Three Inches of Concrete

It is Sunday and there will be no rest for us this day. We are on a mission to take some crap to the dump. We have a bunch of stuff in the backyard that has to go and we have a bunch of stuff from the bathroom that has to go. I feel like I should be making a joke about the bathroom and having to go but I can't think of the proper sequay. So I won't!

Under that tile floor, the builders built a sub-floor between the
joists . . . about half way down the width of the joists . . . and then poured concrete into that space. I am not sure of the methodology behind this. Nobody I have talked to has ever heard or seen such a thing. I guess it makes for a very solid barrier between the second floor and the main floor ceiling. Other than that, I can't think of any good reason for having done this.

I do imagine that there are some long deceased builders who are having a laugh right now because this cement is in our way.

Susan and I had a very productive day today. I rented a trailer and we made TWO (2) trips to the dump. The first load was all the debris in the backyard from the demolition of the Wheel Chair Ramp. The second load had the remaining Wheel Chair debris and a shit load of concrete.
Here is a great picture depicting the cement between the joists. That covered the whole area of the bathroom floor . . . on the SECOND FLOOR. You've got to have some pretty good faith in the quality of your structure to put a load of concrete ON THE SECOND FLOOR.

A Visit from the Plumbers

Through my friend Mark, I have contacted two competent Plumbers named Craig and Dave.

They came by the house a few weeks ago, before the demolition of the bathroom began, to survey the situation, find out what we wanted to do and give me a worst case scenerio bid. That bid was $1,500.00. That was within our budget, so I have picked them. As far as the quality of their work goes, a recommendation from Mark is good enough for me.

Craig told me that they are not available to do anything on the bathroom for another week and a half. That means we are looking at around August 6th before they do anything.

That works for me cuz we still have a shit load of work to do before they can get started.

The first thing I am going to do is make some beer.

I am using a recipe that is different from anything I have ever made before. As I write this paragraph, the wort (my Beer) is boiling. It contains some water, some syrupy malt extract, and a half ounce of Polish Lubin Hops. That mixture has about 20 more minutes to boil before I add a quarter ounce of Crystal Hops. After five minutes, I will add a quarter ounce of English Kent Goldings Hops and let that boil for another ten minutes.

Just before I end the boil, I will add a quarter ounce of U.S. Ultra Hops and then remove the mixture from the heat.

Now comes one of the unusual steps with this beer. I will add a mesh bag of Indian Sassparilla Bark to the wort and steep it for an hour.

By then it will have cooled enough for me to pour the wort into my Primary Fermenter and top it off with water. When the temperature reaches the exactly precise temperature of about 70 to 75 degrees, I will add the yeast and let the magic begin.

What follows are a procession of pictures from the brewing session.

The picture at top left shows my cooking apparatus. As you can see, I am cooking my beer out on the deck. It is much too hot to be doing this on the stove in the kitchen. The middle picture shows a pan with a cup of Malt extract. I carmelized it and then added it to the boiling wort.

Here I added some Hops. Also pictured is the bag of Sassparilla Bark and then the Fermenter filled with the wort and topped off with water and ready to receive the yeast. It should be bubbling away when I return from work tomorrow. More pictures to come at that time.

40 Days To Go

We took a little time off last week to visit some friends who where staying at Flathead Lake in Montana. We had a great time. We ate a lot, drank a LOT, and I still lost 2 pounds. THAT's a good vacation.

Now we're back and it's back to work.

While we were gone, Phil continued work on the destruction of the bathroom. The floor has become a problem. Under two layers of linoleum, was the original hexigonal tile floor. Check out the picture of a large chunk of tiles we were able to save. It was imbedded in about 6 inches of concrete that was just poured into the floor joists. That floor has been holding up about two tons of concrete for nearly 100 years.

I haven't talked to the Plumber yet but I think we need a substantial portion of the concrete removed before he can lay the new toilet line. Hammering the concrete out will be a bit of a problem for the Living Room ceiling. Cracks are forming already and chunks are probably going to fall down. We are making arrangements to collect what debris we can. WE will eventually cover the plaster ceiling in drywall so whatever falls is not a concern. Unless it falls on the piano.

On a side note, Susan and I are participating in a protest this morning against the Mayor. He is running for another term and is hosting a "Breakfast with the Mayor" event in the park.

The city recently changed our Garbage pick up from the alley to the streets. Many neighbors are quite pissed about this and have already been riding the Mayor in e-mail and phone call form.

Basically, the city bought new trucks that they say are too big for the alley. So rather than buy trucks that fit the neighborhoods, they have decided to re-design the city.

This is a very small issue that will probably not get a lot of sympathy from others. Hell, it sounds stupid to me to complain about such a small thing. This hardly effects me at all because I live on a corner and don't have to move my garbage very far. But, alleys are MADE for service vehicles. Ours is a historic neighborhood with lots of trees that will be pruned to accommodate these trucks. This is not something that the neighborhood is going to let go of.

It should be a fun breakfast.

53 Days To Go

Bathroom Demolition continued last night as we removed the sink. We didn't really run into any problems and it all came out rather smoothly...except for the dent I put in the stairway wall when carrying the vanity out.

I don't think I will repair that until I have the shower/bath tub out.

It Begins Again!

And now for the Bathroom.

We started on Sunday with a whimper. I wasn't really in the mood to work on the house. It was approaching 100 degrees outside and it was just too darn nice to be inside.

Still we wanted to accomplish something so we began by removing the built in cabinet and drawers in the anti-room to the upstairs bathroom.

They came out quite easily in two pieces that we put into the garage and will use for storage.

My original plan was to remove that wall entirely in order to make the bathroom one big room. Unfortunately, that wall is what we call in the construction and remodeling business as a "Wet Wall". It contains the water lines and the drain and ventilation for the toilet. It cannot be moved.

So what do we do with that space? One possible possibility is to possibly put the toilet there. We could create a little private water closet. We would probably have to move the back wall a few inch back to make the room large enough to be comfortable and that means we would loose some room in the closet behind the wall.

Another plan would be to put the sink there. Here's a picture of how that might look. I think it is a workable alternative but we still have some mulling to do.

However, the main thing I wanted to state here is that the bathroom remodel has begun. And I expect it to be finished by Labor Day. That is 54 days away.

What a Country

Susan and I had an excellent Independence Day!

We started by not starting. We slept in until 9. That was great!

Then we had a delicious breakfast on the front porch with coffee and mamosas and lots of cheese eggs.

We have some friends coming to stay for a couple of days so Susan had to finish her scrub down of the house. I went to work outside and did some work on the deck. I finished the decorative railing. The picture on the left is the railing that was already there. The picture on the right is of the work I did. I had to make two of those and they came out okay. Not great, just okay. They'll look better after they're painted.

About 3:00 and 98 degrees, we went out to the Little Spokane River and floated. It was just absolutely perfect. There were a lot of people floating the river but we were all spaced out and therefore, we felt like we were all alone.

Until we met this guy.

We floated by quietly and as far away as possible but he didn't seem interested in us at all.

There was a lot of wildlife activity on the river. Along with the usual ducks and geese, we saw two beavers, some muskrats, and a Partridege in a Pear Tree. Oh, and a Moose.