The weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been unbelievably sunny the last few weeks. For Mothers Day the hubby and I worked in the yard a bit.

 After a lovely dinner on the front deck...

 we retreated to the back yard fireplace for some s'mores and bird watching!

 While sitting watching the birds and eating marshmallows, Graham crackers and chocolate

 the hubby began talking about extending the patio, redoing the paths, and removing more of the over populated vines.

 On the back fence alone there are (were) 4 grapes, 3 virginia creeper and a wisteria. While I LOVE the wisteria it had to go. We have purple wisteria on the front of the house and a lower arbor with white wisteria.

 The next thing I knew the wisteria was outta there!

 (See that small mound of overgrown plants and bushes on the left side of the fireplace above?)

 (Notice the gorgeous tree to the left of the picture above? The empty spot in front of the large rock, behind the old bird bath was once a pond that we tore out a few weeks ago.)

I agreed with all the hubbys fabulous ideas for the changes to the back patio (except maybe removing a tree, I love that tree!) But reminded him we needed to get the garden done first... and clean out the large pond by the driveway, and paint the deck and well, you get the idea, lots of other projects first. (What?!? You don't sit out in your back yard in your pajamas? Ha!)

Does your husband listen well too? Gah!

 The tree is gone =(

 The mound of plants are gone... I did dig a few up to repurpose elsewhere. Not to worry though, I have more of everything on our property!

 He reassured me he must make a huge mess before it gets better!

 Can't wait for the new extended patio with a large arbor! Soon it will be time to move a few grape vines! ;)

 The guest bath remodel is moving right along! Last week after finishing the demolition we got the thumbs up to begin painting Tuesday evening, the cabinets were being delivered Thursday morning at 9:00 am!

 I managed to get the first coat of primer on the ceiling and walls Tuesday evening. Woke first thing Wednesday morning to put a second coat of primer on the ceiling and walls, finishing the afternoon and evening with 2 coats of white paint on the ceiling and 2 coats of Valspar Stillness on the walls. I love it! The color is the color I imagined the bathroom to have, a pale seaglass blue.

 The cabinets arrived on time Thursday morning...

 our contractor immediately began installing them.

 The marble countertop will be measured May 31 and installed June 5! Ack! Cannot wait to see it on these cabinets!

 I know the color is really hard to see on the walls.

This is a picture of the tub that will be arriving on Tuesday!

 For now this is our "makeshift tub". Our plumber will be here at 9:00 am tomorrow morning to install the new drains and shower and tub lines.

This is a sample of the floor tiles. The honed marble basket weave tile will be a large rectangle in the middle of the room surrounded by the 8x12 honed marble tiles.

The shower floor will be the same basket weave tile surrounded by a 3x6 honed marble tile border. The tile begins Tuesday and will take about 3 weeks... it's going to be a long 3 weeks!

Yesterday I managed to clean up all the broken tile and concrete. I purchased the plastic tub at Lowes just for this purpose and it worked perfect!

Shortly after I finished my clean up project, the final tile order was delivered! Woohoo! The honed marble basket weave is here! 300 pounds! While I was extremely happy to see the tile... I may have been even more excited to see what else came with the delivery. The pallets! I have been loving the vertical gardens I have been seeing on Pinterest and in blogland... how about you? Now I just need a little sun and some time to create my own! The hubby and I are finalizing our bathroom renovation details, then hopefully my next post I will have pictures detailing those plans out. The third time is the charm, right?! Yes, this is the third time we will be meeting with our contractor to go over "the plans". And yes, each time has been with a different set of plans ha!

 The hubby and I made a quick trip between sunbreaks yesterday afternoon to see the tulip fields beds.

 Unfortunately, since we had to make our little unscheduled trip last week, we missed the peak bloom.

 But I couldn't let a year go by and not see the tulips.

 Last year we had our kids here, the hubbys mom and step dad and my mom, sister and sister in law all here within a 4 week time period to see the daffodils and tulips. This year we haven't had any visitors.
=(

 Hopefully next year we can have everyone back again.

 The beds at Roozengaarde were beautiful as always. Since the Tulip Festival is technically over, we had no crowds to deal with, which was so nice. I don't like traffic or crowds much.

 The displays are so inspiring, I would love to do something like this in my yard.

 It is so hard to choose which bulbs to order, I love them all!

 These signs always make me giggle.

 Love the idea of the tulips against the backdrop of the old fence.

 So pretty!

 The yellow crown tulip is so different looking, I think it would be adorable in a bed with a frog wearing a crown!

 The fringed tulips are funny looking too, remind me of a colorful venus fly trap. The one above is called Fabio.

It was such a fun afternoon walking through the tulips! Thanks to my hunny for taking me!

We didn't get a chance to fly over them this year, but a friend did and he snapped this incredible picture at peak bloom! Incredible!

 Demo on the guest bath is continuing, we have removed the cabinet (we tried to save it to donate to our local ReStore, but it sustained some damage).

 We found the original linoleum underneath...

 Also found the heating vent CLOSED! Now we know why that bathroom was always so cold! I think we will still be going with some in-floor heat, but why would someone not remember to open the vent before installing a cabinet?!

 I am NOT enjoying the mess this project is making everywhere! My hubby just grins and says "this was all your idea =) ) UGH! Sad thing is, he's right.

 We rented a small jack hammer to finish removing the floor tiles, but this will all need to go in the second load to the dump.

 This load is full.

I did salvage the linen cabinet, I will make a spot for it in the garage for food storage. 

This will be our new tub, but in oil rubbed bronze! Cannot wait to get the good stuff in there! I am still waiting on the basket weave tile to be delivered, (it is currently just south of us about 30 miles, so any day) and the tub should be here in 5-6 days! Our contractor should be back in town and the pretty stuff can start to happen. Thank goodness! I am really second guessing if I really want to have the kitchen done... ugh, I hate the mess, the disorganization, ALL the things that can go wrong! Hoping it is ALL worth it when it is done. =/