Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
The shower “membrane”, that is. After your shower pre-slope is fully dried— you waited 48 hours, right?— you can place the shower liner in and do your final pour of shower mix (sand and cement mixture). Then it’s smooth sailing. Honestly, don’t skip the pre-slope! Without it, your water will sit and mold will grow below your shower’s surface. Ewww, nobody’s got time for that.
All we do is work work work work work. Thanks Top 40 radio for that one. We’ve been listening to the same 40 songs all spring break due to limited music options. But, back to the task at hand.
This video is lengthier, so feel free to breeze through it at your own pace. The pre-slope is a one night project, but it’s important to give it plenty of time to dry (48 hours to be safe) before advancing to the rest of the shower pan. We’ll walk you through the steps.
If you’re in the market for a last-minute St. Patrick’s Day treat recipe, I’ve got the goods for you. Even better, it involves those cookie cutters you used for Valentine’s Day a few weeks ago. Am I the only one with a cookie problem?…
Joe says we’re half way done with the bathroom! I’m wary of this prognosis; I think we’re still a little shy of the halfway mark… Luckily, it’s basically uphill from here. We’ve done most of the dirty jobs already. Very dirty indeed: Demo, rerouting the drain, reframing, and now we’ve finished up the electrical, plumbing and the exhaust fan.
They’re up! We just have to get them covered with sheetrock, but they’re looking good already. I’ve never done this, so it was all a learning experience for me. I even got to use gunpowder to nail into the concrete! It took me a few tries, but I finally made it through.
We knew moving the shower drain would be difficult, but this was one of our biggest challenges. Usually when people move a drain, they only move it a few inches. We needed to move it a few feet. It’s time to crack through some concrete!
Strong side! We finally made it to the other side of the wall. The brown side is getting pretty old, so I’m glad to be on the blue side for awhile. We’re definitely tired of looking at that brown/tan paint! Can’t wait to pick out some new colors.
But first, we need to see where we can add the new shower. We have no idea what’s behind these walls or in the ceiling tiles, so we need to scope out the situation before we can make any firm decisions as to where things go. Joe’s going to walk you through taking off the old closet door trim, and share what he’s looking for.
We’ve broken into our bathroom! And we’re still tearin’ it apart. If you’ve got 6 minutes to spare, take a look at our time lapse video below. There are some gems in there. If only we could work turbo time like that in real life…
Hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving! We had a lot of fun doing our annual Turkey Trot, even though it was a little wet and wild outside. We got two rounds of turkey, visiting family all around the metro. And we still have a Friendsgiving to look forward to. Bring on the leftovers!
If you got a little burnt out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, it’s ok. I actually swore off Black Friday shopping a few years ago. It was after heading out in very icy conditions… I think I was looking for a crock pot or something petty. Long story short, I ended up rear-ending someone because my brakes couldn’t handle a fresh ice patch, and that was a very short-lived little shopping trip. I decided all the madness of consumerism and downright danger were just not worth saving a few bucks. I took a step back and thought about how silly the whole thing is. Thanksgiving is about friends, family and togetherness. Where’s the gratitude in a $19.99 crockpot and fender bender? So that was the end of my Black Fridays. I went cold turkey. (Thanks for noticing the pun.)
But I’m all for Small Business Saturday, the day after Black Friday. I fully support the notion of using our cash to support local shops rather than big box stores. We vote with our dollars, you know? I’m guilty of deal hunting at chain stores, but I really want to try to support more small businesses. It just feels good. While I’m trying to cut back on holiday shopping in general, I think at least being mindful of where I’m using my money is a step in the right direction. That said, I’m hoping to do a lot more Christmas crafts this year! And please, before you throw something away consider first donating it, recycling it or upcycling it. Organize a clothing swap, have a DIY-off with friends, make mittens, sew a quilt, make shop rags or give it to someone in need instead.
Our friends at Cotopaxi have some ideas for recycling and repurposing as well, and have a promo code for you at the bottom of this post if you’d like to check out their website.
What we really love about Cotopaxi is that all the backpacks are handmade by someone who otherwise may not have a job. The person gets to personally design the bag with colors and fabrics that inspire them. No two bags are alike. And all the fabric is repurposed, fabric that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill. It’s a win-win. I’m impressed with their commitment to impact sourcing – the people who make these bags earn a decent wage to actually improve their quality of life.
If you have a certain someone on your shopping list who’d like a unique, socially responsible, durable and useful gift, we’d highly recommend checking them out! There’s a promo code just below. Watch this video for their inspiring story:
Cotopaxi did not sponsor this post. We just think they have a great business model and mission worth sharing and we hope you will too!
Ideally, we’d love to have an actual mudroom or entryway some day, but for now, we are making do with the space we have. If you know us, you know we I have a lot of shoes. There’s really not a great space in our house for our shoes to live, so we’ve been keeping them in the garage.
Well, we’ve engineered a somewhat functional solution that we hope to keep improving. It’s a big improvement actually. With winter on the way, this will give us a central location for all the snow pants, jackets, hats and everything else. And it’s a step up from keeping them all in bins!