Loafkeeper Farm

Anya and I are visiting my family this week. Here's a short log of the trip so far:

Day 1: Drive a little bit. Get stuck in the state's largest annual garage sale / flea market. Drive a long way. Get lost in the middle of nowhere. Drive some more. Baby farts. Arrive. Baby proof house.

Day 2: Wake up at 5:30. Baby poops two times before anyone else wakes up. Cook breakfast. Baby poops. Go to lunch at Sonny's. Go to commissary and buy diapers and oreos. Baby poops.



Day 3: Go to The Goodwill Emporiumiumiumium and buy lots of very cheap baby clothes. Baby poops. Go to lunch/dinner. Baby knocks sippy cup into bowl of salsa. Baby poops. Watch four hours of Project Runway.



Day 4: Sleep until 6:30. Dad makes breakfast of french toast. Learn how to roll up acorns with the acorn picker-upper. Realize forgot to apply anti-stink to armpits. Go into room to get anti-pit-stink. Baby wakes up from nap in cage. Snuggle baby to get her to sleep. Fall asleep. Get hair cut by a real hair cut person for the first time in three years. Eat wings. Baby poops.

To be continued...

Andy's birthday is a week from today, and he needs new undie pants 'cause his parts keep falling out of the ones he currently owns, and yesterday he re-wore a pair because he didn't do laundry, and maybe if he had more that wouldn't happen. (You'd think that if he had to re-wear a pair, he'd at least choose a pair that didn't have TWO holes in them. [And I don't mean the holes that are supposed to be there.]) I think he wears large and prefers boxers. I am too tired to go shopping, so if anyone wants to send Andy a birthday present, consider undie pants.

Today I saw a post on craigslist for some reclaimed red oak flooring out of a house in town. Approximately 300 square feet for $125. We have talked about putting hardwood down in the living room/kitchen/hallway, and really liked some rustic maple at the hardwood store in Floyd, but it is pricey. And we had red oak at the old house, and it looked nice once I refinished it. So I went to check it out and came home with a truck full of oak (and one piece of bamboo).

Most of the boards are in decent shape. Many will need some trimming, but there is still a lot of usable flooring. And all but 2 nails have been removed or clipped. After stacking it in the workshop and doing some quick calculations, though, I'd say there is somewhere between 255-300 square feet. Depending on the waste, that may not be enough to do the living room like I hoped.

On the plus side, it is 2 1/4 #1 common red oak, so we can probably locate some more easily. The finish is ok, but not geat, so I will probably sand and refinish it all anyways. I could be not so picky when trimming, too, and we could just call it 'utility grade flooring.'

If Cabol looks at it in the light of day and decides she doesnt like it, then I will probably save it for my long term plan of putting a level floor in the workshop. There is a cement slab, but it seems like they made it out of leftover cement and no one bothered to float it and make it nice and smooth, so it is full of dips and high spots.

And I absolutely adore the smell of red oak. Cabol couldn't smell it(!), so I shoved it in her face until she could. I don't think she was as enamored with it.

It was my birthday last weekend, and it was the best birthday in a long time. Andy made me an awesome cake floating in a lake of chocolate:



And then he (mostly) finished our bathroom!!!!!!! The toilet got a clog in it before anyone could even use it, but we had a plunger so no worries.



Here's what we did....errrrr...what Andy did.

Before:



During:


After:


We (and again, by "we" I mean "Andy")

+ removed the old, nasty wallpaper (okay, I did a lot of that)
+ removed the little shelf that was over the sink and toilet and the trim on the opposite wall that topped off the wallpaper
+ removed the old, nasty medicine cabinet, sink, and vanity
+ removed a light switch that was in the middle of the wall for the medicine cabinet light and patched the hole
+ painted the upper parts of the walls and the ceiling blue, and painted the trim we weren't messing with white
+ replaced the old, nasty shower curtain rod with a new, groovy one
+ replaced the old, nasty light in the ceiling with a light/fan combo (thanks, Pops, for climbing on the roof to help with that!)
+ added beadboard and trim to the lower part of the walls and painted white
+ removed the old, nasty stick on floor tiles and replaced the rotting plywood under the toilet
+ did something with the toilet plumbing to move the toilet hole out from the wall so the new toilet would fit
+ installed concrete backer board on the floor
+ installed awesome hex tiles
+ installed baseboard trim and quarter round and a threshold at the doorway and painted white
+ framed the old mirror and painted the trim white
+ installed new, super-low-flow toilet
+ installed new vanity, sink, faucet, and mirror we got at the Habitat store about two years ago (!)
+ replaced the door handle, the outlets and light switch and their covers, and the towel racks

There are just a wee few things left to do:

+ install the tp holder
+ hook up the plumping for the sink
+ buy and install cabinet over the toilet

Andy is a rockin' renovator!

This morning we were sitting on the floor, staring at the newly laid bathroom floor. Cabol pointed out that thinset had filled in between about 3/4 of the spaces between the penny tiles. Everything I read says this isn't really good, since, you know, that's where the grout is supposed to live.

So, this morning I guess we take a trip over to Home Depot and see what they recommend to remove it in a timely fashion. I can sit there with a sharpened nutcracker or nail set and scrape it all out by hand, but I read you can use a dremel tool. All our dremel tool attachments, however, are a little too wide, so maybe I can find something smaller at the store. Or I'll have a long week ahead of me.

Cabol was also nice enough to point out that even though I tried to be as anal as possible about putting the sheets down in the right position, I managed to flip one of them 180°. So the little black tiles have a 1' square section where they are all wonky.

In the middle of the floor.

I had ordered a NAS that was to be delivered on Monday by Fed Ex. But this morning (Saturday), they showed up instead. As someone who ships things at work sometimes, I know Saturday delivery is an extra charge. I expressed my surprise to the Fed Ex lady, and she said Fedex Home Delivery doesn't deliver on Mondays(!) but does on Saturdays.

I wonder if that is a benefit of living in the boonies - things only get delivered on certain days, but they are days when you are actually home!

Things have been slow on the bathroom front. Partially because being sick threw me all off, and partially because I'm a lazy bum. Last weekend, I put the rest of the wainscoating up on the walls, and painted it. I also cut the Wonderboard™ and set it on the floor so we wouldn't keep stepping on sticky wood. I also repaired the floor around the drain.

Tonight I mixed up a bucket of thinset and set the Wonderboard™ on the plywood floor and screwed it in. Tomorrow I should get the tile laid, and maybe by Sunday night we'll have a toilet again. And the door needs to be shaved down, or we'll be without one and you'll be able to watch people pee.

On a slightly related note, when I was back in NY awhile back cleaning out my dad's place, my Uncle David took me over to my grandfather's place to see if there was anything I wanted to take back with me. While entertaining me with stories behind various tools, he would also say things like 'Do you have one of these? No? You really should. You'll need it.' I politely nodded and agreed, wondering when I would.

The nice wood chisels? Used at least a dozen times.

The extra jig saw? Awfully handy when I wanted one in the shop and one in the bathroom.

But the 1/2" drill I thought I'd rarely use since I have a whole cabinet of drills? When I had to mix a pail full of thinset and my 'heavy duty' Delta drill started to smoke, it was priceless.

(I have, however, yet to find a use for the giant pipe wrench. Yet.)