Master bath remodel

I bought our home in 2009 and since day #1 I have thought to myself “who's idea was it to carpet the master bathroom?”  The house has this excellent master suite-style bathroom with dual sinks, a walk-in closet and separate toilet room, but then the builders installed a generic looking shower-over-tub and carpeted right to the vanity.  This had to go.

The contractor started gutting the bathroom on a Monday morning, beginning by stripping out the old bath tub and shower enclosure and taking the walls down to bare studs.  The shower valve was changed and the plumbing was all moved a few inches to the right to center the shower handle and shower head to the new center of the room.  The shower area will be larger than the tub it replaces.

Tuesday morning.  The floor drain had to be moved from to the center of the shower floor, which required jack-hammering the concrete slab and extending the drain line to the center of the space.  This job was one of the big reasons I didn’t do the shower remodel myself.   And I wanted this project to be done before 2020. 

Blocking was added 12” up the walls and a 4.5” high curb was added.  We brought the curb out to a 45 degree corner of the wall and added about 5” to the width of the shower area.  On Wednesday the hot mopper added slope to the floor and mopped the smelliest asphault-like material onto the floor and 12” up the walls.  The house would smell like a new highway for days to come.

Thursday the tile guy put hardiebacker on the walls to hold the mortar and tiles and began tiling the walls.  Friday he did the shower floor and bathroom floor.  Saturday he grouted and finished the tile job.  No more carpet in the bathroom!

After the grout was dry, I followed my tile guy’s recommendation and sealed the grout with a product called 511 Impregnator.  While I was at it, I cleaned the grout in the laundry room and spare bathroom and sealed the grout there as well.

The following weekend we went camping with Rose and Stuart at the newest National Park in the system, Pinnacles National Park.  It was formerly a National Monument, but now it’s a National Park--the rock Pinnacles the place is named after seem not to notice the name change.  The camp sites were nice and we did a lot of hiking around the various pinnacle-strewn rock faces. It was a nice break from the construction zone going on at home.

Now we’re at two weeks since the tile guy finished his job and our new shower door has arrived.  I helped Stuart install his a couple of weeks back, now it’s time for mine.  I loved the quality of the hardware on Stuart’s door and loved the modern trimless appearance, so I placed the same order.  These doors have very little adjustment for out-of-square and I haven’t seen a house yet that is square anywhere.  We had our challenges but it’s installed and looking good.  

Overall, we are very pleased with the results.  It will be nice to not have to step into a tub to take a shower, there is vastly more room inside and the shower doors really help modernize the bathroom.   Next steps are to replace the rupture-prone corrugated water supply lines with new quarter-turn ball valves and stainless steel supply lines, new floor moulding and possibly moulding around the bathroom windows.  We will attempt to stain the vanity, add new hardware, new faucets and possibly replace the single large mirror with smaller dual mirrors, and we’re not sure if we will replace the countertop and sinks; we will wait and see how it all looks together after staining the vanity.

The Ides of March

I had my decade birthday in February and this month it was Hanna's turn for her decade birthday.  For the past couple of months we have been gearing-up to spend the weekend at the Mojave Desert with friends.  As we got closer to the trip, the morning sickness and general nausea seemed to be getting worse, so we unfortunately had to call the trip off just three days prior to our scheduled departure.  200 miles of offroading, tent camping and several days away without any services just wasn't going to work.  We both really wanted to go to the desert and celebrate Hanna's birthday, so I booked a very last-minute trip for us to Palm Springs.  We stayed two nights at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage, and one night at the Aqua Soleil in Palm Desert (which was only because we couldn't get that first night at the Mission Hills Resort). 

We drove down Thursday morning and arrived in Palm Desert late afternoon, checked into our hotel, then headed to a local Thai restaurant for dinner.  We spent most of the evening relaxing by the pool and spa.  The following morning we had breakfast at the Aqua Soleil's restaurant and drove to the edge of town to hike on the bluffs on the Bump 'n Grind trail.  It was hot, with the temperatures in the mid to high-80s, which didn't help with Hanna's nausea.  We turned back, now setting our sites on relaxing by the pool at the Westin Resort.  And speaking of pools, Palm Springs seems like such an unsustainable place to me--from our vantage on the hike we could see Palm Spring's thousands of acres of the greenest, lushest grass with nearly every home containing a swimming pool in the backyard, and yet, outside of the developed area it is nothing but dry desert sand.  With the extremely dry year we've had so far this season, the northern California reservoirs are critically low, with mandatory water conservation in most areas of Sacramento.  Meanwhile, Pyramid Reservoir near L.A. was brimming (98% full, to be exact), the miles of golf courses were irrigated every night and we literally saw not one sign encouraging water conservation of any type in Palm Springs.  Seems crazy, but whatever.

We loved the pool so much that we found ourselves ordering food pool-side to be delivered to our cabana; not even the high prices were enough to get us to leave our spot.  The Westin is beautiful--the grounds are surrounded by water features, rock ledges, waterfalls and lush landscaping.  We had a really nice dinner at the resort's Pinzimini Italian restaurant on Hanna's birthday.  Overall, the trip was really relaxing.  

Westin main entrance

The resort pool

The golf course in the middle of the desert, next to the resort.

House-wise, a couple of minor projects this month.  The neighbor behind me split the cost of a new backyard fence with me.  We hired a guy that did Hanna's parent's fence, using steel posts and redwood fence boards.  The new steel fence posts are square with a flange on each side, so a fence builder can box the metal post in wood to conceal it. 

My friend Stuart helped me one afternoon install a 240V outlet in my garage for charging the Nissan Leaf electric car.  It drops the charge time from 17 hours to 3 hours.  

Finally, Hanna and I got in a day on the slopes while there's still snow.  The ski season has been terrible this year due to the drought.  We skiied at Diamond Peak on the Nevada side of Tahoe.  Views of Lake Tahoe are excellent and it's always fun to ski a new resort.

We have a bathroom remodel that starts this week...more on that later.

New future addition to the family

We have some exciting news to share; Hanna is 13 weeks pregnant!  The new world of parenting should bring us a lot of fun and exciting new challenges in our lives.  Due date is September 18. 

Forty - cuarenta - quaranta - vierzig - 40

I had a birthday this month, and not just a little birthday, this was the big 4-0.  A few days before my birthday the Associated Press published an article “Things that turn 40 in 2014.” On that list were things like, oh, cel phones, the ATM machine, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album was released…that’s enough to put it all in perspective. 

On the Saturday before my birthday I was heading to Matt and Renee’s house to feed their cats while they were out of town, with dinner planned shortly after that with our friends Mike and Marin.  I pull up in the empty driveway and open the dark house, head out to the garage for the cat food only to be surprised by 25 of my closest friends.   It was all a huge surprise for me, and an excellent one at that.  It had all the makings of a great party…good friends, appetizers, beer and shots of Fireball, ping pong and air hockey, a piñata and just to ensure a successful party, my own taco truck.  Chandos Tacos, one of our favorites at the monthly taco truck nights in Roseville, was sitting in the driveway churning out all-you-can-eat tacos to us happy taco patrons.   I have the best wife ever, she sure knows how to make me happy.  There were some excellent gag gifts too, including custom-made plasti-dipped bi-focus safety glasses, something every 40-year man with a garage needs.  

Sweet new bi-focus safety glasses with anti-loss chain

chili pepper pinata

Not everyone liked the mix of Fireball and Smirnoff Iced Cake flavored vodka. (Who's idea was that anyway?) 

The taco truck awaiting us.

My alternating Fridays off have afforded me some time for some projects around the house.  I helped Stuart add power to his 4Runner in the form of a new TRD Supercharger and he in turned helped add power to my garage in the form of a 240V outlet for a new charging station for our Nissan Leaf.   The electrical service panel is on the outside wall of the garage, so we simply cut a hole in the sheetrock in the garage, pulled some 6 gauge wire from the service panel through the new hole , installed the outlet box and wired the outlet and landed a new breaker.  I had some gutter cleaning to do, which became pretty obvious last week when it rained and all of my gutters were overflowing.  I seam-sealed the driveway, mowed the lawn for the first time in about six weeks, leaf cleanup and finally dove into our taxes, oh joy.

Speaking of the Nissan Leaf, I am thoroughly enjoying this car.  It is such a pleasure to drive and we have used it for virtually all of our driving.  The car keeps track of our driving automatically, and from January 18 (day of purchase) to today February 18, we have logged 1,172 miles and burned 276.5 kilowatts of electricity.  At 10.8 cents per kilowatt, the cost for driving that 1,172 miles would be $27.65, but we have done most all of our charging for free at the public chargers at my office and near Hanna’s office.   Electric cars are the future; I can already see it.

We hiked Hidden Falls Regional Park (must come back here for mountain biking) and an unmarked trail that looks down on the American River from Ponderosa Road out of Colfax.  I also noticed a single track mountain bike trail off Highway 20 just outside of Nevada City that I need to investigate.  (And yes, us 40-year old people need to write stuff like this down so we will remember.) 

2014 already?

Happy New Year!  Now I realize just how long it has been since my last update, and quite frankly, I have no idea what I've done in the past two months.  I recall high-60 to low-70 degree days in January when it should be raining, which enabled bike riding, a hike near Clear Lake, a trip out to Folsom Lake to see historic low water levels, oh, and Christmas and New Years fell in there somewhere.  I usually have a series of on-going house projects but lately all I have done is build a Trex patio extension in the backyard.

A few months back I changed my work schedule from a standard 40 hour work week to 9 hour days with every-other Friday off, which has been really nice.  And recently I went a step further to spend more time at home and less time at work.  I have taken public transportation to work the entire seventeen years I have worked at my job.  Much of that is due to my office's busy location down near the State capitol, and I sort of took my time for granted and accepted public transit as a part of my life.  I finally came to the realization that I was losing an hour each day either riding my bike or driving to a park and ride and waiting for a bus to take me downtown.  Same story going home.  In short, I leased an electric car for the next 3 years to get me to and from work.  It's a 2013 Nissan Leaf, which is not only my first electric car, but it's also my first new car ever.  The car commute means I get home more than a full hour sooner than before.  For someone used to cycling every day and taking public transit, this feels like complete freedom to be able to run errands on my way home or stop and see friends, without first having to come home and change out of bike shorts.

The car is really fun to drive.  It accelerates quickly without making any noise, it handles well, it is so high tech it feels like a little spaceship.  I can set a timer on the car so the cabin is pre-heated for me in the morning before I get in, it has navigation that shows you how far you can go on your current charge, where to find charging locations and it even tells you how many of the chargers are being used and how many are available.  I can check the range of the car remotely on my phone, tell it to turn on the AC or heat if I'm about to head out, but probably my favorite feature right now on these 40 degree mornings is the heated steering wheel.  I still love my bikes, but I love them even more when I *want* to ride them, rather than *have* to ride them.

The Leaf is rated at 129 miles per gallon 'equivalent,' but obviously it doesn't have an engine so it burns no fuel at all.  I can charge the car for free at work and Hanna has free public charging next to her office as well.  I also get to hog the carpool lane with the Prius's and drive like I'm entitled because I'm destroying the environment slightly less than those around me. 

It doesn't look like much; I kind of feel like I need a license plate frame that says "my other car isn't this lame" or "my other car is a truck."

Please note, I didn't buy white again.

Spaceship interior

And finally, if you ever had any doubt whether or not electric cars are catching-on, just take a look at the top of the parking garage at work:

In that photo are 20 Nissan Leafs, 2 Ford Focus electrics and a Chevy Volt (partial electric).  These cars are the future...

Fridays off and new attic storage

Let's talk garages and storage.  I have a two car garage with two cars inside, and it is getting very tight.  Like "good luck getting out of your car with a cup-of-coffee-tight."  The 4Runner has a kayak and those plastic crates from Home Depot full of stuff just inches away from the passenger side, so no getting in on that side without pulling out.   I cleared the boxes away from the other side since Hanna drives daily, but it's a squeeze for her too.


The cat doesn't seem bothered by this at all.

Blogging/social media help requested

I could use some help with my blog and social networking.  I really enjoy having the this blog for several reasons, one of which is the ability to share pieces of my life with my friends and family and anyone interested enough to read.  I enjoy having it for personal reasons, as it often serves as a diary for me to remember things I've done and generally how I spend my time.  I love to take photos, even though I have no talent or skills, the blog is a great way for me to share those photos.  But the downside of the blog is the lack of feedback.  I expect no one to go to the trouble to login to google to post a comment every-time I post a lousy photo or write about replacing door handles in my home, that is entirely too much work.  But I do wish there was a way to know people are reading.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but as much as I HATE facebook, it does have only one really redeeming feature--if I'm traveling and post a photo, I admit it is pretty rewarding to see people "liking" the photos, giving you the simple feedback that people are there and watching.  So how do I incorporate a quick feedback mechanism into my blog?  Should I be using a different tool than blogspot, and if so, what?