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| TA DA! |
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| Comfy back/head rest in the tub |
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| Celebrating at Biaggi's for Easter Lunch |
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| Champagne with a head cold? Just a little bit for me since we had so much worth celebrating! |
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Bathroom is DONE!!!!
It was a very long Friday night and Saturday but we did it! Bathroom is DONE! It feels so good too! Aaron worked very hard to get this all done by Saturday. Well let's get right to the pictures!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sick Day :(
Today I stayed home sick from work, while sitting on the couch today, feeling miserable, I couldn't help but think how lucky I was. Lucky that is to have Aaron as my husband.
Last night I woke Aaron up numerous times all night long. The first time I woke him up was after midnight, I asked if he could get me some Tums. Without hesitation, he got up and brought me Tums. 2 am I woke him up again and asked for bowl because I thought I was going to get sick. At 2:30ish again because I did get sick and needed him to clean out my bowl. He also got up to bring me the laptop because I was going to email in sick but then I changed my mind and decided to wait it out a little longer so he got up again and took the laptop back to the office. Then a few times throughout the night I just shook him awake just to tell him I didn't feel good. Then at 4:30, I woke him up telling him I was hungry and wanted an apple sliced. Again without hesitation, he got up and sliced me an apple.
Now there is a little more significance to this apple. Earlier in the week when I again was lying in bed not feeling well, I asked him to bring me a sliced apple. When he brought it to me, I noticed that after he cored it, he did not go thru slice by slice like I do and take off any additional core that was still on the slices. I gave the bowl back to him and told him he needed to do that. When he brought it back, I had made a comment that night about how the size of the bowl he put the apple in was disproportionate to the size of the apple (I know...I was out of line by saying this and was not being appreciative). Well last night when he brought me in my apple, it was sliced just the way I wanted it and the bowl was the right size, I didn't even say anything, he just remembered.
So I then laid in bed and chomped on my apple slices for probably a good 15-20 minutes when I decided I needed to use the bathroom. I rarely ever actually get out on my side of the bed and walk around, I always bear crawl or barrel roll over Aaron to get to the bathroom, so yet again, I woke him up by doing this.
I must say, never once did he complain or hesitate to get me what I needed all night long. Nor in the morning did he wake up and make any comments on how he was tired or how it would be a long day like I probably would have if I was in his shoes. I just couldn't help to think throughout my day today that despite not feeling any better how thankful and lucky I am to have Aaron to take care of me when I'm sick. I sure hope we have a more restful night tonight!
Last night I woke Aaron up numerous times all night long. The first time I woke him up was after midnight, I asked if he could get me some Tums. Without hesitation, he got up and brought me Tums. 2 am I woke him up again and asked for bowl because I thought I was going to get sick. At 2:30ish again because I did get sick and needed him to clean out my bowl. He also got up to bring me the laptop because I was going to email in sick but then I changed my mind and decided to wait it out a little longer so he got up again and took the laptop back to the office. Then a few times throughout the night I just shook him awake just to tell him I didn't feel good. Then at 4:30, I woke him up telling him I was hungry and wanted an apple sliced. Again without hesitation, he got up and sliced me an apple.
Now there is a little more significance to this apple. Earlier in the week when I again was lying in bed not feeling well, I asked him to bring me a sliced apple. When he brought it to me, I noticed that after he cored it, he did not go thru slice by slice like I do and take off any additional core that was still on the slices. I gave the bowl back to him and told him he needed to do that. When he brought it back, I had made a comment that night about how the size of the bowl he put the apple in was disproportionate to the size of the apple (I know...I was out of line by saying this and was not being appreciative). Well last night when he brought me in my apple, it was sliced just the way I wanted it and the bowl was the right size, I didn't even say anything, he just remembered.
So I then laid in bed and chomped on my apple slices for probably a good 15-20 minutes when I decided I needed to use the bathroom. I rarely ever actually get out on my side of the bed and walk around, I always bear crawl or barrel roll over Aaron to get to the bathroom, so yet again, I woke him up by doing this.
I must say, never once did he complain or hesitate to get me what I needed all night long. Nor in the morning did he wake up and make any comments on how he was tired or how it would be a long day like I probably would have if I was in his shoes. I just couldn't help to think throughout my day today that despite not feeling any better how thankful and lucky I am to have Aaron to take care of me when I'm sick. I sure hope we have a more restful night tonight!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
WEEK 4 Bathroom Update
Bathroom update week 4! If all goes as planned, we will finish up this Saturday. But, as we’ve learned, rarely does all goes as planned so we will just hope for the best! Aaron is SO ready to be done. We took 2 days off of working on the bathroom because he really needed a break. So it would be very ideal to stay on track and get this completed by Saturday!
What has been accomplished this past week: painting touch ups, new fan/vent installed, tile cut and mortared to floor, new light fixture installed, tile grouted, 2 days off as a sanity check, 2 large pizzas ate, a service call to have our air ducts in our house cleaned, sealing the tile, a good hour of cleaning/organizing the garage since it was such a mess with this project, and only two very minor/quick trips to Lowe’s. It's going on 10 pm on a Thursday night and Aaron is caulking in the bathroom and I'm taking it easy because I have a yucky head cold.
The floor tile is a 3 step process, mortar tile, grout and then seal. What a job! Each step requires 24 hours to set/dry. Well really I could get more technical and say it is far more than a 3 step process… cutting the perimeter tiles and around the toilet was quite a task too! A big thank you to Aaron’s client who let us borrow her tile cutter machine free of charge.
I am really happy with how things are looking. It’s hard to tell in the store how everything will come together but so far everything jives well. Did you know you can choose from a gazillion grout colors? I would have never guessed that I would have had to actually put some thought into which grout would look the best. Jeepers, so many details to think over!
You may be wondering how Aaron is learning how to do some of this stuff. Well it’s called YouTube.com folks! He has never owned a home improvement book; he learns most all of it on youtube.com. Best resource ever! He watches several videos on the same topic and then tries his hand at it.
Wish us luck that we can get this done by end of day Saturday! We still have a sizable list of 'to-dos' yet... I’ll keep you posted!
What has been accomplished this past week: painting touch ups, new fan/vent installed, tile cut and mortared to floor, new light fixture installed, tile grouted, 2 days off as a sanity check, 2 large pizzas ate, a service call to have our air ducts in our house cleaned, sealing the tile, a good hour of cleaning/organizing the garage since it was such a mess with this project, and only two very minor/quick trips to Lowe’s. It's going on 10 pm on a Thursday night and Aaron is caulking in the bathroom and I'm taking it easy because I have a yucky head cold.
The floor tile is a 3 step process, mortar tile, grout and then seal. What a job! Each step requires 24 hours to set/dry. Well really I could get more technical and say it is far more than a 3 step process… cutting the perimeter tiles and around the toilet was quite a task too! A big thank you to Aaron’s client who let us borrow her tile cutter machine free of charge.
I am really happy with how things are looking. It’s hard to tell in the store how everything will come together but so far everything jives well. Did you know you can choose from a gazillion grout colors? I would have never guessed that I would have had to actually put some thought into which grout would look the best. Jeepers, so many details to think over!
You may be wondering how Aaron is learning how to do some of this stuff. Well it’s called YouTube.com folks! He has never owned a home improvement book; he learns most all of it on youtube.com. Best resource ever! He watches several videos on the same topic and then tries his hand at it.
Wish us luck that we can get this done by end of day Saturday! We still have a sizable list of 'to-dos' yet... I’ll keep you posted!
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| New vent, real exciting pic huh?! LOL! Well the light fixture would have been more of an exciting picture but sorry folks, I forgot to take that pic and not going to bother with it right now |
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| Mortar tile to cement board |
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| I see London, I see France, I see Aaron's.... Oh man, and he puts up with me! Here I am right behind him taunting him with my camera while he works. |
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| 24 hours before we can grout |
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| Nice spacing |
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| And it is grouted and sealed |
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| Don't ask me why he is caulking a tub that's selling point is that it requires no caulking, at this point I just let him do what he wants... it's not hurting anything so whatever... |
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| They call the tile color mocha, I dig it |
Saturday, April 16, 2011
I'm A Coupon Super Freak
I LOVE coupons! I mean...I really really love coupons! Many of you who know me well knows that I usually always check if I have a coupon and I love to share coupons with my friends/family, it makes me pretty popular :) A good coupon can really make my day.
So today I was at the grocery store, specifically Target. Why do I mention that? Because at Target you can double up manufacturer coupons with Target coupons (which can be found on their website). There is some major savings to be had when doing this. Today I bought a bunch of stuff/groceries, $186 worth of stuff to be exact. After I handed over my coupons, my bill was $143. I was pretty pumped to have saved over $40 in coupons alone. Not to mention stuff I bought on sale/reduced price that I didn't have a coupon for in which my savings would be even greater. I had a swifter coupon, buy one get one free, that coupon right there saved me $12 and I needed more swifter pads so this was great. A noncoupon savings was I needed 2 bags of french fries, well it just so happened that today was buy 2 get 1 free on french fries, SCORE! Awesome when I needed fries anyways!
I don't buy stuff I don't need unless it is practically free. I normally only buy stuff that we need or else if I want to try something new, I always google for a coupon first. It can take me hours at the store. If you went grocery shopping with me, you would be very impressed with my organization and focus. I always stop at Starbucks for a coffee before my shopping excursion to get me focused. And I always stop at the bathroom too, my excursions are always long enough to prompt a potty break. With my coupon organizer in hand, I set out on a mission. I love to go when all the sample ladies are out on the weekends, I get to try new things and get a coupon in the process. And those ladies are always so nice to let me take a handful of the coupons. I sometimes even stand there and chit chat with them for awhile, hey doesn't hurt to get in on the good side with the sample ladies with the coupons!
When I check out, normally the checkout ladies are so nice and bear with me because I'm a huge pain in the rear. I hand them one coupon at a time and pause in between to ensure they all ring in correctly. I know I have to be totally annoying to them but if I miss a $1 here and a $1 there, that really adds up! It's usually not the cashier that is annoyed but the person in line behind me. I always try to remember to say thank you to the person behind me for their patience. I could tell the lady behind me really hated me today (the cashier had to turn on her light because we needed supervisor approval for my swifter coupon) but I still gave her a smile and thanked her anyways even after she had already given me the evil eye for taking so long.
And I'm also the annoying person in whom may forget a coupon at home and so next time I'm back at that store, I take my receipt and coupon to customer service so I get credit for that $1 coupon. Yes I do this, heck why not, I'm at the store anyways and it usually takes only a minute.
Have you seen that show on TLC called Extreme Couponing??? LOVE IT! I DVR it and amazed by these people's savings. If I had more time on my hands, I could save much much more but my $40 savings in coupons alone today was enough to make me happy.
Anyways here are a few of my top resources worth checking out with great coupons!
target.com -- at the very bottom is a link for coupons
coupon.com -- always look at these and try to match them with target coupons
totallytarget.com -- a blog that does a lot of the coupon matching for you -- this one is the BIG savings!
The Des Moines Register -- not only great grocery coupons but good store coupons in here as well such as World Market, Sports Authority, Yonkers, etc.
My friend Katie -- she is awesome at researching deals and sharing it with me!!! She is the one who has taught me all this couponing stuff. I work with her husband and I've gotten to know her thru him. Oh man is she the coupon queen! You should see her storage room, filled with stuff she has gotten for free or near free, amazing and I just admire her organization skills too. After a chat with her, I always am pumped to go cut some coupons.
Please share your coupon deals with me, nothing makes my day more than a good deal!
So today I was at the grocery store, specifically Target. Why do I mention that? Because at Target you can double up manufacturer coupons with Target coupons (which can be found on their website). There is some major savings to be had when doing this. Today I bought a bunch of stuff/groceries, $186 worth of stuff to be exact. After I handed over my coupons, my bill was $143. I was pretty pumped to have saved over $40 in coupons alone. Not to mention stuff I bought on sale/reduced price that I didn't have a coupon for in which my savings would be even greater. I had a swifter coupon, buy one get one free, that coupon right there saved me $12 and I needed more swifter pads so this was great. A noncoupon savings was I needed 2 bags of french fries, well it just so happened that today was buy 2 get 1 free on french fries, SCORE! Awesome when I needed fries anyways!
I don't buy stuff I don't need unless it is practically free. I normally only buy stuff that we need or else if I want to try something new, I always google for a coupon first. It can take me hours at the store. If you went grocery shopping with me, you would be very impressed with my organization and focus. I always stop at Starbucks for a coffee before my shopping excursion to get me focused. And I always stop at the bathroom too, my excursions are always long enough to prompt a potty break. With my coupon organizer in hand, I set out on a mission. I love to go when all the sample ladies are out on the weekends, I get to try new things and get a coupon in the process. And those ladies are always so nice to let me take a handful of the coupons. I sometimes even stand there and chit chat with them for awhile, hey doesn't hurt to get in on the good side with the sample ladies with the coupons!
When I check out, normally the checkout ladies are so nice and bear with me because I'm a huge pain in the rear. I hand them one coupon at a time and pause in between to ensure they all ring in correctly. I know I have to be totally annoying to them but if I miss a $1 here and a $1 there, that really adds up! It's usually not the cashier that is annoyed but the person in line behind me. I always try to remember to say thank you to the person behind me for their patience. I could tell the lady behind me really hated me today (the cashier had to turn on her light because we needed supervisor approval for my swifter coupon) but I still gave her a smile and thanked her anyways even after she had already given me the evil eye for taking so long.
And I'm also the annoying person in whom may forget a coupon at home and so next time I'm back at that store, I take my receipt and coupon to customer service so I get credit for that $1 coupon. Yes I do this, heck why not, I'm at the store anyways and it usually takes only a minute.
Have you seen that show on TLC called Extreme Couponing??? LOVE IT! I DVR it and amazed by these people's savings. If I had more time on my hands, I could save much much more but my $40 savings in coupons alone today was enough to make me happy.
Anyways here are a few of my top resources worth checking out with great coupons!
target.com -- at the very bottom is a link for coupons
coupon.com -- always look at these and try to match them with target coupons
totallytarget.com -- a blog that does a lot of the coupon matching for you -- this one is the BIG savings!
The Des Moines Register -- not only great grocery coupons but good store coupons in here as well such as World Market, Sports Authority, Yonkers, etc.
My friend Katie -- she is awesome at researching deals and sharing it with me!!! She is the one who has taught me all this couponing stuff. I work with her husband and I've gotten to know her thru him. Oh man is she the coupon queen! You should see her storage room, filled with stuff she has gotten for free or near free, amazing and I just admire her organization skills too. After a chat with her, I always am pumped to go cut some coupons.
Please share your coupon deals with me, nothing makes my day more than a good deal!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Bathroom Update 3
So we've turned a corner in our project, I was right, nothing more could come out so we finally have new going in. Our tub is in!!! Contractor showed up Thursday and installed the new base boards, tub, surround and the necessary plumbing that was involved. It looks fabulous! Aaron also installed all the new drywall. He spent a great deal of time mudding the drywall seams. Now that's a different story....
Mudding became the most frustrating part of this past week. Aaron was recommended to buy this 20 minute quick dry mud... BAD idea. It dried up on him too quickly before he could get it all smoothed out nicely. He gave up on that and went out to get the regular mud. Which he was so frustrated after learning how much better it worked for him and how he felt like fixing the walls would be nearly impossible. He put one layer of mud up, sanded it. Then did a second layer, sanded the crap out of it. Aaron spent hours upon hours which turned into days trying to get these walls smoothed.
Well... the walls are far from perfect but at some point you just got to give up and move on and say it's good enough. Also for the sake of Aaron's sanity. He worked so hard, please do not give him any negative comments on the walls because it just about did him in. Aaron mentioned texturizing the walls to make them look better and I was completely against that idea.
Aaron also was able to lay down the cement board so the floor is all ready for tiling.
We are so ready to have this project done. Since my last posting, this bathroom has consumed our lives. Every night after work clear up till midnight at the latest and all day long during the weekend. Let's just say the excitment of the project has worn off now... :) And I'm very much ready to deep clean our house and for it to return to normalcy. I can't even walk around my own house bare foot without my feet turning black. And I'm cleaning every day and it's still not enough!
So in summary, this is what has been accomplished since last week: tub and surround installed, new dry wall installed, mudding walls and sanding them down (felt like an eternity), floor cement board cut to size and installed with, dropped off cast iron tub at a recycling center, several trips to Lowe's (it's getting to be fewer trips, that a relief!), dumpster dumping again, dinner and 2 margaritas on Champp's patio, primed the walls, painted the walls, me getting yelled at for being a sloppy painter (in which I can't really dispute this, it's true!) and a few silly arguments over who is stinking up our only usable bathroom.
Well I'm sitting here, watching paint dry... literally! It's a Tuesday night going on 9 pm and we got a second coat to do yet tonight!
Mudding became the most frustrating part of this past week. Aaron was recommended to buy this 20 minute quick dry mud... BAD idea. It dried up on him too quickly before he could get it all smoothed out nicely. He gave up on that and went out to get the regular mud. Which he was so frustrated after learning how much better it worked for him and how he felt like fixing the walls would be nearly impossible. He put one layer of mud up, sanded it. Then did a second layer, sanded the crap out of it. Aaron spent hours upon hours which turned into days trying to get these walls smoothed.
Well... the walls are far from perfect but at some point you just got to give up and move on and say it's good enough. Also for the sake of Aaron's sanity. He worked so hard, please do not give him any negative comments on the walls because it just about did him in. Aaron mentioned texturizing the walls to make them look better and I was completely against that idea.
Aaron also was able to lay down the cement board so the floor is all ready for tiling.
We are so ready to have this project done. Since my last posting, this bathroom has consumed our lives. Every night after work clear up till midnight at the latest and all day long during the weekend. Let's just say the excitment of the project has worn off now... :) And I'm very much ready to deep clean our house and for it to return to normalcy. I can't even walk around my own house bare foot without my feet turning black. And I'm cleaning every day and it's still not enough!
So in summary, this is what has been accomplished since last week: tub and surround installed, new dry wall installed, mudding walls and sanding them down (felt like an eternity), floor cement board cut to size and installed with, dropped off cast iron tub at a recycling center, several trips to Lowe's (it's getting to be fewer trips, that a relief!), dumpster dumping again, dinner and 2 margaritas on Champp's patio, primed the walls, painted the walls, me getting yelled at for being a sloppy painter (in which I can't really dispute this, it's true!) and a few silly arguments over who is stinking up our only usable bathroom.
Well I'm sitting here, watching paint dry... literally! It's a Tuesday night going on 9 pm and we got a second coat to do yet tonight!
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| Installing New Drywall |
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| New Tub |
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| New Tub Surround |
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| Drywall - it's green because we bought the mildrew proof kind |
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| New floor base board, realized I don't have a pic of the cement board over this and don't really feel like taking a pic and uploading it so the heck with it |
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| Mudding.... oh man... let's please never have to do that again |
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| Mud, Mud and more Mud |
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| Sanding, look at all the dust! What a mess it creates! |
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| Primed Walls |
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| Primed Walls |
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| GREEN! |
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| Love our green color we choose |
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| In case you were wondering, yep I do work some. But I have to dress the part in doing so. That's a tape measurer on my pants, working gloves, goggles, and yes that is a beer in my coozie. Okay I never use coozies but felt like it was part of the look. If I could of gotten my pants a little lower so I could have showed some plumber's crack, I would have been all good to go for the job. |
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Recipe Sunday!
Got a few recipes to share! First up was a request, here you go Jackee :) I think they are good, the bananas gives the bars an unusual texture, kind of more like a cookie in some sense. Aaron loved them!
Gluten-Free Oatmeal Chip Bars
(This recipe I found in my April/May 2011 Taste of Home Healthy Cooking Magazine -- love my cooking mag scripts!)
Ingredients:
1/2 C brown sugar
4 eggs
3-4 mash ripe bananas
1 C peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
6 cups gluten-free old fashioned oats (Aaron prefers Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats, found in HyVee Health Market Section)
1 C gluten-free butterscotch chips
1 C semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large bowl, beat brown sugar and eggs until well blended. Add bananas, peanut butter and salt until blended. Stir in oats, butterscotch and chocolate chips. Spread batter into a 15x10x1 in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into bars.
(179 calories per bar, yield 3 dozen)
Next recipe is a follow up on the Philadelphia Cooking Creams, here is the review of these recipes I've tried and hope to give you some dinner ideas for tonight! :)
Chicken Broccoli and Potato Divan:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=122155#category=817&subcategory=16202
This recipe is very good! Delicious! The potatoes remind me of au gratin potatoes which excited me because I've had troubles coming up with ideas on how to make au gratin potatoes gluten free and this recipe definitely fills that void. Aaron loved it as well. Very easy to make. The only downfall is I'm pretty certain it is high in calories and it has a very strong taste to it, very rich cream sauce which of course equates to delicious!
Lemon Broccoli Rice with Chicken:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=121724#category=817&subcategory=16202
We did not like this at all. We thought it was very bland and not good. It's still sitting in my fridge right now because it just kills me to throw away large amounts of food that is perfectly fine but this will probably end up in the trash.
Santa Fe Chicken Casserole:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=121725#category=817&subcategory=16202
In a previous blog post I had mentioned I had made the chicken enchiladas and we liked them but I had seen a very similar recipe that looked easier to make, well this casserole was it. Okay this casserole was AMAZING! By far our favorite so far. It didn't even taste that similar to the enchiladas which is strange because the recipe is so close to it. Aaron and I thought right away this recipe is a big winner. I'm changing the name of it though, it's Mexican Lasagna at the Hyde household. The preparation of this is more like a lasagna than a casserole. You have to try this one!!!!!! SO YUMMY!!! This did not last long in our house, we were throwing elbows to eat the leftovers.
Tonight we are eating chicken taco salads, not from the philly cooking cream collection but a recipe I invented awhile ago. If you can't tell we eat lots of Mexican inspired food!
Gluten-Free Oatmeal Chip Bars
(This recipe I found in my April/May 2011 Taste of Home Healthy Cooking Magazine -- love my cooking mag scripts!)
1/2 C brown sugar
4 eggs
3-4 mash ripe bananas
1 C peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
6 cups gluten-free old fashioned oats (Aaron prefers Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats, found in HyVee Health Market Section)
1 C gluten-free butterscotch chips
1 C semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large bowl, beat brown sugar and eggs until well blended. Add bananas, peanut butter and salt until blended. Stir in oats, butterscotch and chocolate chips. Spread batter into a 15x10x1 in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into bars.
(179 calories per bar, yield 3 dozen)
Next recipe is a follow up on the Philadelphia Cooking Creams, here is the review of these recipes I've tried and hope to give you some dinner ideas for tonight! :)
Chicken Broccoli and Potato Divan:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=122155#category=817&subcategory=16202
This recipe is very good! Delicious! The potatoes remind me of au gratin potatoes which excited me because I've had troubles coming up with ideas on how to make au gratin potatoes gluten free and this recipe definitely fills that void. Aaron loved it as well. Very easy to make. The only downfall is I'm pretty certain it is high in calories and it has a very strong taste to it, very rich cream sauce which of course equates to delicious!
Lemon Broccoli Rice with Chicken:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=121724#category=817&subcategory=16202
We did not like this at all. We thought it was very bland and not good. It's still sitting in my fridge right now because it just kills me to throw away large amounts of food that is perfectly fine but this will probably end up in the trash.
Santa Fe Chicken Casserole:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=121725#category=817&subcategory=16202
In a previous blog post I had mentioned I had made the chicken enchiladas and we liked them but I had seen a very similar recipe that looked easier to make, well this casserole was it. Okay this casserole was AMAZING! By far our favorite so far. It didn't even taste that similar to the enchiladas which is strange because the recipe is so close to it. Aaron and I thought right away this recipe is a big winner. I'm changing the name of it though, it's Mexican Lasagna at the Hyde household. The preparation of this is more like a lasagna than a casserole. You have to try this one!!!!!! SO YUMMY!!! This did not last long in our house, we were throwing elbows to eat the leftovers.
Tonight we are eating chicken taco salads, not from the philly cooking cream collection but a recipe I invented awhile ago. If you can't tell we eat lots of Mexican inspired food!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Bathroom Update 2
Week 2, time for a bathroom remodel update! Well, things went a little slower this week than last week. Overall I think we still have some good progress to show for but were a little more optimistic that we would be further along than we are. The bathroom is now completely gutted. Tub gone. Tub wall surround gone. Toilet gone. Flooring gone.
Aaron and Mark laid into the tub wall surround and got that out of there pretty quickly. The tub Aaron handled mostly on his own but since it was a cast iron tub, it was not easy, it was HEAVY and we ended up having to take a sledge hammer to it and break it into pieces.
The flooring was a set back. Come to find out around the toilet we had a lot of mold. I had no idea! The tiling showed no signs of mold and I'm very good at smelling mold and I was clueless this bathroom had mold. It's amazing what you find when you start pulling back layers. The flooring had quite a few layers, we had to gut out down to the base board which luckily is salvageable since the majority of the mold was on the first layer directly under the tile and we are now in the process of scrubbing it down good with bleach before we lay down more base board and then after that we have to lay down a cement board on top of that before we can even think about tiling. The process is so much more involved than you would think!
New tub was suppose to go in today but it has been pushed back until Thursday morning. Contractor cannot install new tub until we get this mold situation under control, in which I'm feeling much better about today, 2 more floor scrubbings, let it dry overnight and we should be good to go!
Another set back was the fact that our entire neighborhood lost power on Sunday for 7 hours! Yes, 7 hours! The boys worked thru it with flashlights, I gotta give them credit, they were able to adapt to the circumstance to continue demo-ing the bathroom.
We also learned that you can throw up new drywall over old drywall. Wish we would have known that prior to spending all that time taking down the wall paper. But really we've had to demo 3 of the 4 walls irregardless so we aren't saving ourselves that much time/labor but it is nice to know after checking this against our 3 best resources and got the 'green light' from all 3 of them that this can be done.
Somehow, we've also managed to dent the opposing wall to the bathroom in several places. There is a dent in our hallway and in our bedroom. All in all, nothing that is a big deal, it wasn't like a hole clear thru the wall but just another nuisance to take care of. At this point in time, I'm not even concerned about fixing that right now, I want to stay focused on the completion of the bathroom.
What have I been doing this whole time... dusting, dusting, dusting... our house is in NO SHAPE for any company, please do not pay us any surprise visits right now :)
So in closing this is what has been done this past week: demo-ing drywall on 3 of the 4 walls, tearing out old tub and wall tile surround, gutting out flooring and bleaching base boards to remedy mold stains, toilet removed, dumpster dumping at Mark's apartment (shhh no one is suppose to know about this, our trash was so full we had to dump it somewhere!), who knows how many trips to Lowe's, borrowing of some one's truck in whom Mark knew but we've never even met, lots of clean up of dust and lots of little very sharp shards of cast iron tub, a couple dents in the wall, a break to go see an IMAX movie, a large taco pizza ordered, and a few phone calls to my Dad, Aaron's Dad and Mark's Grandpa for some expert advice!
Here are some pictures! Okay, so really there is NOTHING more that can be torn out so hopefully my next posting is some of our new stuff that is finally going in! YAY!
Aaron and Mark laid into the tub wall surround and got that out of there pretty quickly. The tub Aaron handled mostly on his own but since it was a cast iron tub, it was not easy, it was HEAVY and we ended up having to take a sledge hammer to it and break it into pieces.
The flooring was a set back. Come to find out around the toilet we had a lot of mold. I had no idea! The tiling showed no signs of mold and I'm very good at smelling mold and I was clueless this bathroom had mold. It's amazing what you find when you start pulling back layers. The flooring had quite a few layers, we had to gut out down to the base board which luckily is salvageable since the majority of the mold was on the first layer directly under the tile and we are now in the process of scrubbing it down good with bleach before we lay down more base board and then after that we have to lay down a cement board on top of that before we can even think about tiling. The process is so much more involved than you would think!
New tub was suppose to go in today but it has been pushed back until Thursday morning. Contractor cannot install new tub until we get this mold situation under control, in which I'm feeling much better about today, 2 more floor scrubbings, let it dry overnight and we should be good to go!
Another set back was the fact that our entire neighborhood lost power on Sunday for 7 hours! Yes, 7 hours! The boys worked thru it with flashlights, I gotta give them credit, they were able to adapt to the circumstance to continue demo-ing the bathroom.
We also learned that you can throw up new drywall over old drywall. Wish we would have known that prior to spending all that time taking down the wall paper. But really we've had to demo 3 of the 4 walls irregardless so we aren't saving ourselves that much time/labor but it is nice to know after checking this against our 3 best resources and got the 'green light' from all 3 of them that this can be done.
Somehow, we've also managed to dent the opposing wall to the bathroom in several places. There is a dent in our hallway and in our bedroom. All in all, nothing that is a big deal, it wasn't like a hole clear thru the wall but just another nuisance to take care of. At this point in time, I'm not even concerned about fixing that right now, I want to stay focused on the completion of the bathroom.
What have I been doing this whole time... dusting, dusting, dusting... our house is in NO SHAPE for any company, please do not pay us any surprise visits right now :)
So in closing this is what has been done this past week: demo-ing drywall on 3 of the 4 walls, tearing out old tub and wall tile surround, gutting out flooring and bleaching base boards to remedy mold stains, toilet removed, dumpster dumping at Mark's apartment (shhh no one is suppose to know about this, our trash was so full we had to dump it somewhere!), who knows how many trips to Lowe's, borrowing of some one's truck in whom Mark knew but we've never even met, lots of clean up of dust and lots of little very sharp shards of cast iron tub, a couple dents in the wall, a break to go see an IMAX movie, a large taco pizza ordered, and a few phone calls to my Dad, Aaron's Dad and Mark's Grandpa for some expert advice!
Here are some pictures! Okay, so really there is NOTHING more that can be torn out so hopefully my next posting is some of our new stuff that is finally going in! YAY!
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| Before Demo - Yucky old tub! |
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| Wall surround - GONE |
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| Tub - GONE |
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| Flooring GONE |
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| Drywall GONE |
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| Small dent in hallway, nothing to get bent out of shape over- no pun intended! |
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| Another lovely dent in our bedroom (opposing wall to the bathroom) |
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| Some yummy granola bars I made while the hubby was hard at work |
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| Should I kill him now or later for this? I literally just found this!!! Yes this is a bit more of an issue than a little hallway dent.... I seriously just typed this blog and went in to take more pics and about pooped my pants when I saw this! Grrrr.... Okay so I will let him off the hook this one time because he has been working so hard (and I just love him to pieces!). All that matters is no one got hurt but seriously hun, why did you do that!?!?!?! Ask the wife before making such decisions! Well, another 'to do' to fix! |
Monday, April 4, 2011
Vacation Accomodations
So I’m excited for our summer vacation. Aaron and I don’t go on ‘big’ vacations often; if anything we tend to just go out of town for a long weekend, which are always a nice treat but doesn’t feel overly adventurous.
The planning for our Colorado vacation is fun because with each thing I plan, I can visualize us there in the moment. I finally made all arrangements as to where we are staying each night. We will be staying at a mix of campgrounds, cabins, and hotels. We will be vacationing throughout Colorado; therefore we will not stay in one spot but for a few nights before we move on. Since we are going to be gone 7 nights, I decided to capitalize on the opportunity to tent camp in the mountains to save money. 7 nights away from home gets costly! Tent camping allows us to save on some nights so we could spend a bit more to stay in a nicer cabin and also to get a hotel right in downtown Denver. I can handle a little give and take and actually the idea of the tent camping keeps growing on me more and more. I think our time tent camping will be more memorable than any hotel stay. Here’s a tour of where we are staying….
First night – just going to find a mediocre hotel along the way since we are taking off early evening.
Our second night is in Rocky Mountain National Park, specifically Moraine Park:
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| Will be a nice view to wake up to! |
The next 2 nights we will be staying in this cozy little cabin in the Estes Park area, just perfect for Aaron and I, I like how it opens up to the outside space. Again, these are pictures from the exact cabin we will be in, which is so helpful to know what to expect.
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| Cozy and Cute |
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| I like how it opens up to the outside |
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| Right on a river, although it looks more like a creek, LOL! |
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| Awesome lookout on the property |
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| This is what I plan to do on vacation... drink wine by the firepit and enjoy the scenery with Aaron |
The 4th night we are staying in downtown Denver. Awesome location to everything we want to do within walking distance. We’ve had really good luck at Comfort Inn’s lately. We stayed at them in downtown Minneapolis and Kansas City have been impressed with the accommodations for the price and think this one appears to be pretty good too.
The last 2 nights we will be in Colorado Springs tent camping again. This again is the actual site we will be staying at in Cheyenne State Park. This is supposed to be one of the nicest and secluded campgrounds in the area.
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| Not much for scenery but being secluded is a nice perk |
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| Hope the bears don't like this spot |
7th night – stop at mediocre hotel on way home, hoping we can possibly drive straight thru and sleep in our own bed that night.
I check everything against tripadvisor.com. I take the reviews on each of these accommodations seriously; one bad review can really affect my decisions. So I have high expectations because all of these accommodations received great reviews.
Anyways, that’s just a peek at what I’ve been busy planning. I’ll fill you in on our planned activities in a later post.
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