Okay sorry, I'll snap out of my Lil' John haze. I'm just so excited- we made some amazing 

progress this weekend on the master bathroom renovation! From the windowwwwwww

 (last weekend)... to the wall (this weekend).

So here's your weekly "we-worked-on-the-bathroom-all-weekend-long-and-if-I-don't-share-with-

someone-I'll cry!" master bathroom renovation post!

The most exciting work we did was to install a brand new wall in our bathroom, in the form of a pocket door enclosure to house a little area for the toilet (or as you fancy people say it, the WC). How fabbbb is it?!

 (bought at Lowes)... says the girl who absolutely didn't help in the installation process.

 David or my bro-in-law, Nate, can fill you in if you have any questions!

Is that the beginning of some drywall I see on the wall? Oh heck yes.

And... wait for it... we also stocked up on some beaaaautifulll tileeeeee!!

And that handy husband of mine worked out ALL of the electrical kinks in the bathroom that I 

ranted about last week. Like, every single new light switch and electrical plug is placed, hooked up 

and working! How amazing is that?! 

So electrical is pretty much done! We just have to install our new lighting (so cute, get excited!) later this week. Electrical? Check! Another thing off the list.

So there's your weekly bathroom wrap up, friends! DEFINITELY seeing a light at the end of the tunnel :)
A big shout out goes to David and Nathan- you guys are really amazing!!

***

Guess what. Tuesday is the first day of February. Can you even believe it?! One month in 2011 already gone! Whew, time flies by when you're having fun ;)

To kick off the start of the month, I'm starting a new series.

To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of on the iffy side with Valentine's Day. Let's just say that I refuse to let David buy me any teddy bears or red roses. I know, I know- bah humbug! 

But that doesn't stop us from being sappy year-round. 

Soooo, in case you are looking for some Valentine's Day ideas (or anniversary or birthday or just an every day kind of I love you), then I've got some great Not-So-Valentiney ideas for you. Can't wait to share!

Have I shared this yet? I know I've shared pieces, but I don't think I've shared the whole shebang.

Meet my bathroom moodboard! 

Here are the high points:

-glass door shower with white subway tiles on the walls and hexagon tiles on the floor

-open vanity with chrome Moen fixtures to match the shower fixture

-pocket door water closet

What do you think? Pretty, right?!

Of course, there are still ten million a few steps we have to take to get to all the beauty above! And we'll be hard at work on the renovation work again this weekend.

As I mentioned, last weekend we ran into a few roadblocks, which is totally expected in any renovation, especially a renovation of a 1952 home. Thanks to all of you (and your ah-maz-ing-ly sweet and supportive comments!), David and I are trying our hardest to take a positive spin and  push through some of the bumps in the road.

When we installed a new window for our shower wall, the boys had to remove some siding on the outside of the house. The thought was that we could quickly replace it with a run to Home Depot. Didn't happen. Apparently our old, tapered wood siding must be custom ordered. So that means that the side of our house will be tar paper chic for the next couple of weeks. Sweet, right? But hey, that new window looks fab!

This old house has character. And this old house has this old electrical system.

Our plan was to cut some holes and move the electrical boxes where the new lighting was going to go 

(lights over the vanity and can lights over the shower and toilet). Then we thought we'd be ready to quickly throw up some drywall (walls and ceiling) and call it a day. No such luck. When we dug into it, David found that the electrical wiring in the bathroom was a mess. We had to call in back-up in the form of my father-in-law and the boys spent last Sunday tracing the wires. Luckily, I think David worked out most of the kinks but there are a few other electrical aspects we've got to work out this weekend.

Our beautiful new bathroom door didn't fit into our crooked door frame. Ugh. 

David had to saw off and chisel down a sliver of the bottom of the door. Then this happened.

 I did it. Jumped on the sunburst bandwagon. I couldn't resist! I think this super-sized version of the DIY sunburst is exactly what my newly painted dining room wall needed.

I followed Janell's tutorial but switched up a few things. Instead of using regular sticks, I used bamboo sticks (a bundle from Michael's was only $4 with a coupon). FYI, the mirror is a Target clearance special ($9.99). 

I spray painted the sticks a metallic silver color, instead of a flat white.

And as you can see, I just about doubled the size of the sticks as compared to Janell's mirror- I knew I wanted the sunburst mirror to go in the dining room and, therefore, it had a lot of space to fill. So, I decided: go big or go home! I know that I need more art on the walls to help balance out the dramatic mirror (and I need to change out that light fixture! I'm working on it!), but I think this is a good start.

I know it's not perfect, but neither were the shape of the bamboo sticks that make up the mirror. Each stick sort of bends in its own direction, so it was a chore to get them to lay in a semi-straight pattern.

 (For example, see the little gap on the top of the mirror? Both sticks are rolled out in opposite directions, leaving a little space. Awww, it's sort of like a kid with no front teeth, isn't it?! See, now you love my not-so-perfect mirror too!)


I kind of love the fact that it's not perfect- it gives the mirror lots of dimension and personality :)

Sidenote: thoughts on the seat cushions I'm testing out? 

They look good up close, but I'm not sure about whether or not they flow with the room overall.

I know I told you yesterday that I'd share some of the glitches we've encountered so far in our master bathroom renovation, but I just can't bring myself to do it tonight. I had a great day at work, a fabulous date night with David (sushi, of course!) and got to top it off with a new episode of Gossip Girl. Oh and Brad didn't kick Emily off yet- yesssss! Can't go wrong with that combo.

So I'll save the shop talk for another time.  

Wednesday or Thursday, perhaps? (for those of you who like gory renovating details like me!)

***

On a completely different note, I've been eying lots of beautiful beach houses lately. I'm sure that seeking out the summer is a pretty normal response for many of you out there dealing with this cold, dreary January weather (and hey- I know that I can't complain too much since I'm sure many of you have it much colder than me here in Georgia!). I guess I'm just craving some good ol' sunshine.

Enter one of my favorite cities in the world- Charleston, South Carolina. 

I spent four years in the holy city, earning my undergraduate degree at the College of Charleston (and maaaaybe I spent just a few hours shopping on King Street, laying out at Folly Beach and buying drinks at Blind Tiger). I loved Charleston, immensely. It's just one of the places I connected with and now I am counting down the minutes until I can someday call it my home again.

Until I'm back in South Cackalackey, I'll just drool over Charleston Magazine.

Hi folks! See this little guy?

Over in the Ten June household, we like to call him the straw that broke the camel's back. David and I are quickly learning that this bathroom renovation thing just isn't all it's cracked up to be. 

We are trying our hardest to go all John and Sherry on our master bathroom, but it constantly feels like we are taking one step forward and then two steps back. I have walked away from the last few weekends of work on the bathroom feeling like we haven't made much progress. And, actually, I feel like we walk away each time with more on our to-do list. It's not a very positive feeling.

But, I'm not going to start off negative on this beautiful Monday morning!

So you'll just have to wait to hear about that little woodchip disaster (and many other oops! moments like it).
I'll save all of the gruesome details about our bumps in the road for tomorrow.
On a positive note, here is a summary of all of the amazing progress we've made in the last week.

Last week, the plumber came and redid all of the plumbing. Check! Step in the right direction. 

On Saturday, I (as in little ol' me all by myself!) redid the insulation in the bathroom. Check! This was a huge step because the room without insulation-- three of the walls of the bathroom are exterior walls-- basically meant a big, drafty space that made our master bedroom (and, frankly, that entire side of the house!) quite chilly in this January weather.  

We also insulated the actual pipes that are in our bathroom floor/basement ceiling so that there's no risk of them snapping or freezing in the next cold spell. That's what David was doing while I was working my insulation magic upstairs in the bathroom. The black foam insulation easily slides around each pipe and it's really cheap to buy over at Home Depo, so its a win win little project. Better to be safe than sorry. Check!

 Next up on the "completed" list? My amaaaaazing brother-in-law, Nathan, came over on Saturday and he and David installed a new window for our shower wall! Check!

Definitely a huge improvement when you look at the chain of before/after pictures.

Action shot of the guys building a window in the spot formerly known as the old window, at that point known as a huge hole in the side of my house!

Voila! I have a new, pretty (centered, updated, energy-efficient) window!!

And my most favorite change of the weekend came in this form: