I've Had an Accident

Nancy was here for a week, followed by a 70th birthday party for Cris. After playing pickleball Monday morning I was anxious to get back to my blog.

That did not happen because while showing Connie a side way step I had seen a guy do, the sole of my shoe caught the court and I went down, catching myself with my left hand with predictable results. 

Fortunately Patty had some ice, my paddle worked for stability and Bruce was home to take me to the hospital. 

Obviously lots more to the story but I am not yet skilled in one hand typing to tell you more.The good news is that friends and family are taking good care of us. I have a cast from my fingers up to the middle of my humerus, for how long I do not know. It was a displaced distal radius fracture in case you are wondering. 

It is still hurting but once I feel some better I will attempt more.

your friend,

Gail

Life After Remodeling

Having spent the better part of two months on the bathroom remodeling, beginning with this post from January when we finalized our ideas,  and ending with this post from March 18 when the project was completed, you might have thought we would be suffering from boredom, but in this household, we try to keep as active as we are able. Sadly, for me anyway, I'm still out on the injured reserve list, but that has not kept Bruce from playing. Our son Bill has become a convert playing two nights a week with the men's group where the hit the ball as hard as they like as long as it stays in bounds! Speaking of that, I think I'll begin this post with the goings on yesterday at the tournament which finally arrived. 

Thursday morning we drove out to Winter Garden to see what an actual tournament is like. If you are just a spectator with no nerves to trouble you, it is fantastic!

The city is very focused on Coronavirus safety, thus everyone who is not playing is required to wear a mask and try to maintain social distancing. As well, there were temperature checks and a form to sign stating that you were not sick. With that out of the way, we took a seat in the chairs we'd brought and watched the matches which we thoroughly enjoyed. 

So, we thought we understood how things worked, however, that was a bit of a stretch. Arriving a little after 7AM yesterday we met up with our friends and Bruce's partner, Denny. 

Because the courts are surrounded by a wind screen taking meaningful photographs of the games in progress was not much of an option, but I was able to take a few shots through the open gate before it began. They used the six pickleball courts along with at least eight on the adjacent tennis courts. These two guys practicing in the foreground were our guys first opponents.

Which means to me that they have played in a tournament before as they knew to arrive way early in order to warm up. So, that was lesson one.

Bruce and Denny's names were called as one of the first matches, the best two out of three. Lesson two, this is how it works. They were given five minutes to warm up on the same court as their opponents.

Five minutes is just a blip when you are trying to get warmed up, not just your body, but your mind which in the case of our guys, was buzzing with nerves. Carolyn, Denny's wife, Connie, Yvette, along with Greg and Leslie and I were hoping for things to go well. Here is the referee talking to them before the match.

The gates closed and the match began, except then it was stopped for reasons that were not clear to us spectators. 

What we learned later was that the wrist bands given to the players was to denote who was the first serve,r something which a person would understand only after having been in a tournament before, but was new to us. So, another lesson learned. In my opinion, this undermined their confidence right out of the gate. I could be wrong, but as most of you will agree, when called out by a person of authority, it rattles ones nerves. Nevertheless, play resumed and the results were not what they were hoping for. That said, months ago I'd watched and shared with Bruce, this video about  entering a first tournament. He claimed that if you score one point that you should call it a success and in that regard, they did even better than that. Probably less than twenty minutes later their names were called again to play one match to 15 to remain in the running. This game went better, however, they were not the victors and that was that. Far sooner than we expected,  their first tournament was under their belts with valuable lessons learned, albeit some of them painful, at least in the short term! I am just so proud of them to even have the nerve to enter! Sunday Ryan and Greg are entered, so we will go out to root them on and hope for the best. 

So what else have we been up to? One morning it was a walk around Lake Davis to enjoy the fine weather.

Hidden in the reeds a swan is sitting on her nest.

Nearby a blooming Tabebuia tree has as many blooms on the ground as on the tree. Hard to say which is more striking, the bright yellow blooms against the blue sky or the carpet of yellow underfoot.

Another day I actually went to the library for the first time in over a year which felt a bit weird but welcome.

Last weekend I received a text from the folks who bought our home wanting to know the name of the sprinkler system company we used. Furthermore she said that the big tree out front had lost yet another huge limb and they were planning to take it down, something I was so sad to think about as that is the tree where our 46 year old staghorn fern is still hanging. She wondered if we wanted it which although I would love to keep that part of our history going, is impossible for any number of reasons. I drove by on my way home from the library to say a last goodbye and was astonished to see the whole front yard torn up in what looks like a new septic tank drain field in progress.

That tree looks pathetic! There are still times when we miss that house, but times like this are when we don't!

Out back I spotted our first ducklings of the season! 

When we changed the clocks last Saturday it occurred to me that perhaps it will be one of the last times we do so. Or maybe not? There are some politicians working hard to make that happen and I wonder if they will succeed. The late afternoon sun is casting some fantastic shadows these days.

Originally I'd purchased two of this shelving units for the bathroom, deciding later that they wouldn't work, however, we found a place for one of them on the porch.

Monday we drove to Mt. Dora for a nice diversion which would have been better if it were a Tuesday as many of the shops are closed on Monday. Nevertheless, the weather was gorgeous and we took our time walking around the charming downtown. 

We roamed the grounds of the lovely Lakeside Inn,

where we saw these ladies ready to board the very small airplane, presumably to fly over the huge chain of lakes.

After popping into a few shops we noticed the inviting patio with bright red umbrellas at the Pisces Rising restaurant near the water and decided to give it a try.

After enjoying a delicious lunch, we ordered Bruce's favorite desert and were not disappointed.

Before leaving town we drove by this house that is certainly eye catching to say the least.

You have to wonder what the neighbors think.

Nancy arrived yesterday morning for her vacation at the Peck Casa. It's turned somewhat chilly, not what she was hoping, but at this time of the year, in a few days it may be 90 degrees again, as it was last week! She will have some pool days to look forward to after all.

Lastly Bruce and I have been watching a series on Netflix called The Sinners and oh my gosh, it is incredibly well done even if the subject matter is oftentimes hard to watch.

That's life after a remodel, let new adventures begin!!

your friend,

Gail

 

It's Quiet Around Here

This will be the final time you will be reading about the bathroom remodel because we are done! It was on January 22 that I wrote this post that finalized our decision to keep the tub in spite of others imploring us to ditch it.  We are glad we did now that it is looking brand new instead of 35 years old of wear. Now we have at least one tub in the house and to our eyes, it looks just fine. More than fine, really. 

It must be stated that without the work Bruce did, which was more considerable than you might think, the project would never have come to life nearly as quickly. Before I go into the process of having the tub painted, here's a last look as Bruce is preparing to apply the lower window privacy film.

That color is no more and dare I say, you will hardly recognize it? 

After a crazy busy week it is completely quiet in the Peck home, as Bruce is playing pickleball with the gang, while I am sitting at my desk. And you thought my elbow was better, didn't you? Mostly it is, but like a complete dummy, I agreed to have two basal cell moles removed from my back on Wednesday. It should be noted that I played pickleball the night before with the very dermatologist that did the dirty work. The office called Tuesday afternoon with the results and asked if I could come in the morning, say 8:30 or 9? Yes was the answer I gave and oh how I wish I could take it back! As most of you know this type of skin cancer is not fatal, nor will it ever be. What was I thinking??? Walking into the set up room, the sight of five needles lined up gave me a moment of pause.

Wait, that's six! After those were done, it was a piece of cake, although later in the day it was not so much. The following morning Bruce changed the bandaging and OH MY GOSH did it hurt when he took them off.

My poor skin! 

Upon seeing it, Bruce said oh my! as well,  because he was surprised that the top incision was two inches long, thus the admonition from the doctor that I not play pickleball for TWO WEEKS if I cared how it healed. Thus I sit at home while Bruce has fun playing. The last time I went through this, documented here on election day 2016, it became infected and took forever to heal. I will do my best to heed her advice and be careful this time.

With that out of the way, let's get to that bathtub, shall we? We used a company called,  Bathtub Guys that I found online, much as we might have done years ago with the Yellow Pages. Remember them? From my first call I was impressed with not only how they answered all of my questions, they actually answered the phone! Another "remember when" moment when people did that sort of thing. Alex arrived promptly at 9:30 as he promised, immediately going to work with sanding and cleaning the tub, the first step.

He claimed that it was actually refreshing to find a tub in such good shape telling us that many folks have chipped and cracked tubs that need considerable prep work. He covered the floor in the bedroom for his exhaust fan thing,

that he then ran it out into the back yard.

This was after he had covered the room with paper or plastic.

Here's the actual equipment for painting.

It is here that I will pause for a moment to mention that not only was Alex here, but a plumber from Harvey Baker was as well. Are you kidding? 

No, I am not. Lately Bruce noticed a change in our amount of hot water, thus he called them and wouldn't you know it, they came at the same time. Emptying part of my side of the closet to give the plumber access, while that orange thing was heading out the back door, another hose was as well in order to drain the water heater. What exactly am I saying? I'm saying that we have a small water heater, located on a shelf in the closet above my clothes. Now you can picture it better. Well, it turns out that there is excessive amounts of sediment in the tank necessitating a new one which will happen on the 25th. Good timing, right? 

At any rate, our bedroom was a beehive of activity as I sat at the computer amongst the chaos, doing our taxes while Alex donned his protective head gear and went to work. From the time he arrived until he left was about three hours in case you are wondering.

He warned us that the fumes were strong and he was not kidding, but due to having a new handy dandy, extremely quiet exhaust fan in the bathroom, the odor was gone in about a day. 

While I was at the dermatologist, Herbert came by to put on the tub handles and by golly we were nearly done. Seriously, it is shocking how the tub looks now. A word about the tub handles, or maybe a cautionary tale for anyone doing something like this, turns out that one of them barely fit, something I never gave any thought to when making my choice. Previously there were round knob like handles and as pictured below the new ones are anything but round. Although the handles proved to be nearly too long to use, there was just barely enough space.  

A few folks have seen it in person and tell me the pictures do not do it justice, so you will have to take their word for it. I have to admit that I keep looking at it in different light because it is so exciting after having a vanilla bathroom for the last few years.

Back to Bruce....what a husband! After installing the window film, he cleaned the outside of the bathroom window as well as the one for our bedroom. I can see clearly now!

The final piece came yesterday afternoon in the form of glass shelves. Okay, let's go! Or should I say, let me watch while Bruce does the work? 

For the life of me I cannot recall how I ended up with glass shelves, having looked at other materials all along. Walnut, white, black, gold? All were given consideration, however, somehow I came across this company, Dulles Glass and Mirrors, and now that they have arrived and are installed, I can give them a high recommendation for both quick delivery, an excellent product, as well as superior packing. I scoured the house looking for display objects and there are many memories tied up in a bunch of this stuff. The drawing was done by Alissa, the box came from my long lost cousin Joelle, the black vase came from Bruce's mom, and the Baccarat owl was gift from David and Michelle. Perhaps some tweaking will come to this space, but for now I am happy. And oh my, those shelves are nice. Obligatory magnifying mirror for old eyes notwithstanding. Function before form is my motto.

Well, there you go. A bathroom remodel for about half what most folks spend. Then again, most folks don't have a Bruce in their family but still...we love doing this sort of thing, so it is not really work to either of us; Bruce with a tool in his hand, and me either shopping in person, or online. It is what we do.

Gayle came by the other day and asked "now what can you remodel?" 

Indeed.

your friend,

Gail

Nearly Finished!!

When you embark on a remodel, there are loads of details to sort out including the extras. It will not be much of a stretch for you to imagine, in our home, that would include something bird related. Agreed? I had to return one thing to Ross and am I glad that I did because instead of what I purchased, I found this little cutie who Bruce turned around to look out the window.

With the sun pouring in, I think we can all agree that he is indeed cute. Not everything is new including the candle holders that go way back. Most of the decorating is complete, however, we still have to find some shelving we like because, what's a room without shelving? Dull in my opinion!

When last I wrote, Daniel was working on the floor which he actually did fairly quickly, leaving a portion to complete on his fifth day working here. Yup, five days I had to stay close to home because he worked very, very, slowly. He told Herbert it would take three, which set us back a bit, however, we cannot complain about the job he did because it looks great.  The tile on the tub face went on very quickly and I am delighted with the results. He then set up for grouting,

and I held my breath, hoping that I'd chosen a good color. In fact, he began applying it and at first I was afraid it was too dark.

In the end though, it is perfect. Okay, with Daniel's work done, Herbert and Eli returned and put the pedal to the metal. He installed a small light over the toilet, closed in anything that was open, and fixed a little bit of Daniel's mistake on the privacy wall. While that was going on, I began the shower curtain by laying out four yards of each color on the living room floor.

Originally I was planning on going horizontal with the colors, however our neighbor Jane Lou came over and convinced me otherwise. As she spent her career as an interior designer, I listened. I cut 100" pieces and sat down to sew with the intention of making french seams in order to encase the raw edges. Good plan, but I messed it up because I'd already hemmed one side and the seam ended up on the front side. I'll quit while I am ahead with explaining it because most folks don't know what the heck I'm talking about anyway. Suffice it to say that I put it together without hemming until we could figure out the best length. 

Once the floor went in, next came the baseboards and boy did Herbert do an excellent job with them, cutting the pieces in the back yard. 

Look how nicely they turned out.

And there, my friends is the glorious green paint which I'm afraid is not getting the love it deserves. For those who've seen it in person, most folks rave about the floor or the cabinets, all of which I love, but it is the Clary Sage paint that brings it all together. 

Green was my first love when it comes to color before orange reigned supreme in my heart. In our home we used "Hearts of Palm", Dancing Green, and Sweet Caroline to name a few shades of green. Note how dull that white paint looks and how comfy cozy the green does.

Before the room felt cavernous with such light walls, but that feeling is no more. As with all of their work, they did an exceptional job with the painting. My excitement was mounting as the finish line was nearly in sight. 

Bruce put the track on the shower ceiling, 

and then we tried the curtain. I have to admit it is the weak link in this remodel, but because they are so hard to find in 90 X 90, this was my best option. For now, anyway. I'll show it  momentarily but first there were lots more details to finish. Such as the most functional part of a bathroom and that, of course, is the plumbing. Herbert was not looking forward to tackling that part and who could blame him as he had to squeeze into the cabinet to get to it!

Astonishing really because he is not such a small man! He found the old plumbing a fat mass. Note the convoluted copper tubing in the photo below on the upper right.

Not only is he a sturdy man, he's also as strong as an ox which came in handy when he had to  remove the old tub drain. That's another thing we love about Herbert, he does not give up easily and with all the strength he could muster, he succeeded. 

While Herbert was wrestling with the tub, Eli was hanging the lights!! All the pretty stuff was happening now.

Now what? The vanity sink fixtures is what. Herbert got all the parts sorted out on the floor.

It was now that I just couldn't stay away and kept watching what I could because, let's face it, I'm the curious type.

Not to mention that I was finally seeing the counter top. Mastering the first one, the second one went in smoothly. Just after 5PM on Friday, following a thorough tidying up, Herbert and Eli took their leave. Oh my gosh!! Bruce was down at the lake for his evening chit chat with Dave H. and when he came home, he went to work putting the finishing touches into place, including the mirrors, towel holders, that sort of thing. We never even ate the dinner I made because we were so excited.

It might have been that night that he hung the shower curtain in order for us to test the length.

Please note the hanging towel because it is awesome with the puffy circles. Finding two of them at Marshalls, I could not leave the store without them. Speaking of shopping, I did more of that in the last six weeks than I did the entire previous year as it seemed like we were always needing one thing more. 

In the morning I ran a wet rag over the cabinets, only to discover that the paint was not quite set and that would be because we learned the hard way that sample paint is not really true paint. Shall I say that he was not exactly a happy camper, having to take the hardware off and re-paint? Indeed.

Not ideal, but it took far less time than he imagined. We took the opportunity to purchase all sorts of organizing containers for our stuff as well as move stuff around. Having moved in nearly three years ago we put stuff where we thought it should go and have since learned that perhaps there was a better way. 

After pickleball I hemmed the curtain and we cut the plastic curtains (it takes two for width) that hangs behind it and up they went.

Weak link for sure, but it should be noted that we keep the curtain open unless showering, so that is some consolation. 

While I thought the Bathtub Guys were coming today, I thought wrong, however they will be here in the morning to paint the tub a white that I hope will go nicely with the wall tile. I am crazy for that vertical stacked tile. Maybe not as much as I love the floor tile, but darn close. 

The final photo of the sickly yellowish tub. (taken as Bruce was preparing to put some frosted  sticky paper on the lower windows as our custom shade no longer fit.)

And here is the other side of the room with the Bruce-made medicine cabinet blending in beautifully as well as the Bruce-made raised cabinets!!

The counter top turned out to be perfect. Got that rug on sale at Marshalls too. 

Now wasn't that fun? 

I keep walking in there to feast my eyes on what I'm finding so wonderful. My vision brought to life by the artisans who made the tile, my darling husband, Herbert, Eli, Daniel, and let's not forget the clerks who wait on us at the various stores. Plus the delivery drivers! Wow, it takes a whole heck of a lot of people to transform a room doesn't it?

This morning the sunrise was coming in and casting such a golden glow over everything. 

And now my elbow is much improved so that I am able to play pickleball again. Life is good.

your friend,

Gail 

p.s. Should you have forgotten what it looked like before, check back to this post.