That's right. I finally got the parts and made the bed. It was worse than I thought, of course. I put the cross braces in, and put the boxsprings on the frame. What the heck? Why is there so much room? That explains why they also sent me side braces. Those were wrong as well. I had to disassemble the bed and start over. In the end, though, the bed was put together. Annie and I slept in it that night. She thought it was pretty cool, although she thought it was pretty high off the ground. I think it is great, and for the first time since I messed up my shoulder working under the deck, I slept without waking up to pain.

One draw back, though, is that I still find myself going to the bathroom late at night. It is now a very long trip...

Well, at least this part is done. Oh yeah, I also have a big TV hanging on the wall. Annie is going to flip (she hasn't seen it).

Almost done...

Well, we've made some progress today on installing the trim. The windows are cased, and about half of the ceiling is "molded," but in a good way. I'm not willing to give pictures until we are a bit further along. Annie has been great. I've been cutting and treating the trim, and she has busied herself with her horses and her Play-Doh. In fact, one time I went in to rest my back and watch her. I was asked to leave. Apparently, it is a very private activity. We had to run down town for some more mineral spirits, and we talked about the remodeling crap project.

We started talking about the kitchen after a discussion about the fact that I'm not going to install carpet in another room in this house. "When do you think we'll finish the kitchen?" I answered that I didn't know, but joked that I hoped it was before she went off to college. She replied, "well, you'd better finish before I go to college, because you need my help!" You are absolutely right, my little pickle.

Struggling with the projects at hand...

I've been suckered again... At my last professional conference, I had five or six people tell me that I should be a Distinguished Lecturer for my professional society. One of them was a past president of the society, but then again, he was on my academic committee, so he might be biased. He did give me the most glowing recommendation, though. At any rate, I decided to fill out the application. After I had decided to do so, a coworker and friend told me that they were always begging for DLs, which took a bit of steam out of my sails. Typically being an optimist (about work), I decided to ignore that comment and found out last week that I had been approved as a Distinguished Lecturer. I actually hate the title, and would prefer something like Discussion Instigator.

At any rate, if I understand things correctly, I'm supposed to give at most six lectures each year for the next two years. It's only been a week, and I've had three requests for talks (Ontario, Ottawa, and Dallas). I confess that I actually wondered who would possibly want me to come and talk? Then again, I do pretty well as a presenter. The best presentation I ever gave was at the conference in 1996. I was a little nervous when my room changed to house more people. No worries, I had a blast. They are lucky I didn't do what I did when I taught trigonometry and force people to answer questions while I was talking. Then again, that was because the class was very early and I had some freshmen being hazed and they found themselves trying to catch z's in my class. I don't think so. I can be very entertaining, and I'm not afraid to use embarrassment to keep people focused.

At any rate, I'm really looking forward to it. I have made arrangements for Annie to stay at a friend's should I have to be gone for a day or two during the week, and I learn a lot from talking to other people about things. I think it will make me even better at my job. However, I'd better get busy creating the presentations. So far, all three have asked for hour-long talks. I can talk forever, but I should probably have slides that support my rambling. Then again, if they would like to hear, 'One time, at band camp...' I'm up for that, too.

Not Distinguished, Not a Lecturer, but very willing to talk...

It's not even 5:00 pm, and I'm already beat physically and mentally. I've tried all day to catch pneumonia, but I think I was unsuccessful. It stopped raining Friday, but I had to work, so I started working on constructing Annie's special Christmas present yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, but at 9:00 last night, I still hadn't finished. So, I started it again this morning. The 'project' is assembled, but there are some other things around it that I haven't finished. It's dark, and I ran out of some materials so I called it quits for today. I am on my fourth change of clothes in a futile attempt to stay warm and able to move without soaking wet clothes binding me up.

At any rate, it's really close to being done, and I'm finally ready to sit and eat something while I watch Gross Pointe Blank for the fifteenth time since my ex gave it to me. I have an orange cat laying next to me, and I'm finally warm.

You'll forgive me for not saying Merry Christmas, yet. My Christmas doesn't start happen until Thursday when Annie comes home. She is currently having a blast playing with her cousins and celebrating Christmas Number One. I can't wait until Thursday...

Early bedtime... definitely...

Murphy's Law: I had finally built the rough-in for the entry to the master bedroom. It was almost perfect, and more perfect than a rough-in needed to be. I was concerned, though that the header was too high. The genius at Home Despot told me that I should just make the rough-in one inch larger than the door. Well, ok. Using these dimensions, I was afraid that the gap above the door jam would be too high, and not allow me to mount the casing. So, I went on line and found the door manufacturer, and after weeding through tons of useless information, found the dimensions for the rough in. The height should be two inches taller than the door. Excellent, I had that. Unfortunately, the width should be two inches wider as well. And what's this note? If the door has an astrigal, which mine will/do, the opening should be two and a half inches wider. Crap.

Silver Lining: At least I found out now, and could fix it before I picked up the doors.

Murphy's Law: I ripped the 2x4 out on the right, and it came out without too much destruction. While pulling the nails left in the sill plate, which happened to both be into a large knot, my good crow's foot snapped. The nails didn't budge, but my almost 1/4" thick steel claw snapped in two.

Silver Lining: I have another crow's foot, and the wound on my hand from flying metal will heal and blend in with the rest of my scars.

Murphy's Law: While ripping out the 2x4 on the left, the sill plate completely disintegrated. I knew that there was some rot from 20 years of water damage at the corner of the room, but didn't think it had extended this far. Five feet of the wall's base needed to be removed.

Silver Lining: This wall doesn't support much weight, and I was able to remove all the rotted wood, build up the damaged floor, and put a new sill in. I finished rebuilding the rough in without further problems. I even felt good enough about it that I put in the rough in for the bathroom door, and put a sill and a stud in where the old door was. The door has been moved so many times in that wall that most of the top of the wall is header...

Murphy's Law: My back was killing me so I decided to make use of those wonderful jets in the bathtub. I climbed in to a steaming hot bath, and turned the jets on. I had some soap in the water, and only had about five minutes of jet activity before the suds had climbed so high I thought I was going to fill the whole bathroom.

Silver Lining: I yelled for Annie to come and see, and we spent the rest of my bath time making funny hair and beards on Daddy. Not a bad end to the day.
Bite my derriere, Murphy...

I got started on the french doors as soon as I got up. I stained them last night, but I hadn't gotten to sealing. Unfortunately, my first task was cleaning. Word to the wise: don't stain wood in the dark. I had stain all over the astrigal on the outside of the doors. Fortunately, it came off with that difficult but useful formula known as elbow grease. I went ahead and began sealing the wood part of the doors with teak oil. I'm especially fond of penetrating oil finishes. I just like the look.

The difference is evident in the following pictures, and I'm actually very pleased with the color.

In the light of day, I saw some areas that need to be improved, but I think I can do it later. Right now, I’m just concerned with sealing the doors against the possible impact of dust and moisture. I think that has been done. Oh yeah, and the hardware is on the door. I just need the right hinges…

The only difficult of the day was Lilo bolting out the doors as I was working. The little turd ran under the deck, and I didn’t see him until I was ready to get Annie. I caught a ride with the neighbors so I could pick up the motorcycle from Santa Cruz, and was very concerned about him in my absence. It was with a great feeling of relief that I saw him peek out from under the deck, and he is safely sleeping off his adventure.

Next comes the rough-ins for the bathroom and bedroom doors…

So much to do...

I've posted a number of times about the trials of remodeling a bathroom. I wanted to wait until it was completely finished to make this post, but who am I kidding? I will always see things that need to be tweaked, and the camera is kind about not showing them. So, here it is. I don't have any pictures of what the bathroom looked like when we moved in. That would be too embarassing. However, if there is one thing I've always kept close to my heart about this place it is the potential. Our realtor has said more than once that we should consider selling and moving up, but I love the location. I can fix this... When we moved in the hall bathroom had the vanity door in the bathtub. That's the best indication I can give as to the state of the bathroom without a picture. We have iron problems with our water, and the crappy tile tub surround was tinted orange. Well when my septic started having problems, and I removed the toilet to try to snake it out, I figured it was as good a time as any to begin the remodelling of this bathroom. I was negligent in taking pictures throughout the process, but I did take a few.

I'm not displeased with the results. Thank goodness that my ex-father-in-law was willing and interested in helping me with the drywall mudding and texturing. The rest was all me (bad things and good things alike). I spent more money than I had expected when I started, but I'm fairly happy with the results. It's great to just turn the faucet on, and know that it will be the right temperture when I get in the shower or Annie gets in the bath. I like that the lights just turn on when you walk in (although I need to tweak the sensor to allow the skylight to take over when it's bright enough). The jet tub is amazing, and I enjoy having the stero in there so I can "chill". There is more than ample storage in the medicine cabinet, I think, although I have no idea what Annie will want to put in there as she gets older. The trim work looks good, even given the warped walls and the work it took to remove that impact on the crown moulding. I still have some corrective things to do, but all-in-all I think it looks good... That takes a lot for me to say.


Almost there...

Al came up early today to help me with the drywall mud. As much as I wanted to finish everything myself, I knew that he could do it better and faster, and he volunteered. He smoothed out a virtually all my mess, with only a few spots that may need one more coat. It's actually looking really good. We figure a couple more visits by him, and I'll be ready to paint. On top of that, I learned (again) from him some of the tricks to working with drywall mud.

You know? I might actally get the bathroom done in under a year!

Hate drywall mudding... Mainly because I suck at it.

There are probably a lot of things that I can't do, or can't do well, but I haven't found that many of them. Maybe they just haven't come up in my life. I mean, I'll be honest, I can't fly a plane (but I'm arrogant enough to think that I could if it were really required!), and I can't play an instrument worth a crap (but I could if I really, really practiced). Ok, you get the idea, there is very little that I don't think I can do. However, I've come to realize there are some things that will take more practice and patience than I am currently capable of. One of them is drywall taping and mud applications. (No comments on my inability to have a long-term relationship, or the fact that I've obviously had some practice!)

Well, at any rate, I put the first application of drywall mud and taping on the walls of the bathroom today. As usual, it took much longer than it should have, and it was a terrible job, but I'm planning on a lot of sanding... I don't have Annie this weekend, so my regular assistant was missing. Fortunately, I had a substitute. Lilo was available for consulting, and paid the price. You see, for every five pounds of mud applied, one pound was necessarily applied to me. As a helper, Lilo took his fair share.

The white near his bum is not his normal coloring. I really tried to get him to stay away from the wall I was working on at any given time, but he refused to listen. I appreciated the company, though, and I hope Lilo got something out of it beside a coating of what will be rock by tomorrow. He is still in the bathroom surveying our handywork.

It remains to be seen if I can clean up the mess I’ve made… But hey, I can do anything, right?

Specialized in creating cat molds...

Yet another job for which I will never leave my post as an engineer: laying tile. However, the tile in the bathroom is down and grouted. With any luck (and a reservoir of energy), I'll seal it Monday.

And, no, it really isn’t a curved application (although that’d be cool!). I used a wide-angle lense to take the picture… Also, in case you are wondering, the gate is not to keep Annie or me out, it’s to keep Sandy from claiming the room as a catbox… The tile was put in last weekend, and I never got to working on it during the week. I started clean-up this morning to put in the grout. A note to those first-timers like me: spend the time to clean up the thin-set mortar that creeps up in the cracks. I spent several hours this morning cleaning the cracks. At first, I went at it by hand. I hadn’t made it very far before I was cramping all through my forearms. Insert your own “wuss” comment here. I decided to take some advice that I was given (very hard for me), and pulled out the Dremel tool. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a bit that would do the job. So? Annie and I piled into the truck, and went down town. The very helpful assistant at the local hardware store took me right to the Dremel bits, and I found the one that would work. Further advice: buy more than one. I went at the task of cleaning out the cracks, and by the time I was done, the 3/32 bit that had score marks for carving “things” looked like a needle.... no exaggeration.

Annie wanted to help so bad, but there were limited opportunities for her. Gifted child that she is, she came up with a couple on her own. Before I grouted, I put drywall mud on the screwheads. She suggested that she could tell me where they were. That was a great idea. We went over all the holes in the middle of the walls, and she cleaned up what I dropped on the floor. By the time I was done with that particular task, she was saying “Daddy, try not to drop any on the floor”.  Which was good guidance, as I was purposely flinging drywall mud on the floor every chance I had.

As I prepared the tile grout, she wanted to help further. Note to those who are not versed in this (like me): buy a drill bit that stirs. I pulled out a stick of wood from the copious surplus in the garage, and sat on the deck looking like I was churning butter. Annie came up with a desire to help, and she went at it. She did great. I think the consistency of the grout by the time we were done was perfect. We let it set, and then stirred it again.

After the first application, I had grout everywhere. It’s like when I paint. Actually, it’s like any home-based improvement I do. There are certain things that are guaranteed.

1) I will make a mess beyond the area I’m working on, and

2) I will bleed at some point.

The second point is a genetic inheritance from my father. My dad is incredibly gifted at building and construction, but he always bleeds. My best bet moving forward is to simply cut myself, and bleed on everything before I start. It’s going to happen, I might as well get it out of the way. While cleaning out the cracks in the tile, I used a utility knife and what I think is a wallpaper knife (no clue, but it’s a great tool). Sure enough, the utility knife slipped several times, and I began to bleed. The good news? I have many cuts in my hand that were so superficial they didn’t bleed at all. Probably the result of callouses over the years. The same reason that I can run barefoot down the road and not feel anything.

At any rate, the tile is obviously in. That’s a big step. The next thing that I hate to do is drywall mud. The incredible cost that is required by people that do this for a living is totally warranted. It’s the devil’s work. I have one seam on the drywall that happens at a stud that is twisted, so it’s not flat. I’m absolutely pissed, but there’s nothing I can do. My sister, who has a scrutinous eye for detail, would probably make the contractor take off the drywall, and sand down the stud to provide a flat surface. (If this doesn’t make her read my blog, nothing will… here ears are probably burning right now.) But, since I’m the owner, and the contractor, it ain’t happenin’. I’ll tape it, and texture it, and pray for the wierd light in the room to make it go away…

One more task down, and Annie is pestering me to continue the drywall mud. My father’s and my ex-father-in-law’s expertise in this area must be genetically instilled in her. She’s already told me I don’t have enough mud for the job. I should probably just point her to the drywall knives and the bucket, and let her go…

Too cheap for a contractor...