A Long, Long Day

We wanted to dedicate today to plumbing the new water softener so we would be out of the way for the tile setters tomorrow. To properly cut into the main water line of the house, we had to turn off the water to the entire house, and we were sure that the tile setters tomorrow would not have been pleased to be without water!

When Rick got out of bed this morning, he was terribly bruised from all of the attic work he did yesterday.  His ribs and arm where he was lying on the rafters left large patches of bruises.  Then today as he was drilling through the concrete block of the house, the drill bit got stuck and jerked his hand into the concrete wall.  The result is a bruise that looks like he was on the losing side of a fist fight.

Remodeling sometimes leaves its mark.

We started at approximately 8:00 a.m. by digging down outside the front of the house to expose the plumbing lines.  While we had the corner of the yard open, I took pictures of the location of the plumbing pipes so we would have those dimensions for future reference.  I cannot count the number of times in the past three years that we have referred to the pictures we took when the walls and ceilings were exposed.  Knowing what is behind that drywall can be very important as remodeling continues.

The main water line to the house is buried just a few inches
from the front of the house and the driveway.  Unlike the
pipes in Wisconsin, these pipes are only a few inches deep.

As we were exposing the pipes, we saw some rusty metal half buried under the pipes that ran parallel to the driveway.

"Is that another pipe?" Rick asked.  I looked a little closer and noticed a very familiar shape.  They were claws, but not to an animal.

"No," I said as I pulled it from the ground. "It's a hammer!"  Some time in the past someone must have dropped his hammer into the open ground, and someone else inadvertently buried it.  Gladys has given me "gifts" from the ground in the past: a flower pot, a statue of a deer, and a beautiful glass bowl.  This time she came through with a gift for Rick.  

The hammer is a "Rocket" brand of which neither Rick nor I have ever heard.  Apparently Rocket Hammers are no longer made, but research told me that many people liked Rocket hammers for their weight and quality.  This hammer is pretty rusty, although the handle is in fairly good shape and is quite comfortable.  Does anyone know what to use to remove probably 30 years of rust on a hammer?

Gladys gives Rick a gift, and then he drilled two holes
into her wall!

The finished water softener awaits only
salt and activation, but that can wait
until tomorrow.

Plumbing a water softener is not particularly difficult, but it is a time-consuming, putzy job.  Rick decided to use copper instead of PEX, so everything had to be measured twice, cut once, dry-fitted, and then soldered together. Getting all of the right joints and tools sent us to the hardware store and Lowe's three times.  The final trip was the most frustrating because Rick had soldered everything together, and when he turned on the water, one of the connections leaked above the ball-cock shut off valve.  By that time of the day, he was bruised and  tired, and having to cut apart what he had just soldered all together was not a good feeling.

After we had the water running smoothly, we still had to face the drain.  That actually was much easier to complete because it was CPVC pipe and consisted of far less parts and joints.  As Rick finished the drain pipe, I went outside to put the dirt back into position that we had removed this morning.  We finished a little after 5:00 p.m. to finish the job.

I am usually the "clean up crew," but I must admit that the garage is still a disastrous jumble of tools that need to be put away. I am tired, and Rick is bruised and exhausted.  Tomorrow is another day, and I am sure that the clean up will wait until then.

A Death and a Birth

Rest assured that the death and the birth mentioned in the title above have nothing to do with any of our relatives.  All is well in the family.

The death occurred this morning.  Rick had put two thin coats of plaster on the garage wall behind where the water softener will be installed.  He started today by sanding the rough plaster smooth so we could paint it.  With the orbital sander hooked up to the shop vacuum, he started to sand the wall.  "Ouch!" he said as he received a shock from the sander.  He continued with his efforts.  After two more shocks, he stopped and donned a pair of leather gloves.  That seemed to help a little, but from where I was standing, I could see an occasional spark through a grate on the side of the sander.  Then Rick started to get shocks through the leather gloves.  "That does it," he said as he shut down the sander.

"Yeah, I think it is dead," I agreed.  Now bear in mind that the poor orbital sander has been with us a very, very long time, so its demise today was not unexpected. It has served us well.  I just wish it could have held on until Rick finished sanding the upper part of the wall!  The good news is that he was able to sand and to paint the middle and bottom portions of the wall, so he will be able to install the water softener.  The very upper part of the wall can be completed at a later date after we find the time and the money to purchase a new orbital sander.

The birth took a little longer.  Rick wanted to accomplish putting in the piping for the water softener drain.  If this were a typical basement in Wisconsin, that chore would have been a fairly easy task. However, this is Florida, and since this is a house sans basement, we had to look upward.  The only place we could drain the water softener is in the laundry room drain.  That meant that we had to thread a hose up over the finished laundry room, over or through the rafters in the attic, and down the washing machine drain in the finished wall.  OooooK.  Not an easy task.

The one blessing we had today was that the temperatures were fairly cool in the 60s. (On hot days in the summertime, the attic can easily reach 120 degrees.)   Even so, today turned out to be a three sweat-band day.  Rick started by climbing into the attic and laying on his belly across a rafter to see if he could reach the inner laundry room wall. The angle of the roof was so low at that point that he barely fit, and he had HVAC ducts and electrical wires to contend with also. He tried to drill down through the intersection of a rafter and a ceiling joist numerous times, but he was not able to get through.

He then came down into the laundry room and, using two extensions on the drill bit, tried to drill up through the double header in the laundry room wall.  After much effort and strained muscles, the $#%@ drill bit still would not break through into the attic.

I suggested that he go back into the attic and try to drill down again, hopefully connecting with the hole that he had started from below.  After two more trips up to the attic, he finally broke through into the laundry room wall.

At that point, the birth of the drain line began.  I handed up the drain hose to Rick who threaded it down the wall.  Thankfully, the hose appeared in the clean-out drain trap opening in the wall, and he was able to thread it down the wall the rest of the way into the washing machine drain pipe.  Then he came out of the attic for the last time, and with a couple of more holes to thread the hose through the garage rafters, we are now ready to make the final connections down to the water softener itself.  A drain is born!  I won't tell you what Rick called it, but it definitely was not a nice name!

A day-long effort resulted in a 3/4 inch drain hose coming down
from the ledge leading into the attic. Tomorrow we'll attach
it to the water softener unit.

The final hook up will not happen until tomorrow, probably after we actually do the plumbing to attach the water softener to our water supply lines.  That connection will take some time and patience, but the job will all be on ground level and for that reason will be easier to complete.

Each day we move closer to our goals.  The shower is on hold until Monday, and that is now completely in the hands of the tile setters.  Our efforts are finished with that.  I fully expect that we will finish the water softener tomorrow.  Then we move on to our last project of this season: the fence.  We hope to be finished with everything by early spring. Maybe then, for the first time since we purchased Gladys three years ago, we actually can  relax and start enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Adendum

An update from my earlier post:

Rick ran all over Dunedin and Clearwater today getting the rest of the paperwork filed so we can start work on the fence.  We still will have to get the utility companies out to flag all of our underground utilities before we can dig, so that is something to add to the call list next week. (However, I do not have complete faith in the system.  When we had our sewage pipe scoped out last year, it was in the "wrong" place from the records and some of the other pipes attached to the main pipe were never even listed.  Good thing most of our work will be in the fairly-utility-free back yard.)

While he was doing that, I was working outside clearing the vegetation that had crept from the neighbor's yard through the fence.  I cleared two bags' full of vegetation from our property.  Interestingly enough, while I was doing that, a tree service came in and took down a dead pine tree in the neighbor's yard behind us.  The head of the crew said that the City was taking it down because the property had been "abandoned."  Good.  I hope that now that the property is on their radar, that they take steps to try to sell it instead of letting it sit there and rot.

The tile guys worked until after lunch. They added Hardiboard to the walls, they put on the smooth coat in the floor so that it is tapered but ready to tile, and they added mud to the wall to try to even out the surface between the Hardiboard and the plastered wall.  We were a little surprised that they did not just shim out the Hardiboard when the put that up, but they did not.  Rick is a bit concerned that now the shower valves themselves will be out too much from the wall.  We'll have to see how the tile goes up next week.

Hardiboard and mud now decorate
the master bathroom for the weekend.

A new, smooth floor really smells bad
as it dries.  Hopefully, we can open
the windows again tomorrow.

After the tilers left for the weekend, we decided to go to Home Depot for the rest of the materials we needed to plumb the water softener.  Home Depot did not have one part, so we went to Lowe's to complete the order.

We were waiting for the person who helped us fill out the fence order in the first place to come back from lunch, so after Lowe's, we returned to Home Depot.  Two hours later, and after working with another man anyway, we had the cement mixer and the fence materials all ordered.  All of the fencing material will be delivered to our curb next week Friday.  The cement mixer may take a little longer to get here.

 Just as we were walking into the house, Rick's phone rang.  The GMC dealer was calling to tell us that they worked all day on the truck and only replaced one of the four brake lines that needed attention.   We will not be able to pick up the truck until "late on Tuesday"... if then.  The bill is creeping toward $1200 now, so that was a very unexpected, unpleasant surprise.

Overall, this has been a very productive day.  We covered many loose ends, the shower work continues as planned, the truck is being repaired, the yard looks better, and we still have enough money left over to eat dinner tonight. Sigh. It could be worse. Overall, as my shirt reminds me, life is good.

A Bear of a Day

As quoted in the movie "The Big Lebowski," "Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you." That is how yesterday went for us, and the feeling continues even today.

Yesterday morning I had a mid-morning doctor's appointment, so I took the car while Rick stayed here to wait for the plumbers.  My appointment went well, and when I came home, the plumber had already installed the new shower valve and was working on putting mud down to support the shower pan. Had the old shower valve not broken in September, we would not have considered putting in a new shower this year. We are not sorry to get a new shower, but we would have liked to do it at a later time when we had more money allotted for that purpose.

Although it does not look like much, the new Kohler shower valve
should give us many years of service.  

Rick was working in the garage trying to figure out how many parts we would have to buy to plumb the water softener.  Our plan was to go to Home Depot in Clearwater to pick up the necessary parts as soon as the plumber was finished for the day.

By early afternoon, we had a new drain and the shower pan installed above the new foundation for our shower.  So far, so good.  We paid the plumber, and he was on his way. We were told that the tile men would be back today to start putting in the backer board and the threshold for the new shower.

The first steps are finished: fresh mud supports the PVC plastic
shower pan.

A phone call told us that our application for a permit to put in the new fence finally was approved, and for $111, we could come to Dunedin to pick up the permit.  Great.

So far we were eating the bear, and he tasted pretty good.

Once the plumber was gone, we got into the truck and headed for Home Depot.  Rick had mentioned last week that the brakes for the truck were not as good as they had been in the past, and that we probably should have them  checked out some day soon.  Famous last words.  As we drove down Keene, a major thoroughfare, we approached a stop light.  The light turned yellow, so Rick stepped on the brakes... and stepped on the brakes... and stepped on the brakes until they reached the floor.  We barely stopped in time to avoid going into the intersection.  Oh, oh.  That "some day soon" had just arrived.

We were able in the next block to find a way to turn the truck around and to head home.  Other drivers were not too pleased to follow a one-ton dually truck driving at an amazing 20 miles an hour in a 40 mph zone.  Our hearts were beating faster than the wheels were turning as we coasted in neutral into each situation where we had to stop. I would not recommend losing brakes as the best way to get aerobic exercise.

We cruised carefully into the driveway, and Rick was soon on the phone to the GMC dealer.  I went out to the truck to get my sunglasses for the drive to the dealership when I noticed a large, spreading puddle under the truck.  Rick came outside.  "Ah, Rick," I said, "Something is definitely leaking out of the truck." I won't quote what Rick said. That something, of course, was what was left of our brake fluid.

Thank God for AAA.  Within the hour, our truck was pulled up onto a flatbed truck and we were following it to the dealership.  We watched the truck drip, drip, drip fluid all the way there.  The thought occurred to me that each drip was money dripping out of my bank account.

Today started early since the tile contractor said his men would be here by 8:30 a.m.  While we waited for them, Rick drove the car down to the Permit office. He came back with the permit just before the tile contractor's men arrived.

As they got started, the phone rang again.  This time we heard from the GMC dealership who informed us that all of the brake lines were rusted and that we would have to replace them all.  So far, the bill is up to $1066.  Dang, sometimes that bear bites back hard!

Both the shower and the truck repairs were not budget items in this year's planning, but what can we do?  We need to take care of what we have and to repair what needs fixing.  Will this ruin our whole agenda for this winter?  No, we just have to make some adjustments.  The pavers for the front sidewalk and any hope of landscaping have now disappeared more quickly than morning mist under the hot Florida sun, but with careful spending, we will survive.  We have a very good bid for the fence materials, so we probably will go forward with that yet, but that will be all we can do for this season.

And that's OK, too.  Maybe in the spring, we will have a chance to relax a little, to read our Kindles, to get into our other hobbies, and to finally discover what retirement is all about... until we have enough money to start our next project.

Showers and Soft Water

I was always told that when a person got older, time seemed to slow down.  If that is true, then I must be getting younger every day because time seems to be streaming by at warp speed.  We have been in Florida for fifteen days, and already the projects are getting completed and starting anew.

Rick put the final coat of paint on the walls and the ceiling in the new shower.  The plaster job is not what we had hoped for, but it will be good enough. A variance in ceiling height left a shadow that will disappear from sight once we get the shower walls and doors in. One task that I tackled was to take out each slat of our Key West blinds in the master bedroom to wash them of the plaster dust that coated them after the shower demolition.  I still have to wash the blinds in the master bathroom and the main bathroom, but 80 slats yesterday was my limit.

Eighty slats was enough washing for one day.

We heard from our tile contractor today; the plumber will be in tomorrow to lay down the concrete to support the shower pan, and he will also install the new valve for the new shower mechanism.  On Friday, the tilers will come in to put in the shower pan and to install the backer board for the shower. Our tile contractor, Mike, said that his crew may work through the weekend.  That is fine with us. This project is winding down into the final phase, and we could not be more pleased.  I hope that the new tile will work with the terrazzo floor.  The tile itself is white with a grey vein in it similar to marble; I hope that it will bring out the grey that is in the terrazzo floor and that it will complement the aqua walls in the room.

Yesterday, Rick made some phone calls and arranged to buy our water softener.  We have to make sure that the water softener stays upright when we transport it, so yesterday Rick built a frame in the truck to support it on the journey from Sarasota to Dunedin.

Made with "used" 2 x 4s, the frame isn't pretty, but it worked.

While the frame looks funny, we learned today that it worked well.  We left for Sarasota this morning at 7:00.  Traffic was typical rush hour traffic, but we had just a few slow-downs on the road.  We went to Aqua Plumbing and Air in Sarasota because they sell Hellenbrand Water Softeners, and they are the only dealer in this area of Florida.  We have a similar unit in Wisconsin that has served us well for many years. Aqua Plumbing is a huge place and they were welcoming and accommodating.

We traveled home with no difficulties, which was great.  Once we unloaded the unit, we started to rearrange the garage.  Our happy discovery was that the water softener and salt tank will fit at the front of the garage right inside the garage door.  Wonderful!  That means we can just connect it to the water supply at the front of the house. (Don't ask me WHY the builders put the water connections on the front of the house, but they did). Locating the system there will save us at least $300 because we will not have to buy all of that PEX or copper piping to reach our alternate water softener location at the back of the garage.  Rick thinks that since we are so close to the water supply, copper might be a better option for us.  I do not care what we use as long as we will have soft water in the end.  I cannot wait to have softer hair and skin and to save my appliances and clothes from the minerals in the hard water.

Our water softener and salt tank fit just inside the garage door.
Now we just have to hook up the water supply!

Rick and I also took time yesterday to vote.  Naturally, most of the people I voted for did not get into office.  I think that politicians should PAY me for voting for their opponents.  I never seem to vote for the people that eventually get into office.  Ah, well.  At least I can say that I tried to elect honest men and women who seemed to want to work for the people instead of for big business.  Sadly, most of those people are not in office today.

Our little business here at Gladys seems to be going very well.  I imagine that tomorrow will be a day filled with plumbers in our bathroom and with plumbing our new water softener in our garage.

And the Paint Goes On

We spent the weekend doing those not-so-exciting finishing jobs on the bathroom ceiling and walls.

Saturday was dedicated to wiring.  Thank heavens Rick is really good at figuring what wires need to be connected to what other wires. In the end, the fan and light both work in our new master bathroom.  All it took was a little wire, a lot of time, and a very expensive GFCI breaker box.  How wonderful to be able to  shower and to not have the whole room fill with steam!

We attached the lighted cover to the fan just to make sure
that both the fan and the light work.  Success!

Mudding the walls and especially the ceiling has been a daily chore.  If there is one thing that no one seems to like, it is adding mud on the walls to make new walls blend with older surroundings. The new and old never seem to seamlessly meld.  Being a good mudder, I guess, is a real art; it certainly is a skill that is not a part of my traits.

Overhead work is always a pain (quite literally), so we will
both be glad when this is completed.

This morning I had an early morning doctor's appointment.  I was supposed to reduce my medication this past Saturday, but I held off doing so because I have felt so fatigued and sore lately.  After looking at blood test results and testing my strength, the physician's assistant told me that my fatigue had to do with me trying to do too much too quickly, and that my physical changes had nothing to do with my reduction of medication.  She wants be to continue to reduce my medication because the long-term side effects are not good.  Her advice to both Rick and me is that we slow down, do just a little each day, and take whatever time we need to finish a project.  It may not get done on Rick's time schedule, but in the end we both will be healthier for not overdoing the amount of work each day.

Rick went before lunch back to the Permit office to try once again to submit the correct documentation to get a permit for the fence.  I refused to go along, although the rise in my usually low blood pressure probably would have made me feel better.  They accepted his paperwork, so now we will just have to wait and see if they approve this latest round of paperwork.

While he was gone, I ate lunch. Because I usually sit with my back to the front of the house when I eat, I did not notice anyone approaching our house.  When Rick came home from his errands, he said, "What's with this burlap?"  Just off of our front porch was a folded-up length of burlap with what looks like mother-in-law tongue on it.  The plant is there, green, with roots ready to plant in the yard.  I have no idea who left it or even if someone left it at the correct house.  We spent forever when we first moved into this house digging up mother-in-law tongue plants, so I certainly am not going to start all over by planing whatever it is that someone left me.

This morning Rick primed the ceiling and walls where he has put on plaster the last few days.  Now he is working on the first of the finish coats.  He wants to get the painting done so the bathroom is ready for the plumbers and the tilers when the tile comes in (hopefully) this week.

Rick adds a coat of primer to seal the bare drywall.

Once the wall is repainted, no one will know that an old
box with wires used to be in this wall.

As soon as the painting is complete, we are on to our next project: the water softener.  The fun just never ends around here.

FAN-tastic!

Today was a day of cutting holes to install the new bathroom fan.

First came the hole in the new ceiling that we hung yesterday.  We actually had to cut the hole a tad larger than we expected to just to get the housing for the exhaust through and into position in the rafters.

Then outside we went.  We quite easily located where we wanted the exhaust hose to go since we knew we needed to be just left of an exhaust pipe located in the roof.  A template and a skill saw made quick work of the soffit.  When Rick threaded the hose from the bathroom ceiling to the soffit, the hole was right where it should have been.  The bright, sunny, warm day also made working outside not too tough to tolerate.

The fan exhaust outlet is rather inconspicuous under the
soffit, but getting the moisture out of the bathroom will
make a huge difference indoors.

Then came the wiring.  Rick was smart a couple of days ago to color code the wires that we pulled through the attic.  Because of that, we knew exactly what wires should go where on the fan end of things.  We were not so smart when we hid the switch wires in the wall three years ago, so when we go to hook up the switch to the fan, those wires may take a little investigation.

Once the wires were attached in the fan and the exhaust hose was threaded out to the soffit, we screwed it into place.  Now is the time to say a few fan prayers, if you know any.  We certainly hope that the fan actually was built properly and will run when we connect power to it tomorrow.  For now, at least it fits and looks good.

The new fan awaits a finished ceiling, some light bulbs, and
a cover to be complete.  Pray it works!

Rick next paid closer attention to the wall where he will place the switch.  Out came the old light switch box.  Rick cut a larger hole (hole number three today, if you are counting) to accommodate the two-gang box we purchased yesterday.  Then out came the single covered box that held the two wires we originally were going to use for an outlet in the cabinet. (That's a whole other story which I detailed back in 2011.)

Before,

Surprise!  Behind that box, we found a third wire coming down from the attic. Had we remembered there was a third wire there, we could have hooked up a night light in the fan, too.  We did not do so because we did not think we had enough wires.  Ah, well.  The fan is not coming down from the ceiling at this point, so I am sure that I will live without a night light in the fan.  Having a regular light in the shower when I bathe will be enough.

during, 

...and after we moved the boxes around to accommodate
the switches for both the main light and for the fan.  The final
switch for the fan also will contain two toggles--one for the light
and one for the actual fan.

With some not so gentle persuasion, Rick got all of the wires back into the two gang new box. We still have some wires to connect in the attic.  When we had the electricity updated three years ago, we made provisions for fans by having the electricians run wires from the attic access area in the hallway all the way to the electrical box in the garage.  Now we just need to tap into those wires by installing a new box in the attic, and by making the final connections in the electrical box. Then our new fan should be set to go.

The last thing Rick did this morning was to patch all of the rough openings, screws, and old holes in the wall in preparation for the tile setters in a couple of weeks.  While neither of us looks forward to the dust, having the room back in one piece will be great.

Today is Halloween.  Forty-two years ago today I had my first date with the dark-haired, brown-eyed, shy photo editor from the college newspaper.  The rest is history. Halloween is still my favorite holiday.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everyone!

Happy Halloween, Florida style.

A Little Bit at a Time

We worked a long time today, but anyone looking at our bathroom would say, "Well, what did you do?"  Most of what we did is not visible but is very important.

We risked our lives this morning to take the truck to Home Depot.  The store itself is not bad, but the parking lot is terrible if one is driving a large vehicle.  We picked up all of the electrical connections that we needed for the fan, and we also threw in a 1/4" sheet of drywall and a couple of long pieces of PVC pipe.

Once home, we tackled the ceiling. What we thought would be fairly easy once again turned out to be the most difficult part of the job.  We had two 2 x 4s that were part of the old frame on the inside of the shower.  We'll just pry them down, right?  Ha.  The first one came down fairly easily with little insulation falling on our heads.  We thought we were home free because we could see that the other 2 x 4 was backed by pieces of wood which should have held in the insulation. Rick tried attacking that second board with everything we had: hammers, crowbars, chisels, you name it.  Sadly, the board was firmly attached to a 2 x 8 section of board that was rock solid with age.  Those boards were not going to separate for anything.  Finally, the ceiling started to crack and we had no choice but to take out BOTH the 2 x 4 and the larger board to which it was attached.  Of course, as the boards came down, so did an avalanche of snowy white insulation.  Choke, choke.  My lungs may never be the same!

The good news is that we found an open cavity inside the shower ceiling into which the new fan will fit.  Another fortunate discovery was two wires in the side wall that we had installed earlier with the idea that we might someday put in a ceiling fan.  More on that later...

Success! An open cavity under the roof rafters will give us
enough access to install the fan.

Once the ceiling was open, Rick taped the two pieces of PVC pipe together and slipped them from the attic access opening in the hallway to the hole cut in the ceiling in the bathroom. Then he taped the wires that we had to run from the bathroom to the previously installed wires for the fan in the attic above the hallway attic access, and Rick pulled the wires over.  Since the PVC pipes are no worse for wear, we might take them back to the store tomorrow.

The cavity will work, and the wires are now in a position where we can add power, when the time comes, to the fan.  We also found that we will have easy access to the soffit, so we can vent the fan out the underside of the soffit through a previously purchased vent.

Our plans were falling nicely into place, but we still had uneven levels of ceiling and lots of holes in the ceiling that needed to be patched.  The first layer was a patchwork of left-over drywall from other projects.

A patched up ceiling will help even the ceilings.  Added 2 x 4s
on either side of the opening will allow us to securely screw
the fan into place.

Then we cut a single panel from the 1/4" drywall which both evened out the ceiling all around and provided a much easier surface to mud and to finish in the end.  We covered the whole ceiling and will cut the appropriate hole in it to house the new fan.

Ironically, we went to the store this morning because rain was predicted this afternoon.  We actually set up sawhorses and cut the drywall outside since the afternoon turned out cloudy but dry.  We came inside to put in some of the patchwork pieces, and when we went back outside, we found that the rain was falling just enough to get our good, finish piece of drywall all wet.  "Great," I said.  "I'll bet that is the only shower we get all day."  I was right.  It rained just enough to wet our drywall, and then it stopped and has not rained since that time.

The final layer of ceiling awaits us to cut a hole in it tomorrow
to install the fan.

Our other task will be the switches in the wall.  At first we were going to use two different boxes so we would not have to cut apart the wall; however, in the end we both agreed that a two-gang box would look better.  We will have to feed the wires from the one box into the new two-gang box which will replace the single box next to the door.  That will result in more patching of the wall but a better-looking switch in the end.

Two wires will eventually go to a new box which will
replace the single switch to the left.

The overhead work is a killer, so I am glad that most of that is done.  The ductwork to the soffit, the hanging of the fan, and the connections to the wires are all part of the plan tomorrow.  By doing a little bit at a time, this task, too, will eventually be complete.  Old Gladys has a few more patches to her structure, but she will be beautiful (and less humid) in the end.