Category: Sleep! That’s where I’m a viking!

New Bathroom

LoafingSleep! That's where I'm a viking!

IMG_20140821_081300I called Mercea, the Romanian guy who installed our kitchen counter-tops, and did some other work for us a year or so ago..  He is the hardest working guy in the world, and is a bit of a perfectionist.  Just the kind of person you want doing remodeling for you.

He got here on Thursday morning with his helper, Robert.  First step: the demolition – the fun stuff.  Here he is removing the disgusting shower door and frame.

The house was built in the 1960’s, so the floor is plywood over the joists, then concrete, then metal mesh, then more concrete, then tile.  I remodeled the main bathroom, and it took me about a week to remove the floor and pull the tile and drywall off the walls.  These guys did it in about 6 hours, including two trips to the dump.

IMG_20140821_081313IMG_20140821_151813

Magic!  See that insulation on the outside wall?  It could not have been more than one inch thick at the very best.  Probably less.  And if you look closely, you can see there are many small areas with no insulation over them at all.  Worst insulation I’ve ever seen.  When the guys left, I went to Home Depot, bought some new Owens Corning R-15 insulation and put it up.  That alone should save me about One Million Dollars on my heating bill.  IMG_20140824_093036Sad thing is, that’s what’s around the rest of the house, except the two bathrooms.

By Saturday night, they had the new shower pan built, the Hardy-Backer concrete board around the shower, the new light in the shower, the electrical wiring and boxes moved around, all the inside-wall plumbing done, and the new drywall put up, including the first coat of jointing and taping.  Whew!  If I were doing this, it would now be Halloween…Thanksgiving?

Today he will come by and do the second coat of joint compound. [Update: joint compound still not dry.  He’ll come back later this afternoon.]

Next two weekends will involve floor and wall tiles, grouting, installing and connecting the fixtures, and general tweaking.  Then I paint.

I’ll post pics as it progresses.

Faster! Faster!

Sleep! That's where I'm a viking!

Busy, busy, busy.  The poplar tree is almost down.  Too bad.  It was a nice tree.  But every year it’s been leaning a little more toward the dining room, and frightening me just that much more.  Here it is in stick form – click to embigen.  If I walked out into the backyard and took the picture, you could see how much it’s leaning, but that smacks of effort.  And it’s cold out there.  And I’d have to put my pants on.  It’s just all too much.

The concrete slab in the basement has been sinking as long as we’ve lived here, so I hired some guys to come out and pump a slurry of sand, cement and my money into holes drilled into the basement floor to fill the void and raise the slab a little.  They can’t raise it all the way because the previous owner built a bathroom down there & put in about 3″ of concrete on the floor.  But they can at least fill the void below the slab and keep it from sinking any more – and raise it a little.  There is currently about 8″ of air between the bottom of he concrete floor and the soil.  So every year, the slab slips down a little more.  This should stop it.  They started Tuesday, but it was raining and they use a machine that they fill with a couple tons of slurry and drive down the hill to the back.  But it was slipping, so after 6 hours and 12 trips back and forth, they quit.  They are coming back Monday and should finish.

Then there’s the bedroom.  It’s been the home of 3 teenage boys over the years.  Erin and Gabe gave cleaning it up a shot while they were living there, but it’s really too far gone for mere painting to fix.  So I had the CDC come out in their haz-mat suits and purge the room with flames and priests.    After the floor is leveled somewhat I need to paint the room, probably about 28 coats, buy a carpet, have it installed, and put up a door.  I guess I’d better get moving so that it’s done before Brian, Susan, Nick and Dane get here…in one week.  Oh, and I’ve bought no Christmas presents yet.  I gotta go…

Weather

To display your local weather, click on the 3 short lines at the top right of the widget. Delete “Washington D.C.,” and start typing the name of your nearest fairly large city. When the correct city appears in the drop down list, select it.  Wait for the Page to reload, and there’s your weather. The page should remember your city.

Washington, DC
48°
Fair
6:57 am7:28 pm EDT
Feels like: 46°F
Wind: 7mph NW
Humidity: 46%
Pressure: 29.95"Hg
UV index: 0
11 pm12 am1 am
46°F
46°F
45°F
FriSatSun
61°F / 39°F
63°F / 52°F
70°F / 50°F

Categories

Top