Finished!

Matt came today to grout the shower, so I can say, at last, that the shower is now FINISHED!  We have waited 16 weeks to get to this point, and the relief of not having to worry about weather anyone would come to put in or to grout the tile is wonderful.  Matt did a great job, adding the grout to the wall, blending it into the tile at the front of the shower, and adding a darker grout to the floor.  Pictures tell the story.

Matt added grout to the walls and let it dry for a few minutes.

The sponge waits to be used to remove the grout from the shower floor.

The finished shower dries.  Once the doors are
added, we will have our shower back for use.

After Matt left, we packed a quick picnic lunch and headed to Tampa to pick up Stephanie at the airport.  Her flight was delayed, so we stopped at Ben Davis Beach on the causeway to eat our lunch.  When we got out of the car, we discovered that the picnic bench was wet from the heavy morning sea fog, so we decided to eat in the car.  Good move.  By the second bite of my sandwich, the sky opened up and blessed us with a free car wash.  I am SO glad we were not across the street sitting on a bench.  Our next stop was to kill a little time at the Container Store and then the International Mall which are both near the airport.

We are so happy that Stephanie came for a visit.

From there, we went to the cell phone waiting area until we could see that Stephanie's flight had finally arrived.  We moved to short-term parking and met her as she came through the terminal.   We are delighted that she is here, and she is thrilled to finally be off of that plane.

Tomorrow we head for St. Augustine for a little rest, relaxation, and good old-fashioned sight seeing.

Progress?

As I write this, I am waiting for Matt to arrive to put our tile in.  Yes, this is the Matt that gave us his word that he would complete this tile job for us on Friday.  His boss, Mike, also gave us his word that Matt would finish the tile last Friday.  We waited all day for Matt to arrive, and he never did.  I don't have much respect for Mike as far as business is concerned.  Apparently one cannot believe his word, and he did not even have the decency to call us to let us know that Matt would not be coming to our house that day.

Rick texted Mike this morning with a simple question: Would Matt be coming today?  Mike texted back that Matt was grouting someone else's tile this morning, but that he would try to get to our house this afternoon.  He also said, "Don't be mad."  Don't be mad?  Seriously?  There is not a superlative in the English language that can describe my level of anger right now.  I passed "mad" way back in December.

We went out this morning to talk to the people at Largo Glass about our shower door.  They are excellent.  We ordered the glass in November, expecting to have the entire job finished before Thanksgiving.  We paid a deposit on the glass, and they have been holding it for us ever since that time. Maria, the woman at Largo Glass, assured us that our glass was in storage and that it was not causing them any inconvenience.  Even if Matt finishes the tile today AND can come back early tomorrow morning to grout the whole job, we will not be able to have Largo Glass come in to install the doors until after we return from our trip North.  We don't return until late March.  Lord forgive me for the feelings I have about Mike's tiling company.  My emotions are not good and not worth writing about at this time.

Today is February 23.  If my mother-in-law were still alive, this would have been her 90th birthday. Ironically, Rick saw a truck this morning that said, "Colwill Engineering."  Colwill was his mother's maiden name, and it has an unusual spelling rather than the more common Colwell.  Rick said that he almost asked the driver of the truck if he had English ancestry.  Who knows?  Maybe Rick and Steve have distant cousins right here in Florida.

When I think of living to 90, I realize we have such a minuscule amount of time on this earth that we all should spend our days helping one another rather than frustrating one another.  Terrorists threaten every developed nation on this earth, killing innocent people... and to what end?  If they could use the energy of their hate into something positive, the world would be a better place for all of us.  Such a waste of energy and time.

On a positive note, we are looking forward to Stephanie's arrival tomorrow.  We plan to do some sight seeing as we get to know the state better.  We also need to get away from Gladys for a while.  The back yard needs more soil and some grass seed, but that will have to wait until we can come back and water the grass.  The trees need to come down in the front yard, but that will have to wait until the budget is a bit better.  And the shower?  Who knows in what state that will be by the end of the day.

Monday, 4:10 p.m.
Matt arrived at about 2:30 today, and he has made great progress with the shower.  He has the wall in and is currently working on the floor.  We both pray that he can come back early tomorrow morning to grout and finish the job.

Monday, 6:00 p.m.
Matt finished putting in the floor tile about half an hour ago.  He worked long and hard this afternoon; I am very grateful that this whole ordeal is almost complete.  We are pleased with almost everything that was done.  The floor tile look much better with the square drain, and Matt did a great job of cutting the tile uniformly around the walls and the drain.  The threshold was out a bit on one side, and because of that, one front tile on the curb sticks out about an eighth of an inch more than it should.  I sincerely hope that grout will help it blend in a bit more.  In reality, we will be hanging towels on the wall next to the shower there, so the eye will probably be distracted to the towels and away from the one errant tile.

Matt had fit the tiles in around the drain and was cutting the
final wall and drain tiles when I took this picture. Black
tape holds up the wall tile while it dries.

The tile is in place and the marble curb finishes the
top of the threshold. 

Matt promised that he would be back early tomorrow morning to finish the job by grouting the tile.  Stephanie is coming in tomorrow right after lunch, so we are cutting this tile job right to the edge as far as our guests are concerned.  I am just glad that we will have two showers back before Bonnie comes in April.

How wonderful life will be once we have
our shower back.

Hopefully tomorrow will be the last time I write about the shower until we get the doors installed.  Perhaps we can actually do that before April;  if not, we will get them installed as soon as we return from frigid Wisconsin.

Cold Winds and Concerns

We listened to the wind howl all night long as the predicted cold front swooped in from the north.  What has happened to our weather this year?  Storm after storm has pelted the US, smothering places like Boston with record-breaking mountains of snow.  Now ice covers much of the East, pushing freezing temperatures down even the Florida peninsula.  Granted, the 40+ degrees we have outside right now is nothing compared to the below zero temps and gut-punching -30 wind chills in the North, but even my poor flowers down here are shivering in the cold.

The poor weather is making us question our decision to drive to Minnesota in two weeks.  I do not want to be sliding around in the truck on icy Tennessee roads.  I also do not want a normally eight hour a day drive to take us 12 or 14 hours to reach our destinations.  If anyone has a crystal ball, give us a call.  We really would like to know road conditions in two weeks.  Our safety is at stake.  We looked in to airline tickets as an option, but they are expensive at this eleventh hour, and flying arises a whole new set of concerns.  We are inclined to take our chances and to drive at this point.  We can always stop along the way if the conditions get too bad, I guess.

As both Rick and I suspected, Matt did not show up this morning to work on our shower.  He is completing another shower in Clearwater, so he hinted that he would probably have to go to that job this morning rather than to come here.  That just delays us by another day since we have appointments this afternoon and cannot be home.  Now the earliest tile can go in is tomorrow which means that the grouting will have to wait until Monday.  No shower doors for us until after we come back from Minnesota on March 24.  That fact is very disappointing, but at least we are seeing some progress in the shower.

Mike called yesterday regarding our shower threshold. He was at Home Depot, so the connection was terrible.  He asked if we wanted to come in to pick out our own threshold (translation: come and get your own so you have to pay for it) or if he should just pick one up.  He said that he did not want me to be disappointed.  God only knows what he will bring, but I told him to just pick out a nice piece of marble for the threshold.  If what Matt brings in is really hideous, we will go and get something else.  I hope that Mike will come through for us on this item.  Some cynic once wrote, "Hope is the wishes of fools," and I sincerely hope he was not right. We'll see...

Rick and I are talking about getting in another load of dirt to fill in the low spots in the rest of the back yard.  We noted that where the contractors tore a house down at the end of our block, they threw in some grass seed that seems to be growing well.  We have had an unusually wet February, and the grass looks great.  We may try to plant some grass just to see what comes up.  If it does not grow well, we are only out a few dollars for the seed.  We both would like to try it while we are here to water it, but in another two weeks we are gone for a month... so when do we plant?  Maybe we should wait until we come back in March.  That would still give us April and May to get something established, and then we just let God take over and water it with the rain.  There's that hope again.

Mud in the Shower

Matt came yesterday to put in some of the backer board for the shower.  "Shower" is the operative word here because his plans to put in the cement floor were disrupted by a shower... actually a torrential downpour... that prevented him from mixing the materials to put in the floor.  He said that he did not want to mix it in the garage and then have to haul it all through the house, so he was gone by 2:00 p.m., promising to come back today.

He returned this morning and worked for about two hours to finish putting in the backer board around the curb and mudding the floor of the shower.  Pictures say more than words, so I present the following:

The plan to complete cutting and installing the backer board
was interrupted by terrible rain storms yesterday.

With the curb covered with backer board, Matt muds the
bottom of the shower, adding the correct slope for drainage.

The completed mud floor will dry overnight, and hopefully
tomorrow Matt can return to start tiling the walls and the floor.

We are happy with the results thus far.  Matt did an excellent job with the mud, and we cannot wait to see how he will put in the tile around the square drain.  We feel that his work was far superior to the last work that we had, and we are looking forward to the results.

This afternoon we both have haircut appointments, so perhaps both our shower and we ourselves will get a new look.

Curb and Pan

We made progress on getting the shower finished today.

Matt came in, as promised, early this morning with the materials to complete the curb.  By 10:30 a.m., the curb was finished and he was off to his next job.  Mike, apparently, is really upset with us which is why he is reluctant to send Matt in to finish the job.  We have yet to figure out how Mike's contracted worker Andy messing up our tile job is OUR fault.  Sadly, if he had taken care of the re-work 15 weeks ago, none of this would have happened.

At any rate, as Matt was leaving, Rick called the plumbing company who said that they would send Plumber Rick over before noon.  Within half an hour, he was at our door.

Rick loosely fits the pan into the shower enclosure.

He adds materials on top of the curb in the corner and then
folds the corners in to provide a water-tight corner.

His job was to install the pan in the shower.  He brought in the materials, added the pan, and then filled it with water.  If it does not leak in the next 24 hours, Matt can return tomorrow to start mudding the floor.

Next, he cuts out the membrane around the drain.

I told Plumber Rick to smile, so he obliged.

The completed pan is filled with water for 24 hours to
check for leaks.

Rick left a message for Matt asking that he come tomorrow morning.  Matt said today that he hopes to get our shower completed by the end of the week. If he can do that, we can have the doors remeasured on Friday for possible installation by Monday before Stephanie arrives on Tuesday.  Maybe our problem is that we look ahead and can see on a calendar how everything should fall into place.  Expectations and reality, however, rarely coincide.

Weird, Wonderful Weekend

This weekend turned out to be productive, interesting, and relaxing.

As expected, Matt did not show up on Friday to put the curb in for the shower.  We finally contacted Mike who was on the verge of being rude to us, telling us that he had a very important, big job that he was involve with, so he would get to us when he could.  Translation: your job is a pain in the ass that I have to clean up, and since you already paid me, I am not interested in fixing the mess.

Rick contacted Keith, the man who sells us tile, to see if he could recommend someone else to finish the job.  I got a name from the neighbors who did their tile, and Rick got a really good lead on someone else who could come in to help us.  The plumber gave him that final lead, so by Friday evening we at least had options. Rick left a not-so-nice verbal message on Mike's phone that said we had waited 15 weeks for a job that should have been taken care of before Christmas, and that if he was not going to work with us, we would file complaints against his company.

Friday evening brought about doors slamming and unusual sounds from outside our house.  We peeked out the front blinds to see a firetruck parked in front of our neighbor's house and the Rescue Squad ambulance parked at the end of our driveway.  Soon the paramedics came out with our neighbor man on the gurney.  He was sitting up and talking to them, so we did not know how seriously ill he was, but apparently something was not right. They loaded him into the ambulance and took off without any sirens.  A short time later, his mother, who lives with him, got into her car and drove away. As of Sunday morning, we still do not think he was home again.

Saturday morning dawned cool but sunny.  Once a month our church has a "work day" to take care of the church property.  Since Rick and I are some of the youngest "old people," we decided to go and see if we could help.  While Rick worked with the other men on building a planter in front of the church and adding mulch to the gardens, I worked with one other woman and the pastor's wife on organizing the kitchen.  We labeled cabinets, sorted boxes and drawers, ended up with a huge "donation" pile on one of the tables, and climbed ladders to put the Christmas boxes on high shelves while bringing the Easter decorations down for the upcoming season.  We both had a productive morning, and we noted that the gardens looked quite nice as we entered the church grounds this morning.

While we were working at church, Rick got a text message from Mike.  Mike told him that our business was important to him and that he would have Matt at our house early Monday morning to put in the curb.  Could we have built the wooden structure for the curb?  Certainly, but Matt complained that Andy did not put in the first curb correctly, so we did not want to venture doing any of the work.  Then WE would be the ones he could blame if something else goes wrong.  Mike also said that we would have to work with him for him to find time to send Matt over to finish this job.  Work with him?   What the heck have we been trying to do for the last 15 weeks?!!? (Forgive me, Bonnie, for the unnecessary over-punctuation. Sometimes outrage just needs to be expressed.)

This weekend was the big Dunedin Art Fair downtown, but by Saturday afternoon we felt that the crowds would be too large for us to tackle.  Rick went outside to read his Kindle, and he got a bit of a sunburn when he moved into the sunshine for warmth and ended up taking a nap instead of reading his Kindle.  I worked on a sewing project inside.

After church this morning, we decided to go to the Art Fair.  We lucked out with a parking spot on a nearby street, and indeed found crowds that were almost too many people.  We saw many of the same vendors from last year.  I was looking for a certain vendor that I did not see, but on the way out we saw another vendor that we were looking for, and we bought an Easter present for our grandson, Owen.  He will have to wait until we get back to Wisconsin; then we will have to decide whether to give it to him while we are there, or make him wait until Easter actually arrives in April.

After we came home, Rick suggested that we go to Safety Harbor and dine at Crispers.  We drove down to Safety Harbor, had a delightful (although garlicky) dinner, and then spent some time walking around the shore past their marina and out onto their pier.  We took a longer walk along the shore, then, for a delightful early evening venture.  See, Lindsay, sometimes your Dad and I actually do take time out to enjoy ourselves and to see the sights of Florida.  Safety Harbor has a huge spa on the shore, built in the 1920's to take advantage of the five mineral springs that originally were "discovered" in 1539 by Hernando deSoto as the elusive Fountain of Youth NOT discovered by Ponce de Leon.  Actually, Native American tribes in the area had been using the springs for thousands of years before deSoto arrived, yet apparently nothing is "discovered" until a white European finds it.  Go figure.

At any rate, in my book we had an interesting, relaxing weekend.  Tomorrow we will be up early to greet Matt and to see if we can make some progress on actually getting our shower finished before Stephanie arrives next week.

Drained... of our Money

The plumber, Rick, arrived today at approximately 9:40 to start the next phase of repairing our shower.  He was a 62-year-old man who knew all of the tricks of the trade, and we have to admit that he was detailed and meticulous in what he did.  We were pleased with the results.

He was quite a character, and Rick enjoyed talking to him and learning the process as the man worked to dig up the old drain, to remove the old drain and the p-trap, to move the new drain over a slight bit so it is more centered, and to connect everything to our old drain system.

A bucket of concrete floor chips and a mound of dirt are
the results of Rick digging up the old drain.  The snub of
pipe to the left of the hole leads to the main drain system.

After Plumber Rick air-hammered and dug up the old drain, he told us that what Andy had done actually was legal.  Andy had installed a rubber gasket under the piece that he connected to the old drain, so what he did was acceptable.  It still was installed too low for us to use as a functioning drain (especially after Andy cemented the whole thing in without bothering to raise it up at all), so in the end we are not sorry that we had it removed.  We have much more confidence in the new installation.

Plumber Rick works on putting together the
new drain and p-trap.

Plumber Rick agreed that since the floor was open, we chose wisely to have the p-trap removed and a new one put in. When I saw the gunk that was in the 55 year old p-trap, I had to agree.  Plumber Rick did a great job of attaching the new system to the old pipes.  He even angled the new configuration to move it more toward the center of the shower floor. It is not dead-center, but it is better.

A new drain and p-trap use a rubber banded coupler to connect
the new drain to the old drainage system.

The old p-trap had done its duty and had seen better days.

Once he had added the chipped out stone around the drain, he mixed a loose slurry of concrete to hold it all together.  He worked for quite a while to make sure that the new drain was perfectly level.  That will make Matt's job of installing the tile much easier.

The new drain peeks out of the patched sub-floor of the shower.

We were both a little surprised when Plumber Rick came up with a bill of $337.80 for his work.  He charged us $40 for a "tool charge," which we figure was either the use of his jack hammer or the replacement of the saw blade that broke while he was cutting off the old drain pipe. Isn't that the cost of doing business, though?  He rounded up to the next hour for labor, and in the end, we feel we were ripped off a bit by the local plumbing company.

So far we have almost $338 into this plumbing job, and we know that we have at least another $450 to go for when he returns to put in the shower pan.  Could we put in a pan ourselves?  Probably, but then we have no recourse should the pan leak or something else go wrong.  My Rick is so disgusted with this whole process that he said he won't even be in the house when the contractors come back in to finish the work.  I don't care.  I just want this all done.

After Plumber Rick left, we drove to Floor Decor to look at grout.  We knew we needed to match the grout in the wall for the last tier of tile, and Matt had suggested that we perhaps look for a slightly darker grout for the floor.  Much to our dismay, when we walked into the store, there stood Mike, the tile contractor, at the check-out. Rick told him what we were doing, and he offered to come back to help us with the grout.

Mike took his order out to his truck and then met us by the grout.  I am glad that he was there because he knew what kind of grout to buy (unsanded for the walls and sanded for the floor).  We selected a small bag of #77 Frost for the walls.  Mike said to get a larger bag of the #94 Warm Gray grout for the floor since twice as much grout cost only a couple of dollars more.

When we got to the check out, Mike stuck us with the bill for the grout since he "had to get going to pick up his brother."  That really pissed Rick off since we should not have had to pay for the grout.  We already picked up the sizable tab for the plumber and $41 more for the replacement wall tile.  The only good thing about picking up and paying for the grout is that we will not have to wait for Mike to pick up the grout since we have both the tile and the grout in our possession.  Also, since we bought it, we are going to hang on to any left-over grout in case we need to patch or at least match the grout in the future.

I have been working on my family genealogy for the last few days, and as I tried to control my frustration once again, I thought of those long-gone relatives.  Did they have problems during their lives, some of which were tragic or seemingly insurmountable?  I am positive that they did.  Did any of their decisions or actions dramatically change the course of mankind?  Not in the least.  In the whole scheme of things, our problems are tiny and will disappear when we leave this earth.  Life will go on.  Paying so much more for this job is frustrating, but for now we have food on the table, a warm roof over our heads, family that we love, and enough in the bank to pay our taxes. Life will, indeed, go on.

Modern Miracle

Today we witnessed a modern miracle in that the tile man actually sent over his worker Matt to dismantle the incorrect floor of our shower.  We have waited 14 weeks for this event to occur, so even though this act does not fit the true definition of "miracle," it comes close in my mind.

Matt arrived this morning ready to work, and by noon he had the lower tier of tile and backer board removed along with the floor tile and the layer of thin-set below it.  Matt told us that if Andy had just screwed the drain top up to its full height, we would not have had to go through the whole hassle of removing the floor; however, in the end we are fortunate that we did so.

Matt did an excellent job of cutting out the
bottom tier of tile without damaging the tiles
above that row.

Had we not had to remove the floor, we never would have discovered that the way the drain was installed did not meet code in this city.  It would have leaked.  While we do not have a basement into which it would have dripped, we do have a house built on a cement slab foundation.  Water leaking under the slab for years is not a good thing. Thoughts of muck, mold, and mud fill my mind. With my luck, it would have cause the whole floor to sag and to eventually cave in.  I am not happy that we have to incur more expense to get the drain replaced, but I am happy that we will be solving the problem of a leaking drain.

We will get rid of the poorly-installed drain and actually
have a curb rebuilt that will be tiled correctly with no awkward cuts.

We talked to the plumber today to schedule their workman.  He will be here tomorrow morning, so perhaps by the end of the week we actually will see real progress on the rebuilding of the shower.  I asked, since he will have to break up the terrazzo and concrete floor to get to the drain pipes, if we should just replace the whole trap while we have the floor open. After all, I am sure that the plumbing is original to the house, which means that it is 55 years old.  I am sure a lot of gunk has built up in the pipes during that time.  The plumber agreed that since we will have the floor open, this might be an ideal time to replace the trap with a new, clean one before we add a new drain on top.  We will have to see what the plumber finds when he comes in tomorrow.  This whole venture will probably cost us $600 - $750, but in the end we will have a safe, functioning drain.

We also learned from Matt today that Andy must have run out of grout earlier than we thought because he "filled in" one corner of our shower with a lighter, almost white grout.  No wonder the right side of the shower floor looked lighter than the left side!  Matt suggested that we might want to choose a grout that was slightly darker than the grout we used in the walls just to contrast the floor a bit more with the walls.  We'll have to see what we find tomorrow.

Late this afternoon, Rick and I treated ourselves to a short drive to Safety Harbor, a delightful little village east of Dunedin that is nestled on the west side of Tampa Bay.  As the name implies, it is an old harbor town that has maintained its quaint cobblestone streets and downtown atmosphere.  We drove there partially to see the sights and also to have dinner at a restaurant called Crispers.

Crispers is a Florida chain of restaurants that offer deli-style sandwiches, soups, and salads.  Rick had a delicious French Dip sandwich and chips while I had a turkey "cranwich" -- turkey, apple, and cranberries -- on delicious homemade bread.  The food was great and the prices were reasonable.  We are going to St. Augustine with Stephanie in a few weeks, so we will have to eat at the Crispers there when we visit that fair city.

This turned out to be a good day.  I could feel the tension get chipped away from both Rick and me with each blow of Matt's hammer.  We hope by next Friday to have a new shower completely installed and ready for use before Stephanie comes for her visit.  Maybe without the shower to worry about, we actually will be able to sleep tonight.  That, too, would be a minor miracle.

Day Off

Yesterday was a tough day for us, so today we decided to take the day off.  Yes, I still did a couple of loads of laundry and washed down the counter tops in the kitchen, , but the traditional bathroom cleaning and kitchen sink scrubbing can wait until tomorrow.  I'll do that while Rick dismantles the area where we were going to pour the cement slab.

So what did we do today?  We went to Publix for sandwiches, packed a picnic and our Kindles, and headed for the beach.  We at first thought of going to Sand Key Beach, but since it is the weekend, we chose to go north to the less-crowded Fred Howard Beach outside of Tarpon Springs.

Wispy clouds float above the warm sand of Fred Howard Beach.

The beach was a bit cool and breezy, but the day was bright and the sun felt warm.  I took a walk along the beach, coming out on a bluff above a pile of rocks at the point.  Two fishermen were below on the rocks having a lively conversation.  I could not understand a word of it because it was all Greek to me.  If you know of Tarpon Springs, you will understand the joke.

An empty bench waits for others who want to escape
for a while to the beach.

This is how one takes the day off in early February in Florida.  The work?  That will wait until tomorrow.

Two Decisions

We made two decisions today; one makes us sad and one makes us happy.

We started in the back yard this morning, looking at how we could maneuver the concrete mixer around the forms so that we could pour the slab. We tried about five different configurations, and none of them worked.  We really needed three people to do the work, two strong and healthy ones, and Rick.  I found out as I was tamping the dirt down the other day that I am just as not as strong (nor as young) as I once was, and other than to pour water into the mixer, I would be almost totally useless on the cement pour.  Rick would have to do all of the heavy lifting, all of the concrete moving, and all of the shoveling.  I could help him scree it if the section was small enough, but I questioned if I even were strong enough to do a large section.  Old age and weak muscles are frustrating.

This one defeats us.  We really are upset that we do not have the first section of cement curing in the back yard, but we know that the smart and economical thing to do is to wait until we have the money saved to pour both a shed slab and a lanai slab.  That won't happen this year.

We took the 30 bags of concrete back to Home Depot and then the re-bar and re-bar supports back to Lowe's.  With the money that we saved in the concrete at this time around, we made our second decision of the day to buy a new chandelier for the dining room.

The old chandelier did not not match the hutch or the
dining room table and chairs.  It is one of the last things
we had to change in the house.

The old chandelier was probably put in the house in the mid 1970's.  It was gold, ugly, heavy, and did not match anything in this house.  Rick liked the light only because it had nine candelabra bulbs in it that gave off a lighthouse-load of illumination.  This job, at least, we felt we could accomplish with few problems.

Rick works at rewiring the new chandelier.

An hour later, the old chandelier was in the garbage can and the new chandelier now hangs above the table.  We are happy with the results.  The lights no longer are as bright as Lambeau Field, but they are bright enough to illuminate my cooking.

The new chandelier matches the dining room
furniture and is the right size.

The first decision was hard to accept, yet we both knew the job was beyond our capabilities, and I am relieved that neither Rick nor I had to expend the energy to get the job done.  The fence was enough of an accomplishment for me this year.  The second decision was our consolation prize.  A new light was something that we both knew we would eventually purchase; we just did not intend to buy it quite this soon.

My next focus is to try to get us both to eat a more healthy diet, to exercise more, and to start to enjoy Florida before it gets too hot.  Stephanie will be coming down in a couple of weeks, and we both are looking forward to seeing some sights with her.  For now, the yard will wait and we will enjoy dining (as much as possible with my meager cooking skills!) by the light of a new chandelier.

Playing in the Dirt

Actors in the musical The Fantasticks sing, "Soon it's gonna rain," and that is just what is predicted for tonight and at least half of tomorrow.  Because of that, we debated on whether we wanted to pick up a yard of dirt to put around the forms for the shed floor. Our impatience to do something while we wait for our shower to be addressed again won out, so before 9:00 this morning, we had the truck lined in tarps and on the road.

We had no trouble getting the dirt dumped into the truck, and by 10:00 a.m. we were back in our driveway.  Then the hard part started: shoveling all of that dirt out to the back yard and wheel-barrowing it into the right place.

Getting all of the dirt into the back yard took about two hours, and Rick said he felt like he was going to have a heart attack.  (Apparently HE can tell me to stop working so hard, but I can't tell HIM to do the same thing!)  By noon he was sweating and dirty, but the truck was empty, the dirt was distributed around the forms and somewhat tamped down, and the tools were safely stored back in the garage.

I have to admit that most of the shoveling, most of the dumping, and some of the tamping were all done by Rick.  I did a little raking, a little shoveling, and more of the tamping.  I learned that I am still not as strong as I once was, and that Rick does not know when to stop even though his shoulders and leg again were killing him.

Additional dirt fills in the ditch in front of the form where
the former patio rested.

The result, though, is that we have the dirt in place and weakling-tamped down around the forms.  The rain still has not fallen, so what comes tonight will just help the dirt settle more around the forms.  Let God do some of the settling for us.

Rick measures where he should place the re-bar to distribute
it evenly so each row has a bar and is crossed with three other bars.

After the dirt was distributed, Rick took our re-bar supports and distributed them around the slab, clipping in the re-bar as he added them to the forms.  Tomorrow, after the rain ends, IF the area is not a giant mud puddle, we can tie the re-bars together and cut the board to support each section inside.

Spacers hold the re-bar up from the ground so they will float
in the center of the concrete rather than lie under it.

One other irritant to deal with is the live oak tree that continues to drop leaves into our pit. So who remembered that fall comes in February in Florida? We may have to add a tarp above our work area just to keep leaves off our newly-poured concrete when we get to that stage.

For now, we are satisfied with the work that we completed today.  Chris told us that when they were putting up their fence, she wished for an occasional rainy day so they could take a break from the daily grind.  I almost feel that way, but I know that a good night's sleep will help. We'll let nature tell us tomorrow if and when we can move forward with this next project.

Still Breathing

Today was supposed to be a good day as Matt arrived to look at our shower.  As Rick and I both suspected, however, the news we got from Matt was not good. Remember that I said that I was not holding my breath that today would go well? As the title says, I am still breathing.

Mike had suggested a plumber, but we have learned that when he first put in the drain, he did it incorrectly.  We did not know that until later today, but that solidified the decision that we ultimately made.  Matt looked at the install job and agreed that it was very poorly done.  He showed us that if he were to just add the layer of new tile on top of the old, the tile would actually be above (rather than even with) the top of the drain. Not good.  Matt said that we had two choices: we could try to find a floor tile that was half as thick as the original tile, or we could have him rip out the bottom tier of tile, the floor tile, the threshold, and the front tile so that a plumber could come back in to reconfigure the drain.

After Matt left, we called Mike and learned that he had just received some very bad news from his doctor.  He was on the way to the hospital for further tests.  He said that he was (understandably) upset, and that now was not the time to talk to him.  He told us that he will get back to us.  Famous last words, but we understand his emotions and will give him a couple of days.

Neither of us were thrilled with the idea of the tile going over the already-laid tile in the first place, and when Matt told us that the simple "fix" Mike had planned for us would not work, we were further dismayed.  The more that we thought about it, the more the idea of doing a patch-fix really did not appeal to us.

However, we headed for the tile company to see if we could find a thinner tile that might just work. We have been working with a great guy at the tile shop called Keith. When we got there,  he gave us some suggestions as to alternative tile; unfortunately, the samples that we would have borrowed were waiting to be picked up for another job, so we left empty-handed. I was not sure that a new, thinner tile would work, and later on the idea of staying with the original tile was even more appealing.

 Since it was near lunch time, we stopped at an area Steak 'N Shake.  The bad day just got worse. Rick ordered a burger with no mustard and no onion.  We waited forever to be served, and when our food came, his burger was spread with mustard.  He called the waitress and she took it back.  A few minutes later she came back with his new burger, but this one was lying on a layer of onions.  "Nope," said Rick.  "No onions."  The waitress again took the burger back.  Almost immediately she returned with a freshly made, correct burger, but sheesh!  Three tries before the cook could get a simple burger order right?  The day was not getting any better.

As we left the restaurant, we heard a high-pitched screech.  %$&#!  My Pod occluded and the insulin I was supposed to get to cover my lunch was not being delivered.  I had no insulin with me, so instead of going onward, we returned home so I could put on a new Pod.  I do not have Pods that occlude very often, but I have to admit that today was NOT the day for that to occur.  I was in no mood for more hassles.

Out we went again to see if we could find any suitable tile samples at Floor Decor.  That, too, was a bust.  Sigh.

On our way home, Rick stopped at a local plumber to ask about the drain and what they would charge to redo it.  As he explained to the plumber what the first plumber had done, the man was appalled. He said that what we have under our shower floor right now is illegal because the original plumber botched the job, leaving an opening for backed-up water to flow under the slab on which our house rests.

OK.  That cinched it. We have no choice.  Even though Mike does not want Matt to rip up the shower, that is what must happen.  We will have to pay another plumber probably $600 to get the drain installed correctly, and the timing of all of this will be a nightmare.  We cannot call Mike right now to coordinate anything, but the removal of the tile must start with Matt.  Then we need to get the plumber in to redo the drain, then Matt has to come back in to finish the job.

We are both just sick about this.  We will have to pay for another box of wall tiles to go around the bottom of the shower walls, along with a new pan and backer-board since replacing all of that is our decision.  We are hoping that Mike will still agree to send in Matt to do the work.  He already bought the tile for the floor, and if we can get a good plumber and Matt to work together, the original tile that we picked out should work fine.

This was supposed to be an easy job.  We did the initial hard work of destructing the old shower and building up the new walls.  Then we were supposed to be able to relax, let the professionals come in, and in a week's time, have a new, beautiful shower.  That was 12 weeks ago.  Now we will be lucky if we have a new shower in place by the time we leave for Wisconsin in May.

That being said,  I doubt we will be able to pour a concrete slab for the shed.  We would have loved to do that so it would have had the summer to cure, but funds were short to begin with, and they certainly will not cover both a shower and a slab.  Damn!  We will end up with a shower that will cost us almost as much as a total bathroom rehab all because the original plumber did not know what he was doing.  This definitely has not been a good day.

Tiny Tasks and Observations

We worked yesterday on getting the rest of the grass dug out from where we want to build the shed, and in spreading the dirt around so the foundation would be level.  Our conclusion was obvious: before we can proceed, we need to get a truckload (literally!) of dirt to fill in the low spots around the boards that will hold in the concrete for the slab.  If we don't add many more stakes and lots of dirt around the outside, the boards certainly will blow out.  That would not be good...

After church today, we took a look at the roughed in area for the shed.  We both think that the location is good.  It will have its back to the south, effectively blocking off our view from the house of the tops of the neighbors' sheds.  Our shed will be far enough from the house not to interfere with our "living space" in the back yard, but still at least five feet away from the back fence so it is out of the easement area.  That will make the shed "legal" in this city.  Its planned roof will be pitched low enough to avoid flying off in strong winds, but it still will have enough pitch to shed the torrential rains we often get in this state. Being 10 x 10 should give us enough space to hold all of our goods and tools while affording us the chance to actually park our car in the garage. I wish that I could snap my fingers and have it all done.  That, of course, cannot be.  For now, I will be happy if we can get the slab poured before the weather gets too hot outside to do such work.

Shade from the south fence covers most of the area on which
we want to pour concrete as a base for our shed. 

 We really cannot do more until we get dirt on Tuesday.  I am discarding the idea of getting dirt tomorrow because rains are supposed to arrive by 8:00 a.m. What we could do today was to go to Lowe's to get the re-bar, the re-bar spacers, the re-bar ties, and the tool with which to twist the ties.  My heart almost stopped when the woman announced our bill as $77.00.  "How much was the re-bar?" I asked.  I learned that it was only approximately $5.00 each, so that accounted for $40.00.  The other tools were no where near that expensive.  When we questioned the bill (since Rick had the same reaction I did), we learned that the woman had charged us for 50 re-bar spacers instead of the 15 that we had in the cart.  A trip to Customer Service resulted in money being credited to our account, but I think that the damage to my heart was already done.  I cannot take too many more surprises this winter.

We want to get the slab poured before Stephanie comes for a visit at the end of the month.  Since the rains may delay us tomorrow, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday may be our only work days this week.  Rain is predicted for Thursday also, so we may have lots of plastic over our new cement if we get hit with hard storms.

To make matters even more interesting, February is "fall" in Florida, and the live oak tree in the back yard is starting to drop leaves all over the area that we just cleared for the shed.  The fun never ends.

After lunch we hauled out to the curb all of the junk that we cleaned from the garage.  The magic curb worked again!  By 2:00 p.m., all of the metal pieces were gone as was the jewelry box kit that Rick bought years ago but never made, and the large and ancient storage bins.  What is left is mostly old boards, and I suspect that they may end up in someone's fire pit before the garbage men come around tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Matt is supposed to arrive to finally fix our shower so we can use it.  Please note that I still am not holding my breath.

This afternoon we took our second bike ride.  I wanted to go around the block at least three times, but my legs ached today after the first loop, so we once again only went around twice.  Rick is having trouble with his knees (rather than his hamstring, oddly), and my thigh muscles are letting me know that they are one of the major muscle groups that was damaged when I became ill.  We'll just have to take this biking slowly and build up to longer and longer rides.  The bikes were too expensive not to use, and I am too young not to exercise and to enjoy them.

We learned from a neighbor yesterday that the house behind us will soon be auctioned off.  The man who used to live there died three years ago this February, and the house has been vacant since that time.  Apparently, the family abandoned it and the furniture has been sitting in there getting moldy and rotting ever since.  I would not want the house, but I will be happy to see someone purchase it and fix it.  It seems to sad to watch it just deteriorate in the sun.

Today is a beautiful, typical February day; temperatures are in the mid 70s and the sun is shining.  Winds foretell of rain to come, but for now, we have all of the windows of the house open to bring in some fresh air.  This weather is why we chose to live in the state of Florida.