The bathroom

The bathroom is finished!  Ok That's a lie.  I'm sorry, I shouldn't lie to you. I don't know why I did that. I've just been waiting so long to say (type) those words!

The bathroom is almost finished! Other than a few smallish finishing touches our almost three year renovation is done.  Why did it take so long? Well we did it all by our selves with some help from family and friends. We also planned and had a wedding and then had an unplanned baby in the middle of it.  

Like the rest of the house the bathroom was built in the 70s and never updated. It was a beautiful blue. Seriously, everything was blue. The tub, toilet, sink, carpet and wallpaper were all a different shade. The best part was the bookshelf next to the toilet. There was a bookshelf... next to the toilet.  Ironically it was not blue.

Needless to say we gutted the whole thing. 

We wanted to put two sinks in with a vanity in the middle.  We looked for a plumber that wouldn't cost a lot and finally found one.  Then I had to fire him because Robert noticed that he wasn't plumbing the sinks correctly.  Robert got some advice from a former plumber and ended up doing it himself. Finding, firing and then figuring out how to plumb ended up being the longest part of the renovation.

Then it was time to put up the cement board and start the (long) tiling process.

That's me tiling a floor 8 months pregnant.  I didn't get much done before I decided to wait until after the baby was born.  My dad helped me finish the floor when Nola was a few months old.  That was great because the measure and math part was not my favorite.  

After tiling there was grouting and then installing all of the fun stuff!  We decided on vessel sinks because I really like the look of them. Plus they look like little baby hot tubs!

After all the install we were finally finished!  We couldn't be happier with the end result.

  

Before & After

I'm trying to convince Rob to start renovating the second bathroom this weekend :)

Nola's Chair

Last year I was asked to donate something for the Go Red for Women auction.  Go Red for Women is an annual event that raises money to fight heart disease in women.  I thought donating a custom piece of hand-painted furniture would be a great way to help out and also give me the motivation I needed to finish painting the chair I had started for Nola.  I put Nola's chair in the auction as an example.

I thought the quote was cute and not too childish.  The design matches her bedding.  I love the way it turned out, it's my favorite chair to date!  Nola loves it too.  She also LOVES the Llama Llama books.

The woman that won the auction last year wanted a similar chair for her daughter.

This years auction was a few weeks ago and I'm still waiting to hear from the winner.  I haven't painted in a while so I'm excited to start a new project!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is a fun day for me because I love the color green.  You thought I was going to say beer.  Nope.  This year was very kid-friendly, and last year must have been too because I don't remember what we did.  There is A LOT of green in our house.  I've added most of it, but some of it was here when we moved in.  Like the green counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom.  But anyway, back to St. Pat-

I got Nola a cute green outfit and a fun headband. It says "Kiss Me" on one side and "I'm Irish" on the other.  I liked the "Kiss Me" side :)

She hated the headband.

Two other fun things happened this weekend.  First, I got to have lunch with a friend that I haven't seen in 12 years!  We had some much fun chatting.  Her parents recently moved to Omaha so I'm hoping to see her a lot more!

And second, we (Robert) finally got around to baby proofing the kitchen.  We bought the stuff to do it a month ago, but we (Robert) always found something else to do instead.  Robert thought our original baby proofing was working just fine but I was getting kind of tired of it.

Anybody want those gorgeous green counter tops when we get around to renovating the kitchen?

Weekend recap: baby love and hats

This weekend we went to Lincoln to visit some friends.  They have a son, William, who is four months older than Nola.  Even though they are only a few months apart Nola has always looked a lot younger than William, but I think she finally caught up.  Now they both look like toddlers.  And they're in love...

And this is my favorite picture ever.  

Don't pay attention to the fact that Nola is trying to rip his clothes off.

 William also had a lot of hats lying around, so Nola tried them on.

A new and exciting thing Nola likes to do is hide things.  As we were getting ready to leave for Lincoln we couldn't find her sippy cup.  We looked for it for a good 10 minutes and finally gave up.  We still haven't found it (and we are crossing our fingers that it wasn't full of milk).  She hid it again when we were hanging out at our friends house.  We finally found it under the couch.  We left their house and only got a few feet away before we realized that we didn't have our keys.  Nola (and William) had hid them in a pile of toys.  Luckily, hiding things really wore her out.  She slept in the car and went right to sleep when we got home.  

Winter Break

Today was my first day back to school after five days off! It was a much needed break that I got to spend mostly with Nola! On Thursday night I got to have a girls night out with my teaching friends. Because we are busy and someone is always pregnant we don't get together that much. I'm very thankful for my job.  Not only do I love my room and students but I also have many coworkers that have become good friends.  Tarin and I started the same year. Sadly, she is moving to another town. I will miss her next year!

Of course, like any break from school in the Danner house, this one wasn't complete without a little DIY.  I ordered some spice racks online to use as bookshelves for Nola's corner in the family room.  I painted them and hung them up.  I tried to put them in spots that wouldn't get in the way while she sat in her chair and also a place she could reach.  I think it works but I might add one more.  So far Nola just pulls all of the books out. Hopefully she figures out how to put them back soon.

Another DIY project involved the never ending bathroom re-model.  Because we installed vessel sinks we didn't think we need a backsplash, but after a few weeks of using the sinks we realized there was still a lot of water splashing on the wall.  So for Christmas (thanks Mom!) I got some penny tile and finally had some time to install it this weekend.

It was kind of a pain to install around the existing sinks and faucets but I got it done.  Hopefully I will have time this weekend to grout and hang the mirrors back up.

You may be wondering what a 1 year old was doing while I was hard at work.  Well, she was watching the Backyardigans.... 

and dumping Cheerios all over the house.... and then laughing about it.  She can laugh now but soon she'll be DIY-ing along with me!  I'd have to say it wasn't my best mom moment but was one of my better tiling moments, so I guess I'll call it a wash?

I ended my break with a fun shopping trip with my good friend Stacey.  I bought some goodies.  A duvet cover, a purse, some clothes, make-up and a few things for Nola.  I got Nola some crayons that she can use to write on the tub during a bath.  She used them last night and liked them.  Hooray!  Bath time is always a struggle.  As soon as she hears the water turn on she runs to Robert in hopes that he wont make her get in the tub.  It's cute/annoying.  Anyway, here is my swag-

Yeah for another short week!

Oh no Oreo

I gave Nola an Oreo. She ate all of the cream part but spread most of the cookie part on her face... and hair. (There is a video below. I can't see it on my iPad so if you are on yours (dad) and don't see it watch it on a computer.)

      

The girl loves shoes

Nola loves shoes.  

She loves to talk about them, play with them, try them on and spread them all over the house.  Lately, her favorite thing has been to try to put them on my feet. 

She hasn't mastered it yet but she'll figure it out.  

And yes, Nola and I are still rocking Christmas gear.