29/14: lovely lips in nature

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw this autumn leaf on the ground, trying to imitate lovely lips.

 

28/14: travel photos from france – la tour eiffel and us

Now that princess prattles has taken the new direction to “all things creative”, I think a few travel photos could be in order, particularly since we will be travelling to France again in a couple of months. I was really happy with this “selfie” from 2010. Needless to say, we had to take a few to get the right shot. Utilising my husband’s longer arm, we managed this:

27/14: the bathroom reno finishing touches

Once a task is complete, one tends to forget how much work was actually involved, but looking back through the renovation photos we can appreciate the achievement…and we didn’t get divorced!

During the process, occasionally one of us would go and stare at the bathroom for some time. It turned out that when my husband was looking, he was working out technical and practical aspects of the renovation. Although I would do the same, I was more often envisaging what it was going to look like when it was finished, and where I would place different ornaments and accessories to create a bathroom with an Art Deco feel. This is how we make such a good team, and our labour of love has been truly worthwhile, but don’t just take my word for it. Time for some photographic evidence.

26/14: bathroom reno: beyond the blue

There can be life after the bathroom blues. After much planning, shopping around and gutting the original bathroom, the reconstruction commenced.

My handy husband created a hob for the new bath. The cement sheeting went up, then, after waterproofing, as most of the bathroom was going to be tiled, I opted to paint first.

I also varnished the window frames in gloss, to give the timber a lift.

How exciting it was to place the bath in the new hob. “One day closer to a bubble bath” became my mantra as each step was achieved.

We were quite adventurous deciding to tile right up to the ceiling above the bath, but between us we overcame difficulties as we faced them – a good team-building exercise in the long run, notwithstanding the mini power struggles that ensued!

Floor tiles went down first, then the hob and border tiles. Now we understand why tiling is usually only done to a certain height. Walls and ceilings are never square, and adjustments must be made. We did the central row first on a supporting timber beam.

Another ambitious idea was to have three little feature tiles spaced above the bath, to break up the mass of white and coordinate with the front of the bath. To determine the best location for these, I blu-tacked little paper shapes in various ways and took photos of each to work out the optimum placement. Ah, the wonders of digital photography.

I created a cardboard template for Dutchy to use for cutting the holes for the taps.

Resting on the job? Just rehearsing for my bath.  Now, back to work!

 

 

The last little piece of tile goes up. I must give Dutchy credit for his brilliant tile cutting. Good equipment helps.

Once the grouting was all done and cleaned up, I used a combination of WD-40 and Isocol to take the stubborn clear film off the bath.

Now, the bathroom was ready for some final touches. Stay tuned!

 

25/14: the bathroom renovation blues

In October 2013, after having the same bathroom for over twenty-eight years, my husband and I undertook this large renovating project.

First, some BEFORE photos:

A little dated, you may say. We are in full agreement with you. Hence, time for a change. Before we started attacking the bathroom, I had one final bubble bath to say “adieu” to blue.

The DISMANTLING was quite enjoyable:

 

It was lovely of Shadow and Zorro to be so helpful, clearing some cobwebs!

  Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment when we start with a blank canvas to bring our bathroom into the 21st century…