long time gone

OK, I know. It's been forever since I updated.

I've never understood folks with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's never seemd to "affective" me.

But that flooded basement must have put me over the edge. It hit me big and bad after that. The weight gain was the biggest sign that something was up. Even though I'm not back to previous weights, it's up and all my new clothes don't fit anymore. And that just sucks.

But since it's been warming up and we officially have 12 hours of sun again, it feels like things are picking back up.

So I'm back to the home projects front. The biggest project I've been putting off is the master bath. I thought it might take me a week. It took two. I had completely forgotten how much sitting around and waiting there is. And how freaking hard it is so stay bent over for hours at a time.

The demolition was the fun part. The linoleum and it's luan-wood backer came out in one big piece. The tile around the tub came out in big chunks because they'd just put the tile onto drywall. And the drywall under the towels (which had no tile) came out in one big piece.

Easy stuff. One day.

Then I started cutting the concrete backerboard that would go under and behind all the new tile. Cutting the stuff can be therapeutic. I'm sure there's some kind of electric saw that will whiz right through the stuff. But I'm cheap. So I used the scoring method. You have to make repeated marks on the board before you can snap it. And by repeated, I mean HUNDREDS of marks. I looked like someone with OCD. And the only way to fall asleep was to make this scratch 100 times.

That was Two days.

Now onto the tile. I found an awesome deal on travertine, (the same stone they used to build the pyramids and Roman aquaducts) for the floor. But I wanted a brick pattern 1"x2" travertine mosaic for the wall. And I couldn't find anything for less than $10.00/sq. ft. And with 50 sq. ft. to cover that was way above my budget.

Then I found Oracle Stone on ebay and they got me the stuff for $4.50 sq. ft. plus shipping. The final costs were $6.00 sq/ft.

Since we're not made of money and that's still expensive, I decided to liquidate some assets on craigslist. I sold a desk, desk chair, coffee table, scanner, dog kennel... well, the list is long.

Here's the bonus: The craigslist sale paid for all the tile.

OK. So floor tile cutting: One day.

Wall tile installation: Three days.

Waiting for everything to cure: Three days.

Waiting for grout to set: Three days.

My mini-spa.

Ahhhh.