A tiny spray paint addiction!

Gettin' out the big guns... (Pt. 1)

Oh, Hi. Long time no see. How's it been? Good? Yeah? Well, good to hear. My life? Oh, its been good. Here, let me show you:

Officially, this summer has been bananas. B.A.N.A.N.A.S. We've been slowly accumulating all sorts of treasures at yard sales, working on the bathroom, and slowing making our house resemble a home. July was a rather exiting month for us on many fronts--

For the first couple of months, we'd been washing our dishes by hand because the dishwasher was a horrible little thing that was rusted out and thus left a rusty taste on all of our dishes. So, we ripped the MotherFreckle out of the counter and replaced it with this Beaut that we found on KSL:

This is how Hippy welcomes new friends to the house... by making zee sveet sveet love to zem (But, I'm sure you already know that):



Don't worry, he's pretty harmless once its out of his system:



Now doesn't that look just fancy?!?!





MEANWHILE... The bathroom was getting its own sweet lovin'....

After replacing the wall, we needed to lay a subfloor so that we'd have a sturdy surface to lay tile on. In commemoration of the event, here is a picture of my butt crack:



In all honesty, I had no idea how involved I'd end up being in this bathroom renovation. We have such an awesome support network, that I kind of assumed that with enough whining, people would step in and help us with like...everything. I put great faith in the power of whining. But in this case, I had to put the faith in myself and get shit done. AND LOOK! I did it! And I can't even begin to describe the satisfaction I feel as I see this bathroom project come closer to its end point.



And after screwing down the subfloor... we laid tiles on top...



And then it was beautiful...




And now, here is a little photo montage to provide an excuse as to why I haven't updated my blog sooner...

Oklahoma!!

("Here, pose with this gun...")



Hippy, on the other hand, makes posing with the gun look far more natural. This is pretty much the view of him that I saw for the duration of the trip:



When we got home, we took a shower to wash off all the ticks, and then we headed to Coulter Bay, in the Tetons. It was magical.




And after that... we celebrated my 27th birthday with a Mario Party!!



(I was a girl Mario, FYI. Also, I love wigs. LOVE.)






And lastly, July was exciting because Elba met a boy, fell in love, and got engaged (Yes, THAT quickly). Hes a charmer, that Andrew. CONGRATS ELBA!!





Anyway, I'll do some more updating for the month of August very soon, because we really have done so much with the bathroom... its almost done!!! And we've done all of it without the use of A/C (because it broke. In the middle of the sweltering August heat. Awesome.) Until then, be good kids. And remember, don't do any major home remodeling while tipsy, because things come out looking wonky. BYE!

More of the same...Ho hum...

I feel like we haven't made much progress on this bathroom project. But I'm going to publicize the crap out of the small advances we do make, so I don't slide into a spiraling depression over it. Mmmmk?

So, last night we put up a row of tile. Once the row sets, we'll be able to stack all the rest of the tile on top of it without the tile sliding all over the place and becoming all slanty... like that cake on Sleeping Beauty.



Although it looks like Hippy was doing all the work in the pics below... I was there helping line up the tile, wipe off smudges, and refill beverages. Also, I am very good at standing around looking pretty... its what I do all day at work also. I've become a pro.





See, look at how good I am at looking pretty. I'm teaching Jones how to do the same. That puppy is going to go far in life...





Also, its finally getting hot. Utah's finally comes to terms with the fact that its summer. And BOY HOWDY, it was getting stuffy and hot in our little tiled bathroom... so we ran through the sprinklers afterward.



Although Hippy's idea of running through the sprinklers involved a rainsuit. Go figure.





As nice as it was... its a little depressing that our backyard currently looks like some kind of horrific mass grave of bathroom fixtures that have walked toward the light...



May they rest in peace.

And lastly-- JONES!!

Bob Villa and Martha Stewart had a love child...

And her name is Harmony. Nice to meet you.

First, I'm going to teach you the proper way to demolish a bathroom vanity:

Step 1: Prepare yourself mentally.



Step 2: Give your demo partner a big kiss, because it may be your last. Demo work is dangerous... one could either die due to massive blood loss after certain inexperienced members of the team accidentally beat the other one to death with a hammer. OR, due to stress levels, divorce may follow the project. So always kiss... just in case.




Step 3: Go hogwild.







Step 4: Accidentally remove the sheetrock and then clean up your mess so that it doesn't seem like such a big deal. (This is Hippy holding the hose to the shop-vac, in case you were wondering. No, he isn't holding an elephant's trunk, although that would be much cooler.)




Step 5: Relax in your newly spacious space.



The End.

Only not really, because I have a little bit more to type. Besides the bathroom, we've had all sorts of mini-projects. We had a big leak in the front yard that hippy had to dig up and he is currently working on replacing a section of pipe in our front yard. But since we don't really know what we are doing, he mostly just sits out front, pretending to work, and chats with neighbor's walking by, hoping that they'll tell us how to fix it. So far, it seems to be working out.

Also, We stocked our pond with fish!!



In case you can't tell whats going on there, let me explain: This is a view of the pond from our front porch. To the right is our downstairs window. (No, we aren't going to flood our basement.) So yeah, thats our pond. It has a pump in it that circulates the water up to the top (near the driveway) and then trickles it down a little waterfall back to the pond (to the left-ish). Its quite nice. We had the city stock it with a couple of mosquito-eating fish (free service!) and then we put a whole bunch of goldfish in there. They are rather shy and keep hiding behind rocks, but hopefully that's temporary, because I wanted more theatrical fish. Little Tina Turner fish that sing and dance around the pond. But whatevs.



Lastly, my sister Laughter has been gathering me charming furnature to fill the house. Usually she finds it at D.I. or on the side of the road. I am not kidding. In any case, no one has caught fleas from it yet, and this is a darling vanity from D.I. that just got a shiny coat of green paint. Its going to be so freaking cute once I sand it down a bit (to make it all shabby chic) and add a cute knob to the drawer.



THE END. For realsies.

Raindrops on roses and updates and yard sales...

These are a few of our faaavorite things!!

But not remodeling. Thats our least favorite thing. But with enough kissing breaks... its do-able. Anyway, so the kitchen got stripped of all the nasty wall paper and painted, thanks to Elba's help. And now we are just working on demolishing the bathroom so that we can build it back up into something less horrifying. Its a slow process, but I've taken some pictures for you to look at while you wait for the big reveal...

Also, Laugh has been updating the blog up until this point, as a gift to me, so thanks Laughy!



Good Job Elby!




The finished kitchen wall... lookin sexy:



I call this set... BATHROOM APOCALYPSE! We knocked out all the FUG tile, and our buddy Steve installed a shower for us. Next step, TILE. UGH.








Look! There's our shower!!







We had some rather interesting BRIGHT GOLD/white kitchen knobs that I wasn't sure what to do with. I didn't realize how expensive knobs can be, so I was hesitant to replace all 30 when its only for vanity. So Laughy came up with her staple solution for everything: SPRAYPAINT THEM! And I have to say... you'd never know. They look FAB. I used hammered rustoleum in a dark bronze color... Mmmmmm...















We got up bright and early on Saturday and hit a few yard sales and we seriously hit the jackpot. I got an ikea nightstand for $1, and DARLING light fixture for the remode for $10, a mother-of-pearl necklace for a buck and then some other awesome prizes shown below. BUT FIRST...something we got off KSL recently: One of Hippy's favorite additions to our family...




Our darling little coffee table that I found at our neighbor's yard sale. They even threw in a veggie tray tupperware that is the best thing ever invented. Just FYI.



Fixture, etc:




Last but not least, our favorite new friend... The gumball machine! Currently dispensing little bits of love (aka peanut M&M's)





Don't worry... Hippy found time to relax...