As a way to cut down on the amount of money spent at Christmastime (and to limit the amount of useless crap we each accumulated), my family decided to start making gifts a few years ago. It was touch and go for a while, but thanks to creative online showcases like Pinterest, the quality of gifts has dramatically increased lately. This year, we made these chalkboards for some of the ladies on both sides of our families.
Our bathroom remodel is finally finished. Here are the before and after pictures:
After finally installing a proper toilet, I set about hanging the beadboard on the walls. I had been dreading this step because of all the intricate cuts that were involved. It would’ve been easy if it was just a matter of measuring and drawing lines; but as I’ve said before, nothing is plumb in my house. Beadboard is like graph paper; it’s easy to see angles on it. I was worried that even if I cut everything perfectly, it would still look bad as I lifted corners to make the seams fit snugly. I decided to start by lining up the two light switches. I’m a nut for symmetry. I took it as a good omen that the first piece of paneling only need to be trimmed once to fit.
Last week, I put on my general contractor hat and oversaw the tile and plumbing jobs. This is what the floor looks like:
On Monday afternoon, the wife put a couple of coats of stain blocking primer on the ceiling and walls. I realize I still have some bumps to smooth out on the ceiling patch, but it looks okay.
We’ve never been too pleased with the bathroom in our tiny house. The previous owners remodeled it immediately before selling. As a matter of fact, we first viewed the house when the room was under construction. In retrospect, I should have asked them to give us an allowance in lieu of finishing the room. They did some good structural work beneath the floor, but everything else was done on the cheap. Here’s what the room looked like when we bought the house. We tried to dress it up a bit with fixtures, but it was like putting lipstick on a pig.
