Sealed

Today was another exciting day filled with painting, cutting, and rounded out by sealing the tile. The tile had to be grouted and cured for 72 hours before it could be sealed. As most of you know; that was about two weeks ago. So needless to say, it was ready to be sealed. I had to do a little cleanup first. Throughout the past couple of weeks I have managed to accumulate dirt, wood shavings, wood filler, paint, and as some of you know, arm hair. So after a thorough cleaning I laid down a nice coat of sealer over the tile and grout. It turned out fine with no bubbles to speak of. I then went outside and washed up. I regrettably used some lacquer thinner to clean my hands which left them in a gooey mess. So after a few concoctions of chemicals later, I had 99% of the paint and sealer removed from my hands. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome…

Almost there

Morgan and I took a little time this evening to go down to our favorite river and snap some photos of her. As we showed up she noticed that there were some geese feeding on the grass near the river. We walked by as she told them not to hiss at her with no success. I put a empty hand held in a fist out to one of the mothers and she came up and gave me a little friendly nibble. Morgan is doing great with her pregnancy and the doc still gives her a perfect 10.

Do the shoes fit

I was thinking of how many miles I had on my New Balance Running shoes. I purchased them in 2003 during my academy. In the academy alone I was running eight miles on Mondays and three too four the rest of the five days. Now as of late I have been running four too six miles a few times a week. I figured that I have at least one thousand running miles if not somewhere over fifteen hundred. Now I am interested in running some half marathons and even throwing in a full one. My hurdle that I am facing is buying shoes that fit and support my feet correctly. So if any of you marathon runners out there reading this have any suggestions, feel free to show your support. Good night.

Wainscoting Step One

Do you know what 94 redwood boards, 284 staples, and one tube of liquid nails gets you? It yields the backdrop of wainscoting that will be the lower half of our bathroom walls. It was a long tedious process, but well worth it. To finish this off I need to secure the cabinet to the wall and then install the baseboard. After this I will putty all the holes and then a nice coat of white will be applied. The space is definitely getting smaller. Just wait until everything is in; the pictures don’t do it justice on just how small it is. The end is near!

Worken and trail riden

Today I finished cutting all my wainscoting and sanded all the board to check for blemishes. Then I took out my 68er to go ride a great ten mile loop dirt trail along Lake Shasta with Morgan’s cousin TJ. He has this beautiful example of a mountain bike that rides like a dirt bike without a motor. Absolutely amazing! The weather has been beautiful and the trails even have some muddy sections left. All in all a great day.

Fathers Day

Today my Dad and I relived our two wheeled adventures. But instead of a 125cc engine powering us around; we used the pedal power of our legs. We enjoyed a nice little bike ride and a walk down my favorite trail. Another enjoyable experience with my Dad.

Tounge-in-groove

This type of paneling is a not so simple way to dress up your bathroom. Not only does it come in long strips that you have to cut down, but to top it off there are usually splits at both ends requiring two cuts per board rather than one. But when it comes to applying it to the wall, that is the strait forward part. Literally I mean it needs to be strait and you move forward through the project with every board. So tomorrow is fathers day and I will get a little done but it seems that this project will be for Monday. So stay tuned folks.

Tiles past

I usually reserve a reflection/past looking story for Sunday’s but today I will not wait. Today I have nothing new to tell you but the white cabinet that is for my bathroom is in its place. I will show you when the photo op is more view worthy. The picture we have here though is of my Grandpa’s shower that I tiled a couple years ago. This project was very fun getting both these six inch deep niches in and set perfect. Many things went into this design: two different heights for different types of bottles, sloped slightly for drainage, perfect height for optimal product retrieval, and all the grout lines blend together. Another job completed with many more in line.

42 Tiles

Late last night thanks to the compassion of my neighbors I finished cutting and laying all 42 tiles in our bathroom at 10:15pm. Today I awoke to see that not one tile had moved during my sleep. No they aren’t supposed to move but weirder things have been know to happen on this earth. So after all the shims were removed and the grout lines had been cleaned and inspected for any flaws; it was time to grout. Mixing the grout was just like all the many times I had done before. But the one thing that was different was that this tile was 5/8” thick. And with approx. 1/4” grout lines, this equals a lot of grout. It requires a lot more force to get the grout fully down into the lines fully and evenly and then scrape it off. After it was done I cleaned up and waited a half hour to set up and then removed all the excess. Then waited again another little bit to do the final wiping. Just in case you have never done grout before, the final wiping takes forever! The goal is a haze free tile. So now that I have written on about as long as it took me to do the tile, today is over. Now I look pretty and am off to Morgan’s ballet recital. You should see the excitement in these words that I am speaking. You don’t, too bad.

Was this step important

There is a difference between a good tile setter and a mediocre one. One thing is that they consider the pattern and layout of the tile before they even begin to cut. With every tile job you need to consider the beginning and end point; the squareness of the walls; and where is the eye going to be directed. The worst thing you can have is after getting to your focal point of the room and realizing you have left a ½” angled sliver to look at. Also is many tile there is a pattern/or color variance tile to tile. In this picture you will notice that I have made the patterns flow and work together to make the whole thing look like a piece of art. So next time you walk into a tiled room; take a look and see what design elements were used to create the space.

Floor half done

The hardybacker is layed down and ready for the thinset and screwing process. I used my new sheetrock inside corner maker tonight to achieve profesional corners from a amatures hands. After the vertical corners dry I will apply the same treatment to the seiling corners. With three more days off the work must go on. Oh and some sleep too.

Smooth Coat

After a full day of leveling the floor, getting new plywood, running errands, running to my moms and back (~6miles), and sitting in the river. My neighbor and I spent two hours putting a skim coat over the whole ceiling and the walls. Now that is was 11:30 at night we called it a day. But the good thing is that the walls look incredibly level. Now they need a good sanding and then one last ultra skim coat that will just fill all the little nicks and imperfections. Then it will be time for primer and paint. Getting closer!

We are taped

The third coat has gone on and now it's time for a smooth coat over the entire thing so that it is all on one plane. Remember we are not riding waves here; we want smooth as glass.

The rock is hung!

Many of you have thought “what took him so long this weekend?” Well what some of you may not know is that Morgan and I were married 5 years ago this past Friday the 4th of June. Well, this took us to dinner and lunch yesterday. And when the bathroom is done a small trip is order as well. So today I awoke and ate some nutritious breakfast and enjoyed a cup of home brewed coffee. Then with the help of my overly gracious neighbor we were able to finish all the final touches and insulate and sheetrock the walls. It went well but today was probably the muggiest day in Redding’s history. So with the help of a fan and a hot halogen light, we stayed nice and sweaty. Now, its time to go back to work. Next on the list is doing the floor. Oh, and yes the bathroom looks as small as it is. It is only 72” X 79”. But we are making due with what we have. Bigger is not always better, just nicer feeling.

1 down 9 to go.

One sheet of sheetrock screwed to the ceiling. Now I will have the rest done tomarrow.

6 miles

This evening the clouds broke and the sun peeked through. I had a spur of the moment idea. I took off my flip-flops and replaced them with my running shoes and socks. These shoes are no stranger to pounding the pavement as they started life running in my 2003 Academy. I trekked off toward the infamous Sundial Bridge. As I stepped on to the bridge I was struck with beautiful post rain fog blanketing the river. I made my way past the few others enjoying the weather to the trail that leads up the ½ mile trail up to the top of the bluffs to Hilltop. Two miles and a hill were behind me with four and quarter more to go. Running through town is refreshing because you can see the character up close that makes up your town. I made my way across the Cypress Bridge and through my neighborhood to my house. I had just completed 6.25 miles in 55 minutes and I felt great. Now what do you do after this? Stretch, drink some water/electrolyte drink, and take a shower… Well how about putting on some swim trunks and driving over to the river and sitting in the water for a little over 6 min. Well that is what I did and it felt great. A great end to a great day.