Friday, November 25, 2016

Veteran's Day 2016

On Veteran's day, my husband came home  early  from work.  I feel bad that he has to work on a holiday  that is celebrated  specially for veterans like him.  I wish companies will give veterans a day off  but that is a wishful thinking since a lot of companies does not give that  privilege to Veteran employees.  
Our  sweet kids  made personalized cards for their Dad.  They also made one for their Grandpa.  
As soon as he got done eating, we went  to Hopedale Ohio and visited my father-in-law at Gables Care Center.  He is a world war 2 veteran, although he can no longer recognize us, it is important that we visit him as much as we can.  I just wish that  he lives nearby so we can visit often.  He was out cold  when we arrived, I think he just got his medicines  so he was sleeping when we came.  
Even though we did not get a chance to talk to my FIL, we have enjoyed the Fall foliage on the way.
It sad not to be able to see my FIL as much as we would like to.  It is also sad that when he got the Alzheimer's disease, that's when our relationship with the other  family member  was shaken.  I hope that in time, we can reconcile and get back to  the way we were.  In time, wound might heal, we just need time.  

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Powder Room Upgraded

The home that we bought and just moved in   is spacious and definitely  provides that need of our growing family but  everything in it needs an upgrade.  I can't believe that we  have been living in this new home for almost 5 months now, time really flies.

We had a little extra funds  from selling our old house so we allocated it into upgrading some parts  of the house that really needs.  One of the bathrooms in this house that is  commonly used is the powder room.  Everything in it is  super old so last weekend, we finally got to upgrade it.  
My husband is not very fond of dong  a plumbing job but he is the only one in the family who cold do it so we were  just there to support  and help whatever we can to him.  As I have mentioned in my previous DIY projects that we have done, hiring  a professional  to do a job in our area is very expensive.  So we just try to do   projects by ourselves.  We work on  home improvement every weekend and we have accomplished a lot.  We still have a lot to do though and a lot of those we can't do it yet  because it requires a big amount of money like  the kitchen.  That one, we might need to hire a pro because that would require a long time to do.  
Anyway, we bought  this  Bellaterra home black  vessel  birch vanity single sink with natural marble top at Lowe's.  It was a  special order since they don't have it in the store.  We had to waut a month before it arrived.  We even called the corporate for this one because the Lowe's here in our area said that we have picked up our order  already on a certain date  where in fact we did not.  I tell you, sometimes, you will scratch your head the way some  employees do their job.  It makes you scratch your head a lot of times.  

My husband has been diagnosed with Cervical Disk Disorder with Myelopathy so he is in pain constantly and lifting a heavy sink like this one hurts him even more.  It took us three tries before  we finally have the sink on the right place.  I got bruises in my arms and legs  because this sink is really heavy.  

Our daughter helped us in rompting the pipe to go in the hole of the sink  that my husband carved as we lifted the  sink.
The existing pipes of this bathroom have made very difficult for us to install the sink because  we had to  carve  a hole at the bottom of the sink  for the pipes to go through.   We didn't really want to cut on the side because it will affect the strength of the sink so even if it was difficult, we did it the right way.  My husband miscalculated the sizes of the  pipes so it did not git on the holes.  He then cut  a hole lengthwise since he couldn't use the  holesaw anymore.  
We  also bought  this single control lavatory faucet at Lowe's.  It is a tool-less drain assembly  which installs in half the time.  We did not use the deckplate as it is not  really needed.  Again, even though this project  looks easy to do, it is hard for us because we have no professional plumber in the house.  
My husband had to do three trips to the hardware store to get the right  length of  PVC pipe that he needs.  Thanks goodness, after so many hours of working on it, we finally got it done.
I was just going to buy a cheaper  vanity sink but my  husband  loved this Asian inspired sink  and I love it too so that's what we  bought.  The handle is cute too.
The sink sits on top of the marble top and with the addition of the faucet, it came together as one bathroom beautiful sink.
The curtains I used  is the one I bought when we were in Korea.  I haven't use it since we moved back here in the states but now I found a perfect place to put it.
The seashells are some of our souvenirs when we visited Philippines and  Corpus Cristi Texas.  


Over all, the cost of this project  is $1,141.26 breakdown below.   
1.  vanity - $714.29
2.  faucet - $ $159.00.
3.  toilet - 188.95
4. bi-metal hole saw - 28.94
5.  Misc (Teflon, PVC Pipes, etc)  $50.08 
I did not think it would cost that much but it did.  The good thing is, we did it ourselves and did not have to pay for the labor cost. Oh I am so glad this project is all done.  Now onto the next project.  

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