Spent the day driving back and forth to the lumberyard with two trips to Lowes for stuff for the bathroom, which is being remodeled:
I think this is the first time this bathroom has been remodeled in decades. And don’t worry juicers, someone else is doing the construction, because I can’t be trusted to be within 50 feet of tools without hurting myself.
Also, I saw this on Facebook and it cracked me up:
jwb
When I saw this picture, I was frightened. I was very happy to read: “don’t worry juicers, someone else is doing the construction, because I can’t be trusted to be within 50 feet of tools without hurting myself.”
Comrade Mary
So what are you getting? Heated floors? Deep tub? A pet Jacuzzi?
Brachiator
Is this for a new PBS series, “This Cole House?”
Gin & Tonic
You know, radiant heated floors, if you’re putting in tile, are the greatest thing ever. At least if you live in a climate where it gets cold.
Cain
Nobody wants to talk about the tax bill the senate passed ?
Gin & Tonic
Oh, and why is that dog’s dick in the wrong place?
Hill Dweller
I’ve given Jon Stewart a lot of shit for his Broderesque turn in the last year, but he just crushed Romney/Fox/wingnuts for their distortion of Obama’s small business quote.
AkaDad
You may want to get a nurse to live with you during the remodel.
p.a.
think about a motion sensor lightswitch- saves fumbling for the switch on p.m. potty runs. Just make sure the timer is set for more than 30 seconds! As long as the pets don’t go in there, that is; don’t want to drive up the electric bill.
PurpleGirl
@p.a.: I put a motion sensor light switch in my hallway by the front door. This way when I come in with packages and stuff I don’t fumble to turn on the light and it turns itself off. I don’t have to walk back down the hallway to turn it off. I recommend it for convenience.
David Fud
The Rmoney ads in the upper right of BJ are pretty funny.
PurpleGirl
The whippet cartoon is cute. Giggle.
NotMax
Insist that whatever treatment they’re giving the walls doesn’t block or degrade the wireless connectivity. ;)
Brachiator
@Cain:
It is political theater, and maybe gives the president something to show potential voters. The House will never approve any of it, and nothing will really get done until after the November election.
PeakVT
@Cain: It’s nice that it passed (no thanks to Webb and Loserman), but unless it goes to conference it’s only a symbolic victory.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Hill Dweller: That was good stuff.
amk
@Cain: Good question. Ranting about goopers’ stupidity 24×7 ain’t gonna win elections.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Fawns on the lawn.
Narcissus
Cole you can’t be within 50 feet of a stiff breeze.
NotMax
@Cain
You mean the bill that will be blue-slipped by the House and held up before the election by the G.O.P. as evidence of the Democrats’ clear disregard of, if not spitting on, the Constitution’s original jurisdiction provision?
Nah, not much need to talk about it. Purely a symbolic vote.
The Dangerman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Guys hanging out in the yard
maven
They had bathtubs there 50 years ago?
Stand it up in the yard with a madonna inside.
Can’t waste a perfectly good bathtub.
NotMax
@Cain
One thing to add.
The more important vote today is the one which will be unreported widely – that the Senate had the numbers to vote down an unencumbered full extension of the tax cuts.
A moocher
@PurpleGirl: An excellent example of First World Problem. ZOMG! I must walk All The Way Down the Hall…
Hill Dweller
Colbert is also pummeling Mitt for distorting Obama’s remarks.
mai naem
It was a symbolic vote and Lieberprick as usual fcuked the Dems by voting against it. Guess, he’s setting up for his whore job post Senate career, and Webb voted against it. Don’t know why. Guess he must be setting himself up for some sweeeet lobbying gig too.
burnspbesq
Opening ceremony be damned, the Olympics are under way.
US 4, France 2. Two for Alex Morgan, one each for Carly Lloyd and the Wombat.
brettvk
@The Dangerman: Do the antlers disrupt the dish signal?
Bobby D
LMFAO at the Devo.
I’m about 95% done with my bathroom remodel in my vacation cabin. Did it myself. Everything torn out except the tub, had to build a little false wall at the back of the tub because the prior owners had some hilariously jury rigged contraption making a shelf out of the rear wall of the tub enclosure to get around some horizontal pipes.
Getting a drop-in (more like hammer for 2 hours in) flange into the old closet bend was a beyotch. ‘Course Cole could’ve just dropped a frozen pork loin on that bastid a few times and probably been done.
The Dangerman
@brettvk:
Not my place (sad to say)…
…then again, I’m grumpy when taking a shovel to clean the yard with a dog. Can you imagine the …
burnspbesq
Anybody having problems with Mountain Lion?
Martin
Just a consideration – if you’ve gone so far as to expose the plumbing, just replace it all. The extra cost is usually negligible and the last thing you want is for an old pipe to start leaking right behind your new tile. And a reliable rule is that the assembly line of contractors that built your house within budget put half as much attention into, well, everything, as your remodel contractor will.
I’ve got 4 bathroom remodels under my belt and another one planned for this fall – after I’ve finished trimming out the first floor. Thankfully one room is 100% done and another should be done this weekend. There’s about 1000 hours in these two rooms alone – floors, windows, doors, cabinets, plumbing, drywall, electrical, full-on trim and paint. Already mostly done withe the fireplace rebuild – just need to tile and install the new mantle.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@The Dangerman: Wow. Those are some guys indeed.
We saw a stag party down the street last week, but they were quite young bucks. Maybe two year olds.
Left Coast Tom
@mai naem: Thankfully Droopy Dog is With Us On Every Thing Other Than The War.
Anyway, symbolic or otherwise, the D “middle class only” bill passed and the R “1% mostly” bill did not, and in the prior Congress the basic issue was Pelosi getting shit done and passing it off to Reid for disappointment to occur, so its nice to see Reid getting stuff done. If anything, it makes the contrast between Pelosi’s performance and Boehner’s…uselessness stronger.
dead existentialist
Wheee! It’s raining for the 1st time in 30-some days!
Corbin Dallas Multipass
@Gin & Tonic: I dunno if you are being sarcastic. If not, it’s a tail.
suzanne
I wanna rip out the 20-year-old ugly-ass carpet in my pad and am thinking about replacing with luxury vinyl plank. Probably Amtico, if I can afford it. I love wood, but it isn’t advised below grade, and the first floor of our house is three feet below grade. Tile’s too hard and cold. The LVP isn’t going to increase the value of the house enough for it to ever Ben on House Hunters, but I’m thinking it’ll be the most hygienic and waterproof surface, and will stand up to pets and kids. (I spec the shit in hospitals, FFS.) Just need to find an installer. Any thoughts?
Mnemosyne
Well, I feel like kind of an a-hole now — I accidentally broke the bad news about my father-in-law’s death via text message to my best friend. It wasn’t entirely my fault — she was texting me from her new work phone and I thought she was someone else who did already know.
Fortunately this is someone who’s known me for almost 30 years, so she’s not really surprised I would fuck something like that up.
MikeJ
@burnspbesq: Morgan’s blooper goal involved five people. Beautiful, and nobody is showing it on the highlight reels.
dead existentialist
@The Dangerman: Are those Roosevelt Elk?
Soonergrunt
@Mnemosyne: Someone dear to you just died. You get a gimme or two.
(((Mnemosyne)))
MattR
@burnspbesq: In related news, we may find out if North Korean missles can reach Glasgow pretty soon.
MikeJ
@MattR: Heard that the US team was playing pool against NoKo at the hotel. At least the announcers said the team was tweeting about it.
Diana
you know what I’ve never been able to understand?
those handicapped parking spaces at places like Lowe’s and Home Depot. Now, intellectually I realize they’re there because they’re mandated by law, but every time I see them I have this visit of a guy in a wheelchair checking out the power tools because he’s going to climb up and repair a hole in his roof…
jwb
@burnspbesq: I won’t be upgrading for awhile to see how badly it breaks software, but everyone I know who upgraded seems to have gotten through the process with minimal damage so far. Some broken print drivers seems to be the worst of it. How about you?
NotMax
@MikeJ
Pool? Pool??
When in Rome and all that, they ought to be playing snooker.
Or darts.
Mnemosyne
@Soonergrunt:
Luckily this is my BFF from college so she knows me, but I still feel like a dumbass.
Ash Can
Is that your bathroom or Lily’s? (I assume Tunch’s bathroom is already done, complete with self-raking sandbox, running-water fountain water bowl, and piped-in bird calls in stereo surroundsound.)
MattR
@MikeJ: I’m gonna guess the North Korean players enjoyed that down time more than the Americans. Or maybe I am just applying the Cold War communist stereotype.
Semi- related, …
@NotMax: As long as they were having a pint while they played.
dr. bloor
@suzanne: Don’t sell tile short. Get the right color, install subfloor heating and lay down some nice area rugs, and it will look great.
burnspbesq
@jwb:
So far, so good, but I haven’t tried to print or scan, and I haven’t tried to launch Amarra, which usually goes FUBAR on OS upgrades. If it’s blown, I’m stuck with iTunes until there’s an update.
pseudonymous in nc
A friend of mine had a bathroom remodel that took 18 months. They had a spare bathroom to use, but it dragged. Anyway: ventilation, ventilation, ventilation. (And waterproofing: depending on the age of your house, you might be dealing with soggy gypsum back there.) But I’d agree with Martin, too: if you’ve got the plumbing exposed, might as well replace it.
@burnspbesq:
I’d argue that Alex Morgan is the best pure striker the US has produced in the modern era, male or female. Scares the shit out of centre-backs, great positional awareness, and the midfield can trust that she’ll show up when needed. She plays like a target man from the 1980s.
Jay in Oregon
@burnspbesq:
I upgraded my MacBook to 10.8 first; not my first choice, but I do software tech support, and we don’t have our updates yet for 10.8 compatibility and I need to be able to run the software on my work Macs.
I do a thorough clean install of everything, then migrate my home folder over. I was holding my breath; upgrading to 10.7 wasn’t horrible, but some much-needed apps were broken. Upgrading to 10.8 went pretty well, and thanks to jwb I’ve been reminded to install my printer drivers. :)
I would say that unless you want/need the tighter iCloud integration, esp. with Notification Center and Messages, you can probably hold off for a while.
EDIT: and I see you’re already upgrading! Cheers!
Poicephalus
OMG John, please don’t pay you plumber in cash.
He may be avoiding taxes.
The Dangerman
@dead existentialist:
I believe so; it was taken just outside Prairie Creek State Park in the Redwoods. I’m reasonably sure that’s the only elk that hang in that area, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
At one time, the Roosevelt Elk were fairly threatened in the area, but they appear to be doing fine. Here were the ladies and kids about 150 yards away:
http://i1048.photobucket.com/albums/s372/dangfrslo1/tvs039.jpg
burnspbesq
@Jay in Oregon:
I upgraded the home MBP as the canary in the coal mine. I’m not upgrading the work MBA until I’m satisfied that there aren’t any issues with my core work apps, Office and Acrobat.
burnspbesq
And I may never upgrade my mobile devices to iOS 6.
Tighter integration with Facebook is a good thing? Like fuck it is.
suzanne
@dr. bloor: I live in Phoenix, so ixnay on the radiant heating. In fact, I may put radiant cooling in the ceiling at some point. Standing on tile just makes me so sore. And the grout gets nasty. My goal is to have the same floor finish throughout the house—no thresholds or transitions.
seaboogie
Hah! In our olive oil tasting room we invite our guests to sip it or dip it, which led me to this today (in my mind) “sip it, sip it good, into shape, shape it up, get straight go for it”…cool closing that loop today. BTW, if any of you Juicers, especially in the gardening and cooking spheres want the best olive oil made here in CA, contact me and I will set you up with how to buy it affordably. I have the priveledge of working for the most award winning artisan producer of olive oil in this here country….
seaboogie
Hah! In our olive oil tasting room we invite our guests to sip it or dip it, which led me to this today (in my mind) “sip it, sip it good, into shape, shape it up, get straight – go for it”…cool closing that loop today. BTW, if any of you Juicers – especially in the gardening and cooking spheres – want the best olive oil made here in CA, contact me and I will set you up with how to buy it affordably. I have the privelege of working for the most award winning artisan producer of olive oil in this here country….
NotMax
@suzanne
Coerk flooring is likely also a no-no below grade, but you might want to look into or price bamboo flooring – it can be quite stylish and price-comparable with some of the vinyls.
burnspbesq
Speaking of Facebook, it’s scheduled to announce earnings for the first time tomorrow. This should be interesting.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
A buddy lives not far from where a mtn lion mistook a sleeping camper for a burrito, but fled before actually killing the guy. (Yuba River, Calif.) And last winter a neighbor called to tell him another(?) cat hauled a deer carcass through the yard.
Cougar 1 to cougar 2: “Psst, top of the foodchain, pass it on.”
mai naem
@suzanne: Go with Nafco instead of Amtico. Nafco is the cadillac of LVP and should not be a whole lot more than Amtico. We went with the plank nafco. Still holding up almost twenty years later. As long as you can afford it I wouldn’t worry about upping the value because it’s going to last way longer than carpet so you get your value back if you stay in the house long enough. IMHO, I wouldn’t go with the patterned stuff because of style trends. FWIW, I worked in floor covering. Tile would be cheaper but I get your concern of kids falling.
Jay in Oregon
@burnspbesq:
Acrobat Pro X is supported on 10.8, as is Office 2011.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
And as for iOS6 and Facebook, I agree. I realize FB is the 800-lb gorilla in the social media scene, but I don’t need and don’t want the ability to post everything I do on my iPad to FB. The only reason I still have an account at all is keeping tabs on family and friends.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Somebody lost their German shepherd to a mountain lion in our area the other day. It was probably a young lion, because it was not successful in actually dragging the dog away.
We’re close-ish to Griffith Park, so we’re in that weird urban-with-wild-predators area of Los Angeles. Which is pretty much all of it, really.
Origuy
@Diana: Not everybody with a handicapped placard is wheelchair-bound.
burnspbesq
@Jay in Oregon:
Cool. Thanks.
dead existentialist
@trollhattan: You aren’t talking about the same Mountain Lion, but that’s a good story. My Wild Kingdom story entails a fucking possum shitting all over one of the lawn chairs. Imma gonna git dat sucka!
slag
@suzanne: I’ve wanted to kiss the floors I walk on pretty much every day since we yanked out all our carpet and put in stranded poplar flooring in its place. Our carpet wasn’t that old or beat up, but every time a cat puked on it, Sam Kinison got his wings.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
On my list of “places to never visit” is Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park.
[edit: link fxt]
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/34183/hiker+captures+rare+footage+of+coyote+trying+to+scare+off+cougar/
Martin
@burnspbesq: No problems here – installed on a 2011 MBA and a late 2010 13″ MBP. Haven’t installed it on my new Retina yet, though.
Office works fine (well, as fine as it ever works). Acrobat also works fine (well, again, as fine as it ever works – which is like shit). I haven’t found any notable issues so far – just a few minor display glitches – and the 2011 MBA won’t do the full system audio AirPlay – but full screen video works fine. Odd.
foodriots
Is that where you are gonna put your false wall to stash the non perishables for when the global food riots hit.
Martin
@suzanne: We installed a wood-simulated porcelain tile in our last bathroom remodel and it’s fantastic. The newest stuff looks really, really nice, and while ceramic tile is cold, porcelain isn’t – it’s about the same as our new proper wood floor to the touch. It gets you full-on moisture resistance, the look of wood, and is zero maintenance.
Here’s a gallery. Quite a few mfgs and styles to choose from.
Martin
@trollhattan: I’ve been to Whiting Ranch many times. Seen mountain lions around here (but not there) a couple of times – out on the mountain bike, running, etc. Off in the distance, just watching me – out on the trails leading down toward Laguna.
I worry less about the mountain lions than I do the cars. Lost a friend last year to a car on bike crash. Never lost a friend to a mountain lion attack.
Villago Delenda Est
That is a TERRIBLE pun.
I’m not surprised it cracked you up, it cracked me up too.
karen marie
@suzanne: Below grade? Put some radiant heat in those floors! You could do tile without it being cold.
Anne Laurie
@suzanne:
I’d be grateful for your thoughts (or anyone else’s). We want to put in some kind of vinyl-or-laminate surface, with as few seams as possible, now that we’ve accepted there will always be at least one incontinent pet sharing our home. Of course we have a fifty-plus-year-old multi-level house in extremely seasonal New England, plus too also we need to replace most of the electrical and plumbing systems as well, so there’s the chance we may settle for lower-quality flooring in the interim…
trollhattan
@Martin:
Have only seen tracks, never an actual big cat in the wild. Have no doubt they’ve seen me, but I’m not dipped in awesome sauce so there’s probably something tastier available.
Kinda, sorta coincidentally, last area I saw cougar tracks is the same area California’s only wolverine has been spotted (WOLVERINES!) North of I-80 off the Pacific Crest Trail–must be some sort of alpha-predator hangout. I figured out from the tracks the cat was following a couple of endurance riders on horseback we’d encountered up the trail. They have big dreams, those kittehs.
RadioOne
As much as I love talking about bathroom renovations and evaluating silhouettes of dog penises, does anyone here think that Romney is really going to win this election?
asiangrrlMN
Cole, really relieved to read that you’re not doing the work yourself.
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):, @The Dangerman: Oooooh, purty!
@Mnemosyne: Wot Soonergrunt said. Be kind to yourself. ::hugs::
Mnemosyne
@RadioOne:
No. That’s why we’re more interested in bathroom renovations and dog peni$ silhouettes.
ETA: Yes, I know it’s supposed to be a tail silhouette, but now I can’t stop seeing the other thing.
ETA ETA: Sorry, manual HTML fail.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@burnspbesq:
Not me. I’ve had it for a couple of weeks, and it’s been pretty good.
Darkrose
@burnspbesq:
Yes, if you count “not hearing anything from Apple”. I bought an 11″ Air on June 11, when the new ones were announced, which is supposed to get me a free upgrade. I submitted the web form, and…nothing.
Mister Papercut
@Diana:
You pretty much just described my grandfather (Korea vet and amputee).
Patricia Kayden
@RadioOne: He may. If unemployment goes up, I’d think he’d be able to get enough votes in the swing states to win.
Another Halocene Human
@Martin: I love renting.
Another Halocene Human
@pseudonymous in nc: oh, women’s soccer. No wonder we’re winning.
Something we can actually be proud of as Americans: funding girls’ and women’s sports.
Another Halocene Human
@RadioOne: My fear is massive election fraud/shenanigans at this point.
The GOP got control of state governments–and it’s not like they haven’t done it before!
Kittehs to the rescue
http://www.govexec.com/management/2012/07/case-privatizing-postal-service/57003/
I don’t know what more stupid: that this guy thinks privatizing the U.S. Postal Service will improve anything, or that he was President Obama’s former budget chief.
Seriously, there’s 300 frigging million Americans and they couldn’t find one guy to run that department who wasn’t a rightwing nutbag?
NotMax
@Kittehs to the rescue
As that would require passage and ratification of a constitutional amendment, he’d best not hold his breath.
merrinc
@Diana:
I’m a little surprised at reading this on a site populated by flaming liberals. My husband is in a wheelchair as the result of having his left leg amputated above the knee after an accident a few years ago and he’s one of those guys who use the handicapped spaces at Lowe’s. And since we bought the Money Pit two years ago and he began an endless round of remodeling projects, he has spent an inordinate amount of money on power tools and despite my pleading/threatening, he does indeed climb up ladders. Don’t discount the disabled; with the right mindset, they are just as capable of routine tasks as you and I.
MomSense
John, we started our bathroom reno on Monday–and now I am forced to share with three messy boys. I have no idea where all my stuff is and all the soaps/shampoos/body wash are man scents. I don’t recognize myself! It has been a strange week and I can’t wait for this project to be finished–so we can move on to the kitchen…
Of course the walls are completely wonky so installing the new shower took longer, required more demolition, etc etc etc.
Plumbing needed serious upgrading and the electric too–ah the joys of older homes.
Dave S.
You can get the Whippet Good on a T-shirt.
David in NY
Not remodeled for decades, pretty sure. That linoleum pattern went into our bathroom in 1955. The same pattern is in the kitchen of a house I know upstate that clearly hasn’t been remodeled since 1965 or maybe ’60.
Anybody know if they kept producing that pattern for more decades? Seems to have been pretty popular, and I see it in public restrooms from time to time. Or does it really set that bathroom at a point in time.
jurassicpork
We’re no closer to understanding and predicting the action of men like James Holmes than we were Andrew Kehoe 85 years ago,
The Fat Kate Middleton
@trollhattan: We live in a nice little semi-rural pocket development in Iowa. We’ve had a wolverine den just up the hill from our house (husband had a face-to-face meet up with it), and I watched a nursing mountain lioness amble across our backyard one late winter afternoon.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Another Halocene Human: And an entirely reasonable fear that is. Until this year, I’d thought we were immune to such chicanery here in Iowa. Now I see it as something that could and very well may happen.
Mike
@David in NY: My house was built in 1969 and one of the bathrooms has a tile floor done in that pattern. in various shades of avocado green.
Diana
@merrinc: I apologize.
I just always figured that the handicapped parking near the door was for people who couldn’t walk (if your handicap is hearing, there’s no reason why you can’t walk from the furthest corner of the parking lot just like anyone else) and wondered how much anyone who couldn’t walk would be doing home remodeling. You have set me straight. Thank you!