Major progress was made today, and mostly not by me. (I was making Christmas candy and I'm not done yet. I've got more to make and will be back in the kitchen tomorrow and the next day.)

First thing this morning Steve and Chris installed the new toilet. Here is it, holding water! Elanor reports that it works just fine. They did put the baseboard in behind the toilet after this photo was taken. Doesn't the floor look great! I love these tiles and wish I had a place to put them. But I don't.

Once the toilet was in, they could measure to see if the sink cabinet that we all wanted would fit. It did! The one Lorna and I had chosen is 24" wide with a sink that is not very deep but has some space for soap, etc.

Steve and Chris got the faucet installed but didn't get it hooked up to water yet. They needed a different sort of connector and Steve had to go to his real job.

Chris put in the medicine cabinet and the light fixture. Elanor and I had shopped for the light fixture over the weekend and she chose wisely! Steve put up the toilet paper holder, Chris put up the towel rack. I hung the curtain that I made a few days ago. Elanor loves this fabric and I was glad I had enough to make her these curtains.

Don't tell her, but I went out today and found hand towels that coordinate with the curtains and a bath mat that looks good with this room and the adjacent bedroom. These will go under the tree.

Elanor is ecstatic! She has a girlie bathroom. Remember, this is what it looked like before:

It's amazing what some elbow grease and a little money can do. And for those of you who are able-bodied and a little handy… even if you've never done this sort of thing, you can do more than you think you can. We learned something new with every home improvement project we've ever undertaken. And I'm happy to say that Chris now knows a whole lot too.

PS – I asked Steve at lunch today if he was going to work on my cabinet tomorrow and he got a little crazy-eyed and reminded me that he has actual work to do – at his real job! So I'll show you more on that project later, but not tomorrow :-). Goodness knows I have actual work to do as well.

It's 9 days until Christmas and we are back in project mode. I spent much of the weekend sewing on something I can't show you. I do so wish I could! I did also sew the curtain for Elanor's bathroom. You'll see that before long.

Steve spent the weekend helping Chris get the sheetrock in the bathroom ready to paint and getting the trim up. I don't have a picture but I will tomorrow.

Steve also started building our new living room TV cabinet. This is where the TV is now:

When we moved in there was a built-in desk here with shelves above. It made no sense and we changed it by building in this structure. This is a really deep space and there is a lot of wasted space behind the facade. Now that televisions are so slim, it makes no sense.

I took a photo of the shelves back in there. Below, the dark on the left is the edge of the TV. The edge of the fabric you see is a curtain I made to hang behind the TV to hide the mess behind. 

Steve hit upon the idea of storing our Christmas stuff in the wasted area. But how to get to it? I had an idea… a cabinet much like the built-in, but on casters! We drew the plans yesterday morning after cleaning house and Steve got to work. It is 57" wide x 81 1/2" tall x 16" deep. That leaves a space that is 57 x 81 1/2 x 20 behind it.

Saturday Steve got the wood and supplies ready and started cutting, routing, and sanding. Today he really moved out…

He got the casters on and it is now standing up in the garage!

The upper shelves are not in yet, nor is the lower back piece or the facings. I will begin painting what I can tomorrow. Between this and the bathroom, I will probably be painting all day long. Steve still has to build some cabinet doors for the top and bottom areas but that can happen after Christmas. 

Once the cabinet is finished enough that we can move the equipment into it, we will and then we'll gut the existing space. I will lay the Pergo laminate floor (it's bare concrete now) and paint the walls. We'll put up adjustable shelves for the Christmas decorations. Who knows, maybe I can put everything in its new place on December 27!

I'm proud of the job he's doing on this – it is exactly what I asked for. I know that I am very lucky to have a husband who enjoys a good project! 

I think every one of us has a go-to movie. For Steve and me it's the newest Star Trek movie. I have no idea how many times we've watched it, but we will watch it many more times and still love it. 

I'm hunting a movie and could use some suggestions (since ours are dated). What is your favorite movie?

Julie Herman at Jaybird posted a tutorial on how to bind a hex quilt. Click here:

http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2012/11/how-to-bind-120-angles-tutorial.html

In case you missed it, the new and improved Google Maps app for the iPhone was released today. Oh happy, happy day!

You can read about the new app in an article in The Atlantic or you can do what I did and follow the links to the iTunes App Store.

If you have 6 minutes to look at some lovely places, this is for you… And the music is nice too!