hello all! sorry for my absence this week, but it's been a crazy one. we didn't anything at all with the bathroom (or the rest of the house for that matter) until just saturday. friday night we had a much-needed dinner out with mom, vince and their foreign exchange student kanami. mexican, anyone? a few dos equis amber cured what ailed me after a long rough week. it was home and straight to bed for me. saturday morning was all about cleaning for me. we hosted a little dinner party last night and the house was a disaster after a week of not cleaning and specks of cement board on all of the hardwood floors.
anyway, my girlfriend walker has just moved back to denver from san antonio, so we had her over with some friends to celebrate. i did the cooking:
orzo with roasted zucchini, eggplant, garlic and tomatoes; fresh baby green salads with chickpeas and roasted peppers; a meat-lover pizza with prosciutto, bacon and tomatoes; and a vegetarian pizza with eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes and a drizzling of truffle oil. it was delicious and pretty easy. all my friends (and philip too) were pretty impressed that i didn't screw anything up. i was pretty relieved, i must say. here's a shot of my
awesome new tablecloth, it goes perfectly with the bold blue curtains in the living room!
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| from my local world market, LOVE that store! |
well while i was downstairs cooking, philip decided he would go ahead and start tiling! everything he's read so far all says to start your tile in the middle of the space and go outwards, so that's exactly what he did. we still haven't ordered the tile for our border yet, so right now it's just the brown glass tiles. here's what he's got going on so far.
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| three tiles up so far |
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| getting ready for the next tile with adhesive |
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| wiping most of it off |
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| tiles goes up! |
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| lining it up by eye since we lost our spacers :) |
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| making sure it's on there good! |
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| and there you go! |
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image a: subject with multiple
inclusions on legs after falling
down side of hill in italy |
there is now double the amount of tile up. he could have done more but i made him quit to get a hair cut before our company arrived. plus i want to help tile too! that's one of the things that i think i can handle, since the space up in the bathroom is limited and i tend to be a little, well,
clumsy (see image a). i think he was ready for a break anyway, so we quit just in time for walker and drew to come over a little early. after we had a round of drinks in the kitchen while i put the finishing touches on the pizza, sarah, caleb and layne all showed up. we had so much food and booze that we didn't have the house to ourselves again til after 11. but it was wonderful to catch up with everyone. layne has been saying ever since we moved in that she would love to come over and help paint -- so we will be taking her up on that soon. once we get the tile done in the bathroom and the whole shower space is up and running the next task is to paint the living and dining room, which means we will need lots of man- and woman-power (and lots of beer). anyway, i guess we should finish with the one project first...
we were up in decent time this morning and philip went right back to the bathroom. no tile today, just putting up the splashguard on the ceiling. i don't think i've put up pictures of that yet, so here it is, your first look at our bathroom ceiling (and no, it isn't mirrored like the downstairs bathroom ceiling...)! it must be your lucky day.
we went back and forth on which color but ultimately ended up with a lighter bronze. it looks awesome with the brown glass tiles. this is an easier project to put this up on the ceiling, since the ceiling is so small. all we needed was to cut the panels and put them up with construction-grade adhesive.
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| supplies |
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| measuring out where to cut so it's perfect |
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| the finished product! |
ignore the light fixture, that's going to be new also. we still have to get the light fixture as well as a faucet and shower head. we have a few in mind, but nothing for sure yet. we are going to go check those out now though, so it's time for me to wrap it up... one last thing though! i did a bit of weeding this morning out in front and we have a few visitors coming by!
i totally forgot that we have tulips growing everywhere. we weren't living in the house yet when they bloomed last year, but we did come by for an inspection in april and they were all over the yards. tulips are my favorite flower and were the only flower i carried in my wedding bouquet. and bonus: they are dutch :) i think they are a good omen around the house and i am so happy to see they are back again this year. and even better, now i know that spring will inevitably be here before we know it.
next weekend we won't have any progress to report, since we will be in BOSTON visiting dad, v and aj. so excited for the trip! it won't be a
st. patty's day in southie, but that's ok. we'll probably be going to philip's
favorite place in the world too, so it should make a for a fun weekend. we head out of town wednesday night so i'm not sure when i'll post next, but i will put up some pictures of boston next week!
happy sunday all, open a bottle of wine tonight!
ciao,
alaina
