Starting the tile work- all by myself

Now that the Wall is down (good riddance) I started to tile the bathroom. Alone. It was a bigger job than I thought, but it's really not that hard. It's just tedious. I bought porcelain tile at Lowe's for around $1.15/sq ft, so the whole floor cost me about $70 in tile! Pretty cheap if you ask me!

First I started in the middle of the floor so I could get a straight line going (because not all of our walls are very straight). Instead of going off a wall, I went off the hardwood floor boards that were at the very beginning of the doorway - because I knew that was a straight line. See below in the pic....See how straight that is? So I stared the tiling at around 8pm, and worked for a little over an hour. I've only completed two lines of tile so far, but it's a great starting off point for tonight when I plan to finish the floor with my trusty new tile saw. Here is me standing next to my hard work for the night. Even though I work for Quikrete, I decided to use pre-mixed Mortar to speed up the process. Stay tuned for the rest of the fun......

12 Layer Cake

We had a cookout a few weeks ago and Jeff used our new smoker to smoke a couple Boston Butts. It was really good. I took it up myself to be in charge of the sides and the dessert.....but not just any dessert, a 12 LAYER CAKE! And yes, it was just as much trouble as it sounds.

Even though I don't eat desserts at all, this seemed like a great challenge.

First off, you make the cake batter (from scratch) and pour about 1/2 inch into 4 aluminum 9 in cake pans for 12 minutes. This is the first of 3 baking groups you have to do.

After the first group comes out, let them cool for 5 minutes, then go ahead and dump them

on a cooling rack. Then I just wiped down the pans and filled them again and baked those off, then did it for a third and final time. Now I had 12 cakes and had to make the ganosh.

After layering and layering, you finish with the 12 and step back to take a little break...

Here it is looking all pretty on the dining room table after a layer of whipped milk chocolate frosting.

And here it is with a big piece cut out. Pretty inviting huh?

I didn't try it (I know, crazy huh?) but everyone seemed to really like it! They also said it was a bit rich, but aren't desserts supposed to be? If you want to make this bad boy yourself, here is the recipe: http://www.oprah.com/recipe/food/recipesdesserts/food_20030508_cake

GOOD LUCK!

The bathroom DEMO begins!

We have a been living with this dated guest bath for 3 years, mostly because we rarely have to use it! It has peel and stick laminate flooring that I did the week we moved in....and it is WAY too dark. It also had a door seperating the bath area from the vanity area. We removed the door, painted every trim white, and painted the walls lighter, but it was still missing....A LOT.
So, I took it upon myself last Sunday to start to remove the wall that seperated these two areas and made this bathroom super cramped. After a few hits with a hammer (regular one, not a sledge hammer!), here is what I was left with.

It was a MESS! And I realized that there was an outlet and a light switch with millions of cords running into the ceiling that I had no idea what to do with. I cleaned u a little, called an electrician to move to the outlets and light switch, and Jeff started to remove the floor. Things were looking up....

Now after the floor and the rest of the beams were completely removed, we had a sneak peak of what to expect from our new renovation. Here it is minus the old floor and the old wall...

Lookin better huh? I cannot wait to tile tonight and get this new paint on the walls.....stay tuned for a great makeover (HOPEFULLY!). Keep your fingers crossed :)