Bathroom renovation

We have a new bathroom! Well, not really, but it certainly looks like we do. James has been working hard to turn the cave-like downstairs bathroom into a beautiful, functional bathroom. We neglected to take "before" photos, but take my word when I say that it was dark, ugly and poorly plumbed.

Let's start with the shower. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we turned our attention to the downstairs bathroom because the shower leaked; it appears that the person who rehabbed our house never sealed between the shower pan and the shower stall, so that water leaked out anytime the shower was used. It was that way since the day we moved into the house. James first removed the flimsy shower stall and even flimsier shower base, and with the help of our neighbor Ben, who is a plumber by trade and an incredibly nice guy, properly installed a sturdy shower pan. Then James installed subway tile on the three sides of the shower stall, adding one row of beige glass blocks for interest:

Gorgeous, and it does not leak!

We had a lot of wasted space just inside the door on the left side, so James made a cabinet to fit the space:

What a great use of that space and pretty, too. The sink vanity was an ugly, nameless color so we painted it white to match the cabinet:

Although you can't see it in the photo, we changed out the knobs on the vanity to match the knobs that James installed on the cabinet.

We chose a lovely biscuit color for the walls in an eggshell finish, and chose to accent with black and white:

Love the shower curtain:

Here is a close-up of the wall decal next to the sink:

How fun is that? I decided that since I always seem to say that phrase, I might as well put it on the bathroom wall in the form of a vinyl wall decal from Trading Phrases.

Applause, applause! What was once an eyesore is now a lovely, light bathroom that we are proud to have guests use, and is now the preferred bathroom of everyone in the house. Well done, James!

More pie

When I told my friend Jennifer that I had signed up for the pie crust class, she told me that King Arthur Flour was bringing one of their traveling baking demonstrations to Syracuse. I looked up the date of the demo and put it on my calendar without knowing the subject of the demo; all I knew was that the demo would take place at the New York State Fairgrounds (very convenient for me) and that is was free.

The demo was yesterday and the subject was...wait for it...pies and scones. James and I arrived about thirty minutes early and there were already quite a number of people there. We were handed a small booklet containing recipes and helpful tips, along with a numbered ticket for the door prize drawing. We scored seats right up front with an excellent view of the demo table:

The room was decorated with several large signs like this one:

To the right of the demo area was the tempting display of door prizes:

So many prizes, but no winning tickets for us.

But we did win lots of great information and had a very fun time. The presenter, Irene, had a pleasant style and voice and she did an excellent job of talking and doing, told lots of stories, and she interacted well with the audience. I found that the info she presented added to the info I learned in the class two weeks ago. The single most interesting thing I learned yesterday is to add your butter in two steps: the first half of the butter is worked into the small pieces, but then the second half is left in bigger pieces. That allows for both a tender and a flaky crust.

I tend to get fidgety during presentations but the time flew by. In addition to the pie crust demo, Irene showed us how to make scones. Both James and I have never cared for scones, but we came to agree that perhaps we have just never had a good scone. I will definitely try the cheddar, bacon and scallion scone recipe from the booklet that Irene demonstrated.

On the way out, each participant received a King Arthur bowl/dough scraper (a $1.95 value!) and a sample of cheese from Cabot, one of KA's partners.

Today I put the information I learned yesterday into practice and made an apple pie:

It looks and smells good, so let's hope it also tastes good!