A new day.

I'm so glad it's today.

Yesterday was a rough one.  Most of the day was really good, but once the girls and I got home from all the stuff we'd done all day, well, I was done.

Physically.  Emotionally.  Spiritually.

To top things off Josh didn't get home until nearly 8:00.  Any minute past 5:00 feels like an hour, especially after a tiring day.  So, at about 6:30 I told the girls I was done and I headed to bed. 

I turned on Casting Crowns Pandora station.  I tried to pray aloud, but have you ever felt so junky about yourself you couldn't even pray?  That was where I was.

Josh came home, I heated up his dinner (chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy. If you're curious) and went back to bed.  He came up shortly after.  Read a magazine.  Quietly.  Then I started coughing and couldn't quit.  He gave me NyQuil, which I haven't had since childhood and OH MY WORD it's still as nasty as I remember.  It killed my cough and knocked me out and I woke up today feeling like a new person.

A happier person.

I woke up to this.

Rain.  To wash away my yesterday.

Sunrise.  New day.  New mercies.

poop post

Just the title should send you running.  It really should.

Yesterday afternoon there was still no working toilet. We were all still using the back porch. Even my mom who came to visit.  She's such a trooper.

But then one of my girls and I didn't hafta just urinate. And it was like reliving our life in the Peterbilt.  

As if shitting (pardon the launguage, but seriously I'm at the point where I'm allowed a few bad words) in a plastic bag isn't bad enough, hauling it outside is pretty mortifying, but finding that the dog has knocked that huge garbage can over and ravaged what you just put in there?

Well.

I sent Amber a goodbye forever text. I was ready to slit my own wrists.

But then Josh got our toilet hooked up and all is right in my world again. 

And thank goodness he got it working when he did. I have a sick kiddo today who needs this thing.

The one where I piss and moan.

Guys. I'm about to whine and be a big, fat, sissy-la-la right now. I suggest if you don't wanna hear about my first world problems, you click that little x at the top right.

I am in quite a bit of pain. The work we did Saturday was very physically demanding. We did some spring cleaning with our bible study group and then we did the work in our basement for the bathroom.  2x10s and sledgehammers are not my friends.

Yesterday while I was driving I could feel some pain in my back.  After my drive and getting out of the car I could hardly walk. So. Much. Pain.

I have iced it. I have heated it. I've tried muscle relaxers.  I just hurt and nothing is helping.

Especially not the squatting outside to pee!  And what's the plastic bag quota per person for the duration of their life? Because I do believe I have reached mine.

I was going to go to the laundromat today. I was going to find a way to refill my five gallon jug so I could do dishes today.  My back was like, "yeah, good luck even moving today."

I haven't done laundry since last Tuesday.  I haven't done dishes since Friday. I miss running water.

And a toilet.

And a back that works.

Whine over.

PS: on my drive yesterday I stopped at a park to use the bathroom only to find this: 

WELCOME TO MY LIFE, INTERNETS.

bathroom progress

Oi.

It has been a long weekend of working on this bathroom.  But we are finally at a point where things are being put back together instead of being torn apart.

This is progress.

Yesterday the bathroom (if you can call it that) looked like this:

Josh is standing in the bathroom and the basement at the same time.  Sigh.

The floor coming out was not planned, but isn't that the way it goes?  

Now the bathroom floor looks like this:

In the top left is where the toilet will go, pretty much where it was before, but it used to face south, now it will face east toward the double vanity I bought off CraigsList for $50. (That vanity is another blog post all its own.  I have had it in my basement waiting for this bathroom remodel to happen. Excited to put 'er to use!)

If you were to be standing in front of the toilet, to the left of it will be a wall and the tub.  Yesterday we put in some supporting beams in the basement because our tub is cast iron and freaking heavy.  It's one item I refuse to give up. I lurve my bathtub. 

I'm looking forward to the window being exposed instead of hidden behind a shower curtain.  Natural light makes my heart happy.

Drywall should be going up in a couple of days and this is the area where I will do most of the work.  I'll be glad to feel like I'm contributing to this project instead of just being the girl who hands over the hammer or screw gun or the level.

Josh doesn't care for drywall work and I find that I am good at it and enjoy it. 

On Friday night Josh cut off all plumbing to the house.  All of it.  No water.  No toilet.  I had called about having an outhouse delivered but opted to take care of my own pee for free.  So I've been sitting on my back porch and peeing off the side of it.

You're welcome for that bit of info.

When we tell people we've gutted our bathroom and have no toilet, their response has been, "but it's your second bathroom, right? You have another."

Uh.

Nope.

And then they don't actually say the question aloud, but I can read it by their expression, so I just answer with more information than they care to know.

"So, yeah, we just pee outside."

A friend from our bible study group called last night and asked if we wanted to use their bathroom before they headed off to bed.  It was very kind.  He says, "that Josh sure married a mountain woman."

Haha!!

I'm no mountain woman but I'm no prissy pants either.

We're hoping to have a working toilet tonight.  Or maybe tomorrow.  Who really knows?

the bathroom remodel

Yesterday I told you that we gutted our bathroom.

Once Josh was off work yesterday we headed to Yakima to hit Home Depot for some of the goods we're going to need to put this room back together.

A couple of weeks or so ago I looked up the average cost of a bathroom remodel. 

Smokes, guys! Have you ever looked that up? Or actually paid to have a bathroom remodel done?  I was shocked to see that the average cost to have someone come in and remodel your bathroom is $15,000! 

While we get projects done rather slowly, being able to do the work ourselves on any project has saved us thousands.

My goal was to be able to complete the bathroom for about $1,000.  After last night's trip to Home Depot I realize that I'm going to have to up that amount.  Josh decided that if we're going to be doing plumbing, we may as well do it right.  So there will be changes I hadn't anticipated and this added to our costs.

Two weeks ago I ordered our flooring and got that picked up. I had originally found and liked some tile flooring that looked like wood, but after talking with my flooring dude at the store - changed my mind. 

I don't even know what it is I bought, but I know that it was a third of the price of this tile and the installation will be much easier.  Last week I ordered a 3'x 6' mirror and to my surprise they delivered it to me on Thursday.  This wasn't planned, they'd originally said I could pick it up on Friday.  I showed my appreciation by baking cookies and taking some in to them.

So. Floor and mirror and I'm at $300. Then we have last night's materials (pictured is one of two carts) and receipt:

I'm already $56 over my original goal of $1000. I'm okay with that, though. New goal is $1,500.

My friend Jen asked what my inspiration for my new bathroom looks like.

Here are a bunch of my pins from Pinterest that I'm loving:

We have a small closet in our bathroom, however, right now mine is bare drywall. No shelves. No paint. No nuffin. I want it to look similar to the picture above.

I love the chunky trim around this mirror. I want it. Need it. Must have it (or at least something similar).

Our shower right now looks like this (well, it did til I ripped it up):

On the wall is just a laminate sheet. We've decided to go with subway tile so it'll look a little more like this:

We have a window in our bathroom about this size and I plan to put a towel bar underneath it the way this picture shows. The thing I liked about this picture is the board the towel bar is attached to, it adds some character that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.  I woulda just slapped the towel bar on the wall and called it good.  I like this extra lil touch.

While I don't love all the shiz they've put on the shelves behind the toilet, I like the concept.  We'll see what actually ends up happening here.

I don't think I'll have enough room behind my door to put towel bars, but I do think I'll put hooks here instead.

And after searching website after website and store after store I finally found a shower curtain that I love. I know. A shower curtain is just a shower curtain, but I really wanted something that would be me.  In the search bar of Pinterest I entered "boho shower curtain" and found this bad girl:

Isn't she fabulous?!  Josh makes fun of me for how much I love it, but it just makes me happy and will be helpful for color inspiriation in the near future.

There it is.  My dream bathroom via Pinterest.

I'm looking forward to the finished project so I don't have to take too many more baths in my kitchen sink the way I did this morning.

you know how good the friendship is based on the state of my bathroom.

It's been a couple of years ago, but there was this time I was tired of the towels in our bathroom.  We'd been married like 13 years and we were using the same grungy towels.  So I went out and bought new ones.  Then we had company and they got to use our new towels.

Fast forward a couple of years and that same company (Hi, Emily!) comes to visit and apparently I had washed and dried our towels, but failed to put them in the bathroom.  Emily goes to shower and winds up only having a hand towel to dry off with.  Awesome.

And then there's this last weekend.  She comes to visit again and I've partially disabled my bathroom to the point she can't even shower.  Awesomer.

I suppose it goes to show the transition of our friendship.  Please like me and my house!  Here's new towels! All the way to - You know everything there is to know about me and still you show up!  We must be really great friends!  So great we don't even have to shower when we're together!

So yes, this last weekend we had company.  Emily and her son Nathan and my niece Breena came for the weekend.  You know how sometimes your heart needs just the right people at just the right time to make you all better?  That was this weekend.  In Emily I have the friend I can share my ugly with and she, for some reason, remains my friend.  And then that niece of mine.  I've asked myself, "do I love this kid too much?"  She's all sorts of wonderful and I can't get enough of being around her.  The two of us stayed up til 2 AM talking.  About life and stuff and some things important and some things not, but all the words and all the yawning was so good.

And Nathan.  I wish that kid (man?) was always at my house on a Saturday to work with my husband.  I got to sit in the grass and watch those dudes work side by side.  I'm oh so grateful.

But Sunday came and they had to leave and I went to church to welcome the little kiddos into Sunday School and when I came home Josh was outside working on his Suburban (surprise, surprise).  I changed into jeans and a grey shirt with a pink heart on it, put on my boots and tore my bathroom apart.  All of it.

Currently I have a toilet.  However, even that has to come out in the next couple of days.  Today I called about having a Honey Bucket delivered to my house.

Oh yes, I did.

Stay tuned...

the one where i start to ramble but stop. you're welcome.

i am the worst blogger in the history of bloggers.

UGH.

i'm sorry.

i keep thinking i need to make this little place a priority at least three times a week but it just never seems to happen.

life has been good and busy and full and happy.

you know, mostly.

the girls and i are continuing with school at the library 3-4 times per week for about two hours each day.  on days we don't go to the library we get some work done at home.  this year really has been the best year so far for us with school.  i'll be testing Sugar here in a couple of months.  she is going to be thuh-rilled...

we're starting our bathroom remodel next week.  well, we started a couple weeks ago by ripping out the floor, but we'll start the gutting on Monday.  we're both very excited for the end result.  not so much the work to get it to the end.  :)

i took off a couple of weeks from running.  that probably wasn't the best idea.  i ran three miles on Saturday and you'd think it was twenty three by the way i acted and felt.  geez.  i had the pissiest, poorest attitude ever.  but, those days are all part of it.  was going to run this morning but a friend and i walked the pathway instead.  wasn't the work out i wanted but sometimes hanging out with a friend is more important.

obviously i'm just rambling here.  can someone, anyone, give me something to write about?  please?  and thank you.

the perfect bible study group

We've started going to a new bible study group.

We started going to one back in September.  We really liked the people we were meeting with, our kinda folk, but the time and location was hard for us to make it on time.  We found another group that meets closer to where we live and later in the evening.

Last Wednesday was our first time going and Josh and I both really liked it.  It's a diverse age group, of which I'm a big fan.  They were so welcoming to us and our girls.

My mom had our girls last night and Josh and I kept going back and forth about whether to go to bible study or just hang out the two of us.  In the end we decided to go to bible study.

While we were there one of the guys says that next Wednesday is his birthday and that he'll bring a keg.  I was stoked thinking we'd finally found the perfect group for us.  Come to find out he had said "cake" and not "keg."

All good.  I love me some cake too.