It looks like you have FRP - fiberglass reinforced plastic - panels on your walls and around the shower. They should be installed with the recommended trim pieces and silicone caulk. I have been looking into using these to convert my garage into a dog kennel. They are used in food service and commercial interior environments. Food for thought - your DH wants to cut corners which is not good. Maybe he is not really cut out for remodeling or is tired. I would be concerned about moisture damage behind your tub walls. If it were me, knowing that DH was not going to caulk, I would get my tush in that tub with a caulk gun and get busy. Caulking is very easy, there are even youtube videos out there. I suggest that you really research how to install sheetrock and cement backer board. How to install a tub and reconnect the plumbing. How to tile and grout. There is a lot of information on this forum if you search for hydroban or hydro ban and Redguard and kerdi. Mongoct and bill Vincent have great threads on the topic. Redguard is available at Home Depot and is cheaper. Mongct has 2 great threads on plumbing fixtures. If you go to the Terry Love plumbing forum, there is a great thread on getting a Kohler cast iron Villager bathtub in place. There are both good and lame videos on youtube. Get to Home Depot and actually look at the building materials and tools and start getting familiar with them and their prices. Draw your bathroom out on graph paper with the exact measurements so you can actually get a feel for the room. Even if you hire the work out, you still need to know how to direct the work to get the best finished product. But you will find more women on this forum who hire out the cement board and sheetrock work and do the tile work themselves - that is what I'm doing. As for the medicine cabinet, when you redo the walls, you can cut out the studs and build an opening with a header like a window for the medicine cabinet, and other recessed openings such as niches. Save your money and start learning and planning this remodel. Start itemizing the material costs - cbu, thinset, Redguard, cbu tape, sheetrock tape, sheetrock mud, grout, tile, paint, tools, etc if you think you can do some of the work yourself. If not, get 3 quotes for the tub/plumbing and the framing/cbu/sheetrock and the tile work - whatever part you and DH think you don't want to tackle. You may need more money to replace rotted wood. $500 is just decorating chump change. Plan the remodel in stages - tub and tub surround first, the rest later. Also plan on getting at least the bathtub and tub walls completed quickly so you can use it. Tear out the ceiling too. Bathrooms take a lot of detailed work and more money than other rooms. No, the tile on the walls does not have to match the floor. Folks do like to use a tile that has end pieces with beveled edges in the collection to finish the very top of the wall. Anything goes these days based on personal style = that's where browsing Houzz is great for getting inspired. I would use the same tile around the whole bathroom including the shower. I have 16 year old stone looking tile on my floors and I cam going with Daltile white 3x6 and 6x6 ceramic tile from Home Depot. I can cut it with a manual tile saw and run back to Home Depot for more pieces, or return leftovers. I still don't understand why you have to have a 13 inch deep vanity if the sink is going to protrude past 13 inches. Why can't the vanity be deeper than 13 inches. You will have to build one to get the maximum storage for your space. this is when having a picture of your floorplan with the exact measurements would be helpful. The forum could give you some good advice on the size and placement. I still think a wide pedestal sink is your best bet. Have you looked at the Kohler pedestal sinks - the models come in a variety of widths. There is not much storage in small retail vanities. To really maximize the storage, you really need to have a custom vanity made. Check out cabinet shops in your area because the prices are really not that bad - especially if you pick it up and install it yourself. This post was edited by Anna_in_TX on Mon, Mar 17, 14 at 18:46

Personally, I prefer cash. But some feel that's "impersonal". Gift cards are the modern version of the gift certificate or the trendy "check" (or "cheque" to my Canuck-lehead friends) being given as a gift. My gift shopping used to always include a stop at the liquor store for at least one person on the list. I knew that wasn't going to go to waste. A friend used to always give his grandmother a small ham for Christmas because she'd never buy it for herself. Some would be appalled, nay, even insulted if someone gave them grocery stoe food! It needs to be in little jars, in a box, flavors nobody likes, won't eat, and will be given away or thrown away! LOL I'm really bothered when someone says cash is a bad gift, impersonal or whatever. Doesn't anyone get tired of getting trinkets that someone else thinks is cute and you find abhorrent? But somehow that's a better gift than giving someone cash so they can put it toward their electric bill on a month they're a little short, or go to a movie, or put gas in the car to get to work, or put toward the heat bill or into a (heaven forbid) savings account or get the car repaired house reroofed or whatever else. What troubles me is there used to be a saying that it's the thought that counts. I buy someone a gift, it's thoughtful, right? They hate it so they return it or leave it on a shelf or whatever. But that's more thoughtful or personal than cash? I don't think so. If someone is considerate enough to give me cash and trust that I'll make a good decision on what to do with it, that, to me, is thoughtful. Our western society is so hung up on materialism. It's the gift not the thought. We have to spend more on that wedding gift than the Jones' spent or we'll look bad. Doesn't matter what the gift is. I could go on and on but won't. Consider that your Christmas present! :D This time of year often brings out the best, but also the worst in people. Lots of generosity at times, but also greed, selfishness, self-centered thoughts and after all, Christmas is about giving and receiving gifts right? There was a religious event that some people used to get into! :D I'll give you an example of why I don't like gift cards in place of cash. I had my oil changed last summer for about $17. I used a coupon and had it done. Hard for me to do that stuff anymore. :( I got an award from work - a $25 gift card of my choice. I don't shop at Macy's. I don't go on cruises. (I would have appreciated a gift card for the cruise though...) I don't have Staples in the state, much less nearby. There were 2 things I could see myself using. An oil change place or Amazon. I was going to go with Amazon but decided I'd need an oil change before leaving town for a trip so that could be OK. It'd pay for most of the oil change right? Not after it being a $65 oil change! LOL I got another card choice, same thing. I took a restaurant card but now wish I'd gone Amazon. Not sure when I'll get to the restaurant, but not totally sure what I want from Amazon either. Had a voicemail that I have another gift card coming from work. (I must really have them fooled, eh?) If they had options for Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, gasoline stations, or a prepaid credit card would be preferred. Keep in mind that the designation is important. They bank on people losing them or not using them. Extra profit, not unlike the post office selling stamps that don't get used. That's pure profit. And companies often get a discount so it appears to be more. But it could be worse. I remember when giving a turkey was often a Christmas bonus. Not everyone can use a 15# turkey. Some, a 15# isn't enough anyway. LOL How many people can't use cash?

I have already started gardening indoors. Put the seeds in a wet paper towel They germinate in about 4 days.. In a baggie placed on my hall register. Then I transplant them into those little finger holders.. I have about 6 done already. Hibiscus folks gave me germinated quick.. Blue ones an large ones. Daisys also.. This is inside fun. Now I placed a gro lamp above them. It is fun to watch whose seeds grow.

Fily: Products-promoter (air-pump) confuse the issue just to brainwash consumers into buying stuff for compost tea. Below link explains well: http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/green-living/aerobic-versus-anaerobic-composting/ "As long as plenty of air is available, aerobic decomposers work faster and more efficiently than their anaerobic counterparts. However, as organisms deplete the supply of oxygen from the existing spaces and pores between bits of organic matter, the decomposition process slows. Aboveground aerobic decomposers can generate heat as a byproduct of their activity ... when conditions are to the decomposers’ liking, temperatures in your pile heat up sufficiently to kill weed seeds and pathogens. To keep your decomposers working at maximum speed, you may want to incorporate some type of aeration aid during your initial pile construction: Stir organic matter regularly: Use a pitchfork or an aerating tool to stir things up. Anaerobic organisms work without oxygen, so most anaerobic takes place underground in pits or trenches. Basically, you dig a hole, fill it with organic matter, and seal it with a layer of soil. Anaerobic organisms work at slower rates than their aerobic counterparts .. Anaerobic organisms exude smelly gas as a byproduct of their exertions. And because of the colder conditions, weed seeds and plant pathogens aren’t destroyed." *** Does that apply to a wet compost tea? No, it doesn't, because there's plenty of oxygen in water. Plus moisture helps to speed up the decomposition process. "wet food" like chicken-broth or meat have to be VACUUM-SEALED to stop microbes. There's plenty of oxygen in compost tea, even if you put a lid on. The aeration-pump introduces more oxygen to speed up the decomposition. In contrast, folks put a bowl to submerge kimchi UNDER salty water, to prevent it being exposed to air to grow greenish mold. Vaporvac put leaves in plastic bag, plus some soil and water for leaves to decompose faster. The soil is for microbes, and the water is to keep the microbes alive. Same with my leaving brown-yard-waste bags with grass-clippings, fold-shut, in the rain. I want it moist, but not soaking wet & stinky. One year I left grass-clippings out in open rain during winter & spring, and it became a wet sewage swamp, with verticullum wilt fungus that killed my tomatoes. In summer time, grass clipping in open air matted and dry up in the heat into "mummified" grass clippings & dry like cardboard. My neighbor showed me her compost-tumbler. It's a HUGE metallic container with a crank to stir the compost. She opened it, and it's moist and fluffy, zero smell. Composting is faster if you introduce air and moisture. Khalid asked me a question about his putting gypsum in compost, and the maggots went away. Gypsum is acidic, so it will kill maggots temporary, but its acidity helps to speed-up the decomposition by breaking down fibrous matter. When I dig in my rock hard clay, at 2 feet it's impossible to dig further, I simply put gypsum & some water. A month later, that become fluff. The acid in gypsum corroded even rocks, if there's tons of water. Damage to root = fungal diseases or losing all leaves. This July I threw some gypsum around Marie Pavie. It dropped 3/4 of its leaves from the acidity that corroded roots when rain hit. In 2012 I threw gypsum on Evelyn, and it broke out in rust instantly when rain hit. Things rot faster if there's acidic water, such as rain. I killed or stunt countless roses by following Roses Unlimited recipe of 2 cups of alfalfa meal in the planting hole. I did that to Paul Neyron (grafted on Dr. Huey). Knowing that Dr.Huey likes alkaline, I also put 1 cup of lime to balance out 2 cups of alfalfa pellets .. but when rain hit, the afalfa decomposed underground into a sour mess that kill Dr.Huey. Thank God, it's a cheap $3 rose from Menards. Since my soil is rock-hard clay at pH near 8 at the bottom, I got this clever idea of mixing in cracked corn (pH 4) to break up the soil. I did that to a hole in partial shade, in a soaking wet spot with rain-spout nearby. After 3 months, the clay went from compact to fluffy soil. The corn decomposed fast to neutral pH, given shade and water. Tchaikovsky did great. Then I mixed corn in the planting hole of a spot up the hill, in full sun. It's dry, so the corn didn't decompose, even after 3 months. I planted Just Joey ($7 bare-root). It died when tons of rain hit. Chicagoland rain pH is around 4.7, corn has pH 4 and when that decompose, the pH drops further. That's what my neighbor, Ph.D. in botany did: Due to our extreme cold winter, -20 below zero. He dug a large trench, put compost & leaves in, and covered with soil. That decompose faster since it's warmer underground, plus wetter, plus soil microbes help to break down. Leaves don't break down if they matt together (no air in between), but if I layer leaves with soil (introducing air and microbes and moisture), leaves break down very fast. CONCLUSION: Compost tea is wet, plenty of oxygen and moisture in the water, thus stirring is not necessary. I once saw a squirrel drowned in the neighbor's garbage can filled with rain-water. That's stinky regardless if you stir it, or don't stir it. The decay process is faster if you introduce air or moisture. Decaying gives off acid, and things decay faster, or give off more acid, when it's in a wet solution.