I'm not sure which cliche to use:
Things never turn out as planned.
We got started and then it snow balled.
I have a way of turning a mountain into a mole-hill.
It all has a way of working out in the end.
All is well that ends well.
The truth is, any of these one-liners would fit the situation. :) I'm pretty sure it could also be related to an experience in the life of almost anyone. You know, that project that you just intended to be small, and then ended up taking quite some time to finish?
That's just how the bathroom project started. Small. And, as I'm sure you've probably guessed, it ended big. I feel it's important to mention now that Nathan and I survived our first remodeling project together without even the tiniest of disagreements. :)
We went to Sears to buy the paint on Friday night. I picked a color, they mixed it and showed me the color. It came NO WHERE close to the color of the swatch. After a lot of yelling back and forth across the store (by the employees) they still had no solution on how to mix the paint to make it the color that I wanted. While they fumbled around, I told them we would go to the grocery store and come back in about 30 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the paint color was still far from the swatch. I chose not to purchase the paint.
Saturday, we went to Lowe's to try again for paint. Found a color. Mixed it. Bingo. We were headed home to tape and prepare the room.
Nathan did the sanding (some of the old white paint was peeling) and I was taping off the edges. As we were working Nathan tried to take the old rusty medicine cabinet off the wall so that we wouldn't have to tape around it. He also managed to get the light fixtures down too. They were literally awful looking florescent tubes, one on each side of the mirror. They popped, sputtered and hummed every time we turned them on. So here's where the story could go two ways:
Nathan's version: Aimee saw that I took the medicine cabinet and lights off and got the idea in her head that she could get new ones.
Aimee's version: Nathan said, "I got the medicine cabinet off, we could even replace that and the lights if you want. We might as well do it today while we have it all ripped apart."
So, we put on the first coat of paint (20 minutes tops) and headed back to Lowe's. We had the dimensions of the hole in the wall (for which a new medicine cabinet would slide right in). And we were admiring all of the UGLY, AWFUL, PLASTICY, ICKY looking cabinets that would fit in that exact space when I found "the one I REALLY wanted". The one I really wanted, of course, did NOT fit in the hole that already existed back in the bathroom at home with the fresh coat of paint.
At that exact moment, my DAD called. He and mom happened to be in the area and I asked them to come take a look at the cabinets and lights with us. (Nathan would want me to remind you that, at this point, my father hasn't seen the hole in the wall.) So as the four of us analyzed the situation, Nathan kept guiding me to the cabinets that would fit in the existing hole. Mom and I were drawn to the "cute" ones. So, Dad, being the "expert" on the issue said, "Well, let's get the one you like and see what we can do, it can't be that hard to make that hole a bit bigger and if we can't, we'll just bring this one back and get one that fits."
Well, it worked! I mean...eventually. We got home and marked off the wall where the bigger space would need to be created. Three words: studs, crossbeam, wires. These were all little hiccups that were invading "the space". (For the record, my walls are plaster.) Dad took a hammer, centered it in the space that needed to be knocked out, angled his body into it and looked at me. And in the most dramatic part of the scene he said, "Are you SURE you like THIS medicine cabinet more than all the others." I replied (with a few jumps and claps), "Yes. I'm positive, this one is PERFECT!" So Dad cocked the hammer back and, with all his might, slammed it into the wall. Then, POW! POW! POW! We had ourselves the start of a hole.
About an hour later, we still had ourselves...the start of a hole! :) There were 2x4's in the wall that weren't moving to make our hole any wider. and there was a cross beam that was smack dab in the middle. So we banged, and hammered, and sawed, and banged some more. At that point we'd removed about a 4" piece of wood. Dad, the expert, looked at me with defeat in his eyes (something I've rarely seen), "Well...as much as I hate to admit it, I'm in over my head. You're going to have to call someone to do this." I was nodding quickly, "Sure Dad, no problem. It's no problem at all." (I knew I'd gotten us into this and it was my job to be compliant in any way possible.) Nathan, however, was looking at dad like, "Seriously Scott?! You're giving up now? You're just going to leave it like this?" Dad: Exit stage right.
Nathan likened himself to The Little Engine That Could. He would clear that space in the wall if it's the last thing he did. So there we stood, in the bathroom, for hours (possibly four hours). Banging, hammering, filing, sawing, chiseling and banging some more. After a couple of hours, it was my instinct to just give up. I found it rather hard to hold in the words, "let me just call someone," but, because as I said before, it was my job to be completely compliant, I kept my mouth shut. After all, I could have ended up with the ugly medicine cabinet! So I quietly went into the other room and let Nathan do the manly work in the bathroom. Eventually, Nathan's friend Joel came over and offered (me at least) some comic relief. It was his birthday, we made him a cake. He helped Nathan in the bathroom, and I stayed out of it. So the boys tinkered away and eventually joined us in the living room. I promptly fell asleep on the floor and woke up at about 12:30 a.m. to Nathan putting the second layer of coat on the bathroom walls. Mr. Wonderful, right? Not yet. He gets better!
We went to bed with the second coat of paint wafting in the air. Sweet Dreams! With plans of church in the morning and a hole in the wall that was STILL too small, not to mention no lights in the bathroom, we were prepared to wake up early to get a little work in before mass. At 6 a.m. I'm fairly sure that Nathan jumped out of bed to inspect the paint and begin installing the light fixtures. I, on the other hand, was a bit more sluggish. I knew that I 'should' go into the restroom and support my ever-loving boyfriend who wouldn't give up. So, like a small child, I drug my blanket behind me, climbed into the bathtub, and became the supportive 'watcher'. (There's a strong possibility that I dozed off during the installation of the light fixtures, just like the child who gets tired of waiting.) I woke up from the nightmare of the bathroom remodeling project just in time to realize that the light fixtures that we'd chosen from Lowe's were TOO BIG! Are you kidding me?!
Trip number 3 to Lowe's happened after church. We exchanged the light fixtures as quickly as possible and met Dad back at my house because we needed that darned hole to be bigger and he had some files. This is where the drama ends. We put up the new lights, no prob. We filed and filed and filed those 2X4's to no avail. We were within millimeters of the STUPID STUPID BUT REALLY CUTE medicine cabinet just sliding into the wall.
And in the end...we just ran out of time. (Afterall, it takes 4 hours to get back to Cincinnati and Nathan had to leave sometime.) So we ended up calling Brian (a.k.a. Mr. Fix it) and it took him less than an hour to polish off the project.
We are currently loving our newly remodeled bathroom (dimmer switch and all). I hope you like the looks of it...but even more, I hope you like the story and can relate in someway to one of your home remodeling projects that:
...didn't turn out as planned.
...snowballed.
...started as a mole-hill.
...had a way of working itself out!
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