Susan's New Car

I finally (after months and months of looking and thinking about it) bought my new (used, but new to me!) car.



Here she is:



I got a sale price on this 2005 Pontiac Vibe so I was able to get one with a lot of nice features, including a roof luggage rack, keyless entry, and upgraded stereo. It was a one-owner leased car from Wisconsin (so it hasn't even been exposed to Twin Cities insane winter road salt conditions) and is in really good shape, practically new. Isn't she pretty?


It's been a long time since I've had a new car, so I'm pretty excited. It's got a nice ride and is surprisingly roomy inside for a small(er) car. It's going to make trips to the lake a lot nicer this summer! Especially when we want to haul anything big and clunky, because the rear seats fold down and make a nice cargo space in the back. Also it's supposed to get pretty good gas mileage--averaging around 30 mpg (better on the highway). So I'm going to be saving money on gas for sure.


So, that's my big news. What's new in your world? Keep in touch, all!

So Dan Says, "Are you guys building a house, or a bathroom over there?"

I guess Dan figures we should have had a whole house built in the time it's taking us to remodel this bathroom. So for all my avid readers of bathroom remodelling project updates, here's the latest installation!

Yes, we are actually making progress. No, we're not done yet.

Since last I wrote, all the backerboard and sheetrock have been hung. The backerboard has been mortared in, and the sheetrock taped, mudded, and sanded. Tiling has begun on the north wall but it's very slow in coming along due to all the cuts that need to be made for the window, the corner shelves, the moisture vent, etc.

Mom and Dad came down to the Cities again after Christmas and we worked on the project some more. Dad installed the new drain and faucet into the bathtub and checked all the plumbing for leaks (of which there was only one, and amazingly in an easy place to get at to fix!). Andrew continues to tile. Dad filled in the crevices in the floor along the outside of the room where we had to chip out the old black ceramic tile (that's so there's a completely solid surface for putting in the floor tile). Mostly I painted. All the painting except for the wainscoting (which hasn't been installed yet) is done now except touch-ups and the door frame, which needs to be sanded down first as it's really beat up from the paint scraper. (All the painting means the ceiling, walls, crown moldings, and wainscot trim boards). Dad got the crown moldings put up, too, and they look really nice. The walls are a pale lemon yellow, which will add a little warmth to the otherwise straight black, white, and crome look of the room. It's finally starting to look like a room again, instead of just a junk hole!

The bad news, though, is about the toilet: the new one that we bought can't be installed without the door hitting it when it opens. Sigh. We made sure that the new toilet was shorter than the old one, but still because of a change in design between 80 years ago and today, most of the length is in front of the bolts, instead of in back of them. Which means that the new style sits too far out from the wall, and thus blocks the door from opening. The good news about the toilet is that we still have the old one, and in spite of our not having completely drained the water out, it didn't freeze in the garage and break! We may yet find a "compact" toilet model that will fit our space, but if we don't I guess the 80+ year-old one will have to go back in.

So, what's left to do? The big thing is to finish the ceramic tiles around the shower. Then we have to put in the new flooring (a mosaic of small black and white tiles). Once that's done, things will hopefully really start to move along. We can install and paint the wainscoting, reset the toilet, install the new vanity/sink/faucet, put in the two built-in cabinets, and install the new light fixture. Oh, and put up the towl bars and toilet paper holder. And call the bathtub refinisher to make our old cast iron bathtub look new again. And then we'll be pretty much finished. Just got to get that tiling done! Everything waits on the tiling.

Here are some more pics to illustrate:

The backerboard was installed.

Andrew taped and mudded the sheetrock.

Finished sheetrock.

Some progress on ceramic tiles in the shower.

The new toilet that doesn't fit.

The crown moldings.

Slowly, slowly we are making some progress on this project!

A Story from Sahro

In the spirit of the Christmas season, I wish to relate this story to you from my student Sahro. I have edited a few grammatical and spelling errors to ensure that her story is clear, but these are her words, coming from a place of pain in her heart. For her story is the story of all those living in--or fleeing from--war-torn lands: it is a plea for peace. May God answer her prayer.

My name is Sahro Hassan. I was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. I was excited in that time, because I was living with my family. My family was a big family. We were 7 brothers and 5 sisters. We lived with our parents. I was born in the middle of them. Also I had great country, big country. It has a big sea, name's Indian Sea. Also it has 2 big rivers. It has a lot of farmers and a lot of animals. I like the weather of my country because it's not hot and not cold.

We had a governor, but our governor was not as American governor. But it was better than today. We had everything we need. We were working, studying, and we had peace and we used to be happy. Now my country is gone. Everything is broke down. The brother lost his sister, and sister lost her brother, her husband, and even her son. It was a time to think everybody wants to kill another. We had 16 years like that. Same and same and same. We are tired right now. We need peace. Stop fighting! Enough destroying the country like this. It's time to think of our children's future. We are the same family and we can do good things if we think good things, please.

Your sister Sahro.

Bathroom Update

Since I posted those beautiful pictures of our ripped-open bathroom, things have started to improve somewhat.

Sunday we all worked on the project but it seemed like not that much got accomplished. Andrew and I spent hours at Home Depot again buying more supplies. The new moisture vent was wired in and installed (that took a long time) and Andrew got the North wall insulated and covered in plastic. I spent most of my time playing gopher and cleaning up debris. I also helped Dad with figuring out the wiring for the reconfigured light switch/moisture vent switch/ground-fault outlet. What a confusing mess of wires that was! After much conferring and debating, and tripping the ground-fault repeatedly, we got it all connected right. Yay!

Mom and Dad stuck around for an extra day and Dad worked very hard for us all day Monday (THANKS DAD!!). He got the new bathtub/shower hardware plumbed in, boxed in spaces for our two built-in medicine cabinets, fixed the heat duct vent so that it's now a normal size, and started hanging tile backer board on the North (exterior) wall.

Since then, not a whole lot has been done. Andrew and I are too busy with our full-time jobs to work on remodeling much during the week. But Andrew has cut, fitted, and hung a couple more pieces of backer board around the shower. We hope to get a lot more accomplished this weekend. Keep checking this page for updates! And please leave a comment... It's fun to think that someone is actually reading this. :-)

Demolition Continues

Thanksgiving came and went in the usual style. Christina and Dan served up an excellent meal, Andrew got to be the fun uncle, and my pies turned out really well. The weather was lovely and we even got to go for a pleasant afternoon stroll.

Today, we got back to business in the bathroom. Well, it used to be a bathroom, anyway. Now its not much of an anything room. Dad turned up around 8:30 and we set to work making assessments for ripping out the bathroom walls and fixtures. The first thing we discovered in our plumbing survey is that there was no shut-off valve on the pipes leading to the bathroom. Upstairs there was a shut-off valve for the toilet, and one under the sink (but only for the hot water, nothing for the cold), and the shower had no shut-off valves at all. The only way to work on the plumbing in the shower or the cold water in the sink would be to turn the water off to the entire house. I'm telling you, there were some really bright folks working on this house.

So, first things first we had to plumb in new shut-off valves in the basement. Or, I really ought to say that Dad had to plumb them in since he's the only one of us with any real plumbing experience or know-how. Right away when he started with the solder we could tell something wasn't right, though, since the solder didn't seem to draw into the fitting like it should. He kept heating and adding solder but it just dripped off onto the floor. But, we thought we would test it to be sure, so we turned the water back on to see how bad it was leaking. Well, it wasn't just a leak--the whole valve blew right off the end of the pipe and went flying across the basement on a blast of water. Much swearing and foul language was to be heard at this point.

We turned off the water and broke for lunch.

Take two: Andrew runs to the hardware store for soldering paste. That gets slapped on, and the valves are resoldered. I turn the water back on, we check for leaks, and now the solder doesn't leak but the drain gaskets drip. Probably they got overheated with all the soldering and now they don't hold quite right. Finally we get those drips stopped and I turn the water open all the way. But with the increased pressure, a new leak appears in one of the joints! ack. But, after one more go with the solder the leak was stopped up and we could finally shut the water off to the bathroom.

In the next act, we rip out the walls. And the sink, vanity, light fixture, and toilet. And we make the most incredible mess. Mortar dust is EVERYWHERE. The entire bathtub is filled with debris. But the really fun moment was as I was coming back in from hauling out the sink, I open the hallway door and suddenly see a geyser of water blasting out from the wall across the bathroom! Dad and Andrew got so carried away ripping things out that they forgot that the valve under the sink was the shut-off valve for the hot water! So I had to race to the basement to turn off the water again. Oh, the unbelievable mess. We thought it was a mess before... then we added water to the mortar dust and chips and made mud. Although it did settle the dust in the air a bit.

Anyway, we stopped around 5:00 after hauling out bag after bag of debris and cleaning up the floors a bit. We've more demolition to do tomorrow, so there's not much point in doing a serious cleaning up right now. But tomorrow sometime the demolition should be done and we can start on reconstruction. We hope.

Here's the most recent photos: