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The Bezabor Log

"The Bezabor Log" is my online diary since retiring in September 2005. My blogging name,'Bezabor', is an archaic term used mostly by canallers in the 1800's and early 1900's. It refers to a rascally, stubborn old mule. In the Log, I refer to my wife as 'Labashi', a name she made up as a little girl. She had decided if ever she had a puppy, she'd call it 'McCulla' or 'Labashi'. I'm not sure how to spell the former so Labashi it is. Emails welcome at bezabor(at)gmail.com.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Refinishing the tub surround ; Trip prep and departure to Florida

(posted from Panera Bread company, Fleming Island, FL on 2/4/11)

(This post covers 24 – 31 January, 2011)


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Monday, 31 January -

This morning we had our tax-preparation appointment and that went very quickly. That left me free to depart for Florida!
I finished the packing and departed by 1330. I had been planning to depart tomorrow but we're supposed to have freezing rain and sleet, so I took off today.
I drove until 2200, which took me to Smithfield, North Carolina. The only problem I had was about an hour of slow traffic heading down I-95 out of Washington, DC.

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Sunday, 30 January-

I began packing the van today with bedding, clothing, tools, fishing gear, maps, guidebooks, electronics, etc. I printed off the latest info on wi-fi hotspots (from wififreespot.com) and the latest listings from OvernightRVParking.com.
That evening we watched PBS' 'Pioneers of Television' episodes on late-night tv, science fiction, and westerns plus two episodes of 'The Wild Within' (our first)

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Saturday, 29 January -

I installed the Miata battery today and vacuumed out Mocha Joe and cleaned the windows and dash in preparation for my trip next week.
That evening we watched the last disk of 'Entourage- Season 4'.

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Friday, 28 January -

Today I took Mocha Joe over to Giant on a grocery shopping trip. I took the van to take advantage of the 50-cents-off per gallon deal from our card. I also ran to the bank to deposit some checks and also finally found 'dum-dum' at the nearby hardware store. 'Dum-dum' is more officially known (I learned) as Duct Sealer. It's a small 'brick' of a non-hardening clay-like putty. I've seen it used by electricians to seal around electrical cables entering a house and found it still pliable after many years.
I spent the afternoon cleaning up and storing away tools and then looking for new music for the iPod.

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Thursday, 27 January-

We had six inches of snow overnight so we spent a few hours clearing the driveway and the vehicles. We then drove into town (on the new tires) to pick up a new shower-control stem kit. I had noticed a small leak if you leaned against the control handle so thought I'd better fix that before I go.
We also shopped at Lowe's and Home Depot for a new shower control but found nothing even close to acceptable to Labashi.
We returned home but then I remembered my Miata problem and I drove in and bought a new battery ($100).

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Wednesday, 26 January -

This morning we embarked on the next step with the tub surround-- the polishing phase. This time I was using a 3M foam pad with Presta Ultra 1500 polishing compound. This went much faster than the compounding phase.
I spent much of the afternoon working with an after-market shower-handle kit. The idea was to replace the dated crystal-sphere handle with a nicely-sculpted metal handle. Unfortunately, it took me quite a while to realize it wasn't going to work. In the end I had the handle mounted well but could not do anything about where the handle ended up. We wanted it pointing straight down (south, on a compass) and it pointed east-south-east. The instructions also said it should point south. But after reviewing the parts diagrams of all the Delta shower controls, I found we had a 1600-series control while the kit was designed for the 600-series. I removed it and repacked it for return to Lowe's. We decided we'd live with the current control while Labashi researches a new design.
We picked up Labashi's car mid-afternoon and after only a few minutes of driving in the new snow we realized the new tires have MUCH better traction. Good call.
That evening we watched 'The Secrets of Their Eyes', an excellent film from Argentina.

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Tuesday, 25 January -

I spent much of the day compounding the tub surround. We had done some testing of this previously so today was dedicated to applying the technique to the entire surface of the surround. I was using the 7” polisher I bought from Harbor Freight with a wool polishing bonnet and Presta Ultra Cutting crème as the compounding agent. I first sanded the surface of the fiberglass with 1000-grit sandpaper, then used the compounding material to eliminate the scratches and start bringing out a shine.
During a break I remembered I had wanted to order tires for Labashi's car so dug out the info I had researched earlier and called my local garage guy. I hit him at just the right time-- he had a tire guy coming up today and just had to make a call to add on my order for today's delivery. Late in the day we took her car up for tire installation tomorrow, hopefully ahead of the snow predicted for tomorrow.
That evening I watched two '30 Rock' episodes and then Labashi joined me for two 'Lost 6' episodes.
Also that evening I decided I'd put the charger on the Miata battery to get it topped off while I'm away. But when I opened the trunk to put the charger leads on the battery, I found the battery was frozen. I've not seen that before. A quick look on the web revealed that fact that a frozen battery can't be revived.

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Monday, 24 January -

Today was the coldest day of the year thus far. I saw zero degrees and wouldn't be surprised if it was lower at some point.
Given the extra-cold weather Labashi asked how to turn off the water (given my upcoming trip) so I wrote up detailed instructions and verified them.
I updated and posted the blog today and worked with a family member on security on his PC. I soon learned to dislike McAfee security. In the end, I had to refer him to McAfee which, fortunately, has a priority hotline for assistance for the first 30 days of ownership so he should be able to get the problem resolved. The McAfee software objected to a previous security product.
That evening we watched two episodes of Lost 6 on Netflix Instant.

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Recovery from house-rehab project ; Turning to our tile installation

(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 – 23 January, 2011)

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Sunday, 23 January-

This morning I began checking out a new-to-us type of vinyl plank flooring. Labashi had brought home a sample of Mannington's Adura Vintage Oak 'Loc-N-Go' plank. That's the first vinyl plank flooring I've seen that looks good enough to try. But how tough is it to install?
After watching a few YouTube videos and scanning for any end-user or installer complaints about it, I think I like it and would be willing to give it a try. Labashi is interested in this for the bathroom floor and I think we can simply put down an embossing leveler over the current vinyl for a base. The planks snap together and there's even a method for removing a mid-floor plank if one becomes damaged in the future. The biggest complaint so far is about the surface scratching too easily but the comments are very mixed. Some people say it scratches easily others claim they've used it for a long time with kids, dogs, even in a day-care facility without problems. But I think it would work for us.
I also decided it was time to address the problems with our Bosch 'Multi-X' oscillating tool. I bought it in May and we used it heavily on the house re-hab project. But recently it had become virtually useless because it was running so slow. But when I checked on getting two new batteries for it, I saw they were $40 each!!! That led me to decide to buy a pocket-driver since, for $100, I'd not only get the two batteries I need but also a spare charger and a very nice little driver. Unfortunately, after charging up a new battery and putting it in the Multi-X, it operated exactly the same.
So you can imagine my surprise when I found the problem to be a simple switch setting. We had always used the Multi-X on one speed but apparently the variable-speed switch had gotten bumped to a lower-speed-- that's it! No problem after all!
And though it seemed I had wasted $100 on the pocket driver, that pocket driver turned out to be a godsend when we installed the HardiBacker board. We were under the gun to get them in quickly as (we thought) the underlying thinset was hardening as we worked and they were bears to get in. But the new pocket-driver had the additional torque needed to drive them in flush. Bottom line-- my screwup on recognizing what was wrong with the Multi-X got us the tool we needed for the project! I love when a plan comes together!

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Saturday, 22 January-

This morning I did some more cleanup with the new small-projects vacuum cleaner. I had filled not only our work area but also much of our living room with a very fine sawdust when I had to use my ZipSaw to flush-cut some of the plywood underlayment. A seam had an eighth-inch mismatch I had to cut down and the 12,000 rpm ZipSaw kicked up such a fine sawdust that it carried up on air currents into the living area above the foyer.
Later in the morning Dad called Labashi and said he couldn't get the answering machine to work so I went over to check it out. Apparently it had been zapped by a static electricity discharge but it came back up normally after I went through a power-off/on cycle. Dad also mentioned that the car radio was showing an odd message ever since the battery had been accidentally discharged. Fortunately I had seen this before and knew it was a theft-deterrent feature on the radio so all I had to do was contact the dealer for the code and key it in. Voila!
While I was there Mom was reading through a family-history clippings file and started telling me stories of her childhood during World War II. I knew Labashi would be interested so grabbed some paper and began taking notes. I ended up with 11 new family stories!!!!! Very cool!
As I drove home I realized that the roads were clear enough of ice for me to take a motorcycle ride. The high today was only 18 but the sun was out and we had no wind so the 18 felt more like 30-- good riding weather!
I rode down I-83 to York and then over to the East York Starbucks for a coffee and Times. And there I struck up a conversation with two guys I've seen there before. We talked about the weather and riding and wanted to know how I could ride in such cold. I just said I keep the heat turned way up!!!

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Friday, 21 January-

This early-morning-wakeup is a pain. Today I again woke at 0400 and couldn't get back to sleep. Labashi was also awake around 0500 so we got up at 0600 and I went out and cleaned off the cars from the overnight light snow. We left the house at 0700 and drove in to Home Depot to buy a portable shop-vac (I should have done this rather than rent the other day) and the thinset we'll need for the tile. On the way home we shopped for groceries at our local Giant and were home well before noon.
We mixed up the thinset and finished screwing down the Hardibacker in about an hour. Curiously, the thinset didn't seem to be setting up. Documentation said the thinset had an 'open time' of an hour. But two hours later there was no indication of the thinset setting up. I called the tech support line and learned it has a 'pot life' of four hours (so what the heck is 'open time'?). That meant I not only didn't have a problem with my installation, I could also use the leftover mix as a patch material atop the HardiBacker. I went ahead and patched three low spots before the material set up. After another hour I noticed the thinset had hardened dramatically and we declared it a success. I LOVE this Megabond (actually it's “Mega Bond”). It mixes easily, trowels easily, sticks well, and gives you plenty of time to work.

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Thursday, 20 January-

Last night I was awake at 0230 and couldn't get back to sleep until about an hour before dawn. I had thought I'd sleep well after a bad night last night and indeed did sleep heavily from about midnight until 0230.
I didn't feel worn out; I was just awake. Later in the morning we drove in to Lowe's and bought the HardiBacker, special backer-board screws, thinset modifier (for the Megabond), a transition strip, and a ceramic-cutting jigsaw blade for the project. We rented a HEPA-filtered vacuum cleaner to clean up well before the installation.
That afternoon we started the backer-board project. I screwed down the existing plywood subfloor and cut and fit the Hardiboard and gathered everything for the thinset mix tomorrow.

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Wednesday, 19 January-

For some reason I woke at 0400 and couldn't get back to sleep. I read awhile but that didn't help so the night got very, very long. Once daylight came I continued prep for the underlayment install. I'm amazed at all the factors to be considered and how much time it takes to get answers. Time after time I find myself poring through technical info for what should be a simple answer. But by the end of the day I felt I had a good handle on it.


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Tuesday, 18 January-

Yesterday I decided I'd prefer to go with HardiBacker so I spent much of today learning about its installation requirements and determining which thinset I'd use under it and then for the granite tiles.

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Monday, 17 January -

Today I began work on the preparation of the foyer subfloor. It didn't take long to find that my plan was falling apart. I had intended to put the DITRA coupling membrane over the existing vinyl floor. But that's only possible when the sheet flooring is tightly adhered to the subfloor. As I worked today I found areas which were only superficially adhered. That will not work.
I tried cutting away the loose stuff but soon decided I may as well take it all and put down a concrete backer board as the base for the tile. I spent an hour or two researching WonderBoard, Durock, and HardieBacker

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Sunday, 16 January-

Today Labashi and I went shopping for tiling supplies and tools at Lowe's and Home Depot and we picked up the four cases of special-order granite tile at Lowe's.
This morning we decided to narrow the project to the upper foyer for now and to do it with a Schluter-DITRA base over plywood. The floor deflection calculations indicate the joists and subfloor should be fine for a natural stone project. The DITRA technical info recommends a second layer of plywood for natural stone but granite is one of the strongest natural stones and is as strong as some ceramic tiles which, as a class, do NOT require the second layer. So since we don't have enough vertical space for another layer of plywood, we're going ahead with the existing subfloor as is. We'll see.

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Saturday, 15 January-

I'm still in recovery mode today but am starting to turn my attention to next week's project-- putting down granite tile in our foyer. Today I starting learning about self-leveling concrete (SLC), cementitious backer boards (CBB), Schuler-DITRA uncoupling systems, and substrate requirements for natural stone tile.


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Friday, 14 January-

I spent much of today looking for new music on Pandora, iTunes, and YouTube. I'm not getting a lot out of Pandora, though. I don't like the user interface but then again I probably don't have more than two hours total with it so perhaps I just need to be a little patient. It's nice that I can listen to music of the same 'genome' but it's a slow process. There's got to be a better way.
Once I find an artist or group I think I may like, I can sample their catalog with iTunes but because it only gives a 90-second sample, I often switch to YouTube and see if a promising cut is available there. But then I also have to wade through a lot of junk 'tributes' getting to the real thing. So all in all I spend an inordinate amount of time --- like all day --- and only end up buying five or six new songs. But it's still much better than the old days of having to buy an album just to get a cut I liked.

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Thursday, 13 January-

Today I spent much of the day on the web taking it easy. It's such a relief to be out of the house-rehab business for a while.
I'm still looking at online videos about Digital SLR high-definition video production and the various gear associated with it. I'm drawn both to the gear and to the spectacular results.


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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Happy New Year! ; House 1 rehab is done! ; end of the re-hab season for us

(posted from home)
(This post covers 1 – 12 January, 2011)


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Wednesday, 12 January-

Yesterday's snow was light but overnight we had about four inches of the stuff. I was awakened by a snow plow around 0530 and couldn't get back to sleep. Once daylight came up I went out and shoveled snow and cleaned off the cars for a couple of hours. The temperature was only about 25 degrees but I was very comfortable and thoroughly enjoyed the sunny early morning.
I then spent most of the day researching digital SLR cameras. I'm thinking of working on my photography skills on my Florida trip this year.

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Tuesday, 11 January-

Cburg. This morning I installed transition strips between the hardwood flooring and the sheet vinyl flooring of the kitchen and bath. Labashi re-mounted all the newly-painted registers. I then fixed a water leak at the turnoff valve for house 1 (the one I fixed earlier in the week was in house 2). We then began cleaning up and packing up to end our re-hab season for now. We have house 1 ready for sale and need to take an extended break. We left for home at lunch time, hoping to beat the snow predicted for the afternoon.
Back home we spent an hour 'arriving' (unloading and stowing, etc) and then settled in just as the snow started. That evening we watched a good National Geographic special on Death Valley.

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Monday, 10 January -

Cburg. Today we finished cleaning floors (living room and dining room floors we couldn't work on until the stains and poly were dry). Late in the day we put down Orange Glo Hardwood Refinisher.
More 'Weeds- 5' that evening after our supper at Pizza Hut.

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Sunday, 9 January-

Cburg. I cleaned up the bedroom floors in detail. I used Goof-Off to remove paint spots, Scotch tape residue, gum, lipstick, and magic-marker ink and plain old scraping to remove some unidentified stuff that didn't respond to Goof-Off. I then used Minwax Hardwood Floor Cleaner on all the bedroom floors. In the meantime Labashi was working on her color-matching skills with stains on the hardwood floor repairs Maypo recently completed in the living room and dining room.
That evening we watched several Weeds-Season Five episodes after supper at Quiznos.

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Saturday, 8 January-

Cburg. After our meeting with the real-estate agent yesterday we decided we would not have the hardwood floors refinished. This means we spent a laborious day and a half taking up toe and removing nails. Now we have to put it back down and fill all the holes.
Labashi did a great job of cleaning up the hardwood toe with Goof-Off and I used Maypo's air-driven brad nailer to put it back in place. I then filled the holes with a Minwax color-putty which virtually disappeared.
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Friday, 7 January-

Cburg today. We left early to meet with a real-estate agent at the house. We met with him for a good two hours and had a good session. That afternoon Labashi joined me in the basement of house 2, chipping away at loose concrete and washing down walls in preparation for paint.
That evening we finished 'Damages- Season Two' in the van.

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Thursday, 6 January-

Home today. It took me most of the day to find the 'right' motorcycle insurance and buy it. I'm still amazed it's such a haphazard process. After finding the insurance I wanted I told the agent I'm ready to sign up and he asked if I had a fax machine. I don't so he said we'd either have to wait for a mail exchange so I could receive, sign, and return a state-required notification form before we could proceed or I could sign up online and electronically sign the notification form there. That's fine but the online form had problems of its own and I ended up having to fill out the forms multiple times and even then still had to call in for help. Online signup still has a long way to go.
But in the end, I'm happy with the change. For the same price as last year I now have the same coverage plus I get roadside assistance dispatch service.

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Wednesday, 5 January-

Home today. I reviewed and then sent in our renewal for auto insurance. I then spent the rest of the day shopping for motorcycle insurance. I've become unhappy with my old insurance provider and am trying to find a good match. My first try was an utter failure, though. I thought I had found a good company but the quote was almost 50 per cent higher.


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Tuesday, 4 January -

Cburg today. I worked in the basement of house 1, cleaning out all the cobwebs and doing a thorough dusting of the cross-braces and horizontal surfaces. I then moved over to house 2 to continue my dusty work and I repaired a leak in the boiler-valve serving as the main water supply cutoff. Labashi is still working away upstairs with rehab of the interior door surfaces.
Late in the day we drove back home.

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Monday, 3 January -

Today I spent the day finishing up the paint prep of-- and then painting--- the fuel oil tank. I also put a second coat on the water-well pressure tank.
Again, we watched 'Damages' that evening after supper at Tito's Tacos.
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Sunday, 2 January-

This morning we drove back to Chambersburg to get back to work. I replaced another broken window in the basement, then scaled, wire-brushed, and painted the water well's pressure tank with a coat of heavy-rust primer and began the paint-prep process for the fuel-oil tank. Labashi, in the meantime, began work on the interior doors upstairs.
That evening we continued 'Damages-Season Two' via Neflix Instant Movies in Mocha Joe.

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Saturday, 1 January -

Happy New Year! Labashi and I spent the day relaxing at home. We had a very busy year, at times stressful but also very rewarding. This time last year we were planning the move of Labashi's parents from Detroit to Mechanicsburg and that turned out well. After they settled in we then took a much-needed break with (of all things) 8000 miles of driving --- our so-called 'Desert Flowers trip'. We made a beeline for Big Bend National Park in west Texas, then meandered along the Mexican border to San Diego for the next few weeks, then moved a hundred miles north and meandered back across the US.
In July we began the house-rehab project we just finished up this week (and now we have another to go). In mid-August we took another little drive, this one a tour of Newfoundland and Labrador. The highlight-- and our excuse for going-- was a traverse of Labrador via the Trans-Labrador Highway.
And upon our return home, it was back to work on House 1 for the rest of the year.


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