Mo' Progress

We have had another major advancement in modern bathroom technology enhancement.

Shown above is a sink. It is a method of delivering water, on demand, to the operator of the sink. In this fashion, the operator may wash his (or her) face and hands, consume the aforementioned water, or just turn it on and let the water run for hours on end.

We will eventually change out this faucet. We would like something more old fashion looking, two handle cross tops with porcelain knobs.

But for now, and with the Solstice Party around the corner, this faucet will do

Life's Simple Pleasures

It was a true pleasure to take my morning constitutional in the main floor bathroom this morning. The floor was warm and the capacious setting brought serenity unto my personage. There was also the satisfaction of being in a room that we had a major hand in creating. And a little embarrassment at how long it has taken.

Three Hundred Ninety-Se7en Days Without a Toilet

I left work an hour early today in order to get home and get some important preliminary work done in the bathroom. I had to get the bead board installed on the toilet wall. I did all the measurements and layout last night and got everything marked up. When I got home, all I had to do is get everything cut out.

Surprisingly, it all fit! Wow!!! 

The other big obstacle was to remove the valve that supplies the toilet with water so I could place the bead board. That required the purchase of a crimping tool that tightens the ring around the valve. The tool cost $62.00 for something I will use once...maybe twice if I screw up. In reality, I used it once.

Anyway, all went well and the panel is in place. 

The next task was to pull the old toilet out of the Carriage House and get it cleaned up. It was a mess. 

Once the toilet was ready, it was a matter of placing the wax ring, putting the screws in place, and dropping the potty into position. 

All went well and we have a working toilet on the main floor.

Our looooooooooooooooooong national nightmare is over.

The next thing to do is to see if we can make the sink work.

One Week to Solstice Party

We had decent weather today and that allowed for some good progress in the bathroom. 

We had a little more progress with the shower. We need our finishing tile, which should be in tomorrow. Then Ron will finish that one side of the shower so I can get the bead board up and get the toilet installed. 

I also made some progress on the north wall with bead board. It is taking me some time to get each panel placed and fitted properly so I do not proceed quickly. But I am proceeding and with luck, we might have a sink installed with our toilet. 

Man, are we getting hoitey-toitey or what?!

Adapt, Improvise, Overcome

Please to take note of the photograph below.

You will notice that the shower tile is coming dangerously close to the wall box where the heater will be. We still have to add a decorative tile and a thin bull nose pencil tile to finish.

With the heater in that location, it wasn't going to work.

So Susan asked if there was any way to move the heater over slightly. We had already moved it once when we realized it was too close to the toilet. Well, we thought about it and came to the conclusion that we could screw a 2x4 to the stud and move the box over about an inch and a half.

And so, that is exactly what we did. Now we have enough room to make our tile design work.

I like it when we come up against a problem and Susan figures out a fix.

Tile in a Shower

I think we are at another major milestone sign post delineation. We have begun the tiling of the shower.

This is how far we got today. When I say we, I of course mean Ron. He is our tile guy. Although, I did a lot of observing today and I think I can do it. I'm going to try and help out on Wednesday when Ron returns to finish.

June Post

There has been a slight break in bathroom activity. My heart has raised it's ugly ventricle and is giving me some problems. You can check out my other blog to get caught up on my health issues. www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com 

I've been home all week and trying to do little projects here and there as I am able and feeling like it. I must admit that there have been lots of naps.

I shall report on my progress as I make some.

10:31AM: I have been addressing invitations to the upcoming Solstice party but I am taking a break to go out and buy more envelopes. I have to get some other grocery items as well so I'll probably do that now.

12:24PM: I have completed the addressing of the invitations. Time for a nap!

May's Final Post

Susan and I are pretty sore from patting ourselves on the back after accomplishing so much this past Holiday Weekend. We feel that we are wicked awesome with trends leaning toward moderate skillfulness.

And yet, there is more to do. We are continuing our work on the bathroom, specifically, the tile. We could get really anal about this process. 

When one is down close to the floor and examining the tile up close, it looks pretty bad. 

But when you stand up and give the floor a cursory scan like any other person would do, it looks fine.

So we are trying to find the happy medium.

Memorial Weekend Mundane

We began the day with a mission. To go out to the Little Spokane River and procure some fernses. First we stopped for breakfast at Ferguson's Cafe.

Then we headed for the river...

...which turned out to be a total bust. There were no ferns to be had. If it wasn't for the fact that we got to go to the river, I would have been pissed.

So, we went to the Depot and bought the three ferns they had.

Assorted other things occurred that I don't feel like relating here. But we did manage to get some work done on the bathroom floor. We are at the point where we are cleaning the grout and deep cleaning the tile. Once that is done, we can seal the grout. Just one more step towards installing a toilet.

All in all, a great weekend to be an American!

Memorial Weekend Sundee

8:22AM: With the Indy 500 as background music, we are up and at-em with the projects for today. 

Phil arrived at 9:30 and got started on the siding project.

This is the first board in place.

The next thing Phil has to do is cut into some of the old siding so it feathers in nicely and doesn't look like there was ever a whole section of work done in this space.

Susan is back to work potting hanging baskets and will be returning to the front yard to finish the west flower bed.

I'm trying my damnedest to not go out and do any work. However, I think my time has run out. Yup! I just got yelled at. Gotta go!

4:22PM: Here is the progress Phil made today.

Unfortunately, we ran out of lumber. I need to purchase 95 more feet.

Susan finished all her planting and I finished my unplanting, getting this stump of a dead Arbor Vitae out. I

6:01PM: We are off to Mom's for dinner. I shall report back in the next paragraph.

8:30PM: We are beat. We stopped at the Hub and shared a pitcher with Mark. Now we will watch a couple of shows and then off to slumber bed. 

Good Night!

Memorial Weekend Saturday

10:45AM: We haven't done anything yet other than get up, read the paper, drink some coffee (with Baileys) and enjoy a wonderful breakfast of Cheese Eggs and Taters. 

There was a segment on "Ask This Old House" where they replaced a door into a closet with a book shelf that swung open like a hidden door, similar to what I want to do in the bathroom where the old stairway is. I recorded it so I can refer back it when I show Jerry what I want to do.

I've run some laundry this morning and I vacuumed the balcony. Now I'm going up to mop the balcony floor before I move on to my next project.

7:46PM: Many hours have passed and our yard looks better for it. Susan got one of the front gardens planted and all of the Geranium boxes for up stairs on the balcony. 

I cut down a couple of dead arbor vitae and cleaned up around the yard in general. While Susan accomplished a lot and it shows, I accomplished a lot and you might never know it.

Here is the other flower bed that Susan will plant tomorrow.

We went to check out our tile choices and will be ordering everything on Tuesday. After the tile store and a brief stop at "the Depot", we went to the Hub. 

Now we are winding down our day and going to enjoy some burgers, beer and an old Jimmy Stewart movie, "The Shop Around the Corner."

10:17PM: "The Shop Around the Corner" was remade in the 90's as "You've Got Mail". While neither movie was a laugh riot, we got a little joy out of it. It featured Frank Morgan, who is best known as the Wizard of Oz. The odd thing about the movie was that it was set in Budapest. Nobody spoke with an accent and it was really an unnecessary affectation.

Now that the movie review is over, lets have a pit fire and enjoy the first blurry S'Mores of the summer season.

Opening Holiday Weekend

4:51PM: It is the start of the Memorial Day Weekend. It's hard to tell what the weather is going to be like this weekend. It's supposed to be rainy today and tomorrow and nicer on Sunday and Monday. 

Right now, it's pretty decent out. Perhaps a bit cool but not so bad that I couldn't sit out on the front porch. Perhaps that is what I shall do.

8:36PM: We have been to the Hub and back after a couple of pitchers to launch our fabulous Memorial Day Weekend. I actually plan to take some time this weekend to remember the sacrifices that have been made by fallen soldiers so I can walk to the Hub and enjoy a beer.

11:38PM: We've spent the evening watching shows off Netflix. I think we have discovered a pretty funny new show called "Lady Dynamite". It stars comedian Maria Bamford. It's pretty off kilter and really unusual and funny. We watched the first episode and liked it.

Siding

It's a rainy day. In fact, it's been a rainy weekend. Almost an inch of rain fell yesterday. A few showers have happened this morning already.

We got trapped at the Hub Tavern for a while yesterday because of the rain. We walked over to watch the Preakness and while we were there, the skies opened up and it poured for a good long while. It finally subsided enough that we figured we could make it home without getting totally sopped.

I had Phil come over today to get started on replacing the siding on the house outside of the bathroom. The first obstacle to over come is removing the old siding. I want to hide the fact that a door had been there. 

There is also this giant gouge that has been inexplicably cut into the siding. I would like to fix that as well.

But there is an obstacle to the obstacle. You will notice the white post in the upper picture next to my particle board covering. That is the latch for the gate going out to the hot tub. I removed a couple of bolts that secured it to the deck but it was still attached.

With Phil's help, we managed to get it loose.

So we got to work removing the rest of the siding, trying to save as much of it as possible for re-use. After the undercarriage was revealed, we put up some tar paper and called it a day.

I am satisfied with our progress for the day. Especially since I didn't know what sort of progress we could make today.

The next step is the put some uneven cuts in the siding shown above up to the window. That will eliminate the gouge I showed above and hopefully make the whole side look uniform. Other than looking at this blog, no one will be able to tell there was ever a door in that area.

Primer Time

We made more progress in the bathroom last night but it is another case of  two steps forward and one step back. 

We got a coat of primer paint up on the walls and ceiling. It only took us a little over an hour and all went pretty well. 

 

However, there are a couple of spots that need to be sanded. They were not at all apparent until painted. Then they stood out like diarrhea on the Mona Lisa. (I'm thinking I could come up with a better comparative metaphor) (But I'm not gonna!)

So the sanding will happen tonight as well as touch up priming.

These Birds Don't Need No Bees

Wham!

Bam!

Thank you, Ma'am!

Sunday Mudding

We were hoping to get the floor cleaned up and sealed today but we have been talked into waiting. We also had plans to postpone tiling the shower until after we got the toilet and sink installed but were told that is probably not the best idea.

The problem is my anxious anxiety to get working fixtures installed. Now! 

I need to back off on that desire and do things in the proper order. 

We are finally happy with the dry wall. We will know for sure tomorrow if we are finished with the mudding. If that is the case, we will proceed to tiling. 

We looked at some tile yesterday and know what we want. We are awaiting the costs.

These are some pictures from the shower of our neighbors, Tammy and Lou. This is what we want to try and reproduce.

We like the decorative outside border and want to recreate that with our shower. We look forward to seeing what comes next.

Hurray! Hurray!

It's the Eighth of May!

If you know anything about anything, you know what that means.

It's also Mother's Day. And so the two kind of tie in together. I would imagine that a lot of Mother's got their start on the Eighth of May.

There is not a lot going on around the estate today although I must mention that our fabulous summer like weather continues. 

I'm doing some yard things and some house things. Susan is mudding right now and I just finished my area of influence, as far as the mudding goes. 

We are getting very close. I'm looking at Memorial Weekend to install a toilet and sink.

If I write it here, it will make me try to accomplish the goal.

Mexican Independence - Not!

In my continuing pattern of posting when I have nothing of substance to offer, let take this time to wish you a Happy Cinco do Mayo. This is a day that Mexicans celebrate the much vaunted victory at the battle of Puebla, where the Mexican Army defeated the Frenchican Army. 

It is celebrated in the U.S. as a day to drink heavily after just recovering from the heavy drinking we did on St. Patrick's Day. These two drinking Holidays prepare us for the big drinking weekend of Memorial Day.

Susan and I celebrated by going to Geraldo's, the Mexican Eatery that is within walking distance. While there, we purchased some gift cards for our neighbor to thank her for doing our taxes this year.

We celebrated the day early, having gone to Geraldo's last Sunday, but the sentiment was there just the same.

May the Fourth Be With You

It's Star Wars Day. 

I have no other reason for posting other than to say that.

But since we are together again, I will tell you that a little mudding and a little sanding are going on, inching us closer to the goal of possibly finishing the remodel of the bathroom before we die.

Bloomsday 2016

Susan and Mark ran Bloomsday today.

Susan finished in about one hour and thirty-three minutes. That's her same time as last year.

We followed our usual Bloomsday routine. I drove Susan and Mark down to the race and then went for breakfast. I drove back downtown after the Bloomsday runners had cleared out and the Police started to open up the streets. I got my excellent parking space outside the Onion Bar and Grill, got a table and awaited my runners.

Then we enjoyed a Post Bloomsday Brunch that couldn't be beat and finally returned home. 

Now we are in veg mode and Susan has expressed for the 100th time how glad she is that it is over.

Nature Experiment

Okay! This is going to be fun. We're going to conduct an nature experiment. 

This is our Chestmut Tree in the front yard. This is the Eastern Chestmut pictured above. We also have a Western Chestmut.
(Editor's Note: The Author realizes that it is a Chest NUT Tree but is too proud to admit a spelling mistake. Therefore, he will continue to refer to it wrongly.)

Susan and I were trying to figure out how many Horse Chestmuts one of those flowers will produce. I was thinking that each little flower bud will produce a chestmut pod, which contains two chestmuts.

Susan thinks the pod only produces one chestmut and is not sure how many pods will be produced by the flower.

So I have taken a picture of the lowest flower in the eastern chestmut tree.

I shall take progressive pictures of the same flower and watch what happens, recording our findings here and thereby, conducting an Scientific Experiment on the nature.

Prepare to get learned on. I only hope that Global Temperature Change will not mess up my findings with an over production of CO2, which is a gas scientifically proven to exist.

Work & Relaxacation

12:48 PM:

Today Susan is down at the Arena tending to the needs of those who have chosen to watch the big skating competition that has come to town. 

The event is the Kose Team Challenge with three international teams competing. There is Team North America, Team Europe and Team Asia.

All the promotion for this thing would make one believe that it is a BIG deal event in the world of skating. The number of people in the seats tells a different story.

I am here at the estate doing my sanding in the bathroom. I did my mudding in my little area of responsibility. Susan will cover her area tomorrow. 

Now I'm waiting for the mud to dry but that should really take until tomorrow.

So I think I shall venture over to the Hub and see what is going on for their 4th Anniversary Shindig. I'll check back later!

8:05 PM: I have returned from much fun, frivolity and progress on the work front. First of all, the Hub was fine. I left there and came home for a nap. 

Then I went over to visit Mom and tried to figure out why her printer won't print. My conclusion is that she is trying to print from an iPad which is an Apple product, of which I am not a fan. They are supposed to be so simple and intuitive...and yet, they are not.

Then I went to church to help clean up after the day long Yard Sale. They had a good day and sold over a thousand dollars worth of crap. I got there at four and just got home now. I'm not complaining. There were folks who were there all day.

It's been a cloudy day where the rain has threatened, backed off, threatened again and then let loose. 

I think I shall now sit back and relaxicate myself.

Plaster and the Tax Man

We made excellent progress this weekend in the bathroom. We are closer to installing a toilet...but not there yet. 

We still need to finish mudding and sanding, which seems to take forever. Our good neighbor Lou stopped by Saturday morning for a brief mudding seminar. Susan was concerned about the amount of build up she had to do on one of my walls.

I concentrated on the shower area. I had been planning on tiling all the way to the ceiling in the shower but was informed by unnamed wives that that would look stupid and it was forbidden. Therefore, I had to do some major re-work to the corner and the walls in order to make them look good for painting...or wall papering. 

Susan would prefer to wall paper, but cannot find a pattern she likes. It seems like the day of wall papering is coming to an end. There just simply is not a lot of choices out there. It is easier to create your own customized design but that is still very expensive.

Susan ran the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer race today in preparation for the Bloomsday. She was happy with her performance and is getting ready for the big race, which is two weeks away.

The only thing left to do today is finish our taxes. We've been holding out because we owe almost $900.00. That's because we made sooooooo much money painting. I guess that's a good problem to have.

Return to Remodeling

We are happy and celebrating as we have completed a week and a half of sky walk decorating.

It is Spring in Spokane and we have been part of the effort to promote all the fun activities going on here in the Lilac City.

Susan painted the "Celebrate SPRING in Spokane" lettering and I painted the text for a bunch of events. I think I have already explained this. 

Here are some pictures to 'splain it mo.

We finished the last of eight sky walks tonight.

That's another couple of grand in the Remodeling Account.