Bathroom Construction – Part 4

Well, I’m over the hump.  I now feel as if I’m getting closer to the end, and it feels much better now.  I have finished all the painting (except for the trim), and plan to install the tub surround wall tomorrow evening.  I still have a lot to do, but the bathroom actually looks like a bathroom now.
As far as painting tapes go, I have to say that the Frog Tape is much better than the well recognized blue tape that you see.  The paint did not stick to the Frog tape like it did to the blue tape.  Of course, I was using enamel paint, so that might have been the difference, but it was a highly noticeable difference.
I have to wait for the glue to dry on the surround, and then install the bath hardware and caulk it all up.  Then I have to finish installing the few tiles I have to cut, and put the hardware on the walls (towel hangers) and the cabinet doors on the cabinets.    I have to cut, paint, and install the trim, as well as replace an electrical outlet and light switch to match the paint.  They are currently beige instead of white, so they are sort of an eyesore.
Then I have to clean the house.  I’ve got stuff from the bathroom spread around so I could keep track of where it’s supposed to go when I finish, so the whole house looks awful, and I now realize the error in that plan because I’m gonna have to make several trips all over the house to get it back in order.  I would have been better off getting a cheap plastic shelving system to store everything temporarily, and then I could have used it in the garage.
Overall, I’ve learned that taking on any remodeling job is much more work than it first seems.  For such a small room, I did not expect this to take so much time and energy.  Again, thanks to Dad and Josh, I didn’t have to bear this alone.  I also want to thank Mom and Destiny for allowing them to spend so much time over here lending both their hands and a lot of sweat.

Bathroom Construction – Part 3

Thanks to Dad and Josh, I’m much closer to having a completed bathroom.  I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, as well as from the middle.  It’s absolutely amazing how fast time goes by when you’re trying to get something done quickly!  I feel as if I’ve still got a week’s worth of work to do.
I started laying the tile in the bathroom today, and I really only have a few more tiles to cut and place before I finish.  I just got worn out cutting the things.  I do feel more like I’m in a bathroom now, though, when I’m in there with an actual floor.  There’s really only a few more things to do, but they seem like they’re gonna take a while to complete.  Just a bit more painting, compared to what’s already been done, and then putting up the shower walls, and then trim work.  Once the paint dries on the cabinet doors, I’ll be able to put those back on.
As small as the bathroom is, I wouldn’t have expected it to take this long.  I am SO glad I had help with the biggest part of the job, though.  I would have had to take a week off of work to get this far if I had to do it by myself.

Bathroom Construction – Part 2

So, we skipped the part about sanding the walls.  We just replaced the ones that would have require sanding.  We’ve done a lot of work, but there’s still a bunch to do.  Dad and Josh have been here helping me all day for the past two days.
We got the tub replaced fairly early on Friday.  We’ve replaced all the necessary walls, except for one strip that we need to do fairly quickly today, gotten the mud and tape up, and textured the exposed walls.  I’ve primed the cabinets, cabinet doors, window trim, door, and door trim.  When Josh pulled up the floor tiles, we found a spot that needed to be replaced, so we took out the toilet, and began replacing the floor, but haven’t replaced it because we ran out of daylight to build it up under the house.
I’m sure there’s more that we’ve done, but we still have much more to do.  Here’s the current list:

  • Replace the walls (only one more strip left)
  • Paint the walls
  • Paint the cabinets
  • Paint the trim and baseboards
  • Install the surrounding walls around the bathtub (includes cutting holes for the shower)
  • Lay down new floor tiles
  • Caulk the tub and surrounding walls
  • Install the baseboards
  • Install the new curtain rod
  • Install new cabinet knobs
  • Install new ceiling light fixture
  • Testing (take a shower)

I’ll do my best to post an update tonight so that I can more accurately keep track of our progress.

Bathroom Construction – Part 1

Dad and I started dismantling our bathroom this afternoon… well, I guess yesterday afternoon now. We got the bathtub surround walls down… they were much heavier than I thought they’d be.
We found that there was more work than originally intended, but also found some positive things in the process. There was absolutely no indication of mold of any kind. There were a few problems with the original installation, such as a piece of wood resting on the tub behind the surrounding wall, which led to that piece of wood soaking up water.
We’ll get to work tomorrow by removing the tub, which we finally got to budge a little earlier. There’s no telling how long it’s been since it’s original installation. Hopefully, we can have the plumbing and base walls back up by tomorrow evening. I don’t want to plan too far ahead, so I’m not going to.
Here’s the basic list of things I know need to be done after that:

  • Sand the necessary parts of walls
  • Texture the necessary parts of  walls
  • Paint the walls
  • Paint the cabinets
  • Paint the trim and baseboards
  • Install the surrounding walls around the bathtub (includes cutting holes for the shower)
  • Lay down new floor tiles
  • Caulk the tub and surrounding walls
  • Install the baseboards
  • Install the new curtain rod
  • Install new cabinet knobs
  • Install new ceiling light fixture
  • Testing (take a shower)

I’m sure there’s some tasks I left out, either due to lack of effort or memory.  Hopefully Christle will be happy with our work.  I can’t begin to imagine how long this would take without Dad’s help.  Thanks, Dad.

Taurus 24/7 Pro

I like the features and quality of this pistol.  It holds 17 rounds in the clip.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDo0ua2IMp8&rel=1]

I’d hope I’d never have to shoot it at all, much less 17 rounds, but it’d make me a little more confident knowing I could stand up for myself a little longer in an emergency.

iPod Hard Drive Replacement

I recently had the misfortune of losing the hard drive in my iPod.  It was about 1 year and two weeks old, so the warranty was expired when it first started giving me problems.  I ran some hard drive utilities, such as SpinRite, and got it back in good enough shape to work.  Then it got worse and worse, until the thing wouldn’t sync at all.  I even tried some other programs, in the hope that iTunes was the culprit.  It wasn’t, so I started doing research.
I bought a tool kit with instructions online.  The instructions came through email, so I had those that day, but the tools took 9 days to arrive.  The day after I ordered the tools, I found a hard drive for under $90 that had the recommended model #, and ordered it with ground shipping.  I received the drive in 7 days, but the tools weren’t here yet, so I sent the guy I purchased the tools from an email asking if they had been sent yet.
The next morning I was too excited to wait for the tools.  I knew that using a metal screwdriver would ruin the finish on the iPod, so I tried my thumbnail.  I got my nail between the front and back panels in the top left corner of the device, and used my other thumbnail between them too.  I slid my nail down the left side and across the top and made my way all the way around.  It just took a very little bit of pressure to separate the two panels.  You can’t yank too hard, though, because they’re connected with cables that could be damaged if yanked out.
It was relatively easy to see what to do.  If you look hard enough you can find the instructions on the Internet for free.  You only have to separate one cable to split the two panels apart.  When you lift up on the hard drive there is a ribbon connection.  That connector was tricky and it would have been damaged if I hadn’t read the instructions and seen a picture of how to loosen the connection.
If you have experience with taking things apart, the only thing the instructions add is that one connector.  Although, I really think I could have figured it out with a little bit of time.
If you have a small plastic screwdriver or if your thumbnail is long enough and strong enough, the tools are a waste of time as well.  Mine were just about at the length when I usually clip them.  My nail got a little scraped from the separation, but I clipped them shortly after I changed out the hard drive and verified that it worked.
I should have taken pictures, but if anyone asks, I’ll take it apart again just to get the shots.  I received the tools in the mail later that day, so they’re in my cabinet if anyone has weak or short nails.
The one thing I looked for when looking for a hard drive, was to only purchase one that was advertised as new.  I would be wary of any that are refurbished, as those would normally come from another iPod, and might have the same type of problem my iPod problems started with.

Blurb

I saw a video podcast today that had a short segment about the site blurb.com.  This site provides software called BookSmart to download and install on your computer.  BookSmart will allow you to create a book in a number of different sizes.  Once you have finished creating your book, you can actually have it published and printed in hard-cover of soft-cover. 
There is the option to keep it private and only for you, or for anyone to purchase.  Blurb sets their price, then you name the customer’s price and keep anything higher than Blurb’s minimum.  In other words, if Blurb sets a minimum price of $21.95, I could set the price at anything higher than that.  If I set it at $28.95, I would be making $7.00 per book sold.
From what I’ve seen, the quality of the book is high.  You can actually configure how each photo or text looks on each individual page, as well as the entire cover.  I plan to have something published by the end of the year for my family.  It will be for us only, but I will definitely post my reaction to the final product when that time comes.  Check out blurb.com and let me know what you think.