Category: Blitherings

Now We Need A Door!

How incredibly silly, perhaps, to write about a shower stall.  But here it is, in all its just-finished glory!  Our tile setter did a great job, so impressive in fact that when the shower door came out, he asked for the tile setter’s name.  We plan on using him in the guest bathroom, which has a bathtub, when we re-tile it in the hopefully not too distant future!

The tile setter has a hard job to do, I think.  I sure couldn’t do it – not as patiently or as well as he did.  Paying him was worth every penny.  I am looking forward to the house repairs being done – let’s just hope there isn’t an earthquake any time soon, as we won’t recover that loss as easily as we did from the flood.

The agenda for the repairs moves forward.  Flooring tomorrow.  Painter starts Thursday.  Pick up vanities Saturday, and buy some new toilets, too!  (I am excited about new toilets!  Ours are not the most “effective” you might say.)  Vanities go in after the painter is done.  Tops are cut and placed.  Shower door placed last.

Maybe it will all be done by our wedding anniversary mid-May – that would be cool!

In Betwixt and In Between

The house is torn up.  The studio is empty.  The living room is filled with boxes, one corner for Josh, the other for me.  The shower stall will be done Monday.  The shower door will be measured and ordered on Monday, too.  The dogs will be boarded out Monday through Tuesday night because of the fact the flooring is going in on Tuesday day, starting at 730 a.m.  Thursday the painter starts.  Saturday the vanities arrive.  Wednesday next the painter finishes and the new toilets are installed.  Then the vanities are installed and the template made for the counter tops.  We will have a shower that works – finally!  hooray! – but we will not be able to use it until the door is installed.  We will be brushing our teeth in the kitchen sink (ewwwww!).  I go back to the doc on Tuesday to have my wrist and finger checked 3 weeks after my fall.

And . . . we have been packing, eating junk food, brewing beer, trying to have a life, and painting in between – pictures and samples of paint on the wall.

I will post photos of the new house stuff sometime later, but today, here are the things – little things, no bigger than 7×10 at the most – I’ve been painting and drawing, just to stay sane.  The painting of the barn needs a bit of help – the roof is too white, and it looks like the windows are some strange eye infection.  The meadowlark needs more contrast.  I could go on, but I need to go to work on my other stuff.

Click on a picture to start a slide show, and to see them larger.

Healing and House Repairs

Two weeks ago today I fell over one of our dogs and broke my right wrist and a finger.  Timing couldn’t have been worse as we are in the middle of repairing our house from a flood – small though it was – that is requiring new flooring, bathroom shower stall, and repairs to damaged walls.  This means 3 bedrooms need to be moved into the living room, things taken off closet floors, vanities demolished, toilets replaced, and a new shower stall door.  So, in the process, this also means buying hardware, such as shower drain, shower valve, and shower head, and while we are at it, bathroom fixtures and towel racks and so on (and on, and on).  The proverbial $20,000 for the new toilet.

And that comment is true – I have heard it from others, and now I am seeing it in action.  In a way, it was the kick in the pants we needed to get some things around here fixed.  Things were okay, but rather shabby, such as the original bathroom vanities from 40 years ago.  Taking things apart has revealed some interesting things – rather like an archaeological dig:

  • Josh found a flyer for “edible body paint” under one of the vanities – very 1970-1980s!
  • He also found that the master bathroom vanity top was originally too long, so the builders pounded it into the drywall under the window – leaving about an inch-deep indentation.  If they hadn’t done it, the shower would have had a vanity shelf in it.
  • The tile setter showed us how poorly constructed and improperly done was the sealant and prep below the tiles he removed.

Despite my broken wrist, I am able to help pack things up.  It just requires some thought and not lifting anything heavy.  I’m glad I can help because one man shouldn’t have to do it all alone while I rest in my delicate condition.  Yay, Josh!

A Message from the “Officially” Fallen

It’s official:  two fractures, neither of which is especially serious.  More uncomfortable than anything, and inconvenient.  I have a splint for the middle finger, where I have a chip fracture on the joint above the knuckle.  The wrist fracture is a bigger, non-displaced chip fracture on the distal radius – the bone just below the thumb.    I have a removable splint for each, rather than a cast.  This will make bathing much easier.

I can function much better in this new and stylish black splint, even drive and draw and hold a brush.  I go back on the 24th for follow-up.  Overall, 4 to 6 week healing time.

The Fallen

 

Take a dog. Take a turn.  Trip over dog.  Fall forward.  Fall onto your back after hitting the sewing table with your right hand.

Probable broken middle finger on right hand and a broken right wrist, per the local urgent care, but best go see a hand specialist Monday or so, to confirm or deny.

I am right-handed.

Happy Easter!