Farewell 2021!

 Here we are at the closing of another year.  In some ways it does not seem possible.  Despite the challenges of a covid world, this year flew for me.  Perhaps because I always have a "project" or something I want to learn or read, but there is never enough time in a day. . . or apparently a year!

Christmas was amazing this year.  Gifts were thoughtful and personal.  Also a  number of them were useful which I personally love a lot.  I am at a stage in my life where I don't need knick knacks or things to dust and worry about where to put.  If anything I am slightly divesting myself of such things.  So storage containers for spices, warm socks and new fleece leggings and a box of single serving snacks for work were really perfect gifts.  Also the gift my son KC made me.  Which requires a bit of a back story.  When he was little he used to draw a lot of comic type things. (think ages 4 to 10)  He had a story he worked on off and on about us as super heroes.  We all had a super power and he would spend more time drawing us than he did actually writing the story line.  Fast forward many years.  Last year he took an on line course that taught him photo shop techniques and script writing.  He used the photoshop skills to create a poster that looks like it belongs in a movie theater.  We are all featured in it with updated superpowers (I am holding a drill and wearing a tool belt for instance)  And it says The JE Team in the middle.  He even included our two beloved and departed pets in the poster.  It is going to hang in our living room.  It is an AMAZING gift and represented so much love, creativity and thought.  I am still in awe of it.

I am off from work for a few days so I am planning to work on projects in the bathroom and possibly in our cellar for a few days.  I am sure I will be boring  thrilling you all with more reno updates in the new year.

And for those who are curious, here is the poster he made!

Catching up!

 Gosh did life get busy!  In the past few weeks, we have managed to finish enough of the bathroom renovation to have a fully functional three piece bathroom.  We hosted Thanksgiving.  I got sick after that and lost 2 days of my life to sleeping! LOL We decorated the house for Christmas inside (outside was all ready decked) and more. . . 

First, the bathroom renovation that never ends   the progress on modernizing our bathroom!  At long last we have a functioning LARGE shower and a functioning SMALL sink.  The sink was intended to be as space saving as possible and it is.  The shower is epic and for us seems gigantic though I know there are others much larger.  It is 48 inches wide and when you used to shower in an old tub shower combo, truly this is the very lap of luxury.  The showerhead is high and cascades wonderfully. The hand shower option works as planned. And we did a good job levelling the floor as we have no water pools in the shower pan after a shower. It drains as it should which was of considerable concern as nothing in our house is level and plumb and this includes floors!  There is still a lot of finish work to do.  We need to tape and mud the walls, paint them, get up tile, finish the closet, trim out the window and get a floor in.  But everything is at least workable and with the possible exception of finishing the interior of the closet, further work is on hold til after the holidays.

This is probably  not the best picture, but there are 6 niches so every family member has their own spot to put their beauty products.  

Next up was Thanksgiving.  We were hosting this year and I was super excited. Last year with lockdown it was just us. Ilove to host gatherings!  This year we were able to have my father in law, sister in law, the kids godparents and a friend of theirs at the table with us.  This meant that in order to have enough room we had to empty our living room of furniture and rent tables.  Much of the week before the holiday was devoted to such things.I had Wednesday off from work and finished up prep that day.  There is lovely brass flatware that my FIL and MIL got when he was stationed in Thailand and I use that every Thanksgiving.  My MIL died far too soon and it is kind of a way of having her with us at the table as those meant so much to her.  We made 4 pies, I made 2 batches of parker house rolls, we brined our turkey for the first time ever.  I did not have to cook myself a veg option because a friend brought me eggplant parm which I adore.  It was a day filled with laughter and fun.  By the end of the day I had a slight cough which I thought nothing about.  I had been up and down from our attic getting supplies. It is dusty up there and I was of course talking like crazy.  

I woke up Friday tired and with the same little cough.  We spent the day putting away harvest decor and putting the living room back together. I felt fine, just a bit tired but the pace of life could easily explain that.  Saturday I woke up and it was decorating day.  As the day went on I had a bit more cough but again I was up in the attic as we had 12 boxes of decorations to bring down. We decorated the inside of the house to a fair-thee-well.  It really looks great.  By afternoon though I was realizing this cough was not dust or allergies or talking too much.  I was also starting to get congested. I decided I should stay in my room till we knew what was up.  

To further add to the drama, KC had invited friends over for a game night that night.  I was able to get a covid test and it was negative, so we decided if I just stayed in my room the kids could have their friends over.  I did, and spent the rest of the day reading and sleeping.  That was my life for Sunday and Monday too as the cough got worse.  That and lethargy were my only real symptoms.  A second covid test was also negative and by Tuesday I was highly improved so I went back to work.

This weekend was also busy.  Yesterday was our church's craft fair.  Elisabeth and I visited there, looking for unusual gifts for people on our list.  In the afternoon KC and I went downtown to our city's Festival of Trees.  We have done this together every year except last year and it felt good to admire the trees together again.  In the evening we decorated chocolate houses and then watched Jingle Jangle which is one of our favorite Christmas movies.

Things are busy all through December but I am grateful that we have opportunities to BE busy, especially since last year had very little ways to celebrate with others.  I feel we did a good job making it special and we all were grateful for our health but this year feels like some of our beloved traditions have returned and I so love that!

The bathroom update you've all been waiting for!

 Life has been super busy lately.  We are still moving Elisabeth from one room to another as Rob slowly brings his things back home.  I have a very big very important site inspection at my job on Monday. This has engendered extra hours at work and no small amount of stress.  In the past this site has not scored well and I want to show that it can and will. However we have had curve balls of leaks and short staffing that are making achieving our ambitious goal rather challenging.

And here at home, renovations continue--with the knowledge that we are hosting Thanksgiving in a few short weeks. EGADS!  On the plus side much has been done in our bathroom.  

Almost all our drywall is up.  I figure you brave folks that occasionally read this blog only need to see one picture of walls with drywall.  We have one full wall behind the washer and dryer yet to do and the back side of the shower wall, but all other areas are fully drywalled.

Our sink is in place and almost plumbed.  I was two pex fittings short the night we were doing the install.  Since it was 11:30 when we got to this point, the big box store was well and truly closed.

The shower is installed.  It is plumbed except for the drain..  Isn't it big and gorgeous!  There is a niche for each member of the family to put their beauty products.  It is so spacious.  I have a box covering the floor to protect it from construction debris as we continue our work.

Also the entire ceiling has been drywalled and the recessed lights reinstalled.  So we have done a lot (and this weekend we have worked on framing in the closet for linens as my friend E was away on a scout adventure and it is his tools I use for plumbing.  But the punch list of items yet to be done remains large--finish the plumbing. Tape and mud all the drywall.  Prime the drywall and paint.  Install tile around the sink and over the shower. Install the vinyl flooring.  Finish work around our window (we need to build a sill and do the trim work around it) Trim work around the door. Install the shelves in the closet. (ordered and will be here next wkend) Build the platform that the washer and dryer will stand on so that I can have storage underneath. Install light over the medicine cabinet. Build a faux barn door for the linen and beauty closet.  Install the doors on the tiny sink vanity.

So yeah, a few things left to do.  But you eat an elephant one bite at a time, right?

Course Correction

 Saturday night I got a phone call from Rob who was in a difficult place.  Due to some spectacularly bad decisions he was in a very bad financial place that has legal repercussions.  Most of this week has been spent sorting that out and resolving the debts to other parties.  As a result of this, he will move home in the this month and regroup and regain his financial footing.

He is a hard worker and none of this is due to that.  It is, however, a result of his inability to say no to people, and to face hard things.  His choice when frightened or confronted with something he does not like has always been avoidance.  In this instance, avoidance equalled throwing away important mail and failing to discuss his crisis with us when it would have been much smaller and easier to assist with.

Part of what we will do during the time he lives at home again is work actively with him on budgeting.  Also on how to keep track of your spending--it seems like many young people, he does not look at who he has paid, just lives off what the bank says the available balance is. So if a creditor has not yet pulled a payment, and he buys something with "available cash" then a problem arises.

I told him when he moved out that if he needed his room back in the first 12 months it was his.  After that he could always come home, but he would take whatever room we could make available to him.  This is only 8 months in, so Elisabeth is bouncing back to her old room and is taking this with good grace.

I am sorry for Rob because I know this has to be  feeling like a step back.  I have told him it is just a "course correction" and that he will not be here forever. I hope it feels that way to him and that he continues to feel the love with which we are enfolding him as he works to resolve this. 

*Note: I wrote this post a week or so ago and forgot to post!

We Light up My Life!

 So Saturday was not tile day.  It wound up being electrical day.  Here's the scene.  Our bathroom was ALWAYS under-lit.  We had an old dropped ceiling in there and the sole light came from a four foot flourescent light bulb.  ONE such bulb as it was an old fixture and the other light bulb would not work.  It was not the bulb, we had tried that.  Anyway, it was dim in there.  Dim enough that all my life I have had a clear shower curtain.  Not being I am an exhibitionist. Because I can't see well enough if the curtain is not clear.  So while my wife wanted a window and other things in this room, I wanted good lighting.  I researched and found that can-less recessed LED lights were a great option. I ordered a set of 4 that could be linked together.  I read up on lights like you wouldn't believe.  

I discovered that LED lights will use less energy.  They will be instant on.  And , dang, I can see in there!  I was able to set up the lights so that there is one right over the shower area.  I was able to set up two over the washer dryer area, and one that will cover the back side of the room where the toilet and closet will be.  Yes!  We'll be able to see in the closet too.  No more fishing around playing "where's that product!"

I learned a couple of things.  Wiring these was really easy.  I also learned that the GFI plug that was in our bathroom pre-reno was not wired correctly.  There was no ground.  It would not have done its intended safety function if needed.  We were not safe the way I thought I was.  And we paid an electrician for that.  That is fixed now.  And the GFI works downstream and will cover all the other electrical components in the room.  In the picture above, you will also see a black thing.  That little beauty is our new  exhaust fan.  It is so sweetly quiet I could not believe it was on.  I haven't installed the ducting yet.  (which will be an interesting thing) because I had to order the ducting kit from the Big Box store.  But soon that will be in and then I'll drop the light fixtures  for a bit and hang the drywall.

The lights work on a dimmer switch that can take them down to 10%  And they have another super feature.  Look at this last pic?  That is the night light feature.  That dims down too!  It is just totally cool.  

Tiling deferred!

Most recently when I texted with my friend and all things construction guru E, he had said he would not be available this weekend.  So K and I planned to work on our kitchen backsplash.  We have filled the niche, hung the drywall, used outlet extenders for the first time, and agreed on a tile. (the latter being by far the hardest part of this endeavor thus far.  We bought about 5 samples and finally settled on this Jeffery Court tile from the big orange box store.  It has colors that really tie to the existing Corian, but has sparkles of bright copper that will be a lovely accent.

We also decided that we would like a pencil trim at the bottom.  I am not a fan of grout lines at the base of the counter and like the look of the pencil trim below.  However, we might have to wait a bit to find out how all this comes together.  E texted last night that he was available after all if I wanted to work together today.  Well of course I did!  And we did electrical!  There will be pictures, in another post but they truly don't do the job justice.  Part of that is because the lights are mounted in a temporary fashion until I am able to duct for the exhaust fan.  But this is fine with me.  

 As a bonus, the extra time allowed me to do yet more research on the tile job and I have found a product that is a sticky membrane called Musselbound and think that I would like to use that instead of mastic.  I ordered that and it will be in before next weekend.  Meanwhile if I have free time (something always in a short supply around here) we can start putting up drywall in the section of the bathroom that is over the shower stall. We have a bit more levelling to do of the base area for the shower pan. And we can finish off the bathroom closet.  It is coming along.  And wait till you see the lights!!!

Spin City or the story of a washer that would not spin

 Last weekend my daughter wanted to lounge on the couch.  I reminded her that her bedroom was not fully clean and her wash was not done.  She gave a huge sigh, went upstairs and proceeded to put her completely full, utterly ginormous hamper into the washer.  Needless to say I wasn't there when she did it and found out when the cycle finished and she came to tell me "my load is still really wet."  You think??? A dead washer is a crisis of epic proportions in our house.  There are 5 of us living here and my wife has a cleaning business that engenders a lot of wash on its own. Easily we do 4 loads of wash daily.

Elisabeth steadfastly maintains that she did not know this would break the washer.  I suspect that although she did not know that, she DOES know how to properly load a washer and just in that moment did not give two flying fig newtons about what would happen.  If you have gleaned that this annoyed me, you would be right. She is almost 15 and has been doing laundry for quite a while.  It was an impetuous act of anger.

Now this is all further complicated by the fact that our machines came from Sears which is now defunct.  Because they were going out of business I opted not to re-enroll in the product protection agreement.  I felt that might also go the way of the once great stores and I didn't want my money tied up there. Local appliance people (all two of them) do not work on Kenmores.

Youtube to the rescue.  I did some research and discovered that our model does not have a belt.  It has something called a motor-stator and that was what probably needed to be replaced.  I ordered it on line and my wife and I watched the youtube video over and over as if it would somehow impress the instructions into our little brains.

The part arrived and we took off the back of the washer.  No problem.  We tried to remove the cover to the motor stator.  Problem.  The nifty spin and pull maneouver they show in the video did nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch.  We both tried.  I am really fairly strong after a year of renovation.  I carry drywall, put up walls, rip up floors.  But this?  Nothing worked.  My wife tried.  No joy.  

She called a friend and he came over with his son.  They could not move it with the youtube system either.However they did devise a system where one person held hte barrel of the washer (this is a front loader) while the other backed out the bolt and that worked like a charm.

They left, and we found that there were 5 more bolts to fight with.  We tried with no success but it was honestly late and we were tired having worked all day.  Today, my wife tried while I was at work and the next thing I knew I had a text with a vid of our washer working! No more laundramat nights!  And I suspect my teen daughter has learned a valuable lesson as several times she had to wait longer than usual for a preferred outfit to be clean. And, another skill in our toolbox of tricks!