The NYC was fun for me…in December!

Okay, I know, I forgot to show you our pictures from NYC where me, my “sis” (SIL) and our other friend RG went for my SIL’s 50th early birthday present to herself.  We stayed with my brother and his partner and we had a wonderful trip:  Had lunch with a dear old friend from MTV at Bill’s Burgers on 51st (I think…) and it was wonderful; this is R. & I. in front of the Time Life Building as we headed to meet with J. for lunch

A few other friends were going to join us but unfortunately couldn’t and we totally understood.  From here, we went to get in line to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  I have been lucky enough to have seen it before but R & I haven’t so they loved it and so did I.  I wish I could see it every year. 

After the gorgeous show, we headed to Rockefeller Plaza to see the tree…and of course, it didn’t disappoint…

     From here, we had to go over and check out the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue and do a little street shopping (the best if you ask me if you’re looking for bargains…)

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Then, it was over to MTV studios on Broadway to see my dear friend MP who took us for a tour of the new studio and gave us warm coffee which was well needed at this point in the day and some snacks too.  I love him and it was so good to see you MP!  Thanks for making my girls feel so welcome and young again too!

Love you MP!  I miss the days we used to spend together working all hours of the day and night on Spring Break and the VMA’s and the SuperBowl and so many more.  Love you my friend.

Well, this is my four month late post of just our day one in the Big City.  I’ll try and do the other days soon as they were just as fantastic.  But, I’m tired tonight as I’ve been filing my dad’s taxes and I need a little shut eye…Hope you enjoyed day one of our trip as much as we did. 

Going to the chapel and they’re gonna get married…

 

  It was a beautiful day and we love welcoming Frank into the family…This is my sister in law and my new BIL on their gorgeous (a little iffy for awhile but it turned out beautiful) wedding day; March 26, 2011 at Southwood Plantation in Tallahassee.

 The food was done by Catering Capers and everything was absolutely delicious… 

I need to update this blog so bad....

Wow, has it really been since October that I posted?  No excuses; just living life in the real world and not updating the virtual world.  Sorry about that.  And, the only thing you're getting on this update is a "newer" picture of our baby girl who's coming to visit tonight and go garage saling with me in the morning with her mommy and daddy. 

This is at her Great Grannie's church's homecoming back in November.  Check out her cute Lilly Pulitzer dress her favorite aunt got her at a consignment shop for $8.00.  So adorable and I promise to show you more recent pictures soon!

Look who’s turned 1 since I last blogged

Sorry I took so long to show you who’s growing up right before our eyes and our busy lives…so cute!

The above photo was at our local favorite pizza restaurant April 23, 2010

She and her daddy love pizza from this place!

Look how cute she is at Aunt M.’s house on her hippo that I got her, of course, at a yard sale for $3.00.

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Macy on Memorial Day when we went to see her great grandad at the VA nursing home…is she so cute or what?

 

She’s riding the golf cart with her G-ma!

She and I both enjoyed her first birthday party in August!  Can’t imagine our lives without her…   

Yes, we really did finish the bathroom…

Okay, I know you last heard the update in June and it’s now…drumroll…October; but, we really did finish it in August.  August 16th to be exact.  And let’s just say the guy who started it for us, wasn’t the guy who finished it. Let’s take a look at the work along the way:

This is just the beginning of the awesome repair job that Jeff did for us to begin to put our house back together.  He is awesome; that’s all I have to say.  Without him, we’d probably STILL have one toilet that wouldn’t flush and a leaky tub faucet; even AFTER we paid our plumber a HUGE amount of cash and he pulled his helper off the job because “they needed to get moving”.  Don’t even get me started. 

Okay, let’s take a look at the repair as we go:

Below, you’ll see the big hole in the wall where the hot water was run to the front bathroom and then had to be routed to the master bedroom shower as well. 

    Then, below you’ll see what an awesome job that Jeff came in and did repairing it as well.  He’s meticulous, neat and LOVES our vintage tile as much as we did and did his absolute best to help us keep everything looking original…thanks Jeff. 

Okay, now, I’ll just post more pictures of the work in progress for you to see.  This was a very long, difficult and very expensive project but it’s behind us now and I’ve finally calmed down enough to blog about it without a lot of cussing…It started early June and finished the 2nd week of August. 

That hardworking painter there is also the guy I “shack up” with and he also had to help pay for all this work.  He’d already worked 10 hours that day and then came home and painted here; no complaints from him, just meticulous work.  I love him so much…

 

If you look close, you can tell that our original tile and our replacement Daltile don’t match exactly but after hours on the internet, driving all over town, visiting all the big box stores, this is pretty darn close.  You don’t even notice once I put the shower curtain back in and we put the toilet and tissue paper back in.  We found this tile from Daltile and bought it from a local distributor. 

Bathroom floor tile before above…cheap stuff from the big box store..and below, is our awesome vintage inspired tiles that I found from SJMasters Tile in Canaan, CT thanks to Pam and her readers on retrorenovation.com.  This site has been a huge help in our kitchen and bathroom projects. You can see the new tile below (I should have left the rug out for the picture…sorry about that…). 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT.  It was hours of searching but well worth the hunt and they were so helpful.    They sent samples to me for free beforehand and I did the happy dance in my driveway when I got them. If you only knew how hard it was to find “the old stuff” when everyone out there wants to sell you the same stuff every other homeowner is using today… 

This beautiful custom vanity (oh yeah, that turned out to be a major project as well as hardly anyone makes an small single vanity for 1959 bathrooms anymore…) was built out of Ribbon Striped Mahogony wood that was done by Ed Hardy Custom cabinets.  Ed’s the same guy that did our turquoise boomerang countertops last year.  Thanks Ed…

Oh, and don’t let me forget to show you my personal stain man.  Correction:  tung oil man.  He did four hand rubbed and applied coats to our vanity that Ed built as he wanted to do it himself.  He’s amazing…and patient, and loves vintage stuff as much as I do.  I’m blessed.  Oh, and he’s hilarious too…

This is the bathroom after.  With my hand painted vintage shower curtain that I got off Etsy. 

  

Ta Da!  That’s it, sorry it took so long but I just got out of therapy as a result of this project so I know you understand, right? 

Ow, 51 year old plumbing can hurt a gal….

Well, I know, I know, I've been missing from my blog for months but I knew it would "hang on" without me, but I'm back and boy, when I come back it's a doozy! I'll try and catch you up on some of all the rest of my life since my last post but this one had to be seen to be believed. I guess, really, it was inevitable but that doesn't mean it's not still truly shocking as well as truly expensive and truly a little overwhelming, but when you buy a house that was built in 1959 it's going to need new plumbing at some point in time and unfortunately, that time is NOW! It all started on the morning after the first day of Hurricane Season, when, in our neighborhood we had a small tornado hit but that's another post that I'll catch you up on next. The following morning, I awoke early to go to the restroom and heard a "hissing" sound in the walls and unfortunately it's a noise I've heard before and I almost instantly knew what it meant: we have another leak in the plumbing in the concrete slab of our house.

So, we called the plumber at 7:00 a.m. to run the scenario by him and after some turning on and off of the hot water heater, the shut off valve at the street, etc…we determined it was our hot water line again somewhere in the house and the plumber couldn't determine exactly where it was without bringing a jackhammer in the house and starting to drill up the foundation from in the house or start just cutting holes through random holes in the house. So, under our plumber's advice and after some soul searching and reviewing the financial costs, we bit the bullet for a total re-plumb of the house.

What you see next are images of the "aftermath" of the project: This is the guest bathroom before the drill and jackhammer…Love this original tile..

This is how it looks right now, the "after" or should I say "in between"

(before we get it fixed)

This is the carport, we had to cut a panel out of the wall and the ceiling to run the pipes into the kitchen. They did it this way so they didn't have

to mess up our kitchen that we had remodeled last year; yes, I would have cried if they would have had to pull out my cabinets or countertops. Thanks Wooten Plumbing for helping spare me on that one.

These are the pipes in the utility room that then run up into the roof to go across the house. The temperature in the roof today fluctuated between 120 and 130. Poor Derrick, I don't know how he does it. He's awesome!

I was so gld this didn't take up much space as I store a pile of junk in this utility room…

Next, let's take a look outside to see what the Ditch Witch did. They have to dig ditches around the house to get water to the city's waterline coming to the house and then run it to the outside spigots and the utility room which is under our carport. Take a peak.

This machine is unbelievable but will whip your tail! I thought I might try my hand at it and run it out to our utility shed to run power out there but it took 2 grown men all they had to maneuver this bad boy when they have to turn it around. It's unbelievable. I didn't take their pictures while they were running it as it was crazy hot out there then.

Oh, I forgot to show you what we found we pulled out the vanity in the bathroom. I was SO excited to know the original vintage 50s tile was under there.

 I'd love to restore it and I'm going to have the plumber bust out the new tile and see if I can save this. I'd love to but they're not sure I can do it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I love this gray mini tile. I have the same stuff in the master bathroom in beige and we were glad it didn't have to be touched in this process. What knucklehead covered up this awesome feature? It's a dirty project….

So, we've been without water for 2 days and thanks to dear, dear friends who let us use "their facilities" it hasn't been too bad. Oh, let's end this entry by sharing with you our temporary "loo"….You know, it could be worse. They haven't found any mold, no termites and our house is solid, you know, like rock solid. Check 'em out, you know you want some…

Well, this is a very tiring project and I've got to turn in to start tomorrow; thanks to this lovely "issue" with our home, I've missed two Saturdays of "treasure hunting": Oh, but they did find one awesome "treasure" up in our attic. It's an original sign from the builder who built this house in 1959.

I was so, so excited about this little treasure right in our own attic. So amazing, right?!

I'm going to contact this builder's son and email him this photo too as his son is still running a business here in construction and I think he'd love to see it.
Enjoy and talk to you later.