Weekend DIY Project: Fixing Up a Tiny Bathroom on a Tiny Budget

I have a tiny bathroom.  It measures 5' wide (I can easily touch both side walls at the same time) and 7' from the door to the back wall (with the back 30" of that being occupied by the bathtub/shower).  Like I said, it's a small bathroom.

When we moved into this house 4 years ago, I thought it would be so bad having a small bathroom, as long as I could figure out a way to work in enough storage space.  So, in addition to the built-in cabinet under the sink, I brought in another small cabinet and shelf, stacked them, and positioned them in the only available floor space which happened to be directly across from the toilet.  This worked and gave me the storage space I needed, but it left everything feeling even smaller because it shrunk the open space in front of the toilet down to about 24".  And it was in that tiny cramped spot that I had to kneel to bathe Kaleb try to dry myself off after showers without stubbing my toe on the cabinet or toilet.  But lacking any better ideas or the funds to find something better, I worked with what I had.  And I'd lived with it that way for the past 4 years.

A few weeks ago, I had mentioned to my good friend Jack that I had almost broken my toe while getting Kaleb out of the bath in that tiny little space.  Little did I know that, a couple of days ago, a Visa gift card would show up in my mailbox, a gift from Jack with a note telling me to use it to fix my bathroom.  So that's exactly what I did!  I took that $200 gift card and put about $150 of it toward supplies for a bathroom fix-up.  I even had enough left over to fill up the gas tank in my car!

Check out how far the money went!

P52, Somewhat: Week 15, "Tradition"

I grew up in a family with traditions.  We knew, more or less, what to expect at every major holiday, and it was nice to know what was coming.  Now that I'm a parent myself, I want Kaleb to benefit from these same types of traditions.  But the pressures of wanting him to have the perfect Rockwellian holidays, as I remember having in my own childhood.

What I have discovered is this: I probably actually never had a holiday that went perfectly according to my parents' plans.  My family holidays with Kaleb will probably never go perfectly either.  And that's ok.  Just as I never had any sense of things going wrong as a kid, Kaleb probably won't either.  In fact, the most important tradition is to simply spend time with Kaleb and do things to make his holidays special and memorable, just as my parents did for my brother and me when we were kids.

This year, for the first time, Kaleb and I dyed eggs.  Assuming I already had all the supplies we'd need, I didn't bother to read the directions of the egg dying kid my dad had given us.  I bought some eggs, and hard boiled 20 of them.  18 of them survived the boiling without cracking, and they were set aside to be colored.  On the day we were to dye the eggs, however, I realized we had no vinegar to add to the dye water to help the color adhere to the egg shells.  A quick glance around Google hinted that I might be able to use lemon juice instead, and I decided it would just have to work.  Kaleb and I spent some time dying the eggs, six at a time in three rounds.  They came out with plenty of imperfections, not at all what I had hoped for my first attempt at sharing this activity with Kaleb.  But you know what?  He didn't notice those imperfections at all!  He was overjoyed to be able to help, to get to participate in something new and fun.  When it was all finished, I couldn't pry Kaleb out of the kitchen.  He actually wanted to stand atop his stool and watch the eggs drying on the counter.

D.I.Y. - Calming the Flip-Flop Chaos

I live in Florida.  For me, being a person who almost never gets cold, that means flip-flops are pretty much suitable for year-round wear.  This also means that I have amassed a small horde of flip-flops, in several styles and a range of colors.  And while most of my other shoes reside in identical plastic shoe boxes stacked in my closet, flip-flops see too much use for that to be a practical solution for their storage.

So, most of the time, my flip-flops end up piled under two of the three bar stools in my kitchen instead, near the door where we come in and out, rendering those stools unable to be pulled out and used most of the time.

How to Clean and Rejuvenate Copper-Bottomed Pots

Since I was old enough to begin learning how to cook, we have had the same set of quality copper-bottomed Revere Ware pots in our kitchen.  While doing the dishes tonight, I realized that the one I was readying for the dishwasher really needed a good cleaning.  (The others need it too, but I'll get to them some other time.)

Over time, air and repeated use and washings cause the copper bottoms of the pots to oxidize.  (This process is the same reason the copper coating on the Statue of Liberty is green rather than bright and shiny copper.)

So, I used a method I learned years ago and gave the pot in hand a little extra attention.  It doesn't look brand new again, but it looks pretty darn good for being 20-ish years old and only having had 5 minutes of extra scrubbing put into it!

Before:

Before, with flash

Before, without flash

Teddy Bear Bath Time!!!

If your kids are like mine, you may feel, sometimes, that the stuffed animal zoo has taken over your entire home.  If you feel this way, well, it's probably true.

But stuffed animals (and baby dolls) can be great, healthy toys for children.....girls AND boys.  I was told by a co-worker at a previous job that little boys who had stuffed animals would grow up to be gay.  To that guy: you are an idiot.  If a little boy is going to grow up to be a gay man, I guarantee it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not he had stuffed animals as a child.  In the 70's there was "Free to Be You & Me" starring people such as Marlo Thomas ("That Girl") and Alan Alda ("M*A*S*H") and others.  One of the songs I like best from the show is William's Doll (watch newer version here) about a little boy who wants a doll.  His friends tease him saying "A doll, a doll, William wants a doll!"  His father is against the idea and tried to persuade his to like "boy" things like baseball.  In the end, William's grandmother is the wise one who knows that having a doll can set him on the road to learning how to be a good daddy when he grows up.  It's a good story, and a good lesson for parents of boys.