Category: bliefs

Someone did the math on this yesterday and we are currently sitting at 40 more days of this‽

I think we will make do.

The sewer is already backed up – and all of the s#!% talking has not helped.

This weekend both mermaids had events.

LaGrande finished her high school run as Sophie in Mamma Mia. The group bonded so well and became such an amazing little family in the past several weeks that the final show was rather emotional. I watched 4 of the 7 performances and BopOp holds the family record with 6 of 7. Each night was an adventure showing ups and downs, improv and fine execution, sickness and health. The effort involved was high but the rewards, for viewers and actors alike, was equally high.

TheWeeOne then finished her latest quarter of Aerial training at SANCA;THE local circus arts facility. She graduated from Level I to Level II this quarter and showed us moves on the silks and trapeze such as Man in the Moon, Angel, Birdnest, and something like a double foot split swap…I dunno what it was called exactly but it was a favorite. Recently she has gained enough upper body strength to also add in a session of flying trapeze where she is learning to control her momentum while swinging and even doing some basic release/catches. Again – the effort involved is humbling; and I am really proud to see how far she has extended herself and how fast she has progressed.

For some days/weeks/months we have made do with 2 functioning bathrooms.
This was due to equal parts available time, fear (of fixing it wrong), desire, with a dash of no-budget thrown in to boot. If it weren’t for the last bit I would have hired it done months ago.

Finally the stars aligned last weekend and I overcame the fear factor with the help of BopOp – there is no real substitute for experience.

Needed:
* new subfloor under the toilet
* tear out existing vinyl
* new underlayment floor to match existing floor height
* smooth underlayment floor (no high spots)
* new solid toilet flange
* new finish floor (went with inexpensive click-in vinyl ‘planks’)
* new toilet
* install toilet
* install trim

As of today I only have a small leak issue with the toilet-tank that should be resolved with a little sleuthing.

Per usual – 1000 words per pic.

The first three layers needed to be a total of 3/4″ + 3/4″ + 7/8″ (or was it 5/8″?) for a grand total of either 2.125″ or 2.625″ – I think it was the latter. Using the big, exterior grade, HD Oriented Strand Board (OSB) for the two 3/4″ layers we only needed to find a board with the goofy 7/8″ dimension.
Luckily – I’ve been doing pallet-board projects and I happened to have one pallet with good boards of exactly that dimension. They went down first.

Then we established how to successfully manage the lead elbow and the brass flange via TheInternets – credit to Erik Asquith and his video on how he replaced his similar setup

We finished day one about here – with some hard wood putty in the low spots. Decided not to go with self-leveler for the floor because it already looked pretty good to begin with.

And while parts of the putty were drying (and the paint behind the old water closet) we handcrafted a small cherry strip for the threshold rounding the edges with a simple belt-sander. Later you will see I stained the strip with a dark walnut and added two coats of shellac, buffed out with 0000 steelwool, for an almost TOO nice look. Shout-out to Brad Simmons for giving me some cool castoffs of Brazillian cherry from his first house build many many years ago. I knew I kept them for a reason.

On day two BopOp reminded me how to make a well-crafted fit, along an uneven edge, using a compass and after some more work on the underlayment we got started, slowly at first around the hard bits, and then much more quickly to finish…

…exactly where we planned; a full plank’s width against the south wall.

The red color of the cherry may clash, for a color-purist, against the straight browns of the floor in this closeup but in real life I think it lends a subtle and interesting accent crossing over from the varied colors of the slate into the new uniform browns of the bath floor.

Since I haven’t caulked along the tub yet, nor fixed the leak (I somehow managed) on the toilet tank; there is no final shot. The trim looks real nice though and if I didn’t do this post now – it might not happen.

TEASER: My next big picture post *should be* what I have done in the past 6 months to my bike garage. Been saving…er…procrastinating that one.

2017 has been something of a whirlwind. I suppose my lack of postings reflects that general truth.
This past 10 days we, as a family, have had some good relaxing together time playing games and enjoying our winter holidays without much commitment.

I welcome 2018; look forward to making ourselves better, keepin’-on with the typicals, and discovering some atypicals and unawares.

We made some gingerbread houses.

Enjoyed our cozy christmas room.

The girls powered through a christmas tradition – making cookies.

And it started to snow…on Christmas Eve! We expected a dusting and awoke to about 5 inches (or half a small dog)!!

After we unwrapped presents (before first light) a nice mid-morning nap then we took to the snow. It was perhaps the most perfect packing snow…and I found two square buckets for making bricks.
Behold – 30 years later – another monolith!

The next day – we borrowed a 13foot ladder…

“forced” some serf’s up to the top…

and capped our beast off for an official record – it lasted about 15 minutes at this height.

As I write this, 5 days of rain later, we still have a wee pile in the front yard.

It was a good end to the year.