Just Send Our Paychecks to Lowes...

Lloyd and I have been continuing to update the house... we still have LOTS of big projects but it makes me feel better to post about all the things that we have done and can take off our list. Last week we were back at Lowes (seriously, we should have stock in the place) and got a ton of house stuff. Let me just start by saying that I have been very spoiled by having air conditioning for the past number of years, and going back to a house without air conditioning has been a little bit of a struggle for me, even though it has been a blessedly cool summer so far in our part of PA. But last Saturday I had to work and Lloyd didn't, and I came home to get ready to go to a picnic with my former coworkers, and Lloyd kept rushing me to get changed so we could go. I thought this was odd, because if you have ever met my husband, he is definately NOT the type to rush anyone, or be worried about being late to anything. But I dutifully went upstairs to change and was greeted by The Most Wonderful Sight In The World:

Isn't it just beautiful?!? :o) A window air conditioner for our bedroom!!! It was whirring away when I went into our room, cooling away. And it has a remote control, so we can adjust it from our bed. Nice! I am so thankful I have a considerate hubby who just went ahead and got an air conditioner, instead of waiting until it was 100 degress and his pregnant wife was grouchy and nagging! Lol. We also bought several ceiling fans to help cool our bedroom and the downstairs:


Our living room (painted but still no chair rail up, please excuse my uneven paint lines that the chair rail will eventually hide)

Our study (also a work in progress...)

I am sooooo happy we have high enough ceilings we can put in ceiling fans without the risk of decapitating LL! Lots of older houses don't have high enough celings.

We also bought a new light for the top of the stairs, on clearance! :O)


And we finally have a bathroom mirror for our downstairs bathroom!


Another room to add to our almost-finished list (we still need to find an antique knob for the 2nd bathroom door so it says closed on its own; currently it is propped closed with a huge pot of african violets.)

And finally, let me extol the wonders of Comet and Scrubby Bubbles:

When we moved into our house, the upstairs bathroom was so disgusting that I vowed I would NEVER use it until we were able to gut the entire thing. The tub and sink we almost black with grime, and the previous owner was a closet smoker who smoked only in that bathroom, so the doors, walls, and ceiling were covered with tabacco residue. Additionally, the tub didn't have a shower attachment, just a little hand-held sprayer, so you would have been forced to actually SIT in the tub- no way. Oh, and it is totally welcome-to-the-70's, with gold, patterened, glass-board walls and even a fake brick wall next to the toilet. The picture doesn't do it justice, but here is my MIL checking out the bathroom before we moved in:

And just for a good laugh, here is the fake-brick-wall/toilet-paper-holder ensemble:

The first thing we did was put in a new toilet, so at least we could use the bathroom as a half-bath. Then I found that with Comet, all of the black grime I assumed was ground into the sink for good started coming off, so I tried the tub, that worked, too! It took a lot of elbow grease and was a good 2 hr project, but still, it came clean! And a whole bottle of Comet is less than a buck! Seriously! So we still never used the tub, but at least it looked less disgusting. Then, last week I was cleaning the bathroom with Scrubby Bubbles, and for some reason decided to just try them on our painted wooden door that was covered with tabacco residue. I had tried lots of other stuff to clean the nasty sticky mess off the door, but nothing worked. Scrubby Bubbles isn't meant for wood, but I figured it coulnd't hurt it any more, so I sprayed some one one section of the door, and I swear it was like a miracle! I turned back toward the door and saw the scrubby bubbles slidng down, taking all of the grime with them, and leaving a pristine white door in their place!!!! I got so excited I started spraying the doors, door jams, medicine cabinet, window sills, and everything else I could find. 3 hours later, the bathroom was CLEAN! (and yes, I know that I need to be careful around household cleaners being pregnant. I never meant to spend 3 hours scrubbing, I just simply couldn't stop once I realized it was working!) I was beyond excited. So when LL came home and saw a sparkling clean, albeit 70s, bathroom, he said "you know, I bet that nice detachable shower head I got you when we lived in MS would fit in here, and then we could have a real shower without having to redo plumbing." So he tried it and it worked! Of course, there was one small problem-- the tub doesn't have a back wall, so once he installed the showerhead, all of the water sprayed out of the tub onto the floor. So I did a little internet research and discovered we needed an L-shaped shower rod, and we figured we could pick one up at Lowes when we were there. When we asked at Lowes, they said they didn't keep them in stock, but could special-order one for us-- for SEVENTY TWO DOLLARS!!!! LL and I said thanks but no thanks, and promptly went over to the plumbing section, where we bought a 60" piece of pipe, a 30" piece of pipe, a 90-degree elbow, and the pipe fasteners for about $15, and Lloyd drilled our homemade shower rod in himself. After buying 2 shower curtains at Target (one wasn't big enough), we now have a functional upstairs bathroom! It is still 70s, but it is now clean and functional. I can live with 70s for a while. :o)