Upgrades to My Other Home

    If the title of this post is confusing to you, I will explain.  Don't worry.  I haven't been holding back an entire residence from you.  I'm speaking of the place that from August to June I spend more time in than my real home: my classroom.

When I arrived at school this morning I had five kits of IdeaPaint waiting for me! (Yes, the Saturday before I officially go back to school.  What can I say?  I'm excited!) 

    The reason that I am sharing this on my blog is because they sell kits for 50 square feet which is small enough for residential use.  I can't wait to show you how it turns out.  I am painting the top of all of my desks, both of my old blackboards, and a large wall in my room.  They also make a clear formula that would be great to use over fun colors.

    Here is a picture of a classroom that inspired me.  I will start painting on Monday.  Check back to see how it turns out!  

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 4 "The 95% Reveal!"

    Okay, home stretch.  Here is where we are at after 4 glorious days of working.  She is so beautiful!  We are not totally done, but we hit a few roadblocks that will take a bit of time to fix.  Until then, here is the picture.

After the jump, you can see the whole process of mixing and applying grout, organizing tiles and putting up the mop board as well as some unexpected problems.

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 3 "Tile Installation"

    My sister's idea for the title of this post was Day 3: "Party in the Bathroom Tile USA featuring Tiley Cyrus".   Other ideas brainstormed were "The Tile High Club", "Goin' a Tile a Minute", "Tile 'n Out", and "The I-tile-ian Job".   Or what about "Tiler Perry's Big Fat Tilin' Barbeque Weekend"?

After the jump you can see all of the ups and downs of day three.  Finally, we are seeing some progress!

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 2 "Unexpected Concrete"

    Day 2 of our bathroom tiling adventure was a rough day.  We started out by going to Lowe's to pick up cement board.  The plan was to lay that over the existing cement and adhere it with some sort of adhesive.  That way we could raise up the floor and have a level surface.  When we got to Lowe's we learned that you can only screw cement board into something.  And that something could not be cement. Womp, womp.  We made some calls and got advice.  Unfortunately that advice was that we would have to mix and pour a concrete floor on top of what we had.

Here is the patch for the sink and the concrete that we poured.  Plus I'm giving you a sneak-peak at what the tile looks like.

After the jump, you can see all the fun (and no-so-fun) details of Day 2.

Bathroom Tile Project: Day 1 "DEMO TIME!"

    On Thursday, my pops arrived in Chicago and we got right down to business tearing up tile.  Here is the before view of the bathroom so we can all remember where we were starting.

    Ugh.  This tile has been the eye sore of our place since day 1.  I have invested far too much time trying different cleaning products in the hope that it will make the tile white and beautiful.  I have scrubbed on my hands and knees with a grout brush, bleach, cleanser, tile products, you name it.  I shudder just looking at this picture.

After the jump you can see the whole demolition process and all of the unexpected things that we found under that nasty tile.

The Bathroom Tile has Been Purchsed!

    Mike and I went to the Tile Outlet yesterday and found a beautifully wonderful tile!  Drumroll please...

   It is 1" White Natural Marble Hexagon Tile.  Isn't it beautiful!  I can't wait to change out our terrible, old tile.   We got 10 boxes of this stuff.  Fifty square feet of beauty.  The tile laying process begins on Thursday.  Stay tuned for more fun.

    In the meantime, here is another view of the tile. (Disregard the subway tile)

Big Project News!

Drum roll, please.  I'm retiling my bathroom floor next week!  I'm so excited!

    My generous, wonderful, crafty, caring father will be coming out to Chicago next week to lead the project and help me learn about how to tile a floor.

Aren't my sister and dad cute?!

    Last year, Mike and I put up a tile backsplash in our kitchen, which you can see here.  It was our first semi-big project that we did together on our house.  Flooring, however, seems much more complicated with the whole "take off the toilet, disconnect your radiator, make the floor level" thing going on.

    Mike and I are going tile shopping tomorrow morning.  I will share all the details with you tomorrow.  Until then, here are some inspiration pictures.  I might not love the whole bathroom, but the tile is the focus of all of these pictures.

I love the pixelated look.  Ooo, and how it goes up the one wall.  I think it's a little complicated for me though.

Oh, how I love hexagon tile!  Don't be shocked if that's what we end up with tomorrow.

I love the herringbone pattern made with simple rectangular tiles.  

Yes, I really love the herringbone.

    You can see some more of my tile inspiration on my Pinterest board  appropriately named Bathroom Tile Inspiration.

What do you think?  Do you have a dream-tile for your bathroom?  Please share!

My Summer To-Do List for the House

I have checked one thing off of my summer to-do list.  I have sorted through our glasses and given away the ones that I don't like or really don't match.  Here is the before and after of our built-in that we use to store our glasses.
BEFORE:

 AFTER:

I have left some space for more Guiness pint glasses and regular pint glasses.  I just couldn't stand having so many different types of glasses.  Also, I moved my mason jar storage out to this space so my pantry could become a little less full.  It's working for me so far.

I think that if I share my summer to-do list with you, I might be more likely to get a lot of it done.  So, here it goes.
-retile the bathroom with small white hexagon tile
-take down the drywall on one of the walls in the dining room to reveal the exposed brick
-put large hexagons of different opacity on the glass shower doors
-hang wooden blinds in the front room windows
-paint the back door
-paint the 2nd bedroom and try out stenciling on the wall
-seriously decorate our bedroom
-get rid of mismatched glasses and reorganize hutch
-hang a bunch of art and fun things in the hallway
-hang new curtains in the dining room
-finish the penny countertop
-put crown molding in the dining room and front room
-rehang the giant mirror about the "fireplace"
-reupholster the four chairs in the front room
-hang pegboard/desk organizer on the wall above my desk in the 2nd bedroom
-create a daybed/couch out of pallets for the 2nd bedroom
-clean/organize the garage
-find a new light fixture for the kitchen
-finish that stupid cootie catcher lamp (maybe)

I'm sure that I'm missing a few things, so I will continue to update this.  I would like to stress that this is highly ambitious for me, but I might as well keep track of what I want to do to my house somewhere.

Cheers!  May you have a highly productive week.

Domino! It's back!

   Good news, world!  Domino is back!  Well, sort of.  They are making a seasonal special issues.  I spotted the Spring/Summer issue and squealed in Lowes today.  My dad was very confused.  I didn't even check to see how much it was ($10.99).  I just bought it.  Here she is:

   Wow, there is so much wonderful stuff!  Amazing homes, designer tips, and just general eye candy.  Here is one of the photos that I loved. (I had a very hard time picking what to share with you.)

    Aren't these stairs glorious?  I don't have any stairs to pimp, but if I did, they would be painted.  There are a few other great ideas for stairs in the magazine.  I went looking for a website, but their website doesn't have any content.  Hopefully, it will soon.  You know that I will let you know.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

I am in the middle of a very big project.  Three weeks after starting it, I am almost halfway there.  Almost.  Mike got on board right away, and we are really excited about how cool it looks so far.  We are covering our awful laminate countertops with pennies and resin.  It's so amazing!  Better than I ever could have expected.  If only I was finished!

Here is a preview.  Let's just plan to meet back here in two weeks and I'll have a full tutorial as well as a 100% finished project.  Maybe if I put it into writing, it will motivate me to finish this thing!

I always dream big.  This project maybe be getting the best of me, though.
What do you think so far?

Pipe dreams

So, here is a picture of a pipe shelf that I made last year for my bathroom. 

I originally got the idea from Apartment Therapy last year.