In December of 2014, the Lord blessed us quite unexpectedly by allowing us to get a new bathroom. When we purchased this home, the master bathroom was handicapped accessible, but not very well done. The shower had to be torn out, a bathtub and tile installed, and then the bi-fold door had to be removed, the wall replaced, a regular door put in its place. This happened in about a five month time frame. Once the door was installed, I thought the tile would be finished along the wall. But months passed and it wasn’t. We had this blank space left.

Finally, we decided to try to finish the tile ourselves. The remaining part of the floor needs new tile also. It’s the green that you see in the lower left of the photo. Well, by the time we decided to do it, the matching tile was discontinued. Terry tried to find a close match, but when he got it on the wall, it looked terrible.

So…on to plan B.

We looked around hardware stores for options. We decided that if it was going to look different anyway, why not make a statement? We opted for reclaimed cedar wood, tongue-and-groove planks. Terry cut and installed them in a few hours. Here’s the finished product:

I really like it! It’s the best of the options we had available. He was able to add a light which made this small space much brighter, scrape, texture and paint the ceiling, and paint the walls. After 18 months, this little room, which only has a toilet and tub, is finally finished! Next is to finish the outer bathroom floors. Terry has also decided to take out the single lavatory and put in a double sink lavatory, and we will be adding new lights in that part as well. We hope (crossing fingers) to have that job done in July.

Meanwhile, we went ahead and worked on our bedroom. The outer bathroom joins our bedroom, kinda like a hotel bathroom does. We can’t really see a way around this set up, which it too bad. It would be nice to have a wall or sliding door to separate them.

Here are the before photos of the bedroom:

After setting up our bed in the living room, and packing up the things on the walls, we scraped the popcorn ceiling (yes, that almost killed my allergies), textured it and the walls with mud, and let that dry overnight.

Here are the work-in-progress pics:

The mud smell was so strong that every time I entered my room, my eyes burned like crazy. I was so glad we weren’t having to sleep in there!

The next day, we started painting. With both of us working, we painted the ceiling and walls twice in just a few hours. We set everything up and spent last night back in our room. Terry said being a homeowner is a part-time job. I agree. I think that the fact we are still speaking to each other after all this work is a sign of great success!

It went so well, that I am considering doing the other three bedrooms this summer, too!

Maybe.

I am hoping to find some new wall decor today. It’s so nice having everything neat and clean and dust-free. The process sorta felt like we were either moving in or moving out. I’m thankful that we weren’t doing either one of those things.

We have been enjoying a wonderful summer so far. The two older kids are involved in the library teen volunteer program. Lauren has the most seniority of all the volunteers this year, so the library staff is trusting her with more and more responsibilities. The younger kids are participating in the summer reading program and activities at the library as well, and spending afternoons playing in the sprinkler.

I thank the Lord for the blessings of summer.

With love,