The Workgasm

I'm cranky and sore, but bi golly, we did a TON this weekend! I really don't know where to begin because we were so across the board and everywhere. When the plummer wasn't going to be able to do our main bathroom fixes until Thursday and we were going to have help anyways, we had to reassess what were going to do. Max's parents were coming on Saturday and Sunday to help and my cousin Brian and his wife Megan were also coming on Sunday so we had many hands to do many different things.

Day 1: Saturday
Saturday morning started with a Target run to get a new air mattress pump to house our guests. That turned in to Halloween Palooza. I got more decorative items for the house (will show you that in a later post when I clean up all the drywall dust) and these dog "pajamas" for Turk. It says "Bad Dog" on them. Appropriate since he pooped on the carpet while I was gone shopping. He greeted his grandparents when they arrived like this.

After some assessment of the days' events (since our plans were slightly changed with the pluming issues), we decided we could get the half bath mostly done this weekend, half of the drywall up in the main bathroom and get the guest bedroom properly painted.

Ellen and I started demoing the half bath while Max and Mark started to prep the main bathroom to be dry walled. The hardest part was removing the toilet which was basically draining the water out and cleaning up the old wax seal. Mark removed the sink for us.

Here Max is giving me a little hello as I just removed our old build in mirror. "Hi babe!"

Here are the remains of the old half bath toilet. Goodbye gross toilet, you will not be missed.

We then set off as a group to get all the materials we were going to need to put the rooms back together. Max and I had already purchases the large fixtures for the bathroom but we picked up all the odds and ends. While shopping for materials, we went a little overboard since we saw a sale on doors. We planned on replacing the doors in the hallway anyways but just not this fast. We ended up with four carts full at Menards and still had a few things to pick up at Lowe's. If you wonder why we are always at these two stores, its because we live about a mile from Lowe's and about two miles from Menards. Bonus for us!

Here we are at the register paying for our four cart loads. Ellen is at cart #2 and if you can "Where's Waldo" find me, I'm waving from cart #3.

Back at the house, Ellen and I started to insulate the windows and the wall of the half bath. Max and Mark had discovered that the insulation in the main bathroom had either fallen or basically disintegrated so we assumed the half bath was the same since they shared the outer wall. We avoided tearing out the wall by drilling small holes in the wall between the studs and then using an expanding spray foam insulation down the holes. When they were full we just Spackled them shut. I also used the spray insulation around the windows to prevent those crazy Wisconsin winter winds from creeping in. Once it hardened, we just ripped the excess foam off.

While we were doing all of this, Max and Mark were hanging dry wall. They first re-insulated around the window like we did but they used rolled fiberglass insulation as well as the foam for the window itself.

Then we changed gears. Ellen and I headed into our guest bedroom/office to tackle the epicly failed paint color from here (hey, it's only been a month since we touched it) and while Max and Mark continued to hang drywall. This time painting we decided to go with some advice from you the readers (thank you so much by the way!) and use a tinted primer before repainting. We used Dutch Boy Dimensions Tinted Primer/Sealer color matched as close as possible to try and fix the primer issues we were having before. This time it finally covered up everything.

After eating dinner as a family, we went through and mudded the main bathroom together as a family. Aww... We ended up calling it a night around 10:30pm.

Day 2: Sunday
We all groggily got up with coffee assistance to take on the day. Mark put on a second layer of mud in the main bathroom while the rest of us got things set up for the day. He also applied Homax Wall Texture Orange Peel to the half bath with a fine texture. It's a pretty easy way to add texture to walls and ours needed a little help. Just click the grade of texture you want, spray and go!

Mark and I then went off to Lowe's to get flooring and a few more odds and ends for the day. Ellen and Max stayed and painted trim.

When we had returned my cousin Brian and his wife Megan had already arrived and were hard at work installing our new doors. Megan was taking off hardware off the old doors while Brian was teaching Max how to install the door.

Ellen had started to prime the half bath with a colored matched Dutch Boy Tinted Primer/Sealer. It was a lot darker than I had anticipated. The color was matched to Pittsburgh Paint's color called Submarine, which is a gunmetal gray.

While the boys continued on replacing the doors, Megan and I painted the guest bedroom. "Chilled Wine" finally took to the walls, bringing all its glory. It only took seven and a half different layers (four layers of primer and three and a half of paint).

While installing the doors, Brian and Max discovered we had more hardwood floors underneath our hallway. I can't wait to refinish all them!

Mark and Ellen began installing the laminate tile flooring to the half bathroom while we were doing all this. They first laid the laminate foam pad about three layers thick. Mark then measured and cut the boards to match up like grout tile work. Since the walls still were not painted the correct color yet and time was running out in the day, he cut a trim board for the back wall and laid it up where it would eventually go. He then installed a new old toilet to make sure we could at least use the bathroom. The toilet was free because they had just recently redid their bathroom and this toilet was still relatively new.

This is where we wrapped up for the weekend. It was quite exhausting but there was quite a bit of progress in all three rooms. Max has dubbed weekends like this "workgasms" since its quick but it feels good when its done. Hehe...

Have you had any crazy work weekends such as this? Have more than four cart fulls at your local big box store? Any cool hand-me-down toilets?