Throwing Hands

My squashed hand is better but confusing. Pain is about a tenth of what it was. I seem to have full mobility and I'd say about 90% of my strength. There's some discomfort if I squeeze a fist, for example, but I can cut vegetables, something I couldn't manage last week.

The confusing part is it's swollen disproportionately to how it feels. So am I good to go? Or should I take it easy? What's the bellwether here? I'm trying to err on the side of babying it a bit and hoping the swelling goes down soon.

In full gut job remodel of an 1870 farmhouse news...

Hubby has finished tiling the shower in the main upstairs bathroom. In an effort to save money, we searched high and low for the most affordable tile that fit what we were trying to do. Unfortunately, that led us down the path to hell. 

We ended up with a tiny little hexagon tile that was a huge pain in the ass to install. In hindsight, we should've gone with the more expensive plug and play tile because it would have saved so much time. It was that much of a pita. We would've been better off to spend the extra $500-700.

Hubby, however, slayed and patiently installed the tiles, measuring out the world's tiniest triangles for the edges and corners. He did this for a month. Because you have to go slow when working with  advanced level home improvement stuff on crooked walls or else you make expensive mistakes. And going slow also means lots of sanity preserving breaks when you're trying to install the world's worst jig saw puzzle on the walls. 

But now it's done so we can move on to the next thing! Huzzah!

(For the record, the tile guy quoted us $3000 to do the tile. By comparison, we paid $300 for them to do the floor. This was beyond any level of tiling the average person does. Also known as the tile guy didn't want to do it. I told hubby either he lays the tile or I'll glue it in with E6000 craft glue because we were so not paying $3k for installation.)

So. Some background before I explain the rest of the bathroom. We've tried to upcycle as much as possible for the house both to save money and to be more sustainable (also we both like antiques and vintage and funky stuff), BUT gosh is that a huge PITA. Nothing fits like you expect. The scale is always off somehow.

I can see why there are standardized vanities and cupboards and why everything on HGTV is gray and white. Custom stuff gets finicky and fussy. Things you think will work, don't. Or there'll be something that's perfect, but you need like five of them and there's only one. Or it's super expensive because thrifting is IN now. 

We've had way more upcycle fails than wins and probably made things harder for ourselves. Sigh.  

For this bathroom, we're planning on turning an old dresser into a vanity and slapping on some vessel sinks. They do it on TV all the time, right? How hard could it be?

Hahahahahahahahahahhhaha sob sob sob.

The thing they never show on TV is how they know stuff will work. How they measure. How they standardize. How they customize. How they know. We literally have no clue. We don't know jack. We're like blind monkeys flinging decorative shit over here.

We're already having issues with fit. And color. And plumbing. And fixtures. It kind of goes like this... 

Yes, we spent $20 on thrifting awesome bathroom fixtures, but now we may need to spend $300 for something that will actually fit. The $20 things can go sit in the garage and think about what they've done until we finally get around to flipping them. 

We'll see what shakes out. Naturally, I splurged on the world's most expensive vessel sinks, the vessel sinks of my dreams, the vessel sinks that look like abalone shells. This was my one thing. My one big purchase after pinching every. single. penny. everyplace else. Meaning we're using them come hell or high water. 

There's no way out. We are doing this thing.

If it works out, it'll be bitching. I have a mermaids and sea monsters theme for the bathroom, but I'm trying to make it look high end. I've got some brilliant wall paper for an accent wall*. From a distance, it looks like a formal brocade pattern, but up close it's actually made up of mythical sea creatures. It's subtle and understated and unexpected.

The vanity will be coral orange, if I can just find the right color. The dresser we're using is from the 20s and it has these cool wavy, rippling drawers that fit the water theme. 

It has potential. We just have to get it all to work. Crossing fingers...

Lots of ifs in this post. Yikes. Well, we did get the tile in and that sucked ass so hopefully we can get through the rest of it okay.

*Given the amount of people who've bought the wallpaper after I showed folks what I selected, I must have chosen well. I should email the vendor for a commission lol.