Bathroom update/rollover accident

The bathroom is coming along. Everything is operational, and the taping/mudding is half complete.

Back when the toilet was in the middle of the room with no nearby wall to hang the toilet paper on, I designed this deluxe toilet paper holder. Alas, now there's a wall beside the toilet and no more need for this snazzy invention. How sad. Perhaps I should patent it and sell it on Ebay...

While I was mudding this morning, Courtney came running downstairs saying that someone had just rolled their vehicle in our front yard. We had a bad storm last night, and the roads are still icy, so I thought maybe someone had just slid off the road into our ditch. But no, a guy had in fact rolled his jeep into our front yard. Fortunately, he was OK.

Basement bathroom project

OK, so I could have closed the lid before I took the "before" picture...but the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom was interesting to say the least. The toilet was plumbed in the middle of the room, and the drain for the shower was centered on the toilet and less than 2 feet away(it's under the yellow chair), such that you had to step over the toilet or squeeze between the toilet and shower to get in. There was no plumbing for a sink. So first I moved the wall behind the toilet back about 16 inches to make room for a vanity beside the shower. Then I rented a small jack hammer and hammered out trenches in the concrete so I could move the toilet back and away from the shower, extend the shower drain back for the vanity and connect a new shower drain. It's a fairly cozy bathroom, but now at least you can wash your hands!


The way the room looked before I started.

New walls installed and new concrete in the trenches

Toilet reinstalled and operational, shower set in place.

Family Closet complete!

Well, 99% complete. I still need to paint the window, but that's going to have to wait until summer. And apparently I have a few things to learn yet about the seasons up here. We had a stretch of warm weather in Feb, and then there was a 10 day forecast with no negative numbers in it. I said to the kids, "Well, it's almost March and there's no negative numbers in the forecast...maybe we're done with the really cold weather! A few days ago it was 20 below, and this morning 10 below. Oh well, I know Spring will come at some point...

Family closet

The family closet project is still underway, but all that remains is for the cabinets to come in so I can install them. We didn't get all that many "before" pics, but here is a rough chronology:

Along one wall were 2' deep shelves on 2X4s with plywood doors.

Here is where the new cabinets will go...one large/deep cabinet for milking stuff, etc where the white cabinet was, and two side by side cabinets above the washer/dryer

I had to enclose the chimney for the wood stove that I put in last fall.

This gives an idea of the color and new flooring.

The folding station...dirty clothes below and cubbies for the 3 smallest children's socks, underwear and pajamas. Doubles as a great spot for hide and seek!

New hanging racks installed.

We'll do a "finished" post when the cabinets are in.