camptastic

I just want to send a big thank you out to Mother Nature right now.  We watched the forecast and anticipated copious amounts of rain all weekend, to cause a serious damper (pun intended) on our little camping trip this weekend in WVA.   It was certainly gray and cool, and a little misty, but no steady rainfall at all until after dinner last night.  We all huddled under canopies and had a jolly ole' time in spite of it all.   And sleeping in a tent while its raining is actually quite nice.  We were dry and quite comfortable. Today it stopped raining when we all woke up and most of our stuff even got to dry out before we had to pack up.  When the sun came out, we were actually missing the cool, misty weather, as the sun brought humidity and gnats. 

The trip was a big success, and big time fun.  My Mom, Robby, my bro Chris and Jessica and the twins, and two sets of dear friends I've known since we were all 13 came with their families and toughed it out with us.  My friends live in eastern MD and we hardly ever get to see each other, so this was a great chance to catch up and for our kids to get to know each other.  Another dear high school friend, Soo, whom I haven't seen in well over 15 years lives in WVA near the campsite, and came for a few hours last night.  15 years and we were still laughing like we used to when we were in high school!  Maybe even more.

The kids all played so nicely and there was lots of campy type fun ... headlamps, s'mores, bike riding, all-day happy hour, and general running all over the campground.  We came home late this morning, muddy, smelly, and a pile-o-stuff to hose off and dry out in the front yard.  I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm really looking forward to my king size memory foam bed tonight.

This is only our third time camping, but we really enjoy it.  I love that its an inexpensive, fun way we can meet up with our family and friends, and get such quality time together.  Its hours of time to have conversations and laughter, play with each others' kids, eat together and reminisce about the old days.  Its such a great way to make new memories.  And, it doesn't matter what the weather is.  Its ALL about the company with you.

We learn a few new tricks every time we go.  This time, we borrowed a canopy from good friends who couldn't come, and we'll be buying one to always set up over our picnic table.  It keeps the sun or dew/rain off your eating area, and ensures you'll have a dry place to eat and gather.  We drove two cars so we could easily fit everything we wanted to bring without cramming it in, and have access to a car if we needed to leave the campground. Andrew always turns his car into a tarp/shelter area and we can't drive it after that until we take it down.  We're getting better at what  kind of meals to make/bring.  This time, we pre-kabobed some marinated chicken and made foil veggie packets to grill on the campfire, delicious with hummus and naan from Trader Joe's. Breakfast burritos are another big hit, and easy if you bring Egg Beaters.  We had a small cooler on wheels, just for clean ice for drinks.  A welcome mat in front of our tent and an old towel inside the tent door kept our tent floor pretty clean.  A loud fan running helps drown out any camp site noise... its a must for me.  I slept great both nights, and so did the kids.   And you really have to wear some sort of Croc/rubber shoes if possible for easy hosing off.

My Mom and Robby, chillin'

doughnut time!

Breakfast burritos, yum

 Trying to bounce all the kids off the bouncy pillow

Dylan and his bike rental, loved it!

ride that horse froggy!

Pony surfing.

Jay and I have known each other since middle school.  Lots of hilarious memories!

Tim, another dear old friend.

Andrew with Tim and Heidi's dog Harley

Heidi in the picnic house, cuttin' up melon

Andrew's pretty drinks

Heidi and Jessica

Mairin roasts her marshmallows

My bro and Jessica

the kids watched a movie in Tim and Heidi's RV

such a great dog!

campfire fun!

Bananagrams, and my friend Soo came to visit.. we haven't seen each other in over 15 years!

Logan snuggles up.

my brother and his high red neck fashion

putt putt!

all of our collective kids.

What a great weekend.  I can't wait for some more camping adventures this summer and fall!

bathroom update, day 5

Just snapped a few photos of today's progress.   I don't really know the proper terms for half of this stuff so I'll make it up as I go along. 

Today Craig installed the shower liner and thinset (?) for the shower floor, and put in the new drain.  He finished installing the light switch for the new overhead shower light, and filled in the outside facing shower wall with some foamy stuff (?).  I believe tomorrow he'll be covering that with plastic and will start hanging the shower drywall.  Tomorrow I believe he'll also be re-installing the newly refinished bathroom vanities Andrew has been working hard on to get just to just the right shade for the past several days. Craig also has the heating element wiring in place and a dedicated circuit for the heated floor, so we aren't blowing a fuse everytime we heat the floor and blowdry at the same time.    Also, he had to find a safe place to install the switch for the new light so we don't eletricute ourselves.

He has the new half shower wall framed in, and within that wall we have a 20 or so inch niche/shelf to hold our various toiletries and smell goods.   He laid down the Durock flooring and the step into the tub.

I'm sure he did much more than that as he put in a nice long day today, but much of what he does has still been the structural stuff. We're  not to the exciting 'pretty' stuff yet, but I can't wait for that.

He'll be back tomorrow and Thursday, then we're all taking a break and having a three day weekend.  We're heading camping here with family and friends (hopefully it won't rain like it did last year during our very first camping attempt with kids), and Craig's son is graduating from college.

He'll pick it up again next week and by then I would imagine we'll start seeing some stone and tile in place and getting a better feel for how its all going to look.  We've purchased two new mirrors to hang over both vanities, and got our paint.  I can't wait to see it all come together.  Once its done, I think I'll just live in the bathroom for a while until I've taken it all in.   Logan keeps thinking he's going to wake up in the morning to a whole new bathroom.  I wish it could happen that quickly!

Two things I imagine we'll be doing by the end of next week are getting the granite countertops measured exactly (the granite we chose currently sits at the warehouse with our name on it), and contacting the frameless shower glass people to come out and measure our specs so they can custom make our glass.

Cha-ching.

shower floor, looks like mud

New recessed light will go above shower in the bulkhead. 

Half wall with a built in niche for products. 

Frameless glass with go on top, and frameless glass shower door will go beside this.

day 4

Not much to take photos of today so I didn't.

Craig spent most of his time on electrical wiring for the new light over the shower, and getting power to the new floor heating. He needed to dedicate a circuit to that, so he was cutting holes out of the garage wall to run wiring from the basement to the bathroom, putting in switches, and he framed out the niche for the shower wall, and filled in some of the crevices in the shower wall with foam.  Ripped out the medicine cabinet and sawed some more holes in the floor.  He also cut out the drywall where the new light will be installed above the shower, and realized the light we wanted to put there isn't going to work. The light that will work is a special order item that might take a few days to come in.  But at least he got all the wiring done and all he has to do is install it once it comes in.

Will take photos by end of day tomorrow. We're really liking our contractor and I told him in two years we'll be calling him to redo the kitchen.  First, the wallet will have to recover from this one!

weekend wrap up

This past weekend was one of those weekends we never slowed down except to sleep.  T-ball picture day, t-ball game, book fair at Dylan's school (breath), Dylan attended a fun football birthday party, then we all attended a Kentucky Derby street party (breath, sleep).  Mothers Day breakfast, made by Andrew, followed by errands, lunch with just Dylan, then prepared dinner for Andrew's best friend from college who in DC this week to lobby for healthcare.

Mint Juleps!

Pony races for dollars

Andrew and the boys got me this awesome hand stamped handmade necklace from Etsy, with the boys birthstones and birthdays.  Love it!  And I love that site.  Its very dangerous though, from a time and money standpoint (you can spend a lot of both!). He also ordered me this Banksy print from Etsy that I love for our family room, it hasn't arrived yet.  And no, Logan was not born July 9th, his birthday is the 8th.  A new charm is on the way for him.   :)

el bano, tres dias

Yesterday was day 3 of the bathroom metamorphosis.  Contractor Craig wasn't here long.. he had to go back to Mosaic to pick up our floor tile which looks a lot like like this, but with tumbled edges, plus ours are cut rectangular (we're doing a herringbone pattern for the floor). We're hoping our river rock (below) will come in early next week, and then we'll have all the materials (other than the granite and shower glass..those come late in the game).   The river rock will be our shower floor, some framed design features on the wall, and on the deck around our bib tub. This photo doesn't really do it justice.. its a really pretty natural willow/sage green color. And its sliced so its comfortable to stand on.

Yesterday Craig basically finished the demolitian, and started repairing the floor area and roughing out the shower and new shower wall/bench area.  Here are a few shots of that..

He's creating a step into our big tub.  There's never been a step in there before, and its a miracle none of us have busted our asses getting in and out of the deep tub.  The kids use our tub all the time and its really an accident waiting to happen with no step. This will be much better.

Today has been a whirlwind so far, and we're gearing up for a birthday party over at Tatertown, and then heading to a Kentucky Derby party.  I've got two bourbon chocolate pecan pies in the oven right now, and my friend shared the most delicious recipe for Trisha Yearwood's crunchy Asian coleslaw, so I made a double batch of that too.

Logan had a t-ball game this morning, and when we got home a special delivery arrived for me, from an anonymous sender.

I don't know who the mystery sender is, but you made my day, thank you. They look incredible.  Now excuse me, while I go stick my face in them!

from Dylan

Equally as sweet to what Logan gave me yesterday for Mother's Day, this came home in Dylan's backpack today.   I'll type it below since I coudn't get a good photo, and the handwriting is, well, a little rough.

My Mom loves me BEST when I - am funny.

My Mom looks prettiest when - she has makeup on. (thanks, I think?)

I like being alone with Mom best when - we are at the lake house.

My Mom really laughs when I - tell jokes.

If I had $100 I would buy my Mom - a hot tub.

The funniest thing about my Mom was the time she - threw a pencil out the window.  (WTF??)

My Mom is a SUPER cook especially when she fixes - pizza.

If it weren't for you Mom, I wouldn't exist.

bathroom demo, day deux

While I was busy today being overwhelmed by cuteness at preschool, taking Logan to taekwondo and enjoying time outside with the boys after school, Contractor Craig was busy continuing ripping out the crappy bathroom.  He could only put in about 3 hours today but made lots of progress.

Andrew is working on stripping down our current vanity cabinets and we're (when I say 'we' I mean 'he') going to re-finish them with a dark espresso stain.  We shopped and shopped for vanities and couldn't find anything we liked in our price range.  The vanity we had is in great shape, very sturdy and lots of storage.  We think with a completely different finish, two new sparkling white (rectangular) undermount sinks, two completely new granite tops, new faucets, and new knobs, the vanity will look completely updated and fit in with our 'spa' motif.  To buy a completely new vanity as sturdy and offering as much storage would have cost somewhere in the range of a cajillion dollars more.  And we already promised our life savings and possibly our children to the shower glass and granite guys.

Here are photos from Day 2.  The trash guys were not happy with us today, and accidentally shattered the vanity top and part of the shower door all over the road.  But away it all went... all that gross flooring, old nasty fixtures and tile, shower floor, shower doors and rotten floor boards.  Gone, just like that.

Having a toilet in your yard just resonates high class!

bye-bye bathroom from hell!

Why yes, that is a giant hole in our floor.

Hole in the floor. If I stepped on this I'm sure I'd fall right thru to the family room.

Lots of nice mold and rot behind the shower wall too, ugh.

Of course, I'm so excited to see the finished bathroom but I know its a couple of weeks away. And sharing the kids bathroom with them isn't all that bad. Their shower is in MUCH better shape than ours ever has been!

The hardest part is the middle of the night pee break...  I had to tell myself when I woke up at 2 a.m. last night, "Don't go in your bathroom, you'll definitely get a splinter.  Plus, there is no toilet and you might fall thru the ceiling!".  You remember that scene from The Money Pit....

Preschool Mothers Day Party

This morning, I attended a very special Mother's Day party at Logan's preschool (the last of the preschool years, sniff).  The kids have been busy for two weeks making gifts, pictures and animals masks for a little performance.  They served us snacks, and took great pride finally revealing all these secrets they've had to keep!

I say it often, but its been amazing watching Logan blossom at preschool this year.  His teacher comments often how much he's evolved since September, and what great participant he is in school.  I'm a proud mama, and a lucky one too.

A little video snippet (taken with new camera .. had to figure out how to do it very quickly so only got Logan's part).

We decorated a flower pot together and planted basil seeds.

I love these questionaire's... apparently, I love to watch Phineas and Ferb, buy cheese and cook bacon (who doesn't?)!

They made handmade notecards for us.  His teacher said they used shaving cream mixed with Bio-Color paint to stain the paper, then die cut patterns to make the cards.  Very cool.  Sounds like something we might have to try ourselves on a rainy day!

I love you buddy!  Thank you for a very special morning!

day one

Craig, our contractor, arrived around 1 pm today and got the demolitian underway.  I couldn't wait to see what was under the crappy old linoleum that was all water stained.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.  Whoa.   Holy rotten floor and mildew infestation.

Half our old shower and flooring is sitting by the curb right now.  Hasta luego craptastic bathroom! When this is over, we're going to have to throw a party in our bathroom.  Everyone bring your own loofa!

before

As I've mentioned, we've been living with a deteriorating, builders grade, mildew-infested, water damaged master bathroom for a few years.    After watching 127 Hours last night, I realize this isn't as bad as cutting off my own arm with a dull, dirty pocket knife while severely dehydrated.  However, living with the fear that one day our shower might just actually fall thru the ceiling into the family room has not been a barrel of laughs either.

We approached the project a couple of years ago, shuddered at the estimates and bought lots of bathroom rugs to cover up the ugly.

The first of this year, we decided THIS would be the year to do it.  No more putting it off.  Sign off on the estimates and suck it up.

Today, the demolitian begins. 

We've spent weeks choosing stone, rock, granite, fixtures, and all the appropriate bathroom accoutrements.   We're ready to rock.  Of course, as with any home improvement project, there have already been a few debaucles and we're fully expecting more.   The tile shop ordered the wrong river rock. There is a delay with our granite.   It'll all work out.  Time to open a bottle of wine, sit back and watch the beautification begin.

If all else fails, we'll have a nice new toilet. Andrew found a toilet that will flush an entire bucket of golf balls.

I'm embarrassed to post these 'before' photos but in order to get the full effect of  'before' and 'after' its necessary.   We had a mushroom grow out of caulk seal by our shower people. 

I'm not even kidding.

So, here they are. The 'before' photos.   Stay tuned for most posts of the progress and the unveiling of the new master bathroom (with my favorite part...heated floors!).

shower leaking into the floor for who knows how long... See that dark corner by the shower frame?  That is the site of the mushroom.

so many stains and so much mildew, its impossible to look clean anymore

Goodbye disgusting, nasty bathroom!