Remember this bathroom?

I miss it. Well, not the whole thing, just the green toilet. It worked, and was the second toilet in the house. The good news is that we are soooo close to being a two toilet household again! (Cue the collective cheer – I am sure everyone is so excited for us!)

We have made some key purchases and some serious progress. First, we built a curb for our shower, which has a slightly larger footprint than the tub:

You might be wondering why we used bricks instead of 2×4’s. If you have a plywood subfloor, 2×4’s are just fine and dandy. However, with a cement subfloor, the cement absorbs moisture from the ground below and can cause wooden 2×4’s to swell. Although our subfloor stays pretty dry, we went the safe route and used bricks, which we just happen to have an excess of. We use them to line the bottom of the fence so The Dog doesn’t dig into the neighbors yard to play with their pooch. And yes, that has happened on multiple occasions, thus the bricks and expensive doggy daycare. A girl just needs a friend sometimes, right?

The actual arrangement of the bricks required us to cut one, which we debated how to do. Finally, The Boy tried an old-fashioned method – whacking it.

Much to my amazement, it worked (on the second try)! Then we used thinset to secure them in place. The nice thing about these bricks is that they have very subtle ridges, which cause them to have a very slight slope towards the shower, and will prevent water from pooling.

Once the shower curb was in place, we could tile. First we dry fit everything, and made our cuts.

Everything went fairly smoothly, until we reached the toilet flange, which we did not anticipate falling squarely in the middle of a full tile. So much for planning. Since the base of the toilet will cover much of the real estate of this tile, we cut it down the center of the toilet flange, then found a round object the right size to trace. The Boy showed off his mad tile cutting skills:

This is much harder than it might look, because you cannot cut a curve with a tile saw. Through the magic of the interwebs and photography, I will show you the final product, which actually took almost a week between cutting, laying, and grouting.

Our next project was dealing with the walls that we ripped the lovely green tile off of. I scraped and scraped and sweated and scraped until I removed all of the adhesive and loose drywall tape.

My brilliant solution was to adhere moisture resistant white panels to the wall. In order to do this, we went ahead and replaced the old valves, so we could cut smaller holes in the panel, slide it over the pipes, and then put new valves on. We were in a rush because the inspector was due to arrive any minute!

We got it done just in time for the inspection:

You passed … barely. That will cost you two treats and a belly rub.

Well that is a loaded question. My initial reaction? Medium. Always a safe answer.

In my quest to find good deals, I sometimes make questionable decisions. In my defense, though, I usually realize the error of my ways in advance, but I am willing to take the risk, or The Boy convinces me “not to worry.” When I saw this linear drain, for about 1/3 of the cost of similar drains, I was thrilled.

Perfect length (27 inches!), perfect drain size (1.5 inches!) … what could go wrong, right? It arrived very quickly, and looked great. I was so excited to lay it in place and visualize the completed shower, but … well, it didn’t fit. It was WAY too long. Confused, I pulled out my tape measure.

There is no denying that this drain is not 27 inches long.

Or so I thought. I went to Amazon and emailed the seller. Take a look at the listing (click for a larger picture). See any red flags?

I’ll give you one guess.

Still looking? Try this:

Ding ding ding!

Made in China. My initial email was very polite. Clearly this was a simple misunderstanding.

Across many oceans my email was received, processed, carefully considered, and responded to. I laughed, I cried, I forwarded this response to my friends who are probably deleting my emails without reading them at this point:

My new friend Elan’s answer is written between the lines – Chinese inches are much longer than American inches. Those damn metric inches …

Faced with such insurmountable evidence of the fact that Elan had clearly sent me the correct item, I responded with the following witty retort:

The pictures I enclosed are the ones posted above, showing the measuring tape on top of the drain. Tough to argue with that logic, right? Right, Elan?? (If that’s your real name … and I have my suspicions). Then this gem showed up in my inbox:

Just as I suspected – he is using those Chinese metric inches. We are continuing to banter back and forth, and hopefully will get this figured out. I am cautiously optimistic, since “Elan” is responsive and I can decipher the intended meaning of his emails. Please heed this post as a cautionary tale, though, of the pitfalls of being frugal and pursuing good deals at all costs. Until then, I will attempt to answer the age old question: What size fit to you?

Any Bachelor/Bachelorette fans get that title? I had to ask The Boy, “what is that special live show called that they do after the end of the show?” and he knew the answer, of course. Gotta love a man who digs ridiculous “reality” dating shows! So proud.

We saw, touched, photographed, lounged, chatted, ooohed, aaaahed, petted dogs, made out with dogs, met Jason Cameron, and even tasted a few delicious samples. Yes, I intentionally sandwiched Jason Cameron between making out (with dogs) and delicious (samples). But I am getting waaaay ahead of myself.

Upon arrival, we were impressed by the number of exhibitors present, and the complexity of their displays.  Several hardscaping companies put together full paver patios, outdoor kitchens, etc. I cannot imagine the time invested in setting up and breaking all of that down.

The “I was actually there” shot.

We watched this cooking demonstration, where a guy was grilling items on a sheet that goes on your grill.  It was a very thin but durable material that could withstand up to 500 degrees, and was completely non-stick. He put a little pile of shredded cheese on there, it melted into a glob, he slid it around, and picked it up with some bread. Pretty dang impressive!

Calling all doomsday preppers!! I stopped by to check out a family safe cube, for all of your zombie apocalypse needs.

It was tiny, but apparently indestructible.  The door was SO HEAVY. I think I could survive a few walker attacks in that. And possibly even lay down in it. I am sure they brought the smallest version they had, for obvious reasons.

The Boy, an amateur-but-constantly-improving woodworker, found his people:

My favorite part was the Pet Pavilion. Many of the exhibitors had their (incredibly well-behaved) dogs with them. We were really impressed by the products offered by Barking Mad Dogwear, especially when we found out that the husband and wife owners make everything themselves! We discussed with Karen the type of harness we need for The Dog, who pulls unless her leash attaches at her chest, and they said they could make it for us. We are definitely going to do that! Here is The Boy with their sweet and fashionable dog:

So true.

Not to be outdone, I then stopped by the “kissing booth” and got some wet ones laid on me.

A few more of the noteworthy booths for us included the frameless glass shower enclosures by Fox Windows & Glass (since we will need that pretty soon!)

No, The Boy! Don’t do it!

and the designer fabrics and rugs by HomeFabrics & Rugs

I couldn’t stop petting these curtains …

All of this “window shopping” was exhausting, so The Boy and I relaxed a bit. Everywhere.

Yep. That is a hot tub. Minus the water … and the hot (unless you count The Boy).

And then this happened:

I haven’t met very many celebrities, but I am not the star struck type. I will say, though, that his handler or assistant or whomever she was told us that he was late for an engagement and didn’t have time to stop for pictures, which was fine with me. However, Jason (yep, we are on a first name basis) saw The Boy with the camera, and went out of his way to introduce himself, chat briefly, and pose for a picture. He was really very nice. (ohmygosh ohmygosh I’m never washing that shoulder again). No biggie.

It was a fun little Saturday afternoon at the home and garden show. We HAVE actually been working on the bathroom too, and have a few exciting and not so exciting updates, all of which we will share this week. Until then, I have one question: What size fit to you?