With the tile down on the floor, the walls up with trim, Aleks got busy painting this weekend. We went with a bright white for the beadboard and trim, and a very dark slate (dark blue/gray) for the top walls and ceiling. We love the look. What do you think? (in some pictures the lighting + flash of the camera make the walls look greenish - they're not at all)
It was scary at first to see such a dark color going up, but it goes so well with the floor. It's a very sharp contrast with all the white and shiny silver finishes. It's now a sleek, contemporary room.
Fom a PM perspective, we're about 80% complete with the remodel. Once the toilet goes in, we'll be more than 95% complete!! Aleks already got the light and medicine cabinet in, so we will just have some finishing touches and decorating to do. ....finally, I can contribute to this project. :)
As you can see, the sink is in, and working great!
Enjoy these pictures from the weekend. We can't wait for you to see all of this hard work in person soon.
...and unfortunately when I do a batch upload of pictures you are not able to click to enlarge them. I hope to find time this week to figure out this issue so you can get an enlarged view of each picture. We don't want you missing out on all the great details. :)
And stay tuned for the finishing touches. We'll include some before/after images when the project is complete.
This weekend was a little slow going regarding our bathroom remodel. We got a very late start on Saturday, getting back from Lowes with materials for the walls and trim around noon time. That's VERY late for us, especially considering Aleks left the house by 8:30 to pick up the sink and faucet that morning. (ha ha ha, joke's on us, we have a crapper in our living room as extra seating for the next month... you can keep keep laughing...)
Either way, we got working on the walls, which took much longer than expected. We did everything from getting the panels parallel and even on the existing wall, aligned to our pencil line at 4 feet from the floor, and everything else, it was a lot of work. Even Aleks was surprised we didn't get all the walls up in one afternoon.
I won't even tell you how many cans of liquid nails we went through, but Mason will be high off the fumes for a week from it all! Speaking of the pooch, he's been a great subject for testing out and playing with our new digital camera! We went with the Nikon D60 and LOVE it so far!
We're also loving all the snow. Too bad it got dumped onto all the ice we still had, but it's so much fun to play in. We've had Mason off-leash all weekend in both the back and front yards. He's been great about staying on our property and coming when called - most of the time. We've also started keeping him out of his crate and in the family room when we go out sometimes. It's great to find him curled up and sleeping on his bed cushion without destroying anything around the house. He's really settling into being the best dog ever! 
And to top off the weekend, we're heading to friends of ours in Boston for a pot-luck dinner tonight. We'll be buying our main dish, but we made our now famous (thanks to Mrs. Trainor) peanut butter crunch balls. They are amazing! It's basically crushed up graham cracker and peanut butter (plus some added sugar and butter), rolled up into balls, then dipped in chocolate!
So, as we wind down for the weekend, we wanted to share all the progress we've made. I hope you enjoy all the pictures. I'm even more into documenting things now that we have our great camera. We hope everyone's staying warm and well.
Come visit us soon!!!
It was nice to have to take a 24 hour break while the tiles set in the mortar from yesterday. That left us time to run some errands and swing by the Gales to have lunch with Dan, Jessica, and Jenna.
As for me, the good assistant, I baked plenty of chocolate chip cookies and hung out with Mason (who was Mason as usual, as you can see from the picture above) while occasionally shouting out words of encouragement and praise. 
I think we're both amazed at how well this floor is turning out. I just can't believe that this is still only the beginning if you consider the time we still need to spend measuring and getting the walls up, getting the sink and toilet installed, finishing all the trim, and painting. We may be up to Bathroom Remodel part 34 before it's complete.
As you saw from the pictures yesterday, we had all the tile laid out and cut. This morning we marked all the seams, numbered the tiles and squares on the floor as we removed them from the room (temporarily), and got to work - big time!
Since only one person fits in this bathroom at a time, and Aleks is the most handy (and does the most research on everything), he got to do most of the work while I acted as the #1 assistant - A.K.A. tile hander-offer/support coach/soda getter. It is still amazing to see how much of a mess we can make of our entire house just for one little project. Everything from the basement, through the living room, dining room, kitchen, and even upstairs in the bedrooms looks like disaster struck. Just as we think we're getting the house in order and our things are organized, we mess it all up again. This project is definitely going to be worth it!
So, everything worked out as planned. Exactly! Aleks did a great job with the mortar and laying each tile according to our plan. He got everything complete in under 2 hours! Now we get a nice break as they have to sit for 24 hours. Yippee!! We get to treat ourselves to a night out on the town. ...well, at least a few hours out walking through the mall and going to dinner. We can only hope that the rest of the bathroom remodel goes this smoothly.
Tomorrow is grout work in the afternoon, and possibly measuring the walls for the bead board. We'll be sure to keep you posted. Stay tuned.
