BunkBlog

That’s what I had in my yard today. On the good side, this should take care of our recurring problems with sewage backups. We had a great tar-and-paper pipe for our sewer, which was apparently commonly used around the time of the Second World War. Our house is probably the last on the block or the city to get it replaced. Joy.

The gallery has a few more photos from this week.

This cheesecake was quite yummy. It has cranberries in the middle of the cream cheese, and a little egg nog in the batter too. Mmm….

And, I think we have just about enough darned pecans!

We have a crazy amount of pecans falling from the 2.5 trees that drop into our yard. Lots of pecans.

I know I said I’d have tile photos up “as soon as” the family returned from Holland, and it’s been weeks since then. Better late than never, here are some pictures of the new tile, in bathroom and kitchen. Unfortunately for contrast, we don’t have any good pictures of the yellow kitchen before we started working on it. It was hideous, though.

I’ve done my homework, the laundry, and there’s nothing compelling on television (Well, the Talented Mr. Ripley is on and I’ve not seen that)… I’ll knock out some floor finishing tonight. Woohoo!

Well, last tile post until I get some photos online, anyway.

The tile dudes finished up this morning, the kitchen sink is in place, and all is right with the world. Except, of course, that the two women I talk to at work have left me. One to Georgia and the other to the next building over. The one who’s going to Georgia is the one I’ll miss most. Why can’t this company keep any interesting non-retired people? Almost every one of my coworkers is 50 years old and annoying as shit.

I’m supposed to be at work. I should have been there 90 minutes ago. Instead, I’m waiting for the tile guys to come back and do about 30 minutes of work they should have done yesterday. I hate home improvement projects.

Although the job was slated to be “two and a half” days and it has now been three full days, they’ll be back in the morning for a few more things. Polishing the bathroom floor, gluing the rubber strip down on the doorsill, and driving me insane.

One of the guys did put the toilet back on for me, for 30 bucks. What a great scam. And, I have to hit the hardware store for some silicone to put the new kitchen sink in. The old kitchen sink remains on my porch, so I guess my request that they dispose of it was a waste of breath. Into the trash can it goes. I think it’ll fit.

In good news, it looks nice. The tile is not nearly as dark as I had feared, and now I’m trying to figure out when we should get the backsplash done in the kitchen. At least that won’t require gutting two rooms of the house for a week. Time to pull the fridge stuff out of the coolers and pretend I’m a grownup again. Joy.

Something you don’t want to hear just after someone removes your toilet from the bathroom: Who’s going to put that back on for you, Mr. B____?

Well, hell, here I figured the guys that took it off would be the obvious choice. One more thing that the chuckleheads at Lowe’s need to perhaps discuss with people before the job starts?

I’m sure everyone is just anxious with concern over the tiledudes progress today. I’m happy to say that it went well. They repaired the floor after the plumber left it full of holes, got the tile done for the countertop and the kitchen floor, and are ready to hit the bathroom floor tomorrow. Still no grout to finish the tile with, which makes me a bit nervous. And, I hope they don’t find a pipe hiding under the floor in the bathroom. There’s no access under the house. We wouldn’t even know if they hit something unless it was a huge gusher, until weeks from now. I don’t relish the idea of ripping up a brand-new floor to fix 50 year-old plumbing.

In the process of laying the subfloor, just about to start putting the tile down, the tile guys punctured a pipe where no pipe should have been. You know where this is going, don’t you? Pieces of cement backboard have been ripped up, a plumber called, and another multi-hundred dollar charge is added to my floor. Oh, and since the water has to be turned off to get it fixed, no bathroom or kitchen a day earlier than expected.

I sure hope this shit gets done by Wednesday, or I’ll have a really long day at work on Friday. FMITGA.

Edit: The plumber only cost 75 bucks, plus I had to buy a drywall repair kit for another five dollars to fix the wall he had to cut in order to get to the breach. It’s never easy.

The tile guys are done removing the kitchen sink, there is like NO food left in the fridge and the microwave and oven are out of the question until the place is reassembled. It’s not my fault that I’m eating at San Angelo Burger Company – I have no choice. 😆

Now, I’m not a handyman, but I assume when someone sets up a date for an installation it’s because all the materials are on hand and they are ready to work. Turns out, the grout is not in. And the nice fellas ask me about this, as if I knew. Nope. I didn’t know there was anything amiss, but thanks for making me worry. They tell me the grout I ordered was not in stock and it should be in by Wednesday. Listen, fellas, I didn’t order grout. I picked out tile. All the other stuff (backing boards and adhesives and grouts) are left up to the people who know this stuff. I’m just paying for it, don’t expect me to know anything at all about bisquit colored grout versus white grout. How the hell do I know this shit? I want tile.

Damn, I hope the grout shows up by Wednesday. That would be the day that I can expect them to have everything done, I’m told. We’ll see.

I really wish I had a camera. The fridge, stove and new sink are in the den; the microwave is on the kitchen table; and the old sink is on the front porch. Tomorrow, I’m told to expect no toilet all day. Fun.

The tile guys have arrived, right on time (even a few minutes early). This is a week that I wish we had two digital cameras, since it’s in the Netherlands right now. I hope this process is quick, but I’ve been told it will be two days or maybe three. Not that I want to go to work this week, but there are things I need to do there. Fortunately, I don’t have to do them until Thursday. Lucky that.

The room formerly known as Ugly. Finally got it sanded (with much elbow grease and sander belts), stained and polyurethaned (is that a verb?). Now we’ve got actual floors in every room. That just means we notice the walls need work. *sigh*

In case you want to know what it looks like when you pull up nasty ass carpet and find hardwood floors that “need a little work,” check out our latest addition to Bunk’s Gallery: Redecorating. Whoo boy. Wish we could have just had elves do that for us…

Three coats of polyurethane later, the floors are as complete as they will get in the near future. Now, to turn the former garage into a decent room, rather than the warehouse-like vault it was last week.

And, two finals down, one to go. Too bad the one remaining is the one that I’m hoping to maybe just pass the damned class…

Not only are there hardwood floors hiding under carpet through 75% of the new house, the hardwood is in decent condition and is absolutely gorgeous. The living room in particular has some fabulous looking wood. Makes me really question the sanity of someone who would cover it up on purpose. Photos soon.

Why would one take beautiful hardwood floors and cover them with shag carpeting? What in the world were people thinking in the 70s? And don’t get me started on multi-colored confetti-like carpet colors. Ick.

That cut on my hand was not fully healed after all. Or at least, that’s what the burning sensation from the phosphor must have meant last night when I was cleaning the tile. Still not as good a psychotic cleanser as the stuff we used professionally, but I don’t think there’s an industrial chemical supply house around here that will sell me sulfuric acid so my toilets will sparkle. 🙂

If you want to see what a pink house looks like on the inside, check out our photo album. The latest page includes photos of the new digs, the backyard, and a few of Alex being cute. Pretty much never going to escape those Boy pics.