Update Sunday

Hi All! 

Just a super quick update because I am dead tired! Our social worker was able to schedule 2 (count em!) of our 3 home study visits for THIS WEEK! We have been working our little behinds off to get the house into tip top shape and it is not nearly ready. It actually looks a little worse  tbh. But things get worse before they get better, right? I'm sure that's a thing...

We also need to finish our home study 'self assessment.' Which is a novel and a half, even in point form. So pray for us! We so need it. I'm exhausted and off to bed but some time warping miracles need to happen for us to be ready by Tuesday at 6:30! But we are so blessed that things are happening so quickly. I credit the summer as people are busy with other things, but let's hope this expedited schedule holds into the winter!

Later! Xoxoxo 

PS you may now enjoy the following picture of my dining room (read garbage and going-to-thrift-store room.) Because if nothing else, you can feel good about your own homes. Most of my house looks something similar :s

Bathtub Blues

I know it is same day but the two posts didn't tie into each other well! I wanted to share with you my most recent thrifty excursion! 

My bathtub is original to our house (1976)  and as such is a good quality metal tub, but was not much to look at. The finish was quite worn off and therefore was A) stained and B) very susceptible to new stains. Case in point: Your feet are dirty, you step in to shower, new stain. Yes, that quick. There were actual footprints permanently in my tub.

An exhaustive search of Pinterest turned up a tub and tile refinishing kit by Rustoleum, which I proceeded to check every box renovation store for, with no success. 

I finally took matters into my own hands! (Quite literally it turns out)

BEHOLD!

My tub now looks shiny and brand spankin new! 

What I did:

3 coats of Bullseye 1-2-3 with a small fluffy paint roller (that stuff goes on anything, I used it to paint over tile last year)

1 coat epoxy

Voila!

It was actually super easy! It is such a small space that it only took about 10 minutes a coat with the Bullseye and a little longer with the epoxy because it is more finicky to not get drips.

I may do another epoxy coat to even out a couple of rough spots, but as they aren't visible, just apparent to the touch, I might not. 

I DID NOT SAND! What a miracle, I hate sanding. Just gave the tub a good scrub-a-dub (sorry, couldn't resist)

My total cost was about $100. Not bad in my books, compared to replacing it. I have also since seen the tub n tile transformation kit at Canadian Tire for $300 so I am still very smug :)

Also don't buy that for your tile... As I said earlier, I used Bullseye on my ugly floral tile backsplash last year, followed by a coat of chalkboard paint and it worked a treat! You could easily use the Bullseye, paint a new colour, and top it with an epoxy for new looking tile! The drawback is that you would no longer have a different coloured grout, which is no problem for me, but maybe not your style. Although I am not sure how the kit works so I don't know if you would have grout lines after that either.

That was a long rabbit trail... I will leave you with a different before picture:

It still looks stained in the after photo here :( , but it is just shadow off the glossiness (I know because the picture made me question myself and I got right in there to take a second look!) My bathroom lighting is not the best... All the better when I'm naked in there I suppose! As you can see in the first photo the finish was completely gone and now it is gorgeous. 

Xxxooo

August update!

If you have read the last post you will know about our plans to adopt (or at least on a very basic level,) so now is the time to get right into the nitty gritty!

Lots has happened in my world in the last month and a bit. We chose our agency, attended an adoption workshop, applied to the program, and sent in a multitude of paperwork. Right now we are getting super close to getting our home study scheduled. All that is lacking is for our criminal record checks and personal references to come back. Hopefully the references will be back mid next week because that is when the criminal checks are ready!

We have chosen Bulgaria! Our future son or daughter will be a tiny tot from Eastern Europe and we couldn't be more excited. We are looking for 0-3.5 yr age range.

The finances are looking less bleak as we now know the exact payment schedule and it is somewhat nickel and dimed away. So that is positive! 

Wish us luck! I will do my best not to be a  stranger during this time :s