DIY Bathroom Part 1

Our guest bathroom was a bit of an anomaly to me. Its not a half bath or could even be listed as .75 of a bathroom.
From my past experience of renting a room from craigslist i learned the hard way to check the shower for a actual shower head. So when i toured our house for the first time i immediately noticed that the shower was in fact not a real shower but just a bathtub. Our house was built in 1979 so why there isnt a shower head is weird to me. Not like showers were a rarity in the 70's. Anyhoo, Geoff's friends from Plea for Purging and all their GF's were going to be staying at our place while they were in town for a fest and that lit the fire to get the shower working so that we didnt have 10 people using one shower!

BEFORE

After all the drywall was cut out i got busy editing a film on the couch and forgot to take pictures of geoff putting the cement backer board up and him and his dad cutting the tiles in the rain in the front yard and putting them against the wall.  I did help geoff grout though so... i helped a little :\

Oh and i picked out the shower head.  Here is the completed shower:

Shower Curtain

The shower head is at least 7 ft high.

We bought the slate tile on sale at Floor & Decor for a total of $36! The shower curtain was on sale at UO for $24. Shower head was about $50 from Home Depot. Window film so our neighbors dont get a peep show. And we also bought a new smaller vanity, faucet, and toilet all under budget too! We set aside $1,000 to redo it all but we've only spent $600 on everything so far. And thats including a new saw. All thats left to pick is paint and base boards and we're done.

Now if we could only get on Yard Crashers!

motel brouillette

Sometimes this is how i meet (sorta) geoffs touring buddies:

6:30am

They come over while we're asleep and we leave when they're asleep.
I'm glad we have the space to help other bands out. We're kinda the perfect resting stop for bands touring SD to OC or LA and aren't from around here.
There are 2 more dudes sleeping in the guestroom but i didn't dare open the door to sneak a picture. yes, i am a creep but i have limits.

Before & After

So since we have about 3 thrift shops within a mile of our house and money has been tight ive been doing a lot of thrift store shopping.
first thing i got: 2 wood night stands with leather tops and one of them has a light and outlet in the cubby.
Before:

After:

Cute night stands, right?!$10 for both and a couple cans of spray paint.

Remember this post about the stinky guest room? Well after replacing the matting and getting that smell out, and since Sleeping Giant's drummer Matt was living with us i decided to spruce the room up for him while they were gone on tour!

So now this is the new Guest/Natalie/Jolene/Matt's Room:

box shelf from tjmaxx, already owned trinkets

$3 frame from anthro, bigy bank from tjmaxx

hour glass from tjmaxx, box from sara plummer, candle on sale at anthro

$1 at the yellow thrift store around the corner! and it still works

  

I wish i would have taken a before picture but in my excitement i forgot. Just imagine that room with only the bed and shoved in the corner with one single lonely pillow.  
Theres still a lot i want to do in this room like paint it but this will do for now. I still havent done anything to our room yet!
So if you ever need a place to crash and like an overly excited german shepherd following you around, inquire within :)

Ol' Mrs B.

i love stain glass windows. i think some are so beautiful and ive always wanted them too.
you know what i love just as much as stain glass windows? saving money!
they are so freaking expensive, rightfully so, but still. im not paying that much. so when the blinds in my craft/hobby jumped off the wall i tossed their sorry plastic excuse of privacy in the trash and found this fake stained glass window film. not only does it make me feel totally safe from lurker eyes but its actually keeping some of the heat out of this room. win/win!

proof im an old lady inside

no shame!

silver lining

The benefit of having a pipe burst under your house for two days without you knowing...

...half of your yard coming back to life!

those two days when water was leaking it was going into our septic tank the whole time and i thought we'd have to pay someone to pump it out but it turns out that water is supposed to escape septic systems so our lawn got a nice cold one that one week of summer that we had about a month ago.
i guess the secret ingredient in miracle grow is pee and poo.

 

Life is Wonderful...

...and then a pipe bursts under your house. and then your husband leaves for a week. and then you are thrown to the plumbers will.

what i thought was just a slow leak under the front patio of the house became a costly emergency.

one morning on our way to work we notice a little puddle in the front patio area and thought nothing more then hose must have leaked from watering the yard the night before. We get home that night and now its a huge puddle thats sitting in front of our doorway so i call the city and tell them there a leak from our water meter and they need to take care of it. The city water lady asked if there was gushing water and i told her no it seems to barely be leaking so she says she will send someone the next morning. The next morning the water is starting to run down the driveway and when i get home that night from dropping geoff off at the airport the water has reached the street and i have a note on the door from the city saying its not their problem. the next morning im calling around dealing with old men who sound like they hate their life. i set up two appts for a quote.
first guy seemed like he didnt care much and told me to jack hammer up the cement myself and then he will give me a more accurate price and will work from there. sure, okay buddy, let me whip out my jack hammer and get right on that!
second guy was friendly, timely, and helpful. he also explained to me that what i thought was the water meter was actually our sewage line and that he figured that out after he accidently lifted the cap to our sewage line and lots of mud and rocks fell into our sewage line to our septic tank revealing not a slow leak... oh no, a really big leak that was only barely noticable to us because when the cap to the sewage tank was finally start to back up from mud it came out to the top of the cement.
man, i miss having a landlord.
cant wait to see what our next water bill is going to look like.

the leak. so close to the actual opening too!

so after a leak detection, blowing out our sewage line, extenting our sewage pipe higher than the foundation, jack hammering the cement out of the way, repairing the leak, replacing the water pressure regulator, and replacing the front of the house faucet it was finally fixed.

every time this guy knocked on my door to deliver even more bad news i would just get so overwhelmed and start sobbing. i had no idea if he was lying, over charging me, what was needed or done right. all he sees is a girl whos "husband is at work right now" alone making these decision. so basically money signs! and looking back with a clearer head i should have gone with someone else because this dude seriously over charged me.

damnit i miss our apt now.

i know all is said and done now but i seriously felt so taken advantage of. its like when i went to this mechanic last december for a problem with my brakes. he started telling me it was all these things wrong with my car to make my brakes act up and he gave me a estimate of $900. he told me specifically this one part used would be like $500. so i called the scion dealership and got a price for myself and it was only $200. so i took my car and headed over to another mechanic and he fixed my car for only $120. it was just a clogged brake line.
i hate severely dislike men when they pull this shit.
and its so hard when i dont have a dad around to help me out and my husband is on the other side of the country.

Im really thankful for my mom and for geoffs parents. They are helping us out with the costs and were there trying to calm me down from crying my eyes out. And thank you to natalie and april and jason for checking in on me and keeping me company while i was stuck at home for almost two days waterless while that guy was working on the house. And thank you Obama for the first time home buyers tax credit. when we finally get that check in the mail half of it will be gone now thanks to this little leak.
Nothing was covered by the insurance company either. There to protect you, right?! haha

We're going to make it just fine financially thanks to the tax credit and the help of our parents but just sucks that we cant get ahead right now.
We get in a car accident the day after we get married. - HUGE deductible.
Geoff comes home from tour and was promised work but there is none. - only one income.
Now this. - Welcome back credit card debt.

oh the joys of being a homeowner and tour widow!

messy messy

the clutter in our house is taking over...

office clutter

dirty kitchen

dining table turned into junk yard

i think most of it is all the junk mail we get on the daily...
i think some of it is because geoff and matt were home all day everyday last week waiting for work to come in and to find out if baby green would be born soon enough for the guys to play in KY... so stuff started piling up.
i think it couldve been because geoffs been focusing on the yard when hes got free time...
but ya, its unexceptionable and on friday night i had planned to clean the place up but came down with some sickness and couldnt do anything but lay in bed and watch whale wars. saturday was the same but with dogs 101 instead. i hate being sick. i had to call in sick on a wedding i was working with In The Now for the first time. made me feel worse. but im feeling better today. my nose is just constantly running and my ears are plugged up but its an improvement.

so, i havent told you yet! im sure a few of you are wondering who this "matt" i just wrote about is... Matt is SG's drummer for the rest of this summer and he is from TX and living with us while hes out here. travis was offered a job working for his parent's company and is no longer with SG. luckily, they found matt and he flew out here and is working out and fitting right in with SG. hes a really sweet dude and he got married 4 days before flying out to CA! crazy, i know! ive got to talk to his wife a few times over the web cam and she seems like a doll! hopefully she can come out and stay with us for a while too.
and yes, matt is in "the stinky room" but its not the stinky room any more. thankfully. 
finally, one day geoff and i decided to pull up the carpet and this is what we found:

a 3'x4' oval of june piss.

a lot bigger than it seems

geoff shampoo'd the crap (no pun intended) out of the back side of the carpet and replace the mat underneath and the room's scent instantly improved! it was a ridiculous amount of dog urine and thats what happens when husbands sleep in while the wife is at work and the dogs gotta wizz  :)   
so ya, back to matt, hes a sweet, smart dude and a clean, fuss-free roomie living in the habitable guest room of our house.




note: we are not dirty people. honestly. im a lazy germaphobe and geoffs a neat freak. life happens. also, i cleaned the house on sunday night so its safe to come over for a visit <3