DIY home renovation projects are not only teach you how to work your way around power tools, we are also getting some serious lessons in marriage. This weekend we hit our first mini renovation disaster.

In my account, getting the walls up should have taken a week…at the most 2 weekends. 3 weeks later and we finished up the last of the plastering this weekend, but Walter did a flawless job, so I guess there is a price for perfection. I’m not going to say mistakes weren’t made during this phase of the project. We neglected to cover the furniture in the room where Walter did most of the cutting. Now the place is so dusty, I’m just waiting for Miss Havashim to appear from somewhere in the shadows.

I could bask in my glorious rightness as it was I who suggested we cover the furniture, but I am just as culpable in this mess as my husband. I didn’t lift a finger during this phase and I could have covered the furniture myself, but didn’t.

We forgot about 50/50. I organized and cleaned the whole upstairs before we started with Walter on the assist. During construction parts Walter takes the lead and I assist. I’ll probably take lead on painting tomorrow, mostly because I like being the lead on things.  I’m a big picture person and often get lost in the details, whereas Walter is keen on the details, but bigger stuff can get thrown by the wayside. We need to work together to get the balance, picking up each other’s slack. Bitching about the slack isn’t going to help anyone.

As much as I love being right, I have to learn to suck in my disappointment and anger when things go wrong, especially when I am also partly to blame. This is the first time either of us are undertaking a project of this magnitude, mistakes will be made.

I am still cleaning dust from parts of me I didn’t even know dust could settle and I can’t help but laugh (because if I didn’t, I’d cry). This won’t be the first blunder in this journey and there will be plenty of times to have screaming matches over whose fault it is something didn’t go right (most likely it will happen in Home Depot).  I’m glad we took this first blunder in stride, turning to humor and Mad Max quotes to get us through the day.

Today I start as lead on priming and painting, here’s to hoping we are done before Game of Thrones season finale. (Greg has been hounding us for the HBOGO Pasword)

After two weeks of Eternal Cons and Pirate Festivals we finally got back to work and finished plastering. Walter installed the floors and fixed the pipes so the hot water flows right.

I wanted to tile all around the window but it looks like that we aren’t going to be able to do that.

Tomorrow we clean up the giant mess in the spare bedroom and prime and paint.

This phase was supposed to be done already!

Got some of the drywall up and we got the tile early because it was on sale at Home Depot It’s coming along slower than I hoped. According to HGTV we should have been practically finished by the 2nd commercial break!

Picking out the bathroom tile was a nightmare. I dragged four tile samples and six paint samples over to where the bathroom vanities were and sat there for forty-five minutes pulling my hair out unable to make a decision. When all was said and done I went with the original black and white octagon design from Pinterest.  I need to remind myself that my first choice is always the best choice and to not wrack my brain with options the second I get to the store. Although I feel this will be a running theme throughout this project.

On Greg’s insistence in order to consecrate the bathroom properly we had to make three ritualistic goat sacrifices. We made sure the goats were organic, Greg said it didn’t matter, but it mattered to me. After draining their blood Walter double wrapped the bodies in plastic and set them in the wall behind the hardie board and insulation to protect from mold. As a sufferer of allergies and asthma mold is my biggest fear.

As another way to prevent mold we will be using hardie board in the shower. This is just drywall with concrete mixed in. There was some mold damage by the window, but the rest of the walls were good. The interior beams are solid oak and pretty sturdy, pulling the nails out during demo was quite the workout!

Walter set out the tile so I  could get an idea of how it will look. I’m starting to get excited.

I admit I was a little unsure about doing this on our own, but I think we are getting the hang of things!