My purdy master bathroom is finally finished!

It's done! I hired my friend Ted (he's a great handyman & carpenter, www.facebook.com/TedTheHandyman) but I just needed to get some little things off the list and was way too busy with my real estate career to finish them. He laughs because I'm so thankful that he hung my mirror but that mirror has been unhung for so long that it just makes me giddy that it's done.

This was before, the sketch and then the finished bathroom!

Oh so pretty!!

I could be happier with how it turned out! I live in a 1920's bungalow in Wares Creek section of Bradenton, Florida. So apparently this room was once a porch. I can tell because when I ripped out about 3" of tile & cement board there was this beautiful pine floor underneath. It was painted in a blue/grey color that they used to paint all porches in this era but the real giveaway was that the planks were a little wider than the interior floor. When I pulled up the tile I had an idea that I wanted to make it look very rustic, reminiscent of an old wood boat. Weathered and all. So I left all nail holes, scratches and dings and sanded only parts of it, leaving the blue/grey color in some areas. Then went back in with a white wash so there's 3 different colors to give it lots of interest and depth. Then poly coated about 10 times. The trick is to go lightly with each coat, sanding lightly in between. Gives it a gorgeous, polished finished. I freaking love it!

The vanity is an old, antique dresser that I modified to accommodate the plumbing underneath. In every house I believe the style is spoken from the house. The house determines how it should look. I have the ability to visualize what the finished product will look like but this project really blew me away with how beautiful, timeless and classic it turned out.

If you have any tips or tricks or comments please let me know! Here's some pics of the demo along the way....

Me, wrecking shit

I love my tools. This is my least favorite because the little foot thing falls off
every 10 seconds but it does the job

Fixing a piece of pipe that I accidentally cut.

Removed all the old flooring under the shower that was damaged.

It's just ugly. I also added probably a foot and a 1/2 to the shower.

The old fiberglass shower pan was leaking for probably a long time.
So it had to be ripped out.

My kids love to get involved!

Because if you're going to do it then do it right and add niches!

I had to add a short wall to accommodate the new piece of glass I
got at a bargain price of $35 so why not add a bench too??

Adding the backsplash

She was fascinated that we used pennies as spacers

Flooring getting done

This is the dresser I just fell in love with!

Oh, who knows how many into it I am now!

So I've spent the past ....what? 3 weeks building a fence. This is one of the toughest jobs I've done so far. Mostly because I had only like 3 hours of help from my mom in that whole time. The rest was all me! So I mostly painted the past week. I added flower boxes and flowers to the fence and I'm very happy with it.

My purpose in life

I started this blog because I am hoping to inspire someone. I feel like my purpose here is help women realize their full potential. I get scared and nervous with each new project I start because it always seems like it's something I've never done before. But I always say if I can just rip it apart then I will be forced to put it back together. So that's the start. And it's super exciting! To rip down a wall or pull out water damaged insulation or 2 x 4's. It's so empowering!
Then stage 2 hits....and I feel like man, I'm never going to be able to figure this out. And I make mistakes. This blog and my work is not about perfection. If I wanted perfection in everything I would have just picked one thing and perfected it over the years. I am not about perfection. I am about doing something to the best of MY abilities and making sure it is safe and structurally sound. So I muddle through this stage, doing research on google and youtube. And at some point I feel like it's finally coming together.
Enter stage 3. The nervousness is over. I get into a groove and I can see the end. I feel great about the work I've done but more importantly, with the feedback I get, I feel like I have inspired someone. It might be for someone to get out and exercise a little by walking. Or it might be a project around the house that you didn't think you could accomplish but are starting. Because that's where the magic begins. With the first initial effort. I appreciate you reading this and I hope I have inspired you to think bigger today. Do not settle for less. Go out and make a difference. Life is so very short!

So I'm renaming this Day 5. Fence

I'm renaming this Day 5 (Tuesday) b/c I took a few days off and this really is day 5 of actually working.
I have one child, my 7 year old daughter, Lyla, who is home every day in the summer. She is going into 2nd grade. Meet Lyla

She's a lunatic. And don't worry....this was just for the picture. When she turned it on I was behind her building the saw. She insists on working in flip flops and sometimes PJ's. Ugh. Luckily she's a kid and her attention span lasts a whole 10 minutes, 11 if I'm lucky.

My son, Axton, who is 5 still has the option of going to his private pre K. Although in the summer I cut the hours to make it less expensive. So he goes like 3 and 1/2 days a week. Gives me a break from sibling fighting. 

Today I got caught in a lot of other crap. My front yard needed a mowing for the past 2 weeks so I had to do it. By the time I was finished (at noon) I was so grimey dirty. It was hot as balls today!!

I started back at the fence around 1:00 pm but ran into some issues. This project is beginning to simulate a puzzle. I have to evaluate the last pieces of the materials I got for free to make the fence and arrange everything just right. After about an hour of rearranging I finally felt good about the placement.

About 2 hours into cutting and screwing in pieces I got to a panel I decided to make out of some picket fencing I got. But I needed the nail gun b/c it was going to take up too much time to drill holes and screw in screws. So I got the nail gun out. Then realized my nails were too long. Ugh! Back to Home Depot. When I got back my girl helped me figure out a great design for that panel. Starting to get excited about the design!

Here's where we ended, due to rain, on Day 5.

Day 5 of my Fence

My two little ones (Lyla is 7 and Axton is 5) went to their dads house this week. So that's why I started my fence and was hoping to get it done by the time they came back home. Not finished and I only have today and tomorrow. They return tomorrow evening. But I ended up with more fence that I bargained for.
Originally this project was going to be making a fence from only pallets and PT posts. But when I when to pick up the pallets they had old wood fencing also so this project took a turn.

Day 1 (Monday) I rented a truck after purchasing 14 PT posts and 8 bags of concrete mix. Then went and picked up pallets and like (4) 8' wood panels. Oh, and 2 panels of picket fencing. I was happy. Took me like 3 trips and 3 hours to do it but all by myself. Returned the truck and came home and started digging for posts.

Day 2 (Tuesday) Still digging. I got in like 5 posts. I rented an auger for $50. for the day but it didn't help me because it ended up that I was mostly digging in blacktop (the alley) or in tree roots.

Day 3 (Wednesday) I had to take out like 4 posts because they were wobbly. Apparently I do not mix concrete very well right in the hole. So I pulled those out, knocked off the concrete with a hammer and dug the hole a little deeper. Mixed the concrete in a bucket first....then put in the hole. This method works much better. And then I got up 2 panels and one "panel" of pallets.

The problem with most of my projects is that this is the first time doing them. It seems each one is unique. So there's a learning curve. It's quite a pain but I no longer beat myself up about it, thinking damn, just wasted all that time.

Day 4 (Friday) I took off Thursday because I felt like I was hit by a truck. So Friday my mom was off from work and offered to help. I worked her into the ground. I didn't mean to but she offered to pay for the truck if I wanted to go back and get more pallets. So we did. And for 4 hours just kept going back. Probably 3 trips. I ended up getting 16 or 17 panels (8') of picket fencing along with 2 gates and  16 posts! Could not believe my luck. Only problem then is that now the fencing project has just grown larger. But I am not killing myself to get that part done now. That can wait.

And I also lucked out and got 2 large gates as well! 

So today starts Day 5 (Saturday). Here's where I left off yesterday.

I have 3 panels up and I filled in the gaps on the pallet "panel". It started to rain and that was so much nicer to work in so I kept going until it was raining too hard for my tools to safely be out there. And I needed my drill to put the decking screws in. So I quit around 5 or 6:00.

I'm off to work now.

Fence

So I decided to build a fence. Budget is really $0 but since I have a home depot card I wanted to keep it under $400. A fence around my entire house that the fence company told me (in wood) would be over $4,500. Yup. I think big! This is now day 3 but I'm going to post all the days. I got the idea to make it from pallets because people give them away for free. So one of the places that had a listing on craigslist for free pallets was a fence company. Yes, I scored enough panels for the back (privacy fence) and enough picket and posts to do the entire front of my yard. Oh man....am I lucky or what?? I had to buy $100 worth of 10' PT posts for the back but the others I got for free at the fence place. Fuck yeah!!