Farm House Love Episode 4

Well hello there, Friends. Since we last met, winter has come and gone. Well, mostly gone. It did snow today, but nothing like the picture above.

We had a long, wet winter and I have been enjoying spring more than I can ever remember in my life.

The goat babies survived winter well in Gunny's dog house. The Bunnery Sergeant didn't need his house because he spent his days snug inside, guarding the house and sleeping on the couch I'm sure, although that is unauthorized behavior. 

Peanut Head made the goats this see saw to help keep their boredom at bay, although the girls had to coax them onto it for awhile before they would play like it was really their idea.

These frosty horse lips make me weak in the knees.

I haven't been back to blog in so long because I really wanted to have some progress to show on the bathroom. We have made progress, but our work stalled big time, and we got busy with other things. We have done a lot though, just not much on the bathroom. Yet.

All that is left now is the tub/shower surround. It's really the most intimidating part because there's so much that can go wrong. Plumbing problems and vertical tile slippage are just a couple that come to mind and plague my dreams.

We finally finished with demolition when we removed the plaster walls. That was a long, tedious job and it had to be done in stages. Peanut Head had to cut through the wall with a metal grinder because the plaster in old houses like this are adhered to a metal mesh. Or maybe it's just our house. What do I know?

Here's how it went down. One day we'd make a vertical cut from tub to ceiling, with Peanut Head cutting and me holding the shop vac next to the blade to catch the ginormous plaster dust cloud he was generating. Then he would take a hammer to that vertical section and rip it all out. That section would fill up our trash can for the week and then we'd have to wait for the next trash pick up. It was hot, sweaty, dusty work, and the bathroom had to be cleaned after each session.

In all, that process was repeated and took at least a month of weekends and trash pick up cycles.

Once the plaster was out, Peanut Head put me to work pulling out a million rusted nails. The nails took FOR. EVER. That was on account of most of the nails were rotted through with rust from all the water seeping into the wall. The nail heads would sheer off in the hammer claw and I would curse and scream at them. I ended up getting most of the nails out with a fencing tool, of which I do not know the name, but it was one scary looking dude.

Once that was done, Peanut Head put new, not asbestos insulation in the exterior wall and slapped a new piece of plywood over it. Now he is working on the plumbing and building boxes for the shampoo and all that jazz.

We've also done some more trim work. There's a lot of trim work, and all of it needs to be sanded, painted, filled, caulked, and painted again. It's time-consuming, but the finished product is well worth the time spent.

Peanut Head also installed this new larger outlet. I love that it has a little night light built right into it.

I put this bit of vinyl up, and I dang near slit my wrists in frustration trying to get it to stick to the wall. There's not much texture on the wall, and the paint is semi-gloss, so it did not want to stick. What finally ended up working for me was to take my hairdryer to it. I don't want to say it is now melted to the wall, but it sure is suctioned on there real good. Well. I sound like a hillbilly, don't I?

I also made these little bathroom signs. Yes, I think the one on the top right is a little too high and to the right. I must fix that.

I put these together pretty quickly with some cute fonts in Photoshop and then I had them printed as 8x10 photo prints. Then I Mod Podged them to canvas that I painted black on the edges. For the final touch I took a white paint pen and drew a dashed border around the edges. Super cheap art with helpful public service announcements.

This one is my favorite because I'm a little bitter about the toilet paper.

And this one is just plain necessary because some people, (yes, probably in this house just saying) need help with their personal hygiene and care and keeping of their ding dang selves. 😐

That concludes the bathroom update for now. As soon as I hit publish, I will start my next post on the project I started while I was spinning my wheels on the bathroom. Because I like to start new projects before the last one is finished. Doesn't everyone do that?