Small Bathroom Renovation

When we purchased our house two years ago I knew the first thing I wanted / we needed to change was the bathroom.We have one tiny bathroom on the main level. It's the one that is used 99% of the time. 

(One more bathroom in the basement but it's far away and in need of work as well.)

The bathtub being the thing I hated the most.

I'm not kidding, I took that picture right after I finished scrubbing it. 

 It was the original cast iron tub from the 1950's. You can see that the bottom of it was flaking, which being a mama of little children very much concerned me that they were going to get lead poisoning or something.

And the mold! There was mold all around the tub and the way the previous owners decided to deal with it was to calk over it. So it was impossible to clean unless I tore out all the calk. It made me sick every time I had to bathe myself or my children.

Then it came down to the rest of the bathroom, if we were going to replace the bathtub we might as well redo the entire bathroom. 

Especially because they put pergo floors... in the bathroom! Not to state the obvious but any flooring that is susceptible to warping isn't a good idea in a tiny bathroom.

Needless to say there was a lot of warping and thus leaking into the basement because of those floors.

The decision was made, we would redo the entire bathroom. 

Here we are, the Before and Afters:

We took a year and slowly bought and acquired supplies. 

-We were gifted the subway tile for the tub surround and the floor tile from Trevor's brother. They were left over from a job he had worked on. 

-We bought the new counter and sink on Craigslist 

-Bathtub from Home Depot

-Mirror from Ross

-Paint from Sherwin Williams

-Painted the existing cabinet with Annie Sloan chalk paint

-Cabinet hardware from Hobby Lobby

-Light fixture we found on Craigslist

-Decor we picked up throughout the summer from garage sales

-The fake plants, rug, and curtains are from Ikea

I have to be honest with you, because we would get things here and there and mostly we were looking for the best price we could find. I was shocked everything came together so well and it looks so wonderful!!!

I am so proud of Trevor, for the hard work and time he put into it. Along with some fabulous family and friends that helped with the electrical, or cut tile, or moved the massive 500 lb. tub, etc. We are lucky to have so many wonderful and generous friends!

Perhaps my next post will be about all the things we learned from this experience, so you can benefit from out mistakes.

2014 Millar Christmas Card

You may think that I only blog now when I am announcing a pregnancy... sure does feel that way. However I have made a goal to blog more in 2015, we'll see how I do. 

You see, being a mom of two soon to be three little girls I don't hold very high expectations for myself on the daily. 

I like myself better for it. 

However, I figured a great way to jump start my 2015 blogging year off was to post our 2014 Christmas card. It has become a tradition to do an Untraditional Christmas card.... to keep people on their toes. Make it fun for them to open our card and not see our Facebook profile picture on our Christmas card.

See previous Christmas cards here and here

I will be honest with you, this is a controversial card. I may have even had concerns from well meaning family members to not post this on the internet for fear that it will go viral, end up on the today show, and I get plagued with a whole bunch of hate mail. I think it would be very telling and sad of our society if that happened. This Christmas card was made in good fun with no intention to offend anyone. ever. 

So without further ado:

Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas!

Lets start off by saying we mean no ill will, offense, or insult by our Christmas card. We wanted to hear you laugh. Or at least gasp in confusion and shock.

Trevor & April: We have had a fairly busy year. We welcomed our second child, Donna Ruthie Millar, just in the nick of time last year, December 30th. We didn’t realize how grateful we were that she came the day she did until about March when we filed our taxes. We have since become pregnant with our third child, another little girl, due mid-April 2015. We are beyond excited. Seeing as our family is growing rapidly we invested in a minivan, to the delight of April and the outward chagrin (but inward pleasure) of Trevor.

Besides multiplying and replenishing the earth this year:

Trevor has enjoyed his work with Progress Mfg. and is always pointing out “his” products on vehicles as we drive down the freeway. Trevor also completely renovated our bathroom, gutting the whole thing and starting from scratch (with the help of great family and friends). It was his first home-improvement project and he did a beautiful job! But now April thinks he can do anything so his honey do list has gotten really long.

April has very much loved the work she’s done as a doula and HypnoBirthing instructor. Although she promised Trevor she was going to take 2014 off from doulary she still ended up attending 7 births this year, each such an amazing miracle. But now she really does have to take 2015 off from being a doula… it’s harder to get a babysitter for 3 very little children. (However, she will continue to teach HypnoBirthing classes).

Bridget: Is three and full of sass and sweetness. She is a complete social butterfly and loves nursery and her pre-school class. Everyday we watch for the kids walking home from school so she can say hi to all her “friends.” She is an excellent big sister always making sure Ru is taken care of. She talks non-stop and always wants to hear stories about: Bridget and her friends Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, and Rapunzel, and the Bad Fairy. If we get details wrong she makes sure to whisper corrections.

Ruthie: Is such a wonderful addition to our family. We have loved watching her grow up this year and can’t believe she’s almost a year old. She is incredibly affectionate giving lots of head-on-the-shoulder hugs, pats on the back, and all-tongue-no-lip-kisses. She donated all her hair to locks of love when she was born, plus interest, that’s why she still doesn’t have any. She’s just really kind and generous like that.

We have been blessed beyond measure and give Glory to our God. We have such strong testimonies of the love our Savior Jesus Christ has for us. We pray constantly for our friends and family to find comfort and peace in the path The Lord has set before them. We send all our love to you and wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Love,

Trevor, April, Bridget, Ruthie, and baby Millar