Monkey House

Yeah,

So I wanted to write about this weekend’s plumbing experience, then tomorrow I would write about pulling the powder room together once and for all…

But as I was writing a million steps of what should have been a short tutorial, I realized that I didn’t know wth I was saying anymore.

Lesson learned.

Look for those articles and more within the next few days.

Greg

So,

Bathroom all painted up, except, well, there’s a bit of a bump leftover from one of the patch jobs we did. Just when we thought all was good and over, there’s this bump that we just can’t ignore.

Tip: if you try “covering it up” with a toilet paper holder, better pick a big one. We did not.

Since we did not, there was nothing to do except mud it again. 3rd or 4th time now. Mudded, sanded, primed, repainted. Success? Yes! But also did a quick touch-up on the other wall. Success? NO!!!! Sucker got all shiny after repainting, so we ended up repainting the entire wall. BUT, the walls are now… DONE!

–

Time to put in the plumbing. Praying it would be easy. Sink drain did not line up with the P-trap, but we’re going to “cheat” it a little. But then, leaks from the water supply lines. Off with the vanity top, shortened a pipe connected to the supply line, back on. Now, the other side is leaking! Tighten up a bit, careful not to over-do it since this one is a gasket seal and I don’t want to rupture the gasket. Success!

Too bad I have to take the vanity top off again so that we can put adhesive on it and put it properly in place.

–

Toilet! Finally there’s a toilet in place!!

Except, the guts of the tank keep hissing and leaking a bit of water out. Not much, and not on the floor, it’s just a continuous water-wasting cycle inside the tank unless you give the floaty-thingy a little lift. I don’t want to lift it after every flush, so it’s off to HOME DEPOT again tomorrow!

We’ll get there…

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In other news, I felt the baby’s bum for the first time today (through the belly). It had twisted itself into some sort of weird position, and Mama Monkey puts my hand over the pokey-outie-spot on the belly. “Feel that?” She says. “I think so,” I reply. “I’m pretty sure that’s its bum,” she giggles. So cute! I held my hand there for a few moments, hoping against all physiological hope that it would fart. I don’t know why I wanted it to fart, and it makes no sense for a baby to fart in the womb; but nonetheless I had an illogical little wish that I would feel a fart.

–

Greg

So, the ongoing reno project. Current mission: complete the powder room.

Today was baseboard day. I don’t know what it is about me, but I seem to invite disaster, and not always directly related to the actual task at hand. Take today’s experience with the mitre saw for example:

I knew that the blade was dull, but I thought, “it’s only 8 cuts… I should be able to make it.” First cut in, and things were burny and smoky. No good. Went to change the blade, but it needed a special wrench, or so I thought. See, the gap to get at the bolt was narrow. Called my father, from whom I inherited the mitre saw originally, and he confirmed that yes, he still had a special wrench that had never made it to my house. Even offered to drive it over (40 minute round trip) and miss the Sens’ puck drop.

Started cranking off the nut (hee hee) that holds the blade on. Still, the gap was too narrow. I knew that there must be some sort of removable piece that would make my life easier, so I started dismantling the guard. Off comes the guard, and “pwa-taayayayang” away flies some sort of spring. As it turns out, the guard did not need to be removed, but as I was farting around with it, I noticed a small metal shield that comes unscrewed and can flip out of the way. Never did fix the guard (long story short, I have a guard, but it’s not spring-loaded), and it turns out that with the metal shield out of the way I probably didn’t need the special wrench.

Changed the blade, and it was pretty much smooth sailing in terms of cutting. Problem? Walls are not straight. I knew that already, but y’know?

The plan was to use No More Nails construction adhesive (yes, it would make removing in the future a wall-destroying prospect, but that’s OK… better to re-frame that damn room anyhow). Trouble is, you need two relatively flat surfaces against one another for it to work. With all the waves and curves in our walls, the plan was foiled before it even began. However, we stubbornly stuck all the baseboards on with the glue anyhow… and then… nailed it in with finishing nails the way we should have to begin with.

The walls, being NOT STRAIGHT, also required us to put more caulk than I’d really prefer into the top. We’ll see how it looks tomorrow after a paintin’.

Oo oo!

As we’re working towards fixing up our house, we’ve dismantled some of the “work” the previous owners put into it.

One thing to know, before you try anything home-reno-ish… is that walls are never square. Floors are never level.

Back to the previous owners, then. Every time we pull out baseboards, flooring, lighting fixtures, or seemingly anything at all… we pull out thick, long strands of beige caulking. It’s like every gap they ever made, they just filled with caulk. Ran out of floorboards? No problem, fill in that 2-inch gap with caulk. The base of the new light fixture is too small for the existing hole? No worries, caulk the crap out of it… nobody will notice. No transition strip installed? Caulk. I’m surprised they didn’t patch the cracks in the driveway with caulk. (side note: “caulk” jokes are still funny to me… I’m not so sure Mama Monkey finds them as amusing, but she humours me)

Flash-forward to our current project, the renovation of our powder room. We searched for something to re-purpose as a vanity for months. We weren’t that picky; a used washstand, the right size of dresser, an oversized nightstand… almost anything would have done the trick. But alas, in the end we ended up getting something from The Home Depot (big surprise!). Exactly the right size, exactly the right look, and since the powder room was never meant to be our piece de resistance, we didn’t mind that it’s the same veneered particle board that people eventually upgrade OUT of. It was still an upgrade compared to what was there.

In any event, several problems arose, which we eventually solved. The important thing to note is that NONE of these involved using caulking:

1. At some point in time, new tiles were installed, but they only went to the edge of the previous vanity, leaving a “drop” when we ripped the old one out. Built up the “drop” area with plywood and a hardboard cover, and are planning to cover a remaining exposed gap with tile, hardwood, or stick-on tile. Not caulk.
2. walls are not square (they’re more like 92 degrees), so cabinet is not square. The back is more important, so we made that flush, and will fill the remaining gap in the front with a thin custom-sliced wedge of wood. Not caulk.
3. the same walls… not square… mean that the one-piece “cultured marble” (aka concrete with a ceramic glaze) top was not a fit. Had to use a flap-sanding disc in an angle grinder to create a “92 degree” angle from back to front, making the top a fit against the back and side walls. The right way to do it… not a cop-out by filling with caulk.
4. The top has a built-in backsplash but no “side-splash”. This will be made with glass tiles. But the top has a gentle curve leading into the built-in backsplash, which left a pretty big gap between the tiles and the back. Could just stick on the tiles, but I refuse to caulk it all up. Took out a rotary tool and ground (grinded? I should look that up) a recess for the tile. Still not abso-smurfly perfect, but anything more would have been excessive and pedantic. Bottom line: no caulk beyond the required.

I’m not against caulk of course. I just think you need to use it where it’s supposed to go. Like, NOT as a replacement floorboard or a driveway patch.

Greg

“CAULK CAULK CAULK CAULK” (juvenile, but fun!)

I’ve been using social media since God knows when.

The first serious addiction I had to it was when I got a 300 baud modem for my Commodore 64… which (due to the addiction) I soon upgraded to a screaming 1200 and started using some of my burger-flippin’ money to pay for my own phone line (so as not to hog my parents’). Late nights were occupied connecting to BBSes, many of which were 1 connection at a time. The conversations were interesting, heated, often political or relevant, and were food for a hungry teenage mind.

Then there was a pause… until a few years later with a 56K modem, I discovered Telnet and online MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Not only could I play a game in realtime in a rich “swords and sorcery”-type fantasy environment, but I could interact with other people connected at the same time. Wow! My MUD of choice was, and still would be Lostsouls.org, a lovingly-created and brilliantly-realized world. I even created The Neophyte Handbook for the game, which I believe is still being used to introduce new players to Lost Souls. I have never taken up modern MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, but I can understand the appeal of level grinding with the assistance of real people.

The next addiction was internet forums. Racking up thousands of hours posting and reading (in other words, interacting via social media!) forums related to my interests such as music recording and guitar-building. How many times can a guy hit “refresh,” hoping to see new posts on particularly interesting threads? A lot.

On a similar front but with obvious differences, I like to spend a lot of time playing online board-games at Asobrain.com. Board-games are only fun when played against real people, and teh intarwebs give me the opportunity to do so. I play similar board games “in real life” as well, but this helps me get my fix for the several weeks-long stretches between real games.

Which brings me to my point… given a bit of a track record for addiction to online interaction, is my Twitter account going to be my next addiction? I’ve only started up, but I do enjoy checking into it. I’m not so sure it’ll be the same kind of addiction, though. I love up-to-the-minute information, and that’s what Twitter has on offer. Chris Bennett talks about just that—how it’s not just a glorified, world-wide instant message, but a way to stay up-to-the-minute with relevant information. Another thing that I agreed with was how it’s bringing “celebrities” in contact with everyday people. I have a fairly large number of famous people in my follow list, not because I’m a celebrity watcher or anything, but because I’m finding it incredibly fascinating discovering how down-to-earth some of them really are. By inviting you into that world, it gives you less of a reason to be in awe of them, and as long as they’re not complete numpties, more of a reason to respect them.

The blog on the other hand…

That will only be an addiction as long as it doesn’t feel like a burden to keep updated. And luckily, not needing to grow an audience, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Greg