DIY bathroom remodel

Three years ago, Adam and I purchased our very first home.

It's an oversized bungalow built in the 1950s with three bedrooms, two baths and a half bath.

My mom calls it our "gingerbread house."

When we bought the house, the previous owners made a few updates to the house including a new extension on the back of the house for a new living room and master bedroom. With the new extension, the rest of the house looked a bit outdated, especially our spare bathroom on the main floor.

The spare bathroom was made up of salmon-colored tile, an outdated wooden vanity and cabinets and we knew all of it needed. to. go. (Sorry guys, but I can't seem to find a photo of our original, pink, 1950s bathroom).

We made the decision to gut the bathroom and take on the remodel project ourselves this past Christmas. With the help of our amazing friend Jeff, Project Bathroom Redo is nearly finished.

 Top left: Gutting the bathroom, taking it down to the studs; Top right: Gutted, cleaned and new studs in place; Bottom left: New shower bin and drywall installed; Bottom right: Drywall seams done and sanded.

Top left: Painting the bathroom; Top right: Installing natural slate flooring; Bottom left: 1x1 tiles installed in the shower bin and half of the porcelain tiles installed on the wall; Bottom right: Lighting and sink installed.

As of now, we need to finish grouting the shower and sealing it one more time. We also have two small sections of wall left to tile in the shower. Once that's complete, everything else will be easy peasy including installing a new door (we cut a new doorway when we gutted and extended the bathroom), adding trim to the floor and the window and installing a new toilet.


Today I spent nearly three hours grouting the remainder of the bathroom floor and starting on the shower floor.

Grouting is not fun.

It's tedious and really messy.

                                                  Aren't those grout lines gorgeous??

Although a lot of sweat and tears have gone into this remodel, it's also been very gratifying to have a hand in everything that has gone into this project. And I mean everything.

In just a few short weeks, our bathroom will be done and we can finally put our house back together and invite friends over to use our new, fancy powder room.

Have you or are you working on a DIY project?

Bridesmaid dresses, workout and post-run grub

I am loving this weather in Cleveland!

High 70s and cloudless skies? I'll take it!

On Sunday, I headed to Strongsville to try on bridesmaid dresses with several other lovely ladies in preparation for Angela's fall wedding.

I was able to narrow it down to three styles, although I think I know which dress I'm going to order. Angela is such an accommodating bride and is allowing everyone in the bridal party to choose their own dress style.

Here are the three styles I am currently entertaining:

  Which one do I go with?? (BTW: The top two dresses are the same. I tried it on with and w/o a sash)

I love all these dresses for different reasons, however, one dress has a slight edge.

Since the weather has been so amazingly awesome, I've been trying to spend as much time outdoors as possible. I called my friend Crane to see if he was interested in helping me walk my dogs on Tuesday. Lucky for me, he was willing to help me walk my crazy pup Rigby and my perfect angel Sadie. I have a hard time walking both dogs since Rigby acts so wild on walks, so I was grateful to have somewhere there to take over the leash. We did a two-mile loop in my neighborhood under the scorching sun and wore the pups out quick.

After our walk, I met Adam and my friend Stef at the gym. I don't know if the hot temps had anything to do with it, but I was a sweaty mess on the treadmill! The gym did have the doors open and the air-conditioning on at the same time, so that may have had a part in it. After the walk and the gym, I covered nearly five miles. Not a bad Tuesday if I do say so myself.

We were in the mood for some patio sitting, so we all decided to head to Plank Road Tavern for $5 burgers and beer.

Plank Road's patio is tucked behind the bar and is pretty much just a large concrete slab with picnic tables and a few high-top tables with barstools. I'm sure they weren't expecting such beautiful weather this early in the season and may do more with the patio in the near future.

Anyway, we all ordered burgers and added our own toppings to them. You can choose your own patty (beef, chicken, chicken breast, chorizo) and build-your-own burger by choosing the bun, cheese and dozens of toppings. Cheese and toppings are $.25 each, but since the burger comes with lettuce and tomato already, that's still a pretty great deal. I opted for the chicken burger with smoked fontina and garlic mayo. The chicken burger is supposed to mimic a chicken Caesar salad, but on this visit, I didn't think it tasted anything like a Caesar salad, especially since there were chopped black olives mixed into my patty. It didn't bother me since I love olives, but I've had this burger before and really enjoyed the Caesar spices in the meat.

Adam ordered his typical chorizo and fried egg combo and was more than satisfied with it. Stef also ordered the chicken burger with caramelized onions and Lou ordered a regular burger with avocado and bleu cheese slaw.

                                                      How delicious do these look?!?!

Since Plank Road is located right next door to Dairy Queen, I had to pop in for dessert. Adam and I ended up ordering Blizzards and the second one was just $.99! I couldn't finish my entire Oreo mint blizzard, so I ended up freezing the rest of it. But don't you worry ... it'll be gobbled up tonight, for sure!

Late birthday love and St. Patty's Day

Although my birthday was last week, I was able to drag it out for several days with friends who missed my party or wanted to celebrate one-on-one with their favorite gal pal.

On Thursday, my former coworker and super friend Crane took me out to lunch at Burntwood Tavern in Rocky River.

Burntwood Tavern replaced the old Rocky River Pub late last year. The Pub was British-themed and the place was pretty dimly lit and the food was sub par. Walking into Burntwood, I immediately noticed how much brighter and open the place looked. It already surpassed the old spot in my mind.

There were a lot of yummy options on the menu including the flash-fried zucchini frites ($6), tavern dip ($11) and the chicken Philly ($9). I decided to go with the salmon BLT -- planked salmon, bacon, lettuce, tomato and smoked tomato aioli in a wheat tortilla ($11).

The wrap was exactly what I expected. The salmon was perfectly cooked, the bacon was crisp and the tomato aioli gave the wrap some delicious added flavor.

                                                       
                                                           Burntwood's salmon BLT

Since Thursday was an extraordinarily beautiful day, we decided to hit up nearby Mitchell's for dessert. After skimming the menu, I knew exactly what I wanted -- the toasted pistachio in a sugar cone. Crane opted for the tiramisu in a waffle cone and we took our treats outside to enjoy the weather.

My ice cream was melting faster than I could eat it, so I had to get a bowl to save my drippings!

Later that day, I met Angela for dinner at Bac. Unfortunately, the patio wasn't open, but we scored a table near the front door, which was open, and the fresh air circulated throughout the bar area.

I started the evening with my usual drink, the 17th Parallel -- vodka, cucumber water, Vietnamese herb syrup and lemon juice ($6 during happy hour). I swear, Bac makes some of the best mixed drinks in the city! And the drink menu is always featuring new seasonal beverages. I can't wait to see what they have in store for the spring!

I normally order the soups and stews at Bac, but since it was so warm out, I wanted something lighter. I ended up getting the kim chi noodles with chicken -- potato noodles stir-fried with spicy kim chi cabbage, snow peas, red bell pepper, onion, roasted sesame seeds and scallions ($13). I love the texture of the noodles in this dish along with the amount of veggies they use.

        Look how colorful the dish is! I ordered it medium spicy, but could've gone even spicier.

On Friday night, we went and picked up a new propane tank for our first grill session of the season. Since reading news reports about pink slime mixed in grocery store ground beef, I've been a bit hesitant in buying ground chuck. We substituted ground turkey in place of beef and made turkey burgers with fried potatoes and asparagus. Holy yum. I think turkey burgers are my go-to burgers from here on out. The patties turned out so fluffy and moist and the sides were perfect complements to the burgers. I was so enamored by our meal, I forgot to take photos of the amazing turkey burgers. Sorry guys.

On Saturday, Adam and I woke up fairly early to get ready for St. Patty's Day. For my birthday, my dear friend Flood bought me a St. Patty's Day Hello Kitty T-shirt, so I already had my outfit planned for the day. We had plans to hang out with friends in Ohio City at a friend's house. Our friends have a fantastic house right off of W. 25th, so we spent much of the morning/early afternoon drinking on their patio and soaking in the sun.

                               Our host and hostess' Great Dane sunbathing on their patio.

After imbibing on Bloody Mary's, Guinness, cider and more, we all agreed food was needed and we walked down to Market Garden Brewery. There was a good crowd at MGB, but it wasn't overly crowded, which was nice. After an hour wait, we finally got a table for our group of 10.

I had my heart set on eating corned beef, so I ordered the corned beef sandwich ($12) while Adam got the currywurst -- traditional German sausage served with curried tomato sauce over seasoned fries.

The corned beef sandwich was pretty disappointing. Although the flavor was there, the corned beef itself was thick, tough and very chewy. The currywurst was the highlight of the meal. The sausage was tender and full of flavor and the curried tomato sauce was perfect with the sausage.

       Market Garden Brewery on St. Patty's Day. Not overly crowded, yet still a fun bunch.

Our day ended with drinks and ping pong at ABC Tavern (where I spent my 30th just the weekend before) and more drinks and the Indiana-VCU game back at our friend's house. After 10 hours of celebrating St. Patty's Day, Adam and I called it a night and headed back home.

It was a fun, relaxing day with great friends and fantastic weather.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend too!

New member of the Dirty 30

Well, it's official.

I'm now three decades old.

And I don't feel any different!

My birthday was Friday and Adam decided to take a half day from work to spend the day with me. He made dinner reservations at The Melting Pot and we were able to fit in one quick game of bowling before heading to dinner.

We've never been to The Melting Pot and I was excited to try the fondue restaurant. If you've never dined at a Melting Pot restie, be prepared to clear out your schedule for at least two to three hours. Our reservation was for 7:30 p.m. and we didn't leave the restaurant until 10:30 p.m.

We decided to go with the Big Night Out option that included four courses (cheese fondue app, wedge salad, entree and dessert).

Clockwise from top left: Adam showing off our cheesy app complete with Granny Smith apples, veggies and bread for dipping; wedge salad; lobster tail, sirloin steak, shrimp, mushroom-stuffed pasta, pork and chicken as our main entree; our fondue to cook the meats.

The cheese appetizer was fantastic. We ended up adding additional jalapenos to spice it up and our server brought out extra bacon crumbles after I professed my love for the salty goodness. My favorite part of the entree was definitely the lobster tail, but I had no complaints with the other meats. From the chicken to the steak, everything was tender and juicy.

We ended our meal with the banana fosters dessert. I'm not much of a sweets person, but the white chocolate fondue exceeded my expectations. I figured it would be too sweet, but it turned out to be the right balance of sweet for me.

We had strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, red velvet cake, rice krispie treats and marshmallows to dip in our fondue.

Saturday night was the big 3-0 celebration. Adam organized an intimate dinner for 12 at my favorite Cleveland eatery -- Sokolowski's University Inn. I never venture outside of my top meal there, so I had stuffed cabbage with pierogies for the second time in one week. After dinner, we headed to ABC Tavern in Ohio City where I, along with roughly 60 of my closest friends, celebrated the Dirty. Sadly, I didn't get as many photos from the night as I would've liked, but here are a few of my favorites with some of my favorite people.

Clockwise from top left: Me, Moe, Carrie, Jen and Caitlin; me and NYC resident Tullster making a surprise visit for my b-day; Handman, Tullster, pretty Tyler, Brittany and Phil; Tye, me and Chicago resident Magill making a somewhat surprise visit for my b-day.

After this celebration, I can honestly say I'm in love with ABC Tavern. The staff was wonderful Saturday night and the bar was PACKED. Both downstairs and upstairs. But that didn't stop the staff from being super accommodating to our private party upstairs.

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with me!

Last day as a 20-something

So I have one more day to call myself a 20-something.

It's been a wonderful ride. So many great things have happened in my 20s and now I'm excited to see what's in store for the next decade.

I'm excited to celebrate on Saturday with my closest friends in Ohio City. It's the one day a year I get to be selfish and have it be all about me!

Update: Let's hope my first full day as a 30-something ends like this.