The Dangers of Craigslist.

Ah Craigslist.

Craigslist Craigslist Craigslist.

Such a helpful site, right? Great for selling stuff. Also great for buying stuff.

Yeah, but see, that's where the danger lies, right? The buying stuff....

Hence I try to stay away from it otherwise I know I'll go tripping over an irresistible unbeatable deal. I will peruse the "free" section every once in a bit but even then on occasion I come across things worth good money and know a.) it won't fit in my little Rabbit, or b.) it's likely already gone, or c.) I can't scrounge up assistance fast enough. Sigh.

So "free" is trouble too. The whole thing....pfffft, you gotta be careful!

Like for instance, I searched tile recently for some reason utterly unbeknownst to me. Came across a major steal of three boxes of 12x12 Daltile Octagon Dot* tile for a whopping $25. As you can see in that link, it's $2.57 a sheet regularly so the savings was piquing.

Current status.

My idea: main floor bathroom floor. Menards' site says it's floor or wall, and amazingly way more expensive too. Weird.

Anyway.

The tile was way the heck up near the Wisconsin border which is a way the heck hike from the city so I very nicely asked my mom if she'd be willing to grab it for me and I'd pick it up from her, saving myself numerous hours worth of gas/stuck-in-traffic time plus I'd get to see her and keep up the acclimation of Finn to my parents by giving him a fun car ride.

Wow, that was all one sentence. Go Becky.

As per Craigslist usual, this wasn't the smoothest transaction with the tile owner and some pieces are broken but it all worked out ok. He tried to say the price was per box when my mom arrived; his ad was clearly not written that way, she pointed out.

The real danger of Craigslist lies in what follows.

See, I remember our first walk-through of this house with Pete the Rock Star Realtor clear as day. We brought Hailey along for a car ride because she loved car rides, therefore one of us stayed in the car while the other walked through. I went first and Pete and I were laaauugghing, laughing so hard at the staging, the paint colors, the tile, everything....I mean, Chuckle Central. Pete is so much fun.

Ouch. Here it was originally, staged. Oh my eyes. Do NOT miss that awful glass vanity. At all.

Mike was up next and speedily, maybe within ten minutes, he was back at the car saying "let's make an offer." Pete about passed out, dumbfounded we were even remotely interested, especially after the out of breath, uproarious laughter he and I had just shared.

But as we all know, finishes can be changed. And that was the discussion we had, Mike and I. After we got done laughing together as well.

But this bathroom tile has always been one of our biggest chuckles, like what the hell, what the heck is this?! Where does one even find sh*t like this?! I gotta admit though, in some very weird strange bizarro way it's almost, almost kinda likable in its awfulness -- the pattern in the small light brown square anyway, which you can barely barely see in the photos.

Ah, there ya go. Now maybe you can see it. And see? The new tile is going to be awesome.

But this crazy a** sh*t has gotta go. Especially since I put together that spiffy fab-a-roo vanity.

So already, note: a project.

When I found that Craigslist tile, well, after previously purchasing other tile which I can't seem to get to work in my head as it has a rusty orange metallic sheen which is cool but orange is my least favorite color. Other than on Mike's head.

Why did I buy it then? Because it is cool and I thought it was going to work, ease the transition between the wood floor and the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor which in toto is four different tiles plus hardwood, five different things within inches of each other. Eyeroll.

But then I built the vanity and it just, ehhh, it just, nope.

Telling original tile diversion story justified: buying this new tile for the bathroom made Mike's head hurt -- "why...what happened to...no!...didn't you already buy...what is going on?!" He wasn't as mad as that sounds. Or I hope not.

But starting to rip out tile and put in new flooring without figuring out the rest of the room seemed imprudent, whichever any tile.

So then long weird circuitous loop around back to why Craigslist is dangerous....

For the longest time we haven't been able to figure out what to do with this bathroom. Considering, ridiculously, there are three other full bathrooms in this house there's zero need for yet another bathtub, especially on the first floor so we've always thought yank it out. Although, after Hailey's surgery, it is where she received a sadly-turned-out-to-be last bath so it was convenient one time.

But what to do with the former tub space? Closet? Shelves? Random openness? Um?

We'd ponder for about three minutes then change the subject and not revisit.

Yeah.

So finally recently outta nowhere Mike blurted out a great idea -- turn it into a walk-in shower. Not that we need one of those either because we don't but it's a clever solution. So bam, it will be.

Now I need to draw it up, figure it out, learn learn learn, plan plan plan, and hope to all get out I can pull off (and pull off well) this large undertaking of ripping out tub, remove toilet and vanity, take out all the tile, reconfigure into a shower, tile everything up, replace toilet and vanity. Hopefully the floor will finally be level by the time I'm done too.

Majority of which I have never done, by the way.

Though, as we know, that has never stopped me before but yeah, it's a wee intimidating for sure.

The other weekend we were out on the deck and I said something along the lines of "well I can drill a hole in it." That remark struck Mike awful funny and he laughed and laughed and laughed -- he said I had said it with I-just-learned-this-skill-yesterday sincerity, so obtusely, dumbly, dismissive of all I've done to and around the house...it was a most dopey simple-minded statement in contradiction to all I've accomplished, of my abilities he said.

So babe, this bathroom should be like drilling a hole then, huh? Yikes, let's hope so. Insert nail biting.

But ok, see?, see how Craigslist is dangerous? I went from idea of replacing thirty square feet of floor tile to buying tile two years ago to finding a new deal on Craigslist for totally different tile resulting in a decision being made into nearly a whole bathroom redo.

So, heh, I went from saving some dough on the new tile to um, spending more dough by revamping a bathroom.

Crazy. Craigslist = danger zone. Ok, maybe this storyline is a smidge-y stretch but I'm blaming Craigslist and the new tile. I'll keep buying and selling there though I'm sure. Alas. As we do. Heh.

Goodness, I hope I spun all those disparate strings into one cohesive web for you! Ha, kinda tired I am.

But ok, right on, hardware, door pulls for the kitchen cabinets have been ordered so YAY!

And hey, Happy National Dog Week (last week), says Finn yucking it up. Silly boy!