Wednesday Weigh-In

Still the same up weight I was last week and I didn't even have that many Tim Tams as the cookies are ridiculously expensive and only have 10 in the package.

Seven

This week, we began the second remodel of the bathroom. This seven is just some thoughts and stuff that happened during the week.

1. Wednesday morning, the crew arrived at 7:15 am. Why can't construction people begin their work day at a decent hour like bankers?

2. Georgiana D. inspired this next thought. The dilema of the call to nature. When the toilet is removed from the bathroom and is sitting in pieces on the sun room floor, where do you go? The first day, I ran across the street to use my neighbor's bathroom. Then I had to spend time for a quick chat and a cup of tea and the process started all over again.

3. On Thursday morning, the port-o-potty was delivered and placed right smack in the middle of the driveway. Right in the front. Of course, this is not a place where the Little Princess would go. Can't imagine any of the crew would use the facility either considering it was 11 degrees above zero with a 35 mph wind. That would chap yer cheeks. Apparently, having a facility on a building site is required by OSHA. The guys were running on Dunkin'

4. On the first day, I had to move my car to the neighbor's driveway so the dumpster could be delivered. The driveway was covered with a sheet of ice under innocent fluffy snow. I couldn't get any further than a snowbank where I was firmly stuck. While Prissy yelled helpful instructions for me while I spoke in tongues and waved back at her, I called AAA. The towtruck driver winched me out to the street. Too early to pick The Young One up from school, I went to Target. They have a pristine ladies' room. I bought some paper towels too.

5. Wed night/Thurs. morning, we did not have a shower. No big deal for Himself because he could shower at the fitness center at the college. In the movie Witness Kelly McGillis as an Amish widow made taking a sponge bath from a basin look sexy. I decided I don't want to be Amish.

6. No heat in the bathroom reminded me of the cold-water flat in the city where my aunt and grandmother lived when I was a kid. The bathroom was on an outside landing. My grandma speaking in her broken English called the bathroom the buckhowsah (back house). I used to whimper when I had to go when we visited. Contemplating the meaning of life this morning, I found myself whimpering again. It won't stay like this. It won't stay like this.

7. Floor tile in a cobalt blue and white pattern called octagon and dot (4" octagon with a 1" dot) has proven difficult to find. We bought the tile at Lowe's only a year and a half ago. No one carries it. As I pulled into the driveway after picking the Young One up at school, I thought when I said I wanted a cobalt blue and white bathroom, this [see picture above] is not what I had in mind.

Day Two

Bright and early the crew arrived to begin work. We had another walk through with the contractor and the designer. We talked about the custom cabinets, placement of light fixtures and they answered questions about the work that had been done.

Floor tile has become an issue as the pattern I wanted doesn't seem to be around any more. I wanted an art noveau style bathroom. The mermaid tile reminds me of the work of Alphonse Mucha. Seems cobalt blue is not in vogue. Neither is white. Art nouveau is art passé. Me thinks I was born too late. The designer will be making a trip to a tile place to see what she can come up with.

In two days, the bathroom has been gutted to the studs. Good news was nothing horrible like vermin and termites going on behind the walls. The house, around 49 years old, has cedar walls. A very expensive material for houses even back then. The basement leaks like a sieve. but the house itself is well built.

The tile was torn out and new underlayment put down. Plumbing connections for the washer, shower, sink and toilet were put in and connected to the out flow in the basement. The shower even has the water lines in the proper place. The idiot son of a contractor had reversed the hot and cold for some unknown reason. The outflow to the septic had to be changed over as we had a leak there, too. Now everything is clean, white PVC which the plumber told me was much better than copper. It won't corrode as quickly.

Not too happy about the trap that had to be installed and has to hang below our drop ceiling. The trap falls in the middle of the only window. There was no other place to put it and it's required by the building code. We'll just have to come up with a way to decorate it. The room is only used by the family and where my studio is located so company won't see it.

The plasterer stopped by to see the job. He will plaster the new ceiling in the bathroom as a crawl space access is being relocated out in the hallway. The ceilings in the house are scrolled. The plasterer told me he can match the hallway ceiling. Seems he apprenticed with an old timer and learned how to do the scrolls and sand textured ceilings. Very cool.

The Carpenter had been able to save the shower base during the demolition because it hadn't benn installed properly. I suppose thank God for small favors. He set the base in mud (concrete) so it won't move or crack. Before leaving for the day he reconnected the toilet, and he even built a temporary shower! I thought they would just staple some plastic sheeting to the frame, but the carpenter put up some thin white, laminate sheets! The contractor is conscious that this is our only bathroom and he's making sure we're not left stranded for more than one day or have to move into a motel. Good guys!

It's very quiet here today. No banging. No sawing. No music. No singing. The plumber sings along to the songs on the radio. The other guys were ragging on him. Telling him he should be the next American Idol. Plumbing work is on hold until the plumbing inspector arrives late Monday afternoon. Our town is small so the inspectors do the work part time, after their own full time jobs.

The electrician will arrive Monday to start his work rewiring for the light fixtures, washer and dryer and fan/light in the shower. I'm not sure if he will be installing the electric radiant floor heating mat yet.

The bathroom is quite ugly, but taking shape. It's also clean for all the rough work going on. The fellas clean up after themselves. The work area is left cleaner than when they first came in. I'll miss the carpenter today because he's the last to leave, he got the task of sweeping up the hallway, kitchen, and living room areas where they walk through.

I guess Monday I'll be baking a batch of Lambie's cinnamon buns. The fellas sure deserve a treat.

Photo Tag

Erica tagged me for this game. The rule is you have to go to the fifth photo folder on your computer and then pick the fifth picture you find. After you post the picture, you tag five friends to do the same.

The fifth folder is the Chip folder. The fifth pic is Mr. Morton from the episode Return of the Phantom Doesn't Chip have beautiful blue eyes?

Sadly, I don't have five friends to tag. If you want to play consider yourself tagged. Let me know because as a Facebook Flair I received says: Enable the nosy.

Square One

After waiting a year, we finally decided to move forward with the bathroom remodel. A trip to the home show and we found The Good Guys. We met and discussed the plans. They seemed to understand our vision for a Euro-style, wipe down, quick clean bathroom. As you know, bathroom cleaning is not a Little Princess job but every so often the Little Princess has to go slumming. Herself would like the cleaning process to be as quick and easy as possible. The ideal would be to install a self-cleaning sprinkler system with a drain in the floor. Press a button, hose the room down and ta-da, all clean.

So if you in the cheap seats remember, this is the bathroom before the first remodel. 50's yellow tile and we added the pale blue accents for that UCLA look. Go Bruins!

Then we went through the remodel and this is how the bathroom looked when the son of a contractor "finished". I like to call this picture The Disaster. A very quaint and cozy slum look.

Today, the Good Guys arrived bright and early. Man, why can't they keep banker's hours and start at a decent time of the day! We had a quick walk through to discuss the project. Wonder of wonders a building permit was taped to the bow window in the living room for all to see! And the demolition began. Ink was not happy with all the noise and the company. He spent most of the day huddled under the sofa. There was a lot of banging, sawing, music from a radio, singing, and the tangy scent of solder. My only complaint with The Good Guys is they enjoy their work way too much. They seem to get along very well and make a good team.

I was frazzled most of the day. Waffled between nervous and excited. I had to move my car to Prissy's driveway. Her driveway was one sheet of slick as glass ice deceptively hidden under fluffy white snow. I had to call AAA to winch me out of her driveway.

We knew there was a possibility that the shower walls couldn't be saved. The carpenter made a vailant effort, but the walls came down in pieces. Not to worry, we'd just order a new wall kit. He did save the shower base.

Then there was the call that the Swanstone Artic Granite I wanted was not available. Stuck in the snow, what I had I can't get. I started feeling as if this project was doomed with a capital DOOMED. God must have really liked the UCLA colors and didn't want the slick Euro white bath with the mermaid mural over the sink. Deep sigh. Forlorn look.

One bright spot. The mural will be shipped from California tomorrow. It should arrive next week.

We were given other options, fiberglass walls, a tiled shower. Fiberglass dulls quickly over time and is difficult to keep shiny clean. Tile, though beautiful, has all the grout and crannies where mold likes to grow. Nope, Herself was not going to be happy unless she had the no grout lines, no mold can grow, wipe down, Swanstone in Artic White.

I surfed the Swanstone site and found Artic White has not been discontinued. And a list of suppliers who carry the product. Happy dance.

The bathroom was gutted and taken down to the studs. The carpenter roughed and the plumber roughed. The Good Guys are aware that the dollhouse only has this one bathroom. They are making a great effort not to leave us stranded without facilities. The tub base will be installed tomorow and temporary walls put up. The shower will be plumbed. A portolet will be delivered tomorrow, but that is for The Good Guys. A portolet is definitely not a Little Princess place to go especially when the outside temp is 11 degrees. Thank you, no. The plumber kindly reinstalled the toilet at the end of the day.

And so ends day one.

Wednesday Weigh-In

Nuff said.

A Major Award

Erica nominated me for an award! Me! I got a major award. Thanks, Erica. See the picture? It's called:

The Lemonade Award

Here's how the "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Make Lemonade" award works:

1) Link back to the person you received the award from.

2) Nominate 10 bloggers who are deserving of this award!

Well, I don't know 10 people who blog, but here are the blogs I follow.

Alesia for her fun blog. You slay me; you know that, right?

Alesia for her professional pages. Always an inspiration.

Poppie for her creative and thoughtful spirit.

Alphabeas Calligraphy Guild. I love being able to attend virtual meetings. Thanx, Bev!

Thank you for entertaining and edumacating me. I'll leave with a parting thought from a piece of Flair a friend on Facebook sent me. When life hands you melons, you're dyslexic. (-;