Bathroom Remodel part Duex

Almost done with the guest/kids bathroom.

I hate it when I like mama bears ideas, but I like the wainscoting (I love auto-spell check too). I'm holding out hope that I won't like her paint color choice. It would greatly pain me to think she has some good design ideas.

Anyhoo, here are the pics:

Butterflies, cows, and aliens

What do you see in the picture below?



Here is a hint:



(edit: I learned that these aren't the monarch, but rather the painted lady butterfly - or for those of you who speak Latin: vanessa cardui)

So yesterday afternoon I let the boy outside to kick a ball around and I saw a few butterflies. Then a few more. And some more. Then a few dozen came flying by. Then I thought... that's kind of odd. Then it dawned on me this must be the monarch butterfly migration. Sure enough, as I just stood in my front yard there was a constant stream of butterfly's flying by. I mean thousands, if not tens of thousands.

Not so many that you would have to dodge them, but a steady stream of groups of 2 to 10 or so, just coming over my neighbors roof then flying over mine. Really neat. Anywhere you looked you would see 20 or 30 just heading north.

On another note, mama bear decided to break a bottle of apple cider vinegar on the counter, and luckily it all spilled down the side of the stove. I say luckily because I found a herd of cows under the stove. Who woulda thunk? Yeah, so apparently we need to add "pull out the stove and clean under it" to the more than once every year and a half chore list. And here I was thinking it was a once every other year chore! As you can tell cheerios are a big snack in our house. I thought it was because the kids like to eat them, but I guess they really just like kicking them under the oven.

So I pull out the stove and I say "yuck", which, by the way, is a signal for kids to come running. The boy looks down and says "Oh, there my cows" and grabs them. I don't know, I just find those moments odd. I would think finding cows under the stove kind of weird, but I guess when you are three years old you expect these sort of things. I wonder if he had been trying to make steak?



(Note to CPS - I got them out of his mouth as soon as I could and washed them. Nah, just kidding, I got them into the sink before he could crawl over the 220V and gas lines)

And one other random photo. I saw her and said "Take me to your leader."



She told me that I hurt her feelings, and that it was a super girl belt.

busy week

What a week. So the house is practically re-piped - just the shower in the master bath needs to be done. The guys that have been doing it have reconnected one bathroom and the kitchen each night before leaving. Twice not until about 9:30 PM.

So - do you think we needed to change the pipes out? Here is what the outside looked like:



And then there was the inside:


Will we have to take iron supplements now? No wonder the water pressure stunk. And don't let the unblocked portion in the picture fool you - you couldn't see any light through a three foot section of pipe.

Of course we weren't really prepared to have remodeling done, so mama bear has been driving all over trying to find matching tile (of course the ones she bought are being discontinued). Do you have any idea how far we have to drive to get to a Lowes? Like 15 miles north or south. Or 12 miles to the north-east. At least there is a Home Depot one mile away, and another three miles away. How do we manage?

(note - for anyone stumbling upon this site I'm just rubbing it in to the country relations who don't live within 40 miles of anything)

Speaking of do-it-yourself warehouses I had to make a trip to get a new water heater. Of course it went something like this...

Come home from work Tuesday about 6 PM.

contractor: "how old is that water heater?"

fat suburbanite dad: "I dunno... at least eight years." (turns out to be 14 y/o)

smart contractor: "Maybe you should get a new one. They are less than $400 at the store."

dumb fat suburbanite dad: "Golly gee willikers. I dunno.. this one seems to work fine."

smart, wise contractor: "Ok, it's up to you. It's just that you'll probably need to change it soon anyway."

dumb, naive suburbanite dad: "um, well yeah, that sounds awfully reasonable, since the pipes are so bad, I have no idea how old the heater is, it's probably full of scale, and I would save in energy bills. Besides, the old heater is already disconnected, it would only take 45 minutes to go get a new heater, bring it back, and get it hooked up. So no thanks."

Guess what? (Parents - use this as a reading comprehension test - how late did the contractors work? Now test reasoning - How late is Home Depot open?)

Invigorating showers Tuesday night! I love home improvement. Here is the new heater.



The odd schedule has been tough on the youngins too. It's been a long week. The boy has been feverish and the girl just tired. (update: she has a fever too). No wonder they looked liked this at 3:30 PM on a Friday afternoon.




Sadly, the boy was unsuccessful in his fly catching attempt. What a valiant effort though.

And in case you are interested, here are some progress shots of the guest bathroom.









I know that last one is a bit dim, but believe me, after the white grouting it looks very bright in real life.

Bathroom Remodelling

Big week coming up here. We are getting the bathrooms remodeled and the house re-piped. Yeah, I know there is a recession going on, our portfolio was decimated by the stock market crash, and we have private school tuition payments coming up - so I thought "hey, lets blow a bunch more money and get the bathrooms redone!".

Well, maybe that wasn't exactly the rational but it is happening anyway. This was caused by the need to get the house re-piped. Our plumbing is galvanized cast iron - the insides of the pipes are rusty as all get out. While mama-bear was doing some work a few weeks ago I was in charge of giving the youngins a bath. I wanted to give them a real bath in staid of using the hand shower - this required pliers to get the tub diverter unjammed. As the water came it out is was dark red, and full of rust sediment. It took me about 10 more minutes just to flush pipe rust out of the tub. In police work they refer to this as "a clue". That and the fact that the water pressure at the street is 120 psi, but if someone turns on a tap while I'm in the shower it immediately either scalds or freezes me. Our neighbors had their pipes done last summer and you couldn't even see through them.

So, where was I? Oh yeah, we get a quote on the pipes, and our contractor lets us know how much the bathrooms would be in addition. Too much. But work is slow so he drops the price to "to good to pass up". So now we are scrambling to get tile and and bath fixtures.

So, here are some "before" pics.



The master shower. I will miss the yellow tiles and the chintzy plastic shower door (the tiles look beige in the picture, but they are really a kind of mustard and dirt mix color). Sigh... goodbye 1975.



Our master bath is all of 4 1/2" by 9", so it's tough to get a good picture. Other than the yellow tiles I'm going to miss the bizarre wall texturing. Ok, that is a lie. I can't even pretend to like it in a sarcastic way. Who? Why? What? How did anybody think this was a good look?



How do you like that vinyl flooring? Pretty cool. And you are right - that is a particle board floor underneath. Don't worry, there isn't any plywood beneath it. Quality construction. And to think Zillow says this house would sell for almost a half million dollars.



The guest bath doesn't even look half bad in this picture - it's some sort of photo shop trick or something. I should have jiggled the pipe and turned on the tub tap so I could get some Amityville Horror pictures.



Yep. The floor really does look like that. Basically it was out of date when the house was built in 1963. I think they took it right out of the "Bathroom of the Future" display in the 1958 World Fair. Any museums of American history want to get it before it gets hauled to the dumps?

I'll edit this post as the week goes on.

How are your peach blossoms?

Basketball, cat fud, and a new crop of plastic

Today was the girls' last basketball game of the season. Those of you who know us could have figured this out because we took pictures. You know how some parents are really into their kids sports, and video them and yell during the game? We aren't those people.


Getting ready to shoot.


Faster than a camera! (a camera without a flash)


The boy was really well behaved... right up until the point he wasn't. Luckily that was outside while we were getting the team snacks ready. (Note to self - if you are in a kids league with 8 games, and 12 kids on the team...that mean four parents won't have to bring snacks. So be late to the first practice when the sign up sheet is passed around)

Anyway, after the game I went to the Home Despot. $26 for plastic. I know, I know, you thought I figured out a way to grow plastic in my garden but, alas, all I'm really good at growing is weeds (particularly the common mallow... which, btw, is why I know God exists. Because if God didn't exist Satan wouldn't exist, and only Satan could have twisted Gods original creation into this nightmare of a weed. It's like the embodiment of evil in the plant world). This year I'm attempting to keep the weeds out using plastic.

While I was there I got a new 5 gallon bucket with lid. We had a cool 5 gallon bucket with a screw on lid for the cat food, but it was destroyed by raccoons. And ultraviolet light, but the raccoons did most of the damage. Anyhoo, mama bear discovered the replacement cost was $30.... hence the cats new food bucket.






Edit: Well, I always think that explaining the joke makes it not funny, but since my sense of humor is apparently too highbrow ...

Suburban Sidewalks

Wow.... followers.

I always knew they were out there. And mama bear told me I was imagining them.

Anyway, as I sit here thinking about what to write the kids are out playing with sidewalk chalk. Hmmm, maybe the followers will find that entertaining in a cutsie way.



Notice I said they were playing with chalk... not necessarily drawing on the sidewalk. Someone just likes to get it all over his hands and pants.



But dangit, he's blinking! Doesn't he know I'm supposed to post cute, darling, perfectly posed pictures? So what if the sun is in your eyes kiddo, suck it up. He obviously doesn't understand the pressures of entertaining the followers. Such a simple life they lead.

Oh well. I guess I'll have to live with blinking kids. At least it's a picture of my OWN sidewalk (not that I would suspect any persons of staging photos!)

Suburban Gothic

So, my question is: Who are the real farmers in my family? We produce so many oranges and lemons they are literally falling off the tree.



Gee, that's kind of sad. Maybe I'm not really a productive farmer, but just lazy.



And here is the before picture so you can see why I roto-till rather than weeding by hand.




Yes, that is a defunct cell phone she is holding... I'm amazed at the depth of the imaginary conversations she has. And yes, I am going to be in trouble when mama bear gets home and sees their shoes after the very top picture.

Guitars, robots, and hillbilly music

Maybe some day I'll make a Cadillac costume for the kids.


Do you think she's ashamed to be on my blog, or just a really ugly kid?

the bane of my existence

or at least one of them. The "common mallow".

Ughh... it grows like a, uh, weed. Particularly in the garden. So for the last several weeks I've been watching my crop of weeds grow and thinking to myself "Gee, maybe I should weed that, and maybe put the canoe back behind the shed, oh, and dump the water out of the wheelbarrow too". The canoe is there because I was doing work behind the shed.

Oh, alright, it was there because I was going for the trailer trash look.

Anyway, here is the before picture:



And the after:
My poor aching back.

Yes, I know there are a ton of small weeds left, but they easy get taken care of by the rototiller. And I will mow the lawn as soon as the grass dries out a bit.