bathroom update

My helper and I spent this past saturday working on installing a toilet, new towel rings, a toilet paper holder and new blinds. It took all day to do them as well...unfortunately my helper wanted to be in the thick of the action. Too bad for him he isn't allowed to touch the hammer, screwdriver, the spot light, the caulk gun, the wax ring for the toilet, the new blinds, etc.



Bathroom projects proceed most efficiently with a lightsaber at the ready.

Master bathroom update

I grouted for the first time last night. I think the floor looks pretty darn good. It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it.


On to painting this weekend!

tiling is...

...really darn hard. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you, this is a tedious, knee-hamstring-lower back killing, difficult project. Although Amanda's impressed reaction of delight was worth it.

It took me a little over 5 hours to get all the tiles laid out just the way I wanted, cut and dry fit. The hard part of it was the bathroom is upstairs and the wet saw is in the garage. One of my mistakes was just leaving the saw on the floor. So I'm up in the bathroom hunkered down on my knees making measurements, then into the garage on my knees cutting tile. Not good.

First piece of advice, mount the wet saw on a table top to save your knees.

Second piece of advice, buy the expensive knee pads. I went through saturday without any. This morning after church I went to Home Depot and bought a (relatively expensive) 15 dollar pair. They were worth every freaking penny. Every single one. Each one.

So here are all of the tiles laid out and dry fit.


Not much of a difference here in this next picture, but this after putting down the mortar and laying the tiles. What really boggles my mind is that I bought a gallon of pre-mixed mortar which says will cover 50-60 sq ft. Our bathroom is just a smidge over 30 sq ft. Somehow, I ran out of mortar. I don't really know how thick to put it on, but I thought it was going on rather thinly. I don't know, it must be because it's pre-mixed.

So this is now my biggest worry. I didn't get the gushy mortar effect that I was expecting to have, based on what I learned from my co-workers who have tiled. I'm just hoping it's this pre-mixed stuff that is causing this.

Anyway, I'll buy more tomorrow and see what happens.

Master Bathroom Project Phase 2 part 1

My helper and I started on the tiling project for the master bathroom. Here is a before picture:


I first convinced my helper that he should sit in the pack and play for a little bit while I was moving all of our stuff to the other bathroom. He was content with that for a while, but wasn't having it when the fun started happening. The fun was the removal of the light fixture, toilet paper holder, towel racks, door, shower doors, wood trim and the toilet. I've never taken a toilet all of the way off. Tank yes, tank and bowl, no. Today's experience taught me that used wax rings are gross. Now our gross wax ring is in a plastic zip lock bag waiting to be taken to Home Depot to match up with a new one to replace it.

Now that my helper was free to roam around our bedroom, he decided now as a good time to try and fit between the headboard of our bed and the wall. Nope, he still doesn't fit. But it was a good photo opportunity. I took the picture too late, he squeezed out already.


I then managed to install the wonderboard while my helper played peek a boo with my tarp. It was a good use of his time. Wonderboard is concrete that is sandwiched between to two pieces of meshed screen like material. It is supposed to go down on top of the subfloor before you install tile to keep the floor from flexing over time and preventing the grout, mortar or tiles from cracking.


Ta da! Wonderboard installed. My helper can take as much credit as he would like. To be honest, Xander was pretty darn good all day long and let me get quite a bit of work done. I can't complain that he made me take too many breaks because I would have been breaking to eat any way, he just made it convenient for us both.


I just laid out the tile tonight before stopping and it looks pretty good. It is an almond color and should look good.

on a recent flight

I spent this past week in California for work. On my flight back I had the window seat and a woman and her significant other had the middle and aisle seats, respectively. I boarded the plane, entertained myself by proceeding to tear into my greasy steak, egg and cheese sandwich. By the time we had achieved our cruising altitude the woman and man were asleep. I think the term, passed out, might have been more appropriate but I'm not certain.

Over 2 hours pass by and I have to pee. They are asleep and I don't want to bother them, but there is no way that I can get by them without waking them. I tap the woman on her wrist. No response. I feel anxiety over having to work harder to get her to wakeup, it's just not something I want to do. Both her and her man are completely zonked out. I tap her harder on her shoulder. She then wakes up then wakes up her man and I get out and go to the bathroom.

I come back from the bathroom and as I'm sitting down the guy says something which I think was directed at me, but at the time I though he was talking to her --something like thanks for waking me up. I didn't think anything of it, because I make an effort to ignore everyone else when I travel.

So we land and I make a phone call while we are taxing and beginning to de-plane. Right before the woman and her man get up, he says to me (clearly directed to me this time) "Thanks for not waking us up during that long flight. That was clutch." Then he hops up and leaves the plane and she follows.

I was so shocked that he said that to me I sat there grinning in shock and the people behind me started exiting. I couldn't believe it. What a joker! Any sort of level headed person should realize that you can't be upset with someone for needing to take a leak during a 3 hour and 20 minute flight. Sitting in the aisle seat on a plane ride you should never expect to not be bothered.

Master Bathroom Upgrade 08

Phase I - Replace the exhaust fan for an exhaust fan and light combo.

I spent the afternoon replacing the exhaust fan in our master bathroom. It is a relatively simple project....take out the old fan, hop up into the attic and tack the new fan in, wire it up, bam! You've got lights and fan.

Yup, that easy....as that blue cloud of profanity remains floating over our neighborhood. Aside from one tough little part it went well and would do it again.

Easy part: Wiring it up. 8 years of studying electrical engineering gives me an edge there. Black is hot, white is neutral, bare is ground. Piece of cake, baby.

Hard part: Dealing with the insulation in the attic and the location of the fan. It's blown insulation so it's a bit more hard to deal with and put back when you are finished. I borrowed a mask from my neighbor to keep from inhaling all of the fiberglass and that was a good idea. Long sleeves would have been a good idea as well, but the weather wasn't cooperating. Additionally, the location of the fan made it more difficult because it was within three feet of where the roof comes down and meets the ceiling. I felt like Rand in WoT when he was kidnapped and in that trunk for about 2 weeks traveling to Tar Valon. Hot, cramped and uncomfortable is not the ideal condition to nail in a fan box one handed.

Lessons learned: Figure out at what height the fan box needs to be hung vertically by assembling it all before you tack it to the rafters. That blue cloud of profanity could have been avoided by a little bit of thinking ahead.

Oh, and if you do try this at home, remember to take everything apart nicely. I had to reuse my vent adapter from my old fan because the new one was too big for the vent pipe.

Next up, Phase 2 - adding knobs to the drawers and painting the ceiling.

being on site

So like I mentioned in the last post, I've been at a customer site the past couple of weeks. At this site the security is high, so that means I have to be escorted at all times. At all times means even to the bathroom. This was difficult for me to adjust to since I exercise quite a bit and tend to drink lots of water. Well, what goes in must come out.

Now they don't follow me into the restroom, but they do have to stand out in the hallway while I take care of business. How awkward is that? Real awkward. But you get used to it.

Have you ever seen that episode of Seinfeld where in the standup bit in the beginning of the show Jerry is talking about how he used to work in an office and he would pass the same people in the hall multiple times a day and each time he felt compelled to say something different to them. Saying 'hi' to Jim in the early morning turned into 'hey Jimmy' around lunch and 'yo Jimbo' in the afternoon. Just saying 'hi' over and over again feels weird. I know exactly what Jerry is talking about!

I ran into this same issue asking my escorts to escort me to the bathroom.
'Hey Brian, how about a bathroom break?'
'Hey Brian, let's hit the head, huh?'
'Hey Brian, it's 10am, guess what I want to do?'

Then at some point (over the course of nearly 3 weeks) it stops being a question and becomes a statement.
'Hey Brian, potty break.'
'Alright, gotta take leak.'
'Hey Brian, guess what I need to do.'

However another issue that comes up is getting "synched up" with your coworkers who also on site with you and also have to be escorted. That meant if my coworker had to go and I didn't, I went anyway; and vice versa. You learn things like not to have that 2nd glass of OJ at breakfast and to sip your drink at lunch.

What ended up happening was a very dehydrated me returning home earlier this week. And now that I'm back at the office I enjoy my unescorted liberties!