Our shower is finished!

It is taking a long time because Kyle only has time to work on it one day a week. Also, our bathroom was really gross and needed a lot of work. Here is the original tub:

Here is what it looks like now:

Before:

After:

It’s sad that I can’t get better pictures of the finished shower (it’s cramped in there), because it looks great. Also, putting the new shower in was a lot of work. We had to remove the old tub and linoleum, plumb the new shower head and faucet, and put in new cement board behind the tub. Then we had to tile:

It took three months.

Next we’re starting tiling the floor.

My goal is to get the bathroom completely done this year. I hope we make it.

My chickens are a year old!

Rosie, the Rhode Island Red:

Penny, the Lace Wyandotte:

Olivia, the Columbian Plymouth Rock:

They produce 2-3 eggs a day, fertilize my garden, and eat my weeds (as well as my fruits and vegetables if I let them). Best of all, they are like a comedy routine in my yard.

I highly recommend getting chickens.

This is a little hard to photograph, but what you are looking at the linen closet that came with the house. It is a mess, but I blame the shelves, which were about 8 inches deep. Behind this was one of two closets in my office.

We decided to sacrifice one of the closets in my office and remove this linen closet. Then in that space, we would put in a bathroom vanity and a new sink.

But first we needed to purchase a new linen closet to replace the old one. We shopped around and ended up buying a wood closet organizer from Lowes. Here’s a picture from their website:

We modified the organizer by putting in drawers and a cabinet to hold tablecloths, sheets, placemats, soap, etc. On the bottom of the organizer, we screwed three drawers together and I sewed a liner for our new customized laundry hamper. Now, one cabinet holds our linens and acts as a hamper for the dirty clothes.

Next, Kyle began demoing the two closets. He took out the old linen closet and removed the shelves from my closet. Here is a picture right after he did this. As you can see, the doorway from the office closet is still open, allowing you to see into my office:

I kind of liked this, actually. It felt like having a private bathroom in my office. But we are going to put a vanity and sink in that area, so we needed to have a solid wall. Kyle sheetrocked it:

So that’s where we are. Next, Kyle is going to do the plumbing for the bathtub and sink. I think after that, we’re going to put in the vanity and sink. Or maybe the tub next? I can’t keep it straight. Either way, demoing is done, and we are moving on to the next phase.

We interrupt the story of the gold rush trip to show you this, Penny’s 13th egg, otherwise called The Boob Egg.

Complete with nipple.

Nature, you are so weird.

Penny has been inclined to make nests and hide lately–what they call broody behavior. Then today, this was in the pen.

It is small because it is the first one. I think it is cute.

As I mentioned, my dad and Kyle moved the door of the bathroom from inside the room to the hallway. By doing this, they made the bathroom into one big room.

Last weekend, Kyle did the next step of the process and removed the wall that was dividing the room.

Before:

Kyle removing the wall:

After:

I looks so much better. Already the room feels huge and full of light and space. I am really digging this bathroom remodel so far because every change is so dramatic.

This weekend, if all goes well, we are finally going to start remodeling our bathroom.

I hate our bathroom. It is ugly, moldy, and stupid. The sink is perfectly positioned so that when you are putting on make-up, you can easily drop things on the floor or into the toilet. I have had to throw many things out because of this. The linen closet is about eight inches deep, which means that nothing can be stored in there. The linoleum is peeling up from the floor. And the bathtub is chipped, ugly, and has mold around the edges that I can’t seem to get rid of.

But the worst part of the room is the door. It is positioned so that as you are standing at the sink putting on make-up that you are also trying to keep from dropping onto the floor or toilet, the door slooooooooooowly shuts so that you are lightly bumped from behind.

Imagine, if you would, trying to line your eyes when you are lightly bumped from behind by a door. You cannot shut the door because someone has taken a shower and there is no fan in the bathroom, so everything is fogged up. Therefore, you turn around and push the door open again. It slooowly swings over and bumps you. You push it open. It slooowly swings over and bumps you. You push it open a little firmer this time. It swings faster and bumps you. This continues until you finally get so mad, you turn around and start punching the door. Then your husband comes in and asks what the heck is the matter with you.

Anyway, this weekend, we are MOVING THE DOOR so that I can actually put on make-up in peace. The first step in a long remodel, but a significant one.

Lucy is obsessed with climbing on my head. I think it’s because it is the highest point she can get to. I don’t let her up there because I don’t like the idea of a bird pooping on my head, but it’s funny that she keeps trying.

I have never seen anything develop as quickly as these chickens are developing. They will literally be different in the evening than they were in the morning. Marcia took the above picture just last week and Lucy looks completely different now. It’s kind of amazing, really.

On Friday, Kyle and I got baby chicks. We bought two little chickens, a Rhode Island Red named Lucy (after Lucille Ball, another comical red head) and a Silver Laced Wyandotte named Penelope, or Penny for short.

We brought them home on Friday and are keeping them in a chicken brooder we made from an old bathroom cabinet. In three days, they have already grown about a half inch and are developing pin feathers on the tips of their wings. We’ll keep them inside the house until they have full feathers and then we will put them outside in their chicken coop.

Lucy is the smarter of the two of them and has a quirky little personality. The first day, she was trying to leave her pen by reasoning that she could jump on top of the water bottle and then out of the the brooder. She wasn’t able to accomplish that, but I had heard so much about how stupid chickens are that I was surprised to see her plotting her escape.

She is also very sweet. The first day, she fell asleep in everyone’s hands when she was picked up.

Rhode Island Reds were developed in Rhode Island (duh) in the 1880s. They can produce 250 to 300 eggs per year and begin laying as early as six months of age. Their eggs are brown. Here is a picture of a Rhode Island Red from Wikipedia:

Then there is Penelope.

She is more adventurous and aggressive than Lucy. She tries to fly all the time, which may be a sign of future trouble. But she is also very sweet and likes to fluff out and nest. When you pick her up, she gets quiet and likes her back stroked. She also fell asleep in my hands the first day we got her.

She is growing faster than Lucy and has already developed little wings and the starts of tail feathers. If all goes well, she should be a very pretty chicken. Here is a picture of a Silver Laced Wyandotte from My Pet Chicken:

Silver Laced Wyandottes have been around since the 1870s and were the most popular breed of chicken before World War II. They lay about 200 brown eggs a year.

Yeah… so do the math. 200 + 250 = we’re going to have a lot of eggs around here.

Remember how Kyle made my this compost bin about a year ago?

Last Saturday, I pulled 13 wheelbarrows of dark brown compost out of that bin. I couldn’t believe that our kitchen scraps and yard waste had turned into this amazing, manure-like substance.

There was enough compost in the bin to thickly cover one of my 12X12 garden plots.

After I shoveled it onto the soil, we dug it in. Now I am ready to plant.