Burgers and Nails

You may think by the title of this post that I was eating a burger while pounding nails for the bathroom renovation.  Sorry friends, this is a different kind of nail.
My friend Caitlin showed me this site called Burgers and Nails awhile ago.  It's a little strange, but cool at the same time.  All's it is is pictures of girls hands holding a burger and the fingernails of the girls are painted.  Plain and simple.  Who would have thought it would be a million dollar idea?
Well after Cait and I got manicures for a friends wedding earlier this month, we thought it would be fun to go back closer to Christmas, get a Christmas mani done and then go get a burger, snap a photo and submit it to the site.  So tonight, that's what we did.  I have already submitted both pictures to the site, so hopefully they will be up within a day or two, just in time for Christmas.  I wouldn't be surprised if Caitlin's nails made the site before mine because her nails are WAY cuter, but it will be fun to see no matter what!
In case you forget to go to the Burgers and Nails site in a couple days to check out our nails, here are the pictures that I submitted:

Cait's nails:  Tiny Christmas Lights!!  Cute, huh?  Notice the plug on her pinky nail.

My nails:  Much more boring, but in their defense, they have more pizzazz in real life with the silver tips.  :)

Soon It Will Be Christmas Day...

With Christmas right around the corner, I figured it was high time that I share some of the highlights that happen around this time of the year in my neck of the woods....

Tree Trimming - sorry for the poor camera work.  No flash combined with a simple point & shoot camera usually equals disaster in low light.  Here's what she looks like with her day and night faces on:

Wreath Making - Technically, this is a first for me.  I decided to get creative with a foam circle, some ribbon, sparkly things and a glue gun.  Not so bad for my first shot at a home made wreath.  We'll see what next year brings.

and of course Christmas wouldn't be complete without...

Cookie Baking - Every year my mom and I spend at least one day making dozens of cookies to share with family and friends.  We had a few mishaps this year, but for the most part, they turned out good as ever!

It's Electric!

Ever since purchasing the electric necessities for the "installing the fan" portion of my bathroom renovation, I've kind of had the Electric Slide stuck in my head.  Now that it's finally out on paper, (or technically screen), it will hopefully go away and I can stop picturing myself on the dance floor at a wedding looking really dumb trying to work my moves into that song.
Anyway, the fan is in!  Whoop Whoop!! *insert dance moves, me shakin' my tail feather in excitement and a few jumps for joy*  My old bathroom did not have a fan, which technically is OK since there is a window in the bathroom, but I figured it would be nice and it will hopefully eliminate any issues like moisture behind the walls, etc. that may occur over the next 60 years when the next owners go to take out tile and end up ripping down all of the walls.  :)
Before the wiring was done though, we ended up taking out two plywood type floors that were in the bathroom under the pink tiles.  I guess you would technically call one of them a "floor" and one of them a "sub floor"?.  Both were pretty yucky and needed to come out.  Turns out that it was good it was done that way because another surprise was waiting under both plywood floors--the original floorboards, I guess you would call them, needed work too.  Some were really loose and bouncy so they needed some reinforcing from the bottom up..., which meant going down to the basement and doing some major support work from under the floor.  It's all good now and once the new plywood sub floor gets laid down, we won't have to worry about those floor boards moving around at all.  The last thing you want is a floor that moves around, especially when you are planning to lay tile.

Sub floor #1 coming up--little by little!

Floor #2 makin' its way out with the help of Jeff and his handy saw.

The floor boards showing their not-so pretty face.  The hole was also fixed from the
bottom up---no sprained ankles here!

After the floors were out, it was time to wire.  So with the help of a family friend on Saturday, the wiring was done for a brand spankin' new fan, along with a couple other outlets.  One being a separate switch that operates the fan, a working, grounded outlet which my bathroom also has never had and is now code these days and another little switch-a-roo with an outlet that was actually on the kitchen side that needed some adjusting and now that the neighboring bathroom wall was free, we were able to get at the kitchen outlet and move it to a new, more useful spot. <-- that last part probably makes little or no sense to you, but if you ever come over and see it for yourself, I will explain.  It's much too hard to explain over type and it's technically not part of the "bathroom renovation", so it doesn't even really belong in this post!

It's Electric!

It's Electric part II.  Ignore the almond colored light plate--that was for the kitchen side.  My bathroom
light plates and switches will all be bright, shiny and white.

New fan switch on the left, new grounded, working outlet on the right.

Another view of the outlets just because I love them so much and the 2x4
with all of the names of the bathroom helpers to date.  Looking at that now, I realize
my Grandpa needs to be added to that list. 

Mr. Fan in all his glory hangin' up by the ceiling.  Don't worry, Buddy, we'll get a face plate on you as soon
as your insulation and drywall friends are hung up around you.

Next on the agenda:  Insulation for the outside wall, new pluming for a stand up shower (did I ever mention that I have had to use one of those hand held sprayer things when I showered in this bathroom?  It never had an actual shower head, just a sprayer attached to the faucet.  I had to one-arm shower for over two years!  It will be nice when I can rinse my hair out with both hands again!) and then laying a new sub floor.  Not necessarily in that order, but you can bet I will keep you posted.

Stay Tuned....

Words With Alec

How many points would the phrase KICKED OFF A PLANE get you in Words With Friends? Maybe we should ask Alec Baldwin. Apparently Alec was booted off an American Airlines flight on Tuesday because he refused to shut off his phone while playing Words With Friends. I guess Alec is just like me and the rest of my family and can’t get enough of that addicting game!
Oh Alec…I don’t blame you for not wanting to desperately play that J and Z on the triple letter/ triple words spaces that are open, but rules are rules… Here’s a thought for you: next time, pick an airline with free WiFi, and play on your ipad as soon as you reach cruising altitude. I am sure if you ask politely, the flight attendant will give you some shortbread cookies to pass the time in between.

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Bye Bye Yucky Bathroom - This Studs For You.

The time has come for my bathroom to get a facelift; Joan Rivers style.
Long ago, I mentioned this post about my bathroom's pink tiles.  I dreamed of keeping my lovely retro pink floor tiles and ditching the floral wallpaper and the plastic red wine colored wall tiles for an updated, ultra cool, but not too modern look.  Well my friends, that day has finally come.  I could no longer handle going into the bathroom with the tiny vacuum cleaner and having random tiles pop off the walls if I got too close and I was so-over the buckling tiles above the tub faucet and having the plaster beneath crumble into the tub while I was trying to shower.  It was just plain embarrassing.
So on Saturday Nov. 19th, it was Go Time.  I spent the day with a putty knife in hand and went to town popping off tiles left and right.  They came down without too much of a fuss, but what was lurking underneath was another story.  The dreaded M word.  That's right.  Mold showed its ugly face and it was not pretty.  Between the old glue that held the tiles on and the mold growing under most tiles in the shower area, it reeked in there.  This was going to be a bigger project than suspected.

View 1 before renovation (notice missing tiles starting right by shower curtain?

View 2 before renovation.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but can you see the buckling tile above the faucet?

Poppin' tiles in the shower,

A lot of tile gone -- Goldish-yellow stuff: Glue.  Black stuff: Mold.

To make a long story short, the day went by with the rest of the tiles coming off and getting a good jump on getting the glue scrapped off.  The plan from the beginning was to ditch the tiles and wall paper and put a shower surround in and put up white Wayne's Coating, or White Hardboard Wall Panel as it's also called, where the tile outside the shower used to be.  I thought the floor was cute so I was going to keep that and the vintage, yet still cute, medicine cabinet and light fixtures.  The vanity and sink were also going to hit the curb.
The week went along just fine.  The walls in the shower were going to come out only halfway (where the shower surround was going to go) and we were going to start from basically scratch and put up new drywall (the current walls are plaster since the house was built in 1950).  The walls outside the shower were going to stay as is with the exception of the wallpaper coming off.  We didn't really want to go through the trouble of re-doing all of the walls unless necessary.  And as long as I got most of the yucky glue off, we were good to go because the White Hardboard was going to cover that up anyway.  So, with the help of my brother who was off work for a couple days, the three walls in the shower came off halfway.  Again though, mold lurked behind the walls onto the two by fours.  Obviously, these plastic tiles had not been sealed well for a long time.

Somewhere in the tile/glue/wall removal process I was faced with the sad reality that the Pretty Pink Tiles were going to have to go *insert sad face*.  The toilet had obviously had a leak in the past and the floor beneath it wasn't fixed properly.  Therefore, the tiles were loose practically all around the toilet and would need to come out in order for the floor to be fixed anyway.  I knew before that a few tiles were loose but I figured it was a quick fix.  I had no idea that once the few loose ones were out, the large group of tiles surrounding them would have a domino effect.  So, instead of hitting the clubs the night before Thanksgiving, I hit the crowbar and got the floor tiles out in record time.  Well, record time for me anyway, since I have never taken out Tiny Pink Tiles from a bathroom floor before.

Fast forward to Saturday, November 26th.  Somewhere between smashing up floor tiles and Black Friday shopping, my mind was changed and I was going to re-tile the shower instead of putting in a fiberglass surround.  Don't ask why, just go with it.  Let me side-track for a second...I know I haven't mentioned who "we" are in this whole bathroom renovating process, so I will give them shout outs here:  Ladies and Gentelman, let's give it up for the Main Contributors of the Wright Bathroom Renovation 2011.....*insert pump up music*...The Father of the Home Owner, Mr. John Wright...and the brother of the Homeowner, Mr. Jeffrey Wrgiht...and of course a Bathroom Remodel wouldn't be complete with the help of Mom herself, Mrs. Kimberly Wright.  And let's not forget about the woman not always present, but was on major clean up crew today...the Sister-in-law, Mrs. Ashley Wright.  And of course last but not least, the homeowner herself, Ms. Leiann Wright *insert crowd screams and more pump up music*.

Ok, where was I?  Oh yeah, Saturday.  I rented a wallpaper steamer at a local rental place and my mom came over and we went to town taking down that gorgeous wallpaper.  I really wanted to name the title of this post "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", but I didn't.  My mom and I worked for about 6 hours removing wallpaper.  We came across hiccup after hiccup with a few choice words along the way.  

Wallpaper Steamer

Mom so happy she came to help!

Gross walls underneath wallpaper.

We highly recommended to my dad that all the walls come down and we start fresh with new drywall.  That went over like a lead balloon.  Or did it?  After my dad decided to join us in the fun and realized first hand how much a pain in the behind "repairing" the upper part of the walls (where new paint was going to go) was going to be, he finally agreed that all walls needed to go.  So to commemorate 6 wasted hours of peeling wallpaper, we stuck a hammer through the wall so there was no turning back--these walls were coming down!

Crowbars up!

Stud Muffin.

After about three hours of demo work Saturday, approx. 8 hours on Sunday, and 7+ barrels of debris later, all of the walls were naked and pretty much ready for drywall!  A friend of mine is going to come in and do that for me, but not before some wiring and a much needed fan is installed.  There is still a lot to do, but after only a week and a day, I feel like she's lookin' pretty beautiful--studs and all!

Debris 1

5 more barrels of debris

Stripped to bare bones!  What a sight!

Ash on cleanup--no, she isn't germ paranoid, just protecting her lungs from the mounds of dust floating through the air!

I have to also note that as all of this work is going on in the upstairs bathroom, my brother has been working his butt off in the basement to try to make that bathroom more livable for us since we will have to use that one for awhile while the main one is under construction.  It's lookin' pretty good from what it was a couple weeks ago!

Treading Wood

Instead of treading water for an hour tonight to burn off all of the Thanksgiving and Black Friday calories I consumed over the past 32 hours, I decided to put some treads on my wood steps instead.  Although I didn't burn near the calories I would have treading water, I did break a minor sweat.  Measuring and taping in a steep stairway can take a lot out of you--especially after a long tiring day at the mall.
Anyway, back to the treads.
When I moved in in June of '09, the steps leading up to my bedroom looked like this:

I know. Between the smell and the pattern, the carpet was pretty raunchy.  I am not sure what my friend realtor is pointing at in this picture, but this was at a final walk through and she was probably telling me that the carpet was a health hazard and needed to come out asap!  Needless to say, it did later that summer and I was left with this:

Not perfect, but better than above.  You can see where they had their old treads before they decided to cover it with the turquoise/brown spotted cow look carpeting---why they covered up these decent steps with that hideous carpet is beyond me.  But anyway, after the carpet was up and the staples were out, in my opinion they good to go.  I wasn't about to worry about the minor fading and the scratches you don't see until you get close.  Who they weren't good enough for though, is these guys:

Yes, I know it's pathetic, but I caved to my four-legged brother and niece who are frequent visitors and sometimes live-in roommates.  Those steps are pretty steep and I don't blame them for freaking out that their little paws and claws are going to slip and they are going to go tumbling down, which they both have actually done in the past.  So, since one is afraid to go down but not up the steps, and the other is afraid to go up but not down, I am always stuck carrying one of them up or down and although it's good exercise, it's getting old making two trips.  Plus, it's sad when you are up putting laundry away and a certain someone wants to be right by your side, but he can't get up the steps so he stands at the bottom and cries until you come and get him!

So after over a year of putting it off and about 100 extra trips up/down the steps to get a dog or two, I finally bought some treads.  They aren't the most fancy things in the West, but they will do.  The door to go up is usually closed anyway and the people (dogs) who care most about them are just happy they are there so they now have some traction and won't need to be carried humiliated anymore.

Ye Old Treads.

Ye Old Math skills coming in handy.

Ye Old Double-Sided Carpet Tape used -- in 3 different languages; just in case.
*note: That is not me modeling on the packaging*

Ye Old Installation. 

Ye Old Finished Product.

Tis' the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I don't have any Thanksgiving pictures to post yet so I am going to jump the gun like Target and Kohl's and post a little about how Christmas is right around the corner. The city decorations are up, most of my Christmas lights are hung (courtesy of my brother) and although it's already melted, the first snowfall of the season happened last weekend.
Cheers to a Happy Thanksgiving and to Black Friday and the official start of the Christmas season!

Can you see the Christmas tree on the light post?

First 2011 snowfall in St. Paul Park, MN