Not Necessarily Interesting News

My wife said it couldn’t be done. She didn’t think we’d finish this job by Thanksgiving. We cut it close but we did it.

For the past two months on weekends and evenings we’ve been working on upgrading our son’s bathroom. It still had the original floor and vanity installed in 1980 when the house was built. To say they were out of date is an understatement. The vanity was not just ugly, it was hideous with this really, uh, quaint brown faux-marble shell shaped bowl. Did that ever look like a good idea to anyone? Behind the toilet was some wall and water damage from a leaky pipe 8 years ago or so and then and ensuing termite infestation we had cleared up 3 years ago. The room was freezing in winter from all the drafts. Some quickly slapped up wall board and a tub surround was all I had time to do to repair it about 5 years ago. A job I never finished because I knew I’d gut it in the future anyways.

Gut it we did. We pulled out the old toilet and tub, pulled down the old tub surround, then smashed the old vanity to bits. A job my son relished. We then took down all the wall board on two walls. It was heavily water damaged and the studs behind them were very termite eaten. We took down the old wallpaper and scraped off the ‘popcorn’ ceiling. Why do they do those popcorn ceiling? They’re ugly. I replaced some sections of studs and we took care of a mold problem. I then repaired some old plumbing getting ready for the new tub. We also replaced all the insulation on those walls as the old stuff was falling to bits.

Next we started reconstruction. First and worst part was wrestling a cast iron tub we got for $20 at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. $20 for that. Nearly perfect condition. It’s so much nicer than the cheap plastic thing that was in there. It took four grown adults to get that thing into place. Once it was in, up went the new dry wall. Mud and tape finished that job. Now we were ready to start the fun work. The stuff people will actually see. If you don’t do the foundation right though the rest is just going to fall apart.

A new floor to ceiling tile surround was the first part. For some reason I thought that setting the square 6″x6″ tile on a 45° angle was going to be a good idea. It made for a lot of cut work around the edges. Not making it any easier was the fact that the walls in this place aren’t square. Every cut tile needed to get measured and cut individually before laying. It turned into a 3 day marathon of cutting and laying. We inlaid a nice tumbled slate railing to give it some interest. It came out amazing.

We then papered off the room and I sprayed new texturing on the walls and ceiling. I bought a texture gun for this. With the air compressor it was a 1 hour job. I spent far more time mixing the stuff than actually spraying.

Next we laid the genuine slate floor. We got an amazing deal on it at $.89sq/ft. We spent a whopping $50 on the floor. After the tub it was the biggest bargain of the job. Working with natural slate can be challenging. It’s not all the same thickness and can vary by as much a 1/4″ in depth. Took a lot of playing to keep the joints smooth. White grout finished it off and complimented it nicely.

Some towel racks, a mirror, and a light fixture from Ikea along with a pedestal sink off Craigslist and a framed copy of one of my photos finished things out.

It was a long process but my son is overjoyed to have a bathroom back that doesn’t look like it was designed in the 70’s. He was rubbing it in that he now has the nicest bathroom in the house. I’m actually a bit jealous. Our bathroom is next. After I find a new job to pay for it of course. Who knows, maybe I can remodel bathrooms for extra income.

All the pictures of the remodel can be found in our gallery.

I think the title pretty much sums it up. I’ve been told my last day is the 23rd.

Ok, so it’s only my parent’s new boat, but still I can claim the title.

My parents decided to sell their 22′ jetboat a few weeks ago and trade up to something bigger. At first they were thinking ‘houseboat’. They even went and looked at a couple. I tagged along to give advice and to give the boats the once-over. I pointed out that, though houseboats are comfortable, they are also big, slow, and hard for just two people their age to handle. A boat that size would require me to come along and help every time they went out.

I talked with them about what they wanted to do. (Stay overnight, have a galley and head, fish, runabout, etc) I asked if they’d thought about a cabin cruiser. I suggested something in the 26-28′ range. Big enough to be comfortable, small enough to handle on their own and not eat too much gas. My father said that wouldn’t work because my mom hated cabin cruisers after a bad experience/trip on one in the 60’s. Turns out he was wrong. We started looking at cruisers that afternoon. I picked out a couple nicer 28-29’ers for them to look at.

They finally found a used 33′ SeaRay with twin V-6 Mercruisers they liked. After a thorough inspection and price negotiations they bought it. It’s a pretty sweet boat. It sleeps 6 easily, has a full galley, head, generator, A/C, and even a central vacuum system for the carpets.

Last weekend my wife, son, and I took it out overnight. After waking up in the morning and having breakfast I tried to start the engines. The starboard engine was dead and wouldn’t start. Whee! Dead battery. It seems the onboard refrigerator and anchor lights killed the starboard batteries. Luckily with two engines I could still get going, though slowly. I limped back into the marina on one engine. We learned not to leave both batteries engaged all night to prevent this.

This past Sunday we took out some of the family for a ride. On the way back into the marina, the power steering started acting funny. We wrestled it into the slip and popped the engine covers. Oil was everywhere in the bilge. I crawled down and discovered that the power steering reservoir was empty. I traced the source of the leak to a hose, burning myself on the still hot engines in the process. I spent last night on my belly in the bilge trying to get to the hose clamps. I finally got off the hose after an hour and we found a nick in it. Dropped by AutoZone and picked up a new hose today. $2.50. Probably the cheapest repair we’ll ever make.

Now the family is calling me ‘Scotty’. Instead of Dilithium they’ll need to ply me with Appletonrum.