Bathroom Complete!

Well, we'd stopped posting on the blog for two reasons. 1) We've been super busy with all our travels and school starting. 2) We didn't think anyone read the blog. We have no way of tracking how many people see the posts. Since no one has been commenting, or e-mailing, or mentioning it in conversation, we didn't know anyone was interested in getting these updates. That is, of course, until we don't post one for a while ;)

So, since we've heard from some of you wanting updates, here you go.

As we reported earlier in the summer, Uncle Dern Dern came out to work on the bathroom. Here are some pictures of it before his arrival. This is the main wall of our bathroom, looking oh so crowded with the sink, toilet, and that awful institutional medicine cabnet.

This is the view down our upstairs hallway. As you can see, we emptied out the closet at the end of the hall, and Dern Dern is stepping into what was then the door to the bathroom off to the right. Then Uncle Darren became a one man wrecking crew.

It didn't take him very long to get the walls and floor ripped up. Jackson loved the process and would sit at the top of the stairs chanting, "Dern Dern, Dern Dern."

We got a surprise when Darren cut into one of the walls and found this.It's a huge hive of some sort, and thankfully nothing was living in it.

One afternoon while the bathroom was between phases Dern Dern proved he really can do anything by fixing the gutter that had been leaking down the side of our house.

As you can see, Jackson helped by steadying the ladder.He was impressed with everything Dern Dern did, especially if it involved getting dirty or loud tools.

Back to the bathroom. We had originally just expected Darren to work on the shower, but while he already had the pipes and the vent out, he came up with some awesome ideas, including moving our toilet.Aside from giving us a nice view out the window when we pee, the toilet move also freed up the wall to add an awesome new sink/vanity, which give us tons more storage and counter space.

While he was making changes over there, he also put in the new medicine cabinet that we are totally in love with. To top it all off (literally), he built an add-on to the cabinet for a super cool light fixture.

With the interior of the bathroom polished up and looking fantastic, Dern Dern put the finishing touches on the shower. The end result far exceeded our highest expectation. We searched all over Western New York for the perfect tile (for the right price), and Darren laid it out beautifully. He also built in and trimmed a niche for our soaps and shampoos and topped it off with a nice soft light. Then he trimmed it all in with lovely stained trim. We're just giddy about the whole thing.

The final portion of Dern Dern's art work was the new door to the bathroom. Since the old door was positioned between the shower and the bathroom, he had to move the old door from the closet further into the hallway. He had to build a new frame using the old wood and managed to blend it all in flawlessly so that this is now what you see when you look down the hallway.

The only missing piece was the door to the shower, which had to be special ordered. When it arrived, it was every bit as classy as we'd expected. It's a swivel door made of solid glass and no top frame. The only problem was we were way too nervous to install it ourselves. Thankfully we have friends who are not afraid to mount an expensive sheet of glass by a very tiny hinge.

Our friend Scott and his dad Dennis came over this morning and set to work, managing to tackle the project in a few hours, only accepting payment in coffee and donuts. We love these guys.

So here you have it, the final product . . . It's a thing of beauty!

And of course the real test: Jackson approves.