12/17/07

I was right. The bathroom “renovation” ate up my whole weekend. Mario was sick Thursday and Friday but I spoke to him Friday evening and he felt well enough to come over Saturday. I think I mentioned that the other day. Well, Saturday morning he calls to say he’s much better and was on his way as soon as he eats something. I get ready and wait for him. Around 1130 h he calls back to say that whatever he ate caused major cramps and he was going to lie down again. I was annoyed now because I could have spent the morning at the shop with John instead of waiting around the house. I called him again around 1300 h and he said he was better and was on his way. He arrived and we went to get the plywood for the sub floor in mom’s bathroom. He stopped at Subway and ate a sandwich and looked a whole lot better after he did. He finally admitted that what he ate first thing that morning, after two days of puking his guts out, was a greasy assed Ultra-Cholesterol Mega-Egg Gut Bomb with Bacon from Jack in the Box. “Well no wonder you cramped up,” I said. “Your stomach wasn’t near ready for that yet.” We got the wood and headed for the house. We cut up mom’s floor and replaced a major hunk of the middle. What we couldn’t replace was either sound or in one place inaccessible. We built little connector hoozi to go between the new and old wood when they didn’t meet up over a joist. By dark forty-five we had the floor back together but weren’t ready to install the toilet just yet. Oh wait; no we didn’t have the floor all the way together. There was still a big hole around the toilet we needed to fill. We were one 2x4 and one jumping up and down saw short of finishing that part. He left with the plan being to come back in the morning with those so we could finish. Sunday morning around 1100 h he calls and says he’s on his way. He arrives and we go to the store for the vinyl adhesive we’d need to seal the wood and anchor the tiles. With that purchased, we were finally ready to finish her floor. While I ate lunch with mom, he installed the mini joists under the toilet and started on the piece of wood for the floor. We installed that and started looking at the tiles mom had for the floor. He counted the minimum number of tiles we’d need and came up with 51. We had exactly 51 good tiles. That was too close for my comfort since that left us with absolutely NO room for error. We tried to ‘splain that to mom and got approval to go look for different tiles. We found nothing similar and the tiles she had were no longer available. We brought back a sample of some ceramic tiles which she vetoed because she wanted the ugly assed vinyl ones she picked out. Now, I do not believe for a second that it was the design of the tiles that she wanted, I am sure she wanted them because we had them. She’ll spend thousands of dollars on this renovation and then scrimps on $50.00 worth of tiles. I just finally threw up my hands, having eaten them in frustration, and gave up. We didn’t have time to start setting tiles from the doorway so we sealed the floor under the toilet and got to work setting it. Once the toilet was in place and connected we turned on the water to fill the thing. It filled nicely and flushed equally nicely. Of course the one part in the whole system that we didn’t replace, the water shutoff for the toilet, had a drip. Mario said he’d replace that first before getting started on the tiles in the morning. I took the seat from her old toilet and installed it on the new one for her. Well, and so that Mario wouldn’t have to mess with that nasty part of the job. He doesn’t normally do toilet work so I'm semi-convinced that pulling up those two crappers are what made him sick. I mean he did start the puking jag the very next day. You do the math. Anyhoo, so like I promised her, she had a toilet by bedtime. Of course I promised it by bedtime Saturday so I was 24 hours off. Oh well, what are you going to do? While cleaning up, and during the whole day actually, Mario and I discussed the shop next to the house. We may have decided to go in stages. If the machine shop were in the main garage, then the outside shop would just be parking. If I forwent the building and just had the drive poured around to the back, I would have just enough parking for my menagerie. If the deck were also a carport, then there would be at least two covered spots beside the house. If a fence were erected in front, then there wouldn’t be any more cars than now visible from the street. The Bairds would be able to see them from their back yard so I might have to build a fence back there as well, but fences are cheaper than buildings. We were thinking that we’d go ahead and pour the drive to 25’ from the property line so my 20’x30’ shop could be built later. I showed him what I was thinking about removing the closet and making my current room into a theater and he liked it. I am going to make some measurements of the upstairs rooms so I can draw out my plans while I'm off next week. Oh, did I mention I'm only “working” through Thursday this week and then won’t be back until the 2^nd of January? Well, I did now. Ok, I think I've said enough for now. Y'all have a day.