This weekend, we decided to tackle one of the outstanding projects left on our downstairs bathroom renovation. Above the vanity, we are planning on hanging a large silver mirror, topped off by a satin nickel vanity light.  When finished, (probably in the year 2012 at the rate we’re going!), it should look something like this artistic rendition.

In order to install the new light, we need to run electric wires to it,  either creating a separate switch, or splicing the vanity light into the existing wiring for the ceiling light.  We needed to figure out a way to run the wires without making gaping holes in the walls and ceiling.  We needed to think outside of the bathroom box. Literally.

The floor of the library upstairs runs directly over the bathroom. If we pull up the subfloor in the library, we will be able to access the ceiling light wiring and splice the new fixture. From our previous demos in the library, you may remember that the sheetrock walls and flooring have been removed, leaving only studs and subflooring – here’s a reminder pic of what we’ve been living with these past few months.  So it is really not much more of an eyesore/inconvenience/mess maker to temporarily remove the subfloor too. 

Now, in order to get to the subfloor, we first needed to remove the stud framing and the old door way. The wall that runs down the hallway is not a supporting wall, so could be removed with no worries. 

The wall that is adjacent to the foyer is a load-bearing wall, and so cannot be completely removed until a header is put in its place (much like we did with the two foyer walls downstairs here and here). To keep the subfloor sheet in tact, we did need to remove just a couple of the studs on the supporting wall.

Once the walls were out of the way, Rick was able to pry up one of the subfloor sheets. We did find an electrical box for a ceiling fixture, but unfortunately, it was for the wrong light! The hallway ceiling light sits just outside of the bathroom, so at least we knew we were close.  Another subfloor section coming up! 

By the time we sussed out where the bathroom ceiling lighting is, we were quickly losing light (generally not the best idea to be splicing electrics in the waning day light).  Just in case we hadn’t had enough fun for the day, before we laid the flooring back down, we got the fright of our lives. Earlier, I had been cautioning Rick be careful walking on the floor joists – one slip and he would fall right through the ceiling sheetrock into the hard tile floor below. No, Rick didn’t fall through, but one of the dogs almost did! As we had been working upstairs most of the day, the dogs would, from time to time, come and visit us and see what all the noise was about.  They would run up the stairs to the library, inevitably see that there was no flooring, and stop midstep at the top of the stairs.  But not our little T-Rex (who is either really brave, or really stupid…). He ran up the stairs oblivious to the missing floor and plopped straight into the cavity. My heart froze as I hoped the sheetrock would hold … which it did.  Luckily, Rex quickly realized the situation he was in (as judged by his ultra-wide eye balls) and jump out toute-suite. No harm done, just a few skipped heartbeats! So, with dogs rescued from impending doom, we layed the subfloor back down. We’ll deal with the electrics another day.  Stay tuned…

The girls are rocking the challenge this week! Congrats to Anne – another first Friday Fun winner – who was first to post the correct answer. If you can fit into my suitcase Anne, you are more than welcome to make the trip across the pond with me! Commendations to Alyssa who came in a close second.

As Anne, Alyssa and others guessed, the object in the photo was carpet underlay (a.k.a padding). Although we removed the carpet and underlay many weeks ago, we still have some remnants on the back stairs that connect the kitchen to the bonus room upstairs.  We are planning on converting the bonus room into a fully fledged game room, complete with pool table, wet bar (and wine fridge) and possibly a flat screen TV thrown in for good measure.  And yes, we will have to win the lottery before we can afford to do any of this!  Before we get to the expensive, albeit fun, stuff, we need to get the room prepped and ready.  And that means getting rid of the last of the dingy carpet padding (plus the pesky tack strips).

But it’s not all work and no play here at Casa Hogan-Hoodenpyle. Rick has been keeping an eye out for an inexpensive pool table to put into the game room. This week, he found his heart’s desire on Craigslist for a bargain price.  The 7.5ft table does not have a slate bed, but it will definitely offer hours of entertainment until we can  get a full size, slate table (Rick, you’re going to have to start selling your body again).  The photo below is not an exact replica of the pool table we have adopted, but it is a close enough redition.

 The pool table also came with two removable tops: texas hold’em poker and table tennis ( plus net and accessories). I do love playing ping pong, but not necessarily against Rick. Little known fact: Rick is an ace at table tennis – he was trained by Chinese pro tournament players when he was in the army! We played a lot of ping pong on our Honeymoon cruise in Alaska and I have to say, since then my skills at ball games have really improved.

In a couple of weeks, I am going to be in the UK for a short two week visit. In addition to catching up with my family, I will be attending the wedding of my good friend Ciara to the lovely Neil on July 18. Unfortunately, Rick will not be going with me – he’s staying behind to look after the doggies (plus finish ALL the renovation projects without me ).

If I had been in England at the beginning of this week, it might have been cool to join the 35,000 or so people seeing in the summer solstice at Stonehenge. Stonehenge is located in Amesbury in Wiltshire, just a stone’s throw away from Bath (where I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate work, and where Ciara is getting hitched). For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice marks the official start of the summer season.  On or around June 21 each year is the longest day of sunlight. 

Yes, that’s right folks. We’ve already had the longest day of the year. It seems contrary to me that the summer season gets underway just as the days start to get dark sooner and sooner. To counteract that mildly depressing thought, it is time for some more Friday Fun.

Grab a root beer float, put on your white shoes and celebrate summer by having a guess at this week’s photo challenge. HINT: the object is related (directly or indirectly) to the plans we have for our new game room.

Submit your guess in the comments section of this post.  Everyone’s guesses and the correct answer will be posted later tonight. The winner is the first person to correctly identify the object – they get to make the trip to England with me. Ok, just kidding.  No. really.

I’m loving this photo frame that wraps around the corner of any wall. In the age of the  digital picture frame, this is a unique take on the traditional way to display photos of your loved ones and things (not saying that your beloved is a thing …)

It can hold anywhere betwen 7 – 12 photos in its espresso stained and lacquered frame. You may notice that some of the photos are split down the middle for a “folding” effect.

At 80 bucks, it’s a little on the pricey side (for that money, you might expect the frames to be digital). But I can’t help but admire the multidimensional angles and sophisticated elegance that frame this brings to any home.  It’s on my Amazon wish list, for sure…

What is it with critters around our house just lately? Last week, we had two bats in the house (one dead, one alive) and now this week we seem to have a mole problem in our backyard.  Well, when I say ‘problem’, I mean it in the broadest sense. First of all, it’s not like we have acres of lush, manicured lawn that these critters are blemishing with their dirt mounds (plus, given the height of our grass lately – due to a broken down lawn-mower – it is not likely that we can see any mounds in the first place!).  Secondly, finding one mole hardly constitutes a mole ‘problem’ (can you say drama-queen, Amy?!).  Lastly, even if we do have a mole melee going on in our backyard, we seem to have at least two very adept mole killers on our hands.  Shrimp  and Reebs have been digging along the side of the house lately – little did we realize that they were after this furry quarry. After letting the dogs back in from the yard yesterday afternoon, I found a dead baby mole on the deck. Although I cannot know for sure who the mole killer was, both Shrimp and Reebs seemed very protective over their beastly bounty.  At one point, Rex tried to take a quick whiff of the mole but was taken down street-style by the two girls for getting too close. Maybe we should think about renaming Shrimp and Arriba to Killer and Fang…

Whatcha think of our new master bedroom ceiling fan? Not a bad transition from the gold-bedecked cherry-laminate faux-pas to this larger fan-ciful feast to the eyes. It’s a fan-tasy.  It’s fan-tabulous. It’s so fan-cy it makes me want to do the fan-dango. Ok, enough with the fan puns (can’t help it, I’m a fan-atic).

Fan

Wuh hoo! We have a Friday Fun winner! Congrats to first time winner Kyle who correctly guessed that the object was a brick. Well, technically, it showed two bricks with the mortar between them, as Brad adeptly noted, but hey, we’re not being that picky around here.  Kyle now has the honor of making himself the Friday Fun winner’s t-shirt … or mouse mat, coffee mug, jigsaw puzzle … whatever floats his boat, really.

The photo of the brick was taken from our large brick fireplace in the office. It is one of three fireplaces we have in the house – the other two are more traditionally designed, with mantlepieces and sheetrock surrounds.  Rather than go down the traditional route, I’ve been playing with some ideas for making the brick fireplace a focal point for the office. One of my favorite ideas is to cover the fireplace with glass tiles, a bit like the inspiration pics below. And if we want to go really bold, instead of getting typical square tiles, how about getting elongated subway tiles and laying them vertically, instead of horizontally… What do you think?

inspiration pics

On the back of two weeks of no Friday Fun winners, this week’s photo should be more guessable. No more obscure objects, no more cryptic photo-cropping, just a straight forward picture of a renovation based object (or objects) around the house. Of course, I’m not going to make it THAT easy – where would be the fun in that? Otherwise, instead of “Friday Fun”, the post would have to be called “It’s Friday, no fun to be had, here is a blatantly obvious picture”. So have at it .. let’s see if we can break the two week losing streak … 

As usual, submit your guess (or guesses) in the comments section of this post.  Everyone’s guesses and the correct answer will be posted later tonight. The winner is the first person to correctly identify the object – they get the honor of making themselves the much-coveted winner’s t-shirt. How can you resist?

Just a quick update on our bat situation: our current number of bats found in the house now total 2!

Rick found a larger, live bat on the floor this morning. He gently picked it up and placed it on the counter, where it decided to spread its wings and open its mouth in protest. A quick check online told us we needed to place the bat in a ventilated container and out of harm’s way (i.e. the dogs’ teeth) and wait until dusk to release it back into the wild. Which is exactly what we did. Around 8pm tonight, we opened the container and left batfink (my affectionate name for the little rabies-infested cutie pie) on the deck railing, so he could make his way back into the world.  He eventually flew off into a nearby tree, and will hopefully live happily ever after eating all the bugs around our house in sincere gratitude for a comfy stay at Casa Hogan.

Since moving in, we’ve come into contact with our fair share of critters.  For instance, meet this friendly grub found in the framing of the old back door.  The rotting wood was an ideal home for this creepy crawly.

What about this furry fiend? Rick snapped a close-up of this moth on the kitchen window as it was drawn to the lights inside our house:

Of course, we have encountered many spiders around the house, ranging from the small ones that inhabit the corners of our windows, to the big ones (with extra long legs) that claim the ceiling corners in our bathroom as their home. We’ve ran across a number of ladybugs, especially in the attic. Rick has caught sight of a small black snake in the bushes at the front of our house. We’ve had rabbits and deer visit our home. But nothing is quite as strange as the ‘present’ that was left on the sofa the other day:

Can you tell what it is? It took me a second to figure out what little creature had been lovingly placed on my seat by one of the dogs (Reebs looked the most guilty). Yes, it’s a bat! We’ve seen the bats fly around outside the front door some evenings, but I haven’t got a clue where this little fella came from (or whether one of the dogs caught the bat or merely found it and brought it inside).

I grabbed a napkin from the side table, picked the bat up from the sofa and snapped a few more photos. The macabre juxtaposition of the dead bat with the Subway logo was unintentional, although it does give new meaning to their slogan – Subway, Eat Fresh. Would you like a side of bat with your sandwich? Would that make it a batwich?