Deal of the Week

Thursday is grocery shopping day in my household.

I do not like grocery shopping.

Not one bit.  It takes too long, and I can never decide which brand is the better value.

To make grocery shopping more enjoyable I have implemented a few tricks.  Well mainly I just shop at Super Target.

I do this for two reasons:  First, so I can get a Starbucks to drink while I shop, and second because they have more than just groceries.

The point of this post is this.  Target sprinkles clearance items throughout their stores. 


Always, without fail, every week, I am able to find something for an incredible price.  Getting a great deal on something makes shopping for grocery so much better!  The only check is you have to look down every aisle to find said great deal.

This was my find today...

It is a gorgeous 4' x 6' rug. 

(please ignore the dog to the right of the rug)

Isn't it pretty.  The perfect mix of traditional and contemporary.  

Original Cost: $80

Clearance Price: $20

I found it in the housewares section, with the rugs of course.

I'd say I found a pretty good deal!

Bathroom Remodel Complete!!!

Today I put the finishing touches on our bathroom remodel!

Sorry for the length of this post, but I am really proud of Kent and myself.

Remember the what the bathroom looked like before...

Not terrible, but look at it now:

Go ahead scroll back up and down again. Take a few minutes to really look at the transformation.

I have always heard bathroom remodels have one of the highest return on investments. My question to you is how much do you think this change will add to the value of our house?

Now how much would you guess this transformation cost us?

Do you have numbers in your head??

I don't know how much value it added to our house, and you are going to have to read on to see how much it cost.

To Kent and me it was a lot of money, and it is $400 over budget, but it was well worth it! Below are some photos of the details and the cost breakdown.

Cabinet organization. All of the accessories we purchased for the bathroom were $185

No more shell shaped sink. Its all about marble now! The marble, sink, and faucet cost $579. The highest cost. The plumbing cost $12.

New floor tile! The floor and wall tile were the second highest cost, at $425

Here is our light fixture. All of the electrical work cost $84. (I laid down on the floor to take this picture).

The carpentry cost $28.

Paint cost $31.

Tools cost $37.

Everything I have read says that labor is the largest cost during a remodel. Well, our labor was free!!!

So the total cost for our entire bath remodel... drum roll please... $1,400.00

Pretty good for what we ended up with!

Bathroom Floor Tile

Today I installed the floor tile in the half bath. It literally took me all day to measure, cut, and install the tile. Cutting the tile was actually fun, thanks to the tile saw we borrowed from my Grandpa Bill. It was really easy and the cuts were perfect.

The hardest part was laying all of the tile without stepping on the ones that I already put down. To make sure the tiles were evenly spaced in the room, I had to start in the middle. If you can see the tile with the blue spacers laying on it, that is the one I started with. I then put down the tile above it, and worked my way to the left. Anyway, It was hard!

Kent and I were worried that the tiles would not be even, but I was able to get them pretty close to level. I tried really hard to follow all the directions and get the tile installed properly, but I am still worried they will crack. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

The room is really starting to come together.

More Tile

I spend a lot of time today putting the remaining tile on the wall behind the vanity. I still need to grout and do some touch up painting, but I had to take more pictures!

Once I put the mirror up and get the faucet installed it is going to look great!

Here is the next issue I have to tackle. When I put the grout down, I don't want to fill the holes in the actual tiles. Not sure of the best way to achieve this, but I am sure the internet will provide me with some guidance.

Tile going up!!

Here is a quick update on our bathroom remodel. We order new tile, which took a long time to come in. While waiting on the tile, I painted and put up the new light. Below are some pictures.

Our new light! A major issue with the old bathroom is that there was no light over the sink. We decided that a track light was an easy solution to this problem. While shopping for lights we realized that a lot of track lighting looks dated. We also realized that the electrical for the light was not centered in the room. All our problems were solved when we found this light. This picture is looking toward the sink wall. The other end of the light only has two globes, fixing the not centered problem.

I finally started putting up the wall tile today!! Remember, this is the wall behind the sink. I covered the vanity with a towel to protect it, but the tile looks great with the marble vanity! I have only put two rows of tile up, and have three left. Its really exciting!

Close up of the tile. Can you tell where the seams are?? (If you can don't tell me). I went to Home Depot to buy tile spacers, but they did not having any that were the right size. I bought some and tried to make them work, but I had to eye-ball it in the end. I think I did a pretty good job for my first time!

I am not sure why, but some of the glass tile are tilted. They were like this before putting them on the wall, so I am trying to be happy with it.

Here is a close up of the problem we are having with the size of the tile. There is a gap between the tile and the side wall. The gap looks rather large here, but in reality it is a little larger than the space between the tiles. I placed the tile so there is a similar gap at the other wall as well. Once I get the grout in I am hoping the gaps will not be as noticeable.

What I have learned: Tiling is hard!