Progressing to Pex!

 My friend (who is also a construction whiz) is back from travelling for his job and on Saturday he and his wife came over at noon to help in the next phase of the bathroom reno project.  (cue scary music) The plumbing!  This was not all the plumbing, really just a tip of the plumbing iceberg.  We had to replumb for my washer and dryer in their new location.  We went into the dreaded crawl space armed with humor, a gas torch and rolls of pex piping.  (which is seriously the coolest stuff ever!)  

My crawl space is hideous.  I am about 5ft 7 and I have to kind of crab crawl around it.  Picture the golem looking for his Precious in Lord of the Rings.  Yup, that was me.  For 11 1/2 hours!  Luckily my friend is a good deal shorter than I and could most often mostly stand erect.

It took so long because we discovered most of my existing copper piping was riddled with pinhole leaks.  Leaks I knew nothing about because the pipes were also wrapped in foam insulation.  Which was holding all that water inside.  Yup, right on top of the electric heater tapes that thankfully we didn't use this year.  The goddess was watching over us for sure!

But it meant a lot more replacement than we had expected.  And this does not address the moving of my sink, and toilet or putting in the 2 inch piping for the shower drain (which should be fairly straightforward but then again--this is my house where NOTHING is ever straight forward.)

I am truly blessed with good friends.  They stayed till 11:15 when we were as done as we could be with the job.  The washer and dryer work in their new location which is important. My wife has a cleaning business and we have a large family.  A washer and dryer gets lots of use in our home. 

In the crazy way of doing a project of this scope while living in the space, we will have to move the washer and dryer again when we are ready to lay the subflooring on that side.  Then we will put flooring down and move them back for good. (I hope)

I learned a lot, and it is actually fun using the crimping tool that fastens the pex plumbing.  My friend is a good and patient teacher and I am truly truly blessed with these folks in our lives.  I don't know too many couples who would still be laughing and joking with us when a job took as long as that did.  

Mothers Day Weekend

 I took Friday off this past week so that I could sand the floor in my wife's bedroom.  This room has had carpet on the floor ever since I can remember.  Allergies and rugs don't mix well for us.  And the rug was old and in need of replacement.  In lieu of that, we pulled the rug out and discovered that the floor, although painted in several colors, was really in great shape.

So Friday I spent the day sanding the floor.  After about 4 hours it looked like this:

I love the honey tones in the wood.  It is really different wood from all our other floors. Those are wide pine floors. This floor has narrower boards--though still wider than is common in flooring nowadays and the wood tones are much deeper.

Today Kirsty has put 3 coats of Bona high traffic polyurethane on it.  It is looking even better than this "naked" shot.  It will be a week before we can move her furniture back into the room but it will be worth the wait.  Oddly, I love sanding floors.  Which is probably good because this is the 5th or 6th that I have done in our home  thus far.

We also spent time working on cutting down a 30 x 24 base cabinet.  It is now a 30 x 18 base cabinet. This was time consuming but not all that hard.  We have a circular saw now, and moving into the land of power tools definately speeds up things.  LOL  We also used my cool portable work table that I bought a couple weeks ago. This eased things too as I could set it up right in the upstairs bathroom where the cabinet was.  

The cabinet also has a drawer and we had to cut that down as well and install new drawer glides. Things went along swimingly until we discovered that the end brackets I ordered were not correct. I have ordered what I hope is the correct replacement and it will come in tomorrow.  If all goes well we pop that on tomorrow night and the cabinet will be ready for painting.  I'm proud of this little project. First of all, there is the fact that we repurposed a cabinet that we no longer needed into something we very much need.  We have very little storage in that bathroom and I need to create a place where Elisabeth can keep her beauty supplies.  

The other component to this is putting on a laminate counter top.  Of course they are not sold in the width and length that I need.  I was going to order one but the sales rep said that there is a $500 set up fee and the best bet would be to order a 4 ft counter top and cut it down ourselves.  Using painters tape would prevent the laminate from splintering.  Check out yo*tube the sales rep advised.  So I did. And it looks pretty straight forward.  I have ordered the slab and it will be in mid week.  Next weekend we can hopefully cut it down and it will be ready to mount.

The next facet of this particular room make over will involve an electrician installing two new lights in the room and the plumber installing a new toilet and the new sink and vanity.  Then the room is essentially complete until our first floor bathroom is done.  When that one is done, I want to have the tub resurfaces and it will go from old blue tub to sparkling white.  Even my daughter, who is a tough critic, likes the way the room is turning out.

And in spite of all those projects, we still had a lovely Mothers Day dinner with a surprise gift for my wife. I made her meal of choice--sweet and sour meatballs, mac and cheese, roasted aspargus and a tropical cake.  We pitched in and got her a kayak.  It is a fold up one so she should not hurt her back getting it to and from a paddling place.  She is super excited as she has wanted a kayak for a long time.

Visiting Mom!

 December 2019.  That was the last time we saw my mom in Maine.  We went up for a Christmas visit.  It was wonderful.  The world was pre-covid.  We laughed, hugged, ate, and the kids and I planned to return in March for the annual Maple Sugar celebration. We'd visit with her and then visit sugar houses before returning to our state.

Then. . . covid.  I remember my mom calling me in March.  The world had not quite shut down yet.  I was still not grasping (as were many folks) how big the covid threat was and how it would impact our lives.  Mom told me she did not want me to visit.  I was shocked but said I understood and would not ever want to put her at risk. Covid still seemed distant and far away.  A couple days after that you could no longer travel from my state to hers and the Maple Sugar Festival was cancelled.  As was most of 2020.

We spent that year keeping in touch by phone, by email, by Facebook and by text. We sent cards and small gifts to her and to G who had lived with her for many years.  It was so worrisome.  For the first time, if something happened to her I would be unable to help.  I could not drive there.  I would not be able to visit if she was hospitalized. There was an undercurrent of helplessness all the time.  

So much happened in that time.  My kids grew.  My middle son moved out of the house. We lost two beloved pets.  G. passed away.  

Yesterday was the first time we could visit together safely.  My wife, myself and KC are all fully vaccinated. Chet is 1/2 vaccinated. Elisabeth is not yet eligible. My mom is vaccinated as well.  We had chet and Elisabeth wear masks for safety but it was still a wonderful wonderful day.  We washed her windows and hung her spring curtains. My wife cleaned her bathroom as mobility has become an issue for her and she can not readily do somethings that were once common place for her.  We ate and laughed. We hugged.  We cried. We laughed. We hugged some more.

Humans are meant to touch each other.  Stealing that from us was one of the hardest things about covid.  I did not even feel comfortable hugging or kissing my wife until we were vaccinated as I work in an environment where I have been exposed to covid multiple times. 40% of my staff had it.  I am part of the lucky 60% that did not.  I credit masks and washing hands frequently. 

So today I am grateful to be able to hug, to laugh and to be present fully with those I love.

KC is 17!

 

So this is KC's second Covid birthday!  Last year when he turned 16 we organized a drive by birthday parade and decorated inside with a Broadway theme.  I had pre-covid promised him a large outdoor friends birthday party and of course that could not happen.  I felt horrible about it all.  16 is such a milestone. And my kids have not typically had a lot of "friends" parties. We usually do family parties and only have big friends ones for milestone events.  

This year we had a local company come early in the morning before the teen was up and they put this banner on our front lawn.  Elisabeth was away this weekend--she had checked with KC before accepting the invitation months ago.  He said he thought she should go as since lockdown she has not had a lot of time out of the house and he felt she really needed it.  

But K and I still felt we had to do everything we could to make his birthday special.  Hence the banner.  He still had a family party and Rob was here, and cooked KC's favorite chicken entree and made a delicous carrot cake for the birthday cake.  There were gifts, phone calls from family who could not be here and lot of laughter.

I also made KC's favorite cinnamon rolls for breakfast yesterday --we have kind of had the whole weekend have lots of little bits of joy for him.  He loves these rolls which I typically only make on Christmas.  And tonight we will have a favorite supper of his, arroz con gandules.

He had time to go to a friends house and watch a movie.  He had time to see a favorite show with me. And he told me how very cool the banner was and that he didn't think anything could top last years birthday, but that somehow we did.  

Seriously, how am I so very blessed to have kids who feel the love and joy of experiences even in these harder times?  Celebrations have always been tremendously important to KC (top pic is when he was 3 and was helping to paint the rainbow mural for his party.)  That my son feels that his day was in no way diminished by the circumstances of covid fills me with such joy.  

Cleaning the portal to H*ll

 

 Today's renovation photo is far from pretty!  This is the crawl space in my house where all the plumbing and HVAC live.  Last weekend I visited it under emergency circumstances for the first time in I think my whole life.  (which is kind of bizarre if you know I am in my 60s!) In the course of  stopping the plumbing leak with my friend, we tripped and scrambled over literally generations of debris.  It was immediately clear to me that I needed to get tripping hazards out of the space since in about a month we will be doing plumbing and electrical work down here.  

Yesterday was that day.  I put on my daughters wellies and waded in.  I moved out pipes that apparently plumbers had replaced and just left the old ones disconnected and lying around.  I moved out an old cabinet, old chair, broken fittings, pieces of wood that were lying around, 2 giant boxes of broken flourescent light bulbs and more.  

I would bring them to the main part of our cellar and then Chet ferried them up to the dumpster.  There is still damaged insulation that I want to bag up and get out but it is a lot better.  It still sort of looks like a portal to hell but at least you can move around in there safely!

I Can't stop the rain!

So this weekend my friend and construction guru was back from his business trip.  He stopped over Saturday and together we safely disconnected electricity to two outlets so that I could remove those last two boards.  This is necessary because when the new window goes in, it will allow us to install a straight wall and gets us those precious 8 extra inches in our bathroom.  After we handled the electrical, we reviewed the work that needs to be done and I have a plan for the final demo and when we will do the plumbing and electrical.  

There was a copper pipe with our old showerhead still standing in the middle of the bathroom.  "You can take that out you know, " E said to me. I was dubious.  He assured me not to worry, and explained what to do.

Today I made the cake for our Sunday dinner, and then took out a couple of boards that needed to be removed. Then I decided not to do more because we need to have the dumpster brought back.  I thought I would remove that pipe. It was small and surely would be quick.  I got my pipe wrench and gave the fitting a turn. . . and heard water.  I could not see water, but I could hear it. The washer was going and for about 10 seconds I convinced myself it was really the washer.  Then I shut off the washer.  I could still hear water.  

I went down cellar.  My plumbing is largely concentrated in a gross crawl space kind of area of my cellar.  Over the many years my family has lived here (remember I am the fourth generation to live here) that crawl space has become the repository of things people did not want making it a hazard. The plumbing has been higgldy piggly cobbled together.  In short folks, it.is. a. mess.  And what I found when I climbed in and shone my flashlight was that a copper pipe had totally separated and was gushing hot water on the brick back exterior foundation.  I scrambled in and looked for a shut off.  There were lots of them but many went to pipes that were disconnected.   I tried pushing the pipe back into the fitting.  This resulted in giving myself a shower.  Just what one wants to do in a crawl space!  Um, maybe not.

I climbed out, ran upstairs, texted my friend, gave my phone to Elisabeth and said for her to let me know when he texted back.  I went back down and resumed my search for shutoffs.  I finally found one that slowed the flow but did not stop it.  Then I got a bucket and put it under the remaining leak.  

E arrived.  It took him a while to figure out how to stop the flow so we could work on the pipe but eventually we got it to cease.  My wife got home and she knew where the main shut off to the house was and that helped.  He showed me how to fix the mess, at least temporarily.  The piping is both old and not really done correctly. And all the weird little shutoffs really need to be consolidated and  a different kind of shut off used.  The reason the pipe came apart when I used my wrench was because they were not fit together properly.  The pipe actually had to be cut so it would fit in properly. We got it fitted and soldered.  And took our  cobwebbed covered selves out of the crawl space.  E promises that when we do the bathroom plumbing we will re-do all of this and it will not be an issue again.  He also promises that it will be a half day job.  I am betting it is a full day job.

 

Chet makes a plan!

 This past weekend was Easter weekend so it was light duty in the home improvement arena.  I got a new medicine cabinet for the upstairs bathroom and installed that.  I picked up a new vanity for that same bathroom, so I can install that when the downstairs one is someday finished. LOL I did some picture hanging, pulled some nails, kind of  kept things low key.  

Chet found getting rid of the old medicine cabinet rather heart wrenching. I had him help me pull it out and we looked at all the rust all over it.  Honestly there was so much we had covered it with duct tape  years ago. It was put in when I was 4 and i am in my 6th decade; this owes us nothing!  It helps him to  be part of taking the old thing out and he calmed doing that.

Later he came and asked me what was behind the walls in his bedroom.  I asked if he meant did it have insulation and he said yes.  I explained that there is no insulation in those walls, actually in any of our bedrooms.  There is no heat upstairs either but we are all used to that.  Chet then asked if I could someday "rip his walls apart and put in insulation."  LOL  Well, yes, i could, once the other projects I have going are done.  It would really only be two walls so it would be pretty straight forward, though getting the debris out of the second floor will be a pain in the you know what.

More than that though I was concerned over how Chet would handle mess in his space. And there would be mess.  I explained that I only can work on the weekends and it would take about 4 weekends for me to get the job done. You have to understand that Chet essentially lives in his room. He comes down and socializes at meal times and for occasional short bits during the day. But by and large, the man l ikes to stay in his room.  And he doesn't like mess and he doesn't like change.

I said I was willing to do the job but it would probably be late summer or early fall.  And that he needed to think this through carefully.  He nodded and wandered off.  Two hours later he was back.  He said he had thought it over and he thought we should really do this because his room is cold and this would make it more comfortable.  He had decided that while I am working in the day time that he could hang out in Elisabeth's former bedroom and he had checked to make sure there was tv access there and a place for him to sit comfortably.  In short, he was a man with a plan!

I can't begin to express how impressed I am by this. I will check in with him again in the late summer to make sure he still feels the same way but as it stands now, I will be taking his two north facing walls down to studs insulating and hanging new drywall.