Starting the Bathroom Remodel

So remember how I said we weren't getting a new floor in the bathroom?  Well I was pulling your leg.  Turns out we are.  I KNEW it would happen.  Once we told the contractor no, he'd come back with some "deal" and we'd end up doing it.  It happened. We had already looked at Lowes and Home Depot for something, but couldn't find anything quite right.  So when Remy called me at 4:15 asking if we wanted to go ahead with the floor, that meant we had to run around to a bunch of specialty stores that only stay open until 5pm to find the perfect tile.  LAME!

It worked.  There's this place called Chris & Dick's (that luckily stays open til 6) where Remy got the kitchen counter from that we stopped by and found exactly what we wanted.  Unfortunately they have to ship the tile out so it won't be here til Friday at the soonest.  Which part of the point of doing the floor now was so the contractor could just rip the old crap out and put it in this week.  Oh well, what can you do?

Yesterday when I got home the new tub was in, part of the floor ripped out (since we couldn't get the tile right away they stopped taking it out), and a decent portion of the tile was done.  I'm not going to lie I thought there would be more tile up, but I guess the plubming had taken them a bit longer than expected.  Which is fine, I mean hello the timeline was to be done (without the floor) by Thursday so I think we're fine!

The only issue I have is that we picked a tile that of course isn't natural stone so the "variation" from tile to tile is artificial.  So really there are only like 4 different tiles and the "image" only varies slightly.  Sometimes one spot is farther to the left or up or whatever, but essentially there's only a few patterns. 

Which I didn't think about. 
Which wouldn't be a problem except that they're installing the tile all the same direction (apparently there's an arrow on the back of the tile indicating where the top is)
Which means that same swirly thing just keeps repeating itself in virtually the same place over and over again.
Which bugs me.
Which made me call Remy right now and ask if they can rotate the tiles.
Which with my luck they've already finished.

We picked out a natural stone trim thing which will tie the floor and the shower together SO well...it's going to look awesome!  So here's a little visual treat for you all...my own drawing of the tile. Now don't forget the tiles aren't a solid color, they're sort of lightly marbled with a medium brown color and then the floor pretty much matches the darkest brown in the trim pieces.

 We went with a 12" tile for the main part, and then between the two trim pieces we're doing a 6" tile of the same tile.  We had originally decided to just have one row of the trim, and then as we kept looking at our sample it just didn't feel like enough.  Remy was the one who came up with this brilliant idea.  Mind you the trim tiles cost more than the rest of the shower tile combined....but hey.  (Update: Remy called the contractor and it's a no go on the switching tile around...something about the cut and grout lines being all crooked).

Below is the shower head and stuff we picked out.  So the only thing left is to switch out the sink faucet and all the finishes will match!

Yay for new bathrooms!

Out With the Old...and Ugly

So we're finally getting a new bathroom!  Well, most of a new bathroom anyway.  Our disgusting bathtub and shower are being ripped out as we speak!  {insert happy dance here}

When it's all finished you can see the before and after.  Basically the previous owners did a "do it yourself" rebath job that was AWFUL!  There are blobs and blobs of caulk that is now stained yellow and brown.  It's seriously sick.  I've absolutely hated showering in there, but unfortunately it was my only option since we only have one bathroom.  But this will all now be history.  We've picked out some really nice tile and shower head, and I can't wait to see it all together!

While we're on the topic of tile...does anyone out there know how to put in a tile floor?  We really want to replace the floor, but at the last second we decided we didn't want to pay like $400 plus materials for the guy to rip out the existing tile and put in thew one.  I read so many DIY blogs that it was killing me to pay that much when I see millions of people do it themselves.  And the room isn't that big.

Check back this week for the pretty new pics!

Where's Malcom

So this post has no picks.  Let me explain.

I shut him in the coat closet and left for 6 hours.

Let me explain.

Last Saturday my sister Heather and I went to LADY GAGA!!  So fun!  Well as we were preparing to leave, I opened the coat closet to decide what coat to bring.  Then I shut the door and left.

Fast forward 6 hours to when we get home.  I open the front door and hear some meowing.  But Grey was the one sitting there...and she DOESN'T meow  (unless of course it's 7:00 on a Saturday morning and she wants either food, attention, or both then she won't shut up).  So naturally I was a little confused.  Then I realized that was CLEARLY a Malcom meow.  It was loud nearby, but I couldn't see him in anywhere.  The poor guy let out another distress call and I realized where it was coming from.  I opened the closet and there he was on the shelf above all the coats.  He had climbed the coats I guess and knocked everything off the sheft and was just sitting there freaking out.

I actually felt kind of bad...since it was like 6 hours...but he lived and still loves to climb in the closet as soon as you open the door, so he's sort of asking for it if you ask me.  :)

Let's Get Organized!

So I just ran across this blog http://www.orgjunkie.com/.  WOW!  So full of ideas!  Go to the 52 Weeks tab and take a look.  She has a printout you can use to make a list of 52 thing in your house/life you want to get organized.  Then each week she has some tips she shares.  I've learned so much and now I'm SO motivated!  This was perfect for me because there were already some areas I KNEW I wanted to start working on, but I was totally overwhelmed.  Breaking it down is so much easier.  That's one thing I think is important -making a big project into smaller pieces.  For example, I want to organize the bathroom vanity.  Well, there are so many parts to that...think about it and break them out into smaller projects.  Under the sink, each drawer, the counter top.  Start with one area and go from there.  I mean I also want to reorganize the linen closet.  Sounds easy enough, but when I think about it what I really want is to make sure that the towels are organized, the sheets, the cleaning supplies, etc.  I'm not just organizing a closet, I'm organizing each part of the closet.  EPIPHANY!

So I'm starting on my list.  So far I have 19 things, which I know some of them I could break out a little.  So wish me luck!  I'm starting as soon as I can!  If you are wanting to become more organized, you should definitely check out this blog.  I've gathered some good information already that's going to help me.  I think I'm going to type of some of her take-away messages and put them somewhere I can see them to help keep me on track and keep things in perspective. 

My biggest focus is going to be PURGING!  I have so much STUFF!  Where did it all come from?  Why in heaven's name do I still have it?  And why after not even remembering it existed for 2 years, do I suddenly NEED it again and can't bear to part with it because I dug it out of a random box?  HELLO, I DON'T need it, that's the problem!

"JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE SPACE FOR SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO FILL IT!"

I recently got rid of a TON of clothes, which actually made me feel pretty good.  This Orgjunkie lady also has some great questions and tips when it comes to purging objects and clothes.  The best one I think is "what's the worst thing that's going to happen if I get rid of this item?"  Seriously unless you're throwing away your grandma's oxygen tank or all your tax papers for the upcoming tax season, the answer is probably...nothing.  The worst thing that can happen is that you're glad you got rid of it!!!

So go forth....and organize yourselves!

Breakfast of Champions

And no I'm not talking about Wheaties.

I wouldn't be what you would call a 'health nut' by any means.  But there are some aspects of it that I try to follow.  For example I try not to eat aspertame.  For one it gives me headaches if I ingest too much. And two, if it's giving me headaches it can't be that good for me right?

Another thing I do is try to buy food like bread for example, that has only ingredients I can pronounce.  So I check the back:  Enriched bleached flour?  No thanks.  A list of a thousand ingredients and additives?  I'll pass.  Same thing with my oatmeal.  I recently ran across a company called Better Oats who have a few different lines of oatmeal.  I LOVE THEM!  I started with Oat Revolution.  SO GOOD. 

Besides the fact they taste delicious, they come in these pouches that have the cooking instructions of course, but they double as a measuring cup so you always put the right amount of water in!  GENIUS I tell you!

And the calories are decent too.  I started with the apples and cinnamon Oat Revolution which had like 130 calories or something.  So yummy.  Seriously, my favorite ever.  Then I tried the 100 calorie Oat Fit maple and brown sugar, which now I realize will have artificial sweeteners (oops).  It was good, but not nearly as flavorful as the apples and spice.  So it's definitely worth the few extra calories in my opinion.

Then I tried the Lavish brand.  I've never had dark chocolate oatmeal before, but it's good!  It has real chocolate chips that melt in.  I was pleased.  It gives me my chocolate fix, and I still get whole grains, fiber, and it's only 160 calories.

Back to Oat Revolution straberries and cream.  Also delicious.  I'm starting to believe you can't go wrong with any of these.Today I tried Oat Revolution cinnamon roll.  YUM!  They have some other lines that include RAW, Organic, Muffins...They sound way good too.

Oh and did a mention they're just over $1.00 for a box of 5 pouches?  So I can eat breakfast for a whole week for $1?  NICE!

The point is they are good.  And I realize I this must sound like they asked me to write a reveiw or something...which they did not.  This is my own opinion and I bought every box myself. 

But I just found their website that has all their flavors and nutrition facts if you wanna take a look.  They really are tasty!  CLICK HERE

And That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

-Random, unrelated thought that popped in my head as I typed that title...is "way" one of those words you do or do not typically capitalize in a title?  It seems small enough that I would say no, but yet important enough that I'd say yes.  Whatever, I don't know why I even care.

So as the "chair" of the Training & Morale committee at my work, and through some great suggestions I got from fellow co-workers, it was decided to have a cookie party.  That party taking place yesterday.  Just a fun thing where everyone brings cookies to share basically.  We had some GOOD ones!  I failed and forgot to make mine, but I stopped by Paradise and made up for it. :)  It was a good time.  Except just as the PIE contest, the table containing these delicious treats was located right outside my office. 

YAY, except for the fact that on Monday Remy and I worked our butts off at the gym. Literally.  I usually spend a little while doing the weight machines and then about 45 minutes on cardio plus cool down.  Well this time Remy did his weights, I spent 35 minutes spinning (ouchy on my tooshy!) then figured Remy would have like 20 minutes or so left on his cardio.  Oh no.  He had 45!  So I jumped on the elliptical next to him and pedaled my legs off.  I got SOOOO tired!  The longest I had ever gone was 60 minutes so an extra 20 minutes passed that and I was beat.  BUT, it paid off on the scale!

That is...until we had COOKIE DAY!  (see how I brought that full circle? :) ) I thought I'd have some stronger will-power to resist cookies.  Yeah, that's a no.  Now I COULD have eaten a lot MORE that's for sure, but still I shouldn't have had what I did.  I justified it by eating cookies for my breakfast and lunch.  Sick.  Yet delicious.  The bummer is that I wasn't able to get to work out yesterday, so I have a feeling I'm going to have to pull another long one today.  That's okay. I figure it can't kill me.  There is this girl there who does 90 minutes on an elliptical-type machine at full resistance and incline and then runs at a 12 or something on the treadmill after that for like 30 minute or more.  GAG!

But despite all my cookie eating...I've lost 13 pounds since we got home from California in January!