Tag: DIY

all about me, home improvement, the catch-all-egory

holy shit it’s may; an update

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I can’t believe we are in the 5th month of the year already. Damn, time is flying by.

So here’s a little update about what’s going on in duaneworld right now:
– We are still dealing with the bathroom remodel. This thing has seriously been 2 steps forward, 14 steps back. It is just a mountain of stress, and James and I have fought MANY times as a result. I am glad that in the end, we will get to take a nice relaxing spa shower to get over the stress. I am happy to report, however, that the last thing that the shower requires is the actual tiling and the installation of the door; we have framed everything out (plumbing too!), and the tiling SHOULD begin tonight (fingers crossed).
– Other than the bathroom, we haven’t been up to much. I need to write up a review of the Leslie Hall show from a couple of weeks ago (I know, mucho overdue), and I promise I will.
– We are seeing Death Cab For Cutie this week, and I am really excited about that; especially since it is my first time seeing them.
– That’s really about it… Oh yeah, as a friendly reminder, don’t forget to send you mother/grandmother/ any other mothers in your family a card/gift for Mother’s day… which is THIS Sunday!

Hope everyone is having a delightful (albeit dreadful) Monday! Other than an extended drive to work this morning, I am doing pretty well… seriously, Atlanta, how difficult is it to put up notice that the road is closed up ahead???! I mean, let us know before we go down the road and have to turn around; make things easier, won’t you?

happenings, home improvement, shiny stuff

bathroom remodel take 2: the 3 years later edition

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It’s been a little over 3 and a half years since we took our first stab at remodeling our basic and bland main bathroom. In that project (some pictures), we took out the ugly tiles and put in beautiful natural slate tiles, and added a new vanity and mirror. This project went well, but was labor intensive. However, it was never meant to be the end; we always wanted to redo the shower, and put in a custom tiled shower with glass doors.

Well, the time has come to finish our spa bathroom. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this project. I HATE the pre-fab shower stalls that we have in both of our bathrooms, and I have wanted a walk in shower with the luxury of glass tiles and an upgraded shower nozzle. I also can’t wait to have glass doors; that will undoubtedly only make our bathing experience that much better.

So the construction will kick back into high gear over the next couple of weeks (I’m hoping it won’t take weeks, though); as God as my witness, we will finish this bathroom!! Here are stock photos of the tile we are planning to use:
For the walls, we want to use this beautiful aqua glass tile:

and for the floor, we want to use this gorgeous pebble tile; which according to the design shows, is all the rage:

Needless to say, there will be stories about the process as we begin demolition later this week, and definitely expect lots of pictures. I am VERY excited, because if it looks anything like the image I have in my mind, our bathroom is going to be AMAZING. Stay tuned for more.

all about me, home improvement

updates are interesting… aren’t they?

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It seems like everything and nothing happens these days in my life. There is waking up, driving to work, work, driving home from work, watching TV/passing time until bedtime, sleep, and then repeat. However, these past few weeks, we have been dealing with the house being in total upheaval over the floors in the office being replaced, and I have nearly broken my back to get things back in order.

First was installing the hardwood floors. This is something that is, in theory, easy to do. Easy to follow instructions, and relatively inexpensive if you do it yourself ($700 for a 12×10 room). Yet, the manual labor… whoa. It is on a level of it’s own. It isn’t enough that you have to hammer and things like that, but you have to be bent over unnaturally to do so. That just KILLS a back; and given my history with major back trauma, it has done me in.

To top all of that off, we decided, “hey, now is a good time to paint the office, since nothing is in there, right?”. So we painted two walls a chocolate brown, and the two other walls a baby blue-ish color. The result is an amazing looking room, if I do say so myself. I am in love with the results, but I hated the process.

As if that wasn’t enough, I also decided that it was the perfect time to build a new bookcase/shelving unit for our electronic components and video games. That was a chore too. But, like everything else, it is finished!! I am going to try and get some pictures up in the next little while, so check flickr for those. Aren’t home projects so much fun? Yeah… when they are DONE.