Some Before, During or After Photos

I had my whirlwind trip to Idaho and back and it has taken me a week to get over feeling so spaced and worn out.  I now have a cold and go through 50 tissues a day--I must have caught it from the four planes I had to take to get there and back.  I won't ever rush the trip again like I did but I am glad I did this time to get home before the airports turned Thanksgiving crazy.  Plus I managed to go and not get stuck in a snow drift (although at the Utah/Idaho state line the temp dropped and snow flurries began and I almost freaked out except the roads are nicely salted).  This past week my head has been full of memories of gorgeous scenery.

North of Salt Lake City I saw an In 'n Out Burger place and I had never been but heard so much about it so I pulled over.  I did like how the menu was very simple.  I have to say though that I was not in love with the burger.  However, I was blown away by the super friendly service of the young people working there.  I would return for service like that.

OK, onto some before and after photos..........of my hair.  I realized that my hair lady has been going a little crazy and rushing when doing my highlights.  Instead of highlighting thin pieces, she highlights chunks of hair.  She also loves to use low lights which is good, but also very dark lights, darker than my own hair.  I had become a lady with frosted hair.  Not good.  Check it out:

Take a look at the hair above my right eyebrow  That first color is not a shadow.  It is very dark hair next to a light chunk.  And at my left temple was a big highlighted piece which I hated.  In fact, right after I paid for this in mid-October, I texted my hair lady to tell her I needed to come back in to darken my temple areas.  Then I was going to counsel her on how we can no longer have such light and dark contrasts any longer.  But I couldn't get in to see her during the times she suggested and my so-called frosted life went on.  Then it became 5 weeks later so I made another appt and I told her about the issues.  What I wanted was not such blonde, thick highlights.  What did she do?  Gave me dark brown hair with an auburn look in the sun.  I think it is darker than my actual hair.  And she still managed to put in highlights, which she even had to tone down while my head was in the sink.

There is light shining on my hair here--I think it is actually darker.  Of course she still managed to get in some chunky highlights on top.  I picked up my youngest from school and he said all in one sentence, "Well, I liked it better lighter, but you look sophisticated and it goes well with your (brown) jacket)."
I am going to see if I can wait till spring before spending any money on my hair again.

Our master bath remodel began on October 31 and it is still going on.  The demolition took place by Hubs and the boys all during October so for two months we have been sleeping on our guest bed which is a queen and not a king.  Gah!  I still hang on to nine inches on the side because my other half gets in the middle.  I think the remodel would have been done by now except a couple weeks ago our worker only worked Mon and Tues as he got sick and then last week he only worked Mon and Tues.  But since he is paid by the day we are not mad.  But ready for him to get done and get the hell out. Lucky for us, this past week Hubs has been able to do some things we would have paid him to do.

Remember this photo of Oldest sweeping where an old garden tub was?  Well, that is my new closet now where he is standing.  Hubs taped up that big mirror which was above a garden tub which I never used.  The mirror is in our garage and will go above new tub). On the right, near his left foot is a vanity.  So popular in the '80's.  It got ripped out.

The new bathtub is along the wall where that vanity was.  Oh, and lots of insulation went into the wall--the other side of the wall is hallway to the kids' rooms.  I don't want to hear their loud noises when I do my future soaking.

Ignore that toilet in my closet.  That is just sitting there out of the way.  The bathtub is completely tiled now (more photos to come).

And now above is a shot of my closet--the floor is interlocking bamboo.  Hubs has since put in white floorboard molding.  Hubs painted the closets plain white.  That back white wall is where the mirror above the old tub was.  And there will be a pocket door to save room on that new wall between the closet and tub.  My closet is not big but I am still going to have a party in there.  There's a skylight toward the right inside.

One of the biggest changes is we have a large bedroom and then this funky shaped large bathroom but we had a little doorway going from the bedroom to the bathroom.  To the right of this doorway is the closet we shared and just inside this closet was a linen-shelved area which used seems like 10 trees worth of wood for the shelves.  It had to go since we widened the doorway to allow for French doors.

If you look at the ceiling you can see where the old hallway was vs. how it is widened.  It makes a huge difference.  And I don't know how we have remained sane for five years but we lived with that striped wallpaper in our cavernous bathroom.  The walls are now a taupe color:

The sink will go under that taped-up mirror and everything should be wrapped up soon.

In the meantime I have not yet bought one Christmas present, I didn't shop Black Friday for the first time in years, am very grateful we did not have to travel to Florida for Thanksgiving this year, and another change is that we usually buy our Christmas tree at Home Depot the weekend that just passed but we did not.  It was 71 degrees on Sunday!  Now it is 39 degrees so maybe tonight we'll get it.