Metamorphosis Monday

Welcome to Metamorphosis Monday, graciously hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Make sure to visit Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ to see a list of this week's participants. There are some really great before and after ideas to be found at this event. And if you haven't visited Susan before, you will be glad you did. She has the most gorgeous home, and her decorating ideas and tips are fabulous!

This week, I decided to share our guest bathroom renovation. If you've visited my blog before, you know that we began doing some renovations to our home after our darling daughter left for college. As we like to say, we figure the new stuff is safe now! The guest bath was Cait's while she lived at home. We affectionately call her "aqua girl", due to the extraordinary amount of time that she spends in the shower! Needless to say, 18 years of this had taken its toll. We basically took this room to the studs, as there was some water damage behind the tile. Also, in this day and age of "full disclosure" the before pictures were actually taken in my mom's guest bath. We were so happy to start ripping out our old bath that we never thought to take before pictures! Our bath was identical except we had nasty linoleum floors, and our lovely "faux marble" counter was green as opposed to yellow. Also, our shower has a window and the white ceramic tile covered the entire stall. Other than that, everything is identical. I guess those vanities and linen cabinets were a "builder's special", as our homes were built within a year of each other.

Old shower enclosure with white ceramic tile
New shower area - modern glass doors, new window and travertine tile
Old builder grade vanity
New modern vanity and sink. This was a steal at Home Depot - clearance floor model $99.00! It does have a scratch on the back, but I figure the wall didn't care tee hee.
Old "built in" linen closet
New linen closet. This is actually part of a wardrobe line from Ikea - it fit perfectly, but oh the little cloud of blue words while assembling this. It is almost exactly the height of the room, and the room is very small, so it went together fine but trying to squeeze it into the niche . . .
Detail of the ceiling. At the time that we redid this room, we had no idea how easy it was to remove popcorn from the ceiling, so our fix was to put beadboard up. I actually like the way it came out and it was certainly less messy.

Close up of the travertine. We used smaller tumbled travertine for the trim (also around the window in the shower area). I like the contrast of the textures.

Finished view from the hallway. My husband laughed because for the first month after we finished this he would find me in the doorway just looking at the room!

Hope you enjoyed our bathroom renovation. Now pop on over to Susan's to see all the other great before and after posts!

Butterfly Award

I received a lovely surprise today. Susan at A Southern Daydreamer gave me this wonderful award. Thank you Susan, this is so sweet of you! If you haven't visited Susan yet, go to http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ for a real treat! She has a wonderful blog with great decor ideas and some wonderful tutorials on making your blog look great. She is also the host of Outdoor Wednesday, one of my favorite weekly blog events.

The rules of this award are:
1) Accept the award and post it on your blog along with the name of the person who gave it to you as well as a link back to their blog.
2) Pass the award on to 5 blogs worthy of the award.
3) Be sure to notify the recipient that you have left them an award!

I would like to pass this on to some new friends in blogland. Actually a few are old friends, but have new blogs, so please support them and visit!

Marty at A Stroll Through Life - wait til you see her gardens!

Robin at Alabama Slacker Mama (the title alone is enough to grab your interest, no?) Very funny lady - see her Cartoons and Sick Days post.

Cyndi at Life on the Prairie - she has the cutest grandbabies you will ever see. And wait til you see her pictures of the snow they've had this year!

Christine at Christine' Home and Travel Adventures - Christine has the most gorgeous home, and she has been to some amazing places. She's a great tour guide.

Lori at Basketball, Gymnastics and Me - if you know Lynette at Lynette's LAM blog, you've probably met Lori by now. Great sense of humor and a fun blog to read.


Thank you again Susan, can't wait til next Wednesday!

Themed Thursday - our little fur person

Welcome to Themed Thursday, graciously hosted by KD at Southern Whimsey. Visit her at http://southernwhimsy.blogspot.com/ to see a list of this weeks participants. While you're there, check out KD's great home ideas! You'll be glad you stopped by.

This weeks theme is "Furry Friends, Real and Faux". I know she looks stuffed in this picture (the cat silly), but our little Sax is very real indeed. When our daughter was in high school, she worked part time at the veterinary practice that I manage. We had lost our 3 dogs and 2 cats within 2 years, and just could not bring ourselves to get another. DH and I thought that it would be best to hold off on any pets with Cait getting ready to go to college. It's a big responsibility to care for one of these little creatures, and we assumed (and we were right!) that we might be taking alot of weekend trips for football games, recitals and the like. One day, Cait came home from work and was acting rather odd. I asked how her shift went, and she would not turn to look at me. It was February and she had on a heavy coat. As she turned to go to her room, I saw a little fuzzy head pop out of her jacket! "But Mom," she pleaded. "She was laying in a rain puddle next to the dumpster at work, I couldn't just leave her there" Of course, at this point we had not had a dog or cat in the house for over 2 years. So, we had no cat food, litter, litter pan, or any of the kitty "necessities" I also did not want to get attached to a stray cat that had not been checked out first. So I told Cait to take her up to the clinic and put her in the isolation room, and I would have one of the Doctors check her the next day. If she got a clean bill of health, and Cait purchased the basic cat necessities, we would keep her on a trial basis. The next day, Dr. Webster checked her over well, tested her for all the nasty kitty viruses that are out there, vaccinated her and gave us the thumbs up to take her home. We also discovered that she had a spay scar and was declawed! Sax has turned out to be the best cat we have ever had. She is very social and loves nothing better than laying in our lap or on our chest, attempting to con us into a nap! Turns out napping is the thing she does best, she is the QUEEN of naps! I have read that the average house cat spends 13-18 hours a day sleeping, I think she is trying to beat that average.
This is her "pout pose" when I remove her from my lap to use the computer! DH says I bought the new sofa because it matched the cat - hey at least the hair doesn't show as badly!
This is Sax pretending not to be asleep - she's just "resting her eyes"
She likes to hide around the corner and pounce on your leg when you come through - she thinks you can't see her!
Staring out the window at her neighborhood boyfriend - Romeo, oh Romeo! She's not allowed outside, daddy is very protective, and remember, she's been declawed. Besides, we have some wicked mockingbirds in our yard! And please, please, please forgive the holy mess in this room - this is Cait's room (I promise you Barney purple was not my idea) and until we redo this room it has become a storage shed! Notice the unframed art on the chair? The glass table top leaning against the window? You should see the other side of the room, or no, maybe you shouldn't.
This is Sax saying so long, it was nice to visit, but she needs her beauty sleep! I hope you enjoyed meeting our little fur person. Please remember that stray and shelter pets need a home too, and they usually make the very best pets. It's almost as if they understand that you saved their lives, and the unconditional love and patience they offer is beyond compare!