Thursday

 

Today was about cleaning up the garage. We started with having our construction company come and remove the laminate boards from the garage. Under the laminate was the tile on top of a double pallet, wedged between the golf cart and the car. We moved the tile to the front bedroom.

Even the decorative tile. It will soon be needed in the bathroom remodel, and even if it's in the way, we can move it again. 

I swept the garage and we washed the golf cart and the car.

We have so much room now. It feels like a three car garage.

The pallets are on the street, ready for pick up. Soon, we'll have another pallet of tile delivered and a bathtub. I think we'll try to move them into the front bedroom just to keep the garage more usable. 

The high temperature was 78 degrees. Nice to be in shorts and t-shirts again.

Wednesday

 

Arugula salad

We tried a new one-pot recipe: Chickpea Pasta

It was intermitently cloudy, sunny, and foggy today. The temperature got up to 65. So I rode my bike to Weaver park to exercise. Afterwards, I continued on the Pinellas Trail to Clearwater. The hardest part was getting started. My cut-off temperature for bike riding is 63 because of the wind-chill factor.

I stopped on the Stevenson Creek bridge to take these pictures. 

Last walk of the day

Tuesday

 

Our designer recommended this tub, so we ordered one today, and we were able to get her discounted price. It's sleek and modern looking. 

After demolition, the tub is the first piece to go in. So we wanted to make sure it was in place when it's needed.

We need about 474 sq.ft. of tile for the bathroom and the two back bedrooms and closets. The two bedrooms and closets require 394 sq.ft. and the bathroom about 80 sq.ft. Fortunately, we had 284 sq.ft. left over from the house flooring. (We ordered enough for the bathroom in advance.) Therefore, we only had to order an additional 190 sq.ft. The tilers were very efficient and had more leftover than anticipated. The supplier, TileBar, still had tile from the lot we drew from back in August. It was a new shipment then, arriving from Italy just after we placed our order. So, we shouldn't have any issues matching tile color. It will be nice having the entire house tiled the same, from the front stoop through to the sunroom.

Monday

 

It was a beautiful, sunny day today with the high temperature hitting 70 degrees, so I decided to tackle the bird of paradise.

It's supposed to be heavily pruned in late January or early February, although it's okay to prune it anytime.

It's amazing how fast it grows. I start cutting at the bottom and work my way around. 

Then I go around again, a bit higher up. I finished by trimming the bottom to make it look a little neater. 

This is the first year that I've trimmed it this early, before it gets hot. 

Sunday

After a brutally cold week, the temperature finally got up to 67 degrees on Sunday. Toby lounged in the sun in the backyard.

I inspected the roof and eaves for damage and checked on the gutters.

John went jogging this morning, but I waited until after lunch to ride down the Pinellas Trail to Clearwater and back.

I stopped at Weaver park to exercise.

The photo above shows the bump out for the shower wall. It's hardly noticeable.

Another shot with the lights on bright.

We met with the designer last Thursday to brainstorm for the back bathroom renovation. It's going to be pretty basic. We're not changing the footprint at all, just new tub, glass enclosure, toilet, vanity, mirror, LED lights, and fixtures. We'll also replace the tile to match the rest of the house and tile the two bedrooms and closets. We did come up with a cool design element to add some interest: we'll use some of the leftover decorative tile from the previous project in the form of a vertical stripe about 10 inches wide, offset to the right of center. The rest of the wall tile will be the same tile as the floor tile. She will be sending the contract soon. She couldn't give us a start date, but I would guess demolition would get underway in March as begin year three of our whole house renovations.

 

Saturday

 

John and I went jogging this morning, enjoying another warmish day, high of 72 degrees.

After lunch, we took Toby in the golf cart to Jensen's Seafood downtown to pick up some fresh fish for dinner. Downtown was packed with people enjoying the outdoors.

I took some pictures of our renovations with my new iPhone camera.

Friday

 

This has been the coldest winter so far in Dunedin. But today, we got a break.

The temperature got up to 68 degrees. John went jogging and I went for a bike ride south on the Pinellas Trail to Clearwater.

And back to Weaver park to stretch and lift weights. More cold weather is on the way, so we enjoyed the sun and warmth while we could.

Wednesday

 

Today's project was to remove the laminate flooring in the second bedroom.

The project was just as easy as yesterday. The only hard part was moving out the furniture.

All clear

Ready for tile

We put all the bedroom furniture in one room to simplify the furniture movement. When we know that the tilers are coming, we can move all this stuff into the eat-in kitchen and sunroom. We wanted to hold off on that because it may be a month or two before we are ready for tile. We'll know more when we meet with the designer.

Tuesday

 

Today, we took up the laminate floor in the back bedroom.

Underneath was a foam vapor barrier.

The hardest part was moving the furniture. The floor came up easily.

We finished the one room and saved the other one for tomorrow. The laminate boards are stored in the garage until our contractors can pick them up for disposal. The foam I was able to discard in our trash.

I found these drawer organizers on Amazon that fit our new vanity drawer. 

Monday

 

I started researching small bathroom renovations in preparation for our meeting with the designer. The bathroom above is our exact layout. Notice the glass partition on the tub. I wonder how well that works when showering. It seems like water would go outside the tub. But I do like the small size. It's on hinges, so it swings open to allow access.

I'm pretty sure we'll use a tub and not a walk-in shower, but if we did convert it to a shower, it might look something like this.

I like this shower door. It is a full enclosure. We like the idea of a built-in shelf, but wonder if they are hard to keep clean. So far, our chrome shelf seems to be working okay. I like the lines of this tub and the light above.

Here's an idea for more storage. The doors above the sink have mirrors on them. Might be too cozy in our narrow bathroom.

I finished up the painting from our last project this afternoon. I painted around the new toilet room ceiling fan.

It got up to 72 degrees this afternoon, the only day above 70 in the forecast. We took Toby to Stirling twice, once to play fetch and once for his usual after dinner walk.

We limit the number of tosses to save his knees.

He always enjoys it and would never want to stop.

He got a bath in the new shower last night. The hand shower did a great job.