{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Bathroom remodel

I feel like we have been stuck in the bathroom forever.  I guess that is why I was dreading it for the last year and half.

We ran into a little problem.  The shower head was in the wrong place and we had to call the plumber to come back out and move it up.  I finally got all the drywall up and patched and sanded. We celebrated by starting the floors.  The plan was to rip out the 2 layers of vinyl and then put down the new vinyl tiles on top of the 1/2 inch subfloor that was there.  Once the old floor was pulled however we noticed that the subfloor was in bad shape. It looked like the toilet had some issues and leaked.  That meant removing the plywood and while the person that installed the drywall skimped on screws.  The person who put down the floor was a strong believer in screws every four inches.



Our youngest came to help having done this job before and this time he came armed.  A strong magnet from his collection.  He would run it over the floor and it would stop at any screws covered by wood putty.  It worked so well that while it took most of a day to free the plywood it was much quicker then the hallway we did that same thing in.



Now we are back to the original boards and they are pretty rough shape.  Solid, but lots of gaps for a bathroom.  The new plan is to place 1/4 inch subfloor down and then place the new tiles down.

My hands

Father's Day

We were so busy on Father's Day, we had planned on going out to the lake in the afternoon and then grilling in the evening. Before we could go however my Love had some work to do and I finished up the tile in the tub surround in the bathroom. Tried to finish it.  I ran out of thin set on the last two rows.  I only need a tiny bit more but I had scraped the bucket clean. So we ran up to the only hardware store that is open on Sunday and found some. Then we took a load of construction debris to the dump.

Finally we made it out the door to the lake. We parked at a new area and found the Dog Beach.  We knew dogs weren't allowed on the beach so we never bring the dogs, but we had no idea they had a separate little beach for them. I'm so excited for the dogs!

We stayed a little while watching the big waves, and the clouds then headed home to grill. The meat eaters had Flank Steak with Lime Marinade and I had Portabella mushrooms with the same marinade. So good with a side of Santa Fe Black Bean Salad. I very good, busy Father's Day.

Bath Remodel Update

Some cool peeling paint from our original plaster ceiling.  Last patch of plaster in the house.  It was covered up a few days ago.


I feel like I spent the whole day in this closet!  Why do closets have so many corners?  My love spent the first part of the day in there with me after I cussed out the drywall up high.  I'm too short to drive in the screws through the wood paneling, then the plaster and then the bricks? Lucky for me, he came in and asked what he could do to help.


Then I spent the rest of the day taping and mudding the closet. Each corner needed some special corner tape.  I bought a new kind that didn't have metal strips, we'll see how it holds up.

The plumber is supposed to be coming tomorrow to install the new shower valve and then we can start tiling the shower/bath area.

I finally got out of the closet and we went for a beautiful mountain bike ride in the woods. It was great except that it's bug season already and the mosquitos tried to eat us alive. We were armed with spray though.

In the Studio

Ceramics life is complicated. I learned a long time ago never to expect anything to turn out right, because it hardly ever will. I knew after the Bisque firing that my trays were in trouble. For some reason (possibly a thick application) the underglaze were chipping off and flaking. I tried to chip off the pieces that were peeling up and recoated it. As I expected the touched up areas were no good, but after the glaze firing other spots were fragile and chipping off. Let me tell you splinters of fired glaze are like shard of glass in your hand.

 These trays were a great starting point, but sadly they will be destroyed. One of the best things to do with pieces you don't like is to hit them with a hammer. It's quite freeing and good for when your frustrated. It just doesn't make sense to keep things that are no good.
 I did have a few pieced come out okay. Nothing to jump up and down about but a few cups are the right size and weight in hand with less then pretty colors. I love how the glaze/ design on this one turned out but is slightly large in my hand and has some rough spots in the glaze.
 All in all a great learning experience. I have restocked on underglazes and now know the clear glaze over the underglazes works perfectly. So from here it's all about perfecting it.

Bathroom remodel

Four hours round trip and we now have most of what we need to do our bathroom remodel. We are just awaiting the poor UPS man to bring our flooring and the pedestal sink. While a 4 hour drive seems ridiculous just to get to the nearest home improvement box store it can also lead to interesting family conversations at towards the end of the drive a whole lot of teen/kid goofiness. The scenery along the way was as always beautiful, forest and lakes, more forests and more lakes.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

In the Studio

The clay co-op's kiln is loaded and will be glaze fired this weekend.  As always when firing, hopeful that all will turn out well.

Garden

Things are really starting to grow around here with our longer days.  We wish it would warm up to go with the extra sunlight however.  I noticed the peas Tall Telephone peas from Baker Seeds were starting to poke out of the ground and take off.  These are supposed to grow 6 feet or more with support and we didn't have any support.



So spying some scrap wood and our roll of chicken wire I got to work.  On our walks around the neighborhood I saw someone else had a vegetable support that went up and then over the edge of their garden to extend their growing space.  Great idea.

 

Now that I have made this however I think I will need to make another one that is taller since pea tend to grow more upright and I can move this one to the squash.

It's warm grab the beach bag!

The great thing about homeschooling is knowing the temperature will be over 80 on a Thursday and being able to declare it a beach day. It's been so cold and rainy this spring that we were all excited for a touch of summer.  We drove the hour to our favorite sand beach and found it totally empty.  We were pleasantly surprised that the temperature held at the shore.  It's quite common to have it be 20 degrees cooler at the shore then in town.

The wind was perfect for our kite, and the sand felt great on our toes. Our youngest even took his ceremonial first dip in the freezing cold lake. As we collapsed on our porch in the evening to watch some thunderstorms, we decided any day that left us with sand in out toes is a good day.