Tub/Shower Remodel

PREFACE TO THIS STORY: Before needing to do the driveway, I had decided that it was time to upgrade my bathtub/shower enclosure. I had pink ceramic tile which I hated. Anyone that knows me knows that I am not a pink person. I kept my curtain closed so I didn't have to look at it. Well, I had many people come and price it and decided that I would go with a cultured marble. I was all ready to go until the basement flooded. My bathroom went back onto the back-burner and the driveway came in front and center.

AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY: So during the mess with the driveway, I was in my house. I went in to clean my bathroom, and while cleaning, I inspected a couple of what looked like either hair or future cracks. While I was feeling it with my thumb, my thumb went right through the crack and created a hole. BUMMER!!! Now I have another thing to fix.

Well, after a month and a half of baths only, I pulled the trigger on getting the bathroom fixed. I decided while I was at it, I would move from a two handle, old style faucets to a single handle manifold. One of my neighbors in my ward is a plumber and has done other projects for me. (This has been a huge help.) He came the night before and cut out the wall and replaced the plumbing. Now we are ready for marble. Here's how it looked after he was done.

One final look at the fiberglass wall, dumb shelving, nasty broken soap dish, and yucky pink tile. "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!!"

The tile ended up coming out in sheets. It was a amazing. Well, this was after the tile and surround was out. Yes, you are seeing things right. Somewhere in the past, someone had both pink tile and matching pink walls. WOW!! That would have been nasty!!!

 Everything all patched and ready. Now for the marble. I'm getting excited.

 And here's the finished product: Isn't it beautiful?? I love it. I feel like my bathroom is taller and my enclosure wider. I had no idea how much the shelving unit in the fiberglass surround took up real estate. I now feel like I have a TON of room.

 Here's how the other side turned out. I kept my shower head but everything else is new including the drain cover and the vent.

Overall, I am very pleased and it feels like my bathroom is the first room that I am completely satisfied. I think getting that old tile out really updated the look and feel of the bathroom. What do you think?

Conference Weekend

Conference weekend was great. I always love conference. Zachary came and stayed the weekend with me. Our plan was to go to conference Saturday morning (thanks to a couple of tickets given to me by my boss) and then we were going to come home, do a little work outside, watch conference, do more work outside, get Zachary to Priesthood, and then have a fun night. Sunday we were going to stay home all day and watch.

Right as we were leaving for the Saturday Morning Session, I received a call from Dad. He wanted to know if I wanted to go then to go and get some mulch. (I had talked with him earlier in the week to see if we could find some time to go.) Well, after his call, Zachary and I ran to get our work clothes knowing that right after the session we are going to head down there. Dad was awesome. We ended up making two trips to pick up mulch. I ended up with a huge pile in front of my garage. Dad said that I would be forever until I got that moved.

By the time we were done running around, there was a storm blowing in. Dad told Zachary and I to hurry home to get as much of the mulch protected as possible before the rain hits. Zachary and I started working. Using a 5-gallon bucket, a square shovel, and a snow shovel, check out our results:

 The pile got moved. We ended up working in the dark by the end of it, but we did it. Zachary worked like a dog. He was such a hard worker. I was very impressed and lucky to have had him there with me.

We were very tricky as we were moving the mulch onto the patio. We built a supporting wall around it so we could build the pile higher without going wider.

Zachary decided to plant a flag on top of our mountain of mulch. He wanted to call it Mt. Everest but I think we settled for Mt. Mulch.

Needless-to-say, when we finally got inside and cleaned up (we were ABSOLUTELY FILTHY), we got something to eat and watched a show on TV. We went to bed and both of us slept VERY well that night. My back was a little sore the next day.

Conference Sunday was wonderful!! Here is Zachary enjoying conference. :)

He really was listening, but I did sneak this picture quickly. I had a great time Zachary! Thanks for coming and spending the weekend with me!!!

Driveway

Preface to Driveway Story: So I decided to take the week of July 24th off since my boss with with his family and I was already taking a couple of days for the reunion. Tuesday, July 26th I spent the day running errands. (Well, that is after going to see the final "Harry Potter" movie which was excellent!) I decided to go to Costco to pick up some items I needed. I got caught there while a torrential downpour was happening outside. Costco must have loved it because everyone was lingering inside, no one ventured out in the pouring rain. It was coming down so hard that in the middle of Costco Joni could hear it over the phone. Wow! Well, once the rain let up, I headed home.

When I got there, I took some of the items down to my storage room. When I walked in I noticed water that had made its way to this room under the wall. I walked around and found that water was flooding in through the cold storage area that is under my back stair. I got it all cleaned up, a fan turned on to dry things out and headed back upstairs, firm in the knowledge that Dad was going to come over the next day and check it out. I finished putting things away and started on a project when the zipper in the clouds opened up again and the torrential rain began instantaneously. I ran downstairs to see what was happening. "Good," I thought. "Now I can really see where the water is coming in."

Boy did I ever. It was coming in so much, that it was raining inside the box and the water had already made it down my wall and instead of going the way it went before, into my storage room, now it was heading the other direction toward my carpet and furniture. "OH NO!!!" I ran outside to the garage to get some buckets. Just getting from my house to the garage I got soaked. Ran the buckets downstairs and instead of rain, I had a wall of water going across the opening to this box. I hurriedly put the buckets in place, moved furniture, rolled back carpet, turned the fan back on and headed back outside to see what I could do to solve the issue. Dad came over and helped get a couple some temporary preventative measures in place.

Next day, Dad called a guy in his ward that does concrete work. He came over to take a look at it. He said that my driveway and back step would need to be torn out and replaced. That was the only way of fixing this problem. Neither the step nor the driveway were tied into the house with re-bar so they had sunk and were starting to pull away. Fun!!!

I scheduled with them to come the day after my boss left town on an international trip. Thursday, August 18th, they came and started the work. Here are a few shots during the two day project.

A before picture:

The tear-out has begun! Goodbye cracked ugly driveway and problematic back step!

That hole was the culprit. That leads right into the basement.

 Now it is boarded up and ready for concrete. No more storage area under the stairs. Oh well...never used it anyway. Until the flooding, I had never even looked inside it so I am definitely not going to miss it.

These guys were amazing but I must say, I was glad my neighbors were away for the week. It was a loud process. Looks like we are ready to pour.

Friday morning began the pouring. I was very blessed. The weather had said we had a chance of rain. Heavenly Father heard my prayers and the rain never was a factor. It rained on Saturday afternoon but by then we were fine.

Uh oh...Do you see what I see???

The concrete trucks drove up on the driveway that was fine, no cracks in it. After they were done, the closest pad looked like this:

What you can't really tell is the extent of the damage. The pad above was cracked all throughout and the pad closest to the street had damage as well but not as severe. This is how my driveway looked after they were done with that day's pour.

They ended coming back this last Monday and Tuesday. Tore out the remaining two pads and poured them as well. It looks really good but I'm not looking forward to the bill. Needless-to-say, this week has been the hottest week of the year and my car is parked on the street. Thank goodness for those two crab apple trees I have that shade that area. I park under that and head in the front door.

Overall, this experience was a real blessing and I know that my Heavenly Father was watching out for me. Had I not decided to take that Tuesday off, I never would have gone to Costco. Had I not gone to Costco, I never would have seen the water from the first storm. Had I not seen the water from the first storm, I never would have thought to check during that second storm. Had I not checked during that second storm, I wouldn't have had the buckets and other temporary preventative measures in place to protect the basement from the water. Had I not done those things, who knows what the damage would have been. We had storms all week that week of July. The water would have been everywhere. I am forever grateful that He was watching out for me.

One Last Blog

OK, one last blog for tonight.

Last Sunday I went over to Mom's house. I needed to make cookies to take them to someone who let me borrow his book. I ended up having it for longer than anticipated so I thought I owed him. I had a little helper to help me make them.

He wanted to help dump the ingredients. Stir. Perhaps he will be a chef. Who knows!!!

So later, once the chocolate was set, I gave a cookie to Spencer and Lincoln. Lincoln came over and showed me how he looked. Keep in mind, he was only halfway through his cookie and he already looked like this...

See the tongue? He is trying to get all he can.

I asked him if he was done and he said no. He went back over and ate the rest of his cookie. This was after the cookie. I think he was happy.

 However, it took me three wipes to get him cleaned up. He was so chocolatey. Awesome!!!

August Family Party

So on August 14th we had our monthly party. Unfortunately Brian and his family, Brett, and Joni were not there. We missed them. But I did manage to snap these shots as we were there.

Look at some of the younger cousins together with Tenille.

Isn't Micah so cute. This was as she and Becky were getting ready to leave. Micah was starting kindergarten the next day. I can't believe she is in school already. Where did those 5 years go? She was so excited. I haven't heard yet how it was so I hope she liked it.

I brought some beanbags...well technically rice bags...and Kevin and the boys started throwing them back and forth at, toward, over, each other. They were having a great time. I think I left there with less beanbags than I headed over there with.

Janine and Tenille have been putting Lucas and Kambry together to mark their growth. Eventually though Spencer and Lincoln end up laying next to them. They look so huge compared to the littler two!

Lincoln was having a hard time not picking the scabs on the corners of his mouth.

Check out Neeners with her littlest boy!

Kambry and Tenille...so cute together.

Once everyone left and right before I left, Lincoln grabbed his play phone. He was rolling around on the floor, walking around, all the time talking with Joni. Janine looked at me and said that he always does this. It as fun to watch.

I always enjoy these family parties! They have been fun little mini reunions throughout the year. Thanks family for making these parties a priority!

Lincoln Post-surgery

So poor little Lincoln had his tonsils and adenoids removed. He was one unhappy, miserable kid. I went over later that week and brought a surprise. I took some ice cream but also a couple of bunches of balloons.

No, I didn't forget Spencer. I got him a little bunch. He seemed happy to have is own set.

I hope the balloons brought a little joy to Lincoln. This was an actual smile. It was great! Mom said it was the first smile she had seen since before his surgery.

He was trying. Poor kid. I just wanted to hold him and love on him.

Spencer tied his balloons to the container of bubbles. At one point he put the container down on the ground and Lucas played with them.

Later in the evening, Janine brought out a bubble machine. Lincoln and Lucas loved it. (Spencer was in the other room watching "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.")

At one point, Lincoln put his face down so he was looking into the machine. Then the balloons would come up and pop on his face. Go figure!! It was fun to watch.

Look at Lucas...it looks like he is blowing that bubble. Just happened to be right in front when I snapped the picture. (This was another one that turned after uploading it. Don't understand. Sorry.)

After the bubbles it was time to go to bed. But as soon as I got there Spencer wanted to play Disney Yahtzee and we hadn't yet done it. So we decided to play really quick. Lincoln has a way of throwing the dice. He puts the cup in one hand, raises it high, and then puts the cup in the other hand and raises it high. Then he drops the dice. It was fun to watch because by this point in the evening he was done talking, done interacting really. He was starting to shut down.

Spencer was having a blast!

Look at this cute photo! Such a cute mother-son moment.

I am so glad that Lincoln is starting to feel better. It is a great blessing!

"Up" House

After the reunion we drove past the house that had been built like the house from Disney/Pixar's "Up". It was so cute! I think once the Parade of Homes is done, that the house has to be repainted but it was cute. Out front of the home, there was a man that looked like the older guy. It was fun. We didn't go in. Just looked at it from outside.

It was so cute!!!