A MAJOR D.I.Y. Project = busy days at the Knapp House

When we bought our house in May of 2006, we walked through it the night we first got our keys and talked about all of the "little" projects that needed to be done in the house. It has good bones, we told ourselves, and these little projects won't be that big of a deal. HA! Fast forward three years later: new molding, check; new window trim, check; new door jams and doors, check; every square inch painted (interior and exterior), check; new blinds installed, check... oh the list could go on! Our lastest "almost" check off the grand list was redoing the 3/4 master bathroom. I say "almost" because we've only completed phase one. Phase two to be completed once we have two things: time and money! With the many D.I.Y. projects we've done in this house, we've discovered that most projects take twice as much time and money than you originally estimated.

So, since August, Tim has been working away at the bathroom. It started with some nasty demo to tear out lots of tile. Then there was some plumbing that had to be done, a new shower installed, tile floor, and new fixtures. Here are a few pictures to catch up you up.

Demolition begins... we were sad to see the ugly gray tile with blue flowers gone!

The mask was a must, you should have seen the dust flying.

Gray and blue tile - GONE!

There are no words... our bathroom was out of commission for a few weeks.

Our third attempt at a paint color. I think we found a winner! This painting job was done late at night while Ava slept.

Tim's first ever attempt at tiling. We chose a chocolate brown, leather-looking tile. It turned out awesome - Tim did such an amazing job.

New shower and fixtures. We got rid of the shower door and opted for a shower curtain. I never want to clean a shower door again!

The finished tile floor.

New framed mirror and molding.

Phase two, as you can see, will be the counter top, sink, and cabinets. We're planning to go white with the cabinets to off-set the dark flooring. The counter top will have some gold and chocolate brown in it to tie everything together.

In the spirit of home improvement and projects, I had a small project going of my own. We have a long hallway in our house, and we recently put up a collage of pictures to fill it in. In one of the frames, I collected pictures of our grandparents when they were young and our own families when Tim and I were growing up, and put together a sort of family "tree." I think it turned out really well and will be something special for us to treasure.