As you may have noticed by the lack of activity around here, I was at my computer for about 5 minutes in total this weekend, which is kind of how I like it. The three of us spent two very hot days running around trying to get the house shaped up for the upcoming parade party, but for all of the effort expended I don’t feel like we’re any closer to being done.
Finn and I enjoyed our normal morning breakfast hike despite the heat, and Saturday morning we found a set of old-school ratcheting box-head wrenches, a vacuum gauge, a pair of metal shears, and a dwell tester for the sum of $6 at a yard sale. After a quick trip to the Lowe’s (one of many this weekend), she and I had all the components to build a new gutter over the back deck purchased, but then it was time for swim lessons.
After the pool and lunch I test-drove a local Scout to gauge its worthiness as a donor vehicle (verdict: it’s a go) and then got to work in the yard on the gutters and hedges before it started raining.
Sunday the heat rolled in, and we attempted to stay cool while continuing work on the house. Finn and I returned to the Lowe’s while Mama was at yoga, and after a short nap she was up again, thwarting our attempts to split up and get things accomplished while she was asleep. Note to Daddy: even if she’s tired, feed her before naptime.
Somewhere during this time period I pulled the leaky cartridges out of our kitchen sink to replace them, and found out the hard way that Price Pfister is using cheap plastic/brass assemblies instead of solid brass. The brittle replacements are made in China, and I destroyed one just trying to get it to seat correctly. I also broke the brass three-way connector on the hot water line attempting to follow a slow leak back to the source, which mandated another trip to the Home Depot for parts.
We rolled that in with a ferry ride to Crownsville in the Scout, which is getting a rebuilt carburetor this week—fortuitous timing, as it turns out, because the idle speed is now so slow that she was stalling out on me as I came to stop signs. Let’s just say that bringing a 4,100 lb. brick to a halt with no steering or brakes is an interesting challenge.
Returning to the house via the H-D, I replaced the three-way connector, blew the spout off the top of the faucet in a shower of cold water (I hadn’t screwed it back in place), and found that the second hot-water cartridge I’d bought was missing two tiny internal valve assemblies. So back to the store I went. Again. Poor Jen; I was so irritated I could hardly talk. Thankfully, the fourth time was the charm, and I got everything back together, but I’ll never buy Price Pfister again, and I’m going to specify solid brass assemblies in any faucet we purchase from now on.
Then, I ran back outside to finish the front hedges and get the sidewalks edged. After dinner and getting Finn to bed, we were cleaning up the debris of the weekend until 10, at which time beer and pound cake were necessary, along with some mindless TV. I fell asleep on the couch by 10:30, wondering how the weekend got past us so quickly.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Somebody is very excited about learning how to climb onto and sit on chairs by herself! Three guesses.
I spend a lot of time on the computer each day, and I’m always looking for something interesting to listen to. This American Life has been a staple of my iTunes podcast list for two years now. I highly recommend it, and this morning I donated money to keep it online. I encourage you to listen (if you don’t already) and give a little money, if you have it, so that it will continue.
The Cure just re-released Disintegration, their seminal album from 1989, to excellent reviews.
A whole lot of this album’s appeal is that it’s comforting, practically womblike– big, warm, slow, full of beauty and melody and even joy. The trick, I think, is how well it serves as a soundtrack to that feeling that everything around you is meaningful, whether it’s beautiful or horrible or sublime…
I’d have to say I agree. This album was in heavy rotation my freshman year of college, along with Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins. There’s an interesting mix of music, huh?
The big news around the Lockardugan estate these days is a successful mortgage refinance, which (among other things) has consolidated several large bills into one smaller payment at a lower interest rate. We will be seeing additional benefits beyond a smaller monthly outlay, beginning with forward progress on the side porch and atrium.
To recap, the day before Finn was born, we installed a door between the living room and what used to be the exam room in preparation for renovations. Predictably, the 20 months since then have been filled with all-baby-all-the-time, so the exam room sat untouched while we gathered some shekels and got her moving under her own power. Our main stumbling block, even before she was born, was how to organize the space in the atrium above, due to the need for plumbing—the plan has always been to use that space for a master bathroom adjoining the front bedroom. The jigsaw puzzle goes together like this: In order to finish off the downstairs, we need to put piping in for the upstairs bathroom. In order to get piping upstairs, we need to have a plan for how the bathroom up there will be laid out. In order for piping to go in, we need a chunk of cash to pay the plumber.
So, we’ve got the cash. Now, for the plan. On paper it sounds simple, but we have been stumped as to how to fit a sink, toilet, and bathtub into a space surrounded by windows and flanked by a fixed attic staircase. Working with only one interior wall makes planning difficult, because a shower on an outside wall is always going to be chilly.
What we’ve got now.
We enlisted the professional aid of Mr. Scout to help visualize a solution to our problem above, and get the ball rolling on the space below. (The immediate goal is to have a working bathroom on the first floor in place by July 4 for parade-goers, and the long-term goal is to have a functional den completed by, oh, let’s say Thanksgiving.)
The upstairs room is, as mentioned before, completely surrounded by old, creaky windows. The basement steps drop down into the back third, right next to a doorway that was tacked on to the rear of the porch. The staircase is next to a surround which encloses the chimney.
Our checklist for the upstairs bathroom is:
- A shower
- A toilet
- Dual sinks
- A large, usable closet
- Sunshine
- An over/under washing machine/dryer (not necessary, but would be nice)
Option 1
Mr. Scout did some measuring and some thinking, and suggested a radical solution: Make the back bedroom the master. Flip the current “closet”, push it forward to meet the depth of the chimney, and make the back 1/3 of the space a dressing room. Chop the attic stairs and devise some kind of hinged stair solution that can be folded up and hidden. Delete entirely the doorway into the front bedroom. Delete all but a few of the windows on the side of the house and take back that wall space. Put a tub/shower against the back of the closet and some kind of vanity/built in cabinetry against the front wall with the sinks. And put the toilet along the outside wall so it’s not the first thing you see upon entry.
Option 2
I did another variation on this idea where the tub becomes a stand-up shower in order to fit the washer/dryer alongside; we’ll have to measure that exactly and see if it can go somewhere else instead. I’m not entirely sure I want to delete the doorway to the blue bedroom, but if there’s another way to arrange the room to make things work better, I’m on board.
Downstairs, we’re altering the original plan just a touch to make the new bathroom more usable. Mr. Scout suggested widening the room from 44″ to 50″, turning the toilet and widening the window above to center them visually, and then using a 24″ door against the office wall, opening inward, for entry. We’ll level the floor and tile it. The casement windows I was originally considering for the den will change to a trio of double-hung units like we’ve got throughout the house, and the back door will be enlarged from a miniscule 24″ to a standard 32″ 15-pane glass (although this one will be exterior-grade steel). I’m still on the fence about what to do with the window over the radiator on the back wall; it may come out and it may stay in.
We’re shooting to have a working toilet and possibly a sink in place, surrounded by some roughed-in drywall for our parade guests. After that hubbub dies down we can get to the serious business of new windows, siding, and what to do about the floor (the end cutting pliers and I have a date with the floor sometime very soon), as well as insulating the coal cellar below (more tigerfoam) and doing something with the rickety porch off the back.
Here’s a link to Engadget’s iPhone 4 guide, including preview, pricing, and availability. Both Jen and I are eligible for the “$18 upgrade” with a 2-year contract. I’d prefer not to give AT&T another two years of my money, but they’re still the only game in town. And I’m not paying $20/mo. extra for the “privilege” of tethering.
I’ve been dropping Finn off at daycare the last two days so that Mama has more time to crank on work projects. We load into the CR-V and scoot down I-95 with the other commuters, listening to NPR and talking about all the schoobuses, dumptucks, pickle tucks and mototycles we see on our route. This morning I carried her over the wet stairs and handed her off to Miss Sara, and she happily bounded into the living room to play with her friends. Miss Sara suggested to Finn that she say bye-bye to daddy and tell him I love you, and she immediately said, “bye-bye-daddy-I-lub-you!”
Miss Sara then put her on the couch so she could watch out the window as I went back down the stairs, and I waved to her all the way out to the car, a tiny head pressed up against the screen of the window, her little voice repeating, “bye-bye daddy”.
I drove home with a huge empty space in the carseat over my right shoulder and a hole in my heart. I love that little girl so much.
I’m kind of ashamed to say this, because I dislike the name of the band so much, but I’m currently digging LP3 by Ratatat. It sort of defies description, but I like the way it’s constructed and the influences I’m hearing.
My daily commute takes me past the Baltimore City Courthouse right around the time potential jurors need to queue up out front to go through the vetting process. Often, as I’m sitting at one of the lights in front, I’ll see buttoned-up lawyers dragging carts loaded with file boxes of papers, nervous-looking plaintiffs accompanied by family members, or news crews set up under the shadow of double-parked media vans. Today, however, I was amused by the sight of two young women in Daisy Dukes and tightly tied t-shirts advertising a bail bonds service, attempting to cross the street in platform heels. They clacked their way onto the sidewalk, up the stairs, and entered the courthouse, on their mission of mercy, trailing behind a conservatively dressed woman (who I assume is the one who hands out business cards).
Capitalism at its finest, no?
From the It’s about Freakin Time Department: a Netflix app for the iPhone is coming, according to the current WWDC stream.