New Ride

Finished...

The new shower door....

I remember somebody wanted to see the sconce...

Mr. Allergies gets a bath.

At least the neighborhood cats get to enjoy our patio furniture.

Waiting on a shower door.

Last of the tile...

Last of the tiles went in tonight. Nothing left to do but grout...

Tile, Tile, everywhere

The floor tile in 18 x 18.

The new quartz vanity top and tub surround. We painted the walls an off-white, but for some reason it looks yellowish.

Another view of the vanity top. Those are cardboard cut outs of our mirrors to get the size/spacing right of the wall sconce we are putting between them...

The tiled shower. 2 x 2 on the floor, 12 x 12 on the bottom half and 6 x 6 laid in a diagonal pattern on the top

This will help you get a perspective on the shower size.

Waterproof shower... hopefully.

The red stuff is a waterproof resin you paint on over the joints.

Made sure to really paint the corner bench. Just have to give it a day or two to cure and should be ready to go if Kate and I could only decide on some tiles....

Installed my lights and hooked them up to my $3 a piece Lutron dimmers. It's good to know an employee...

After getting a few estimates to fix/replace my skylight, I decided to try it myself first. I didn't replace it, I rebuilt it. Last Saturday I controlled my fear of heights for a few hours and climbed my roof. First I had to kill 50 or so wasps and 2 nests before I could get started. I then dismantled the skylight, replaced some wooden inserts that had rotted with some pressure treated, and then sealed the thing with as much roof caulking as it could take. About three tubes worth. I sealed every spot I could see. The skylight used to be a vented one, and apparently someone had secured it from the outside. Well someone on the inside tried to open it and when it didn't open, used a little extra force. This ruined the seal around the window and that is where the problem came from. The skylight never leaked in terms of dripping water on the floor, the waterproofing had just been compromised and slowly saturated the wooden interior over time. I fixed the weather stripping as best I could caulked everywhere on the outside. Hopefully it did the trick. We have had a few rainstorms and so far so good. Let's hope it stays that way. A good soaker for a few days will be the true test.

Still going...

Vanity and tub. Faucets will be on the back wall so you'll be able to get in and out of the tub without any obstructions.

New pocket door and to the left is the closet.

Base for the tub.

Skylight is going to give a lot of nice light to the tub and shower. Unfortunately today after a pretty substantial rainstorm I found out that the skylight leaks. Going to have to fix that...

New vanity. After some door adjustment, I have them working properly. Quartz top is getting measured next week.

Master Bath Progress

Wall prior to drywall. The extra foam insulation should help...

Here is the same shot after green board and drywall. The tub is going in this spot with the shower going to the right.

The throne goes under the window...

Here you can see the existing closet which we kept the same. Also you can see the future spot for the pocket door (hence the large header over the doorway).

The old bathroom had a daylight ceiling which dropped the whole ceiling at least a foot. Gaining a foot of height really changes the way the bathroom looks especially the skylight. Seems much more prominent... which is a good thing.

A Saturday of Pain

I started demolishing my old bathroom this past Saturday. Several factors made this task I was actually looking forward to an epic chore. First was the weather. Saturday in Eastern PA, the temps were in the low 90's and the humidity was oppressive. Couple this with the fact that I was demolishing a second floor bathroom close to a roofline upped the temps at least 20-30 degrees. Once the walls were opened up, the room turned into an oven. Second, was the stairs. I wish I could have made some sort of slide out the window and just tossed everything out, but I couldn't or I would have destroyed a small roof and the plant life below. So I had to use the stairs. I took 47 trips, with one trip being up and down, carrying heavy items i.e. a cast iron tubs, sheets of plywood with tiles still attached, and trash containers full of drywall and tile. Third was the injuries. After a few times thinking I had something in my shoe only to look at my sole and notice a few nails going through, an errant nail finally got me and gashed my arm. Good thing Nurse Kate was on duty. After patching me up, I then procededed to put a 1-2" gash on my right temple while pulling out the fiberglass shower. Luckily a trip to the ER for stitches was avoided thanks again to Nurse Kate and some steri strips. The more likely scenario for an ER visit probably should have been the dehydration. My friend Christian and I started at 10 AM and finished up around 4:30 PM... It wasn't fun but at least it is over... Here are some before and afters.

Master Bath 2.0 Begins

Tiny Bunny.... in the yard.

A little Don Ho a la Weird Al reference...

A found this little guy in the yard while I was mowing. The neighbors would probably be mad if they knew I feed the bunnies Kate's left over salad mix at the end of the week. I can't help it... these little bastards are so damn cute. They don't eat any plants in my yard. Maybe they're full from the Wegman's Spring Mix...

Aruba

Early Spring

Snow bank dive

2 feet of snow will make you do crazy things.

Caught my own dinner

During my Christmas vacation, I went in search of Quahogs with my father in law. Since I did not have waders just boots, I wasn't able to go too far into the water therefore I wasn't much help. However, I did search the shore for oysters and as you can see from the above picture, I was able to find a few. My friend Stu and I enjoyed these immensely. Spending 3 hours in 40 degree water is probably why I have been fighting a cold for the past 6 days, but it was worth it.