Escalation! This is a word that has become an important part of my husband and my marriage. It is most frequently used in reference to shopping. We will walk into a store like Home Depot or a home decor store looking for one thing, and end up getting 5 more things. My husband can't stand it. He has to mentally prepare himself for things like this. Most of the time he's a good sport, but I try and not push it and do as much shopping as I can without him.
A few Saturdays ago was a day of escalation. We started out looking at granite for the kitchen, he was ready for that. Then I told him we had go to Lowe's to get a new toilet. That turned into getting stuff to clean the kitchen cabinets for painting, a ceiling fan for the boys room, sconces for the master bathroom, etc. We then dumped our kids at a friends house and headed to our new house to prep the kitchen for painting. While there, we spent a large part of our time talking to our contractor about the master bathroom and layout for Kidlet #1's bedroom. To his credit, my husband kept it together but there was definite tension. At one point he even commented how much he hates the planning stage. (Seriously, that is why we are such an awesome team! I LOVE TO PLAN!!!)
One of the things that really stresses me out about this whole thing is having to make decisions relatively quickly. I try not to let it get to me, but that Saturday was hard. A few weeks ago I sold the big ugly jetted tub in the master bath on Craigslist. The guy who bought it was also interested in the vanities. I had not originally thought of selling them, but had no attachment for them, so I sold those too. I tried my best to find a possible match to the existing tile, but since it was put in 30 years ago, no such luck. With the tub, vanities and tile gone, the shower is all that is staying and my contractor said that now would be the time to get rid of it and move the shower if we wanted. I had not planned on doing this, but I know he's right. So it looks like our bathroom is escalating into something bigger then we had planned. I'm excited, but nervous because I have to make quite a few decisions quickly. Greg was actually all over the idea! (Remember, the good team thing we have going on ;)
Here is what it looked like to begin with:
Here is what it looked like as we started and have proceeded through the demolition.
Do any of you have any ideas on how I should lay it out? Input would be great cause I'm open to just about anything at this point! In fact, it's kind of stressing me out. The shower will come out so you can ignore that. It's basically a blank slate and to tell you the truth, that can sometimes be a problem. I will not be putting a tub back in. We are not bath people so I see no point in having it take up space if I'm never going to use it. I know it will workout. I just have to be patient with the process. Since the kids bathroom will be done before we move in, it's not a huge deal if this one isn't. It would be nice, but it isn't going to happen. Too many other important things HAVE to happen before we can move in.
Have a great Tuesday! We are getting some bad weather the next few days. I'm starting to think our concrete won't go in until August at the rate we are going!!
Ok, this title may be a bit unfair. Really it should read, "Never Trust A Salesman Who Says Something Is Unavailable".
Since the seller of The 8 Cow House was in the middle of quite a few projects, I actually told him to not complete them so that I could do what I wanted. Not only did it leave things to be done, but it also left some loose strings with me scratching my head as to how to fix them. One of these was the apron, or front of the tub, that usually covers all the plumbing and base of your tub from view and seals it up to look all nice and pretty.
Most tubs usually come with one, but of course ours didn't. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal to find one until I started asking around and everyone I asked told me I couldn't buy one separately. I asked at Lowe's and Home Depot with the salesman always telling me they couldn't get me one. I called the number from a sticker on the tub, sent the guy a picture and never heard back. GRRRRR!!! Terrible costumer service. I was resigned to the fact that we probably would just have to tile the front or do wood with trim and paint it really well.
One day while running errands, I had to go to one of the afore mentioned home improvement stores and felt like I should really go to Home Depot. I went in and proceeded to get the items I needed. I generally swing by the clearance section and that day they happened to have a few items set out right near the section I was in so I started looking through them. I almost skipped over a long rectangular box but on second look, realized is was a white tub apron marked down. I was amazed! I asked a sales associate why it was there and he said it was most likely from a special order that was returned. "Huh!", I thought to myself, "I thought they didn't do special orders for this item." I didn't even know if it would fit, but I bought it and took it back to the house anyway.
Ta-dah!!! It fit - with a little help from my my contractor. I'm so happy. One less thing to worry about!
This may sound crazy to some, but I have no doubt the Spirit led me to that store that day. He knew the tub apron was there. He knew it would fit. Yet again, another miracle and evidence to me that God truly is in the details of our lives and He even cares about something as small and seemingly insignificant as a tub apron. I am truly grateful!
