it's kind of a funny story...

so i was sick on tuesday.  i left work early, came home, was a good girl and after popping ibuprofen pm in the middle of the afternoon (after my blog post) i fell asleep.  not sure what time it was, probably 4-ish.  i could hear peggy talking to don in the background of my dream (i feel asleep to mad men), and water rushing.  fast.  then profanity.  a lot of it -- very loudly.  and opening my eyes, i realized that there isn't profanity on mad men.  and that the water sounded a little too close.

i heard philip's voice and assumed he put on the few fixtures and was testing out the new faucet.  yay!  i walked upstairs in my drug-induced stupor and immediately realized as my foot hit the last step that something was not right.

water was gushing out of the broken pipe where the faucet should be.   shooting out would be a better word, actually.  it was shooting out with such force that the water wasn't even hitting the tub (which isn't totally sealed yet, by the way), it was hitting the opposite wall, which is still just half-tile, half-cement board.

"what happened?" i screamed over the sound of the water.  i won't even bother typing what he said... but you can imagine it was bad.  i ran to the bathroom and grabbed all the towels i could find.  philip had a wrench out and was twisting as hard as he could, trying to turn off the water or lessen the flow even a bit.  no such luck.  i threw the towels to the floor, sopping up whatever i possibly could of the water that was mixing with the construction dirt-and-dust grime on the floor.  philip rushed downstairs, yelling all the while, on his way to the basement.  his hurried footsteps were nearly shaking the house.  as he looked for a way to turn the water off at the source, i realized the towels weren't cutting it.  my pajama bottoms were soaked, my long sleeved tee i borrowed from philip was dripping.  i grabbed the shower curtain liner from the old shower, still on the floor of the bathroom (i knew there was a reason i hadn't cleaned that crap up yet...), and flung it in front of me.

keeping the shower curtain in the tub, i was able to deflect most of the water flow to keep it in the new bathtub -- which was rapidly filling up.  after standing there for at least five minutes, the water slowed steadily until it stopped.  philip came back up stairs and unplugged the tub so the water could drain.  i felt like the whole thing was a dream, still in my drugged-up state.  after having cleaned up the mess as best we could for the moment being, we walked back downstairs.  i went into the kitchen to put the towels in the hamper when i heard the drip... drip... drip... coming from our kitchen light fixture and fan.

yes.  the water had leaked underneath the un-sealed tub and through our ancient ceiling in the kitchen.  as i grabbed the damp towels and a dining room chair to stop the water, philip ran outside to turn off the breakers.  we now are the new owners of a lovely hole above the refrigerator where the water came through and bubbles in the ceiling paint.  as for the light fixture... well, it drained out as best as it could.

we have survived, and so has our kitchen, and so has our bathroom.  but it was the first big disaster of the bathroom project and i couldn't not share it with you all.

as for me now, i have an unexpected weekend off (yay!) so lots more bathroom work will be happening.   the tile might even get finished this weekend.  it's possible!  with my mother-in-law, patrizia, planning a trip out in may we now have some good motivation to have the bathroom totally done for her.

until the next disaster -- i mean update :)

10 best movies

well, my cold yesterday has turned into a full-blown something awful and i'm stuck home on the couch.  in honor of my resting and watching movies i thought i would post another 10 best: my 10 favorite movies.  these aren't in order.  half of them were bombs so don't be surprised by my awful taste...

1.  vanilla sky

my all-time favorite, hands down.  the trippy love story of all love stories.  say what you will, but i love tom cruise.  and penelope cruz is enchanting.  i had to write an essay on this movie my freshman year of college, and after watching it over and over and over i fell head over heels.  "the sweet is not as sweet without the sour."  "the little things... there's nothing bigger, is there?"  "every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."  "...the saddest girl to ever hold a martini."  i cry every time i watch this move and i love it more every time too.

2.  wicker park

"love makes you do crazy things.  things you'd never see your self doing in a million years."  another lovely fanatical love story.  and josh hartnett is crazy hot, so that's a plus too.  it's actually suspenseful... the first time philip watched it with me he kept asking, "is he going to find her?  just tell me if he finds her." it's unbearable and the ending is satisfying every time.

3.  jack goes boating

this is what i have the pleasure of watching today while home sick.  it should be noted that i am obsessed with philip seymour hoffman and think that everything he does is pure genius.  including this film.  he's soft spoken, shy, sweet, innocent even.  and all he wants to do is make her happy.  it's so romantic how much he does for her.  the scenes where jack is being taught how to swim by his best friend will have you forgetting you're watching a dramatic story about love of all kinds.  and the soundtrack is killer - fleet foxes, grizzly bear, DeVotchKa, goldfrapp.  perfect for a rainy day.

another monday, another bathroom update (vol. v)

hey all.  hope you like the spring colors!  it's been another week since i've posted - sorry about that!  i always intend on posting over the weekends, but... just doesn't happen.  i worked on saturday but came home and went into yet another cleaning frenzy.  i just can't seem to keep this home clean EVER.  it's beyond frustrating.  but with two cats, a messy husband, hardwood floors in a 100+ year old house i don't know how it will ever be anything but dusty.  but it's what is inside the house that counts, right?  that's what i'll keep telling myself anyway.

i ended up having an impromptu girls night at layne's place and left philip behind.  of course, rather than watching the rest of the rockies game with his friends, he decided to keep tiling.  and it's a good thing, because this is what the shower now looks like! 

please forgive the poor quality, but i left my good canon at layne's on saturday.  but check it out!  there's still a ways to go, but there you can see the tile all the way down to the tub and it looks AMAZING.  i couldn't love it more.   we bought the fixtures, but haven't installed them yet.  i don't have photos of all the fixtures but here's the faucet.

we decided to go with bronze fixtures, because we aren't doing the white stone border anymore.  the stone is special-order only (you'd think we would have looked into that sooner...) and we don't want to waste any more time until this damn project is done.  we had a small tile mishap, but philip has sorted it all out and you never would have known.  and if you didn't notice, i won't tell you :)

sunday was shopping day!  among our finds were that our local blockbuster is closing (surprisingly we are not netflix people!) and they were selling all their movies for $6.  snagged seasons 2 & 3 of mad men (i wish i were joan) for only $16 each.  then found some shoe sales with mom and found these darlings.

perfect for spring

It's almost spring here... and before you know it the posts about the bathroom will be long gone and there will be posts of the yard.

lilac bushes i planted last summer - looking up! 

but for now it's time for me to rest.  i'm sick today and my head is absolutely throbbing.  more later loves!