Very Much Underway

Should remodeling photos bore you, this is a post you will want to skip. For those more interested, this post may very well whet your appetite for more. Without further ado, let's get into what the week has brought to the Peck household. 

Perhaps I will begin with the medicine cabinet door that Bruce made and finished the day before they guys came. Having spent copious amounts of time perusing bathrooms online, as well as reading up on designing does and don'ts, one thing became clear to me and that was just how important scale is to a room. While we can't control some of it due to what is already here, one thing I wanted Bruce to do was put the new cabinet into scale. Not too big, and not too small. Because the counter has been raised 3.5 inches, or will be when it comes, and we are having a backsplash made, the cabinet had to shrink a bit on the bottom. Bruce began the door by attaching the trim.

That husband of mine loves his clamps! So, here is the door front,and here is a shot of him applying the pink stuff which is spackle used to fill the nail holes.Should you be wondering where some of this magic happened, it was behind our house using his mitre box which he stores at Bill's house when not in use. Our sunroom has become the storage area for now.To accomplish the scale that I wanted, Bruce had to add a piece of wood on the bottom of the cabinet which will make using the lower shelf different, however, we plan on putting it to use in some fashion.

Before I go further, my sister Nancy, ever the curious one, deemed that I did not do a great job explaining the counter top conundrum. Here's what I've learned about counter top heights should you be curious as well. Apparently, following WWII, when the GIs came home and there was a huge building boom, most homes were built with just one bathroom that the entire family would share. In order for the children to be able to reach the bathroom sink, countertops were made at 30". Well, two bathrooms have been around for quite some time now, and who started the change of making countertops at 36", I can't tell you, but that is what is being used today. Ours won't be quite that high, but much better than it was! Door hung, Bruce could hardly wait to see it painted, doing so near our bedtime on Tuesday night.

                

Another thing he did was put some vinyl flooring inside the cabinet. Say what? Before we moved here, the entire complex was re-piped and they did not do a neat enough job for Bruce's liking so he cut off the pipe that stuck out, applying the vinyl over the old pipe holes. (taken before holes covered)

The last thing he did was to use a plumb bob to mark the ceiling as to where the new shower curtain hanger will go. What's a plumb bob you ask? Here is what it looks like.

I don't quite understand the concept, but according to Bruce, this will work and we should now be able to have the shower curtain closer to the tub edge, something we sorely needed to avoid having the curtain stick to us while showering! Now that I am showing the photograph, it turns out I have the sequence wrong. How do I know that? Well, duh, the tile is gone and according to my written timeline, Herbert hasn't even come yet!! Sharp eyes would surely have called me out on that one.

One last look at the pre demolition.

When Herbert and his helper, whose name I have forgotten (boo on me for that), arrived they wasted no time getting to work with Herbert using a crowbar to remove not just the tile, but the wall along with the tile!

One disappointing find is that I was hoping to carve a shower niche into the foreground wall and that is not going to happen because they discovered it was a solid block wall. Not the worst thing that a person can find in a demolition.  I do wish I had more photos to show, but Bruce kept reminding me to leave them alone as they worked! They did, however, let me take their photograph.

A big part of this project, something most will never even notice, is the installation of a real bathroom exhaust fan. When these were built it was not really a part of the building code; instead a circulating fan was installed, mostly for show. Now it will exit to the outdoors, thanks to the above guys. Herbert is the boss, so he does most of the serious work, including drilling a hole in the exterior of the building, no small feat.

The idea is to drill small holes in a circle and punch it out with a hammer, or so Bruce tells me.

As you can see to the left of Herbert, our neighbors did this same thing some years ago. That is what ours looks like from the outside now, and below what it looks like inside.

So to recap, Wednesday was the demolition day with all of the tile removed and taken to the landfill. Thursday they worked on the fan and the electricity portion of things, including where the new light fixtures will be hung.

Friday was spent on drywall work, putting in new pieces all over the place, as well as fitting the new shower plumbing guts in about two inches closer to the window than it was before. One thing we discovered on Wednesday was that I did not have the guts for either the shower, or the tub, not the news I wanted to learn. I hopped online and quickly ordered the shower rough in valve from Build.com, where most everything came from. Okay, that was good. What was not good was discovering that the tub rough in valve was on backorder for the foreseeable future. Great! 

Just kidding. 

Making a long story short, Bruce finally found one in a hardware store in Michigan that I promptly called and ordered at nearly twice the price of Build.com. One place I called said she had nine orders waiting and that it had been on backorder since September!! Had I known this ahead of time, I probably would have chosen different plumbing fixtures, but I didn't, so onward we go. If this is our biggest setback, and I think that it will be, then we are way ahead in the remodeling game. 

I met Daniel, the tile guy on Wednesday afternoon and we discussed the layout, he being a bit skeptical of my plan for stacked vertical tile, in spite of my attempts to convince him it will be good. As I tried showing him some online images, I discovered that my wireless keyboard was not connected to the internet (another long story I won't bore you with) but he saw enough to begin to come around to my way of thinking. Unfortunately we could not test it out as the tile is in our storage unit down the street. but when he comes on TUESDAY, the tile will be here and we will work it out together. He plans on starting on the floor and as you can imagine I can hardly wait!

What was I doing to stay out of their way? FINALLY finishing the puzzle Matt and Tom gave me for my birthday. I will admit, I was near the giving-up phase, but somehow I convinced myself that I wasn't a quitter...

Actually, unlike lots of folks, I have no problem with quitting if something is too hard for me, and had it been from anyone else aside from our London family, I most certainly would have quit in a heartbeat! It's a beautiful image, and the puzzle is very well made, but it was so hard, especially that tree. Oh wait, those grass pieces were crazy hard. Anyone else want to give it a go?

Speaking of our sons, Jonathan and Alissa have just gone through a week that will not go unforgotten for a very long time. With temperatures way below freezing, they lived with no power for several days before a friend offered them shelter with heat included. Never were more beautiful words spoken than that invitation, that is if they had the nerve to drive six miles on snowy and icy roads. Having heat won out, and they consequently crawled through the city to their sanctuary. Friday they headed back to their apartment to find that they had heat but no water as city-wide pipe freezing problem had the city shutting off the water. To say that I was anxious is putting it mildly.

Keeping myself busy to avoid worrying, I decided to make a cajun rub for chicken thighs. I got out the recipe and all of the spices.Seeing them all lined up it reminded me of how enriched we are from the kindness of friends, in this case Bonnie who, while reading in this space on the web, learned of how difficult it was for me to get the spices I use at a reasonable price in Vancouver. God bless her, she sent me a care package of about ten bottles of spices! I tried to find that blog post without success, but I'm going to keep trying so I can relive that moment in time when I felt somewhat hopeless. Thank you Bonnie! Here is the finished product.

This morning we had a beautiful sunrise, something that has not happened lately as we have been waking up to very grey skies.

As I've been having tennis elbow pain, instead of pickleball this morning, I took a field trip which I hope to document soon. At the same time, Mr. Peck played his heart out, and in other good news, Herbert came to do some drywall finishing. 

Indeed we are very much underway with the end probably about two weeks away. Woo hoo!

your friend,

Gail

The Bathroom along with a Booster Shot

Let us begin with cake today, Not just any cake, but one that goes by the name, "Crazy Cake." Searching for a recipe, I went to a cookbook Jonathan and Alissa gave me from their time visiting Alcatraz. Turns out there was a women's group there, wives of the guards, and they put together a cookbook back in the '50s. 

"What's so crazy about it," you ask? For one thing there are no eggs, making it vegan long before that was part of popular culture, and the other is that you sift the dry ingredients into an un-greased cake pan, make three wells that you pour the liquids in, (that would include vinegar btw) and then stir it all up with a fork. Who knew, right? At least fifteen years ago I searched and found a recipe for vegan chocolate cake in order to make Matthew a birthday cake. That recipe became our go-to and you know what? It is pretty much the same as this one! What's old is new, right? Very tasty indeed.

Having a patterned tile is proving just the ticket to bring a color palette together. As such, I took the tile to Sherwin Williams to pick out the cabinet and wall paint. Earlier in the week we'd gone to Floor and Decor and picked out the wall tile which is pretty much an updated version of what is already there. 

The direction in which the wall tile is laid is still in the discussion stages as some folks go with horizontal while others go vertical. If I look at one more perfect bathroom on the internet, I may very well go mad! Some ideas are so impractical, including this new fad called a wet room. I don't know about you, but I like the hot steam to stay around me, not out into a large space. Feel free to call me old fashioned! Ours will certainly be different.

Another tile we purchased was a larger blue that will be attached to the the face of the tub, hoping to give it a more modern look.

What do you think? The tub and the surround will be white, once painted, however that is one of the last steps in the process. 

In the end, I chose what is called Champagne Bronze fixtures, not really too dissimilar to what was installed here more than 35 years ago. As you've probably already guessed, I'm going for cozy rather than glitzy. The trend these days is to use marble everywhere, and while that looks gorgeous for others, I suppose I'm just a bit of a rebel at heart. :)

Our first step, before Herbert's arrival on Friday, was to empty the cabinets,

keeping most of what we use everyday within reach. I told Bruce it is if we are camping, what with not having everything we want at our immediate disposal. We know how to do that because we've done it before.

After my shower Friday morning, I took one last photo of the mirrors which I have had a love/hate relationship with. For one thing, I loved having the lake reflected in the mirrors, however, at our age, having that many mirrors, well, you get the idea.

Oh wait, before I go further, something crazy happened regarding the order I placed with Build.com that must be documented for posterity, if nothing else, because while when it happened it gave me pause, now it is just giving me a chuckle. The fixtures were meant to arrive on Thursday afternoon. Checking my email around 5:30, my heart sunk when I saw it said it was delivered while I knew better. Yikes! Do not ask me how the credit card went through with the wrong address, but it did. Immediately I jumped in the car, drove over to our old home and knocked on the door. Chenita was expecting me. Apparently she'd texted the owner, who texted me, but I'd not seen it. Oy vey!! Not everything was there which meant a trip on Saturday, but fortunately for us our home was only a little over a mile away! Another crazy thing was that when we were driving by Lake Gem Mary, something must have been put in the water as it was a gorgeous shade of turquoise, looking exactly like a glacial lake in the Rockies. Oh wait, there are no mountains!

Okay, Herbert arrives with a helper and immediately they get to work wearing masks. Before you could practically blink, one mirror is heading out the door.

Maybe framing?

Followed by the counters which had molded sinks built in.

Must have been the same guy who did the kitchen cabinets as we found similar beer cans under the top again.

Yeah, the light boxes are coming down! I'd had a moment where I thought to keep them, painting them the wall color, but that moment passed.

And then they left, leaving Bruce to survey what was behind everything.

Before long it was time to leave for the Convention Center for our booster shot. A bunch of friends had theirs at ORMC, only two or so miles away, however, we had already made these appointments, so back we went. Our appointment time was between 1-3PM, as was a bunch of other people. Lining up behind the cars that arrived before us, we inched our way along.

It went pretty quickly on a beautiful day. The wait was made better by listening to a radio program. The hosts were interviewing some young woman who, get this, has a Youtube channel with videos of her cleaning her house. We learned that millions of people have tuned in and she is often recognized when she goes out. Additionally, she has so many fans that some began stalking her house, thus they moved. You can't make this stuff up, can you? 

A new twist this time was the presence of National Guard members directing traffic.

As well, this time we had nurses instead of EMT guys. 

Pretty much, smooth sailing, we were home again within the hour. As you may remember, Fallon had a rough time with her booster, making us a little nervous, but I heard from Bonnie and both she and Rick  experienced nothing more than a sore arm. We went about our business.

Thus, it took me by surprise that, I too, was one of the unlucky ones to have a reaction. Mine was not as terrible as some have experienced, but let's just say, more than none. I spent pretty much all day in bed on Saturday, sleeping like a rock. Every few hours I would awaken, thinking it was safe to get up, but NO, it was not. Back to bed for me. My fever was low grade in the morning, rising late in the afternoon, a pretty common occurrence. Remember those boxes, pictured above in our bathroom? Where is the thermometer??? All's well that ends well and this was one of those times. Thermometer found, Tylenol taken, and under the covers for this gal. Bruce, too, experienced some muscle soreness and general fatigue, however, he is seemingly tougher than this gal because he mostly went about his business, aside from napping for a few hours in the afternoon. 

That was Saturday, but by Sunday morning I began to return to my normal self, feeling loads better. My arm was super sore this time, but it continues to improve. We'd woken up to rain, but by noon the sun came out and Bruce and the gang played pickleball while I did a little more resting. Never have I watched all the Super Bowl hoopla but there's always a first time for everything. What a great game to be rooting for the Tampa Bay Bucs. They almost made it look easy. I wanted them to win because aside from one, all of the so called "experts" picked the Chiefs. Not the only reason, but one of them.

Herbert will not be returning until the 17th (!) but in the meantime Mr. Peck is doing his part, beginning with cleaning up the medicine cabinet so it looks brand new, as well as putting a band of wood on top of the cabinets in order to raise the top to more current height standards.

Lord have mercy, it is nice having a carpenter in the house!! While I went to the court this morning, he worked like nobodies business and when I came home, it looked like this.

This will provide a stable foundation for the new quartz top that is yet to be made. Heck, it isn't even templated yet, but they are coming Wednesday morning to do so.  Knowing my husband, I asked if he wanted lunch, knowing he'd say "no, not until I'm done with this," and sure enough that is exactly what happened. He wanted to get some primer on after sanding the fronts. 

Right about now you may very well be questioning our decision, however, we've done some research and think once it is painted, especially with such a dark color, it will be good. That's our hope anyway. I suspect once it is all said and done, no one will ever know. They will just notice that the counter top height is now 34" rather than 30". I remember once we moved in thinking how crazy low are these counters? Although, we've lived with them for 2 1/2 years, it was more a nuisance than anything. 

We are both super excited now that it is underway! The fixtures, both lighting and plumbing are here, and I just picked up the cabinet paint. Still to come, cabinet hardware in, you guessed it, Champagne bronze finish. In the past we have always jumped on projects, however, somehow it has taken this long until a plan formulated. 

Let's see how it all comes together. 

Ending a post with a lovely sunrise is always a good option.

Darn we got lucky having this out the back door everyday. 

As always, your friend,

Gail

Link to previous post here in case you missed it. 

 

An Unexpected Blessing

To begin with, let's discuss the new look of the blog. Actually, it is a rerun of an old format that I changed to make my blog look more modern. While that was a good idea, it was more difficult to find older posts for those readers who are brand new to my humble space on the World Wide Web. I wonder if that should be capitalized? Hmmm...

As you will now see, the posts are listed on the right, going back all the way to my humble beginnings in 2007 when I was writing nearly every day, albeit very short posts. I was a college student at Valencia who detailed what it was like to be an adult learner in a sea of teenagers. My struggles with various classes, including all FOUR math ones that I was forced to take to get my degree. I was asked the other day about joining a book club and while I declined, it was nothing personal, just the feelings I've held onto since being told to read this and that during those two years. At any rate, make of it what you will.

When last we were together, I mentioned seeing the owl, thanks to the gardener. It's always a good day when I come face to face with a Barred Owl.

Such beautiful birds. After reading my last post where I raved about the film, Winged Migration,

Connie asked to borrow it, watching it the same day, followed by rave reviews today. That made me happy to learn that others can share the joy of birds. Speaking of which, I realized that I'd forgotten to show you the Black and White Warbler, aptly named.

And while I would have loved to show you the cute face, it was next to impossible because it was so tiny and moving around like crazy. 

Since January 17th I've had an obituary beside my computer, not anyone I knew personally, although having read it, I've no doubt I would have gotten along with 99 year old Lucile just fine. No, it was just that, contrary to contemporary thinking, somehow she, and I quote, "moseyed through ninety-nine years on a regimen of La Cantina steak, crossword puzzles and minimal exercise" It was a long obituary, filled with what I considered golden nuggets that I won't bore you with, that is aside from this final one..."An accomplished putterer, never in a hurry, she believed in overlooking today what could be put off until tomorrow." Apparently a recipe for a very long life! Okay, one less item on my desk.

As to our unexpected blessing, it went something like this....Saturday morning is usually a busy one in our pickleball group with quite a few players joining in. Unfortunately, although the forecast was for rain, it was meant to start in the afternoon. Instead, it began lightly raining as we arrived. As such, it was decided that the courts were too wet to play on and maybe later would work. One thing that Bruce has been working on, along with a few other men, is trying to turn one of the tennis courts into some pickleball courts because while there are a couple of tennis players in our village, there are about 30 regular pb players. As I've mentioned before, the city of Orlando is way behind the times and there are no dedicated outdoor courts in town, however, there are six in Winter Garden so we decided to head out there and take some measurements. Much to our surprise, there were four folks playing on the very wet courts.

He's watching them in the above photograph. Have I told you that he is going to be in a tournament there on St. Patrick's Day? Yes indeed, he and Denny are entering in the over 65 age bracket!! He is both nervous and excited as the day draws nigh. Anyway, when the folks finished their game, they stopped to chat with us. One of the guys was/is the COO of Margaritaville and lives nearby. While that was interesting to learn, what was even more so was the other fellow who we learned is named Mike. Having noticed his t-shirt with the USAPPA logo, along with the words, Pickleball Ambassador, we knew he would be a wealth of information. Indeed he was. Oh my goodness.

Not only is he an ambassador, he coaches and had driven over from Mims, about 70 miles away for a referee class. Because of the super wet conditions, the class was canceled, leaving him with time to chat. Not only did he chat, he began coaching us!!! Right away he pointed out that Bruce's serve was illegal, something Bruce was so happy to learn in that setting, rather that at the tournament! I won't go into too many details on the serve problem, but let's just say that he was doing it correctly before, only recently having changed it due to a misinterpretation of a new rule. As you well know, I'm new to a sport, so I've had a big hill to climb learning the skills I need to not make a total fool of myself. I've still got a long way to go, but I will say that I can't wait for Nancy to visit again in March to remind me of my progress. Mike got out on the court, and we practiced some with his helping us with our foot work and in general how to become a better player.

The weather was darn wet and dreary, so you might think that he would want to quit, however, he stayed with us for at least two hours! It was really something...as we drove home I said to Bruce, "that's one way to make lemonade out of lemons." 

We also learned that their newly resurfaced courts hold far more water than the old ones, so they use this contraption to remove excess water.

It looks like something Mr. Peck might have dreamed up. 

In bathroom news, who knew how hard it would be to choose fixtures? I thought I'd settled on oil rubbed bronze, in part because of the windows, and in part because it just feels like it would be warm choice. Warm, you ask? Well, chrome is cold feeling and great for that vibe, however, my style is more cozy. Or so that is how I like to describe it. Turns out I don't like the Delta orb (oil rubbed bronze) much, preferring the Moen finish better. That said, I like the design of Delta more. Those are the two brands that Herbert asked that I choose from. So now I am thinking maybe I will use the bronze in the tub and shower, and a beautiful Champagne Bronze in the sinks, along with that same color for door hardware. I know it sounds crazy, thus I have not pulled the trigger on my order. Yikes!

So, remember how they had a sign on the door at the counter top place about Covid-19, refusing to allow customers in the building? Good call because I have now learned that not only does the owner have it, two of the office workers do as well! Fortunately the lady who helped me was not amongst the positive tests, however, that has left her as the only one in the office, so we are still waiting on our quote. Furthermore, while talking with Patty about my shower curtain dilemma, she spurred my creativity and I've got some fabric on the way. 

Perhaps you wonder why I frequently include weather news and if so, here's the reason. Oftentimes I will hear people make comments about the weather, maybe that it is far rainier, or the temperature is either hotter or colder in such and such a month. Well, I've got this handy thing called a blog which helps answer those questions. So I am sad to report that we had to turn the air conditioner on for two days, something I abhor in January! We've had fog and cloudy early mornings followed by mostly pleasant, if you like warm temperatures, weather. I mention the clouds because super sunrises have been hard to come by of late.

Oh who doesn't just love the colors of the male Wood Duck?

I'm very much hoping this pair will produce some babies come about March! It may have been the same day that I was looking for the White Pelicans when this guy popped out of the water, rubbing his face on the ground, sort of like Baxter used to do with rugs.

As far as the White Pelicans are concerned, after watching the film, I'm even more stoked when I see them, wondering where they have come from and where they are going. Sadly I did not get any decent shots of them, but rest assured, I will keep trying.

To take my mind off of bathroom fixture decisions, I made some peanut butter cookies, sprinkled with Kosher salt, this afternoon. Oh and the cookie jar was empty. That too. I'll sign off for now because I've got some cookie deliveries to make.

Until next time, I remain,

your friend,

Gail