Master Bath Project

Our Albuquerque house was almost perfect when we moved in, but we have a short list of projects we would like to accomplish.  Of all the jobs on the list, the one I felt I could do almost independently while on summer vacation was the master bath.  It is divided into two rooms, one with the sinks and one with the toilet and garden tub.  There is beautiful tile on the floor, counter tops, and surrounding the tub, but the sink room had ugly shiny peach and teal wallpaper, and the tub room was painted sea green.  The previous owners left us paint samples from most of the rooms in the house, including the "blanket brown" on the walls of the bedroom, so it was easy to continue that rich, soothing color without having to mess with paint chips.

The fixtures, tub, and sinks were fine, but the gigantic mirror covering the entire wall over the sinks had to go, as did the mirrored light fixture in the sink room.  I also decided to paint the cabinets to match the ones in the guest bathroom, and of course I needed to get rid of that awful green blind.

Some before pics:

This photo really doesn't do justice to the sherbet-like shade of green on these walls.

First, we had to remove the giant mirror, the light fixture, switchplate covers, and towel bars.  Then I had to strip the wallpaper.  This jungle print was under the mirror.  It had been removed from the rest of the room before the teal and peach stuff was added, fortunately, so I only had to strip one layer.

 Once the paper was gone, I wanted to texture the walls to match the rest of the house.  Our walls feature "knockdown texture."  You can see it on the ceiling in the photo above.  When the pros do it, they have a big sprayer powered by an air compressor.  But you can also purchase knockdown texture in aerosol cans.  You spray in a circular pattern, wait 1-2 minutes, and knock down the high spots with a mudding trowel.  It sounded so simple, but I was really nervous.  It seemed to me like one of those things that looks really simple on HGTV but that requires a lot of practice.  I watched videos on youtube to prepare.  It turned out to be fairly easy, but I did end up with a few trowel marks and I had to go around the room twice to get enough texture.  It came out looking pretty good, but it's clearly different from the walls in the rest of the house in being a much finer texture.  I primed the walls before texturing, as recommended in the directions on the texture can, although the internet assured me that the pros never do this.

I had to tape off the entire room for the texture step.  The floor is covered with butcher paper taped on the edges, and the windows, sinks, and doorways are covered in plastic.  It took longer to mask the room than it did to do the texture.  I removed all the baseboard and door casing before masking.

Painting the walls was the next step.  I love this color, fortunately, because it's the color of the bedroom and the accent wall in the music room.

Painting the cabinets was interesting.  I had done the kitchen cabinets in Schuylerville, and it was a huge pain.  Everything had to be sanded and then primed with a very thin, stinky, non-water based primer that took forever to dry.  I went to our local Home Depot to purchase this stuff, and the paint guy told me they don't make it anymore, that the new water-based primers would do just fine, and that I didn't need to sand.  I loved this advice!  Even more so when it proved to be true.  I removed the cabinet doors, hinges, and pulls, and laid out the doors on the patio.  The air here is so dry that I was able to prime the cabinets, prime the doors, immediately paint the cabinets, paint the doors, and do second coats on both without stopping.  The whole thing was done in one day, including putting the cabinet doors back on!  What a difference from the project in Schuylerville.

The only problem is that after we finally decided on mirrors and a light fixture, the hinges and pulls no longer matched, so I had to re-do that step.  We had a plan for the mirrors and lights originally, but when we measured and went to look at the options, we had disagreements and dilemmas that required many trips to various stores to resolve.  The problem is that the sinks are really far apart, so Stephen thought that the one light in between the sinks and mirrors would look funny.  We considered one long mirror, three small mirrors, one or two or three light fixtures, and all the many combinations.  Stephen still thinks he might like it better with three mirrors, but I convinced him to live with it for a while, and then he can add another mirror if he wants to.
I purchased a cream-colored mini-blind and Stephen helped me install it.  He put up the mirrors and light fixture while I was in NY.  At this point, I hadn't painted the tub room.  In fact, I had thought I could live with the sea green until the sink room was painted, and then it just stood out horrendously.  It sort of glowed.  So out came the painting supplies again.

 Whoever had painted the previous 2 times had not removed the woodwork, so I needed to scrape and sand and stain each piece before Stephen reinstalled it.  Below are the "after" pictures.

Annabelle had to get in the picture.

It is difficult to take pictures of small rooms, so Stephen suggested taking one in the mirrored closet doors.

Lavender Festival

Los Ranchos de Albuquerque is a 4 square mile village within the city of Albuquerque, along the East bank of the Rio Grande.  The village tries to maintain its more rural character, and is home to the annual Lavender Festival.  The following is from the festival website:

The Mission of the Lavender in the Village Festival is to preserve and enhance Los Ranchos public open space, stimulate an interest in sustainable agriculture, and foster community spirit.

 Stephen decided that it sounded like the "Allergy Festival" to him, and chose to occupy himself elsewhere, so I was on my own.  I parked at Alverado Elementary School, one of the four or five official parking areas, and took the shuttle bus to the festival site.  There, I saw a large open field with one barn and many tents.  The barn housed a number of artists working in oils, acrylics, and watercolor, along with some antiques dealers and one producer of lavender products.  

 The variety of products containing lavender was impressive!  All types of personal care products, lavender lemonade, lavender honey, lavender jelly, lavender cookbooks, lavender sachets, and lots of decorative arrangements.  There were also many fine arts and crafts not directly related to lavender, and tents housing groups promoting alpacas, donkeys and mules, wild animal rescue, bee keeping, and even a butterfly farm.  I was curious about that last one, but the place was mobbed so I decided to keep moving.

I don't know the name of the bluegrass band that was playing, but they were excellent.  I stopped to listen to a lively arrangement of "The Wabash Cannonball."

 Food vendors tend to have different specialties here in New Mexico.  I thought the portable brick oven the pizza guy was using was pretty cool! 

 The festival was next to lavender fields, some of which had been harvested and then cut like hay, and some of which were still growing.

 

 On the bus ride to the festival site, I paid close attention to the turns, street signs and directions, and estimated that it was a mile or less to my car.  I decided to walk back even though it was hot, because I wanted to see more of the area.  I took the photo above looking back at the festival tents.  Los Ranchos de Albuquerque is full of large ranch estates with palatial houses and elaborate entrances and landscaping.

 The water for the fields comes from the river, channeled by ditches.  This one is cement-lined with a gate to allow or stop the flow of water.  Other irrigation ditches are more primitive.

I keep reading stories in the Albuquerque Journal about the river drying up, so I'm sure the farmers are anxious for the current drought to end.  We have had just over an inch of rain at my house in July.  The "monsoon season" is coming up, and hopefully the expected rains will come.

City Parks

Albuquerque has over 200 city parks, developed for a variety of uses.  Some have play structures and paths, some include tennis courts or basketball courts.  I have visited only a few, but they are a great resource for walking in the city, especially since some are adjoined by walking or bike paths or arroyos that  you can walk next to.
Morningside Park in Nob Hill hosts a weekly farmers market.

There are dog parks:

                                         


                                 And there's a skate park with several half-pipes.

 This park, Supper Rock Park, is more naturalized, with a play structure next to the rock formation and paths that wander through the cactus and native plants.  There are two views here from opposite ends of the park, both showing Supper Rock.

             Barstow Park, near our old apartment is more formally landscaped.

This is a tiny park at the end of a bike trail that goes along Tramway for many miles. 

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the city parks, and I'm glad the city of Albuquerque makes its outdoor spaces and art a priority.