Kids Bath Redo

I mentioned previously that I was doing a bathroom reno regardless of the fact that I I was 8.5 months pregnant.  I was lucky enough to have one of my closest friends, Andrea, in town for a weekend visit.  Andrea is a college friend who now lives in Chicago.  We had been talking about a visit for some time and since my sister in law was having a small shower for me, the timing was perfect!  She came to stay for the weekend and in her true fashion, Andrea was willing to help with any of my projects I had brewing in my mind to help me out before the baby arrived.   She is a lifesaver to say the least.

You must know that Andrea and I are very much alike.  We love home improvement projects.  It is something that is just simply "in us."  She gets it from her dad who is a handyman.  She and I both know that we are handier than our significant others would ever dream of being. 

There were quite a few things I wanted to do in the kids bathroom before Gwenyth arrived. I wanted to neutralize it and make it brighter.  Since it is the bathroom used primarily by the kids and overnight guests, I wanted it to be for the kids without being filled with characters that might be over the top for guests.  Some of the projects I had in mind were replacing the flooring, painting, new toilet, new storage cabinet, new shower curtain/towels/trash/rugs and towel hangers. 

I knew that I wanted to complete this project, but didn't really plan on tackling it while she was in town, but after seeing how willing Andrea was to help, I decided I should accept the help and do it!  Luckily, I had done the painting the day before she arrived so that was out of the way.  We started by taking out the old toilet.  It was actually much much much simpler than I thought it would be.  Next came the ripping out of the linoleum which was glued to the floor.  We got the crow bars out and went to town.  It was quite the task, especially with 30 lbs of belly in front of me.  Andrea and I took turns ripping more and more away.  I chose to just do a peel and stick laminate.  I will eventually do a ceramic or porcelin tile, but not til both kids are about three.  This decision was made due to Jude being so accident prone and the possibility of Gwenyth being the same way.  I can only imagine one of them slipping on it and breaking their teeth!  We have actually made the decision not to change the carpet in the common areas to hard wood for this same reason!  Boo!  Andrea was amazing at cutting the tile to the right size and I was responsible fot laying it.  After the tiling was done, we installed the new toilet.  At first I was nervous since neither of us had done this before, but the instructions that came with the toilet walked us through the process step by step.  We literally got the entire project done in less than a day.  That includes the time spent shopping! We literally worked non stop for about 6-8 hours.  I cannot remember exactly but we were unstoppable.  I must mention we completed the project while having Jude to tend to and watching my friends son, Maddox.  I was hurting te next day. I cannot express to you the level of exhaustion that I felt.  I think that baby Gwenyth inside my belly thought that I was trying to off myself!  Needless to say, my doctor was not thrilled either when I met with him the following week.

Here is a before picture of what the bathroom looked like.  The walls were a dark green.  I questioned the color as soon as I put it on the wall, but I figured it was from the $5 oops section at Home Depot and could always change it.  I am glad I did.  Everything in the bathroom was functional and clean, just pretty blah though. 

 

Now for the after.  The painted walls and trim brighten up the room along with the new toilet and flooring! 

I must say that the redo of this bathroom was SO economical!  I paid $130'ish for the new toilet, the paint I had on hand left over from Jude's room and the flooring was about $18!  I must talk about the accessories as well.  The storage shelf above the toilet was $5 at Salvation Army.  I thought this was a GREAT deal.  It was dark brown to begin but I painted it white and cut vellum I had to fit into the glass. That way you could not see what was inside.  The basket on the toilet I found at the dollar store for a buck, it houses washclothes within reach for while the kiddos are taking baths.  The trash can, towels and rug are from Walmart.  I made the wall hangings to hold the kids wet towels and discussed how I did them here.  The decorative mirror I got at a garage sale for fifty cents and the shower curtain with the rings were at the same sale for $5!  I had been looking for a shower curtain that was right for months!  This one was perfect!  It matches the trash can, which cannot be seen in the pictures, but is different colored polka dots in shades of blue and teal.

There are still minor things left to be done in this bathroom that I would like to do soon.  This includes getting a new, more modern faucet and installing crown molding.  The molding is purchased, wihch cost about $25, so it is just a matter of making the cuts, painting it and installing it.  I also want a new, matching soap dispenser but that will wait a little while since I would be refilling it constantly as Jude loves to spend half hour washing his hands just to make bubbles with tons of soap. For now, I will stick with the $2.00 bottles from the grocery store that can be recycled.  When I redo the bathroom in about three years, I plan to redo the flooring with new tile and also get a new vanity, medicine cabinet and lighting.  Here are some possible items that I am considering for that project.

This one if from Ikea and I LOVE the storage it provides.  The drawers can be divided so they could share the top one for toiletries/personal things and the other one can be for towels and toilet paper.  I also love that this mounts to the wall providing space underneath.

I like the above vanity with this sink bowl.  I love the accessories that can be used with this sink bowl.  So functional, especially for kids!  Everything is within reach.

And so is this.....

This is the faucet I love from Ikea as well to go with everything above!

Love the shape of this toilet and the center flush.  (KOHLER  Persuade Biscuit High Efficiency Elongated Toilet)

This floor tile is to die for!  I <3 it so much.  It is available at Lowes. (American Olean  24"W x 6"L Terreno Colorbody Porcelain Tile).

With this as a back splash.....Ahhhhmazing!  This is also from Lowes.  (American Olean  13" x 13" Frosted Smokey Ballad Brickjoint Cream/Beige/Almond Glass Tile).

 Or maybe in this color....(American Olean 13"W x 13"L Whispering Stream Blue Glass Tile)

And I also love this lighting.  (:USE  3-Light Chrome Bathroom Vanity Light )

Wouldn't these choices in products make for an incredible makeover?  I am so looking forward for when the time comes to do this project yet again.  Andrea should be aware that around the time I plan on taking on this project, she might just get an invite o come visit again.  Her help was so appreciated and I am truly indebted to her.  I am so lucky to have a friend like her.  She knows that once I get an idea in my head, it is better to go with it because if not, I will become obsessive over it and do it anyways. 

Linking up at the following sites:

Capturing our Moments

Clint's cousin Mike married a wonderful lady who has been such a blessing in our lives.  Not only is she one of the most kind hearted people I know, but she is an amazing photographer.  I believe that she is much more talented than she believes herself to be.  She is constantly challenging herself and continually working to learn more.  We first asked Lisa to take photos at our home of our family the first Fall that Jude was here.  We were so happy with the pictures that we decided we would make getting Fall photos an annual experience.  With Gwenyth's expected arrival, I knew I wanted Lisa there to capture one of her and Jude's early encounters and our family together in the hospital.  Luckily, she was available to come the following day when Clint was able to bring Jude for his second meeting with her. 

Here are some of the photo's Lisa took.  If you can believe it, these are unedited pictures!  I would have sworn that they were edited because of how wonderful and clear they turned out. 

I am so happy with the way that they turned out.  They were exactly the types of pictures that I had in mind.  She has captured so many priceless moments for us and I cannot tell you how much I cherish them.  I highly recommend her if you are ever in need of a photographer.  She has an amazing blog that can be found here, and you can search Pictured Poetry Photography on Facebook to see some of her work showcased there as well.  She is creative and full of ideas and works with you to get exactly what you have in mind and more. 

Gwenyth Rosemary

We have all returned from the hospital safe and sound and most importantly, HEALTHY!  I cannot express to you how overjoyed I am that Gwenyth has arrived with no complications what so ever.  Not only is she healthy, but so far (knock on wood) she has been the easiest baby ever.  We have always said that Jude was such a good baby, but his baby sister may have him beat.  We thought for sure that no one gets that lucky twice!  But....this girls sleeps like a champ, eats like a champ and I am unsure if she even knows how to cry sometimes.  In the short time she has been alive, I am pretty sure she has cried less than a total of ten minutes and that includes the crying that occurred when she immediately came into the world. 

Jude has taken to his baby sister really well.  He adores her.  The first time he met her he seemed a bit in shock that she was no longer in my belly and was now visible.  He hugged and kissed her over and over and wanted to be the only one that held her.  It was a moment I will never forget.

Everything went pretty smoothly with the induction and the labor.  The one fear I did have was the epidural, and of course what went terrible and was absolutely traumatizing?  The epidural.  I should mention first that I was already having heavy contractions and was in pain.  Not in the mood at all for any craziness.  So when the Anesthesiologist came in singing the only words she knew to the song, You're Beautiful by John Mayer to herself in a terrible singing voice...I had a bad feeling immediately.  I was right to think so.  Not only did I get the whole epidural experience one time, but my lucky self got it FOUR times!  Yay me!  Not!  The lady kept talking to herself and was saying things like I am not sure if I can do this because you are small and your have smaller spaces to go between, then she would attempt it.  She kept jabbing me and saying, I keep hitting your bones....and said "if I were to get an epidural for anything, I would have so and so do it".  She mentioned the name of a coworker.  She said, if I can't get it, I will have to call him down.  Needless to say, she was overly confident for awhile and kept attempting it between each of my contractions.  Then she said, "I better stop because I will end up giving you a spinal headache if I continue."  She called her coworker down and he got it in less than 15 seconds.  Her three attempts took an hour and a half.  It was an hour and a half of HELL!  For some reason, I am too kind to hurt someones feelings and be rude, but as soon as she left the room, I burst into uncontrollable tears. 

When she was born, I looked to see if I could see any physical characteristics of Down's Syndrome, I didn't.  I had asked my doctor at one of his checks during the waiting period for the Pitocin to kick in what they would do if the baby came and did have any characteristics of Down's.  He said they would do some bloodwork and some chromosomal testing.  I was too nervous to ask once she was born if the tests would be necessary.  During my pregnancy, I read a lot.  Something I came across, (I don't even remember where), a woman had a baby with Down's Syndrome and was in complete denial.  She so badly didn't want to believe it was true that she kept dismissing the idea that her child actually had it.  She kept telling herself that this or that unusual physical feature was like so in so's in her family, etc.  She said she made excuses for everything.  The first night in the hospital, Clint stayed with me.  The second night, I wanted to stay alone with the baby and have him stay with Jude at home to help Jude adjust and let me have longer to recover and rest.  That second night alone I just stared at her wondering if maybe I wasn't seeing things that maybe others were; that maybe I was doing the same thing that woman was doing and everyone else was just too nice to say anything to me.  From the time she was born, everytime a new nurse came to check on us, I kept waiting to see if they would react strangely or I would say, "everything is fine, right?"  It was almost as if I needed to hear it over and over from everyone that she was just fine.  Every time I heard it, I was more reassured. 

I want to thank all of you that kept our family in your prayers and even added us to your church's prayer list.  I am confident that it is through your prayers and support that we were blessed with a healthy, beautiful baby girl.  Words cannot express our gratitude.

Baby time

So...we are at the hospital ready to have baby Gwenyth. It is crazy to think that today is the day.  At the moment, we are just in the waiting stage.  To be honest, I am bored out of my mind and am starving.  I want more than ice chips and popcicles please.  I thought eating egg and fruit for breakfast would hold me over but I was wrong. 
I am so ready for her arrival.  I just want to get the show on the road.  I haven't been given any pitocin yet but was given something to soften the cervix.  Depending on the status of my next check, they will break my water which will definately speed things along from what I remember last time. 
My doctor came in to see me and asked me if I had any questions...and I did.  I wanted to know what would be done to check for Down's Syndrome since we have such an increased chance.  He told me they will just look for characteristics, etc. first.  Then, if need be, do some chromosonal testing. 
I am scared of what my reaction might be.  I have not been able to think of anything else in the last two weeks.  I just have the phrase "please don't have Down's Syndrome...please be healthy " repeating in my head.  I am scared that the moment she comes out I will be looking for all the "signs" of it and not just being thrilled with the moment. It makes me feel guilty.
I know that either way we are blessed to have a baby than no baby at all.  We will get through it together.   I am hopeful everything will be just fine.