demolished.

It's been a while... but we've been hard at work on the bathroom.

The last shot you saw was of the awful tile in the shower that did not want to come out. Well, instead of fighting it, we decided to take the entire wall out!





Because the wall was cement/plaster/wire mesh, Adam had to use his angle grinder to cut through it. Using it made a HUGE dust cloud with basically 0.0 inch visibility that was no fun. Poor Adam came out every time covered in dust head to toe. This is him going in...



Next, we discovered that our lovely pink tub was CAST IRON!! So Adam took a 16lb sledgehammer to it one night and we both carried it out in 2 hefty pieces.





The toilet is gone and now we're completely finished with demolition which is a great feeling.



Since then, Adam has been perfecting his plumbing skills and entirely re-plumbed the sink and shower.





Under the tub was a uneven mess of wood and cement so we had to experiment with some filler products. FYI, "self-leveling" is the way to go!! (We figured that out after 3 trips to home depot and 4 to menards.)



Just this weekend Adam started framing a shower niche, putting up drywall and test fitting the tub. I wasn't much help- I have a big proposal due on Wednesday so it was a working weekend for me :(



YAY for drywall! (this is where the recessed medicine cabinet will go)



We're getting there...
Our goal is to be finished by April 8th. Think we can do it??

M.S.

Look what I got in the mail the other day!



It's official.



But the Lord has been reminding me a lot lately that true wisdom is not from books, education, or degrees, but from knowing God and obeying his commands.



As I work towards the next three letters, I will strive to soak in the Lord's Word:

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
(Proverbs 1:7 )

Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor.
(Proverbs 18:12 )

my Valentine

Last Saturday, after working on the bathroom all day, we went out to Graziano's to celebrate Valentine's Day.



We were pleasantly surprised when our pizzas arrived in the shape of hearts! How fun!



Love and pizza.
What a great combination. :)

I love you, Adam! Thanks for my awesome water bottle!!

in demolition...

We dove into remodeling our bathroom a couple weekends ago!







And boy what a tough project it is- quite possibly worse than the kitchen! We are still in demolition phase and this is why...




(This was the only the progress we made ALL last weekend!)



The tile on the walls around the tub was NOT meant to be taken off!! The tiles are set in mortar on plaster walls which has this metal mesh built into it meaning it is nearly impossible to tear it out!

But we are trudging along one chip at a time and building fabulous arm muscles!

Here are a few photos that are serving as our inspiration for how our new bathroom will look eventually. (I look at them daily to remind myself why we're doing this to ourselves!!)


[This Old House]


[This Old House]



[BHG]

That's all for now. We'll keep you posted on our progress!

published!

Back in my LeTourneau days, my adviser and I did some research on elbow and wrist computer models. Five years later with the help of another student, we finally got an article published in the Journal of Biomechanics!

You can find the official abstract here.
If you want to read the whole article, let me know and I can e-mail a copy to you.

And I just got another paper accepted for publication on my Master's research! I'll let you know when that one come out in press.

4!

Happy Birthday Rebekah!!

You are growing up to be such a sweet and lovely girl.
We love you very much!
Love, Uncle Adam and Aunt Betsy