Just Do it!

When school started again I made the goal to do some home improvement projects that have needed to be done for a very long time. It's really out of character for me to let projects go undone for so long, but my life has been crazy busy. So, I made a list a mile long of things that needed to be done in all parts of the house. I am happy to report that we have made progress and slowly but surely things are looking up in this house. The painting of my room was a large undertaking, but I conquered it!

Next I plunged into the cleaning and fixing up of Ashton's bathroom. With Ashton at college it made sense to go after that one. It was ridiculously dirty (I don't know how I let her get away with that!) and I spent quite a few hours cleaning, polishing, and spiffing up. After cleaning there was the problem of stained, old caulking and some rather unsightly holes in the walls where water had leaked out of the bathtub/shower and did some damage. I had already fixed water damage in these same areas before and knew that mudding and painting wasn't going to solve the problem. I decided that a border of tile around the shower area should take care of it. I'm happy to report that the tiles are in place, grouting is finishing and the tub has new caulking. It looks so new and spiffy! Glad that one is over.

Yesterday's project consisted of completing some trim work that my Dad started a year ago when he came for a visit. I have a hallway that has a few angles in it. My laundry baskets were really damaging three of the corners in the hallway. He put this cool, wooden decorative trim up to protect the corners. Well, I never finished what he started. I used the saw and miter box to cut small pieces of the trim to finish going all the way up to the ceiling. I caulked the seams and poked the nails in with the nail poker thing and puttied the nail holes. Easton was happy to help me sand the nail holes. We are officially ready for a new coat of paint in the hallway. I'll keep you posted on that one. This morning while Easton was waiting for the bus we filled in the dings and cracks in the hallway and will sand later today.

Dallin and Landon's bathroom is also in the process of getting a new row of tile around their shower because they are having the same leaking problem the Ashton had. I put the tile up last night and will be caulking today.

Slowly and surely progress is being made. It's amazing how much work can be accomplished when you stay home every once in a while and you put your mind to it. Oh, I also tiled the window seal(sp) in my bathroom last night because the paint had water damage. Thanks for reading--I know this was rather boring and long, but this is part of my daily life that I am trying to preserve for future generations. I'm sure they will all appreciate my hard work and be so impressed with their great, great, great Grandma in 100 years. It is pretty amazing!

This is the trimwork that I did with the help of Dad. It's ready to be painted now.

Notice the beautiful tile border around the shower and the new,white caulking around the tub. I did find this really cool tool at Lowes that helped smooth out the bead of caulking, much better and less messy than using your finger.