and now we have a place for knick knacks!

I felt like the bathroom needed a shelf but I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted. I found a handmade shelf at a antique store for $2.00. I painted it the same gray that I used for the tub and the wall pipe. It turned out like this:

a disaster, and not even a beautiful one

After rethinking the fancy I decided to go for something basic and found one that matches the frame for the newspaper. 

classic!

But, needs a little something....don't you think?

ah, that's better!

Ah, that's better. A few pieces of my milk glass collection and of course I put a (vintage) bird on it!

bathroom cabinet plans

James will start building the bathroom cabinet any minute now! Some of the styles I like look like this:

mirror(s) mirror(s) on the wall

I hung these mirrors in the bathroom today. I've been sidelined with a back injury so have not been able to do the painting I had planned. bummer!

The wall that these mirrors is on will be home to the ladder type towel rack James is building for me.It will look something like this:

I found this here

I'm going to paint mine white....

It will fit perfectly between the wall and the tub- especially since it will be custom made!

ah, there is Penny, our photobombing dog!

pretty pen cup

I decided to take a break from bathroom painting and whip up a quick pen cup. Th is is about the easiest and cheapest craft out there. Take a clean glass bottle (this one had cherries in it) and some paint (this paint is leftover from the chicken coop)

see how Penny is always photo bombing me?

Pour a bit of paint in the jar and swirl it around to cover the sides. Hang it upside down to dry. I used a clamp and then hung up up over some grass, since paint will drip out. When it's dry you've got  your color on the inside of your vase/pen cup/whatever holder.

How cute and easy is this?

touch ups in the bathroom

This morning I decided to complete the touch up painting in the bathroom that I've been meaning to get to for about 11 months. Poor James. This is how he spent is 7am on Saturday:

James in the tub!

whenever I see this paint I think of that song "divine thing" P.S. this is a Portland company. Shop local!

note the dots. It's a a style (design?) element I have throughout the room

bathroom curtain

Since we don't have any neighbors, I'm not very concerned about window coverings. In fact, I'm not into them. I wanna see the great outdoors. Especially when I'm taking a bubble bath! That aside, I felt it was time to put up a simple curtain (we have not simple ceiling and crown molding, so I didn't want the entire room complicated).
I chose muslin fabric because it's super thin and lets the light in. I wanted to have dots, to follow the style element of dots we sorta have going. I could not find any fabric that fit my needs so I decided to paint the curtain myself.
Lotta Jansdotter has a cool book of stencils that I used. It's a quick and easy process:

Lotta Jansdotter Stencil book

fabric paint- I mixed black and white for the perfect shade

stenciling happening atop the ironing board

and here it is!

I'm happy with how it turned out and how simple it was to do. Ok, what's next.....

its time to organize!

I am attempting to organize and downsize. I have a tiny house and its too cram packed with s.t.u.f.f. Take my bedside table, for example. See how  much stuff was stacked on a tiny table? (not pictured are the lamp and alarm clock)

so: 9 magazines, 6 books, 1 nook, a card from james, 2 book marks, a watch, some lip balm, and 33 pony tail holders. whew

I don't think anyone needs the sheer volume of reading material that I had going on there. And t.h.e.r.e were all the hair ties I couldn't find! Feels good to get this stuff put away! Now, on to the closet.....

we've got bats in our belfry! errrr library!

Hi, friends!
Today when James was pulling more siding off the library he noticed a bat up on the ceiling! Can you see him?

This photo is from his phone, so it's not as zoomed in as I would like. When I went in with my camera he flew away. Sigh. Soooo Edward of him not to want attention.

More progress is being made getting the siding off this baby. We measured the building and it's 16X24, so about 284 square feet. Perfect size for all our books....and a bat or two....

Here are some photos of the progress:

who wants to help fill the dumpster?

I found this in the library today. hmmmmmm

Hunter is supervising

This is the little cement room. 

The red and white siding is the back of the library

remodeling will (re)commence in 4...3...2...1

Hello, friends! Remember us, the Wilsons who are building a home?! Well, we're back and ready for more remodel action. 

This is our library. Or, it will be. Right now it's a building that is crooked and needs the frame straightened out and to be re-sided before we do anything else to it. Last summer James and his friends worked on fixing the foundation, and that was the hard part. (hard to believe when you see the photo below.

Step one (or two, really) is to remove the siding. Here is where we are at so far:

The brick you see is a room that was once the fridge for our house. I want to turn that room into our office but James is against it. He suggested it be the room where paperback books are stored. (Since the whole building is the library). hahaha what a book snob! I'm against that. So, we're undecided. First things first though. Let the deconstruction begin!

moving forward

ok, so a lot has been done in the bathroom! sorry for a lack of posts; we both went back to work full time and you know how that goes. here are some photos to catch you up on our progress

the new (old) tub is in the house

lisa, jeff, and chris came over to help move the tub in. yes, it really take 5 people to move this thing.  

jeff and chris did the heavy lifting

today is the last day we have until we head back to work. it feels like the two weeks have flown by. i know weve done a lot but we still have much to do! the goal for the end of the day is to get the tub set up, the toilet back in and the sink in so that we have a functioning bathroom. fingers crossed!

bits and pieces

gosh. today we finally finish the wall tile!!! tiling takes a heck of a lot longer in real life than in my head. james and i have never tiled before, and now know that its h.a.r.d work! our bathroom is 9X9, which is a pretty good size for a house that is only 836 square feet! thats a l.o.t of tile goin' on. its been more hard emotionally, i think, to get through the tiling part than the physical labor. thank elvis the rest of our house will be wood and paint!

here are some quick pictures from this morning. lisa, jeff, and chris are coming over in a little while to help us move the new (old) clawfoot tub in. yes, it will take at least 5 people. turns out cast iron tubs are freaking heavy!!

james post tile cutting. wet saws are a messy business, friends

my feet and the new (old) clawfeet

my driveway. on the left is teresa and willys camper (aka where i pee) and on the right is my old (old) tub. the garbage man didnt take it away. rude. hunter is just hanging out enjoying his saturday....

my coffee is actually not bigger than the walls. its just closer to the camera.

we called in a plumber

she thinks she found the problem

rue mcclanahan: part time mouser, part time plumber

the walls are going up!

so we (finally) started putting the walls up (or is it on?). its looking so great! sooooooo much better than it was! love it!

subway tile!

the floor is done...and is awesome!

whew. the floor is done and it looks so great! the grout really changed how the floor looked. we used 'snow white' color grout, which is not quite bright white. tomorrow we tile the walls. honestly, we are dreading it cause we think it will be hard! we had planned to return to work tomorrow but now are taking this week of as well so we can finish everything.

here is how the floor turned out:

penny wants to help

so now  you want me to move the cheesecloth in circles?

and here it is!