Feb 4 - more renos ?

Yesterday zipped by and I didn't even go for a bike ride. It was cold, barely getting into the 50's but not as cold as it is now, below freezing ! Where the heck are we anyway ??!!

As planned, Jeff from Coronado Carpet came after lunch and we talked to him about plans for the Master Bath and Guest Bathrooms. In the MB we want to do a complete make-over, removing the tub, making it into a shower, only making it larger, and re-tiling the floor. We will use the same tiles that we have in the kitchen/great room only 9x13 instead of 17 square. We will also replace the vanity and install glass on the shower, but those can be staged later. I also got him to quote on re-doing the tiling around the guest bathtub, at the same time as we replace the tub, figuring that it might be cheaper for him to do both at once. In fact, it doesn't make any difference since we cannot be left without any bathroom at any point in time. They're so close anyway, it's not like up north where people are traveling for a long way.

The work is complicated by a couple of things:

1) the drains must be moved, which means breaking concrete. Even the drain in the guest bath needs to be moved because, like the MB, it has the drain at the opposite end from the rest of the plumbing. No one who has looked at this can figure out why the installers did it this way. It's crazy because it makes the tubs un-usable. If you actually wanted to sit in the tub, at both ends there is something sticking into your back !

2) There is prep work that I must do in the MB. I want to widen the entrance door -- it's a 26" door now, narrowed of course by the door itself and the hinge when open to just a little over 24". At that width a wheelchair cannot get through the door without rubbing both sides. We know -- Collette had that problem. It would be easy to widen the door now, before the floor is done, to a 30" door, providing 28"+ of entrance width. Sandy wants to widen the door to the little linen closet as well to full width for a more contemporary look, replacing the shelves inside. The immediate issue would be widening it so that the tiling would be done correctly. Neither are big projects, and perhaps I should just go ahead and do them anyway ...

His quote was more than I expected, but thinking about his quote and a reasonable hourly rate, it's probably quite fair. I know that I could talk him down some dollars, but I'm not sure that I want to do that . There's nothing here that I couldn't tackle myself, but labor isn't a huge factor in his quote -- about 1/2 of the price, according to him. He provides the tile and the labor, which in this case includes putting up cement board and doing the plumbing. If I got as far as doing both these tasks, I'd do the tiling myself. Perhaps that's a better plan anyway ... leaving it until next fall and doing it myself. What the heck, I've got nothing better to do anyway ! I'm still pondering this one.

So what else ... I ran some errands, going to Radio Shack, Walmart, Dollar General and the drug store. Sandy did not get out for a walk yesterday, being too cold, but today could be as cold or colder. She's been pretty good about getting out for her four mile walks.

Sandy has had a medical problem that she's been looking into. She has a pain in the neck (other than me), shoulders and upper arms that flares up with activity. She went in for an MRI a few days ago and talked to the doctor yesterday, getting the results. It seems that she has a bulging disk and the doctor, who has been through a similar problem herself, is recommending acupuncture as a likely solution so now Sandy is checking on acupuncturists.

She's used acupuncture before. Long, long ago when she smoked -- we're talking almost 30 years now -- she tried acupuncture as a solution and although she only had one treatment, it completely eliminated the desire to light up. She eventually quit on her own but still remembers the few days that she didn't smoke after that one treatment and knows that there is more to acupuncture than meets the eye. She has to find out, though, whether this is one treatment, a treatment series, or ongoing. From her discussion with her doctor, it's not ongoing, I gather. Her doctor used an acupuncturist in Orlando, because she, the doctor, lives there. Since there are not very many licensed acupuncturists in Loring ... she needs to deal with this now.

For dinner we had Pompano, good as usual, with rice and asparagus. Pompano is probably the cheapest fish that we can buy at $5.99 per pound. It's not quite that good a deal because the $5.99 is before filleting ... but they are a flat fish with a very small gut so less than 25% of the body weight is left behind with filleting. Compare that to Pike, where more than 1/2 is left behind.

As usual, we watched a couple of Stargate episodes. We got to the end of season one yesterday. I had thought that Sandy had seen all of season one, but my recollection was wrong, I guess that we only got through 1/2 of season one before she headed up to Philadelphia/Exton last year. I watched the rest of season one and (I think) season two by myself. We'll keep going until she cries "uncle" or perhaps "I've seen this before".

That's about it ... I"m late for my breakfast; Abby was fed a long time ago. I'm planning on going for a bike ride today, in spite of the cold, but this time I'll be properly dressed ! If it wasn't for the ride on Saturday I wouldn't go out ... but I'd better ... if for no other reason than I was playing with my seat adjustment yesterday and I have to ensure that it will work for almost 200 miles ! By noon it's supposed to be up to the mid-40's ... whooo hooo ... so I'll procrastinate as long as I can and still get in a 70 mile ride. The wind is from the north again, listed at 13 mph, which I know will be stronger with gusts and wind tunnel effects at times. That's par for the course !