From the "What were we thinking?" file

Last August, we finally wrapped up remodeling the back room of our house. We love it, but the whole process wasn't exactly enjoyable. The general contractor was nice; the workers were timely and clean and efficient. But still the project was over-budget, took too long, and required me to use too many lawyer words.

But by October, we were already talking about starting another project -- the upstairs bathroom. It's functional (barely), but we knew that we might be going to Kansas and if we ever hoped to sell the house, we needed to redo that bathroom. It hadn't been remodeled for many, many, many years. When we bought the house, there wasn't a shower in it. We bought a "convert your bathtub spout to a shower" kit, duct taped a plastic shower curtain over the non-waterproof walls, and called it good. I'm guessing a potential buyer wouldn't be too pleased with that arrangement.

So in November, we met with a contractor. "I'm having a baby in February," I told him. "You will be finished by then." No problem, he reassured us. But he was in the middle of another project, and couldn't get to us right away. And then that other project took longer than he expected. And longer. And longer.

Finally on February 5 (you know where this is going, don't you?), he showed up to get started. "When's the baby coming?" he asked. "He's due Feburary 17, so you've got two weeks," I explained. But we suggested that he hurry because we didn't have another shower. (We were planning to walk slowly so we didn't sweat much and then just shower at the gym whenever we could.) So that Monday, the 5th, the contractor completely gutted our upstairs bathroom -- moved the toilet to the guest bedroom, took out the vanity and shower fixtures, and tore down the walls and ceiling.

That very evening, because God has a sense of humor, I went into labor and Cooper was born Tuesday, February 6. (We joked with the nurses at the hospital that we decided to come in that week just so we could take a shower!) So our first several weeks home with a brand new baby, we had no shower at home and the only functioning bathroom was at the opposite end of the house from our bedroom. On the upside, though, neither of us had to be anywhere in public for a couple of weeks, so we didn't offend outsiders with our lack of hygiene!

Despite the crazy timing (and the usual problems of being over-budget and taking too long), we are, once again, extremely pleased with the final result.

Here are the "before" pictures.

And the "after" pictures: