Nothings changed.... until now

FINALLY!! It's bathroom time! Greg is of work for about a week so I took the opertunity to shell out $300 for a deep tub, and about $400 for some damn tile. Got a heck of a deal on the floor tile. So now it's operation demo bathroom. So far so good. No major, or minor, problems have been found. Should be smooth sailing. Here are some pictures of the demo. I've been trying to decide the pattern for the tile. Lots of google-ing the words "retro bathroom" and "subway tile designs" have been going on. Luckily I have a couple days to think it over.

Okay okay, I DID use some of the tax return for FUN!

Better yet I used part of it for my tattoo. It's my Saint Louis tattoo. I'm officially a resident and I wanted something to show for it, besides a citation from the city. So I got some fluer de lis' done with my house number on it. Kerry at Iron Age did a fantastic job!!!

Returning to the bathroom

It's been a long while since we have done anything to the house. There were the holidays, finals, and general laziness. Now, I have the means (tax return!!) to get some shit taken care of. Yes, that means what once used to be my fun money has become my house fixing money. BOO! Time to get that dang retaining wall fixed since I think it actually is getting worse and is bound to fall over soon.

i thought for sure that I would HATE not having a good functional kitchen. But I'm surprised to  see it's the bathroom that is at the top of my TO-DemOlish list. So I have started. If you look back at the past post about my bathroom you'll see some lovely 2x4s up towards the ceiling of the shower and a tan wall with a window in it. Well that tan wall was drywall covering up the original plaster wall. I wished and wished that the assholes that used to live here didn't take down all the great original tile that would have been on the walls of the bathroom. Yet, I was not surprised when I pulled off the drywall and found they had taken all that tile off. Dicks. You can clearly see there was once tile there. AUGH! So, i took down the drywall off just that wall.... and notice in one of the pictures, the OTHER wall is dry walled over too! WTF. there can not be that much plaster damage that required you to just say fuck it and drywall over. And one guess how the drywall was stuck to the plaster?! Liquid Nail (please refer to the post about the kitchen walls for an explanation of my hatred of liquid nail and the previous owners LOVE of it.) So, I'll take that wall down eventually too. But at least I have a good handy man to fix the walls up right. I was a little bummed because when taking down the 2x4s around the shower we screwed up the plaster pretty bad around the arch of the ceiling. But, with a HUGE ass hole over by the shower head, the walls are all going to have to be fixed anyway. I can not wait to get this shower out and the bathtub in!! I would say I hope there is still tile around the shower that they didn't tear down. but I know better.

trying not to be overwhelming

This house could cause me to go into some serious debt, even with someone that works for free.

1. I need a bathtub, all we have is a shower and I hate it. 
2. The walls need to be painted in the dinning room, living room, and master bedroom.
3. I need all new kitchen cabinets
4. I need to replace the window in the bathroom.
5. I need new bathroom flooring.
6. The bathroom walls will need serious plaster repair.
7. The retaining wall will need to be fixed eventually or I will get cited again
8. The back sun room needs to come off the house. It's ugly and it's leaning. 
9. The electric issues in the house need to be addressed. ie outlets not working

That's a list of stuff I NEED. There's a whole other list of stuff I want! I know I don;t have to do this all right NOW. But I really want to avoid living in a construction site or half finished house for years and years. 

Don't get me wrong I'm so grateful to have this house. I never thought I would own a house anytime soon. I mean after all I'm a full time student and I work at Starbucks. Things worked out amazingly though and I was lucky. So now I have this place that I come home to everyday, always with a since of disbelief. 

The hidden bathroom window

This was one of the first things we uncovered. I knew this window was behind the built in shelf unit thingy because outside you could see the glass blocks. Why did you cover this up? you needed shelf space that badly? Just hang a shelf on the wall like a normal person. Or if your shit doesn't fit in the closet, that's already in the bathroom, you might have too much shit. So, now I have a big bright window in the bathroom. Love it.

Semi functional kitchen

Well, I guess it's not really "semi" functional as it has pretty much everything we need. It's just not put together. When we gutted the kitchen I sold off the kitchen sink, stove and dishwasher. They were all crappy and I wanted new appliances. I thought the stove was so gross and dirty, Greg said I should just clean it. But there was no way. The dishwasher looked like it had seen better days. And judging on what shape the house is/was in when I got it, I doubt the owners took care of the appliances. So, I bought new ones. They are bright and shiny and clean! And since we ripped out most of the cabinets I have no where to store stuff, so I am utilizing a industrial shelving unit I got from my mom for my first apartment back in 2000. This thing is our pantry, Tupperware holder, pot and pan storage and spice rack all in one. Our sink is one Greg got from an old job site, it's resting on a demoed cabinet and scrape piece of wood. It works though and even has a garbage disposal! I haven't had one of those in years. So, yea, the kitchen actually is functional, just not pretty. Soon though. Soon.

Moved in!

Well,  I have most of my stuff in.  Now to paint,  get a kitchen, fix the bathroom, and get a couch.

More to uncover

These great tiles are in my bathroom. That's under two sheets of linoleum one sheet of plywood and a shit ton of glue. Tearing this up is going to be hard and we're not going to be able to save the tiles. I want to save as many as we can for a project, but I can't say for sure what will happen.

Why do people do this? Someone called my house  a retro onion because we keep peeling layers off and finding better things. Its true. What's next?

The shower arch

Well someone decided to cover up the awesome arch above the shower. Who does that? I could tell it was there because of the tape and drywall showing an arched crack. Well looky looky...