Bathroom Update–Board and Batten & Framing a Builder Mirror

The Board and Batten is up and now the bathroom just needs its final coat of paint.    I used 1 x 6” for the baseboard and 1 x 4” for the top piece and 1 x 3” for the vertical boards.  I topped everything with a 1 x 2” ledge.  It looks so good.  I love that the horizontal pieces are the same width as the vertical pieces. 

I used absolutely no liquid nails on this board and batten.  We just nailed everything into the studs.  I only placed the vertical pieces where the studs are.  We used spackle to fill the cracks and put a thin bead of paintable caulk along all the edges. 

We beveled the board and batten on the edges that end near the mirror.

This is what our floor looked like after all the sanding.

We framed the mirror. Here’s a side by side of the mirror.

It still needs to be sanded, caulked and painted.  It’s really hard to photograph the mirror and the light is crazy bright.

Here’s how we framed the mirror. 

I used a 1 x 4 the width of the mirror for the top and bottom.  On top of the bottom 1 x 4 we placed a 1 x 2 on top of that to form a small ledge.  Use 2 1 x 3’s to run the length of the mirror and place the other 1x4 on top of them.

Here’s the new light.

It should be finished this week.  Wahoo!!

Easy Peasy Orange Chicken.

With working full time Monday through Friday and part time on the weekends plus co-homeschooling with my husband, dinner has to be quick and easy.  I tried a bunch of crockpot recipes from Pinterest and to be honest they all tasted like nasty pot roast even though most of them were chicken and pork recipes.  BIG FAIL!

I wanted an easy orange chicken recipe and I found this one on Cooking for my Peace of Mind.  Go there for the full recipe details.

Ingredients:

Vegetable Oil

2 1/2 cups pancake mix (divided) or self-rising flour instead.

1 1/4 cups water

1 1/4 lbs. diced chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces

1 bottle of Panda Express Orange Sauce  (I searched high and low for this and found it at Wal-Mart)

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Quick Recipe summary (go to original site for full recipe)

First coat the chicken and fry it in the pan.  Set aside the cooked chicken

Now coat the chicken with the bottle of Panda Express Orange Sauce.

While all this was happening we cooked a pot of jasmine rice and steamed snow peas in the microwave.

Layer the rice, snow peas, and chicken on a plate and enjoy one of the best dinners you’ve had in a while.

Enjoy!

Bathroom update….

Is it supposed to look like a tornado hit halfway through updating a bath? 

I have to admit I am not extremely motivated to finish this bath.  Yesterday my husband lost a screw down the sink so he took apart the sink.  I asked him if it was ok to rinse a paintbrush in it when he was done, he said yes.  I turned the water on with the brush sitting under it.  Being a multi-tasker, I went in another room to sort some laundry and when I came back to check on the brush the bathroom floor had about 1” of water on it.  We cleaned that up and stopped for the night.

We had to take the mirror down, we couldn’t find any light fixtures that looked good with it.  Every light kept overlapping the mirror.  We found a smaller mirror on craigslist for $5 and will frame that.

Here it is tonight….

Main Bath Makeover

I love tans but I just needed blue in my house somewhere and this room was just boring, plain and blah to me.  I dislike the peach colored wood vanity and the grout we choose for the floor tile is hideous. 

I am going to do Board and Batten with turquoise on the upper half of the wall.

Now I have a cautionary tale for everyone who put up their board & batten with liquid nails. (I used liquid nails in my master bedroom so I will face this one day too.) – When my husband tiled the floor he tiled a baseboard around the room.  It looked hideous so I told him to take it off and put baseboards.  Well he cheated and used liquid nails to put on the baseboard.  When I went to remove the baseboards for the makeover I figured this out.  The drywall came off with the baseboards.  Check out the FAQ’s for removing building materials bonded with Liquid Nails.  http://www.liquidnails.com/faqs/index.jsp

My house was built in 1997 and I just can’t imagine this vanity was in style then.  The sad thing is this is what was in my kitchen too.

Next up filling all the holes in the wall.  My shower curtain rod pulled off the drywall when I took it down.  I highly recommend this wall compound.  It goes on pink and when it’s dry turns white.

I plan on framing the mirror in the bathroom and changing the light fixture.  Here is the only picture I have of both, sorry about the quality.

Ok so here’s a sneak peek of the progress.

 

What are your thoughts on a wood vanity top?  I just have it stuck in my head that it wood be great.  I have such a small vanity top space though.  Here’s some pictures of what's in my head.  Enjoy.

Halo Boy’s Birthday!! Halo Cake and All Access Pass Invitations!!

I was going to post this a year ago. This post has sat in my drafts for a year. My son turned 11 last year in March. We picked the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day to have his party. He invited a bunch of boys from his scout troop and the neighborhood for a pizza party, Nerf gun, sleepover. During the party I got a phone call that one of my family members, a police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty. It was very hard to get through that night, knowing in the morning we would have to tell our son and travel out of state for the funeral. Of course being 11 year old boys they stayed up all night.
My son handled this extremely well . The wake ended up being on his actual birthday and he handled it amazingly well. He mentioned a few weeks ago that his birthday has bad memories now and he will be sad. Yes we will all be sad I’m sure. I am not going to throw a party this year but he will have an amazing and special day this year. A lot of emotions are stirring up as this date approaches.
Anyway here is the post……
We ordered this awesome Master Chief Helmet Cake for the party. It was the coolest cake I’ve seen. However, I can not recommend fondant for kids or anyone for that matter. It tasted awful. Plus the baker made the cake days in advance so the cake part wasn’t that good too. Note to parents make sure the cake tastes good kids don’t care what it looks like. I wish I had taken a picture of all the plates of uneaten cake.

All Access Pass Birthday Invitations

My son handed out his invitations to his Boy Scout friends and they all said these were the coolest invitations ever. I don’t know if you know any tween boys but that is a hard compliment to come by. Make sure the parents realize this is an invitation. I got a few late RSVP’s because the moms didn’t know it was an invitation until last minute.

How to make-
I got a 10 pack of lanyards & a 12 pack of badge holders from Office Depot. What is it with companies making uneven sets? Do I even need to bring up the Hot Dog & Hot Dog Bun example? Come on Office Depot if someone is buying 12 badges won’t they need 12 lanyards? Oh well, let me get off my soapbox.

I made these in Photoshop. They are 2 sided; the backside has the address, date & time. I found a cool Halo Font online to use on the front.
This can work in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, & Paint.net. You need to be able to make layers.
Create a new document 2.38 width x 3.25 height.

Design the front side and save than design the backside and save as another file. I used two sided photo paper and printed them on one sheet of photo paper. If you have a duplex printer this will be easy otherwise you may want to run a test print. This was the last set I printed that is why there is only 2 invites on the paper. You can fit up to 8 on a sheet.

To keep the older boys occupied have a bunch of Nerf guns, snaps, silly string and lots of food.
Thanks for stopping by.
I read and respond to all comments and I love feedback so please leave a comment.


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