Plumbing with Pat, continued...

So Dad "came up to work" this weekend, as he kept reminding me.  And work we did.  After a slow start, filled mostly with chatting, eating, hiking, and drinking beer, we really got down to business Sunday afternoon.  Sarah and I had a short list of goals:
Fix the rocking terlet
Change faucet and other fixtures (for both cosmetic and functional reasons)
Paint the walls and ceiling
Put up molding

We generally wanted to make the bathroom look and act as if it existed in a developed nation.  Here it is looking like something you might expect to see in Mogadishu or Canada.

All rental white, nasty brown plastic molding, broken window with busted blind...many of you have experienced the toilet situation... sorry about that, by the way.

Ugly chrome fixtures.

This is... well... it's just a mess.

So the first thing we did was establish that the toilet situation was going to be tougher than we'd hoped.

Here we are joking about it... We didn't really use guns.

Here Dad really IS using a hammer and a crow bar and NOT AT ALL joking about it.

We had LOTS of help all the way through the project.  Eva and the Milwaukee Rotary Tool were at opposite ends of that particular spectrum, though you can see them together here.

Here you see the terlet.  Wounded, but not dead.

We had to break the broken flange away from the concrete and the pipe, and then the cement had to be broken away as well.  A lot of hammering and chiseling and crowbarring took place.  Then we had to figure a way to affix the new flange to the old pipe.  We tried glue and cement to no avail, but finally figured out a combination of epoxy and cement.

Then we found the part we had needed in the beginning, but hadn't known existed.

 It costs less than $10 and would have saved us considerable time and energy.  Dad took this rather hard, but I bought him a burrito, gave him a pep talk and took him back to Home Depot.  He quit cursing and muttering, but I don't think he'd fully recovered until his jambalaya and stout at Maxies.

Here we are discovering that we're at the wrong DIY store... again.  Sarah started calling her car the Lowes-Home Depot shuttle.

Dad was still feeling bad about the toilet situation, so he insisted on more self- castigation.  Here, you see him insisting that this is where he will sleep for the night.

Sarah had to pull him out by his feet.  He fought hard, but she was finally able to pry him free.  She is quite strong and persistant.  We've been watching a lot of David Attenborough specials, too, so she's familiar with the habits of many crustaceans and other crab-like animals.

Sarah and I decided to go with crown molding.  It gets it's name from the fact that originally only royalty could afford to have it installed.  Also, the craftsman that would work with it was known as a "moulder" since since that's what his mind would do while he tried to figure out the measurements and precise angles to cut.  This was especially true given that the other group of "craftsmen" known as "buggers" (later builders) would "bugger up" all the angles in any given "buglin" or hovel (what we today call buildings or houses).  Also, note the helper in the lower right again.

Still upset about being pulled away from his terlet, Dad forced us to go out for dinner and drinks at a horrible restaurant called Maxies.  Sarah managed to choke down a couple mojitos and I only had beers so that Dad didn't feel like he was the only one drinking... beer.

Jonas would often keep an eye on Dad's phone or food for him when he got up.  Also, Jonas always kept the chair warm for Dad, even sometimes when he was in it.

So anyway, here's where we're at.  Most of the walls are painted, the toilet is solidly affixed to the foundation, the faucet and toilet handle are new and match.

The window sill is painted and has a new blind, the trim is all painted, and there is crown molding all the way around.

Thanks, Dad.

Plumbing with Pat

Sarah throws a nickel in the meter at the Rockwell Museum

President's Day Weekend with Dad

Dad is up here for the weekend. He keeps reminding us that he's here to work, but so far we have been playing more. Tomorrow we're going to the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. None of us have ever been, and I, at least, am quite excited!

Sarah got a new dog bed that has proved to be quite popular.  As you can see, we have been having some nice sunny days!

Dad got in early so we decided to go out to eat (and drink) at the Ithaca Beer Company.  The food and beer was great, but we weren't the only ones with the idea to go there to eat (and drink) and it was quite loud...  Sarah translated for Dad and me.

The 5 Barrel Series is a small batch experience that is a fun as it is fleeting.  I had the Red Ryesin, which was fantastic.

Dad and I were joined for coffee and chatting by a very happy little puppy.

We went to the Watkins Glen State Park for a cold, beautiful hike.

This scene reminded me of the Ice Queen from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

This is a very large railroad trestle that crosses Glen Creek.

Trespassing is strictly forbidden, but I figured I'd obeyed enough signs already today.

Dad and Sarah chatted all up and down the trail.  I mostly made pit stops to water the fauna... Guess that's what I get for trying to keep up with Dad on the coffee drinking!

Here we are at our post hike watering hole, Two Goats, outside of Watkins Glen.  Note my awesome, new, AMERICAN MADE hat that Dad bought for me!  It has a three year warranty for damage or loss and a lifetime warranty against defect!

We're having a blast.  More fun and pictures to come.  Wish you all were here.  

Cheers!

waiting out the winter

WAITING OUT WINTER from Andrew David Watson on Vimeo.

Snowy Day

 Indy sometimes thinks there're squirrels in the tree when there really aren't

 More red polls. They are really gregarious and brave little birds.  We like them a lot.

 This one is on a post near our driveway.  It's more decorative than anything.

 This is the new owl house, with treehouse style ladder steps nailed to the tree. 

This is a little wren house that gets some use.  There is a wasp nest in it right now that I need to clean out before the new breeding season begins.  Mom and Dad H got this one for us.

 This is our bluebird house that usually houses tree swallows.  They must not read the same bird books that I do.

 Another little wren house.

Indy LOVES the snow!  She walks through it munching on it like a water buffalo. 

I'm just about ready for a new season to start. 

Another birdhouse from Mom and Dad H. 

Another brave little red poll posing for a picture. 

This is a sign that I grabbed from the junk pile at camp at the end of the summer.  Always in my memories. 

This might be our original bird feeder... might be second generation.  At any rate, it's a favorite of our birds.