Author: turtle

while i went off to do yet more shopping – i think i’ve been procrastinating, because i’m feeling intimidated by the cast iron sewer pipe that i need to move for the new toilet location – janeen started to tear up the underlayment that is on the floor in the room we are using as a living room right now. there are so many nails in it – fortunately they did not glue it down, though.

when i finally got back from ‘discount’ (it’s anything but) builder’s supply, i realized that we need to remove the painted over window because it will interfere with the shower. it’s a bit weird because it looks out directly at three of our neighbor’s windows. there will (only) be two windows left now. so instead of fiddling with the intimidating plumbing, i reframed the wall and, with janeen’s help, nailed on the siding through a combination of leaning out the side widows, and climbing on the roof. it was really difficult to fit the new siding in, because the old siding had all shrunk the new pieces were almost half an inch wider.

so, it feels a bit better now that we got something done. janeen managed to take off about 1/3 of the underlayment. janeen is now relaxing under a blanket next to the floor where she removed the stinky underlayment.

today we met up with janeen’s friend, genanne, for a picnic – at the house, of course. she introduced us to a really tasty mexican food restaurant just blocks from our house, la taqueria. (janeen says: and she brought us a super cute potted plant as our first housewarming gift. must take photo! and why aren’t there photos of our guest? i think we were starving.)

we had a surprise visitor while we were eating – dee dee, the wonderful real estate agent who helped us buy this house, showed up with cookies and home-grown tomatoes for us. (j: and again, sadly, no photo of dee dee…)

after moving in many of my tools – finally i have a workshop – we discovered, last week, that the lock on the garage door was broken. it did not appear to be broken at first, but when you put a key into it – any key – you could twist the entire lock and unlock the garage door. i couldn’t wait to get in there and fix it. i’m now a locksmith. i cannibalized another lock in the house that’s broken, and rekeyed the garage door lock to match one of the house keys for another door. don’t need any more keys.

while janeen was busy entertaining her friend, I continued with the upstairs bathroom. I was determined to finish stripping all the walls, ceiling, and get the bathtub out of there.

janeen did some major cleanup (j: and recycling!) – there was dust, broken tile, broken wall board and plywood, nails, plaster all piled on the floor and in the bath tub. then we took out the cast iron tub and we maneuvered it downstairs. more good news (for me): the sewer pipe, which i thought i was going to have to move, is already in the right place for the new toilet location.

just one more thing to do before we can start on the rough plumbing: the floor tile was set in mortar with metal lathe embedded in it. we need to take this out to get the toilet out (it is embedded in the mortar), and to change the plumbing for the new toilet location, and the shower.