Well, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I couldn’t quite figure out exactly how to format it. I’m going to start choosing an album that I like every month and write a short blurb on why it is great. Like I said before, I am somewhat of a snob when it comes to music, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

Beck is an artist that I’ve only recently become a big fan of. Everybody remembers his hit single Loser in the late 90′s. I have been familiar with a few of other singles that he has had out, (Where It’s At, Ramshackle, Derelict, etc.) but never really had the money to invest in an album and check it out. Once I did look at one of his albums (Mellow Gold) but a couple of the songs had rather foul names… so I passed.

Recently I became familiar with Becks 2004 album Guero, a great album as well. I started listening to more of his stuff online and was introduced to his album Sea Change. It is very different than the rest of his catalogue that consists of a lot of eclectic and off the wall music with odd lyrics and catchy rhythms and tunes. Sea Change is all very soft and melodic. Most of the songs have a sad overtone. Some people may find this depressing, but I just find it calming. It, along with other of his albums, was met with critical favor. But unlike his other albums, not a lot of immediate popular success. Since it’s release, it has picked up a big name in it’s own rite, appearing in many greatest album lists and being compared to such iconic albums as Pink Moon and Blood on the Tracks.

Anyway, I digress. This is a great album and it can be accessed by clicking the play button in the little player that is in my sidebar or by going to Blogmusik.net and typing “sea change” in the search window and sort by album name. This is also a great way to check out other stuff from Beck, but be forewarned if you do that he does have some rather “colorful” language and you listen at your own risk. If anyone wants a list of safe songs, just let me know and I’ll but together a playlist. Blogmusik is a free player with no registration required.

So I hope you who are readn’ this, have as much fun as we did doin’ it.

Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start).

A few weeks ago… (does five count as a few?) We had just got a repair/maintenance done on the Sunfire, and it turned out to be quite a pretty penny. Jenn was not exactly happy about the bill as we hadn’t expected a bill half as much as the one we got. Anyway, to cheer her up, I gave her my big hammer and let her go to town on the existing tile around the tub. Now, Jenn and I had been seriously talking about doing the bathroom for a while, and so this wasn’t as spontaneous as it may sound. Anyway, in a couple of hours, I had a happy wife and a trashed bathroom. A good trade!

Next step we figured was to take out the existing vanity and mirror. Who on earth ever decided that those puke-pink sinks and toilets were a good idea? (Incidentally, we have a very attractive Pink sink and vanity with matching disgustingly ugly mirror that we could be persuaded to part with for the right price!) Up until now, the demolition was pretty easy.

My next project was to get the piping ready for the new tub and shower fixtures that Jenn had picked out. The plumbing behind the shower wall was all soldered. I have been quite afraid of soldered plumbing, as I have almost no experience with it, plus the fact that I hate plumbing in general. This was a very intimidating stage in our project. My Dad sent up a soldering torch and I went and got a bunch of soldering connectors and pipe. The demo turned out to be quite difficult. The old soldered connections into the existing fixture did not come apart very easily. I ended up using my pipe cutter and made some rather ugly cuts, but once the old fixture was out, I was able to clean up the pipe ends fairly easily. By the end of the demo, I wasn’t even close to having the fittings back to a point where I could turn the water back on (there wasn’t any local turn off to the shower water). Luckily, I had bought these cool little pipe ends call Sharkbite Connectors
These just push on and there is a little tool to take them off. Anyway, I was able to turn the water back on and then finish the job the next day. The actual soldering turned out to be not that hard either. I have been told that the secret is to have clean ends.

Now that the piping was finished my next project was to get my tile backer up. I opted to use Hardy Board instead of Cement board. It is a little bit more expensive, but it is well worth the dollar difference as it is easy to cut (I just used my utility knife) and is more durable (I’ve been told). This went pretty well. The toughest part of the job was cutting the existing board to get a straight edge to butt my new board against. The actual hanging of the Hardy Board didn’t take all that long.

At this point we were ready to hang the tile. I got a extra lite mortar that is made especially for wall tile applications and we got a bunch of different tiles to try a few different pattern ideas. Jenn preferred a square grid design and I liked an offset row look. We worked a row of a darker color tile in a six inch size into both patterns.

Let me know what you think.

So Jenn posted the two patterns on a couple of her online message boards to get a little input from some others. One lady mentioned that a diagonal pattern might look quite nice so Jenn fiddled around with the tiles for a bit and found a pattern that both of us thought definitely looked the best.

But, although I thought it looked great, I wasn’t sure that I could pull it off. It seemed to me to be very complicated. But who can say no to Jenn when you can tell she really wants something. Anyway, I played with the pattern a bit, made some preliminary cuts and went to work. I quickly found out that my fears of the difficulty of getting this pattern to look right were well founded. About halfway through, I noticed that my grout lines were definitely getting more and more uneven, with a couple of them really distractingly big. However, we pushed on and it didn’t seem to be too terribly bad. All the walls had similar difficulties. The soap shelf was especially difficult. Over a two week period, I finally got all the tile up.

Yesterday we finished the tile off by putting in the grout. The tile has a kind of feathered edge, and a somewhat tumbled look to it, so after the grout was all in, the grout lines I was stressing about are pretty much unnoticeable… Thank heaven for grout! The only real problem we now have with the grout is that it is a lot lighter than what it is supposed to be. So, hopefully we can figure out how to make the grout darken to the color it is supposed to be.

So I’m tired of typing and I doubt anyone actually made it through all that rambling… We will have more updates to come, hopefully soon..

And we’ll get a picture of the finished product out soon… its late.

My father is a great guy. On this Father’s Day, I would like to share one of my favorite memories of my Dad. When I was in elementary school… probably fourth or fifth grade, my class was all told that we were going to have a kite day. I took my money and went to King’s to buy a kite. I saw a bunch of different ones, the one I got was this rather complex kite called the Black Widow, and it cost about twice what the other kites cost. I was really exited about this kite and spent a few hours that day putting it together. It didn’t seem to go together quite right, and I remember being a bit nervous about it working right. I took it out to our field and tried it out. I think that I would have had better luck with a rock. After a few tries one of the 4 sticks broke. I tried to tape it back together but it was no good, the Black Widow was dead. I remember being heartbroke and devastated. Later that day when Dad got home, he asked if we could go in my room and talk about what was bothering me. I remember saying something about my kite being broken and now I had no kite at all. He said to me that I actually did have a great kite. On my bed in my room was a brand new kite. I was so relieved and grateful for a new kite. I don’t know if my appreciation for my father and that act of kindness was immediate, at the time I probably only thought about how cool it was to have a new kite. But that experience has stayed with me for a long time, and I have always known that my father is there for me no matter what.

So here’s to you Dad. I love ya!

7 random facts about myself… here we go.

1. I made up a nickname for myself and some roommates in college.

• Joseph Virgil Zollinger
• Nathan Cecil (pronounced sesil) Ward
• Scotticus Von Schlictenhaggen Stokes
• Zack Francis Lewis

2. I am the only male child in my family of six siblings. I have two older sisters and three younger.

3. I am a complete music snob. I like very few bands and one little thing can turn me off to a band very easily. My favorite bands (or singers) are as follows… in no particular order.

• Pink Floyd
• Nick Drake
• Tool
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Beck (just recently added to the list)

4. I hate Wal-Mart with a passion and will go quite a bit out of my way to patronize local stores and stores that are not open on Sunday.

5. If I could choose any second language to speak, it would be German.

6. I like to use smart words… like copious.

7. I am a very inconsistent blogger.

7 random facts about myself… here we go.

1. I made up a nickname for myself and some roommates in college.

• Joseph Virgil Zollinger
• Nathan Cecil (pronounced sesil) Ward
• Scotticus Von Schlictenhaggen Stokes
• Zack Francis Lewis

2. I am the only male child in my family of six siblings. I have two older sisters and three younger.

3. I am a complete music snob. I like very few bands and one little thing can turn me off to a band very easily. My favorite bands (or singers) are as follows… in no particular order.

• Pink Floyd
• Nick Drake
• Tool
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Beck (just recently added to the list)

4. I hate Wal-Mart with a passion and will go quite a bit out of my way to patronize local stores and stores that are not open on Sunday.

5. If I could choose any second language to speak, it would be German.

6. I like to use smart words… like copious.

7. I am a very inconsistent blogger.

Well, I guess that my life is just so increadably boring that I really have nothing to write. So in searching for inspiration, I have decided to try and show a detail of my home projects. Hopefully, once I start writing more, I will have more to write about in general.

Well, I guess that my life is just so increadably boring that I really have nothing to write. So in searching for inspiration, I have decided to try and show a detail of my home projects. Hopefully, once I start writing more, I will have more to write about in general.