Confirm THIS!

This WTF Moment is brought to you by the Herongate Dental Clinic.

I have a dental appoint for tomorrow morning at 8:00am. Last week the phone rang and I answered it, which is rare for me as nobody ever calls me. It was an automated message from my dentist’s office reminding me that I have an appointment on Friday, March 26th at 8:00am and saying to “press 1 to confirm the appointment”.

I pressed 1 and hung up.

Yesterday I checked the messages on our answering machine. There was one from my dentist’s office, again reminding me that I have an appointment on Friday, March 26th at 8:00am, and adding that the appointment is not confirmed until I contact their office.

WTF?

I’m not going to call them. I’m going to go to my “press 1” confirmed appointment tomorrow morning for my check-up.

Home Reno – finishing the puzzle… well, mostly

We lucked out and the forecasted rain did not become a reality!

The entire day was spent cutting tile to fit near the walls… or around walls… and thresholds. We didn’t get started with cementing them down until some time after 3:00pm. We were so tired by then, that we almost decided to wait until another time. It’s hard to believe that it took that long. I never would have imagined it.

Anyway, we stuck it out and got it all done. The bathroom still has not been touched since we removed the laminate and the toilet. I’m sure that old vanity is going to take forever to remove because of the awkwardness of the plumping. So the floor in there still has to be done. It’s small, so it shouldn’t take long. (Famous last words)

After setting the last piece of tile at the entrance to the den, I was standing on it to make sure it was set and the damn thing snapped clean in half. I came so close to just leaving it. It didn’t look that bad. :) But I couldn’t. I cut a new one.

Our primary concern is still with getting the kitchen back to being functional, so we’ll be looking at grouting this week. Bathroom next weekend.

We’re both contemplating taking another Friday off as well.

Week 32 – Screwed

Screwed (32/52)
Originally uploaded by Twister65

This weeks photo is... 3700 flooring screws. :) All part of our main floor home reno. I should have shot it closer and might have gotten a cool texture image out of it.

Home Reno – pieces of the puzzle

The whole day was spent mixing mortar and laying tile.

We started off laying the tile without mortar to get a good idea of how they should be placed so that we didn’t end up with small pieces along any of the walls.

Thank god we bought the big mixer bit to attach to my drill. That stuff is thick and doesn’t mix easily. I thought it was going to burn out the drill, it got so hot. It said to mix for 5 minutes, let sit for 5-10 minutes, mix again and then use it. It took more than 5 minutes to fully mix so there was no powder at the bottom of the bucket.

Here’s a tip: make sure you have two buckets. Start to mix in the first bucket and then pour/scrape it into a second bucket so you can get all the unmixed powder at the bottom of the first bucket.

Everything I read said to lay all of the full tile pieces first, let them dry and then do the cut pieces later. It makes sense, but it can be a big pain to scrape the excess mortar from the non-tiled areas so they remain smooth for when you do put those tiles down.

Our living room looks like hell now. My wife joked that our house looks like it belongs on an episode of Hoarders. Funny, but so true.

We still haven’t done any more to the bathroom. There’s rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so I suspect it’s unlikely that we will be getting it done anytime soon. I guess we’ll continue with the tiling to get the kitchen back in order, and then we can work on removing the old bathroom vanity.

Home Reno - demolition

We got to Home Depot at around 7:15am or so. We wanted to get there early so we had a chance to rent their $20 van to deliver our own plywood, rather than pay the ~$60 for them to deliver it.

We picked up fifteen 8’x4’x½” sheets of plywood, two bags of mortar, a box of 3700 flooring screws. Thanks to the cashier at Home Depot, we saved $2 on the screws and got 2700 more! We had originally picked up two boxes of 500. They had larger boxes at the cashier, and she pointed out that the 3700 box was $2 cheaper. Go figure. Good thing we went with the larger box because I went screw crazy on the plywood.

By around 3:50pm, we had moved all of the kitchen appliances into the dining area, we had all of the old laminate ripped up, all of the baseboard and ¼ round off, the toilet removed (that old wax(?) ring was f’n gross) and two sheets of plywood installed. It was slow going, mostly because we were trying to cut the plywood to fit all the angles, as opposed to using lots of smaller pieces.

We also slowed down when we were removing the laminate in the bathroom. We had originally planned on gutting the entire bathroom before starting to put down the plywood, but it turned out that the braided hose we got to replace most of the copper pipe was too short. My wife went back to Home Depot and exchanged it for longer hoses and different pressure fittings. But at the same time, we decided on NOT removing the old vanity for the time being because it’s going to be time consuming and we need to try and get our kitchen back to being functional as soon as possible. I figured we could get the kitchen and front entrance tiled and grouted first, and then do the bathroom later.

We stopped at 7:20pm after installing plywood in the kitchen and the front hall. That’s not as much as I had originally hoped on getting done, but I’m still happy with it. The weather forecast was originally calling for rain tomorrow, so we tried to get as much of the cutting done today since we were doing it all outside. I just checked the forecast now, and there’s no rain forecast for tomorrow, so maybe we will be able to get the bathroom floor gutted and plywood down after all.

I have to say that the best tool I have, and used today, was my Dad’s old variable-speed Black & Decker drill. It has to be around 30 years old and still works like a charm. My own drill is not variable-speed.  With a Robertson screw driver bit in it, it was a huge time saver screwing down all the plywood. I can’t imaging the hell it would have been screwing them all down by hand. There’s no way I could have done it. His old steel yard stick also came in handy. My Dad used to do a lot of home reno projects when I was a kid, so I like to think that he was with us in spirit, via his old tools. Thanks Dad! :)

Home Reno – Turning off the water

When I got home from work, I decided to make sure I could shut off the water to our house. I didn’t want any surprises tomorrow when we gutted the ½ bathroom. I knew where the tap was, but never had the need to turn it off. Until now.

The tap was very stiff, but I managed to turn it a dozen times until until it turned no more.

We turned on the tap in the bathroom and the water flowed freely. This was definitely not what one would expect with the main tap being turned off.

I had a look around the basement for another tap. Nothing.

This one had to be the one. It was attached to a pipe coming up through the concrete floor. The pipe was very cold. There was no doubt. I turned it back on again. And off again. We tested the basement taps near the washing machine. We still had water. WTF?

I tried turning off the tap leading to the hot water heater and then turned on the hot water tap at the sink. No water. I turned it back on. The pipe leading to the hot water tank comes from this main tap, so I was 100% sure this was the main source and all leading to this sink.

I swore a lot. My wife asked me to stop swearing. I told her I needed to swear.

I turned the main tap off again… as tight as it would go. I was afraid that it might snap off.

I walked over to the sink and turned on the cold water.

It dribbled out. Success!

I guess the stubborn tap, having not been used for such a long time, just needed loosening up… or something.

I ran up to the bathroom and tested its taps. They too stopped working.

I turned the main back on until tomorrow.

One problem overcome… with persistence and a lot of swearing. It is now beer:30.

Bring on tomorrow.

Home reno 101

I don’t consider myself to be a contender for Canada’s Worst Handyman, but I am also far from being a home renovation expert.

I always get nervous when trying new reno projects for the first time. 99% of the time, they go well, but there’s always that 1% taunting me that I’ll mess it up.

We’ve been doing a main floor reno since January. What started off as simply “replacing this old carpet” has turned into…

• removing carpet from all stairs, sanding, staining and finishing steps (done)
• installing ceramic tiles on the risers (done)
• repainting the stair stringers (done)
• removing all baseboards on the main floor, stair landings and upstairs hall (done)
• repainting the upstairs hall, stairs case walls – upper and lower – living room and dining area (done)
• removing carpet in the living room and dining area and replacing it with laminate flooring, including a ½" plywood subfloor
• removing old laminate floor in entrance, kitchen and ½ bathroom and installing porcelain floor tile, also including a ½" subfloor and removal of old vanity
• installation of new baseboard throughout all affected areas
• possibly installing crown moulding in living room and dining area

The two parts of this project that I have never “experienced” are:

• Gutting a bathroom and installing a new vanity and sink, including the removal and reinstall of a toilet and cutting pipe copper pipe
• Installing porcelain floor tiles

The vanity happens to be the original vanity installed back when this townhouse was built in the 1970s. It has no shutoff valves on the plumbing underneath the sink. Thankfully the toilet appears to be newer and does have a shutoff valve installed, so that’s one less thing to do (or screw up)

I’ll be taking the easier route and won’t be welding any pipe once I cut the old ones. I have the braided hose with pressure fittings and shutoff valves. One day I’ll take on the welding task, but for now, easy is key for me.

Wish me luck.