Robin & Terry Go AWOL

We took a mental health day today.

 Terry took a day off from work (his first in I think 5 years),

and we went out and about.

 

First we stopped at my dad's grave, and cleaned it up.

 

Looks like they did some major trimming

of the old Oak tree he rests under.

Then we decided to head out to Belle Isle.

We haven't been there since the state took over control,

 and we wanted to see if it was more inviting...

 

It was definitely more inviting, and it was devoid of people.

I thought you had to pay to get onto the island (NO, we didn't).

We roamed freely, and drove around and around the whole island.

 

The only problem was that the attractions we wanted to visit were all closed.

The Dossin Great Lakes Museum was closed, and the Aquarium was closed...

 

The only thing open was the Plant Conservatory,

which we thoroughly enjoyed wandering through.

 

Amazing collection of plants, trees, and flowers.

Then we headed over to Eastern Market,

where we got completely lost in an old antique store.

 

We could have stayed there all day, except we got real hungry...

So we slipped into the Farmer's Restaurant and had a BLT with fries.

We ended the afternoon at Elmwood Cemetery,

where we have been before,

but just seem to be drawn here,

to visit the graves of my Great-Great Grandparents graves.

 

These two are a mystery unsolved in my family genealogy research,

and so we keep trying to search for more information about them...

 

It was a wonderful day, spent with my honey, out and about in Detroit.

Wall by Wall

 

Working on a wall outside the shower.

This wall will have towel hooks,

so I figured it should be tile where wet towels will hang.

 

So cool to finally have a wall separating the laundry room,

 from the rest of the basement. 

 

We'll finish this tomorrow...

Making Progress

 

The toilet is finally going in...

There it is.Works like a champ.

We still have a lot of finish work in this area,

 but we can go when we gotta go now.

 

Love the cedar siding.

 

Now we move on to the vanity wall...

We're Doing This

 

The shower is done, and now we move on

 to the rest of the downstairs bathroom.

Terry is sanding down cedar fence slats.

 (Yeah, I sanded too, where's my pic?)

This is the shabby-chic wall covering we will be using.

A couple bucks a piece, good coverage, and sweet smelling too...

 

Here is the toilet space.Trying to figure out the tile alignment...

 

Terry working on the plumbling behind the toilet.

 

 

Putting up "pee walls".

 

Just what are "pee walls?"

Well, the pee wall is the area around the toilet

 that must be alotted for pee spray.

The walls are going to be covered in cedar,

 but that would be gross around the toilet,

 hence; the washable "pee walls".

 

Back to the shower for a moment...

I looked on line for shower stall curtains,

and just couldn't find what I wanted,

so I took a curtain I had for my bathtub

 and cut, and sewed it down to shower stall size.

Yeah for me. It's perfect.

 

Back to the overspray walls...

 

We bought cheap wainscoting for this tiny little area.

The stuff we really wanted was $60 a sheet, noooo....

This was $20, and so, we consider it disposable.

 

It is our mission to make everything

 in this basement bath waterproof, and/or disposable.

 

I wouldn't feel bad if I had to rip out this wall board (if it got wet).

Using all treated wood on the floor, and anything bare wood,

 raised off the floor (like the vanity).

 

After much research, cedar on the walls is cost efficient,

 and water resilient, and looks pretty cool.

 

Having leaky foundation problems,

we have to think about these things while putting this bathroom together.

 

This particular area of the basement is dry,

 but you never know what might happen...

 

We do feel confident about laying some ceramic tile in this area.

 

Finally... some cedar planks going up.

 

Sizing, sanding, and cutting. Lot's of cedar... It smells so good. 

 

A little trim molding...

 

Terry is doing some special cuts...

 

It's coming together...

 

Couldn't help using a scrap piece of cedar to paint a picture.

 

We're doing this..........

Better Than a Workout at the Gym

 

Starting the ceiling.

 

Figured out a nice threshold and entryway.

 

Ready for grout.

 

This has taken forever.

 

The ceiling.

 

Here we go... lot's of grout, lot's of spreading, and lot's of wiping.

 

We did it all tonight; the ceiling, the floor, and the walls...

 tomorrow all we have left is the frontage.

 

We ran out of grout at midnight (and we ran out of steam).

 

Quite a workout. 

Tile Work

 

 The floor is done, and the accent stripes are done, now it's time to get on the walls.

Terry is mixing up some thin set...

 

 

 We chose miniature subway tiles.

 

 

 Here we go...

 

 

 Wow, we've spent the entire weekend in this little box...

 

 

The weekend is gone, now it's Monday,

 and after we went grocery shopping,

we tried to get some more work done.

 

 The inset boxes were way more work detail than we bargained for...

 

 

and this masterpiece just looks silly right now,

planted in the middle of a mess of a basement.

 

But it will all come together, eventually.

 

I think we're getting too old for our home remodeling hobby...

Shower Tiling...

 

 I reached two imprtant goals in one day..

I finished this mosaic tile border in the bathroom shower...

and I finished an afghan for Sandy.

 

 The stripes are finished, and for the first time in my mosaic tiling history,

 I actually had enough tiles to finish the job.

I usually come up short and have to order more to finish the job,

but this time, I carefully counted them out. Yea.

 



 

 On to the floor. We just did this tonight.

 

 

 Circling the drain was challenging...

 

 

 

and it looks great !!!

 

We're going to try to do the walls this weekend,

 hmm... we'll see how that turns out...