What a Difference a Day Makes

Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain...

New life is always exciting to encounter and be a part of, whatever form it takes, however small. After the balance of water, oxygen and temperature had time to germinate this little tomatillo sprout, it finally burst forth from a miniscule seed. In a single day the once dormant plant broke the soil surface, greeted the sun and grew 1/2 inch toward it. I hope this never ceases to amaze me.

Indoor Project: Master Bathroom

While many, if not most, master suites have a full bathroom attached, our limited space necessitated much smaller plans. Smaller, and yet still luxurious!

Our creative juices only take my husband and I so far and so having a daddy that is a general contractor and a mumsy who's done interior design for her entire adult life, we had an endless supply of help making the end result fabulous.

We initially thought we would have to cut our existing closet to add the much needed second bathroom to our home until my pop took one look at our available space and made the suggestion to take three feet away from the room next to ours to make our master bathroom. We took the idea and ran with it!

The bedroom next door being prepped for the job ahead

and a very contemplative husband:

Mere moments later ;)

We assembled the studs on their side since we were already dealing with a pretty small area to begin with then just made sure to insulate the walls to cut down on noise.

Soon to be shower: 

Soon to be toilet and sink:

Soon to be pocket door:

Pocket door frame went in without a fuss,

which in this house, was a friggin' miracle: 

I managed to get the pocket door itself painted and frosted

without too much headache as well:

A hop, skip and a jump later, the door went in:

PLUMBING ROUGH-IN!!!

Shower:

 Sink:

 Toilet:



Moving right along...

HardieBacker for the shower walls and for the bottom floor layer,

a flexible rubber liner:

TIME FOR FINISH WORK!!!

Tiling the shower:

The trim was really fun to see take shape:

A little spark of creativity hit and some extra trim

ended up taking center stage at the back of the shower:

Papa mudding up:

Toilet's in (but will be pulled when we tile the floor)

and we're almost ready to paint:

Voila! The side walls are a color called, Cabinet.

The back wall will be a red called, Kiln. 

A little more finish work with the trim

for the showerhead:

In goes the shower floor!

Done and Done!

Moen showerhead ready to go: 

Underneath those purdy tiles is that layer of

orange mesh you can just make out.

Interlaced throughout that lovely orange mesh...

HEAT COILS, BABY!

Toasty toes for us!

Ta-Da!

Picked up the rack at my mom's suggestion from IKEA.

Basic medicine chest from Lowe's.

Under-sink hardware all sanded then painted oil-rubbed bronze.

Molding and baseboard in and spackled, ready for sanding and paint.

The door trim just needs sanding and painting.

The white towels have sentimental significance for my mum and me.

They are from the Mayflower Hotel in Manhattan where we

stayed for my senior trip just after I graduated from high school.

My parents also generously brought along my darling best friend, Heidi,

making it a trip of a lifetime for us. 

The hotel recently closed down and let's just say...

my mom managed to preserve a little piece of it.

A super plush, thick faux silk curtain in front

of a nice IKEA shower curtain.

These rods will also be painted with the oil-rubbed bronze.

Quite possibly the tiniest sink in existence:

8" wide, 5" deep, 17" length

Dave and I adore waterfall faucets and were happy

we managed to adjust this one so it both looks beautiful

- and doesn't spill out!

I built the backsplash with more of the trim tile

and my mom grouted.

Another finishing touch, the light with a vent fan up inside of it.

A quick overhead view of the before and after is also a must.

Before:

After:

And there it is! With just a few minor details to finish up, we have a fully functional second bathroom after seven years living in this crazy place. Now on to even BIGGER but perhaps not better projects!

Outdoor Project: Rock Retaining Wall/Planting Bed

Just a quick note before getting underway: All posts will have the image following the caption so you will read about each step first and then see its corresponding photo beneath it.

The exterior of our home needs a great deal of touch-up, so this year one of the weekend projects that goes a long way for some serious curb-appeal is a rock retaining wall with planting bed. We've dug up this same patch of dirt and sand several times over the years, but never really gotten it to a point where it was really formally landscaped. This strawberry patch was last year's efforts to keep this area more tidy, but its neatness was very short lived and by this spring, the entire area was overgrown with 2-3 foot tall weeds of every variety.

Once we were done harvesting a decent crop of strawberries from the new growth, all the vegetation was pulled up then the ground tilled and raked.

We posted stakes at the front edge corners at an equal distance away from the house. The string was then tied between the stakes with a string level. This ensures both a straight and level wall.

The first row of rocks on a retaining wall needs to be nested just a little bit below ground. I dug a trench about 3" deep and placed the first row of rocks in angled slightly back towards the house. The suggested angle is 8 degrees, but I wasn't about to figure that out, so I just made sure they rested with the flat "face" part of the rock angled a tiny bit back rather than straight up and down. Now, we live in Farmington, which means that our yard is very efficient at breeding rocks! Over the years of working through MANY other yard projects we have piles of rocks all over the property so finding a vast variety of rocks to puzzle piece together was a bit easier for us than it might be for others.

As you progress, you will need to backfill each rock as you place it. I kept a small hand pick axe handy for rocks that fit well in the front, but needed to have some of the dirt dug out behind it to make it fit at the back. Since you'll need to backfill all of the rocks anyway, it won't matter at all how far back you might have to dig just so long as the face of your rocks line up neatly.

This is two rows of rocks in place. At this point, I sprinkled 'Preen Garden Weed Preventer' across the soil and then as I raked soil from the back of the bed towards the front to use for backfill, I would then sprinkle a new layer of Preen on the newly exposed soil to make sure it was thoroughly integrated into the soil. I don't want ANYTHING to grow in this bed this year.

This is another view of the two layers of rocks installed.

Once my third and final layer of rocks was completed, I did a complete raking across the entire bed to make sure all of the soil was relatively level. Added another layer of Preen. One thing to consider is your water drain-off, so I made sure that there was a very slight angle from the house down to the rock wall so that the home's foundation wouldn't be retaining any water. I then put down a layer of plastic mulch film (very optional) followed by the most heavy-duty fabric weed guard on the market, which I gently tucked underneath the edge of the top layer of rocks. I started by digging a trench up against the house and using ground/yard staples to keep the guard in place and then backfilling underneath the guard so that any weeds have much less chance of sneaking up behind it. We picked up a tractor scoop of fine mulch from our local dump, which we then spread over the entire bed. Tucking the guard underneath the top layer of rocks and also only backfilling the last portion of rocks up to a few inches below the top made it so we were able to put our mulch in at about 2-3" thick/deep.

Almost finished!

Any time it takes to ensure proper burying of the first layer, resting rocks slightly back, leveling for correct height all the way across and measuring away from the house will ABSOLUTELY reward you in the end. No need to rely on concrete if you follow these few simple steps and rules that don't really add to this project's overall time.

Just adding the finishing touches now. Trellises that Dave built last year and small plastic urn planters to fit nicely inside.

Directly behind this rock retaining wall and planting bed on the opposite side of our front entry path, there is another one of these beds that needs to be given the same treatment. So that project is up next and will be done exactly the same way. We want to give this bed a chance to settle in and tell us if it's going to stay low-maintenance throughout the rest of this year and through Utah's harsh winters. If all looks promising by next spring, this bed will become home to a lovely rose garden in between the trellises.

Until next time! Here's to happy homes!

Let's get this party started, eh? Let's Better our Homes and Gardens!

Our little patch of heaven and hell right here on earth:

(Well, as spied by GoogleEarth, that is.

Hmm, must have been taken before we redid the roof. Yikes.)

Dave and I have lived in Farmington, Utah for the past 7 years, the last 6 of which have been spent in our "starter" home. We bought this place, our first (and very possibly last) house back in April of 2004 with the grand idea of wanting more yard than house. Boy, did we have no clue what we were in for! Never has the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for" been more poignant to a pair of people. But we ever strive to maintain that this place is a Rosy Thornbush rather than a Thorny Rosebush.

Through the years we've been relatively diligent in cataloguing and documenting all of our work done on the property, both inside and out of doors. It's actually quite effective in driving away depression when we can look back at where we've come from and realize that while it may not seem like it sometimes...we actually ARE making progress!

Since we've done quite a bit of living and much, much more learning, I've realized that we've built up a pretty good knowledge-base that can be shared with anyone wanting to venture into similar projects. Or, if anyone just wants to know what we've been up to 'round the house, this is the perfect place to stop by and see.

I do a great deal of drawing to get my ideas past that pre-visualization phase and one step closer to becoming realities, but sometimes I'll also enlist the help of one of my favorite software programs: Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Deluxe.

Below is one of those pictures of our house that I don't particularly like making public, but it's all part of the work-in-progress.

And this is my rendering of the house in the BHG program. Actually, you can see that this is one of my tinkerings since I've moved the front door. Best hundred bucks you can spend for getting your ideas out of your head and onto your computer screen (Best for the home projects, that is. Decent for the yard projects, but not quite up to scratch for keeping up with OUR yard.).

So, that'll sum up the first post. Years worth of past projects will be coming soon, taking you through the step-by-step as well as current successes and failures.

Here's to happy homes!