Fun Times in a Small Spaces

This past week has been fun! We started out by removing the bathroom vanity so we could start taking up the floor – again! Of course, you can’t remove any trim without breaking at least one piece but we did better than that, we broke two! So here we are, trim off, door off and the entire floor up. There is no room to do any cutting inside so we have to dodge the rain to cut outside! I’m sure you’re picturing the fun, drawers pile throughout, a door standing some where, trim and floor strips stacked neatly all the while we carry on in our rig! The good news is we found the source of our squeaks – the sub floor was too big and was rubbing in various places so with my handy little jigsaw, we did some trimming and glued and screwed the sub floor back down but not before we had to run out for more glue. The head contractor – (me) didn’t calculate enough! This can’t happen once we move to laying the laminate so I picked up some extra just in case! According to the directions on the floor glue, it had to be left for 48 hours before use – hey it’s our bathroom floor, how can that happen? Use the ‘public washrooms? Not!

So now we start to relay the laminate. Barb is our laborer here! She is down on the floor dry piecing it as she goes to ensure I am handing her the correct one – she knows me too well! It is going great until we get to a straight wall section and we realize we’re off just a smidge and the strips are not quite fitting! Thank heavens the glue doesn’t set too quickly and we are able to move it just enough to get us back on track. We’re sure you are chuckling as you try to imagine us two oldies working together on our hands and knees in the small space of our bathroom! We finally get the last piece in place late Sunday night and sit for a beverage before heading off to bed.

We decided to improve the drawer slides from the originals and went uptown! The bad news is the drawer openings have to be cut larger so the new drawer equipment will fit! We just have enough room on the vanity face to do it and the drawer fronts will still cover! The drain needs to be altered so the drawer slides will reach the wall for the top drawers – oh such good times! It’s never just a simple task! As I’m working on the wall brackets for the drawer slides, I notice a drip coming from the sink tail pipe! Now what? I finish the drawer slide wall brackets then disassemble the sink drain, clean everything and reassemble it to find it still leaks! Disassemble again and take off the new putty and re-do it again – with a little more this time and all is good now.

Now the moment of truth – fitting the drawers back in and see how they slide and if they close properly! They slide great but with too little resistance, what’s going to happen when were going down the road and have to brake? The fronts don’t line up 100% so I have to tweak the wall brackets for better alignment. To make the install seem a little easier, I tried installing the wall brackets on plywood and then attached the plywood to the wall. Wrong! It was more work doing it my way! After some experimentation, I finally got all brackets adjusted and the drawers are working great. With all this fun stuff, Barb even got all 7 bears assembled and ready for stuffing and jointing when the parts for the arms & legs arrive!

Sunday, while Irene pounded the eastern seaboard, we woke up to no water! The park had a major leak and had to shut the system off while the owner dug a huge pit to find the problem. I helped him hand bomb some clay back in the hole for him to stand on while he fixed the pipe. He found a small sharp piece of shale that had worked its way through the plastic water line! Unbelievable!

In the afternoon, Barb & I hiked about 2kms from our site to an overlook that looked toward Meaford and the waters of Georgian Bay. We will be sure to go back later when the leaves are turning, I’m sure the colors will be spectacular!

We hope that if any of our readers were in the clutches of Irene that they escaped without harm. We wish you well, wherever you are…..