Scattered Thoughts . . .

A panoramic photo consisting of four images.  This was the only way to get the entire vanity wall into the shot!  I refinished the shelves, painted the walls, refinished the vanity,  installed a new sink andfaucet, installed a tile backsplash and refinished the countertop. Sheila recently asked me what had happened to the photos of the first phase of our master bathroom renovation. She thought I had written about it in my blog but couldn't find it anywhere on this site. Later that evening, she explained that she was talking about our home renovations with her carpool friends and they wanted to see one aspect of our first phase of renovations in our master bathroom. So... here is a quick explanation of what we did in Phase 1 of the master bathroom renovations... Basically, our main goal of this first phase of renovations was just to clean up the bathroom a little and to move in a direction toward our design style for the entire house. Here is a short list of the problems...

Struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis, in any of its forms, makes the ability to be productive both difficult and frustrating. The desire to be productive is there... The desire to accomplish just one small thing on our continually growing to-do list is there... And, the frustration of how this insidious illness hinders all we try to do is always there. Those of us with this illness are familiar with the occasional "good" day. We call these occasional days a "good" day but, for us, "good" is a relative term. For us, good simply means this moment is better than the previous. In reality and more accurately speaking, all days with this illness are a struggle, at best. Some moments are just better than others and it is these better moments which we refer to as "good". Sometimes, however, a week such as this past week just slowly spirals downward. It can start with one noticeable symptom... in my case this week, I noticed a problem with my vision.

Pedestal sink will be installed here...  the bowl will be mounted on the wood cross-pieces above the drain and supply plumbing pipes. I had a productive day today... which was a refreshing change!  I managed to install the wainscoting in the new half bathroom today. I've installed this type of paneling in our living room already but I did things a little differently today... In the living room, this paneling runs from floor to ceiling and is stained. In this new half bath, we are using this paneling style as a wainscoting so it is only up the bottom half of the wall. We plan to paint this paneling rather than stain so I didn't need a high quality grade lumber. This provided more options and these new options provided cost savings. I opted for three sheets of 1/4 inch lauan underlayment at $13 each. I installed two sheets to the walls as the background 'panel' layer. Then Adam and I ripped the third sheet on my table saw into two and a half inch strips. I used

Spackling finished... wainscoting will come up to a height of 42 inches so the bottom will be covered rather than painted. The weather is lousy enough today that I don't feel comfortable pulling all my expensive shop power tools out of the shed to start on finish carpentry for our half bath project. Instead, I decided to document where we are at in the project as of today. Waste plumbing is finished... flooring tile is finished... supply plumbing is roughed-in but still need to add three valves after the wainscoting is installed... electrical is finished... drywall is finished...  and now spackling is finished. My health has been poor over the past few days so I accomplished very little this week. I did, however, manage to get a coat of joint compound on the drywall each day. Since it is a very small room, that only required about 15 minutes of work each day. So, at least that has been accomplished this week.  Note:  I'm out of practice with my spackling...  What norm

The past few days, Sunday through Tuesday, have been spent recovering from a busy day over the weekend.  Whenever I use a lot of energy, my health really suffers and it can take days or weeks to recover. This past Saturday was a very busy day for me and I used a lot of energy which was compounded by missing my much-needed daily nap. Even on a good day, I need to lay down for a few hours every afternoon. That never happened on Saturday though. So... what happens if I wear myself down? The best case scenario would be that I am simply fatigued at an overwhelming level for a few days. This fatigue makes just showering or cooking for myself impossible at times. Sometimes the fatigue gets so bad that walking to the other side of the house is a daunting task. Even reading can require more energy than I have to use! Worst case scenario would be that in addition to the overwhelming fatigue, my overall health suffers significantly resulting in breathing difficulties, dizziness, cognitive d

As I mentioned in a previous post, we attended the Rutland Railway Association's train show on Saturday. We had driven down to Rutland in the morning, checked out all the beautiful autumn foliage and ventured back to Waterbury by mid-afternoon. After spending a few hours with friends at a local pub, we headed to Sheila's parents' house for a visit around a campfire in their backyard.   Since we were coming from the train show, I had my new G scale train purchase with us. I knew that Lukey would love this train set so I lugged the big box of trains down to the campfire and set the locomotive and cars on the picnic table. As expected, Lukey lit up with excitement! Even Kenzie was a bit excited when Lukey would give her some space at the table. The kids are at a critical age now... old enough to know their interests and certainly old enough to love accompanying us to train shows... but first they need to learn that most trains at train shows are not for touching. We see

Let's face it... my lousy health keeps me at home more often than not so I don't get out much anymore. When I do get out, I try to make the most of it. This past Saturday was no exception as Sheila and I drove down to Rutland for a train show. The drive down there was the start of a very busy day for us beginning with the train show, followed by meeting friends at a local watering hole in town and then ending around a campfire with the grandchildren, Sheila's daughter and Sheila's parents. It was to be a busy day. This day out started with a drive through the mountains and the Green Mountain National Forest on our way to Rutland. What we saw was something I have not seen in ten years or so... absolutely amazing vibrant autumn colors! We first noticed the vibrancy of the colors when we were approaching the highest point on Interstate 89 around Randolph. At that highest point, the colors were bright and vibrant. I suspected this would just be a short preview of wh

Autumn scene, N scale, at the Rutland Train Show. Sheila and I drove down to Rutland on Saturday to attend a very small train show. This show is an annual event hosted by the Rutland Railway Association and the Rutland Railroad Museum. We've been to this show in previous years so I was aware it was a small show, relatively speaking. Compared to the Amherst Railway Society's show in Springfield, MA every year, all shows are small but this show in Rutland is so small that it only requires about an hour of time. The main reasons for attending the show in Rutland yesterday were, first, to get out of the house for a welcome change in scenery. My health has really limited my ability to get out of the house and socialize. I often go a few weeks looking at the same walls all day and all night so our primary reason for wandering down to Rutland for this show was to get out! The next reason for heading to the show was simply because we enjoy model railroading and enjoy viewing

I awoke this morning feeling exhausted, almost overwhelmingly so. I immediately knew I would not be trying to tackle any big tasks today.  All I managed to accomplish was cutting and installing a small shim for a magnetic cabinet catch and sanding a towel bar for finishing. After these two very small tasks, I was completely spent for the day. It wasn't long afterward that my health crashed completely. Sometimes (weekly or a few times each month) my illness causes anaphylaxis. This anaphylaxis often comes on suddenly but sometimes can come on very slowly over the course of hours. Today was one of those days where the problems built up slowly over the course of the morning. I collapsed for a number of hours... I spent time in the bathroom sick... and I just simply struggled to stay conscious most of the day. Bone and joint pain worsened throughout the day. Today I am even experiencing sore muscles on top of all the bone and joint pain. I didn't even have the energy to showe

Tile installed, toilet flange installed... This morning, I primed the underlayment in our new half bath in preparation of tile. Funny thing about this "primer"... I had to search around for this stuff so I felt a bit relieved when we finally bought some at Lowes the other day. The moment I opened the container this morning, I recognized the smell... It smells exactly like water-based polyurethane... the same stuff I use on all of our trim... the same stuff I have sitting in a new gallon can waiting for the next trim to be installed. So... I'm left thinking that this primer is really just a sealer in the form of water-based polyurethane. As I waited for the primer to dry, I started cutting tile. When the primer was dry, I starting laying tile. I have to say it was a quick and easy job! I then installed the toilet flange and screwed that into the floor.  It is beginning to look more like a small bathroom rather than a closet!