Labor Day....week

So we've been in our home for almost 2 years now, and honestly haven't done a single thing to it. In September we finally got up the courage to tackle two projects we have been talking about for quite some time now; one by choice and one by necessity.

First off, our "dining room." I say that because I'm not really sure if it qualifies as a dining room, since its just an extension off of our living room, or our kitchen, or both, since downstairs really is just one big area. Mama Schaub did some extensive remodeling of her living room several years ago, and part of that included painting an accent wall on the west/fireplace wall. We've been wanting to do that to our wall to spice up that drab corner.

The second picture is when I came downstairs and caught Jeff drawing a face on the wall! Of course I threw an Ellie sized fit and didn't believe it would come off, and it didn't after the first coat! So he assured me after the 2nd or 3rd coat it would be fine, and of course it was. Chubby Hubby is always right!

To complement the new wall, we bought some really nice curtains and rods from The Great Indoors. We then got a really cheap bookshelf for the corner, purchased at Ikea because we spent all our money at The Great Indoors. >.<

We really like it now, and it makes our house look so much warmer. It also matches our microwave and toaster. :)

So the next step in our home improvement was something we've wanted to do, but couldn't really pull the trigger on because of the cost. Our bathroom upstairs was a tub/shower combo, with a sliding glass door. Gross! Chandler has some of that incredible hard water you all dread, and it had been reeking havoc on that tub and tile. The brown grout and caulking was just disgusting. And best of all, underneath all that mess, our pipes were apparently leaking. The leak was soaking through the drywall under our bathroom, which sits right over the entryway/walkway into our neighbors front door, though luckily is all outdoors. So after soaking for who knows how long, one day it just all fell out and they had a giant hole in the roof. So we didn't really have much of a choice, and had to replace all that piping and wall, and decided to just do the rest while we were at it. This is what it looked like in the beginning. (sorry, we totally forgot to take pics before they started)

Half way done:

Since we hated that tub so much, we just got rid of it! We've always wanted just a nice stand up/walk in shower, but we thought it would have been impossible. However, it was almost easier than installing a new tub, and actually just a bit cheaper. We love the new shower, the tile, the fixtures, and everything about it. Jeff really wanted to get the optional 2 body sprays for an extra $100. I didn't want them at first, but they really are fun and again Chubby Hubby was right.

Cool, huh? We need to give a shout out to Doug Sloat, owner of Bath Pro (www.bath-pro.com). He did almost all of the work himself, and took his time to do it right, and for a lot less than we had expected for this kind of work. So if any of you need any bathroom work, call Doug!

And in case you couldn't tell from the grammar and proper use of punctuation, as well as the words to vs. too, this post was made by none other than Chubby Hubby himself. Lurbles Ellie! She's cute, huh?