bathroom remodel

Bathroom remodel day 49

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Saturday was incredible, the temperature got up to 78.8 F! It is November 1 and it should not be that warm, to compensate the wind gusted up to 38 MPH. It was the perfect day to get the finish on the bathroom cabinet. I rolled on the Tried & True finish then after it sat for 30 minutes I rubbed it all off with a dry lint free rag. Luckily, I was able to run inside and steal three old T-shirts from my drawer as I could not find the lint free rags. I found them about half way through cleaning up the cabinet and they were no longer needed. I want to get the bathroom cabinet installed in the bathroom tomorrow so I can start working on the custom trim. I am going to have to trim it in place to account for the slanted floor and ceiling and walls!

Annmarie had me pick up a sewing end table a few weeks ago. The finish was in very rough shape. I opted to get some Formbsy’s product to help me fix it. So I spent a few hours rubbing the old finish off and getting the new one on. It turned out very nice. I still need to add a second coat of Tung Oil finish tomorrow before I bring it inside the house. I am not sure where it is going to go but that is not my wheelhouse.

The gazebo needs to get done but I am told for the bricks to actually stay in place and me not have to constantly fix it we need to use the compactor on the sand before the bricks are placed. This sounds reasonable as we do own a compactor but it needs to actually run for it to be really effective. Otherwise it is a very heavy obstacle. I tried to get the old O-ring gasket back on and simply could not make it stay in place. Over a decade ago my mother got me a small box of 402 ring gaskets. At the time I was unsure when I would use that, but over the years it has proven to be a lifesaver. It came through again and I went with a slightly larger gasket and was able to stop the fuel leak.

I tried to start it for about 15 minutes before I pulled the spark plug and cleaned it all up. I tried starting it for another 10 minutes. At some point I looked on the front of the machine away from the fuel tank, choke, and spark plug and spotted an off/on switch. I turned it on and was able to get the compactor started 5 minutes later. It died three more times before I could get it to the gazebo but in reality it just needed to warm up. It was running great when I ran it dry in the gazebo. We have been super careful to make sure that no fuel stays in the compactor to prevent any issues with the fuel system. Mr Rainman is coming out next weekend and we are going to try and get the entire gazebo brick floor installed! It is going to be a steep climb but I think it’s possible.

Bathroom remodel day 48

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Well it is only day 48 of the main bathroom remodel, but it is week 36! Annmarie tells me I have to have it done before the wedding. It is gonna be close. I need to get the Sheetrock installed and start the mudding process. I am not very good at it and it takes me some time to get it right. Yesterday I really wanted to get the sand spread out in the Gazebo and then compacted down so we could lay bricks. Rainman and I could not get the compactor started and it had a pretty serious fuel leak. I need to get a new float gasket and try again. We ended up moving furniture for the Mother-in-law and then went and got a new sewing cabinet for the wife from MiltonFreewater. It was cheap at $80 but they said it was heavy. They were not kidding, the thing is solid wood and very heavy. We will get rid of the cheap one now.

I started working on cutting shelves for the bathroom cabinet. Unbeknownst to me, I was failing to account for 3/4” from the back piece in my measurements. We had to recut every one of them today so they would fit. At least they were not too short! I used the Kreg tool to install peg holes for two adjustable shelves and another Kreg jig to put in screw holes to attach the boards together. I was going to leave the holes but I found some wooden plugs you can glue in place to make it all neat so I will be doing that. The plugs are ordered. Mr Rainman helped me get it all assembled then we tried to dry fit it into the bathroom. I had to rip out the corner crown molding as the cabinet is about one inch from the ceiling. It is very tall and a ladder will be needed for the top shelf. We were barely able to stand the cabinet upright once we got it into the bathroom. If we had made it 1/2” taller it would not have stood upright. As it was we had to get it square to the wall and ceiling and turn it on the long side to minimize the arch height. Once it was in place we took a level and worked on getting it moved around and level. It will need to have some trim added at the bottom to keep it level. Mr Rainman reminded me we could just screw the cabinet into the wall above the tile once we had it level. This way I could then work on getting the custom trim job in place to cover all of the weirdness. This is a great plan!

I was supposed to get some wider oak today when I went to Home Depot and I forgot it. I did get some stuff to put on the finish and picked up a single chunk of gutter to put over the office/old house porch steps. They had ice build up on them last winter and I don’t want that this year. That will also require another trip to the hardware store as I grabbed a gutter end from the right end box and one from left end box. When I got home and tried to set up all of the gutter I realized that I had two left end pieces.

I was going to stand up the cabinet in the old house and seal all of the surfaces but the ceiling in the old house is too low to stand the cabinet upright. So I will be doing all of the visible sides then turning it over and doing the back. I want to seal all of the surfaces as it will be in the bathroom.

I did drive by and check on the sheep. They look good and are doing well, no issues.

Sheep moved, projects advancing

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I went over to Hermiston and took the pregnant ewes with me. I unloaded them into their temporary pasture and then worked on setting up the electric fence just inside the vinyl fence. The sheep have never been around an electric fence before. It has been years since we used one on our place. I just keep cross fencing the farm so I don’t have to move any chargers or electrical wire around. I had to do the part directly across from the neighboring field first. As soon as the ewes came out of the trailer the herd across the driveway came running over to see what was up. So both herds wanted to stand next to their respective fences. I was afraid the ewes would just hop through the vinyl fence. I got it up and then hooked up the charger and ground wire. I forgot to bring a tester and I really did not want to grab the wire, luckily several ewes tried to scoot closer to the vinyl fence and it was readily apparent that the electricity was on! Before I could get the next section up and energized I had one ewe try three times to get to the vinyl fence. Everyone else had caught on to the consequences and was avoiding the outer edge of the field. I think she got the message after the third shock as she just ambled into the field to be with everyone else and ignored the herd across the driveway.

Winter is coming so I planted a bin full of garlic and looked at tossing the green beans and tomatoes over the fence for the chickens but they are not frozen down yet and I may get one last picking off of each one. My beets I started in the fall are growing but they have some weird brown leaf thing that is stunting them. I am not sure what it is but it is not a bug. I am hopeful we can go another month without a hard lasting freeze so they will continue to grow. I will pick them once the leaves wilt down. I dug up half our potatoes and got almost 20#. We did way better this year by switching bins. Next year we are moving every single type of plant to a different bin. We win also be testing the soil and adding nutrients as needed in the spring. I will dig up the other potatoes in the next 2-4 weeks.

I did disconnect all of our yard and garden hoses. I blew out the lines going to all of our garden and to the lavender plants. By the time I was done we have several piles of hose with 15 hoses total being used. The tree orchard is slanted one direction so I just opened up the drain plugs at the end of each of the three lines.

The Gingerman and I removed the old dishwasher and installed and leveled the new one. I thought this would be a quick process. If you call a solid two hours to remove the old one, clean up the floor, change out the electric cord to the new dishwasher, install the new one, level it and then attach it to the underside of the countertop so it doesn’t rattle around fast then yeah it was quick.

We then set up the table saw and ran all of the bathroom cabinet pieces through it so I could hopefully take some of the wow out of the pieces. It helped. I won’t really know until I start the assembly but now I can actually start the assembly. I will be finding my Kreg tool that lets me drill pilot holes on an angle so I can glue and screw the pieces together.

I hav two main projects left, the gazebo floor and the greenhouse. It’s a race now to see what gets done.

I did finally capitulate and find a varmint rifle for the tractor. I needed something that could just be beat up. I ended up getting a single action break open 243, one shot with a Vortex scope and synthetic stock. I have a waterproof ammo carrier on the stock of the rifle. The entire setup was around $500. Now I just need to weld the holder onto the tractor and get it mounted. I bent one of the bucket support arms a couple of years ago and kept it thinking I may have a use for it in the future. I am going to cut it in 14” lengths, weld them straight up the arms of the bucket and put a piece of angle iron across the top. This way I can bolt the rifle holder directly to that angle iron. We will see how well it all rides soon.

Bathroom remodel day 47

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Well it’s that time again, time to actually go back to an old project and try to get it closer to the finish line. The bathroom is totally functional at this point. Never mind that there is no storage or that we cannot hide electronics. The shower has hot water that gets you clean, the sink dispenses water and the toilet flushes, the crucial tasks can be checked off the list. It was going to rain on Sunday so I decided to start in on the custom bathroom cabinet. I bought furniture grade 3/4” oak plywood at a paltry $95/sheet. I was disappointed to learn that it was necessary to trim all of the edges of the plywood to get rid of the damage on the edges. I don’t have a furniture grade table saw so I found this guide rail and put an expensive blade on my DeWalt skilsaw and made the first cut. I then had to go back and tape the edge I wanted to cut and cut through it again to get a clean cut. The first cut still caused some tear out on the laminate.

My goal is to get all of the pieces cut, then sand them all, then assemble them. I will stain it once I get it assembled. I am going to just go with the Tried and True finish. I like it and it tolerates moisture fairly well.

The guide rail did okay but I will need to run the pieces through a table saw. I have about a 1/8” difference near the middle. I need an expensive guide not a $30 guide if I want a perfectly straight edge. I did this a couple of weeks ago and have only managed to get most of the small pieces cut since then. I need some help getting the table saw down and running them through, Gingerman has agreed to help but our schedules have not been coinciding recently. I am working intermittent random nights for the last month with another month to go and it is really slowing down my projects. You tend to want to sleep the next day after being up all night.

Back at the Gazebo

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We have been processing fruit nonstop for a few weeks now. Annmarie was able to pick up 25# of #2 peaches on Friday for $22. We have been cutting them and freezing them in one cup portions for her to use in her smoothies. We almost have enough fruit to make it the entire year, the upright freezer is 2/3 full of frozen fruit. We are still getting half a flat of tame blackberries every four days. Annmarie made plum jam today and we are done with the plums. Luckily, I was able to give a large portion of them away. The sheep gobble them up as soon as I toss them over the fence.

We have a few Italian plums still ripening on the two trees and some nectarines. The nectarines have about 1-2 weeks before they are ready. I will need to keep checking them every four days to make sure they do not get away from us or else the yellow jackets will be the only ones eating nectarines. Mr Rainman had told me that they propped up their fronds from the asparagus plants. He said that the plants shot right up once they no longer had to worry about stabilizing themselves. Who knows, we propped them up with bamboo stakes and tied them onto the stakes. So time will tell if he is right. The new parts to our trumpet vine are finally taking off and we may be able to get it to grow on our new trellis around the living room window. I have been trying to get the bush to spread out that way with very little success but this may have been the year for expansion.

I went to town and got 45 bags of sand for the floor in the Gazebo. I had to empty out the gazebo first then clean up all of the organic matter and then to make sure the floor is flat. I was hoping I could just toss the sand down and spread it out then slap down the tile but I am told that I need to spread the sand out, hit it with the compactor and then work on getting it all smoothed out. This is going to necessitate repairing the drive cord on the compactor first. So I guess the best way to get started is to unload all 45 bags and spread them out on the floor. But I do not want to do this until the compactor is functional. Otherwise the cats will use the sand like a kitty litter box. I don’t really want to be chucking cat turds out of the sand as I am trying to lay bricks down. After the Gazebo floor is done the greenhouse needs to go up next. Unfortunately, I need to install a small fence to go around the greenhouse first. I don’t want the sheep or cows rubbing on the greenhouse.