Final Getaway

I headed back to work for professional development days this Wednesday, so we took a long weekend to Tahoe before I had to go back. Mandy and Bryant came out from Utah, and the whole family was able to be there for a few days.

Did you know soda cans could explode like this? One of Sean & Renata’s cans exploded during the winter. Beware very cold soda cans…

We enjoyed time at the lake, did a little hike, ate lots of good food, rode the Tahoe Queen paddle wheel, and took family pictures.

It was a wonderful trip, and it was so nice to have everyone together in such a beautiful place. My grandpa Chase always called Tahoe “God’s Country” because it is so peaceful and gorgeous. Being up there makes me miss bird watching with him as a kid, but I look forward to making new memories there with our own kids. Aiden definitely had a great time. Now it’s back to school!

Go Giants!

We went to see a game on my last day before I had to be back at work for meetings and professional development. We won by a walk, but at least it was a win, right?

Bathrooms

I never would have guessed there would be so many steps to updating a bathroom. Here’s what I have learned:

First, you have to tear out all the old and broken stuff. Sometimes that’s pretty much everything. Sometimes you find out there aren’t the right number of joists in the floor and wall, and you have to buy more wood to make everything stronger and up to code. Sometimes you find out that there is rot and black mold, and you have to rip out extra drywall and change it. Sometimes the subflooring is so rotted it crumbles as you try to remove it. Sometimes your foot goes through the floor and into the dining room. It you’re lucky, you didn’t like that ceiling anyway, and at least it’s interesting to be able to see between the bathroom and dining room. There is a lot of opportunity for surprises when you tear everything out of your bathroom.

After you tear everything out, you have to buy lots of new things. More than you would think… tub/shower, toilet, vanity, medicine cabinet, tile, sink, paint—that all comes to mind pretty quickly. You might also end up needing all the details though—the vanity details like kickboard, knobs, scribe molding… baseboards, tile adhesive and sealant, wall and floor trim, lighting, windows, wall texture, heat vent, electrical plugs and switches, towel racks… You might go to Home Depot 20 times in a month if you’ve never done this before.

You need someone strong to carry everything. Maybe that’s you. Or maybe you’re not up to heavy lifting these days, and you rely on someone else. Exhibit A:

It might be worth paying someone else to help with the things you’re not sure about… like plumbing or tiling or installing counters or whatever you think you might not be able to do quickly, efficiently, and well. You save a lot of money by doing what you can do yourself though.

So here’s where we are… the guest bathroom downstairs is done! It has been rebuilt from the bare bones. and it looks like a totally different room. I wish I had a picture of the original, but I don’t. I didn’t do a very good job documenting everything in its “before” stage. The upstairs hall bath is mostly done. We are waiting for the plumber to come back from vacation to install the shower and tub fixtures with Isaac because we’re not confident we could take the pipes sticking out of the wall and make them work properly. Other than that, we have some trim to finish… baseboards and door molding and the vanity light. We’re excited with how it is turning out though!

How excited is Isaac to rip out the master bath once the hall bath is done? Maybe not so much… so let him know what a great job he’s doing so far! I’m sure glad to have him around!