Bathroom Remodel & A Special Visitor!

If you like HGTV as much as I do I then you'll like this post! So when we moved into our house 11 or so years ago we always planned to remodel our bathroom because it was plain old HIDEOUS. It was probably last updated in the 80's with the cheapest of materials. The worst part was the awful wood paneling that made it look like a knockoff Swedish sauna. It was so ugly that I never put any effort into decorating because of what we always said "we'll remodel soon."  Unfortunately there were more pressing issues that came up that kept preventing us from doing it. Painting the exterior, insulating the walls, re-roofing the garage, TRIPLETS, money, addition of half a bathroom, and then a kitchen remodel. FINALLY after all these years it happened. Finally....

Since I never specifically took pics of our bathroom you'll get to take a
little walk down memory lane...here you can see the wooden walls and the tri-fold vanity.

The hideous laminate counter-top which would actually
get stained with blue toothpaste that the kids left on it.

Vinyl flooring that "looks" like tile.
Yeah you aren't fooling anyone!

Plastic tub with matching plastic walls.
Oh I bet you're jealous now!

You can't see it but the bathtub floor was permanently stained or discolored or something.
It always looked dirty even after cleaning it. 

We originally thought we'd gut the bathroom down to the walls but we decided
to see what it would look like if we just painted. It didn't look too bad
so we went with it! It saved us a TON of work too! I must add, we bought a paint sprayer for this project and it's amazing, painting is soooo much faster now.
It's totally worth it if you are a do-it-your-selfer like us! All those years painting by hand, ugh!

Layers upon layers of vinyl flooring! 4 layers to be exact, why why why why?!
Why would you do that!? And do you know that you can't throw this away in the regular trash.
You have to haul it to a special place where they test it for hazardous chemicals. Then if
it's contaminated you have to pay extra to get rid of it (insert red angry face)!

Ta da!
Our house if over 115 years old and has a craftsman/cottage look, so we tried to have the bathroom match that style. We picked a traditional octagonal floor tile. We also painted
the ceiling gray to balance out the white walls.  

Phil built this mirror from salvaged old barn wood,
I really love it and think it adds character and color. 

A salvaged wood shelf  with one of Phil's paintings
and some antiques we've collected over the years. 

Classic white subway tile with dark grout because who wants to worry about stained grout!
I also really wanted a shower head with a handle because the infrequent times that I actually do scrub the walls I'm always like "how do I rinse this now?!" I would always end up splashing water at it with a cup and getting the floor and myself soaked, ha!

Shower nook!
As Phil will attest, this was one of the most challenging parts of this remodel.
But he just had to have his challenge, haha!

Everyone always loves the boys matching robes : )

Matching school house lights
(Very affordable from Wayfair, we shopped around). 

Solid wood vanity with quartz countertop and undermount sink.
We got it from a place we recently discovered.
I was very impressed by the quality and price (compared to what HD or Lowes offered).
Check out Wayfair if you are needing lighting or a vanity soon.
I still need to decorate the window sill with something, looks too empty right?

Last week mama Elda came to visit!
The boys were so excited for her arrival : )

E & T with mama E

P & C

Farewell Ikea breakfast (it's conveniently right next to the airport), it went too fast!

7 Yrs 2 Mo! (Funny Story)

ETC are 7 years and 2 months old!

This might be the longest time between posts in several years, ha! I've been very preoccupied, first I had a crazy two weeks at work followed by Phil and I jumping into a full bathroom remodel. Then trying to host this years Festavus during the remodel. Anyways, it's good to be back and just because here's a funny story: 

A couple of months ago, we stopped by my work so I could do something quick. I told the boys one of them could come with. Phil and the other two boys waited in the car for us. As we were leaving I told Thomas that we should use the bathoom before getting back to the car. As I'm in the bathroom stall I hear Thomas next to me unlocking the door then an immediate "Oh I thought that was Eli!"

There so happens to be a very large mirror right outside the stall, hahahaha! It cracks me up that he confused himself for Eli and he wasn't anywhere near him : )

Mirthday at the Coast (7yrs 1mo!)

We spent last weekend at the coast. It was perfect, we took long walks on the beach, bought way too much candy at the candy store, swam in the hotel pool to exhaustion, and ate delicious food!

CET are 7 years and 1 month old!

Eli finding "treasures"

It was misty and foggy but that did not stop us!

The boys found this large hole someone else had dug and had a blast jumping over it

You know me, I love action shots! (Caleb)

Eli

I'm surprised that I still find their feet cute, ha!

Eli's beach tradition is to reconstruct a crab : )

Parental fail #874, trying to capture a sweet moment and
you don't realize the bird droppings, hahaha!

Their silly picture : )

Identical Triplets 7.0

Personalities Update!

At their 7 year check up, as healthy as can be!

Boys just keep getting older and their personalities are becoming clearer and clearer. When they were little they'd sometimes flip flop. For example, one boy would be quite the papi's boy for a while then they'd get over it and another would become the papi's boy. For the last several years there's hardly any flip flopping. They are staying true to their own ways.

As a whole they are good boys but they are still boys and act like boys. They fight, they play, they compete, they laugh together, they scheme together, and then they fight some more...and then fight some more. If you could only see the huge eye rolls I make when I hear someone running towards me while sounding off bone chilling screams...it's the same old story, same old song. Brother A was bothering brother B so B smacks A and A comes running to seek justice. All I can say is "OH BROTHER!"

They have grown up a lot since starting elementary school, they say things like "come on dude." They don't take baths anymore, just showers. They have refined tastes in food, for example they love pho, sushi, Thai food, ceviche (raw seafood cooked in lime juice) and tacos (the real kind, not those crunchy things that some call tacos). They will watch House Hunters with me and really get into it! We discuss the budget and what's wrong with the house and what they like and don't like, I love it, ha! They can carry on a meaningful conversation about basketball, the players, and the various teams. They can read and write quite well now too. AND they can finally spell their ridiculously long last name now, ha!

CALEB

The first to go toothless up top!

Our Caleb is such a snugly boy, he wakes up tired and just wants to lay around wrapped up in a blanket until he's ready for the day. Still laid back and easy going. Caleb is a homebody and loves to just chill at home. He loves to tease his brothers and get under their skin. Caleb loooooves mushrooms, he will even eat them raw! He is not that into sports, I asked him if he wanted to do basketball again next winter and he said "yes because I like playing with the team but I just don't like to practice." I think that describes Caleb very well, haha! He is currently the biggest triplet at 45.25 inches tall and 43 lbs.

Caleb in the morning, many times he'll turn off all lights
and everyone is like "hey we can't see now!"

ELIAS (aka Eli)

Last one to loose his teeth, the top two are barely holding on!

Eli is our smarty pants. The boy is quite the math wiz, you can ask him pretty complex (for a 7 year old) addition, subtraction and even division problems and he can do them in his head! He is always the last one up in the mornings, he must need to rest that hard working brain! Eli is so motivated, if he wants to do something he will accomplish it. He LOVES basketball and he's really good at it too because he practices a ton. Eli speaks with lots of emphasis and uses lots of hand gestures. He's pretty cute when he's telling you something he's excited about. He is the shortest triplet at 44.75 inches tall and 43 lbs. But out of shear will power I think he'll manage to grow taller than Caleb at some point, ha!

Showing us how he gets his beauty rest : )

THOMAS

Mr. T

Thomas is quite the fashionista, he likes to look good and he likes to be different. He can be a bit clumsy and rash at times. Thomas is always the first one up in the morning by at least a half an hour. He's great at sports, the monkey bars and climbing the trim in our house (see video below, it's impressive!). Thomas loves to draw and transcribe books (yes really). He's great at Legos both building with instructions and free hand building. His brothers frequently ask him for help on their Lego creations when they get stuck and Thomas always figures it out! Mr. T is right in the middle at 45 inches tall and 43 lbs.

Thomas literally climbing the walls!

Despite what they may say they do love each other, haha!

Eli the math wiz, see him in action...warning, it's a bit long so this is mostly for the grandma's : )

SEVEN!!!

WE ARE SEVEN!!!

7 years ago today I evicted these 3, hahaha!

CET

This morning : )

Pretty much the start and end of every picture taking session, sigh!

Summer Wrap Up!

The first day of fall came and went, which made me remember that I hadn't posted anything from our Cali trip that happened in early August! It's usually the highlight of our summer so to wrap up the season here are some cute pics of our trip!

The boys with their beloved mama Elda. The boys spent a full 3 weeks with her this summer (Phil & I joined them the last week of their stay). They loved it and didn't seem to miss us too much, ha! 

In Santa Cruz

With cousin Natalie

We tried to do a little photo shoot but the kids weren't having it and the lighting was bad.
But we still got a few good ones : )

Looking at those crazy boys

In Davis we recruited cousin Korina to take family pictures of us. 

ETC

T

E

C

The boys love their tia Janet

This photo shoot was like pulling teeth. It was over 90 degrees which for the boys this photo shoot might as well have been in the middle of a volcano! They were so hot and complained every chance they got so I'm surprised we got any decent pics of them, ha!

We tried, ha!

Out to dinner with mama Sue and papa Ed on our last day in Davis!

While on our trip we went swimming and I discovered that the boys can swim, like actually really swim! Check it out, I'm so proud : )