My Shopping Weaknesses

My weaknesses when it comes to buying things are....

KITCHEN GADGETS - I like to cook (mostly so I can eat good food since I don't always enjoy the cooking process) and I love having kitchen pots/pans/utensils/gadgets to make my job easier. I have a lot of Pampered Chef items because they are well-made. Back in the day when Craig and I were dating, I found it difficult to cook in his bachelor pad because they had very few pots and pans and they were usually dirty so I had to wash them so I could use them. I made sure to have multiples of the stuff I use the most after we got married to avoid that frustration.

BABY ITEMS - I'm excited to finally have my own baby to shop for! Baby stuff is so cute! I like browsing the aisles to see if there are nifty inventions I could use. My latest purchase was a little container that holds formula powder in separate sections for 3 8-oz bottles and a formula mixer that eliminates powder clumps. Before, I'd scoop the formula powder into a snack-size ziplock bag and put the scoop in the bag for use when I am out running around and Alisa needs to eat. Now, I measure the formula powder at home and put the container in the diaper bag so when I am out and need to make a bottle, I just dump one section of the container into the bottle of water and I don't even have to think about measurements.

PURSES/BAGS - I'm always searching for the perfect purse...one that has the right pockets for all my stuff so I can easily reach into my purse without looking and pull out what I need. In high school and college the purses I always had were small because I didn't need to carry around much stuff. Now, they are bigger because I have more things like my digital camera, cell phone, Sony CLIE, stash of coupons, hand sanitizer, etc. I never buy expensive purses (I bought one for $40 many years ago but the rest were under $20). Since I use my purse every day I get tired of one after awhile and like to switch it out with an old one (or with a new one if I found a good one). And about bags...I have various bags and backpacks for airplane carry-on, road trip to-do bag, hiking, going to the beach, etc. I even bought a tote-bag for when I had jury duty years ago because I wanted one that could hold snacks, books, magazines, my purse and a light jacket.

So, those are my shopping weaknesses. Whenever I'm in a store that has those items I like to browse those sections and often end up buying something...those are my regular unplanned purchases. Buying shoes is not one of my weaknesses because most of them cost more than $40 so I can't afford to buy them often (though I would like to have more). Oh, and another thing I love is blankets (probably because I get cold easily so I'm always wrapping one around me when sitting in the living room in the fall and winter). I don't buy blankets as often as I want to because we honestly just don't need any more. Those really soft fuzzy ones are sure hard to resist though!

Spiders in my car

I got the heebie-jeebies today when I got into my car to go to the grocery store. I saw tons of tiny spiders in a thick web by the front passenger air vent and window. I grabbed the lot of them with a kleenex and smashed them. Then I noticed that there was another clump of them in a web in the corner where the dashboard meets the windshield. I grabbed more kleenex and obliterated that group. I started driving and drove past 5 houses when I noticed there were tons more on MY side where the dashboard meets the windshield. I got those and some more that were by the rear passenger's window. By this time I was creeped out and hopping mad (why me?!). Those critters ran fast when they saw me coming so several escaped. I got to my destination (Wal-Mart) and the lot was seriously full. I had to park in the separate lot at the very back (that was a first). It's probably a good thing though because I went after the remaining spiders and was glad no one was around to observe me. I discovered more webs and spiders on the back window. So, they were literally in all 4 corners of the car and then some! Arrrrrggggghhhh! Those spiders really had a party last night! An eggsack must have gotten in my car and hatched overnight. I'm sure the battle will go on a bit longer. There will be new webs in my car in the morning but at least there won't be tons of spiders. Right? Please tell me there won't be tons of spiders in my car tomorrow!!

Man, just writing this makes me feel like I have tiny spiders tickling my arms as they run up them. I'd better stop. But, I'll leave you with some pictures I took of the ever-present Banana Spiders that I've posted about before. I took these pictures around our yard today. These were NOT the spiders that were in my car today.

Click on each picture for a larger version where you can see more details....

By the creek:


Check out the details of this web and the colors of his underside:

Look at the size of this web! Looks like he partnered up with a smaller spider to make a gigantic web between 2 huge pine trees:

This picture shows how bright yellow their backs are:

Car Accidents

Friday, July 27th we picked up Craig's 10-year-old "brother" Darien of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program and Darien's 13-year-old sister Devenny. We were on our way to eat pizza for dinner when we had a car accident. Craig was driving the Honda on a road we hadn't been on before. The accident occurred where the road was merging with one of the main roads in town (a road we have been on many times).

Craig was looking over his shoulder to see if there was room for him to merge. I noticed that the car in front of us had their brake lights on for quite awhile. As we got closer I realized that Craig didn't realize they were stopping because he was looking over his shoulder. I made some sort of "Aaaaahh" noises because I couldn't get the word "Stop!" out. Craig heard me, faced the front, saw the other car and hit the brakes. He knew we wouldn't stop in time so he turned the wheel hard to the right to try to swerve around the car. We hit the right taillight with our left headlight and ended up on the side of the road (thankfully, it was flat and grassy).

We weren't going very fast so nobody in either car was hurt and Alisa didn't even make a sound. The other car had 4 college students in it and they were very nice (the driver immediately apologized to Craig). The driver of the other car called the cops. He apologized to us for having to do that but it was his dad's car and his dad told him to (he called him for advice right after the accident). We said we would have called the cops if we were him (we knew it was our fault since we were the rear car).

The cop arrived within 10 minutes but didn't let us go for an hour because he was doing all the paperwork. We were starving so it was hard to wait. We stood outside for awhile because Alisa didn't want to sit in her carseat anymore. It started raining though so we had to get back in the car. Alisa got her first mosquito bites (2 on her face and 1 on her leg) while outside so it was fine that we had to get back in the car because then she didn't get anymore (though they didn't ever bother her). Alisa became hungry during the wait too so I fed her. After dinner, Devenny was going to watch Alisa while Craig and I went to a movie and we nearly cancelled those plans because the accident messed up our schedule. However, after we got home we looked at the movie times again and saw that we could still make it to one that wasn't too late. So, Devenny got to earn some money babysitting after all (and it was easy money because Alisa went to bed for the night as soon as we got home). She and Darien spent the night.

Site of the accident (witness' car was behind us)...you can click on this picture to see a larger version (there is a little debris on the road where we collided):

There is minimal damage to the Jetta we hit (you will have to click on the picture for the larger version to even see it):

Damage to our Honda:

We were without our car for 8 days while the shop waited for parts and repaired it. The total amount was $3,135 which was more than I thought it would be because the damage doesn't look that bad. We had to pay our $250 deductible (I'm glad it's still low) and $140 for half the price of the hood. The reason we had to pay for part of the replacement cost of the hood is because it had hail damage from 2004 that the insurance company had paid me for but I never got fixed. We tried to get out of that charge by arguing that even if we had fixed the hail damage, they would still need to get us a new hood now but they didn't go for it. The traffic ticket for careless driving was $120 and Craig got 4 points on his license. He didn't have any points before because he has a good driving record. Oh well. We think they need a longer merge lane on that road because while we were sitting on the side of the road that lane kept filling with cars and they were having to stop because the front car was unable to merge right away. You just don't expect to have to stop like that when merging onto a highway or road like that.

This reminds me of another car accident we had in this town. It was in December a few days before we went to Tulsa for Christmas. Craig was driving the Jeep and it was raining. We were on the way to pick up the Honda from the shop where it had an oil change and tune up so it would be ready for the long drive to Tulsa. We were about a mile from our house and first in the left turn lane facing west. The light turned green and no other cars were moving so we moved forward. Suddenly we heard and felt a loud crash and realized we were spinning around. It was surreal and felt like slow motion. We ended up facing the way we had come and were by the median. Craig backed the Jeep up over the curb onto the grass so we'd be out of the way since the light was turning green for the cars that were heading our way. A cop car was in the left turn lane facing north so he immediately turned his lights on and did a U-turn to get to us. He said he didn't actually see it happen, he just saw us spinning. Once we were out of the way, we looked to our left and saw that the car that had hit us had smashed head on into the large lightpost on the corner. There was a lady and her baby in the backseat and her mother was the driver. We got out and looked for the damage done to the Jeep. At first we thought the other car hit the back of the Jeep because the bike on the rack had been knocked part of the way off. When Craig was backing up out of the road I saw the bike dangling and thought it had been smashed. We were baffled when we could see no damage to the bike or the back of the Jeep. We circled the Jeep and looked closer and saw a few scrape marks and paint on the front right tire rim. So, the other car hit us there and so there was no body damage to the Jeep. We had the alignment and other hidden stuff checked out to make sure nothing was damaged and the shop said there wasn't anything wrong with it. What a truck!

Back to the scene...I went over to the lady that was holding a baby and asked if they were okay. She said she thought so and then ignored me. A firetruck and ambulance soon showed up and the ladies (who happened to both be large women) went into the ambulance. We stood around in the light rain and then sat in the Jeep while the cop did the paperwork. I was 6 months pregnant but didn't get much attention because the ladies were drama queens and were carrying on quite a bit. The firemen came over to admire our Jeep and they talked about how the driver of the other car had been eating french fries with ketchup while driving and there were fries, ketchup and soda all over the front of the car. She had been in the far right lane and had just cruised through the red light. We didn't even see her coming because the left 2 lanes both had a line of cars stopped at the light which blocked our view of her. The wreck was her fault and I wonder how many tickets she got. I'm thankful that we were not hurt and that we were not driving the Honda then because it would have gotten smashed and would have messed up our travel plans. We could have taken the Jeep to Tulsa but would have barely any room for our things and Minga, let alone the Christmas presents (and we would have paid a lot more for gas because the Jeep has poor gas mileage).

Videos of Alisa - Early August

Mommy tickling Alisa (8-01-07):



Alisa holding foot and sucking on fingers (8-02-07):



Alisa is talking and playing with the toys on her new play gym (8-04-07):

Videos of Alisa - July

Alisa holds bottle for 1st time (7-22-07):



Once Alisa finally noticed the toys attached to her bouncy seat she'd stare at them for more than 20 minutes straight, smiling from time to time. Later, she began touching them too. Alisa looking at bouncy seat zebra (7-26-07):



Alisa was intrigued when I put socks on her feet that have fuzzy animals sewn to them. She kept trying to reach the duck on her right foot (7-26-07):



Alisa has many different styles of talking...this is one style (7-29-07):

Videos of Alisa - June

Alisa looks at her Fisher-Price Waterfall Soother toy for the first time and is mesmerized (6-17-07):



Mariachi band at Los Amigos Restaurant sings for Alisa (6-29-07):



Uncle Charlie requested many Spanish songs after they finished a couple lullabies for Alisa so they sang by our table for about 15 minutes. It was great!

Videos of Alisa - May

Alisa waking up from a 3-hour nap (5-05-07):



This video was taken around the time that Alisa first started smiling (5-11-07):



Craig giving Alisa a bath (5-30-07):

Videos of Alisa - April

Nurse washing Alisa shortly after her birth (4-07-07):



Nurse washing Alisa's head shortly after her birth (4-07-07):



Alisa with hiccups (4-07-07):



Alisa sucking on her arm while taking a burp break during a feeding (4-30-07):

The Fish Tank is Back!

The fish tank is in use again! We found a place for it in the new room. Craig bought an official stand for it and chose some new fish. He sterilized the empty turtle shell we found in our yard as well as some shells from the beach and put them in there along with his miniature pots, the rock and some plants.





Cyphotilapia frontosa Kilipi:







King Tiger Plecostomus:

August Alisa Pics - Part 1

Pictures from the 1st half of August....

Alisa was made at home and her onesie makes that clear:



Relaxing with her lion toy:



Looks like his ear doesn't taste very good:







Alisa with the glo-worm Grandpappy (Craig's dad) brought her when he visited:



Watching the glo-worm glow:





Sometimes she sleeps with her hand over her ear even though it's not noisy:





She watched her fingers move around for awhile:





Making funny faces:





Busy with her feet again:



Mommy's foot makes Alisa look so small:



At 1 Fresh Stir-Fry (a local restaurant):



Alisa on the quilt my friend Sara made for her:





Alisa playing with the toys on her new play gym:



Playing with toys during tummy time:



Alisa sees herself in the mirror that's on the other side of the smily face (she always smiles when she sees herself in a mirror):



Tasty toes:













Alisa drools a lot in her crib and moves around a lot during a nap so there will be little drool spots all around (and sometimes chunky spit-up):







Alisa had a blast with the paper at the pediatrician's office while waiting for her checkup and shots:



She can't get enough of her feet:



Alisa is always watching Minga when she is near (which is often):













Alisa got to ride in the Jeep when my car was in the shop for 8 days. I had to sit in the backseat by her because the front passenger seat had to be pushed forward so far to accomodate her carseat.

July Alisa Pics

Minga loves lying near Alisa:





Laughing with Daddy:







Enjoying the Fisher-Price Waterfall Soother before it is attached to her crib:





Laughing with Mommy:



Alisa can hold her head up pretty good now:



Sucking on 2 fingers this time:



Cute baby butt:





Showing off her sweet feet:



Sitting with Daddy at the computer:



Alisa loves holding her feet:





Alisa is looking at the little duck on her sock for the first time...she was so curious about it and kept leaning forward to reach it:



She is so close to reaching the cute little duck on her sock:



Alisa loves watching the fish swim in the fish tank:





Minga, Alisa and Craig love watching the fish together:



Alisa often puts her legs up in the air:



Using her hands and feet to check out the lion toy:









"Did you say something? Speak up please, I couldn't hear you."



Playing with her toes again:



Occasionally she sleeps with her head all the way back and usually when you adjust her head she puts it right back in that awkward position:



She fell asleep with her hand behind her head:



She was in a deep sleep here after the last feeding of the day:



Her favorite sleeping position is on her left side with her left thumb in her mouth:



Wearing Daddy's rain hat as he took her outside so he could adjust the sprinklers:

Pics From Around Our Yard

I was happy to see a butterfly enjoying the Echinacea flowers:





A few days, later the bees gathered on the Echinacea flowers:



Dinner time for the lizard:



We use the spare tire cover that came with the Jeep as a grill cover (it fits perfectly on our portable Weber Baby Q). We unintentionally left it off for awhile and later found that a bird had built a nest in it and laid eggs. We soon saw chicks in the nest but I failed to get a picture of them.



The nest was built in the cover as it was draped over the railing just like this:



This crazy root was found while digging a place for the stairs outside our house by the new room:



Lovely flowers randomly sprout up in our yard:

March:



April:



July (these 2 kinds--Coreopsis and Echinacea--were actually planted by family):







Banana trees that the neighbors gave us:







The palm leaves are slowly growing on the Sabal palm tree:

April:



May:



June:



July:



August:





The grass plugs are growing and spreading:



We had sod planted in front of the house in May:



We had a good hard rain last week that filled up the creek and muddied the water for a bit (as seen from our main balcony):

Alisa is 4 Months Old Today

Alisa is 4 months old today and is doing well. She's healthy (13 lbs--just under the average in weight and 23 inches long--just over the average in height) and learning and growing quickly. She has rapidly developed during the past month and it has been so fun to watch. She uses her hands to explore things (our faces, her toys, the crib bumper, her feet, and so on). She has conquered the act of rolling over from her back to her belly and back over again without her arm getting in the way (but so far she only rolls to the left to get from her back to her belly and to the right to get onto her back again). She still spits up a lot so we try not to let her get on her tummy within at least 30 minutes of eating. The past few days that has been harder to do because she now loves being on her tummy (if she's on the floor or the changing table--which has a railing--she will roll over...we have to hold her or put her in her carseat or swing to keep her from rolling over...she can no longer be left on the ottoman for a second because she could roll off). She had a blast at the pediatrician's office today while we were waiting in the exam room. She rolled over on the table and pulled at the paper underneath her on the table. Then she spit up so we wiped her up, pulled out some more paper from the roll and tore off the messy part (it was a lot of spitup). When we were cleaning her she was on her back but as soon as we let go, she'd roll over on her tummy and start moving her arms around on the paper again (she loved that paper!). That was the most active we've seen her arms during tummy time. Then after a few minutes she'd spit up again and we'd repeat the cleanup process (good thing she was just in a diaper).

She still has a little bit of cradle cap on the top of her head, but not on her brows anymore. The little red marks on the back of her neck (called "stork bites") are still there, as well as the red mark between her eyes on her forehead (both are supposed to disappear eventually). She talks a lot and it's pretty easy to get her to laugh. Many mornings she will wake up and be happily talking in her crib until we get her up. Sometimes later in the day she will be happily talking up a storm and then her voice changes (she suddenly sounds upset) and we know that she is hungry then. It's so fun to hear the different sounds she makes.

She sleeps 12-13 hours each night (and she's been doing that for weeks now)--glorious! We put her on her back to sleep but she rolls to her side soon after (if she's still awake) and then sometimes later rolls onto her stomach. The problem with sleeping on her stomach is that she pees so much during the night that it leaks out the top of her diaper and gets her pajamas and sometimes the sheet wet. Sleeping on her stomach is a new thing and I think the diaper has only leaked twice because then I started putting her in a size 2 diaper for the night (size 1 is for 8-14 lbs and size 2 is for 12-18 lbs so she's in the overlap zone).

Alisa had her 2nd round of shots today and I wasn't worried this time because last time things went well (she only cried while they were sticking the needle in her and she didn't get a fever or swelling or anything). Well, this time turned out to be more difficult. She screamed longer and louder when they were sticking her (I was about to cry) and she cried hard for a bit here and there after we were home. We gave her more Tylenol after the 4 hour mark and eventually she went to sleep.

We have been using the E-A-S-Y (Eat-Activity-Sleep-Yourself) method outlined in the book "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo, MA and Robert Bucknam, MD. First thing in the morning, Alisa drinks a bottle [Eat]. Then she plays (plays with toys in her bouncy seat or while lying in the Boppy or on her new activity mat on the floor, has tummy time to strengthen her neck and back muscles, goes for a walk with mommy or daddy, watches the fish in the fishtank, etc) [Activity]. When she starts to get cranky or sleepy (or at least an hour before the next projected feeding time) we put her in her crib for her to take a nap [Sleep]. While she's sleeping we can do the things we want to do [Yourself]. The cycle has made our life so much easier and it's best for Alisa. Before, she always had problems falling asleep while eating and this has resolved that issue because she eats AFTER she has slept so she's rested. It wasn't hard to get the cycle started like I thought it might be (trying to keep her awake after those first few feedings was easy). The cycle brings the familiarity and comfort of a routine (it occurs 4 times a day since she eats only 4 times a day now) yet it's flexible (sometimes she eats in 10 minutes, sometimes it takes her 40 minutes...sometimes she plays for an hour before napping, sometimes she plays for 2 hours before napping...sometimes she naps for 40 minutes, sometimes she naps for 3 hours...sometimes she eats again after 3 hours, sometimes she eats again after 4 hours). I wish we would have tried it sooner (I had heard about it and bought the book and read part of it but then got busy and forgot about it until my sister mentioned it).

Alisa is solely bottle-fed now (as of yesterday). I didn't plan on weaning her this soon, but I became weary of the feeding battle. Nursing Alisa took up so much of my time (about an hour every other hour during the day) and she didn't do it well consistently. She wasn't getting enough milk from breastfeeding alone because she didn't always do the proper nutritive sucking. We had to give her a couple supplementary bottles a day so that she'd gain weight. I was constantly having to poke and prod her to get her to wake up during nursing so she could take a full feeding (usually didn't work so she'd cry to eat an hour or so later). I wasn't getting much joy or satisfaction from breastfeeding (it was only satisfying the few times here and there that she did nurse well and let go on her own because she was satisfied). I became tired of pumping milk to keep my milk supply up and to prevent engorgement once she started sleeping over 8 hours at night. I didn't realize all the work that went into breastfeeding. People say it's easy and convenient because you don't have to wash bottles, measure and heat water, buy formula, etc but I say it's only easy if your baby nurses effectively. If she doesn't, then it's a lot of work. I tried many things to make it work. I went to a breastfeeding support group twice a week so I could get advice and weigh Alisa before and after nursing her to see how many ounces she was getting from me. I tried a supplemental nursing system to see if it would improve Alisa's sucking method. I bought an expensive breastpump to make sure my milk supply was adequate. Even after all of this trouble and disappointment, I will breastfeed my 2nd child to see how it goes. Every baby is different so maybe the next time it will be easier. I know the benefits of breastfeeding (for baby and mom), even if it's only for a few months. I easily lost so much weight just from nursing--I now weigh LESS than I did when I became pregnant! Since I'm stopping though I will have to start working out to maintain. I need to workout anyway.

The pediatrician said they no longer recommend waiting until your baby is 6 months old to introduce semi-solids. She said we can start now with rice cereal. Just 1 tablespoon a day mixed with formula or breastmilk. Once she eats that well, we can offer her pureed vegetables...and then pureed fruit (the veggies must come first or Alisa might reject them after having tasted the sweet fruit). The rice cereal may make Alisa constipated so we can give her 3 oz of water a day to prevent that. She's already had a couple teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with a bottle of breastmilk once a day and her stools have become thicker (the pediatrician recommended this last time to try to help minimize frequent spitting up). Anyway, I bought baby spoons today and found that very exciting. They are so cute! Almost all baby things are cute.

I'll post new pictures soon. This post is long enough as is.

New Room

We had a new room added onto the bottom floor of our house (under the kitchen) and we had our tiny master bathroom enlarged. The renovation started in late February and was finished just before Alisa came home from the hospital in early April. We didn't have much privacy during that time because the guys worked 6-7 days a week and 8-10 hours a day (they set their own schedule). Craig got to know them pretty well and enjoyed hanging out with them when he wasn't doing school work.

2 guys (Kevin & Brian) did most of the work. They are some of the ones who renovated the house in 2003 (years before we bought the place) so they know our house well and do excellent work.

They ran into many obstacles that caused some things to take longer. They had to reroute many pipes, redo wiring and correct some wiring errors, and even remove a snake that slithered up through the old utility meter closet and into the bathroom ceiling (I posted pictures of the snake on 3-07-07).

Here are some pictures of the process and the finished product....

The wooden platform where we stored hoses and other stuff had to be cleaned off and removed:



This platform and the dirt under it had to be removed until the ground was level with the bottom of the house:



Kevin starting to dig:



The digging is complete...now there is room for the new addition (the ladder gives you an idea of how deep they had to dig):





The dirt that was removed from under the house was piled on both sides of the house and spread out in the yard later to level things out:









Electric meter and old pipes that were moved during the construction (including the tiny pipe going off the left side of the picture):



Lumber for the new addition:



Starting the floor:



Wood for floor is almost all in place:



Kevin working on the ceiling (which is the floor of the kitchen):



Framing the new room:



Walls going up:





Plastic covering the walls:







Vinyl siding is put in place:







Brian taking a break:



The plastic covered walls show where the new room is. The window on the bottom left was in the master bedroom but now it's in the master bathroom. The window on the bottom right is also in the master bathroom (there is part of a wall with shelves separating them).



Framing of the closet:



Ceiling insulation is exposed (the wall on the left was the existing one that was knocked out):



Stairway wall before removal:



Craig by wall that was knocked out:



For weeks, plastic separated the downstairs from the main floor to minimize dust. We had to part the plastic to go from our room to the upper floors and vice versa. This was not so fun to do when you had both hands full or in the middle of the night when I had to stumble up to the 3rd floor half alseep during the last couple weeks of my pregnancy to go to the only working bathroom at the time. Our room was soooo dusty. We covered our bed with plastic every day to keep it clean and only went to our room to sleep or get some clothes.



Here you can see the open doorway to the old, small master bathroom in the hallway (and wires that were in the wall that was removed):



Insulation in the new room:



Chip (Brian's cousin) standing outside the new room. He did the wall texture and a few other things.



Pole near stairs:



Sheetrock by pole:



Sheetrock on closet:



Lights in new room:



Sheetrock by outside door in new room:



Finishing the sheetrock installation:



Preparing the walls for paint, texture and outlets:



Nook before carpet is installed:



Carpet padding:



Nook after carpet is installed:



New room has an outside door with tile in the entryway:



Furnished:



Closet door in new room:



A desk is being built into the nook area (it's not finished yet):



We hung this on the wall of the new room:



New stairway railing before it's painted:



Stairway railings are almost finished...just need to add the rest of the pieces on the back railing so kids can't fall through. We were going to have an accordian-style door installed across the large opening here so we could close off the new room for some privacy when necessary (like if extra guests stay in this room) but we ran out of money at the time so that idea was put on hold.



Platforms for the outside stairs are in place:



Outside stairs are finished:



Outside utility closet (for electric meter) is created to the left of the room door:



This is in the laundry room on the main floor...the 2 pipes on the right used to go down through the 2 holes in the floor and were hidden in the wall of the master bathroom where they went down through the floor and under the house. They were rerouted to the larger pipe on the left so they could be removed from what became the walkway in the renovated master bathroom.



Here is a picture of the nook in the master bedroom with the carpet pulled back. The enlarged master bathroom took over this area. They removed the wall that was hiding these pipes and later moved the 2 pipes on the left so there would be a walkway in the bathroom from the sink area to the shower and toilet area.



Debris from the old master bathroom:



Mess from old shower:



Old tile from bathroom:



Looking at the new bathtub from the master bedroom:



Framing for the new master bathroom:



New master bathroom door is inside the master bedroom instead of outside of it in the hallway like it was before:



As the bathroom renovation was under way, it was discovered that the floor there was wet and rotting so they replaced that. Now, the part of the wall at the end of the stairs (where the trim forms a rectangle) is a removable panel that opens up to the shower pipes so we can periodically check to make sure there aren't any leaks rotting out the new floor. Pretty clever, I'd say, as it saves having to bust out part of the wall in the future. It was nice getting to help plan the renovation because we were able to request an outlet in the hallway where there was none before (it's handy when vacuuming). And the guys had some good suggestions too, like an extra outlet high on the wall in the bathroom for a nightlight.



Panel removed:



These are the 2 pipes that were removed from this walkway. The pole and overhead beam were enclosed in sheetrock and wall texture.



Wall texture and light switches are up:



Preparing the bathroom floor for tile:



Laying tile in the bathroom:



The guys angled the corner of the bathroom wall that it is our bedroom so it wouldn't hurt as much if we ran into it (how thoughtful!):



Master bathroom tub/shower (we love our new showerhead that has many different water flow settings):



Furnished bathroom pics....

Shelves were put up for extra storage space (bath & beach towels, toilet paper, etc.):





We haven't put the blinds back on this window yet:



This dividing wall hides the support pole and pipes coming down from upstairs...turns out to be a nice thing because it gives the toilet some privacy and was the perfect place to put shelves:



Shower and toilet area:





The overhead beam is enclosed:



Tile: