The Guthrie Family Blog

Wow I can't believe how long it's been since I lasted posted pictures-sorry! But finally here they are. At the beginning of August we went for the second summer in a row to Mark's family's cabin on Newman Lake near Spokane, WA. As always, it was beautiful and fun and relaxing. The photo of Ella on the lake is not a very good one of her but is a great one of the lake. The cabin has a huge screened in porch that we use for eating and hanging out pretty much all the time and it looks right out onto this view. The photo of Mark "standing" on the water is not fake! But the resolution is bad so it looks fuzzy. I'm required to say that Mark does NOT have a hairy belly. He did a whole bunch of jumps off the dock while his sister took pictures with the fast repeat option on our camera that's how they came out. We had a great trip and are hoping to return next year!

Okay, I know I owe everyone an apology for taking so long to post these-unless you would believe that I did it purposefully in order to intensify the suspense? Well, maybe not since I'm sure all it did was make most people lose interest all together. The real reason is that we still haven't finished the window! The bathroom was finished over a month ago but we still have to fix the window trim and put in a new sill. It's a 50 yr. old window so it's taking longer than we thought and other house projects have taken precedence over it. I've finally accepted this fact and so now I'm ready to publish the photos if you all promise to overlook the unfinished window! Really, though, not a day goes by that we don't just sign in relief and smile with joy at the completed bathroom. It was an intense and complicated project especially for one person and though we're glad it's over, (tip #1 is avoid gutting a bathroom when it's your only one and you have small children-we will NEVER do that again) it's so satisfying to complete a remodel yourself and then be able to enjoy it that I'm sure it won't be the last time. So, enjoy the pictures-we didn't do anything fancy except in the "guts" of the bathroom (the new electricity, plumbing, and insulation) so it's too bad you can't see that in the pictures. But, we love it, love it, love it!

Two weeks ago we started our long-anticipated and most extensive project to be done in our house: remodeling our only bathroom. I say "we" but that only applies to the planning part of the project. All the actual work was done by a great contractor/plumber/electrician/general labor team made up of just one person named Mark. It's not really a coincidence that he and Mark have the same name because as you may have already guessed-they're the same person! ha ha Really though, Mark has a long list of skills he's always wanted to learn by reading books and practicing them in his leisure time. So, in order to help him reach his goals much faster, we decided to combine them all into one project with a very short deadline. And boy is it working out great!

All joking aside, all we really need to say is that we are a family of five and Mark is remodeling our only (when I say "only", I don't mean "only full bath", or "only bathroom upstairs", I mean our one and only) bathroom and the rest needs no explanation. So far we've only had two and a half days without a toilet and one a half weeks without a bathroom sink or shower. A note to bishops and ward mission leaders: Using other people's bathrooms and showers is actually a great way to strengthen relationships among ward members and fellowship non-member neighbors-we've had some pretty good success at it.

So, here are the pictures to prove it-the first is our bathroom "before" (because of how small the bathroom is, it's hard to get a good picture of all of it-just to the right of the sink is the bathtub/shower and unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the only outlet conveniently located high above the medicine cabinet-yes, blow drying and curling hair was always a challenge so it's a good thing I don't do it often) and then there's a picture of it completely gutted. The third is a picture of the bathroom this week, nearing completion, and Mark covered in drywall mud dust and I had to include the picture of Liam taking a bath in the kitchen sink. The final "after" picture, the "big reveal," will be the next thing I post so stay tuned...