TEABAG and BEACH in the bathroom!

Before we get started: BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAYS to:
PATTY
(Jesse's mom)
and
RANDY
(Corinne's brother-in-law)

WOOOOOOOOO!!! We love you!!!!!!!!

Now back to the blog:
Bathrooms are important, and we'll get to ours, but first check out the new building across the canyon! It's a lot prettier than what used to be here.

Hopefully our neighbors don't think we're creepy for taking pictures of their backyard areas, but check out this deck two houses down from us! We're in love.

And our neighbor has a really cute back yard area with a terrace down in the canyon a bit and some beautiful trees. One day we hope to have a pretty backyard worthy of our neighbors snapping creepy photos of.

Back to our house! We've been without a porch light since before the last inspection. In order to mount the new one, we had to install our porch ceiling, though. We decided to use painted bead-board type material (actually 4" on center siding.) Below, you can see Jesse checking he fit of the cut panel. We then took it back out and primed and painted it.

You can see it installed (as well as our new porch light) below. The rest of the exterior will be beautiful soon enough...(well, not soon enough but soon.)

Back to the bathroom!

Jesse taped and mudded the bathroom and floated out the walls in a skip-trowel pattern.

We then worked last weekend on cutting out the pre-finished plywood for the vanity.

Jesse had to edge-band the pre-finished plywood so it would look uniform once our cabinet doors and drawer fronts are mounted. Below, you can see the 2x8 piece of veneer (the larger stuff [4x8] is better quality and looks better but this is just for edge-banding...) along with some tools of the trade.

After all the pieces are cut out, he mounts them with wood glue and an iron with a special technique. Both surfaces are coated with a thick coat of wood glue and allowed to dry. Then the pieces are put together and a hot iron is applied to make the dried glue melt and stick to itself. Then PRESTO -- perfectly mounted edge-banding.

Now that the pieces are edge-banded, they're marked and assembled.

The middle section of the vanity, an 18" wide drawer bank, is seen below with fixed shelves for under the sinks on either side.

Jesse then assembled the end drawer banks, 12" wide each, as well as the bottom and the long top stretchers.

Here it is (mostly) put together. All told, it's six and a half feet wide. There will be a ceiling height, 18" wide tall cabinet to the right of the vanity. The whole assembly will span one wall of the bathroom.

Here you can see the painted walls (TEABAG), the vanity skeleton, the BEACH counter top (with two under-mount sinks), two Kohler Archer faucets (that had to be shipped to NY then came out with my dad in May due to California laws prohibiting them) and the wonderful plumbing job that Jesse did.

Jesse also installed the light fixtures. We have two vanity lights and two recessed lights with shower trim -- one above the shower and one above the toilet area. The empty space with the painted heart is the right-hand medicine cabinet cavity. It should give you a way to orient yourself with the pictures.

Both vanity lights and cabinet cavities can be seen below. Jesse is building the medicine cabinets himself and will be framing mirrors with the rosewood veneer as the doors to the medicine cabinets.

Here's a close-up of a sink and faucet combo. It's a great picture of the paint color and counter top color as well.

I tried to get a close-up of the counter top. It didn't come out great so you'll all just have to come see it in person!

Here we have the Kohler Archer toilet and its enclosure. Our recessed toilet paper holder is once again installed, but it was after this picture was taken.

Still left to do in the bathroom: install travertine floor, install shower tile, install backsplash, build tall cabinet, cut and finish doors/drawer fronts, install doors/drawer fronts, install toekick face, and build medicine cabinets. No problem!!

This last picture is currently in the running to win the prize of BEST WEDDING RSVP. It was sent by Kevin, one of Jesse's groomsmen. I highly recommend enlarging the picture. It's pretty great. And Kevin, you rock.