I know T.S. Eliot said April is the cruelest month, but man, in my experience it’s always been February. In Februaries past, I’ve dropped out of school, been dumped, and probably worst of all, returned home from an amazing vacation.

But this year, February was tolerable, if not actually pleasant. Some highlights:

Our Valentine’s date at Agrodolce. Afterwards, we went home to watch So I Married an Axe Murderer, which has been my Valentine’s Day tradition since I was 16.

Since we knew we’d be having a nice dinner the night before (and because I had to work in the morning), Valentine’s Day was very simple. We went out for pho, and then went to see Deadpool. (Neither of us are really into doing gifts for Valentine’s Day.)

We learned how to make Thai food!

Our bathroom was put back together – just in time for me to go on vacation 😉

And I finished another 10 books, bringing me to 20 for the year and 27% of the way to my goal of 75. (Granted, three of them were graphic novels, one I started in 2015, one I started in January, and two I’d read before!) I’m still delighted with my newly rediscovered love of reading.

A few standout titles:

–The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown – it’s enjoying a moment of popularity, so I assume those of you who haven’t yet read it have heard of it, but it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s the story of the University of Washington crew team who won gold in the 1932 Olympics.
–Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood – Another beautifully written Atwood novel, this one about an artist who visits her childhood hometown and upon returning to the city, is flooded with memories from her coming of age.
–The Passage by Justin Cronin – I reread the first book from this post-apocalyptic vampire trilogy in preparation for the third book, which comes out in June! Read my original review here.

In case you’re wondering, the no-TV-on-weeknights thing is still going really well. While it was easy in January, on several occasions in February I had to talk myself out of turning on the TV. I was really busy (mostly getting ready for the vacation I’m going on) which you’d think would would keep me away from the TV remote because there wasn’t time for it – actually, it made me want to watch more because I was tired and wanted to turn my brain off. I ended up mindlessly cruising the internet instead. I’m not sure that’s an improvement.

And the last week of the month, my mom and I have spent on vacation! But I’ll tell you more about that later.

Happy Leap Day! Real life is for March.

I’ll just warn you at the outset – this is a very long story.

Here’s the short version:

It took way longer than we thought. I shed many tears over things that went wrong. In the end, we have a lovely new bathroom.

The long version:

Way back in 2014, we noticed that the caulking around our bathtub and the grout in the pink-tiled tub surround was starting to erode. I wanted to get rid of everything pink (those damn pink tiles are in both bathrooms and the kitchen, and I hate cleaning them) so we decided it was time for a new bathtub, too.

We got this crazy idea that we could update the entire bathroom in just a couple of weeks on our tight budget by doing much of the work ourselves.

I spent almost every evening in July watching HDTV and shopping for bathtubs online. When we found the bathtub we wanted, we ordered it right away and crossed our fingers that it would get here in time. The tub arrived within two days, and sat in our living room for two weeks until we were ready for it.

“Better early than late,” Joel and I laughed to each other. Little did we know, this was just the first in a long line of things not going according to plan.

 

We started the demolition on Friday, August 22. Of course, we didn’t have anywhere to store the cabinets that we tore out … so they went into the living room with the new bathtub. The cats were very excited about this.

 The following Monday was our anniversary and we spent it working on the bathroom (no weekend work is permitted in our building.) We rented a U-Haul and went down to Home Depot to buy some greenboards. When we got them home, we realized they wouldn’t fit in the elevator or the stairwell. We ended up carrying each piece into the parking garage, cutting them in half, and then loading the halved sheets into the elevator.

We took a well deserved break and went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We were SO tired, but we toasted to the new bathroom and patted ourselves on the back. The plumber was scheduled to come the next day, and the contractor who was installing the new tub surround was scheduled to come Thursday. Our labor intensive work was done, and within a week, we’d be enjoying our new bathroom!

… Or not.

The next day, I was back at the office, excitedly texting Joel “is the plumber there yet? Text me pictures!” and he informed me that the plumber’s van had broken down en route. So we rescheduled for Wednesday. But – the new vanity was delivered, so Joel had plenty to do.

Wednesday, the plumber showed up and got to work plumbing in a second sink. This takes a while. I stopped on the way home from work to pick up some takeout (remember those sheets of drywall? We didn’t have anywhere to store them either, but not wanting them to be in the way of the tub, put them in the kitchen, rendering the kitchen unusable.)

When I got home, the plumber was still there working, and Joel and I still had a ton left to do before the contractor came out the next day to install the new tub surround. We had to get those sheets of drywall out of the kitchen, installed around the tub, and painted!

 

By the time the clock struck midnight and I was still standing in the tub in my work clothes slapping paint on the boards, I admitted defeat. The rest would have to wait until morning.

The contractor was scheduled to show up between 8 and 10, so we figured we had plenty of time. And wouldn’t you know it, we got the guy who showed up promptly at 8! He suggested that we reschedule the appointment so that the paint would have plenty of time to dry. I was bummed, but it gave us a little breathing room to get to some of the detailed stuff that we hadn’t had a chance to address. We ended up making FOUR TRIPS to the Home Depot that day.

In between Depot trips, we figured out that the new bathtub had been installed incorrectly. So Joel scheduled another appointment with the plumber to have it fixed.

The next week, the plumber came back and reinstalled the tub. It was better, but there was still a weird strip down the center where the floor wasn’t properly supported. The plumber suggested we try hiring someone else.

So we did. On September 7th, a second plumber installed the bathtub for the third time. This time, when the issue with the floor persisted, I contacted the manufacturer to say that we’d gotten a defective tub. This ended up being kind of a long process, too, but they sent a local fiberglass expert to evaluate, and thankfully, it was an easy fix.

At long last, on October 5th, the contractor came out and installed the new tub surround!

 

Now, at this point, the tub was technically functional, but part of the floor had been damaged when we took out the old tub, so I asked Joel to fix it before we started using the tub. As he was in the throes of midterms, it was another week or two before he had time to get to it.

Once he did, I let him take the inaugural bath in the new tub. It had been nearly three months since either of us had taken a bath! (Before you give me too much credit for my generosity – I used the bathtub in my hotel room when I travelled in early October, so it was only fair!) And when he did (ominous music) the drain leaked.

Now, when the first plumber installed the new drain, there was a bit of an issue because he couldn’t access it from below (as in, through the ceiling of our neighbor’s shower.) He’d had to cut a hole in the wall behind the tub, and luckily, our laziness paid off because we hadn’t yet gotten around to patching that hole. The plumber made yet another trip out to tighten up the drain, but from then on, it’s been smooth sailing.

(Well, smooth sailing of the bathroom project anyway. In the middle of this, we also had to replace our washing machine and all of our heaters. Please, no jokes about the joys of being a homeowner. I don’t find them particularly amusing right now.)

The week before Christmas, Joel finished installing the molding around the bathroom and we decided to call it good. We still need some kind of cabinet or shelving to store our linens, but I don’t think I can bear anymore work or shopping for bathroom furniture.

***

In conclusion, I have some advice for anyone contemplating a bathroom remodel: don’t.

Okay, fine. If you must, hire a project manager to make all of the decisions and trips to the hardware store for you, and take a relaxing vacation to come home to a finished project.

Hello! Remember me? I am returning from a long and unintentional hiatus to (I hope) regular blogging. But I know I’ve made that promise before, so let’s keep our collective expectations in check.

I have some longer, and more interesting posts in the works, but in the meantime, here’s what’s been going on over the past several months …

Accepted!

Joel is finishing his two year degree at the community college this summer, and sent in his application for transfer to the University of Washington during the winter. We waited on tenterhooks to hear back, and finally, the good news turned up in our mailbox early this month – Joel’s going to go to UW and be a Husky!

Massage

I started practicing massage again this winter! I’ve been mum about it on the blog because I’m working for a national chain that has a social media policy and I figured better to say nothing than say too much (well, and also because I haven’t been blogging!) But I will tell you that I’m giving just a few massages one day a week, which seems to be exactly the right amount to keep my wrists and shoulders healthy and keep me excited about massage.

Home Improvement

You may recall that last year, Joel and I tackled a major decluttering project, and one of my 2015 resolutions was to keep getting rid of our unnecessary stuff. We’ve continued to pare down, and this month, tackled deep cleaning and minor home renovation in preparation for some major renovation of our bathrooms! More on that later.

We also survived a second major construction project in my condo building in the six years since I moved in. There was a (relatively small, but still scary) fire in the parking garage this spring. The biggest difference between the two construction projects was that I’m now on the board of directors of the HOA and let’s just say it was a good learning experience for me to be involved in the process of restoration after the fire.

What I’m Watching:

Joel and I started watching The X-Files, which is filling the Buffy shaped hole in my heart (I finally finished all seven televised seasons and am working through the eighth season comics.)

With Joel’s school and work schedules, I have quite a bit of time to myself and have filled many happy hours with the Gilmore Girls.

And I decided, what the hell, why not watch all the way through 30 Rock for approximately the seven hundredth time (in reality, more like the fourth) (I really love that show.)

Cat Updates

Stormy had surgery for her glaucoma in January, and is feeling so much better! Her appetite is back and she’s been much more social.

Eggs’ health challenges continue, and he’s sporting several fewer teeth than the last time I posted. But just look how sweet and snuggly he is!

***Here’s what’s coming in future posts (which will be published consistently, I promisehope!):

-Musings on habits and happiness
-An updated list of my favorite GF friendly restaurants
-My thoughts on all seven seasons of BtVS
-More book reviews!
-Assuming everything goes smoothly, I’ll tell you about our bathroom remodel 🙂

Well, hello there! It feels like forever since I’ve blogged, but I guess that’s because it was last year! Har, har.

Anyway, I hope your 2015 is off to a good start and 2014 ended on a good note. I had tons of vacation time left at the end of the year, so as I write this, I’m wrapping up my second five-day-long weekend. Both weekends have been completely delightful – lots of time spent with my friends and family, quite a bit of yoga, and so many kittens! My parents adopted a couple of kittens who came home right before Christmas, and we’ve been cat-sitting for our friends’ kitten. (Don’t worry, Stormy and Eggs are getting plenty of attention despite the recent influx of tiny cats.)

2014 ended much the same as 2013 – Joel and I enjoyed a quiet night in eating pizza and watching movies. Around 9 o’clock, we heard a knock on the door. It was our neighbors’ grandson, who wanted to make sure we had party hats and noisemakers for New Year’s Eve 🙂

And now it’s time to talk about New Year’s resolutions. I enjoy them, always have, but I’ve not ever had amazing success rates. I can’t promise that 2015 will be *THE YEAR* that I follow through on my resolutions, but the ones I’m making this year are meaningful and measurable, so here’s to a great 2015.

1. $$. My #1 goal for the year is to better manage my money – not very interesting blog fodder, and I’m sure you’ve made the same or similar goals at some point. It basically boils down to spend less money on frivolities and put more into savings.

2. Get organized (part 1). Continue our streak of cleaning/decluttering/organizing our condo. Some of you may remember the cringe-worthy before pictures I shared of our spare bedroom – and the amazing progress we made. This weekend, we started re-organizing the kitchen and loaded up several boxes to take to Goodwill. When we got home, I immediately filled another box. The funny thing is that just when I think we’ve gotten rid of everything we possibly could, I find more things to part with!

3. Get organized (part 2). I was recently introduced to the “Bullet Journal” method of note keeping and thought it sounded very logical and non-tedious. Here’s the video, if you’re curious about it:

I’ve always kept paper journals and hand written my grocery lists, but because I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I have to have separate journals for everything. I’ve been trying to consolidate this habit, and tried several different apps to replace my journals, but hated having all this different information in all these different places. I like the idea of the bullet journal where everything is in one place, but organized so it’s easy to find. So far, I’m quite pleased with it. I’ll report back at the end of the year.

4. Read 48 books. That works out to 4 per month, but isn’t quite as strict as a book per week. Looking over my Goodreads account, I read only 6 books in 2014, which is absurdly low for me. I guess I was spending more time reading blogs or shopping online …

***

That’s all for today! Thanks for sticking with me for another year.

Every year, at the end of the year, I like to look back through the archives of my blog and share links to some of my posts from the year. Then I write a new post at the start of the year to share some resolutions and look forward.

I do this for the blog content, obviously, but mostly because it’s a nice, organized way for me to revisit the archives and see how I’ve grown and my blog has changed over the years.

Here are the posts from past years:

Greatest Hits of 2013 // Bring On 2014
Looking Back, 2012 Edition // Welcome 2013
Goodbye 2011 // And Hello, 2012

This year, I kept up my blog only sporadically, and for a while I posted only because I felt obligated to do so. But it’s still fun and interesting (to me, anyway) to look back and see the progression my blog has taken over the past year.

Let’s start with a look back:

Memorable moments

• Cleaning and getting rid of our excess stuff was our big project for pretty much all of 2014. Our spare bedroom, which had been dumping grounds for unnecessary stuff, became a cool hangout room/Joel’s study zone.This project got me interested in minimalism and made me reconsider my buying habits. I’m so proud of the changes we’ve made – now we just have to keep it up!
• We celebrated our first wedding anniversary(!)
• Joel went back to school. Although I mentioned this only in passing, it’s been a big adjustment and probably what I’ll remember most about 2014.

Most popular posts

Looking over my analytics, my most popular posts this year were reviews and write ups that people found while googling, or that I submitted to link-ups, or in one case, that a more popular blogger linked to (I know, I was shocked when it happened, too.)

• Julep Maven Box
• Another Subscription Box: The SA List
• Slate Audio Book Club Discusses Slaughterhouse Five with Hugh Howey
• NuNaturals New Stevia Syrups Review and Giveaway
• Sweet Anthem Fall Perfumes
• The Final SA List Subscription Box

My favorite posts

My favorites, it should come as no surprise, are the ones I put the most work into writing up, where I tried to share my thoughts in an eloquent and interesting way.

• Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Talent and the Torment
• These Self Published Novels Aren’t Going to Publish Themselves
• Blogging Birthday
• Of Snark, Sockpuppets, and Trolls: Being Famous on the Internet
• 28
• Super Serial

My favorite photos

Sadly, I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I hoped this year, and most of these are actually iPhone photos. But I still love them.

Joel and Phil testing out an oversized table on our way to see the latest Hobbit movie

Ava trying to help me play with my phone

Espressos on our anniversary, from the same coffee shop we went to on our first date

And this very meta pair of selfies. (We were playing Takenoko, by the way, which is very fun.)

***As always, stay safe, and I wish you a Happy New Year! You can look for my post welcoming the new year next week 🙂