Christmas Tub

December 1, 2007

At 9:30 hubby's cell phone rings. He is not around so I answer it-probably Gary saying that he is on his way. Well it was Gary. He was calling to say that he has some things to do at home before they go to sing later in the afternoon. He won’t be able to make it today so he will be out on Tuesday to do the work. It’s funny how I thought all of this would have been done by the end of October (as I had originally been told). Then I thought surely it would be done by Thanksgiving. Then I thought perhaps by Christmas. Now I am wondering if maybe it will be done by Valentine’s Day. Then again…maybe I should leave the thinking to someone else.

Instead of a Christmas tree this year we will have a Christmas tub. Might as well make the best of it and decorate it since it is still in the middle of the living room floor.

Moving Right Along

November 28, 2007
Hubby picked up the windows which are now leaning against the truck in the driveway. Hubby also picked up the boxes of tile yesterday which are now in the kitchen and dining room. The decorative tiles that we chose are gorgeous!

November 30, 2007
Gary is coming out tomorrow to finish the roof work on the bathroom so we can get it inspected and move to the next step.
Hubby informs me that both Gary and his wife have to sing at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon at a local coral concert.
Hmmm, that doesn’t leave much time for work on the bathroom does it?

Storage Dilemmas!

November 26, 2007

Hubby is going to pick up the windows today. I suppose they will be stored outside as there is no more room inside the house! After bringing home the architectural pieces and the stained glass the library and spare bedroom are now overflowing. The columns are currently lying on the dining room floor. What an interesting looking house we have right now. They say that remodeling/adding-on disrupts your house. This statement is all too true! Let’s see, there are columns on the dining room floor, a bathtub in the middle of the living room floor, plumbing fixtures under the coffee table, boxes of light fixtures and other architectural pieces crowding the library, and a large piece of stained glass, towels, and a toilet paper holder in the spare bedroom. Some of the tiles that we purchased earlier on for the old bathroom remodel will now be used under the new tub and are currently stored inside the cabinet part of the grill out back.
Oops, I almost forgot! There is a bag of curtains on the floor of our bedroom. I think the sink is in the back of hubby's truck. The vintage cabinet for storing towels is still at the antique mall storeroom awaiting pick-up. The vanity, chair, and candle chandelier are currently being housed at the antique shop where I have a space. Gracious, we are not only crowding our own house but many of the stores in town too. Oh did I mention that the floor tiles are still at the tile store?

Windows!

November 20, 2007
The windows have arrived!

November 23, 2007
Hubby has taken the day off to help Gary with the construction. Unfortunately, Gary was called into work for an emergency situation on another construction job. So much for this week. We will try again next week.

I went to Atlanta to visit mom and grandma. I picked up the stained glass window (which is absolutely beautiful) and the other architectural pieces that will be used for the bathroom.

Plywood Progress

November 18, 2007

Because of the delays from the day before Gary came out after church to work on the roof rafters. Hubby had managed to complete the plywood construction around the left side window the day before. Once again, the weather was nice so I decided to look in on the construction progress. Hubby had nailed a solid piece of plywood to the right side window wall and was now preparing to measure the hole so that he could cut it out. (Wonder where he got that idea?) Mind you he is preparing to cut from the outside where the plywood is solid. Being a woman I could not refrain from making yet another suggestion. I told him he would not have to do all of that measuring for the window hole if he stood on the inside of the structure and used the window opening as a guide to cut. I was given a very disgusted look and then he proceeded to climb into the area and cut the plywood using the window opening as the guide. I realized at that point that I had overstayed my welcome and I returned inside to let the guys finish their work. They were unable to get as far as they had hoped so Gary said that he would come out to complete this phase of building on the following Friday. We would have to wait until the following week to call the building inspector.

Ironically, Hubby was able to complete all of the remaining plywood construction that afternoon using his newfound technique for the application of plywood over window holes:).

The Best Way?

November 17, 2007

Gary and hubby worked on the bathroom today. While hubby worked on putting up the plywood walls Gary was busy cutting the beams for the roof. Alas, nothing in construction is ever a sure thing, especially when working with measurements that look great on paper but don’t necessarily apply to real life (what was that mom always said to us in school about learning math-‘you will use this someday!’ Like when you’re an adult and you want to add onto your bathroom and you’re too cheap to hire an architect to create exact drawings, yada, yada, yada…) Gary measured carefully and then began to construct the roof. But to no avail-the measurements didn’t quite work. No problem, these things happen. Actually they happened three times before the measurements worked. This little glitch of course delayed things a bit.

Now on to hubby's job- the plywood.
It wouldn’t be a regular work day without an injury.

Poor hubby suffered a splinter.

The weather was lovely so I decided to watch the construction for a while. Just watch mind you, not supervise. (OK-what planet are you from-when have you ever known a woman to sit quietly and NOT supervise men)! Anyway, I watched as hubby measured a large piece of plywood that was cut to fit the entire left side section of the window area (the window area of the bathroom has a large center window with two side windows-the entire thing is shaped like a Bay window). He would hold the plywood up, measure the section over the window opening, make a mark, measure again, make another mark, measure again, make another mark, measure again, make another mark, and then cut it. Then he repeated the process for each side around the window opening. This seemed very tedious to me. In essence he was cutting pieces to fit each section of the wall around the window resulting in four pieces of plywood. Hmmm…seems to me that there is an easier way to do this. But you know it is difficult to tell someone that there may be an easier way-especially when one has no prior construction experience, not to mention that I’m a girl. I was a little baffled as to why hubby was going to such lengths to do something that seemed so very simple and that Gary had not guided him on this issue. Finally I could keep quiet no longer! I asked hubby why he wasn’t nailing the large piece of plywood up and then cutting the window hole out making it one piece with a hole in the middle as opposed to four separate pieces. It seemed to me this approach would be much easier and faster and would achieve the same goal. Ironically, when I made this statement Gary looked down at me from the roof area and gave me a funny look-apparently he had mentioned something similar earlier on or maybe he had just thought it himself and being a fellow man knew better than to make the suggestion. Hubby looked at me with annoyance and said that he was doing it correctly. But I am a woman and not to be dismissed so easily. I went on to say that I had watched the neighborhood contractor do it this way for years. They always put a solid sheet of plywood over the entire section of wall and then cut out the window holes. Once again I received a disgusted look from hubby who continued measuring each piece to fit around the window opening. From what I could tell he had been working on this particular ‘project’ for more than an hour. Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about-after all who wouldn’t choose to take the faster, easier route to completing a project, right?

Boo-Boos!

November 15, 2007

Today hubby worked past dark on bolting down the studs. Now I have secure studs at the bottom of my bathroom walls. Nothing like being surrounded by secure studs while soaking in a tub:). I guess you could say that hubby is now the stud master!
I contemplated keeping a log of all of his injuries during this project; however, I didn’t want to use that much paper. He did receive one injury during his ‘stud’ work-a rather nasty blister where he pinched his skin between the bolt and the stud. He believes that the injury will heal and the finger will once again be at full use and available for future hammer smashings and all round general cuts.

Stud Support!

November 13, 2007
Hubby came home from work and began attaching the straps to the studs which he was able to accomplish before it got too dark.


November 14, 2007
Hubby provided ‘stud support’ today. What can I say-he’s the ‘stud-man’. He cut the wood pieces that go between the studs for support and nailed them up.

Walls!!!

November 9, 2007

Gary and Darryl began constructing the walls for the bathroom today. They were able to get the studs up and the window openings framed. It is actually starting to look more like an actual room now!

In the meantime…

The tile is in but has yet to be picked up (we have nowhere to put it-everything is being stored in the library which is now a maze to get through). The overflow of stuff is now going to the spare bedroom. Knowing my knack for shopping it won’t be long before things are overflowing from the spare bedroom to the rest of the house!