilet

Here are some more funny pictures of our goofball cat...

{We threw Blue Puppy in there with him...}

{He didn't like that...so he proceeded to attack the poor guy.}

Bath tub surround & toilet

The weekend wasn't AS productive as I was planning it to be. Mark worked on the tub and toilet a bit on Saturday (#1 from my last post); #2 and #3 didn't happen. At all. But, Mark has not had to work a lot this week, so he's been able to devote some time to our home projects.

Mark's been busy for about 2 days working on the master bath surround and we are now done...with the tiling...of the surround...only. So, yeah. We have more work to do, obviously. But this is a big step! We also installed our new toilet! (I see "we", but really, it's been all Mark.)

Mark brought me home this beauty on our anniversary (the Cliff was not included). No, this wasn't my present, but I was sure excited about it! It's a dual-flush toilet which uses much less water than traditional toilets and it was super reasonable because he got it from the distributor he uses for work.

{He fits perfectly inside it...and didn't want to leave.}

It's installed and is our only working toilet now!  It's great!  I would definitely recommend a dual-flush toilet to anyone looking to save water and save money.

Now for the tub surround...

It started out looking like this...

With just a little work, it became this...

Mark got the top tiled, the tub set in, plumbing all hooked up and our new faucet installed.  Looks pretty good, eh?! Especially with the very classy flannel sheet hanging in the window. Now that's what I call fancy!

Then, today when I got home from work, I discovered this...

{The black things poking out are screws...I think Mark is using them as spacers.}

{And here's a super close up.}

Mark has to let this set for a few days and then we'll grout it.  

About grouting...we went round and round trying to decide - sanded grout or non-sanded grout. Usually with smaller than 1/8" grout lines you use non-sanded grout, and with lines bigger than 1/8" you use sanded...but we've got a combination of grout line sizes. The grout lines aren't exactly equal because these tiles come on a 12"x12" mesh sheet. Mark decided to go with sanded grout.  We'll let you know how it turns out!

Tomorrow, we plan to take that flannel sheet window hanging down (sad, I know) and install our window frosting! Speaking of frosting your windows for privacy, check out these awesome options shown on decor8 - beautiful! Ours are just plain. Too bad, but it'll do the job.

Big plans for the weekend

I have a lot planned to accomplish this weekend...but in just a short amount of time.  I have a busy weekend ahead of me (Mark isn't as busy, lucky) but I still have high hopes that we can get something accomplished. From working a lot to the two of us being sick, not a lot has happened on the old remodeling front.  Here's my to-do list:

1 - Begin laying marble tile on the tub surround. We start with the "deck" which is the top. Once that's done, Mark can get the tub all situated correctly and cut the holes for the plumbing.  Once plumbing is in, he'll install the tub and work on the face of the tub surround.

The stone we picked is Botticino Marble and we got it in 2x4 subway tiles, which looks very similar to this picture...a very ivory color stone with a slight grey and/or beige undertone.  I wanted something that looked similar in color to our carpet, and this stuff is great!!

Click here to see the picture

2 - "Frost" our bathroom windows. I didn't really want curtains of other window coverings in our bathroom because we would pretty much always want them closed since the windows are big, there will be so much steam from the soaker tub which could mold or just make things icky, etc...so we decided to buy a frosted window film.  Never used this before. No idea how it will look, but John and Sherry from Young House Love used similar stuff in their basement remodel. I figured we could give it a try. Plus, I love how light still shines though the film. I really want a hanging plant or two near the windows, so that will work out great!

3 - Sand more of my dresser. No idea if I will get to this or not, but I am really anxious to finish refinishing my dresser.  So far, I have stripped all the paint, done rough sand, and now am going back over with a fine sanding pad using my really awesome birthday present from my hubby...

{Image courtesy of Power Tools UK}

For those of you wondering, I actually ASKED for this for my birthday. Keep your comments to yourself.  (Kidding!) Once I'm done sanding, I am going to slap on some wood conditioner, stain it, and then probably do a coat or two of semi-gloss polyurethane to protect it. I really, really, really want it to be done so I can use it. 

It's not a long list, but like I said, I have no idea how much of it we will even accomplish.  Wish us luck!

Little accomplishments...

I hate being too busy to work on house projects!  It seems like we've been stalled for a long time, and I feel like we need to break that cycle. Well, today we bought the material we need to tile the tub surround!  Mark is picking it up on Monday, so VERY SOON we'll have more things to post.

For now, I'll show you the little things we've been working on or accomplished recently...

The window seat/storage bench in our bedroom is practically done.  I still need to make a pad, sew cases for the large lumbar-type pillows, and shorten the curtains.  I want to find a cute pattern material to make more throw pillows...eventually my bed linens will match the grey/white/ivory-sand color pallet and half the pillows from the window seat will be on the bed.  Also, once we replace the windows, I want to add wood roller blinds because this window lets in a TON of light.  Like I say, it never ends...

Today, I had a little fun painting this old metal kitchen cart.  It's got a dent on the top I tried to hammer out...it's not perfect but that's okay.  I just have to find the perfect place for it...maybe my master bath to hold towels, tp, and a cutie little basket holding soap, etc?  Who knows, but it was a fun, fast $5 project.

And for the next big project...preparing to install the bathtub...

Have I mentioned that this is a 6' tub?!  It's HUGE! Mark and a friend of his built the tub surround last Saturday. Mark plans to do the plumbing for the tub and toilet at the same time, so we will soon be getting a toilet.  We want to get a dual-flush toilet - we're all about saving water and $$.  But, first thing's first - tiling the tub surround! We haven't decided 100% on the backsplash...but we have a couple options we're looking at.

Hopefully soon, I'll have more to share!

Happy April!

Sorry to be so silent around here!  We haven't had a change to work on much of anything. Mark has been busy with work and our weekends have been full of other things.  Our next project in the works is the master bath!

I'm sure it will look something like this:

{trendir}

or this:

{trendir}

 - - - I  W I S H ! ! - - -

or this:

{trendir}

How calm is this? Seriously.

Unfortunately, we don't have a million dollar budget and 1,000 square feet to work with, so it might up ending looking just a bit more modest than these gorgeous spaces, but it'll be all ours and it'll be great. :o)