Tile in the bathroom

 This is something I did not realize we had pictures of.  I just wanted to show off the work that my husband and our home teacher did.  Our bathroom last year flooded a little due to a leak in the toilet.  Luckily we caught it in a decent amount of time.  The previous owners had laid vinyl tile squares on top on the vinyl you see in the first picture.  The toilet leak actually loosened the glue and caused some smelly mildew underneath that first layer of "tile".  So we ripped up the tile squares to clean the mess and revealed some flooring underneath that would have to do till we could tile.  It had holes and was pretty beat up but it worked for a temporary fix.  Then fast forward 9 months and our home teacher actually helped get my husband motivated to finish it.  Well that and I very pregnant forced him to the local Lowes and helped him get the supplies needed.  Lucky for him he finished right before our baby's due date.  Not so lucky for him I was a mess but he was used to it since the previous 9 months I had been a permanent mess.  Our home teacher spent long hours helping and we couldn't be more grateful.  They even got some help laying the tile from a sister in our ward who was kind enough to get some of the girls she works with to come finish any cleaning I didn't get to when the baby came due to my house being in disarray from the construction.  

 Our home teacher cutting and ripping up count it 1..2..3.. layers of floor.

 Isn't this flooring pretty?  We almost decided to stay with this except we had the tile and figure what the hey! 

 Tile cut, measured and in stuck in place.

 Tile grouted and ugly wall.

 Placing tile border on wall.  My husband cute the tile to make the border so it would match and spent time on making sure it looked just right.

The finished floor with border.  You notice the vent whole under the cabinets?  We actually were worried that would cover that up and have to move cabinets and such.  Luckily removing 3 levels of floor boards and vinyl fixed that problem.  It looks so nice.  Now trying to decide on a nice wall color for the bathroom.  Now that I had the baby I can help get that done once I decide.

The winds storm that was.....

My husband earlier this year fixed up our fence with the help of our friends from our church. It was a beautiful fence that was strong and sturdy. However when this fence battled hurricane category 2 level winds after a few hours it had no choice but to surrender to the forces against it. It took about 3 hours before the fence could no longer stay up. Besides the fence we lost a lot of shingles and trash. For the most part our home stayed in tact.

The only other inconvenience was the power going out for most of the day. My husband went to work and I stayed with the kids at home until the winds completely died down. There was no way I was getting in my car while I was watching it struggle to stay on the ground. My daughter was sad that Preschool was canceled. When the house got to 47 degrees and there were no longer winds I took my bundled up children and drove in the the van with the heater on. Then thankfully My husbands parents graciously allowed us to stay in there home over night so we wouldn't have to be cold in our house. Ironically the power came on here shortly after we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house. My kids were so excited to stay there we decided to stay with permission from Grandparents.

I learned that we need to get a camp stove or emergency stove of some sort in case this ever happens again. All the food storage will do no good if we have no way of heating it up. It would have been nice to give my kids hot chocolate to help stay warm. Other than that we seemed to be good. But definitely need an alternative heat source for sure. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cold water are a bit discouraging when you are cold. However I am grateful that we had food that I didn't need to use a stove or microwave to heat up.

We truly feel blessed in a round about way. Our roof has been getting patched up for a few years now and thanks to insurance it will get fixed along with our fence fairly cheaply. We are grateful for the insurance we have with only a 500 dollar deductible. With other expenses we have and hearing the deductible others will have to pay we needed to be able to fix our roof and Heavenly Father provided a way to do that. Do I wish that we didn't have the immediate expense. Definitely. But I certainly recognize the Lords hand in this as well. I would be truly seem ungrateful if I did not. We still have each other. We still have a home, clothes, and food. We have our health and faith in a loving Father in Heaven. We have Family and Friends. We really couldn't ask for more.

Below is a picture of our fence maybe a week before the storm.

The damage to our home from the wind.

Tiling The Kitchen

Well Saturday I finally started tiling the kitchen floor (we have had the tile sitting in a bedroom for a few months now.) It is quite the project. I am certain that I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as much done as I did if it hadn't been for a couple of brothers-in-law, a few neighbors (some that helped and some that let me borrow tools), and their wives (since they let me borrow their spouses.) I am so thankful for all the help I got. It made tiling for the first time A LOT easier. I'll try not to bore you with the details. There was a lot of prep work before we even started laying the tile (we started about 8:30 am and the first tile was laid in place around 3:30 pm.) By the time we stopped though we had laid all the tile that we didn't have to cut (I'm hoping to do that on Tuesday along with some of the grout work.) I can't help but look at the kitchen and be proud of the work everyone has done. Hopefully it will look good once I get it finished. Here's some pictures for anyone that is interested.