Next steps

Figured I should check in as it's been a while.

House Renovation
I've decided that since the renovation budget is on life support after the hall bathroom thrash that I'm going to move on to other things that cost little or nothing and come back to the expensive stuff later on.

Really the only thing left in the bathroom is the shower doors, vanity top, and vanity fixtures. I figure that since that bathroom doesn't get used anyway that to stop all progress waiting for funding on a room that sits unused anyway doesn't make sense. So onward!

I got the carpeting, baseboards, tack strips, etc. demo'd out of the living room and dining room. Sort of a milestone as that was the very last of the carpeting. As of this step there is no more carpeting in the whole house!

This is part of the living room and the bedroom set that I was very happy to see leave. I'm thinking I'm going to keep the tile and just run the wood flooring right up to it and then transition. It would be a ton of work and a huge mess to get it jack-hammered up.

Here's the last of the carpeting right before I tore it all out.

 Here's about the same shot about an hour or two later

After what I've seen, I will NEVER have carpeting ever again. It is gross to say the least. That vacuum cleaner that you THINK is doing such a great job???? Guess again. It is only cleaning the top 1/3 of the carpeting. There's all sorts of disgusting stuff percolating down deep and that vacuum just ain't gonna dig it out.

Anyway, I'm in the process of stripping stuff off the walls and ceiling getting ready for ceiling paint. Pretty bare in there. Great echo chamber for the music though! In the last two pictures you can see my little bluetooth speaker sitting on the window ledge. Works really well! Just have to remember to charge it every now and then.

Un-Stuffing the House
Big steps recently. Finally got rid of the bedroom set as I mentioned. Moved a whole bunch of nick-nack stuff to the garage in preparation for it to get gone altogether. Part of the garage has turned into a staging area for stuff on it's way out. I give it all a last chance go-over before it goes totally out the door. Just to be sure that I'm not getting rid of anything that anyone wants.

The family room is next and then the house will be pretty well emptied out except for the kitchen and garage. The kitchen is going to be a whole project in and of itself. I'm kind of dreading that whole mess, and it WILL be a mess.

I'm dragging my heels a little on the garage as that will be the last space to get gutted out. Once the garage gets emptied and overhauled, that will essentially be it. I'll get rid of the renovation tools (chop saw, paint sprayer, air compressor, nail gun, etc.) and the house will go on the market.

RV Search
Well, actually truck search. The RV search is taking a small hiatus until the weather cools off a little. My forehead is peeling really bad after the last time out.

I did spend some time looking and pricing trucks. Didn't take long to figure out that I certainly will NOT be buying a new truck. Wow they are expensive.

Found a used truck dealer over in Orlando that deals only in trucks. Did some emailing back and forth with them and they agreed that when I'm ready I can give them a wish list of what I want and they will try to find a close match at the auctions. I've got some items that are must-haves (diesel, duelly, 4x4, etc.) and some that are nice-to-haves (leather, power everything, stripper pole, etc. Wait, what?).

My F-150 is really starting to show it's age pretty badly. It just turned over 210k miles and the list of stuff that doesn't work anymore seems to grow by the day. Luckily the drive-train is hanging in there but I'm wondering at what point my luck will run out. I'm hoping that it can hold on for a few more months.

Misc
In the last few days I've started having some thoughts that possibly a better idea would be to keep the house and delay my retirement for a while. I'm thinking that an additional two or three years would be about right. I still would get the fifth wheel and go camping with it all up and down the eastern seaboard. Monetarily it makes a ton of sense to stay working and use my vacation time to go camping. Eventually I would retire and then spend time out west.

I could very easily hire out lawn and pool services. It most certainly would NOT break my heart to not have to mess with the yard or pool anymore. Plus, I spent all the time and money getting the north side of the house all fixed up to store the BBQ trailer and it would work extremely well for keeping the fifth wheel plugged in and ready to go.

I'm even toying with the idea of holding off on the kitchen renovation until after I get the fifth wheel. Once the kitchen is wrecked I won't have any way of cooking for quite a while. The 5'er would make a pretty good option. Just don't tell the neighbors or the HOA. I would wager that they would take a very dim view of that.

Part of this thinking comes from the idea that I'm putting all this work and money into the house and then selling it right away. Hell, I put a LOT of time and sweat into this sucker, I may as well get some enjoyment out of it.

I'll be mulling this one over for a while before I make any firm decision. Yes, for once I'm actually going to think something all the way through before jumping in with both feet. That's right, a first for me!

Catching up a little

Wow, have I been slacking or what?

This was a good weekend. Got to see all the usual suspects at a lunch over in Tampa. Thanks to all for making it a fun event! I really enjoy the laughing and cutting up. Even better when some of it is irreverent.

So after said luncheon I was supposed to go over and drop off some speakers over in St. Petersburg to get re-coned. My iPod docking station that I paid some $$$ for a year or two ago started growing a buzzing sound in one of the speakers. I thought it was some loose hardware or something easy. So I took it apart and couldn't find anything loose. So then I thought it might be something just barely touching the speaker itself like dust or a hair. So I took the speakers out and couldn't find anything. So then I started looking at the speakers really closely and there it was! A little tiny split in the speaker cone!

Ah man! This sucks!

So I called Klipsch and they don't make that model anymore and ran out of replacement speakers. This really sucks! But the guy from Klipsch recommended this guy over in St. Pete that might be able to repair the speaker. So I thought, hey great, I'll be over that way anyway, I'll just drive by after the lunch and see what he says.

Nice idea but they are closed on Saturday. Son of a biscuit! I'll deal with this later.

The other thing I had planned for the afternoon was......go ahead take a guess.......that's right! Go to Lazy Days and look at fifth wheels! No fooling you!

Two tiny little problems. One, it's hotter than Hades in those parking lots and NONE of those trailers have the A/C on. I'm soaked with sweat in a matter of minutes and I'm really starting to get concerned about heat problems.

Second, I stupidly forgot a hat and with my ever receding hairline, my extended forehead got cooked beyond belief. Oh yeah, that was dumb. Luckily they give away bottles of water when you go in or out of their showroom. I have to say, that water tasted like champagne to me.

After Saturday's heat/sunburn episode I figured I would stay inside and take it easy on Sunday.

Yeah, well, that lasted about 20 minutes. I just cannot sit and watch TV during the day when I've got SO many projects going on.

Now, because the hall bathroom cost quite a bit more than planned all of a sudden, there was no spending money today. Just wasn't gonna happen.

Well then, I'll just work ahead on stuff that doesn't cost money, like demolishing the living room. I'm unbelievably good at making a mess! I can do that with my eyes closed! So here's the fun I had today!

Janine and Scott decided that they want the bedroom stuff so it goes next weekend. I'm just happy to get it out of the way.

The majority of the stuff in the dining room is the dollhouse that I have not found time to work on in months. I hate to say it but I may have to just pitch it as there just isn't time to spend on it right now and it's now in the way. I'll demo the dining room probably next weekend.

Believe it or not, but out of three bedrooms, living room, and dining room that's the extent of the stuff that's left. The bed-frame that's leaning against the wall on the left will go to Mel's and the rest will probably get pitched or donated.

And this was my 'take it easy' day.

Now, after a hard day off ripping up carpeting, baseboards, tack-strips, edging, and sweating my arse off, you would think that I would be ready for a nice thick steak and baked potato. Something to satisfy that manly 'been working hard all day' hunger.

I wish, but sadly no. My dinner tonight will consist of baked chicken cut up into a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. Yep, that's about as he-manly as I get anymore. I cannot begin to relate how much I hate this diet.

Every year my company has this deal where if you meet the health standards you get a nice stipend added to your HSA account. Ugh... So every year I have to lose a few pounds, get my cholesterol under control, blood pressure, blah, blah, blah. The cutoff is the end of September. You better believe that October first I'm gonna go find the biggest steak with all the trimmings and an ice cold beer to wash it down with.

Ok, How about bathroom and pizza bread??

Well, I figure since last time it was bathroom and lasagne we may as well stay with a theme no matter how weird.

Been working my tail off in the bathroom in the last month but not so you can readily see.So not so you can tell very easily, let me point out some of the stuff that I've been working on. But, just 'cause I'm something of a jerk (just ask anyone), see if you can pick out some of the updates.

So how many did you get?

Ok, enough of the guessing game. Here's what I've been working on.

- The tub is now white instead of the old beige

- Addition of the bathroom door (installed, caulked and casing painted)

- Baseboards (installed, caulked, and painted)

- Towel and TP bars

- Caulking around the tub and surround

- (Almost impossible to see) grout around the base of the toilet

- (You can't see this one) The water lines are fully roughed in

- The new electrical outlet is installed

- The new ceiling vent fan switch is installed

- (Really hard to make out) The transition piece between the tile and wood floor in the hall

What's left to do you ask? Well, let me list it out!

- Install vanity top

- Connect faucet connections

- Install shower doors

- Paint bathroom door (that will be done in the garage paint booth)

- Install vanity mirror

- Install vanity hand towel ring

- Install lighting dimmer

- Fix a small mistake in the ceiling paint

- Install door hardware

And here you thought I was almost done in the bathroom. I thought I would have it all done by now but who knew that bathrooms had so many details to them? I most certainly didn't.

So what has been the toughest part so far in this room? Hmmm, that would be a tossup between drywall joints and that one piece of wood that transitions the tile floor to the hallway wood floor. That one piece of wood took me the better part of a day to get right. I literally sat in the hallway with a utility knife, rasp, wood file, and sandpaper trimming, fitting, trimming, fitting, etc, etc, etc. Then when I did the very final install, it didn't sit just the way I wanted it to and now it irritates the hell out of me every time I look at it.

No, I won't be fixing it.

So on and on it goes.

Now on to the food part.

I came up with this little goof on a complete whim. I was tired one evening and didn't feel like doing anything fancy. So I looked around and made up something really old but with a new twist.

Pizza-Bread, or sometimes called bruschetta! Yep, that old standby that we've all done many times. However, I decided to amp it up a little and see if I could give that old venerable standby a bit of class. So I'm calling this Pizza Bruschetta.

Here's how it works. Starting from the bottom right corner and moving counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise for my friends from across the pond!).

1. Slice a baquette on a very heavy bias about an inch thick.

2. Hollow out a good bit of the inside but don't make holes!

3. Spoon in some tomato pesto (don't use pizza sauce, that is so yuck!)

4. Add some chopped garlic

5. Add pepperoni (I didn't have prosciutto on hand)

6. Add some shredded Italian 5 cheese

7. A dash of a 5 pepper sprinkle to give a tinge of heat

Put on a baker's sheet and into the oven at ~400 for about 15 minutes. We're not really cooking anything so watch the cheese and it will tell you when it's done.

Viola!

Six is usually a good number for me. 

A variation would be to use grilled chicken instead of pepperoni. Also, maybe a small drizzle of olive oil would be really tasty.

There's probably a thousand variations of this standby. This one was mine and it was pretty darn good. Try it yourself and maybe jazz it up in a different direction. Maybe some crab meat or shrimp and do a seafood bruschetta. Sky's the limit on this one!