Getting BIGGER.

I just wanted t o take the time to say this while I can and not get into trouble.

Bathroom Cabinet

My Cabinet for the bathroom in all its glory. Some of the design elements include: drawers open over the toilet, one lower shelf, two upper, an afterthought upper cabinet, wide enough to cover old door and leave enough room for paneling, deep enough to fit towels. The top cabinet space was added because without it in a 6’x7’ bathroom, it looked like a giant skyscraper.

yep

The water runs through it.

Again I have a sewer line. This was after breaking yet another fitting called a street 90. But with a little bit of time, I have got it perfect! Now I am off to clean the dishes.

Sunday

Today went great and not so great all in one sitting. I finished wiring the lights; but had to make two trips to Osh to get a metal box to junction the light wires in the attic. Next came the big disaster. Unless you have been over here, you would not know that my toilet drain was crooked. Well this was due to me making some of my cuts just slightly too long. So today I cut the whole works out from under the bathroom and took it out to the garage and chiseled the fittings apart. When I got under the house I had one more to do. I got a little over zealous and broke the fitting. And of course it is Sunday and not one supply house is open. So next Friday when I am home, I get to go to the electrical and plumbing supply houses to get the rest of my parts. Then I cleaned up the bathroom and went to take a picture for you to all see; and I did a little too much zooming and the battery died. So now I am done with this day, see you in a few.

Electricity

How do you run wires to lights that are all over the place when you have vent pipes and many other things in the way? That is what I am up against and after a day of putting in the boxes I have decided on my routing. Then the fun begins to draw all this stuff on graph paper so that I can hang the rock and for someday that you dont want to put a nail through anything important.

Cortisone Shot

Today I had a 60mg Cortisone Injection due to the overly pollinated air we are seeing in northern California. I have been struggling with allergies for a long time but it seems to be getting worse. I bought some daily allergy medication over the counter called Zyrtec. I thought it was working due to the fact that I was not quite as bad as normal. But the last two weeks were a disaster. I even have developed a slight cough due to the severity of it. So my opinion is that I will try a different type of daily allergy medication. The trials and errors of life!

Spaghetti

Spaghetti made for 40 hungry people is no task designed for your average home kitchen. But today using a average home style kitchen with some restaurant style amenities, this task was completed. The sauce with around 12lbs of meat and various veggies was devoured. The noodles were about 2lbs too much as well as the salad being about one head left over. But the garlic bread had only a couple pieces left to the scrounger. The scrounger was myself; as I was left with only a couple of spoonfuls of sauce painstakingly scraped from the serving dishes, a few noodles, a little salad, and the last few pieces of garlic bread, end pieces of course. All in all it was a total success. Everyone left overfilled with great food and great memories of eating a fine meal after a hard days work with a bunch of friends. May this be a tribute to more of the same times to come.

A day of reflection.

This morning I woke up and had to ride my bicycle home; darn. I came over the bluffs overlooking the river before the sun had shown its face to the water. I have said it before but the river is one of my favorite places. As I rode down to it I found a nice little place to snap a photo of my bike. I then rode over the bridge and found myself heading towards the new trail next to he freeway. As I was making my way on to the trail, I noticed a young couple suiting up to go fly fishing. I rode around for while and as I was leaving I stopped to talk to them. They were married and on vacation visiting their parents. They grew up here but moved away to San Francisco and now reside in my birthplace of San Diego. Both of their names were a form of “Jess” and they were excited to get out there together and enjoy the river together. This is something that Morgan and I have shared together before and hop to soon share it again along with our new little girl. Happy fishing.

No Leaks!

I have spent my days off of work now completing the hot and cold water lines for the bathroom. As some of you know, last week the copper pipes that are in the wall gave me quite the struggle. But after a day lying on my back listening to the radio; I completed the maze that is called the bathroom plumbing. There were several things that I had to consider when building this system. I have integrated the supply lines for the tankless water heater just outside the wall, need to leave room for the sewer lines to connect to the main, and I also wanted to be able to be able to crawl under the pipes. But the main design was to give adequate size for volume but small enough that the hot water would get to the faucet the quickest. I have a recirculation pump for the hot water to have instant hot water at all the fixtures; but due to the size of the house and the frequency of hot water use, I would rather not use it. But after a day of the water being on, I am happy to say that out of the 105 joints soldered (yes I counted) I have not one leak! Another job well done!

Crane fly

Numerous common names have been applied to the crane fly, many of them more or less regional, including mosquito hawk, mosquito eater (or skeeter eater), gallinipper, or gollywhopper. Crane flies vary in size ranging from 0.079” to 2.4”, while tropical species have been recorded at over 3.9”. The giant crane fly of the western United States can reach 1.5”. Despite their names, crane flies do not feed on mosquitoes as all, nor do they bite humans. They feed on nectar or they do not feed at all; once they become adults, most crane fly species exist as adults only to mate and die. Their larvae that I have never heard of, called leatherjackets, leatherbacks, leatherback bugs or leatherjacket slugs, because of the way they move , consume roots (such as those of turf grass) and other vegetation, in some cases causing damage to plants. Does this mean that we need to start killing these flying beasts instead of letting them live to kill mosquitoes? I have several in my house right now; I think I will let them live until I have a landscaped lawn.

Black death.

I want to start off this day’s entry with a sincere apology. I have failed in posting a current blog daily. My work has and will take me away from the daily blog life. But I am dedicated to getting you current blogs when I can. I came home today to find longer grass and some new friends had moved into the area. I am talking about the good old Black Widow spider. Last weekend I sprayed for bugs, but apparently did not put enough spray out. I killed 5 tonight while looking around with the flashlight. It is my almost daily routine to go outside at night with a flashlight and kill unwanted pests like Black Widows that usually only come out at night. So tonight if you care, take a stroll outside with your flashlight and do some hunting yourself. Some killing tools include: you foot, a stick, foaming window cleaner and carburetor cleaners to stun victom to give time to kill, and of course some instant bug killer spray are some options that have worked well for me. Now I don’t recommend this; but a flammable spray and lighter are a fun way to kill spiders also. Just use fire wisely as not to start a grass fire and/or a structure fire.

Happy Mothers Day.

Wanted to dedicate this days entry to my mom. She has been there from the beginning and will always be there no matter what. She gives her unconditional love and support. She gave half of herself to create me; thus I have many of her traits. Some of the outstanding ones are the red hair; cowlicks in my hair not just in the back but in the front also; and last but not least her personality. Thanks mom for all the things you gave. Now your gift is past on to our child. Happy Mothers Day.

How much did we spend today?

new tires for Element - $550.00
new socks for work - $55.00
lunch at the drive in - $5.50
spending time with Morgan - Priceless

Custom is not easy!

You wonder why the custom things in life are so expensive. It is because most of the time it is either harder to achieve and/or needs special experience to complete. Today I fought my bathroom for this very reason. Since I cut the plumbing wall down so small and am putting the sink drain and supply lines on the same horizontal level; it necitates custom mounting. The plumbing has been nothing but a custom nightmare! Thank God the day is over!

Metal -vs- Plastic

In the endeavor to get my bathroom done; I had to make another big purchase today. I purchased more copper pipe and fittings. With the new law to get rid of lead free brass in California; plumbers have been forced to use copper again to plumb houses. There was once a superior way to plumb house using a flexible pipe that used a brass fitting and lock ring. It was perfect! Now we are forced to either use a inferior product or revert back to all copper. The biggest drawback to this is the price. We are talking $1.19/ft vs $.35/ft for ½”! Yes the fittings are expensive but when you eliminate most if not all of the 90s the money saving is significant! Now my plumbing will be a crazy hybrid of both only obtainable from my mind.

Open late.

In this rough economy most businesses are closing their doors early rather than being open late. But there is one business in town that has opened its doors an hour later than normal. This store just so happens to sell what I need for my bathroom. Tonight I took the trailer over and picked up nine sheets of ½” sheetrock; four sheets of ½” Hardybacker; and two sheets of 11/32” plywood. Now I have all I need to do the floor, walls and ceiling.

Slowly but surely.

Did you ever stop and look around you and wonder how things got the way they are? Did you look like you are today, yesterday? Did you have all the things you have now yesterday? The list of questions go on for a lifetime. The answer to all of them are no. But how does one get to where they are? “Slowly but surely.” If you take this slogan and apply it to life you will see how true it is. The reason I bring this up is because you need to put this at the forefront of your mind. By not thinking about this term, you will most likely become what you don’t want to be. Some examples are: cluttered, out of shape, angry, scattered, overwhelmed… Now also the opposite is true. Almost nothing happens over-night. Good things too take time. So keep this thought “Slowly but surely” at the forefront of your mind to help you do positive things with it and avoid the negative.

Tank-type water heater death!

I started out my day with a visit with a friend of mine who is helping me make the cabinet for my bathroom. During the cutting process; I was called to an emergency. My in-laws 20 year old tank-type water heater gave up the ghost today. I stopped by to see if it could be fixed; but after seeing the water leak all over the ground at an astounding rate I new it was over. So off to the supply house we went and got all the rest of the supplies to install there tank-less hot water heater. And roughly seven hours later they had a new tank-less water heater installed and running! On the bright side; I got another job on the huge list done.

Change is needed!

As many of you know; my brain is always thinking of different things. And some of the time I over-analyze things to death. Sometimes it is because of this over-analytical brain of mine that I come up with some amazing thoughts. The other day I had one of these epiphanies on the way to the plumbing supply house. Now some of this may be way over your heads, but this is what is in mine. I am re-doing my water lines under my house. I also am installing a Noritz tank-less hot water heater. The old way of plubing was: ¾” trunk lines running long distances in house; tank-type water heaters with ¾” supply lines; main water feeds of ¾”; and so-on…. Are you seeing a pattern here? I need to fill you in though; a tank-less water heater for most residential applications has only ½” copper running through it. But its connections are ¾”. Why are the connections ¾”? Well a couple of reasons: the old water heater lines are ¾” and with all the valves and connections; ¾” makes sense. But when you have a ¾” water line, there is about 8 oz of water per 3’ of line; were as in ½” there is 8 oz in 6’ of line. What does this matter? Remember that faucet across the house flowing only 1.5 gpm? In my home there is a 25’ ¾” run I put in. At 1.5gpm in the bathroom, it would take 25 seconds to get hot water; it does. If I ran this in ½” it would only take 11.3 seconds. I don’t know about you; but that looks like less than half the time and that is great! One more reason why raised foundations rule!

Who did you say was pregnant?

Morgan and I rode out to a neat spot by the river to take some pictures. I wanted to get some good pictures of the pregnant belly. But when I got home and looked at the pictures I got confused. I thought Morgan was the one pregnant but am I also? Could it be? Could the movie “Twins” be true? Unfortionately after a quick ultrapic we were able to determine that Morgan was indeed the only one pregnant. And unfortionately I just have a little extra around the middle as well as a talent of sticking out my belly extra far. Boy how cool would that be to have twins and only carry one baby each? Think about it!