We have a 2nd bathroom!

When we moved in to this house, the upstairs bathroom had been remodeled, but the previous owners who had done a major project every year since moving in (ie: roof, adding a deck, etc.) had moved out in the beginning of putting in the 2nd bathroom downstairs.  They'd finished the basement (most homes here are sold with the basement not finished and the square footage not included in the house sales report) except for the bathroom and laundry room which had plumbing and had been roughed in.  The room is huge.

We thought about doing it ourselves.  Between our light bathroom remodeling experience in our old house and YouTube, we probably could have. However, with the kids all on different school schedules, Paul traveling one week out of the month and curling, swimming and other activities we figured we did not have the amount of uninterrupted time for our basic home improvement skills to finish it properly.  So we had 4 contractors who were all recommended come and make bids.

2 were pretty pricey, 2 were lower and one of those two was optimistic that he could even possibly have at least the shower put in by the time my parents were scheduled to come see the house for the first time, so we hired him.

Things started out well and Erin got shopping (not paying for that-- I've got awesome skills in that department).  Then the floor tiles started cracking.  The contractor told us that the tiles the previous homeowner had left that worked just fine on the shower walls were too cheap and we needed to go get new ones.  With our limited experience, we were skeptical and thought it had more to do with the installation, but bought some one grade higher and they spent 2 days chipping the floor out that they'd spent 2 days on.  Paul did an awesome job finding just enough boxes of instock tile that really matched almost perfectly to the tile already on the walls.  Needless to say it didn't get done in time for my parent's visit.  Because they had to redo the work, we compromised on not having them also tile the laundry room. We also told him we were doing our own painting which knocked $400 off the bid.

My honest review: While I'm happy it's done and know that paying someone to do it means the job was done a year before we normally would have had time to devote to the project, I will not be hiring this particular contractor again.   I think my initial disappointment was that the quality was what I probably could have done myself if I'd had enough long spurts of time available to work on the job and if I'm paying for it to be done I want it better than I could have done it.  They were over budget on time and while they'd work Monday through Saturday, some days they'd leave at 1pm, some days we'd peek in and think, WTH did they do all day?  The bathroom and laundry room were also FILTHY when they left.  I told Paul I would have been much happier with the job if they'd just spent some extra time cleaning up. Instead I did it and I noticed every higher tile, the 2 that were cracked and every other little thing that I never would have seen when I was awed by the job but that I noticed right away because my face was 6 inches from it cleaning.  I spent 2 days cleaning and painting. By 2 days I mean long days.  NOW that I've cleaned and painted it I'm quite happy with it. Now that I'm using it I'm happy with it.  But I asked Paul to stop asking me how I liked it most of last weekend ;)  Today we also changed to a tankless hot water heater so I now have an extra 4x4 foot area in my furnace room for storage.

Here's the end result...

The view from the bathroom door into my laundry room pocket door. Before putting in the pocket door, the door opening was to the right, in the corner, which meant you had to walk around the vanity, this is a much better flow.

 

To the right... I now have a corner to put my freezer in and storage for cleaning supplies. I'm keeping them in the bins until I move out the shelves to tile in there, then I'll organize it.

To the left, my laundry tub, laundry machines and pantry storage above. I took these shelves out of the garage and reused them to add some pantry space to our smaller kitchen. the tank water heater has been replaced with a tankless which is attached to the wall so that back corner is now all free space.

Looking into the bathroom with the pocket door closed, the other door is a linen closet, vanity to right, toilet to left.

 

New vanity and mirror with extra space in the corner for a plant, shelves.....??? The lights and mirror seem a little low because there's ductwork above the vanity area, good thing we're a short family

The toilet and new shower and his and hers towel bars. Both windows have a contact paper that's a privacy screen. Easily installed with an exacto knife and a squeegee.

The shower. Shower bar with jets and rain shower, niche cut in between the studs with glass shelf-big enough for Costco sized shampoo, the window in there is also tiled so you can put stuff up there as well. Doors are Maax Halo 60 inch doors. Shower is 5'x5' with center drain. Gray tile line is same tile that's on the floor.

What does this all cost?  Here's the breakdown, including tax (13.5% here)

Labor & construction supplies (except cleaning & painting)	5,650.00
Door Knobs-privacy & closet	65.52
Molding & Shelving, Baseboards	132.60
Towel holders, TP holder	135.66
Faucet	122.04
Tile (bathroom and laundry)	271.38
Shower body bar-$150 off sale	449.74
Vanity & sink top-48 inch marked off $60 for scratches down by the floor	847.67
Vanity light	90.40
Pocket Door-primed	153.67
Paint-1 gal midgrade Benjamin Moore & 1 quart Zinnzer for molding & doors	70.00
Shower doors	733.37
Mirror	33.90
Accessories	32.70
	8,788.66

 

Our House and Halloween

First up, Halloween...  We had a Minecraft Squid, a knight and Dora the Explorer

 

 

The boys had a parade around the track at school (LOVE living next door to their school!)

 

We went Trick-or Treating down my Mother In Law's street after hitting the neighbours across the street...   the little ones would have gone to every house in town if I'd let them, esp  Valerie...

We went about 3 blocks and ended up with 3 bags of cotton candy, about enough crackers and juice boxes to fill lunchboxes for a week, a freezer basket of chips & two shoeboxes of candy-one Canadian (1/2 from the candy I bought and we didn't have that many trick-or-treaters) and one "other" candy.

We also carved pumpkins... A Minecraft Creeper, Dora the Explorer and a Hockey Mask.  Carter did his own drilling...

 

Also, beginning of October, Carter won an award for Academics.  He's excelling in Math :)

There was even a Mountie there!

He's on the left

And he got a certificate and a medal.

 

 

 

So Paul wakes me up at 3am the other morning and says, "listen" .  Rustling.  INSIDE THE WALL.  Ack!  The good news is it is next to the bathroom, which has drywall, but the screws are exposed and we could get in there because the bathroom's not completely finished. 

 

A few nights later, right after Paul leaves for Seattle, I'm settling into bed and I hear MORE RUSTLING INSIDE THE WALL NEXT TO MY BED.  This is a bigger problem because the other side is the cement wall of the cold cellar.  Crap.  So I go to sleep and it WAKES me  up the next morning.  Aggggg!!!!

 

2-3 days pass. I'm taking out the trash and go to put a new bag in about 5 minutes later and what is staring back up at me???

 

 

After the scream and adrenaline rush I see he's quite small and even a little cut with those big eyes and cute little ears.  I briefly consider keeping him. I mean we don't have any pets or anything.  Then the reality of him escaping back into my wall sets in and I take the trash can out and set him free in the woods and field behind the house.  The next day, I realize from all the tiny mouse poops under my sink he's been enjoying the buffet for awhile and promptly change to a trash can with a lid.

ETA 11/11/2013: He's come back, so at 4pm I set up a trap  with peanut butter. 11pm, I hear rustling under the sink.  He's a gonner.  Sorry, buddy, I gave you a get out of jail free.... now you've made a poor choice.  THANK GOD my dad was here and could take the dead little body out of the trap for me since Paul was at curling.....


We also hired a contractor!  He's really trying to get the second bathroom completed before my parents get here....  We had a toilet and plumbing and a stack of tiles the former owners left.  This week I've bought a vanity and top, shower bar thing, little tiles, shower doors and a pocket door, I'll finish shopping this weekend, including possibly heading over the border for a tankless water heater (there is just way more selection in the US than here in Canada)

First day was making the shower pan.  Today they put in some of the tile and carved in a niche for my shampoo, etc....

 

 

Random pics:

Now the boys get out of school and roll down the hill next door for 10 minutes before coming home....

Pumpkin Patch trip

Valerie's preschool headed to the pumpkin patch this week. The same one Henri will go to with his class next week while I'm home nice and warm because a) with Paul out of town, I need to stay home with V and b) I already got my pictures :)  *Though I just realized I shot them all in small format by accident.  Sigh.

When she first got there she was excited, when she realized her teacher was there she ran right up and hugged her legs :)  It was super sweet.  V loves her school so much.

Proof she had a hat on at the start of our trip.

 

They did a little learning presentation about how pumpkins grow, then let us loose in the corn maze.  No, just kidding, they guided us through because that would be silly to let preschoolers loose in a corn maze.

 

(and already the hat was off)

 

after the straw maze, we went for a wagon ride...

And picked out pumpkins. In a little patch with little pumpkins.

These were the first pumpkins they spotted and were closest to the wagon. Done.

 

Then we went back and Henri chowed down on the apple they gave everyone.  Valerie just kept asking to see the animals.

On the way out they stopped for a photo op.

 

 

Trying squash

Those of you who know me know that I don't really like Vegetables.  I'm really giving it a good try now that I'm above 30 and feel like as an adult I should have some sort of appreciation of vegetables.  So, I'm trying.  The kids like broccoli (they get this from their father) and I have managed to find two things that I will make with it.  One is broccoli bites which is from a scrapbook group cookbook and uses broccoli, cheese and stuffing mix to make some popable broccoli bites.  The children will not eat them.  So this week while Paul's gone is my time to try out new recipes.  I have no idea why, because if it makes a ton (see below) it's only me here to eat it because the children pretty much live off bologna sandwiches, chocolate milk and fish crackers.  Yesterday was spaghetti squash.  If you've never had spaghetti squash, it's a long, yellow squash and when you cook it whole you then open it up and use a fork to scrape out the innards and they come out looking exactly like.... wait for it.... yeah, spaghetti.  Because it's a milk flavor many people advocate using it in place of pasta.  I had some leftover pasta sauce to use and a box of Kraft Smart Dinner for the kids and we gave it a whirl. 

(For my US friends, Kraft Smart dinner (veggie) is a clever little box that has no artificial colors or flavors and uses cauliflower in place of some of the wheat to make the noodles.  It's amazing.  You can actually just put the powder straight in the drained noodles with that little bit of water that never seems to make it out and it mixes up beautifully-though the directions do call for the typical butter and milk, it seems unnecessary) 

Anyways, I cut a slice into my squash and threw it in the oven at 375 for an hour (my friend LeeAnn recommends microwaving for 11 minutes instead)  and we scraped it out.

I used it as pasta.  Carter was brave and tried some plain then mixed the rest into his macaroni.  It has a slight pumpkin smell, but only for my very specialized nose. I think most people wouldn't smell it.  It's crunchier than cooked pasta, so there's no trying to fool the wee ones.  However, it was alright with both the marinara and pesto I tried on it.  Carter and I agreed while it was not our new favorite veggie or anything, it was an acceptable way to get tons of vitamins in (and on my end for VERY little calories-I had 3 cups of the stuff, that's 3 full platefuls to the tune of only about 150 calories before the sauce!)  I had some for lunch today and it was just fine.  I will say there is tons of fiber. It's probably not best to have 3 platefuls of it (did I mention earlier in the week I'm super hungry???)

Today's veggie du jour is butternut squash.  People who love it really love it.  So I tried to find a Pinterest recipe that I didn't have to leave the house for ingredients for and found this recipe for a sweet & savory soup which sounded promising.    The only substitution I made was that I didn't have celery so I doubled the carrots.  And I tried out the puree soup setting on my Blendtec that I love and prayed it was good because it made 13 cups of soup (did I mention I'm the only one here this week?) 

  even with the whipping cream, etc. it comes in at 272 calories for the 2 cup bowl you see there.  It was quite easy to make.  I did the roasting of the squash this morning and did the rest while waiting for the boys to come home from school... they took a little extra time getting home...

 

 

My review is it's quite tasty though I put way too much cumin in (note to self, don't measure spices over the soup bowl).  It's pretty much all I can taste. Next time I may try 1 tsp instead of 1 tablespoon, then try it.  My first bite I wasn't too sure, but as the tastes are melding together it's quite lovely, esp for a squash.  I can't wait to see how it tastes tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day.  Because unless this stuff will freeze, I'll be eating it pretty much until Paul returns.  Which is kind of sad since I saved a ham bone to make a nice pot of split pea soup which I know will freeze while he's gone since he loves ham, but not a huge pea fan. 

 

And I got to do the dishes (our dishwasher needs a new seal, well, really it needs to be replaced, but we're starting our bathroom reno next week, so the kitchen will have to wait) while it was blissfully quiet.  Not common for a Friday, esp with Paul gone, but I went for a 7km run (they keep closing the trail unexpectedly causing me to take a detour that adds 2km)  with V in the stroller. It started to rain and somehow we managed to hit headwinds 3 of the 4 directions we went (I'm not sure how that's possible, but I swear to you it happened) and my non-napper finally gave in on the home stretch, so I rolled her right into the entry way for a quiet shower, lunch and some kitchen time....

 

 

Minecraft Costume for Carter

Carter wanted to be Steve from Minecraft really badly. I had the boxes from our move, but every costume an essential part was the head. I really don't think it's practical for Carter to walk around with a box he can barely see out of on his head, so I talked him down to a Minecraft Squid.  (I know, I was rolling my eyes too, but it was easier than Steve, so there you go.)  Turned out well.  The side is the "good" side"  I did some sketching, graph paper, math and measuring on the front and side, the other side is a big mash up of left over paper in rectangles and the back is just black because it's midnight and I have to take the two little kids on Valerie's pumpkin patch trip tomorrow with her preschool so I gotta get to bed.  The box had to be resized to stay on his shoulders and the shoulders are padded with packing foam so they don't cut into him. The tenticles are cut up garbage bags and I put everything on with a coating of packaging tape also left from the move as it's been raining fairly regularly and I don't want any meltdowns from rectangles falling off or getting wet.  Here's what it is and what it's supposed to be.  Closer to Halloween I'll post pics of him wearing it. Luckily the other kids are easier!

October update

Yep, it's been a month since an update. It's easier to do updates when Paul heads to Seattle since he works from home and uploading pictures takes a lot of bandwidth.  Surely you don't want me to post without photos, do you?

Let's see.... Carter's reading at a 5th grade level (he's in 3rd) and is a "whiz at math" according to his teacher.  He's still having some adjustment issues, but overall seems to be making some friends, even having a playdate after school with a classmate.  He and 2 of his cousins will begin curling in October, so watch for some updates about that.

Henri's loving Kindergarten, especially since there is no nap involved and he gets to spend the morning running errands with just mom on the days Valerie's in school or playing Skylanders Swap Force (the game du jour) without his brother taking over.  He also loves riding his bike. He's gained no weight but has shot up a bit and I had to put him in a little larger sized shirts (5-he's still 4 in pants and has to wear belts or elastic waist on everything)

Valerie loves, loves preschool and while she's glad to see us at the end of the day, there are a few days where she  says, "no, I stay school."  She doesn't like days when the boys get to go to school and she does not.   I have finally gotten her to wear dresses with the assistance of heavy cotton tights which she loves.  Now I just have to pick up a few long sleeved t-shirts to go under the dresses she screamed about all summer to get some wear out of them. Because.... she's also growing.  I think we'll have to bring the size 4s out a few months before she actually turns 4.  Even though Henri grew, Valerie's only a 1/2 a head shorter than him and she was a full head shorter just about 6 weeks ago.  She's also only 2 pounds lighter, finally getting to 30 pounds.

Paul is gearing up for curling season, in a weekly pool league with some friends and still commuting 1 of 4 weeks each month for work.  He meets with his group via Skype and will be glad when his current project is wrapped up, hopefully in time for relaxing for the holidays.

I've retaken up running and runs 5K almost every day and did a long run of 9K this week and I'm getting faster!  I've also been trying ice skating once a week at an adult skate time at our local arena during one of two chunks of time all 3 kids are in school each week and I'm progressing at that as well.  I stay upright though everyone else is much faster and laps me as well as manages to have conversations while skating. I'm not quite there, yet.  I've also been watching what I eat and am down 8 pounds in the last month which is good because I'm hungry. Very hungry.  This may be part of why I'm getting faster.  Easier to run with less weight to carry!  I'm also getting ready for curling season which starts next week and went to another weekend scrapbook retreat this month.  This time in Amish country in Ohio.  It was really nice to get away and even though it was a long drive, it was very scenic with all the leaves changing and I was able to get caught up with my pictures as well as make Christmas cards for this year!  I'm also interviewing contractors to finish our second bathroom.

We're still on the same path immigration-wise though I need to renew my U.S. passport as it's about 6 months from expiring.  I've filled out my paperwork and gotten my photos and will send it off as soon as my parents head back home from visiting us in November. Then I'll be non-traveling until it comes back to me and I need to get to the border to renew my visitor status record to extend it to my new passport expiration date.  The  kids all have health insurance now though we're still waiting to hear back from the doctor we'd like to use.  We live in an aging area and that includes family doctors, so it's very difficult to become a patient of someone. We are only getting in to this one because of family connections and he's very, very busy.  I'm currently taking suggestions for dentists in the Buffalo/Niagara NY area so the kids and I can get a checkup or we'll go to our old dentist if we head home for March break.

We got haircuts since although V looks so cute in barrettes she won't leave them in, so bangs are a must and the boys were getting shaggy.... I also realized my highlights were tired and am trying on "cappuchino" for the fall.  I think it's a bit dark, but it's exactly the color of Carter's hair!  I have 6 weeks to figure out if I like it or want to lighten it next time around.

I took the kids ice skating.  Holy Moly was that a process...  Yes, we have the walkers and V has double bladed skates that strap to her shoes. So I got the boys' skates on. Then realized I forgot V's so I carried all 3 kids out to the car, drove home, grabbed the skates, got back, carried everyone back in, put hers on... she kicks them on and says, "no skates" so I grab her in just socks to watch the boys, then she wants them back on, but will have nothing to do with the walkers (the boys pretty much walked on the ice with the walkers for 40 minutes) so I had to try skating with my very limited ability hanging on to both her hands and "skate" her in between my legs, meanwhile she's still trying to decide if she wants to have her feet down or not and my skates which are not broken in have decided I'm skating at an awkward angle and are KILLING me. So, it was not fun, but they all agree to try again and Henri even was wanting to go to the afternoon session... I may take them out one at a time in the future. The good part was that it was completely empty except for us and a lady with 4 little kids so we had tons of room.  They all had fun, but Henri really likes it even though what he does is kind of ice walking...

and yes, I realize these are not proper ice skating helmets... I'm working on it...

This is what I woke up to this morning...

They are very excited for Halloween...

We made a trip to the local pumpkin funny farm...

Slingshotting apples.... kinda Angry Birds like...

and it required team work...

the giant trikes kind of were stuck in the mud...

and jump on a giant pillow

lots of ackward family photo opps...

Henri still loves accessories

in fact he regularily wears his armor and sword for his Halloween costume to the grocery store.  Well, Walmart. For some reason he takes it off for Canadian Tire.... not as dangerous perhaps?

I tried taking a family photo on Thanksgiving.... which was last week for us.

 

The swords are very exciting toys in our house right now...

Carter lost tooth #3

in the next two weeks we'll have two pumpkin patch trips and Halloween, I gotta go now because I haven't even started Carter's way complicated costume. Sigh.