Remodeling

Hurley Is A Citizen Too

Just after lunch today there was a knock at the door. We weren’t expecting anyone, but turns out that was wrong. When Donna opened the door there was the unlikely duo of Shannon Rutherford and Hugo Reyes. I knew Jack was a Sox fan, but I was surprised to find a native son of Santa Monica, CA was too. I had bid victoriously.

Here’s an item I won’t be victorious on — I don’t have quite enough cash in my PayPal account — David Ortiz “Yankees Curse” Jersey

I primered the the inside of the newly remodeled bathroom and then hung a towel rack, the TP holder and the shower curtain rod. We started to shuffle things around in preparation for moving our bedroom to the other end of the house. We cleaned out the two closets by carrying a dozen boxes up into the attic. Sunday night we’ll move the bed and our clothes to complete the transition.

Broke down and washed the car tonight, even though there is a chance of afternoon thunder showers tomorrow. Pine pollen season is all but over and it has been 6 weeks since the last wash, so I figured it was time. Plus we are going on a Post Office Safari tomorrow and the Emperor always like to put his best face forward even though he isn’t the primary photographic subject.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 111

Almost There

Finish the toilet, hook it and the sink up, hang the mirror and the new light fixture, then a final skim coat the smooth out the last of the wall and the contractor will be done. Then it will be up to us to paint and hang a shower curtain rod, some towel bars and the TP holder for the final finishing touches.

And speaking of remodeling, I’m working on a new theme for here. Same sort of color scheme and what not, but it will have 3 (count ’em, that’s one more than two) columns. Big news is it will be widget ready! Not that I have any widgets picked out, or for that matter even know what a widget is, but I’m going to be a widgety fool.

We’ve got to clean up the bedroom with the newly remodeled bath in it on Friday, so we can move in to it, because starting Monday the other bath gets hammered on. We are off on Saturday for some Post Office hunting and will be back late Sunday, causing work on the theme project to be light over the weekend. So you may not see the new look for awhile, heck if I keep dawdling, I may end up losing interest and you’ll never see it.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 106

We’ve Got A Floor

Just need to grout the white tiles on the separator between the bathroom & the shower area. Next step is to put up the bead board on the walls. Toss in some fixtures and we are almost there.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 106

We’ve Got Toilets

Not yet exactly, they are at the dealer and will be delivered tomorrow. We are almost ready for them too. The shower walls were grouted today and the floor in the room is about half done. The walls are almost ready for wainscoting.

I have started my LOST action figure collection with not just one, but two figures. I scoured ebay looking for figures I could buy for no more than $15 bucks total (price & shipping.) My main objective was Hugo (Hurley) Reyes. My first attempt fell 50¢ short. The next time I found one to bid on, it was after checking out a couple other characters, and somehow I managed to bid on a Shannon figure. Whiny Shannon was always my least favorite “main” character on the show and if the accidental purchase had any redeeming value it was that I was the only bidder (guess I’m not the only one who isn’t a Shannon fan), so she is going to cost me only a penny over the $8 shipping fee.

Luck was with me next time, as right after the Shannon auction closed I found a Hurley figure that had a couple days left on it. The next bid up was just a buck over my arbitrary fifteen buck limit, so I gave iit a shot, never figuring it would hold up. It did.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 105

Hulu

Visible progress today.The shower walls got tiled and a little of floor too. Plus there was more patching and filling of walls.

I may or may not have heard about Hulu when it was first announced, but after “discovering” it a couple days ago I have been wasting quite a bit of time there. While the video is not broadcast TV quality it ain’t half bad. There are both movies and TV viewable. The movies are few and hit or miss, but there is a lot of TV, from McHale’s Navy to Bones. There are a couple of nitpick though, not all the seasons/episodes are available and not all the TV is commercial free. At least the ads are few, short and somewhat unobtrusive (so far.)

Tonight I watched Serenity, the 1-1/2 hour pilot for the sci-fi one season wonder from FOX, Firefly. A couple of months ago I rented disc one of the series from Netflix and turned it off about 10 minutes in. I guess I was a bit premature, as it turned out to be right on par with Hulu’s image quality, not half bad. I will probably watch a couple more episodes before deciding if I want to watch all 14.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 102

No New Pictures

I didn’t take any new photos of the bathroom today. Not that there wasn’t any progress, there was, but it was electrical, some internal plumbing and ceiling work. What seemed a simple request turned into a bit of extra work. We asked to have a foot added to the bathroom, stealing from the adjoining bedroom. When the contractor tore down that bit of wall, it turned out that there was a noticeable height difference between rooms, so he had to add a piece on sheet rock on the bathroom ceiling to even things out.

Yesterday the tile place called to tell me that I didn’t get all my tile. I guess I should have counted it, but the promised invoice never got mailed, so I didn’t know what I *should* have anyway (I got it today.) Four pieces of the 1′ square 3 x 3 floor tile was back ordered and it had just come in, but they were afraid it wasn’t the right color. Not only that, they said I should check what I had already picked up, to make sure it matched my 13 x 13 floor tiles. Last night I checked and the colors were the same. This morning the contractor did some quick figuring and I already have enough to do the job, I don’t need those other 4 pieces, so color matching them is not an issue. I think that when we were figuring the job, we ordered enough of the 3 x 3 to inset two rows as accents, and now looking at the space, one is pretty much what we want. As long as the square of 3 x 3 is still intact I can get my money back.

Good thing too, as the money back from those tiles will be enough, if not a little more, to cover ordering more bullnose tiles we still need. Seems like when we were figuring how much was required for the job we forgot about the whole vertical edge thing, we ordered only enough to run all along the top of the tile in both bathrooms. I ordered that today and it won’t be here until next week sometime, but that is not a problem because what we have on hand is enough to finish the current bath.

The big worry now is, where the heck is the pedestal sink and the toilets? The promised two to three days delivery from ordering them is now. Maybe they will be here tomorrow.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 102

Do I Know You?

We bought some double towel bars for the “big” bathroom the other day at Lowes. Trouble is we weren’t I wasn’t thinking. The towel bars are mounted behind the door, so because the double bar sticks out from the wall so far it wouldn’t allow the door to fully open. Tonight we went back to swap them out for a couple of single towel bars.

When we walked up to the returns desk the woman looked at me and asked, “Are you Brian?” She didn’t look familiar. I looked down to see if I was wearing my MMC Jacket which has my name embroidered on the front, I wasn’t. My name isn’t on the receipt anywhere… How did she know my name?

Donna was wearing one of these Ash Grey T-Shirts.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 102