Demolition Days & Plumbing the Shower

I am not sure where I left off, but there was a few day break between shopping for most things and the beginning of the rest of the demolition. During that time, I ordered the paint, picked up towels, curtain rods and exchanged the grout for the tile a couple of times.

Then this happened.


In about a day and a half, hubby managed to remove all sheet rock, insulation from the ceiling, the bath tub, half the flooring, light fixtures, light switches, mirror and wall cabinet, the window and the back wall. Things were looking really good and surprising big in our empty little bathroom. :)

That's when the plumbing began and the problems started. The short version is that plumbing is difficult. The bath tub had to be turned into a shower and it took many hours and help from the neighbor to get it all figured out. Then the tub was brought in through the hole in the wall and holes were drilled to the plumbing. The studs in the wall were replaced and the new window installed. Then we realized our first BIG mistake. One of the plumbing pieces was put in upside down. So if it actually was to work, then the hot would be cold and the spigot would be the shower head and vice versa in both cases.
It turns out it didn't work and it had to be righted. So the tub had to be removed and the plumbing reworked. All of the plumbing and reworking took most of two days. The last 2 evening have found the bathroom looking like this. The blue that you see is just what you might think, a tarp acting as our wall for 2 evening in early February. The other great thing about plumbing is that if you can't get it right, you can't turn the water back on. We have been without water at our house for most of 3 days now.
But doesn't the shower look great? I think so. The last pieces of the shower puzzle that my husband tackled today was attaching the faucet handles. This also did not go well. Either directions were bad, or directions weren't followed, or pieces were missing. The story is a little wishy washy, but when the water was turned on, it couldn't be turned off. So parts need to be purchased in the morning and we'll spend one more night without a wall or water.

The Bathroom Remodel - Before Pictures

The Bathroom Before

We are finally remodeling our small 1970's family bathroom for a few reasons. Mainly, it is because of the shower, or lack there of in this case. We are purchasing all the supplies and materials this week. Hoping to begin demolition and reconstruction shortly after. My husband has claimed that he is capable of completing all of the work himself. I have insisted that we hire some of his highly skilled friends to assist. The compromise is that they will help with the shower install since we are removing the outside wall of the house to bring in a complete new shower and it is the rainy season and we have a toddler. A giant whole in the wall could be disastrous for our marriage.
As I am the number cruncher and analyst in the family, I will be tracking the spending and updating as we go.
Cost:
Tile $80.52
Tile supplies, mortar & grout $84.32
Bamboo vanity $300

This would be our current non existent shower. Notice the beautiful piece of scrap wood that affixes our shower head to the wall and the deteriorating drywall that lines the shower.

Our vanity.

This would be the close up of the shower wall and the holes in the drywall.

The lighting above the mirror.

The view of the ceiling light fixture and heating vent. Notice no other vents.

At this point, we have just realized that we purchased a vanity that was made for someone else but is too deep for our bathroom by about 3.5 inches. In a bathroom this small, this isn't going to work. My husband talked to the cabinet maker about resizing the piece and he will do it free of charge.

Next problem was the tile, we found something that we liked better than what we already bought at a slightly cheaper price yesterday. But, the tile we liked came in a big run of tiles that were all very different. We really liked some of the tiles, and didn't like others. So we had to buy almost double the amount of tiles that we needed to ensure that the boxes had enough of the ones that we liked. Does that even make sense? We can return the full tiles we don't use at the end. The total cost of this project might never be known.

The last situation that we had to tackle was the counter top and sink. The only criteria that we both wanted was an under-mount sink. The problem being, where we live, there are very few options for custom counter tops with under-mounted sinks. The first choice was paperstone, which is an eco friendly option, but the package deal that would have worked had a cream colored sink. I thought that would be ok until I really thought about the new white toilet and six foot tall white shower and surround that were going in right next to the cream sink. The only other option was Corian, so we just ordered that today. The sink will be attached to the countertop to form one solid piece, and we were able to save a couple hundred dollars by picking a color that they had extra of and not ordering our own sheet. Still, that is $668 for a sink and counter top that is barely more than 3 feet long. I don't want to dwell on that any longer.

Demolition has already started, but I will start a whole new post from here.

Hang Tag making

I have decided to make my own hang tags for my bibs. It's actually quite easy. I bought 12x12 sheet of chip board and cut the into 12 3X3 squares. I ordered a stamp of my business logo and got some scraps of yarn from a local weaver shop. Then all I do is stamp, color them in a little, punch a hole for the yarn and put the yarn through the hole and tie. voila! They end up costing about 3 cents each.

The Birth Experience

My water broke at 2:30 in the morning on June 6th, 2008. I had just managed to fall asleep at 1:30 ... it's rough to sleep when you feel you are as big as a house. I tried to go back to sleep, but the contractions started right away and I was excited. I couldn't wait to meet this new little person that had already - or so I thought - become the center of my existence over the past 40 weeks. So I started looking around my house at what I needed to do before I left to be at the hospital for a few days. The dishes needed to be washed and there were a few other things that could be picked up and put away in anticipation of our new arrival.
Not to digress, but this story really begins 40 weeks earlier on September 15th, when I believe that he was conceived. I happily floated through the first seven months or so of my pregnancy. I didn't begin to think about the actual birth until we much later when we began attending our child birth preparedness classes. After watching our first video, my husband and I looked at each other, then at my belly. We both knew that I was in trouble. Devin actually leaned over and whispered, " I think we made a mistake, we should have adopted!" I was suddenly terrified as to how I was going to get this baby out into the world.
By the second week of class, I had begun to do some research about childbirth options. I read Ida Mae's book on natural childbirth and was inspired, but still terrified. Natural childbirth meant that there would be no drugs involved, labor would be allowed to progress at its natural pace and all of the doctors and nurses would be there for worse case scenarios. The idea that my body knows exactly what to do to bring the baby out sounded like the best possible plan. Hey, I like nature!
The only problem that I could see with my new plan was that I have an extreme aversion to pain, or even the idea of pain. Just watching birthing videos made me sweaty and uneasy. So I hired a coach. Tina George is a doula who we asked to help me help my body do what it was almost ready to do, to give birth. I would advise making this decision earlier than I did, I think I was somewhere around 35 weeks when I first met with Tina. That didn't leave us much time to put together my natural child birth plan. As a result, she met with us only two times before the birth. We talked about my health, my plan and my birth some 29 years ago. She really helped me to get a plan of action in writing and to present my plan to me team of doctors. Oddly, my plan didn't have much to do with me. It was very detailed instructions for everyone else. It was kind of like a will or a power of attorney. If I can't speak for myself, here's what I want kind of a thing. I wanted to labor in the comfort of my home as long as possible. I didn't want an IV or other pain medications offered, but I did want them available if I asked. I basically wanted as natural a childbirth as possible.
On the actual morning of my sons birth, I began right on track with my plan. Awake, by myself in the early morning hours, I was overflowing with excitement. I was ready. Bring on the contractions I thought to myself. I was going to be at the hospital pushing the baby out by 9 am I thought.
I waited until 7 am to call Tina and let her know that today was the day. She suggested that we check back in at 10 am to see how I was progressing. Slightly discouraged, that wasn't part of my plan, I agreed.
The contractions started coming on stronger and stronger. I would try to lay in bed and on the couch, but nothing helped. Devin could hear my painful moans and started timing the contractions in the hopes that this would let us know the birth was near. 7min...4 min...7min... 10 min...They were strong, but irregular. I was already crying in pain when I called Tina at 10 am. She felt that I still had a ways to go, so I shouldn't head to the hospital yet. I called her again at noon, thinking surely I needed to go to the hospital as I was in so much pain I was going to have this baby any minute, so she came over to help me along. The next two hours progressed the same way. The couch, the bed, the shower, nothing made the contractions bearable. I kept saying that I couldn't do it.. and Tina and Devin would chime in but you are doing it. When I could take it no longer, I insisted that we move our party to the hospital.
Upon arriving at the hospital, they checked my dilation. I had been having contractions for over 12 hours, so I was crushed to hear that I was only at 2 centimeters. How much longer could I go? Doing the math - and births are not about math - I was thinking that this could last for days. So Devin and Tina helped me to walk around the hospital, get in the tub, get out of the tub, walk more until I finally, literally, couldn't take it anymore. After checking me again, there was no more progress. I wanted help. Tina spoke to the nurses who were talking to the doctor about options and meds. We finally decided that Pitosin to help the labor progress would be a good idea. This is when I promptly asked for drugs. If I was going to be tied to the bed, I wasn't going to be there without pain medication. The anesthesiologist was called in and Devin and Tina held my hand while she inserted the epidural. It took her 45 minutes and three tries to get it in. I then had to lay on my left side so that it would fully kick in. After this, my birth was quite magical. I progressed to 10 centimeters in a couple of hours and began pushing around 10 pm. Devin and Tina had to hold my legs as I couldn't feel anything below my waist. Devin was telling jokes and trying to make us all laugh. I think I was even told less chatting more pushing from the doctor. After an hour of pushing, the doctor announced, "It's a boy!" It was the most amazing moment of my life. I had done it!




A link to Tina George's website:

http://www.heartoftherose.net/

Handmade by Moi

One of my favorite creative things to do is sit down at the sewing machine. Really, it is too much work to create new things... but I love to improve upon existing things. One great project is making baby bibs from recycled materials. I love making something un-useful useful again. Check out my website. I have made baby bibs from recycled materials. I need to take better photos, these photos don't do them justice... they are adorable.

http://oceandesigns.etsy.com

Mulifarious Defined

The word of the day is Multifarious. Use it 10 times and it is yours! I have started a blog about it since I enjoy it so much. It is an adjective, meaning:

1. Having many different parts, elements, forms, etc.
2. Numerous and varied; greatly diverse or manifold

And that is exactly what this blog is, a little of everything.