"I didn't get everything done in one day either" -God

We have just about finished  two of our summer projects. We usually do most of the work ourselves when it comes to home remodeling but this one called for a couple of contractors for us to complete the job.

I will start with the bedroom. 

 This is what we started with. The walls had painted wood paneling on top of plaster and lath. Also in the 1969  the windows had been replaces with smaller windows. Sadly all the original trim had been removed and thrown.

The wood floors were saved and in really good shape. 

We covered the floors and the demo begin. You can see in the picture below the original size of the windows. Once we had it down the the studs we had it all spray foam insulated. We also put in some more outlets since the room only had two and replaced the ceiling fan.

Here is the finished bedroom. We replaced the windows bringing them back to the original size. We also matched the trim with what is in the rest of the house.

Morgan has decided that she needs to be on the bed at all times. So I guess she likes the improvements we have made. 

Now on to the big project...the bathroom. 

This is what we started with. It is a Jack and Jill bathroom. The walls had 1950's green plastic tile that were barely hanging on. Under the tile was plaster and lath. The tub was  cast iron. It was nice but it took up the whole bathroom that is a tiny room.

Gutting a tiny room is a lot harder than a big one! It was a major decision on if we should keep the bathtub or take it out. 

In the end after much debate and consulting with the contractor we decided to take the tub out and replace it with a custom shower. 

I was super excited to find the original wood floors under a layer of linoleum and a layer of plastic tile. 

After I got all the old flooring off and pulled all the nails and staples I sanded it down with my little hand sander. We would not have gotten a big floor sander in the room. 

It was a messy, hard job.  

After it was all sanded it put the stain on. I used the same color stain as what is on the the trim and doors in the rest of the house. The rest of the wood floors in the house are a light color and I knew the wood that was on the bathroom floor would not look good with a light stain. After it was stained I put two layers of poly on. It turned out beautiful! I love all the imperfections in the wood. You can see the line of nail holes where they nailed the trim around the bathtub. It was so worth all the hard work I put into it. 

So here it is, the finished, well almost finished bathroom! We still have to get all  the quarter round trim on and the trim around the window is not on. I did not take a picture of the window but we took out the big window and replaced it with a small non-opening window just to let some light in. We also replaced the lights, put in a new light/fan and replaced the sink and toilet and I refinished the two doors.  We had the shower custom made out of Onyx. It was so hard to get something that would work in the room and still be functional. We are very grateful to Matt Staloch for all of his advice and ideas and what we could do to make the most of the space we had. If you are ever in the need of a great contractor Matt is the way to go. He also put the windows in for us. 

So that is in. Two major remodel projects done. Now we only have one room left and then we will be done for awhile. The kids are wondering now that we are done if we are going to move... But I think we are good right were we are....for now. 

Stay healthy and safe

Sharon 

"And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy and your eyes sparkling." -Shanti

We had big plans for the summer of 2020 and then Covid-19 happened.  We were going to go on a month long camping adventure traveling all the way to Washington State.  Like everyone else our plans changed and our adventure will be rescheduled.
The camper has been sitting in storage since October just waiting for us.....It was time for a much shorter adventure to happen. We all know that any adventure is better than no adventure!

We loaded up the camper and went to La Salle Lake State Recreation Area.

After getting the camper all set up we walked down to the lake. La Salle Lake is deepest inland lake in Minnesota. It is 213 feet deep.

Shortly after we got to campgrounds we found out that a huge storm system was headed our way. They were predicting 70 mph straight line winds and quarter  size hail. Not what you want to hear when you are in a camper. The campground host came around and told everyone where the storm shelters were...the outhouse for us! I was not looking forward to going in the outhouse with two dogs and a bunch of strangers. But we got the raincoats out, got the dogs in their harnesses and got our mask out. We were ready if it hit.  Then we decided we should go down to the lake again and see how bad it looked. (Really I need to get a few more steps in)

It was moving in fast! 

But lucky for us it slowed down and by the time it got to us the winds had died down to 40 miles an hour. We got just a little bit of tiny hail and a lot of rain.

The next morning all was well with the world! It was hot, humid and cloudy but we were relaxed and happy.

In the morning we drove to Bemidji and met up with Diane and Rod at the park. We had a great visit with them. We have not seen each other since January.

When we got back to the campgrounds we went for a hike. The dogs did not go with us since Otis had decide he is done hiking. When we go for even a short walk he slows down to a crawl and acts like he is about to die if he has to take one more step. So no more big hikes for the puppies.

We hiked to see the overlook of the Mississippi River. 

That evening we took the canoe out for a little fishing. 

We got a little rain but it felt great since it was 8 million degrees out . 

The next day Rick went to the MSAA State Field Shoot in Bemidji. I was a little wary of him going and being around a lot of people, but  only about 30 people showed up and everyone social distanced from each other. Rick had a great time and shot good.  I spent the day reading and relaxing.

 For our last day we spend the day on the lake fishing. We could not have asked for a nicer day to be in a canoe on the lake. Fishing was good and fun.

We had a great time, hiking, fishing, relaxing and just being away from all the worlds troubles. We don't know when or where our next adventure will be but I am happy that we got to have at least one this summer.

Tomorrow is never promised so make the most of today....
Stay safe and healthy
Sharon