Labor Day

Although we were supposed to be getting a break from work on Monday, we actually did a lot of work around the house.  After this weekend, we're one more step closer towards making this house into our home.  The work actually started on Sunday, when my mom and I drove an hour up to the nearest warehouse hardware store to get some things for the house.  We filled up a shopping cart and a flat-bed cart with a new water-saving toilet, tiles for the bathroom floor, blinds for the dining room and living room, hardware for hanging frames, a squeegie (?) for cleaning the windows, and some 2x4's for the rabbit hutch.  We were quite a sight.  And a lot of Lowe's employees asked us if we needed help...we we're fine, thank you!  On Monday, we were able to wrangle Joey into taking down the old blinds and hanging the new ones.  Then we hung new curtains in the dining room and all the frames that have been sitting around for months, waiting for homes on the walls.  After my mom left to go back home, Joey and I prepared the bathroom floor with a primer so that we could lay new tiles over the nasty old asbestos tiles that have probably been there for 50 years.  We also ripped out the old toilet, which had also probably been there for the last 50 years.  The tank on that thing was so big, they old owners actually cut a hole in the wall for the edge of the toilet tank lid to fit into.  Just one of the wonderfully strange and annoying things we'll have to fix in this home that has seen 103 years' worth of changes.  If you ever need a good stress reliever, I would recommend smashing an old toilet to lots of porcelain bits in your front yard.  Joey did ask me before we smashed it if I wanted to keep it for a flower pot (we've see it done out here, in fact we almost hit one with our car when we were house-hunting last year, but that's another story...)  I didn't think we had lived in the country long enough for our lawn-decorating aesthetic to include toilets, maybe in forty years or so...

After the primer in the bathroom dried, we were ready to start laying the new tile.  Joey set to work on the floor while I continued to work on my stair project.  After about an hour, I finally pulled the very last staple off the stairs!  Yay me!  I hated those stupid staples.  Joey didn't finish laying the tile on Sunday but he got a lot done, in the bathroom and around the house.  When we went to bed that night, we were amazed at all the things we accomplished in one day.  Hopefully we can keep up our momentum.

New flooring going in, not quite finished yet

Bye old toilet!  Don't worry, we have plans for those nasty walls!

New tile going over old grey tile



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