Bathroom remodel: Days 19-23

Monday - (9/20) - Contractor patched drywall and installed hardware on drawers and cabinets.

Tuesday - (9/21) Dehumidifier taken away, drywall patched

Wednesday (9/22) - Peace at last, no leaks. Now for wall color decision. I painted two more color samples. Do we want to go with a warm buttery yellow or a cool blue? (the yellow won)

Friday - (9/24) - While on the golf course, playing in my first ever golf tournament, the plumbers called. I was too afraid to answer. When I got home, I came home to... glass shower walls installed. Hooray! Now we're looking good.

Bathroom blahs: Day 2

Blahs Day 2: Today the plumber showed up early. I truly think he was just as upset as I was about the leak. He promptly assessed the situation and replaced a part (the vertical piece that's in the tank). He said the plastic threads must have cracked and he replaced with a new part that has brass fittings. T from the office brought over a huge dehumidifier by 9:30 am. They assured us that no damage was done to the subfloor, newly installed tile or newly installed heated pad.

We'll see.

Bathroom blahs: Day 1

This evening we discovered a leaky toilet. Yup, the same toilet that was just installed last week. It leaked over our newly installed tile floor, new sub floor and into our basement crawl space. I'm so upset; I feel like I never want to see these workers back in my house again.

Grounds For Sculpture

Brad, the girls and I visited Grounds for Sculpture today in Hamilton, NJ. We had never been there before, but were prompted to visit because of the exhibit featuring Keith Haring's work - Keith Haring: A New Dimension. Today, being a gorgeous fall day and the last day of Keith's exhibit, seemed like the perfect day to venture out. We weren't sure how the girls would like it, but they ended up loving the place. It was way better than we had imagined and we all look forward to returning to take in more of the grounds.

Photo of Keith at work (on display at GFS).

Dog, 1986

cut-out plywood with laquer and silkscreen

50" x 38" x 2"

Some of the more interactive sculptures.

Bathroom remodel: Days 14 -18

Days 14 - 18:

Monday (9/13) - measured for glass at shower. I bought mirror and light fixture.

Tuesday (9/14) - installed cabinets.

Wednesday (9/15) - installed toilet and shower/sink fixtures.

Friday (9/17) - finished electrical work for light fixture, heated floor thermostat and GFI outlet.

Bathroom remodel: Day 13

Day 13: Tile complete

Monday the contractor, plumber and glass guy are scheduled to be here.

Bathroom remodel: Day 12

Day 12: Tile in, spaced and ready for grout.

Bathroom remodel: Day 11

Day 11: shower seat installed

The seat is a nice beige/gray color. Not pink, as it appears in this photo.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a nice weekend. No further work was done on the bathroom.

Saturday night we camped out in Mom and Dad's backyard. It was great fun: sat by the campfire, roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and made s'mores. Sunday we celebrated Charley's 76th birthday. Today, IKEA in the morning then Brad went to the Phillies game and the girls and I ate corn pie at Mom's. It was magnificent corn pie!

Bathroom remodel: Days 6 - 10

Days 6 - 10: walls primed and ceiling painted, NuHeat electric floor mat installed (Yes, you read that correctly. We're going to have a heated floor!), floor tile laid. Tile NOT yet grouted.

The tile guy is slooow, but he's supposed to be good.

Tree trimming

I decided that having a bathroom remodeled and getting ready for my oldest's 7th birthday party was not enough, so we decided to have a couple trees trimmed. The majority of the work was done on our ash tree out front. Looks nice huh? Next time, I will take the photos from the same place.

Before:

After:

Bathroom remodel: Day 5

Day 5: Contractor sanded in early a.m. as requested so we could celebrate Taite's birthday!

He showed up with a plant for her; what a good guy!

Bathroom remodel: Day 4

Day 4: contractor spackled; painter visited for estimate

Bathroom remodel: Day 3

Day 3: new dry wall and pipes and marker fun!

Bathroom Remodel: Day 2

Day 2: new subfloor and half wall for shower

Bathroom Remodel: Day 1

Day 1: gutted bathroom

See water-damaged subfloor by old toilet and shower.

Look, under the window we don't need a radiator anymore. Ceiling ducts were installed as part of our new geothermal system.

Bathroom Remodel

Back in March 2010, the guys installing our geothermal system discovered some leaky pipes in the basement crawl space. Turned out to be from the toilet in our full bathroom on the first floor. It had been leaking for some time. We needed to remediate mold and replace some major components: subfloor, floor covering, toilet and shower. We decided it's time to remodel. This will eventually be the master bathroom.

Bathroom remodel - before photos

Phillies Game

Today we took the girls to their first major league baseball game: Phillies vs. Nationals. There was a rain delay that lasted 1 1/2 hours. We stayed for the whole game and had a great time. Here's my favorite photo from the day.

Day -20: Pair O' Socks Project

Hooray! The socks are complete and in the mail to afghans for Afghans. I'm hoping they will warm someone's feet and soul all winter long.

Day -3: Pair O' Socks Project

Yikes! It's August and I did not complete the socks I wanted to finish by the end of July. Here's progress on what I'm calling Day Negative Three. As of now, A4A is still accepting socks, so I will keep on knitting.

Day 13: Pair O' Socks Project

Because I'd like to quickly finish knitting these socks, this has become a goal-oriented project. Hey, if Chuck can bike Every Day In May. I can finish knitting these socks by the end of July. Right? We'll see.

I was originally knitting these socks for myself, but now I want to donate them to afghans for Afghans. We'll see.

Beth, stop blogging; it's time knit.

Socks needed

A few years ago I knit a sweater for Afgans for Afghans. It was a wonderful experience. A4A current campaign is socks. If you're a sock knitter, please consider knitting along for a great cause. It'll feel good.

Hilling Potatoes

Early this afternoon I worked in our garden planting a third crop of lettuce, more carrots, bush beans and zinnias. It was raining lightly; a perfect day for working in the garden.

Last week Taite and I went to open house at Sugartown Garden. We had a lovely visit and we learned that they were looking for help during open work hours Sundays 2-4. Taite was very excited about this opportunity and talked about her "work" all week. Unfortunately she spiked a fever yesterday and has not yet recovered so she could not join me to Sugartown today.

Anna and I headed over there at about 2:30. It was hard to leave unfinished work at home to go work on some else's garden, but it felt right. The people who I met there last weekend were so kind and seemed so excited about sharing. When we arrived just one other mom and child were their to help the two organizers. Anna and I were put to the task of hilling potatoes. I had never hilled potatoes before and was happy to learn all about it. Apparently if sunlight finds the potatoes underground then they turn green and inedible. As the plants grow you mound dirt at the base of the plants so as not to let in the sunlight.

While we hilled potatoes, the other family left leaving just the four of us. A bit later we were joined by friends. Anna and Z played in the sandbox and M and I moved on to thinning chard. We came home with plenty of freshly pick swiss chard to stir-fry at dinner and some chard plants to add to our garden patch at home.

I'm so glad we took the time to go over to work. I learned a lot and the camaraderie was wonderful.

Looking For Some Tax Relief

If you get out today and want some free stuff on tax day, here's what I found in the area:

My own backyard - take in the view of a beautiful tree in full bloom

Starbucks - make a difference; bring in a reusable mug and they'll fill it with free brewed coffee.

Acme Markets - give your grocery budget a boost; purchase a $300 gift card and they will add $30 to it!

Chik-fil-A at Lionville, PA - come in and enjoy a free chicken sandwich

Word of the Day

I've recently decided to try to increase my vocabulary by reading the 'word of the day' on Webster's online dictionary. Today I just learned my new favorite word:

frog-march

\FROG-march\ verb

: to seize from behind roughly and forcefully propel forward

Darn It!

See this size 5 needle tip?

It snapped right in the middle of my dishcloth project and I'm not happy. I'm not blaming KnitPicks for defective workmanship. I set my knitting down for a minute and did not clean up after myself; I think one of my kids sat on it.
Why now?! I'm trying to finish this dishcloth by Wednesday to give as a gift.

Updated post - Solution: I only had about 12 rows left to complete the dishcloth so I used a size 4 on the left and a 5 on the right. At the end of each row, I unscrewed the needle tips and switched their position. Clever. huh?

You Don't Say

Steve on geothermal heating - "Your back-up system is like a toaster on steroids."

Librarian on what I ought to do - "You should write a book on parenting."

T. on sadness - "I took my sadness and flung it to Antarctica and Jack the penguin ate it."

Passerby on T.'s cough - "Your kid has croup." (Thank you very much, Dr. Moron)

Feed The Birds

We've been having fun with the 55 - 200mm zoom lens I got for Christmas. With several bird feeders hanging off our back deck, we have many opportunities for bird watching. Quick, snap the shutter before they flutter!

House Finch -Carpodacus mexicanus

American Goldfinch - Carduelis tristis

Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens

UFOs

You know those UFOs floating around out there? Some are still on needles, some may just need buttons and there's always that scarf that needs to be blocked. Recently, I've found my UFOs were haunting me and I've made a concerted effort to finish them. Take a look at some of the items which I can proudly say are now complete.

Amy's Socks

Timothy's Sweater

Anna's Socks