Ten Days Away

Ten days, a long time away from this blog. Hmmm, my coffee cup is empty. Also the cat is sitting right in the way. Typing around a seventeen pound cat ain't easy. Been busy.

A 1979 Vaughan Model 99 Professional Rip Hammer. Sweetest balanced hammer I ever used. It's been through the wars, so to speak. It's on the fourth or fifth handle. Any carpenter or anyone who has spent at least a decade whaling away on nails always has a favorite. It gets the status of at least a beloved family pet.

Usually the Model 99 has a 13" handle. I like the reach of the 999's but not what they do to my right elbow, so a 15" handle on a 99 head. The orange hammer is sold by Sears but made by Vaughan. I use it for bashing things other then nails and de-nailing. The floor underneath is pre-finished yellow pine on my upper landing. Somewhat distressed from two years of dragging furniture, house parts, vanities, and fixtures across it.

Need more coffee..... Cat's gotta go somewhere else.


I'd much rather buy bread. But at three bucks and up for bread without HFCS*, it's not worth it. Cheaper to lay in some flour and eggs and what-not. Some rather ugly banana bread. Good though. Also a convenient way to use old bananas.

On to the Back Bath....

Staring at that claustrophobic hole wasn't working. It stayed as ugly as it ever was. The room wouldn't be so bad in layout except some super genius took nine square feet from it and used it for the hall linen closet. The vanity sits in one niche, and on the other side of the linen closet, the toilet is wedged in another niche by the tub. There is about sixteen square feet of open floor space at most. Storage is paltry at best. Note this gem over the toilet.


The inebriated illegal immigrants who originally built the place had a little trouble getting the vanity top to fit. So they cut a slot in the sheet rock. The plumber who re-plumbed the house from the original polybutene wasn't great at patching. So.......


Since I got quite a bit of yellow-board scrap, away the damaged sheet rock went.

Yes, with forty whacks, anything can fit in a box. One cast marble sink-top.


It's just not worth it to leave shut-off valves on the supply lines. I hate mutilating cabinets to get the valves through. Also, the lines are in the wrong place. No matter what side the vanity drawers will be on, a line is there. So, there will be a few 90' elbows added later.


The tile floor, one foot square tiles and the caulk is a mixture of grout and.... caulk? The tiles were laid down on a very thin layer of thin-set which in turn, was right over the subfloor which still had the glue on it from the sheet vinyl. Adhesive properties of such can be rated as non-existent. It came right up. No scraping needed.


Whack! Blam! Crunch!

A little later, I stopped right about here. One fixture left to remove.

The door had acne.

A little later....what door, what molding?

The wallpaper band...ugh.

It's going away soon.


The shower-tub is staying. It's an ugly beige relic from the eighties but it's a sturdy ugly relic. It probably has at least twice the resin and layers of a modern fiberglass unit.


* High Fructose Corn Syrup

Bah Humbug

Santa Go Home

It's the holidays. I despise this time of year. The weather sucks. Christmas music, and that strange thing that this place has, fake snow. Red and green which really clash. All sorts of gift suggestions which involve spending money.

I'm canceling Christmas. Maybe next year. Just not in the mood.

More Borrowed Reads

I read another Stephen Hunter book, Hot Springs. Just like the last one, goes right along, and not only that, very well written and researched. The town in the title was a mecca of gambling and other fun in Arkansas. Any more and I'd ruin it.

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. Fantasy if one tries to pigeonhole it, but much more than that. It was well written and an engrossing tale of two thieves who while taking what was not theirs, try to do some good. Worth borrowing.

The Eye

Another day to be spent at the eye clinic. I really think at this point, all my left eye needs, is time. Hopefully they can cut me down to a month or more for visits. The eye-drops can go too.

The Back Bath

I chucked two plate glass mirrors at the landfill. The wallpaper tool is AWOL. I think it got loaned, or it's in the depths of a closet.

The demolition can start. The tile floor is not a keeper. The door needs to be sanded and repainted. The trim is almost as bad as what was in the front bath but at least not flesh toned. Habitat will benefit of course, two towel racks and a small cabinet. Pictures soon....promise.

Four Dollar Paint....A Winner!

It had to be done. Much deletion, much editing, not much rewriting. Call it, blog-maintenance. The left eye is much better. Follow-up tomorrow and then hopefully that's it for a long time. I want to cut back on the eye drops too. Nasty aftertaste.

The four dollar paint for the back master bath looks like a winner. I daubed some by the door jamb and on different spots on the walls. I'll boost the lighting a little or add more trim for contrast. First is the wallpaper removal and getting the fixtures out. No rush, got plenty of finished bathrooms.... If money permits, a new toilet. Those new American Standards really do flush better then even my old rebuilt Plebe. I guess the EPA did get something right.

Other things to do, need some wire to prop up the insulation in the crawl space, caulk along the rest of the mud sills, and start insulating above the fireplace since the chimney chase is as dry as a bone inside. The attic could probably stand more insulation as well.

Third Time's the Charm......

Third evaluation coming up at the new "job". Those of us that made the cut in the second evaluation were like me, older, still in shape. The younger ones were sent away to try again, . . . . a year later. The place is going to do well, going to ship a lot of heavy machinery thanks to the softer dollar. Start at O-Dark on Friday for the third evaluation. Looking forward to steady work and income. Also really nice not to do the quarterly thing anymore. That's a bite if not planned for. If I'm in, going to stay there for quite awhile. Real estate market won't be back until summer of 2009, if then.

Green boss was unhappy that the younger workers just don't have it. Some of em' do. The smart ones stay in school. See a lot of young polished office staff and managers these days. There used to be quite a few that wanted to do houses but they take one look at the housing market and the surfeit of illegals in the biz, and say, "Forget it!".

Got to move my medicine cabinet around in the front bath. It's a bit too high as I tried to give plenty of clearance to the faucet. Going to hide the holes with trim. Painting primer on my remaining replacement siding for today.

Later.....

Didn't paint board one. The front bath is hereby declared finished though. No more touch ups, no more tweaking, and no more hardware. Also a few weeks off until I clear out the back bath. That has been given back to the cat for the time being.
Art is needful in bathrooms. Something to look at while meditating, so to speak. The medicine cabinet is a bit small mirror-wise but it beats rummaging through the vanity drawers for floss. A little off center to the light. The light stays where it is though, to move it would require official sanction.

Latest most pessimistic word on real estate, is that it won't be back at par until 2011.

Multiple Choice? Wowza!

Hot Dog! Good day at the new "employer". Blew through the test in record time. Well, multiple choice.......I can beat anyone on the planet. Not smarter then most, just I have the widest mental download bandwidth that I know of. Just means I can screw up faster then light......

Friday, they see if I can screw stuff together. Out of nine of us, they kept four.

To celebrate, I threw caution to the wind and stopped at Lowes. Nice new medicine cabinet in keeping with the faux period look of the room (Greek Folk Revival), complete with cornice. Pretty decent for the money, i.e., 98 bucks plus tax.
Image is from Lowe's online catalog. No flowers, let alone roses, in my bathrooms.

No work on the chimney today.....just too hot.

Water Water Everywhere, but Where?

My water bill was waaay up there. 3280 gallons of water? Last month it was high too. I'm thinking it was the back bath toilet before it was repaired. Oh well, since the old overflow pipe is the last original part in the thing, it's been shut off until the back bath gets repaired and refreshened. Navy showers and flushing only when needed now. See if I can get it under a thousand gallons for the month. For every gallon under a thousand, I'm going to award myself a cent toward frivolity.

Back at the Garage House, helping out the boss. He's gotten the Carolina Cold, a nasty regional cold. I had one two years ago, sneezed so hard I'd get nose bleeds. Sprayed insulation. Nasty stuff....air one can see. The place needs doors and trim and finished floor, then done.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, road trip. Then Tuesday is an evaluation day at my prospective new employer to see if they like me. The job is going to be 80 miles round trip but if it's the only game in town.....I'll do it.

Strange offer from a health insurance agency, googled them and looked at their website as requested.Nothing in relation to my resume and the only openings were sales. There were no openings for claims personnel, customer service representatives, mailroom, adjusters, underwriters, and other functions that any insurance company has. Decided to pass. Another one from someone looking for car salesmen. We call these guys, resume scrapers. Basically, they scrape public resumes off of sites like Monster and Careerbuilder and make questionable job offers.

Just hire the cat.....

Lets face it. The real reason I'm looking for work...is to feed this.
There are smaller dogs in the neighborhood, or were.....

Somewhat shy or just bored, hard to tell.


I needed some FMT (Forward Motion Therapy), so I pulled my two old beauties out of their long rest. I thought of my old Peugeot UE8M but it's very sentimental for me, so only on nice days.
So it was my "Crackhead Special" as my bro in law calls it. I found this late-70s Fuji Supreme at a thrift shop for ten bucks. It took a month to get it back to roadworthiness. It's a fun ride. Even when you're tired and the legs have had it, somehow, you just want to keep going.Note the rack. Someday, this may be all that we can afford to "drive", so it's rigged as a commuter special. Completely legal for most European streets complete with lights and bell.


Thirteen miles of American Tobacco Trail later, complete with dust and horse dung. I should have been touching up my bath and the old resume and pleading on bended knee for employment, but heck, it's Friday, cool and cloudy, so ...... I .......pedaled my heart out. I feel much more optimistic and better at any rate, must be the endorphins from when my body said, "Thank God, he's gonna stop!".

Ah, the front bath. Just more touch-up. Mostly done and still cheap.


The wall-side of the door casing is always the same color as the wall. Just like it that way.

The "tile" lines up with the threshold. The base-top on the casing gives the door more depth. Also helps hide the fact that the door casing is only 1/2" thick and the base board is 3/4ths.

Bath bling of sorts.....Stainless steel supply lines for both the vanity faucet and the toilet.

Last of the caulking except for the shower. Off white to match the "grout". Shower had a good clean, just need to bleach treat it. Then the recaulking.

Touching Up

Not much today beyond painting and touch up. Lots of touch up. Big touch up, then medium touch up, then small touch up, then..., and so on. Cleaned house, organized tools (lots), and figured out that my tax payment for the third quarter will be painful but not agonizing. Oh yeah, job hunting....


The color is decent. The threshold is "Venetian" baseboard tile. Sports section of the N & O for protecting the floor. Speaking of flooring, the leftover vinyl from the front bath is enough to do the back bath. Not bad for one roll of vinyl, 6' by 9', and only thirty bucks. The pattern also lines up....talk about serendipity.


Best bathroom light in terms of light production and light quality. there are three 13 watt compact fluorescents in them now. There were four but no need to be wearing sunglasses while brushing teeth.


Maggie, part Manx and part something rather large. Anywhere from 16 to 18 pounds depending on exercise and grazing habits. Not bright, but very amiable.


Medicine cabinet, half bath. Eventually two more for upstairs.

36" vanity, Colony by RSI. I wanted the 30" model for the front bath but the last one at the store got ...... clobbered.

That's about it. Tomorrow, set the rest of the shoe mold, install toilet and door and then just wait.

Greek Revivial on the Cheap

The front bathroom gets ever closer to done. Yesterday, between job hunting and hearing, "We'll give you a call.", the vanity plumbing was finished and working. I managed to outsmart myself by installing the wrong supply hoses, but, if sufficiently motivated, I can work in tight places. No leaks and all good.


I like white porcelain and chrome knobs and handles. I just do.

My baseboard is pretty hefty compared to the sample of standard baseboard. I like a good solid trim-out.

Mitering corners is fun.

Note the tile in front of the shower.

Some Greek Revival going on.

I solved the problem of the molding on the door casing running into the base cap on the baseboard with some fast coping and caulk.

I can wash my hands to the right........


.....and to the left.

So today, pretty good. Trimming, caulking and setting nails.

I spent how much?

Why so long?

It's been awhile. Just too busy to write. My last day at the Garage House was Friday. I'm still self-employed, but no longer a sub. Boss got a good worker in A anyway and he was trained as green builder, so all good. It's in the plastering stage, electrical mostly done. It's going to be a nice space, high board ceiling reminiscent of the old country stores, nice view out the windows, and last but not least, solar hot water. It's also going to be well insulated and an almost zero net load on the HVAC

Job Hunting and the Question

Job hunting goes well. A temp agency pinged me with an offer. I also passed it on as requested. Seeing a lot of self-employed though, wondering if that's the way to go. The jobs aren't too great as it is, so that might be why there are so many on their own.

The two not-so-cheap baths

I found a matching vanity to my half bath's on clearance but it looked like it got hit by a truck, so what I got is still white, but has three drawers instead of two and cost me 208 bucks as opposed to 168, less the tax. Still, cheap enough as it is. Lowes also sold me a relatively inexpensive white cast marble top, side strip, and enough trim to install behind the toilet location. The front bath is the current focus.

Last night the sheet vinyl was cut to size and fitted. Not bad for a first go. The bare spot behind the pipes is going to be under the vanity.
Then came time to glue it down. A little too much glue. After all was said and done, it took some time to get the excess out. The hammer is for those pesky staples that I didn't smack flat the first time.
I dragged the vanity upstairs and stuck it in the front bath. The first picture shows the vent being laid out on the toe kick, the second, cutting it out, and so on.



More work to be done in shifting the cold water line so it doesn't interfere with the drawers, silicone caulk for the faucet and sink drain, and getting as much done before tomorrow.

Much later in the afternoon.....

I got as far as getting the vanity in, top glued down, and installing the faucet. Nothing is hooked up yet. I also painted the baseboard. The baseboard will be built up out of some very nice clear 1" by 4" Yellow Pine (species Longleaf), an inch high base-cap and a narrow shoe.


Nothing like getting the first fixture in a room to boost morale. It's always in the "Are we there yet?" phase until that happens. Then it's, "Almost there.". A bit of a gap on the wall side of the top. What can one say if the place isn't plumb? Caulk will fix that. I got some cheap stuff but want to use the good stuff by General Electric instead. The drawers are staying out until everything is working.

This is my favorite bathroom faucet. Porcelain handles have a nice feel to them and having a separate control for hot and cold makes it easier to set a water temperature. What is also nice is the clearance under the spout. It also swivels from side to side to make filling large awkward containers easier.

Time to chill and clean up and get some food for the mind. See ya later, Gator.