Bathroom Part Deux

Thank you for not being bored with the bathroom yet. I returned the other rug and toilet lid cover today and bought these. This is the rug I wanted in the first place but it has kind of a wide, long pile and I thought it would get squished down with use and look stupid. The heck with that, I say. Maybe I'll even be motivated to launder it frequently to keep it fluffy. Or not. Since they (all this stuff came from Linens-n-Things, Stephanie) still didn't have a turquoise toilet lid cover, I went in a whole 'nother direction - I like this terra cotta color. I'm not all that much on matchy-matchy anyway. Symmetrical yes, matchy-matchy, not as much.


I returned the large Yankee Candle too - and am going with just this on the sink. I realized it wasn't the size of the candle that was bothering me, it was the even number of things. Because that soap dispenser, which has always been in there, counts too. It was too many things. This is right - and eclectic enough to be satisfying.


Rather spontaneously, I bought this tissue cover today. Yesterday, I saw one I really liked - looked and felt like stone - very heavy. It was $30. I just couldn't do it. I kept thinking if I could find a paper mache tissue box cover I could make it look like stone with paint - a faux finish! Even with a 20% coupon, I decided I didn't want to buy it. (Ann, I tried, I really did!) Since I liked how the turquoise has been working out so well, I bought this one and it makes me happy for far less. That candle is the tealight holder Simon gave me for Mother's Day I think it was. It may or may not stay there.

See that black rectangle behind the toilet? That's the drywall cutout I discovered when I took that other board off.

But today, I finally bought the wainscoting - the method I finally chose to cover said hole. I looked at a bunch of different things at Home Depot today but this one won - easy and inexpensive. The nice man suggested I use Liquid Nails - with a caulking gun! My first time! I'm pretty excited actually. And I cannot tell you how much I love that they will cut things to size for you - that is a godsend to us DIYers without all the equipment available. I'll paint this white and top it off with a piece of chair rail, also painted white.

So now I have all the pieces for the bathroom, I just need to finish painting, installing and then touching up the various painting gaffes around the room. I'm really having fun, but it's about time for this project to be over.

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This morning I figured out why I've been feeling increasingly cranky each day. I've been riding into work with Steve and he likes to go in early so I've been working 7:00 or 7:30 to 5:00 each day, which means I've been losing my Stefani Time in the morning and in the evening! No fair! Plus not having a car totally mine is really harshing my independence.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, Simon's car wasn't shifting out of 2nd gear so Rick (our mechanic) replaced the solenoid whatever thing. It's better, Rick said but not perfect so he took it back to the transmission place that replaced or rebuilt or whatever, the transmission last fall. It's still there with no word on diagnosis or anything. Simon or I call Rick every other day for news. This morning I left him voice mail asking to do whatever he could to speed things along because we really need that car back, by Friday for sure. Simon was planning on driving it when we go on vacation but I'm sort of trying to talk him out of that.

Simon's very bummed, needless to say. The car sat in our driveway for at least two months while he earned enough money to pay for this repair. The irony of me being cranky about sharing my car is that I'm the one who has been pushing for that all along - from back when I was discouraging Simon from even buying a car in the first place. I guess if it was what we were doing, I'd accept it and be okay, but because it's temporary, it feels worse.

This too shall pass.

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It's happened again, by the way. Just like it does everytime I take a vacation. Not just me, it happens to everyone. When you know you have a vacation scheduled, you think you couldn't possibly go another day without it. But if vacation wasn't scheduled, you'd just go merrily on your way. That's me.

Today, I decided to take the Monday after my week off as well. To give me more Stefani Time. We'll return from the outing with the boys on Wednesday, hopefully paint the bedroom the next two days. I know Steve will help if I ask him but it's not his thing and I really enjoy it, so I'm playing that by ear. Saturday I have a graduation party to go to. (Oh no! Nantz, did I forget to RSVP - I can't remember?? I'm so sorry. I'm coming! Steve is not.) Steve's family is coming over for a dinner Saturday night - so it's going to be busy. So I thought another day off was in order.

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Vikki bought packages of those individual shortcakes for our strawberry shortcakes at work today. They were a big hit and people acted like I performed brain surgery instead of just cutting up 6 quarts of strawberries. Food, gets 'em every time. They needed more sugar, if you ask me. I guess I was afraid of overdoing it. I suppose it's better to err on the side of too little, when working with a crowd. There's stuff left for about a dozen more.

Oh! I forgot to tell you that last week I called "Scoops", an ice cream store in Canandaigua and asked them to come to our building every Thursday afternoon at 2:30. Last week was the first week. We buy our own, it's not company sponsored or anything. I'd been thinking it would be a cool thing to do, so I just did it. Just like that. It was fun - about 8-10 of us went down to their truck. I hope it gains popularity to make it worth his while. The guy said he goes to another company nearby at the same time. (It's a large, successful ad agency - that pays for their employees' ice cream - so I'm sure he makes good money there.)

And I'm happy to report the building temperature was pretty much normal today, so yeah, it cools down after two days! I should say that I work in an older, octagonal building with lots of zones, cooled by a chiller and blower, or something like that. It's not as easy as setting the thermostat like you do at home. Our home thermostat is programmable and I love it. It's always perfect in here, year round. So while I admit I know it's not easy to get our building just right, it could be a lot better. (And today I saw a humongous repair bill come through. I can't believe we couldn't have replaced the whole damn thing with the amount of money we've spent over the years on this equipment. What do I know?)