Home Ownership Joys & The Fourth of July

I haven't written in almost two weeks! And, shew, what a busy two weeks.

Due to my job and driving so much, I put a lot of miles on my vehicles. I'd been thinking about buying a new car and we spent several evenings checking out the options. I had narrowed it down to a Subaru or another Toyota. Dillon and I went to the Subaru dealership on our lunch break one day to test drive the car I wanted and the sales lady got her hooks into us. We drove the car and she immediately wanted to write up the paperwork. I told her to pump the breaks (literally...) We both had to get back to work and I couldn't spend a couple of hours working this out. She had a plan in mind and said I should drive the car around that afternoon and then come back that evening. Ugh. That evening I drove home in a brand new Subaru. I love the car, it's fun and drives a little sportier than my old car. I do NOT like the car payment. I guess that's just part of the deal though and hopefully I'll get it paid off early.

The Friday after I bought the car, I pulled into our garage and noticed some weird patch on our ceiling. I took a closer look and noticed some black, fuzzy spots coming through right where our toilet sits upstairs. Mold. That's never a good thing. Dillon got home and realized that we had a slow leaking toilet. The floor, subfloor and toilet would all have to be pulled up. Mold would have to be treated and the flooring replaced. Since we were going to be doing so much work on just replacing the floor, we decided to go all out and remodel the bathroom the way we wanted it. While we love our home, the decorations are very 1990ish and we've known since we bought it that we would be remodeling several areas, but just didn't expect to do it right now. This time is as good as any so that's what we've been doing the past week. While everyone's been camping, setting off fireworks and making s'mores this 4th of July, Dillon's been painting, grouting, and laying down tiles.

Hopefully in a few weeks we'll celebrate a little later with a trip to the Greenville zoo (what I was hoping to do this weekend). It may have to be in August sometime, though, because Dillon's traveling to GA next weekend to take a test for work and the following weekend we'll be helping my parents prepare for their big move at the end of this month! Then I'm doing the Color Run towards the end of the month with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and then the first weekend in August my parents will close on the sale of their home. Whew, summertime sure is busy. I sure hope we get that toilet fixed in time for our visitors!

I'm also taking a hiatus from Facebook. I really couldn't take the animosity among folks from every side and am trying to take some time to be more present and not always checking to see what other folks are doing. I'm sure I'll  return at some point, but for now, I'm enjoying the peace.

Here's to a new bathroom and sorry for the pictures being out of order!

This is the new subfloor with repairs. 

This is the ceiling in our garage after the hole had been fixed. The mold was cut out and the wood beams were dried out completely. 

Enjoying a few quiet moments on July 3rd

Luke's bedtime and fireworks don't coincide very well, but we're in a good location to see "homegrown" fireworks. There were several families in the valley below us who gave us a good show.

The new addition! 

Damage done... the water leak.

Dillon hadn't planned on replacing the ceiling below, but one slip of the foot and it was decided. We had an easy fire escape for a few days.

Today we have tile!

Luke's been a great helper! His favorite part is the tape measure.

Final product tonight. Tomorrow will be grout and then working on replacing the hardware on the tub. Maybe by Thursday, the toilet and vanity will make it into the bathroom. Fingers crossed!