Bath Bomb

The bathroom, is 99% complete. I have a new shower curtain planned but that won't be for a little while yet. The main thing that's been bugging me is the vanity. It was clearly a cheap option and while cute was not intended for a main bathroom, probably a half bath under some stairs or something. As a reminder here is the bathroom when I first saw it.

And here is the bathroom now. Repainted, new baseboards, over the toilet cabinet, window insulated, casing installed, new mirror and a new vanity. In all I the bathroom reno cost about $300 which I think is pretty good. Big thanks to my Dad and his endless patience with the vanity! I am so proud of the way it looks now ... the previous useless owners wouldn't recognise it. Probably because it displays a modicum of taste.

Get a Handle On It

What's worse than having a door handle that you can't open from the inside? A door handle you can't open from the outside. It's truly distressing when you are outside in your backyard preparing to mow the lawn and you realize that not only are you and four dogs locked in your backyard, but that the front door is also locked and you have no way to get into your house.

It's about this time that you curse the people who made the POS door handle you've been struggling with since you moved in. It's also about the time you remember that you removed the screen from the dining window and that the window itself is not locked. So you climb through the window, struggle with the back door handle and then realize it now won't open from the inside.

So you get a screw driver, thinking you're clever as shit, and take off the interior handle, pop the exterior handle off and now what? Now you have a peice of metal that runs through your door and into a hole in the frame that you can't do sweet eff all with. The dogs are on the outside thinking 'We're thirsty' and you're on the inside thinking 'Very. Bad. Words.' So you decide today is the day you will go and get the matching handle to the front door which has never given you a stitch of trouble in the 3 weeks you've owned it.

So, have a shower(because you're all sweaty from the lawn mowing), get dressed, load dogs in truck, buy handle, take dogs for walk in the rain, get home and stare angrily at the still sealed door. Think more bad words, suppress the rage and pry that sucker out of there doing as little damage to the door and frame as possible. Voila, one open door.

So now the handle is installed and guess what? It works ... beautifully. There is something to be said for a door handle that will let you in your own house.

Dining Out

I am a naughty renovator. Well, blog updating renovator anyway. I have completed so many tasks now I don't know where to begin. How about the dining room which has taken on the most dramatic change in recent weeks.

The dining room was rough, ugly carpet (gak) over lino on plywood. All four (yes ... 4) plugs in the room had been painted over multilple times so you couldn't really plug anything into the holes anymore, and the walls were a vibrant shade of lime green. Gag me. It was used as a bedroom in any case although I'm not sure how anyone could possibly have slept in there with that color. Must have been a teenager.

I removed the door, the carpet, the lino and the light and got to work. Since I wanted to compliment the several pieces of black and white artwork I possess I decided to paint the room a shade of grey with a soft lilac/purple hue so the room wouldn't be so cold. I then installed strips of vinyl flooring called barnboard which picks up the shade of the walls. All that is left, as with the rest of the house, is the ceiling.

So ... come on by if you're in the area and I can burn you some dinner.