Bill Roper's Journal

Gretchen and I are considering having the shower in our bathroom rebuilt. This is a project that is something like "The House That Jack Built" or perhaps "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today".

Before the kids were born, we had the bathrooms tiled to replace the fine builder-grade vinyl on the floors and the completely uninteresting white tiles on the walls. We didn't, however, replace any of the glass surrounding the shower, nor the hardware that holds it up. All of that is now more than 25 years old, starting to corrode along the tracks that the shower doors slide on, and becoming progressively more difficult to keep working. I replaced the wheels on the doors a few months back and they improved the situation, but didn't fix it.

We could, of course, replace the metal framing and glass doors around the shower. But whatever new frame that we get is not going to mount into the same holes that have been cut in the existing tile work. And while we have a *few* extra tiles from the original work, we don't have a *lot* of extra tiles to replace all of this with. It is certain that we can't match them.

And we also didn't replace the fine builder-grade plastic shower pan. It too is a whole lot worse for wear.

On the other hand, we *could* just rebuild the whole shower area with a compatible, but contrasting tile, making it look like we actually planned this all when we add the new glass around the shower area. This seems like a trick that might work.

Well, it will work if we can find the right contractor, the right tiles, and the right hardware. We are now shopping around.

I'll let you know what we find. :)

We are now in the final phases of the kitchen renovation. There's a small bit of trim and some spackling and touch up painting that needs to be done in areas that used to be covered with tile, but which are no longer so. Also, the phone jack and one outlet need an additional piece of mosaic tile cemented in so that an outlet cover will fit over them, while there's one double switch outlet that needs a tiny bit of tile chiseled out to give us good access to the fourth mounting hole for the switch.

All of the other outlets are now wired up, courtesy of some spacers and longer screws that I picked up at Home Depot, plus a fair amount of patience. This means that we can start to move things back onto most of the kitchen counters.

As we approach the end, I gain a better understanding of asymptotes...

No Marcon this weekend, so for the second consecutive year, I was home for Mother's Day.

Unlike last year, going to a restaurant was an option, so I arranged with Gretchen to arrive at one of our local places just after they opened, thereby beating the rush. It was a lovely lunch.

Back at home, we unpacked several more boxes back into the new cabinets, moving things around as required. There's still more unpacking to do -- and more things that need to leave the house -- but the end is in sight.

The one annoying thing that we've discovered is that the new drawers are a fraction of an inch less deep than the old drawers, which means that some of the things that fit before the renovation will not fit now. But we'll figure it out.

Eventually.

The sealant went onto the stone sections of the backsplash tile today. That leaves the grouting and a good bit of touch up painting, after which the whole thing should be done.

We are rather looking forward to this. :)

I am embarking on a bit of code rearrangement at work, which -- if I can get it sorted out -- will simplify a lot of things that I need to do. As usual, the devil is in the details, which I am working through now. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, the backsplash tile is going up! And it looks great!

The plumbers came today and hooked up the sink, the faucet, the garbage disposal, the dishwasher, and the water to the refrigerator. It is *so* nice to have a working sink in the kitchen again!

We still need paint and tile, but this is getting *very* close to being done. :)

Counters tomorrow! Comedy tonight!

Well, mostly. The subcontractor who was supposed to come back today and install the handles on the cabinets and close up the holes in the end cabinets while they are still easily accessible didn't. I texted the main contractor this evening to let him know and he'll come by tomorrow morning and make sure that (at least) the holes get closed up.

We're looking forward to seeing the countertops, because this particular granite has a lot of variance in the pattern, so we're hoping that things all land correctly. :)

We got the heads up yesterday about the upcoming schedule for our kitchen renovation. The cabinet installers will be back on Saturday to finish up all the cabinet bits that need to be done.

The countertops will be installed next Tuesday afternoon.

And that will leave the backsplash tile.

We'll see how everything sorts out.

Got up early today for softball practice. The second half was a scrimmage with one of the other local teams, which was a good learning experience for everyone.

Ordered a new garbage disposal from Home Depot. Went to pick it up and discovered that they had canceled the order, because it was out of stock. They had called the home phone while I was out to tell us this instead of sending an email; then when I went to check status on the email it said that *I* had canceled the order. I suggested -- in my capacity as a customer and a professional programmer -- that the UI for this left something to be desired. I went to check and there were none of this disposal on the shelf, so I ended up buying a more expensive one after determining that I wasn't about to get one cheaper anywhere else. Ah, well.

Yesterday, I checked online and found that the minivan that I have been stalking is back on sale again, the rebates having returned. Gretchen still isn't up for replacing the current minivan, so this was simply a matter of keeping current. In a no-doubt totally unrelated event, last night I dreamed that our current minivan had broken down and was venting steam through the *roof*.

The batteries in the children have completely worn out and they are both asleep as far as I can tell.

Must be time to go to bed. :)

Our contractor came by today and moved the base cabinet to the correct position on the wall. The cabinet crew will come and move the two upper cabinets next week and install the rest of the hardware, at which point those things should be in pretty good shape.

Having the lower cabinets all in the correct location will make it easier when the fellow comes tomorrow to measure for the granite countertops. We'll need to remind him that the refrigerator will *not* be staying flush against one of the lower cabinets, but other than that, things are where they are going to stay.

We will then go into the long night of the kitchen, waiting for the granite fab to be completed. This is supposed to take seven to ten days. It will seem longer. :)

And then there will be the tile work for the backsplash, but that shouldn't take too long, I suspect.

In the meantime, I have been offloading boxes into the upper cabinets that are in the correct position. The problem is *finding* the right boxes, because they are mostly not labeled. So it's open a box, see what's in it, realize that it is not yet a useful box, and try another.

But I got three boxes into the cabinets tonight, which is not bad. And I found the baking cookware for Gretchen to offload into drawers tomorrow, so that will be good too.