#and charged us all for the cleaning products she bought when we literally already had cleaning products and didnt want hers

[holeposts]

my idiot roommate is sick and coughing but still using her goddamn hairspray. at 8 pm at night. what is it for? what is it all for?

[goddessjynx]

Any parent please answer?

Idk if anyone will see this, but right now I need just anyone to tell me I'm not crazy.

Am I a bad friend for wanting to hang out with my ex-bestie (eb for short) while she has her kids or she's busy and can't hang, so I offer to come over, to help watch, to help clean? Anything just to be there for her, why? Oh because she was on her third child, at this time I literally went over to her house to play dnd with her husband and brother and her sometimes. So I would try and say "hi" or talk, but instead we stayed doing something else or barely said hi. Ok, fine, hormones, got it. It got to the point of she wouldn't want to hang out with me for reasons she stopped telling me decent sounding excuses. Fine, That's fine, I have other friends who I can hang with or find other things to stay inside and not get out of the house to do. I don't need to leave the house, to get away from the suffocating inside the house with a mentally and verbally abusive, controlling husband. That's. Just. Fine.

So you know, time goes on. we find out that the reason she won't hang out with me, but will hang out with the other girl who she hates (Mind you the other chick literally broke into their house, tried to start drama all the time, and be hazardous to her already two children But who am I to judge about the person you rant to me about how you hate them so much?) But the other chick was also pregnant after divorcing her wife. It's honestly such a mess. So "anyways, I get excluded now because I "Don't understand what she's going through" or "I won't have the same experience" or I'm "not a good source of help" Lol, Okay? I still can't help? Be happy for you? Cool. So things go on, and just things have gotten worse on my end. I'm over here with such a mind debilitating baby fever, that I'm having to pull my car over watching children get off the school bus because I'm in such a crying fit that I can't breathe or see straight. So who the hell would I go to about what do I do? My Bestie right? (There's a reason we are eb rn) I tell her, well try, Idk how much she actually listened. But I tell her how I just can't think about anything else right now. I did everything right, and the world keeps slapping me back.

I own a 4 bedroom house. we have two cars, we even have decently everything working out in our favor, But all of a sudden, I'm not good enough for anyone. My own husband two months after getting married said he hasn't found me attractive for the last two years. THAnks. That's a real boost. This didn't start the fights, but that's a whole other set of rants. about a year before my eb got pregnant, around or right before July 4th, I strictly remember, I was in the walmart fucking bathroom. I had felt so sick the weeks beforehand. Like, My menstrual cycle hates me. She's savage af. Not to mention she likes to disappear randomly and appear with just cramps or a whole flood. I never know. But I remember calling my husband in a panic because I don't know what to do while I had to go to the bathroom so bad it hurt, and all I have is half dollar sized clots. Just something my medical brain, and senior year of AP biology says, "Fuck!" I have him figure something out because I'm really needing someone to just hold me in the bathroom I feel so sick to my stomach. I'm dizzy and all these symptoms I tell him to tell the doctor or whoever he calls.. So he calls, they say whatever to him. I don't either remember or he never told me what they said, (this is a normal of hiding information from me, A LOT) They said (What he told me) to just wipe things up and clean up then if it persists in the next 24 hours to go into the hospital. But I will have to see an ob-gyn.

So, Okay. Nothing bad. but they are in charge of everything along those lines. But those were including two words, that I now know were the two words this man didn't want to hear despite, DESPITE all the teasing and jokes about having kids with me when I was younger with him and literally just dating. That was because I had to see a family planning doctor. I was told by HIM that it was nothing, and we will be fine. I just blamed it on my cramps that are horrible and never put thought to it because I had believed that's what he was told. So that's a trauma my brain locked away until recently as I'm going through my divorce right now. But, I was thinking about how shortly after that, I got a call from my eb about how they were all waiting on me because I'm making us late for bringing stuff to the grill out and bonfire later. Fine, mask all the pain and keep fucking going. right?

She seemed genuinely not worried, saying it was probably just a bad cycle. She gets them all the time too. Its whatever. My now bestie's sister has gone through the same thing I described multiple times, enough that she looked at me and was like, "No, You possibly miscarried." even her mom went on about, "they should've never NEVER brushed that off like they did. If they cared then they would've made sure you were ok. My husband denied me from going to the doctor to see anything about it. Even after when I knew my hormones and emotions were just soooo off. But that's in my mind now, when before maybe around the same time my eb came out saying to all of us even her own husband one time saying she's been feeling crummy because she went in and she found out she had miscarried. It was so short after my stuff that she disregarded then took and made attention for herself that upset her own husband because she never told him until she told a bunch of us at a bar. I mean I felt bad for her, but Now thinking back, my gut says it was a ploy to make her husband to feel bad for her and to try for another one. Where as I'm over here waiting patiently because I jumped through Hoops to get where I'm at now.

My husband promised me children. Lots, its a fucking dream to be a mum. I care for everyone else, and their kids, why not have some kind of mini me to show of what I did. That I did good. That I can be useful to this world too. That I'm not just a lump of no good nothing to this world. But first, he needed a better paying job than a gas station.

Did that, he worked at a metal parts production place. But we then gave the fact that we still live in the apartment I got after moving out from high school. We rented a house. It worked, and it was nice. But now he needs a car, but he cant do that until he learns how to drive. 3 years older than me and I taught him how to drive. AND I helped him buy his first car, a truck. Oh but now, we still can't start a family. We are only renting. I have enough good credit that I could get a house alone, but I needed a higher pay. Bam with his income together we got a house.

Bam, I'm hit with baby fever and what not. NOW I get told, we aren't ready for anything like that yet, so wait two years. Alright, I'll wait. I can do that. We were going to go on trips together and do many things together and all of a sudden, the walmart thing happened, and it just got worse from there. It got to a point I got a job paying BETTER than him and I was the laughing stock to him and his buddies. THANKS. But I'm fine, everything is fine. The walmart thing was about two years after, so I mean, it was actually in the time frame and whatnot. Things just kept going on getting worse at home, I just kept listening. For reasons, I had to quit my high paying job, and then everything got absolutely horrible at home. Had to put everything I had control over money wise into his account for he worried it would take too long to find an new job and make money to suffice for bills. It was argument after argument, but I went to my eb explaining things, asking what the hell do I do? Her advice? To just do what he wants. The thing I had to quit about? She basically never cared about it. Everything just went on being a mess. I went on just letting people walk over me because that was the advice I was given.

I voiced my feelings that I have been following lies and how I feel hurt that I'm told dreams and having them be taken away. We never went on trips much. Instead we would buy a crap ton of ammo or new guns that I'm not allowed to use, yet I'm helping fund so you can get them, but when it was my own that I BOUGHT, all of a sudden, my things went missing and he would be out using and letting his buddies use my new guns and using up the ammo I had purchased on my own. I mean, fine, but let me at LEAST take yours out if you're going to use mine without asking. It got to be so annoying that we would be asked when we would get married or when we would have kids. He would be hugging me and smiling all cocky saying "Oh well we haven't stopped trying." every time. He would start that tell people this and I finally had enough. I stopped him and told him to put his money where his mouth was. He always said shit but never actually did it or acted on what he said. He would just lie to everyone. Tell people lies because it sounded nice. Best part? I had bought a ring for him. I proposed to him because he would joke about things like that. So I basically said, "bet" and did it. I have never received a damn ring! He wouldn't even want to look at them with me. Because they were expensive. Not all of them are. I don't care what price it is, but something to say, "Hey, I love you and Don't want the odd peeps at the bar to keep hitting on you so take this with you, its dangerous out there." (Shut up. I'm a nerd) But like.... I just would make notions about, I wanted a ring. He would beg me to pool together money and buy new guns, I mean I"m not against, but I would bring up that I will want a ring. Or even something else would be you know, amazing right now because I'm in a lost place wanting kids still and my eb just announced they were having their third. (which her own family was so upset about it that they ranted to me and my mom, her own brother said that its just another kid that they will end up taking care of instead of her so she can go to the bars again. Yep) So next we talked about getting a gun safe because, before we can have kids, we need to be SAFE. Ight, we bought it. Nice matte black 33 capacity, fire and water proof, best part the front had a reallly pretty engraved waving American flag imprinted on it. It was just so smooth. (Guess who has that right now btw) So oddly enough in the middle of me not being enough for my eb, My cycle kind of returned to being semi regular, and all of a sudden disappeared. Well that whole month beforehand we went from never wanting to touch me unless it was my birthday to every night he was angry after work and took it out on me instead. I mean, whatever. But when it came to me not feeling well, I told him.

Instantly it wasn't mine. I was fooling with other guys. Like instant psycho. His childhood friend came and moved up with us, she saw this for a good few months and had to move out because he was trying to control her as if she were a child. She told me that it was not right for him to be that way and that she will never talk to him for how he treated her. (which was exactly how he was always with me too) I'm not sure if he was trying to get my jealous because his bff was a girl? Idk we worked out like literally sisters. Sooo much in common and she told me, She believes he's never wanted kids. And she watched how I broke down after he told me he wanted nothing to do with me until I took a test. He DEMANDED that I took a test right away. If it was positive, it wasn't his until proven so. And if it was negative he would be fine. this was ridiculous. He wasn't at all happy or excited. Purely upset. I felt so shitty that after the test was negative I told him and he threatened about it happening again he was leaving back to Kansas. He threatened this every damn fight, it got to the point that I gave up, I said leave then. And instantly he shut up. I got him out of gangs, crime, jail, living on the street or with his mum, and being a maaajor drug addict. Yet I'M THE BAD PERSON.

Back to recently when my eb is getting closer to having her kid, I just go through finding out I'm not and my husband is freaking out at me, nonstop yelling at me that I'm not good enough and all this shit. Yes, lil ol me trying to keep the peace in the house is a cunt and a whore. Wow. Name calling, but hitting where it hurts? I told him before, how my mother in an argument said I would be a horrible mother. And that shit sticks. IT STICKS. So what does the smart ass pull out? He repeats it. He says he's glad I'm not pregnant because I'd be a horrible mother in the end.

That. That just kills a person. That kills dreams and the feeling of wanting to keep living. Who the FUCK says that to their partner? Am I wrong for thinking that's not right? Well my eb thought I was. I told her my feelings. How I don't want to be jealous of her, but I am. That she's more beautiful, she's always had guys hitting on her in school inviting her to do things and hang out, I was the nerd in whatever class that got invited only if it was mandatory. She will be having three kids and a loving husband that can never take his hands or eyes from her, where as I have to act like a clown to get my husband to look up from his damn phone. To say something nice. To

be acknowledged while in the house. I've left and came back the next morning because I hung out at my now besties house. He didn't say a word until I came home the next morning and he looked at me like "when the fuck did you leave" No care, no love. I was stuck being a burden. Anything I ever did around the house was in vain. Everything I helped with I got shoved away because I didn't do it right. EVERYTHING I did was not good enough. I would tell him this that is how I felt and he would deny it. One day, I caught him yelling at me saying that what I did wasn't ever good enough. Calle him out right away. Bitch... He tried to change the wording to go around what he said. I HEARD IT. it was so bad I had to have my bestie on the phone to listen to how he talked to me behind closed doors. Away from public view. HER MOM HEARD IT. Thought she was watching some kind of dramatic show, until she realized it was me on the phone. She's listened to so many calls its unheard of. There was a day, I had enough of it. (Ok A lot actually) but I grabbed my laptop and my charger and left the house. I sat in the park drawing on my laptop. Texted every person I could think of that I cared so deeply for that they would care for me back. I was in a dark ass place asking for Advice. My eb shrugged off what my husband was doing and scolded me for leaving. For sitting in a park drawing out my feelings instead of being with him because he's being dramatic to her husband upset that I started an argument. I didn't understand what I started when it was over me telling him not to throw the controller when he loses a COD game because that's how it breaks. Why he threw it? Because I distracted him by playing with my cat while he was playing the damn game and made him lose! yep. Exactly that. So I was yelled at to quit. So I did. I went back to my drawing and then with my headphones on I was humming to my music. It distracted him and he lost. So I flipped out because I can't do anything in my own house without being scolded for it. So I stormed off to the bedroom to draw some more. I'm upstairs and away from him. Didn't want to eat now I'm stressed and upset. So I didn't cook anything and now he's hungry and upset at me for not making food yet. YES. That's how it started and I again was the bad person in the story for safely removing myself from an environment where all my mind was telling me to do was dark things that hurt to say. To give up on everything I have worked for and all my dreams.

That was the last time I spoke to her for a while because everything started to be only about baby and about doing this for baby. Doing that for baby. But then she would never answer me back. I was done trying to fit time to hang out. To do something, I made new friends who didn't have kids and hung out more with them. It got horrible. the sound of a child crying made my stomach hurt. I had non stop dreams of the same thing happening. It was just awful. I looked it up and it was just meaning I had something and lost it. Whatever is missing in the dream what what I had lost.

In this dream I was dressed in all black, lace and long dress covering every inch of skin on my body. I had a hat with a veil and I was rocking a bundle in my arms in an old decrepit room with peeling paint and broken toys. It was a nursery. An old ruined nursery. I was rocking just a black blanket swaddled with a hole that emptied to the void. It gives me chills, I get this dream so much that me explaining just makes my skin crawl and my body ache. It hurts to think of but I just cannot understand it. Makes sense now that I looked into it.

But me going through all of this, I can't talk to my husband about my feelings because I'm too needy and being selfish for not taking his feelings into an account. That he's not ready that we are not ready and that I'm not ready because I'm going to be a horrible mom. Cool.

I have tried so much. I couldn't be around kids. It made me so sick and I jus would have to find somewhere to hide and cry for hours. I would cry myself to sleep. Never getting comfort by him because I'm throwing a pity party. I was so hurt. Still am. I'm broken hearted. Thinking that if I had a kid, at least I would have something that needed me and would love the care I gave and would love me back. I wanted to feel loved for how much I put out in the world. I wanted to have something to ground me to this world before I did something stupid. I was in such a dark place that I drove an hour to go see my bestie because I was scared that I was going to do it. That I was going to be the big disappointment he told me I would always be. Three months later, baby is here and I go back to playing dnd with my friends and its at their house. My husband is rubbing it in my face. He's holding baby and talking to baby and doing all these things making my mind break. He asks if I want to hold her. If i if iififififi NO.

I can't I cannot. I'm trying to be respectful. I missed out on other games because I had to hype myself up. I procrastinated because I didn't know how I would be or if I could handle it. I got to the point that my eb's husband told me that he doesn't want me playing anymore because I sent a text trying to apologize to my now eb that I feel so bad but I can't see her right now since seeing her kids just sends me into a panic attack and I can't stop thinking horrible things. So she takes that as I have a problem with HER kids and not just the KIDS situation. Doesn't hear me out. blames me for everything and has me banned from coming over. in which her husband says he doesn't want me over anymore. Which my rebuttal is because she's telling him only. But he said it was his choice. I don't know don't care. It just hurt that THATS the reason I got kicked out. Not because I was good, but that I couldn't handle their kids. And I would not pay attention by drawing the whole time. I was distracting myself because I'm trying to drown out the noises of cooing making my gut rot and my mouth dry. So by all means I'm selfish for wanting a dream that I was being promised for the last 6 years of physically being with my soon to be ex. I've know for actually 12 years. And that I drove 15 hours to bring you to me since you couldn't drive.

So I need to know from real parents, was I out of line for telling my eb that I had feelings and that them not being heard or just cast to the side hurt? Am I crazy for feeling that I've been robbed? For being upset when my husband comes home drunk and abuses me? For being hurt when I'm called all sorts of names and told I'm worthless by the man I should trust the most? Please. I need to know.

I know I'm ranting, but I need to get it out. I need to find some sort of something to figure out why I'm feeling this way, or why I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I'm fighting for the divorce since i haven't been to my owned house in the last 5 months since he changed the locks on me. I moved an hour away from my home and my family and still to this day, I hurt to hear or watch children around me. I'm happy, but inside something aches and just feels empty. Not to mention that I got told by people that know me that he's been caught buying condoms. We are still technically married, and he can't be doing those things right now. Am I jealous? Upset? Hurt? All of the above? It just sucks and I'm drowning in debt a bit trying to work my ass off to get where I want in life again since all of everything has been ripped from me. I'm trying. Please let me know if I'm crazy or out of line? I want to be heard. I'm going to start to save up. I have a plan for my 27th birthday. If it doesn't work in time for my 28th birthday, I'm not sure what else I can do but join the 27 club.

[aphotographyobsession]

I purchased the Medela with my second and have used it full time (3x a day, 5 days a week) for 3 months now and still going strong. I have a LOT to say about these pumps, but the bottom line is Medela is far superior. If you don’t want to read the full review, save yourself time, money, and frustration and purchase a Medela.

My experience with Ameda: I purchased this pump for two main reasons. First, it was a closed system (milk can’t get into tubes) and the cost differential – there was a greater one when I purchased the Ameda in 2011. At first things worked well. I starting pumping at night to build supply before returning to work. After returning to work, things continued well for a few months, then all of a sudden my supply started dropping. I could tell that my pump “wasn’t quite the same” so I read and read online. Ultimately, I determined that I needed to replace the valves. I did, and things improved… for a few weeks. Then, again, my supply dropped, I replaced the valves and things improved for a short time. This repeated several times (those valves are $7 for a pair… that adds up!!!!). I spent more than what I wanted to on replacement valves. This went on until my son was 7 months and then my supply all but dried up. When it got to the point that I could only get 4 oz per day and I was pumping 3x a day for 20 minutes each I decided it was time to switch to formula. Did I blame the pump? Not at the time, but now, absolutely! So, I cleaned everything well and packed it away carefully knowing that I would need it again for the next baby (except for the time when my close friend had her Ameda motor die on her after about 6 months of daily use and she borrowed mine for a week – hers was under the 1 year warranty, so Ameda did send a replacement free of charge). When my second baby came, I pulled it back out and pumped some during maternity leave without issue at first (new valves). Then all of a sudden I felt the pump “wasn’t quite the same” so I took it to a lactation consultant to look it over. We tested just the motor and it was reading the correct suction pressure. We checked the tubing and other connections until we found the root cause; THE VALVES!!!!!! The bad valve was essentially causing the pump to pull less than half the expected vacuum. Bottom line, it was worthless with bad valves. The lactation consultant opened a new package of valves from her own store and one of them was bad right of package. We went through all of mine and the majority of them were bad. No wonder my supply dried up… I was pumping, but with bad valves I wasn’t actually removing milk. If you don’t remove milk your body slows the production. I decided at that point to test until I found a few extra good valves and then anytime I needed more, I would just have to come back and test to 100% verify that the valves I was using were good. I DID NOT want to lose my supply again just because of the bad valves. Well, it didn’t matter, because a week into me pumping at work, my motor started to go out. Yes, it was 2 years old, but the actual working life of the pump was about 5. Either way, I may have only used it for 5 months but it was not under warranty so I purchased a brand new Medela pump. My experience with Medela: I purchased a Medela Pump in Style and what a difference!!! I could tell an immediate difference, but for the sake of not wanting the “new and shiny” aspect to persuade my review, I’ve waited to write this. So, with the Ameda in my first two weeks of work, I already saw a decline in my milk supply. This gem got my supply back up to normal within 3 days. If that’s not enough to persuade you to go with Medela, I don’t know what will. I have no complaints with this pump. In fact, that close friend that I mentioned hers broke on her… when she has a second little one I plan to help her buy a Medela. Yes, I’m that passionate about it. I feel sorry for the mommy that buys the Ameda and then doesn’t have the support system or money to problem solve the Ameda issues and buy all those replacement valves. Here are my opinions on the other aspects of the pumps: Bag: The backpack is tall and forces you to stack things. So, when you need the cooler from the bottom, you have to pull everything out. The tote, while maybe a little bigger is better organized so I don’t end up pulling everything out and readjusting. The Ameda is designed so you can pull the motor out of the bag, the Medela is not. So far that hasn’t presented a problem, but I can understand if you want to tuck it away in a small bag how it might be. The Ameda has no room to spare. If you want to bring a book along, good luck. With my Medela bag, I pack the hands free bra, extra bottles, a book, and extra accessories… with room to spare! Setup/Takedown: I felt like it was a much bigger deal to setup the Ameda to pump. You have to pull everything out of the bag and setup and then take it all back down and put away. With the Medela, the motor stays in the bag and everything stores nicely so you don’t have to pull everything out. I never have to take the cooler out and the tubes stay attached and have a nice little storage bag next to the motor. Flanges/Valves/Fittings: The Ameda accomplishes a “hygienic” closed system, which is a great concept, but comes at a price. I attribute this to my inadequate pumping and ultimately my supply drying up. The silicone diaphragm seemed to always get stuck in the vacuum position and the valves constantly needed replaced. I never did have to clean the tubes though. I also bought a different sized flange, but it was one that slide into the existing one and I never felt it made a good seal. The Medela is an open system and I do get condensation in the tubing. It’s worth it to me though because I know I’m getting great suction. I simply run my pump for a minute or two afterwards and it dries them out. The little white membranes provide the same function as the Ameda valves, but they are much less expensive and are much less likely to need replacing. I also had to buy a different flange size for the Medela, but it is designed so that the flange itself can just simply be a plug and play. It’s not an insert like the Ameda so I don’t have to worry about another joint that could potentially lead to suction loss. Cooler: The coolers are about the same size, but the Medela only has enough room for 4 bottles. The Ameda has room for 6. I only 4 - 5oz bottles so it works perfectly for me. With the Ameda, the ice packs never lasted long enough in my opinion. The Medela icepack is far superior. I even heat my milk to scald (150 deg F) – lipase enzyme issue you can Google if you’re interested in learning about it – and then I stick it in the bag and it is able to cool it and keep it cold until the evening! It’s awesome. Bottles: Ameda is 4 oz, Medela is 5 oz. Other than that, they are essentially the same. I don’t use them. I pump into the Playtex drop-ins pump and store liners and then they pop into the drop-in bottles (less bottle washing!). Motor: The vacuum supposedly is rated the same (lactation consultant shared that with me, but I’m not going to lie I didn’t read into it), but my experience is that the Medela is more reliable (several reviews report motors dying prematurely… which I experienced as well as my close friend). Also, the Ameda has the ability to adjust both speed and suction. At first I thought this would be perfect, but the more I used it, the more I was annoyed that it didn’t just automatically adjust. How am I supposed to know how fast it should go? Haha. So, the fact that the Medela pump does it’s automatic fast speed at first for letdown then adjusts to regular on its own or with the push of a button makes my life much easier. I’ve never once thought how nice it would be to adjust the speed myself. With the Ameda I always had to use full suction. With the Medela I have it at half suction and it works perfectly! Also, the Medela works faster for me than the Ameda did. Cleaning: The flanges are essentially the same. The two things that are different about cleaning is that the Ameda valves are a pain to clean because you really can’t clean them for risk of damaging them… and they are expensive! I gently rinsed them and left it at that. With the Medela, I do have to rinse the tubes once a week and have to do it when I’m certain I won’t need them… because you have to wait for them to dry completely before use again. So far it hasn’t been an issue. Availability of parts: Because Medela is a better known brand, you can find just about any replacement item you need at Target. So, when you need that emergency membrane/valve, you can almost guarantee you’ll find it at a nearby story, whereas, with Ameda I was overnight shipping if I had an emergency. Noise: The Ameda is much louder and more obnoxious sounding the Medela. Mine had a whirring sound when it pumped. Others who heard it thought something was wrong with it and usually asked if everything was okay (they were Medela users). Batteries: If you’re going to pump in the car, even once, buy the car adapter. These things sucks batteries like crazy (both of them). The battery pack is external with the Medela, which is has to be since you can’t remove the motor… but it makes it annoying. Hands free: Do yourself a favor and get a hands free pumping bra! In conclusion, buy Medela and rest assured you’ve made the right decision.

This sucks. Quite literally in fact! I was lucky enough to have a sweet baby that was born 5 weeks premature. She was perfect in every way but had to spend 3 of those extra weeks in the NICU. (I think they just wanted more time with her) One of the many perks that we were provided is the "Pump for Preemie Program". They allow you to take home a hospital grade breast pump (also a Medela) and hold your baby as collateral. It sounds like I am joking but when they were releasing her from the NICU, I had 5 nurses call me to make sure I brought the pump or else they wouldn't let me take her home. Literally 5! That pump was amazing - it has a better suction than the personal use pumps but that is not always a good thing. The main difference is that I had to pump for longer using this pump than with the hospital grade to get the same amount. It was just an extra couple of minutes. The longer pump time is MORE than worth the price difference. The hospital grade ones are insanely expensive ( but you can rent them if you wanna try it out - try Babies-R-Us) On to this pump - It's a great deal. You get a portable pump, ice pack, power plug, bottles and accessories. You will certainly need additional accessories but Medela makes that easy by offering a lot of "gift packs" or "new mom" kits. The breast pump I ended up with had the "On the go tote" that is pictured here but they also offer a backpack or a "Metro" messenger bag. (I suggest you go for the tote and get the CheekyTummy diaper backpack or use it with the Boba 4g baby carrier that has straps on the shoulder to help hold your bags.That keeps arms open to block strangers (and Grandma) from kissing on your baby and waking him up.) This pump can be run on A/C power or 8 AA batteries. They make it significantly heavier, so get to the plug when you can. It is designed to be a double pump but you can always use it on just one breast. The breast shields come in medium- I don't have huge boobs and my nipples didn't grow 3 sizes, like the grinch's heart, so those worked well for me. The larger sizes that I tried at the hospital would try to suck in my entire boob and my will to live. A good way to tell if you have the right size is to see what is sucking in and rubbing. If all of your nipple is rubbing/chaffing against the inside of the flange, than you probably need to try the next size up. It should fit the center of the flange and by the middle of the pump you will see it has reached maximum size is gliding along the inner edges smoothly. If it is sucking in areola and nipple - it's too big.

I got one of the "hands free" bras to go with it. The idea is great - pump without having to hold two little milk troughs to your chest. The execution makes it hard. I would suggest trying it with a tight tank top first. Just channel Regina George from Mean Girls and cut holes on each nipple and stick the flange through. Honestly, your probably not walking around and pumping as it is your only chance to actually sit down. Some well placed pillows will hold up the bottles so you can pump, check facebook, and continue to rock the baby's swing so she doesn't wake up mid-let down. This pump is quiet - but not silent. It's like an aggressive, nipple sucking, purring cat. They have quieter ones on the market but I am not sure they can hold up the level of suction over the long term. The hoses can build up quite a bit of condensation in them, which can mold. Make sure to air them out whenever you see little droplets in them. You can point the tubes downward put the pump on full blast without the breast shields on and let it air out the hoses before let down starts. You can also use rubbing alcohol to clean them but I never tried that. All in all, this is a wonderful product. I am glad I spent the extra dollars and went for Medela over an off brand. The replacement parts are easy to find. I would highly recommend it - it will be your best friend and your worst enemy!

[whiskeytangofrogman]

Zimbits kissing under a mistletoe? Or any other holiday shenanigans?

Congrats, anon! I think this is probably the only Christmas fic I’ve ever written. I call it “The saga of fucking Janine, way too many Christmas cookies, and smug Eric Bittle.” Hope you like it!

Post-canon, 1.6k, Zimbits

Bitty swears he’s not going to go overboard this year. Jack makes him promise he won’t go overboard on Christmas activities before Halloween. Bitty swears on his bakery and Jack’s collection of hockey fan merchandise that at most he’ll bake a few dozen cookies for the neighbours and for holiday packages.

And yet.

Jack comes home at half past midnight from the airport on the Saturday before Christmas Eve to stacks and stacks of baked goods. Bitty’s obviously been at this for a few days now, as some are packaged in tins and tupperware. Others are strewn on the multi-level cooling rack Jack bought him for graduation, and even more are piled on every visible surface. Either Bitty is anxious, or he’s angry.

Those are the only possible causes for this many baked goods.

“Bits?” Jack calls, the sound of his voice echoing through their apartment. No response comes. He sighs.

A quarter of an hour later, after searching every room and not finding Bitty, and getting no response through text, he gives up and settles in the blessfully empty living room. Their small Christmas tree is the only source of light in the room, and the tick-tick-tick of the clock the only sound besides Jack’s soft breathing.

He hears a key enter the deadbolt, and sits up. Bitty slams open the door, arms full of shopping bags and using Jack’s old headset to talk to what sounds like his mother. He doesn’t notice Jack, breezes right past him and settles whatever he had in his arms onto the oak dining table with a solid thunk. Jack creeps into the kitchen, only to see Bitty unwrapping more baking supplies from his grocery bags, phone call over. He’s tweeting something with a lot of emojis with the other hand.

Jack clears his throat. Bitty freezes.

Jack’s leaning against the doorjamb, one eyebrow raised carefully as he gestures to all the baked goods. “Hi honey,” Bitty says, waving a few fingers at him. He looks guilty, but Jack can tell from how mussed his hair is and the tone of voice he was using on the phone that this is anger-induced baking, which is good. Angry baker Bitty can be talked down.

“How was your trip?” Bitty asks, reaching behind him to grab a mixing bowl.

“Why?”

Bitty frowns, already dumping flour into the bowl, measuring cup be damned, apparently. “Because I love you and want to know how your trip went?”

Jack pinches the bridge of his nose. “I love you too. I meant why—” Jack gestures again, helplessly this time. “Why all this?”

Bitty glares at some unknown enemy, and Jack swears he hears a growl. “Janine,” Bitty says, as if that means literally anything to Jack.

“Uh-?”

“Fucking Janine, you know, from down the hall? Fucking Janine said I storebought the cookies I brought to the building meeting, despite knowing-” He slams a hand down on the table hard enough to shoot a puff of flour up into the air. It doesn’t deter him. “That I own and operate a bakery.”

Jack sighs again, and resigns himself to being tired for morning skate the next day. “Okay. So you are baking to prove her wrong?”

Bitty shakes his head. “Nah, Dan from third floor gave her the what for. However, I invited her to our Christmas party—”

“Why?” Jack’s losing track of the conversation.

“—because she thinks she’s going to out bake me, and we can’t have that.”

Jack rests his chin on the back of the chair he’s pulled out. “You’ve won best bakery in Providence for two years in a row,” Jack offers.

Bitty points a wooden spoon at him. “I know that! You know that! Everyone in the fucking building except for, apparently, fucking Janine, knows that!” Bitty grabs more ingredients from his bag, and is quiet for a moment as he dumps them in the bowl. “You know what else she said to me?”

Jack closes his eyes, in love with Bitty as he ever was, but almost equally annoyed. “What.”

“Oh, you own a bakery? I’ve never heard of it. How cute,” Bitty says, in what Jack assumes to be his best approximation of Rhode Island accent. It’s atrocious. Bitty’s furiously stirring the mixture now, muttering to himself under his breath angrily. Jack watches him, wanting nothing more than to drag Bitty to bed and make him deal with his anger more productively in the morning.

It’s not going to work. Two years of marriage and six years of knowing Bitty have taught him that.

“Okay.” Jack stands, pushing the chair back in. “I’m going to go to bed.” He leans over to press a kiss to Bitty’s head.

“Okay sweetheart, sleep well,” Bitty says, reaching for a cookie scoop now.

“Don’t stay up too late,” Jack says, stopping at the doorway to cast one last look over the mess that is the kitchen.

Bitty waves a hand at him. “This is my last batch, swear.”

When Jack wakes up the next morning, Bitty’s not there. Jack knows for a fact Bitty took the week off work for their party and for Christmas, so he should, for all intents and purposes, be in bed.

Jack showers, dresses, and heads to the kitchen for breakfast. There’s easily a half dozen more batches than there were last night, though the chaos is slightly more tamed. Bitty’s slumped over the kitchen table, phone held loosely in his hand. He’s snoring.

Jack snorts, and walks over, pokes Bitty in the shoulder. “Get up.”

Bitty startles awake, shooting upward and colliding with Jack’s stomach. “Wh-?”

“Go to bed.” Jack says, helping Bitty stumble out of his chair. The rage had worn off at some point during the night, leaving Bitty exhausted. Jack looks him up and down, and then pulls a face. “Maybe change into clean clothes first, though.”

Bitty yawns, already heading towards their bedroom. “”ve g’d day,” he calls, exhaustion slurring his words into fragments.

Jack makes himself breakfast surrounded by baked goods and briefly considers stealing some to take in to work but he decides against it. If Bitty, for some ungodly reason, needs them all, Jack doesn’t want to make him make more. It’s not worth it.

When he gets back from the rink a few hours later, Bitty’s asleep still, but the kitchen is spotless and there’s a single plate of Jack’s favourite macarons waiting for him on the table, next to a sticky note with a heart on it.

Jack’s not ready for their Christmas party, but he never is. Bitty knows nearly everyone in the building, and insists they host it in their penthouse every year, despite the building having a meeting space and an open rooftop they use in summer for barbeques. “It’s more homey this way,” Bitty always tells him, invitations already sent out and plans in motion.

Jack lets him have it, because a Bitty in charge of parties, especially during Christmas, is a Bitty that shines, and makes Jack fall a little bit more in love with him than he thought was even possible.

Fucking Janine, as Bitty nearly explicitly refers to her by, shows up last. Something settles in Bitty’s shoulders when she walks in, and Bitty pulls Jack over to greet her. “Jack, this is f- Janine, she’s new.” He smiles a sugary sweet smile at the middle-aged woman. “Janine, my husband Jack.”

Behind her is a man who Jack assumes is her husband, whose eyes go wide when he figures out who Jack is. “Hi there,” Janine says, introducing her husband and their daughter. “I hope you don’t mind, I thought I’d bring a pie.”

Bitty’s jaw tenses so slightly that anyone who wasn’t watching him like a hawk (like Jack is) wouldn’t even notice. “Oh, that’s so sweet.” Bitty takes the pie from her and they share a one armed hug before Bitty shuffles off to put it on the baked goods table.

Jack gets stuck in a conversation about their last roadie with Fucking Janine’s husband, who’s rather unassuming and seems to know his hockey, despite being a Bruins fan. A Bruins fan.

Bitty joins him a half an hour later, looking like a cat who’d got the cream. “Her crust is soggy,” Bitty whispers, way more pleased by that than he should be. “And everyone’s avoiding it.”

Jack looks over to the table and, sure enough, nearly everything is some degree of tucked into by now except for Janine’s pie, which Bitty made sure to both slice neatly and position so everyone in the room could get a look at it. Despite this, the partygoers (either consciously or unconsciously) skip over it.

Jack shakes his head, smiling despite himself.

Bitty’s watching the party (specifically Janine from down the hall that had started this all) with a smug look, arms folded across his chest in triumph. “I bet it’s storebought crust,” he says, looking devilish. “And canned filling.”

“Bits,” Jack says, pulling his husband out of his mumblings. “Look.”

They’re standing beneath mistletoe, the only sprig in the entire house. Bitty rolls his eyes, but meets Jack easily in the middle.

He tastes like snickerdoodle and the slightest hints of spiked eggnog. Jack pulls back and wraps an arm around his waist. “I love you.”

Bitty pats his chest, and smiles up at Jack, momentarily caught up in only them. “I love you too.”

Jack takes advantage of the mistletoe and Bitty’s sole attention for the first time in a handful of days, and leans in for another kiss.

At the end of the party, the only thing left on the tables of food are leftover plates, and Fucking Janine’s pie, only one slice gone. Jack can attest that the pie was not made from scratch in the slightest, though he doesn’t tell Bitty. There’s only so much crowing he’s allowed to do on Christmas.

As always, I am taking prompts! Let me know if you want anything!

[sunflowerchaix]

Come What May

March 4th

       The bell above the glass door chimed as I rushed into the cold lobby of the Holiday gas station. The Seattle air was crisp, which isn’t that shocking to the locals who barely ever see the sun. To them, it is a myth, hidden behind the clouds of rain that they so strongly believe in and hold onto that hope.

           I have lost all hope, every last drop of it. It became lost like a raindrop sliding down a bus window; crashing into a puddle that had gathered on the edge. This particular bus was taking me away from the one that I love; the one that I left behind only because I was scared and I needed to escape.

           Inside the gas station there were four long rows filled with crap that was just waiting to be bought and taken out of this depressing hell whole. Only to be met with an untimely and quite disappointing fate. Kind of like the situation that I have put myself in.

           I flip my long, once blonde and clean, hair out of my face. Before I left on my journey to find myself, I colored my hair to a vibrant blue, but now it’s a sad grey. I used to be bigger than I am now, but not eating properly for three months will make all that weight fall off. I am not the same pretty girl I once knew.

           You see, growing up my dream was to move to Seattle and start publishing my novels. I thought I would have what it takes to become a successful writer, but I didn’t. When I arrived, I was so full of optimism and hope, but it soon came crashing down like that raindrop. There was no place for me to stay and I only had so much money that I couldn’t stay in a hotel for much longer. I quickly ran out of money.

           You may be asking why I didn’t just call my parents and ask for help, but it’s not that simple. When I was seventeen years old I was kicked out of their house. Typical, runaway teen has been on her own because she didn’t follow mommy and daddy’s rules, right?

           Wrong, oh is that so very wrong.

           Instead my relationship and trust was ripped away from my parents all because of my little sister, who I do love with all my heart but I just wish that she would make better choices for herself.

           Annabeth is the baby of the family, and after her birth she quite quickly became the favorite. She is the angel in my parents’ eyes; she can literally do no wrong! But she is a manipulative bitch that got my brother thrown in jail and me living on the streets at the tender age of seventeen years old.

           Our brother caught her smoking pot in her bed room and he was pissed. He was livid because he knew that precious little Annie was going to get away with it. But he decided to try and tell our parents, but before he could Annabeth switched the story around causing my dad’s vain on his forehead to pop with anger. My dad turned my brother in for possession of marijuana and considering my dad is a pretty big deal in my home town; the police booked him with out any evidence against him.

          Corruption at its finest.

           Annabeth ruined our brother’s life forever because she couldn’t stand the idea of having to deal with the consequences of her actions. And he wasn’t gone that long before she decided that she wanted to get rid of me as well. To put me in danger as a minor just so she could be the only child or whatever her motive was.

           It was snowing outside and I had just gotten home from spending time with my then best friend, Chandler. My dad was waiting in the piano room, arms folded and the vain popping out so far that I was afraid that it was going to burst and spill all over the white carpet. Confused, I sat down on the hideous floral couch and looked up at him.

           “What’s this?” He snapped and he held a wrapper in my face. “Why did your poor sister have to find this in her room?”

           I tried to take a look, but he was shoving the wrapper so far in my face that I couldn’t focus on it. “I don’t know, let me look.”

           His face turned beet red. “You fucking liar, you know exactly what it is.”

           “I really don’t dad, I literally cannot see it.” I replied honestly, since he was known for enjoying honesty even though he never believed it when it was voiced.

           Then his olive toned hand met my light pale cheek. “How can you be so incompetent that you don’t know what this is? It’s a condom wrapper!”

           My eyes met Annabeth, who was smirking and she opened her mouth and said; “I also caught her using it with another girl.”

           My heart stopped and my mouth slammed to the white carpeted floor. Our father was now fuming at this new information; him being homophobic he was not having it. I knew then that this would be my last time in the house that I grew up in. The house that I was brought home from the hospital after I was born, the house that was just five minutes from Chandler’s and ten minutes from school.

           “What do you have to say for yourself?” His voice shook the paint on the walls.

           I was dumbfounded. “You cant even use a condom with a woman, they don’t have the parts for it. But I am obviously not welcomed here anymore so I will go pack my suitcase and leave.”

           Being so close to graduation and my birthday was coming up in a couple of weeks, it didn’t matter that I was leaving the house at such a young age. The only thing I feared was where I would sleep that night, because it was the worst snowfall Utah had seen in a long time. Roads were closed and the snow bed was up to my knees.

           I immediately went over to Chandler’s parents’ house, who so graciously took me in as their own that night. They wanted to call and report what happened as child endangerment, which my father could have been charged with that but I didn’t see the point. Exhausted, I fell asleep in Chandler’s arms that night and that was the start of our relationship.

           A month after graduation, Chandler and I found our own apartment that was within walking distance of the community college. We both had plans to go there since it was cheaper and all I really wanted to do was take writing classes to better my chances at making it big. But without any extra help for income, school became expensive and after about a year of living together, I left him.

           I took what money I had in my bank account and in my pocket and just left. Only leaving a note behind and a few things that I couldn’t take with me; I broke his heart. He didn’t deserve that in the slightest, I just up and left him and here I am three months later living on the streets just dying to go back to him.

           I am completely out of money; the only thing I have in my pocket right now is fifteen dollars and an unopened mint I was saving for dinner. Currently I am staying at a homeless shelter until I can get back on my feet. But it’s been a month and nothing is changing.

           Despite not eating or eating very little, my waist has started to expand, so that’s why I am here at the Holiday gas station. Staring at the end of the third aisle at a product that was placed right next to a pack of condoms and a pack of Dramamine; I already knew what this test would tell me.

It takes a moron not to notice.

I grab the box of pregnancy tests and a large bottle of water and head for the bathroom. Once in, I lock the door and I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. My face has hollowed out due to not eating and my green eyes have turned dull. I used to consider myself beautiful, but after these few months I stopped believing that.

Taking a deep breath, I rip open the purple box of tests and chug the large bottle of water. Soon enough, I have to pee like a race horse and so I stick the test down there. I wince as I get a little bit of my urine on my hand and bring the test out of the toilet area so I can see it.

I stare at it for what feels like forever, but nothing changes with it so I take another one just to be sure and then I wash my hands. After all that, I look down at the tests and there it is, the only thing positive I have seen in these two years of being on my own.

“Fuck.” I whisper under my breath.

I was planning on just stealing the tests and the water bottle, but I know the old woman at the counter so I object to that plan. The bathroom door slams behind me and I march up to the front counter, hoping Gladys doesn’t ask too many questions.

Gladys was the first friendly face I met when I got here to Seattle. I am pretty sure she knows that I have no home, but I also haven’t really opened up to her for obvious reasons. But she always makes sure to give me a water bottle and sometimes a turkey sandwich.

“Hey baby girl,” She says with a smile. “What brings you in today?”

I put the opened box of tests and the empty water bottle on the counter. She glances at the box but nothing else, she doesn’t even give me a judgmental look.

“Can I ask what the test says?”

I sigh. “It’s positive, congratulations to me right?”

She smiles and genuinely looks excited for me; “A little bun to brighten your life up.”

“I don’t know about that one Gladys, someone in my situation shouldn’t really be able to bring up a child.” I shrug. “I have a lot to think about, you know?”

She nodded. “I will stand next to you in support in whatever you choose baby girl, you know that. Are you going to tell the daddy?”

The thought of talking to Chandler on the phone causes my gut to fall through my butt. “You know, im not even sure I am even going to go through with the pregnancy.”

Gladys shrugs; “Well, whatever you choose go PP. They helped me with my first pregnancy and the first appointment should be free.”

Ignoring her I sigh and say; “So what’s the damage?”

Gladys smiles; “it is on me this time, but please go grab another large water bottle and one of those sandwiches. Keeping the baby or not, you still need to take care of yourself.”

I do as I am told and leave the gas station.

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[clearsandwicheagle-blog]

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

"Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

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I opted to pay my car insurance by monthly direct debit and due to some error by my insurers it was never set up and neither I or them notieced the error for months. They are now asking for the arrears to be payed off,am I liable to pay or as the mistake was their error am I within my rights to refuse.""

How can I put my girlfriend (8 1/2 years and still going strong) on my health/dental insurance?

Hi guys, so I have asked my job and it seems the only way I can add her to my health/dental insurance is if 1) we are married or 2) if i provide proof of living with her for a certain amount of years. There has to be some loophole because I really think it is ridiculous that we have been to together since we were 16 and I cant add her or help her in such a way. There is no possible way, in timeline, for us to qualify for such rules. 16-18 years old (in high school and lived with parents), 18-23 years old (Attended separate universities and lived in different cities), 23- 24 1/2 years old, (both living with parents back home, we alternate and stay at each others place, so have no set home or bills in our name, such as direct tv, electricity, internet, you name it. we are blessed with awesome parents) and yes we have though about just getting married, but no way... we are waiting until we are established and can fend for ourselves to make a decision like that, but yes we do want to get married some day, but not over screwing the government or other reasons. Also we live in california if that helps, since i know every state varies, thank s guys!! ^_^""

What's the best type of life insurance to buy?

Is term better than cash value? or vice versa?

Car insurance helpp!!?

Do you have to be over the age of 21 to be able to drive someone else's car on your own insurance policy, if that car has insurance and your are given permission by the driver. It states on my policy that i can but have herd multiple times that you must be over 21. Im with Co-Op. Thanks.""

Insurance Question 16 year old?

I am a 16 year old boy, I just got my license. What I have to drive is a 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 liter V8, 2 wheel Drive. The price on the car is $32,565. If both my parents and I are insured on the car, how much should my own personal payment be for 1 month with a normal plan (not collision). My parents have never had an accident and are 40 and 36 years old. If I cannot get an exact quote can someone please tell me about how much the car would be a month to insure? Thanks very much. ***I have also completed a drivers education course that should lower my insurance 10-15%.""

What is the best teen driver insurance in California?

Taking driving test tomorrow and need insurance coverage for just me, 18 years old.""

Does the Year of your Car affect Insurance Prices?

Does the Make of Your Car Affect How Much you are Charged for Insurance? Does the Year of Your Car Affect How Much you are Charged for Insurance? Does Having 2Doors Always Rise How Much you are Charged for Insurance? No Baby Answers.

""If I get my driver's permit in Michigan, will my parent's insurance go up?""

I'm 15 years old and my mother is hesitant to let me learn to drive, however I finally convinced her. :) She said I can't get my license though because it will drive her insurance way up. She will let me get my permit though if that doesn't have an effect on her insurance cost. I looked online a little bit and some people have said a permit will alter the cost, but other say that only a licence will. So basically, will getting a permit (not licence) drive up insurance? Sorry for the lengthiness ;)""

No insurance and pregnant.?

Serious answers only please. I'm currently 13 weeks pregnant without insurance. Also, I live in Pennsylvania. I have had prenatal checkups and bloodwork and stuff done, but my mother-in-law in paying out of her pocket for everything. My husband and I already applied for Medicare/Medicaid through the assistance office, but we got denied because we slightly make too much money. At my work, pregnancy is a pre-existing condition and it won't be covered on my insurance if I picked it up. The only other thing that I have done so far is apply for something at our hospital called the I-Care Fund. It only pays a % of laboratory work that you get done at the hospital such as bloodwork, etc. And they are going to pay 40% of the laboratory fees and a woman at the office said that it might cover the labor, but she's not sure. If anyone has any other advice on what I should do, please tell me. I feel really bad that my mother-in-law has to pay for everything.""

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Exactly what would be wrong with letting each state determine it's own health insurance reform?

Is there some reason why DC is better suited to reform health insurance (obviously they aren't any good at it, given the debacle we've seen already) than Albany or Indianapolis?""

""I own a 2000 chevy cavalier and im 17 years old and need insurance, about how much would that cost?""

Its small, green, and its a two door""

Cheapest possible car insurance...?

I'm just about to get my license, I have next to no experience. My parents aren't offering to pay ANY, yet they are nearly forcing me to get my license, which is next to insurance. Everyone is telling me my only option is to pay like 200 frickin bucks a month. I can't spend that much money, I don't have time to earn that much money, It's almost a hopeless situation. Anyone have a miracle remedy to this problem?""

How much does car insurance cost for a 16 year old?

How much does car insurance cost for a 16 year old?

Does medical insurance cover circumcision surgery 18 years and over? whats the average cost?

location Corona, Ca. A Friend needs a partial circumcision. as an infant doctor did not do a complete job and partially left bottom portion. Low on cash and on medical insurance.""

50CC Does motorbike insurance cost more than moped insurance?

Ok so i just turned 16 and have got my provisional license and also have done a CBT my mum tells me that a 50cc Motorbike that you put your leg over costs way more in insurance then a moped that you put your leg through is this true ? also im talking About 50cc motorbikes and mopeds

Texas health insurance plans?

Are there any texas health insurace plans beside CHIP, CIGNA, and Blue Cross Blue Shield because they don't cover insurance for eye doctors and their deductible is too high also. I'm 19 if that helps and I don't qualify for gold member or medicaid.""

Car Insurance cost for 18 year old?

I'm 18 and am a beginner in driving and my dad wanted to set up my insurance. The car i would be using would be my dads 1967 Oldsmobile cutlass (classic Muscle car). So i was wondering how much insurance would be at my age with the car i would be using, and with no bad previous record for accidents and/or tickets.""

How can I get car insurance?

Let me give some more information. I'm 18 years old, female, live in NJ and need to buy my own car and insurance soon.""

Babies insurance please answer?

I have medicare (pregnancy) and I was wondering how does it cover the baby when he is born and what do I do to get his insurance and all that? Thank you.

How much would an '89 Mercedes 300e cost for insurance?

So my dad has found a really good deal on a potential car for me in really good condition. It's a 1989 Mercedes Benz 300e. Do you think that since this is a 22 year old car that it'd be a ridiculous amount to insure because of the Mercedes badge? Or do you think I could afford it with a job? My insurance company would be allstate, on my parents plan, I have a 4.0GPA and I plan on taking drivers ed. Advice?""

How much for car insurance?

My mom drives a Mercedes B 150 (about 5 year old car), she's Middle Aged and had a good driving record so her insurance is around 200-300pa. I'm nearly 18, and a new driver (passed yesterday), was wondering how much insurance would be for me if I was added onto her insurance. (just an estimation would be great!) Thanks in advance!""

Car insurance question?

So my car got scratched in a parking lot and I don't know who did it. I plan on filing a claim with my insurance company to get this fixed. My deductible is $500. My question is: What safeguards do insurance companies have in place to prevent me from changing my collision and comprehensive coverage to drop my deductible to $100, get my car fixed, then switch the coverage back to my normal rate?""

How much does a No Proof of Insurance ticket cost in Arkansas?

How much does a No Proof of Insurance ticket cost in Arkansas?

PPO vs. HMO Insurance?

I am trying to understand pros vs cons of HMO vs PPO. We are a family of three (myself, spouse and newborn). We do not have much health issues. Premium difference is about $150 per month (i.e. HMO cheaper than PPO). But need to understand any limitations of HMO. Is it tough to find a PCP who takes HMO insurance? Or is it people with health complications usually opt for PPO as it is more flexible?""

""Changing car insurance from full coverage to liability on BMW lease, will BMW detect it?""

I just completed a lease assumption process on a BMW and they required full coverage (100/300) for my car insurance. Problem is, I have a few tickets on my record and also for some reason I require an SR22, so for full coverage insurance I am paying quite a lot. I would like to switch to liability only and just take the chance if something happens to the car (knowing I will have to pay for all damages), but I am not sure if BMW checks periodically whether or not I have the proper insurance coverage. Does anyone know if they check, and if the do check and find me with only liability, what would/could they do? Thanks in advance.""

Buying a car (scion tc) + insurance= how much expense a month?

Ill be buying a new scion tc no option for Im estimating 18k i got my license almost a half a year now and im 18 i had one speed ticket no credit history, so ill be paying 40% of the 18k and buying the car my moms credit sucks so im better off being indepedent how much is insurance for me these days. combined how much for the payment and the insurance will it be""

Car insurance in new york?

hey guys, I'd like to know what would be the ballpark for insurance. I'm 24 years old and have had my driver's license since 2003 and never have had parking violations, points taken off my license or any type of moving tickets. I'm looking to buy a 96-00 civic and would like to know around how much I would be quoted""

How much would I expect to pay on insurance on a second hand Clio?

I'm taking my test soon and if I pass, there's a second hand Clio I like the look of. Just wondering, as I have no experience with buying cars, how much I would pay for insurance on an M reg Clio? And any extra costs? Thanks""

Where can i get cheap affordable Health insurance?

I am 20 years old and i will need to see a cardiologist. I have a low paying job right now. Whats the best plans. I cant afford much =/

Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) - Survey question ideas?

I'm doing a sample survey for Social Science. I have to come up with 25 questions pertaining to my topic of inquiry. My topic is The benefits of the Affordable Healthcare Act, which is informally known as Obamacare. My hypothesis is the Affordable Healthcare Act would be beneficial if it was slightly altered to exclude the individual mandate. I need ideas for more questions, outside of the demographic questions. Here are the eleven questions I have so far: Do you have health insurance? Yes. No. In the process of obtaining a health care plan. Have you ever heard of the Affordable Care Act, the American health care bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23rd, 2010? Yes. No. Do you understand the key aspects that make up the Affordable Care Act? Yes. No. Somewhat. Did you believe that there was a problem with the current state of health care, and that it needed reform? Yes. No. The new Healthcare Act is going to be funded through a variety of new taxes and offsets. This includes a new Medicaid tax imposed on people that make over $200, 000 and $250, 000 annually, and a 40% tax on premium Health Insurances. There will also be new taxes on medicine, high cost diagnostic medical equipment, and a 10% tax on indoor tanning services. Do you believe that the imposed taxes are worth the sacrifice, so that more Americans could have health insurance? Yes. No. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing the Affordable Care Act. Several U.S. states are questioning the laws constitutionality because the law requires Americans that dont have health insurance to choose an affordable healthcare plan or pay a fine (this is called the individual mandate). Do you believe that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional on these grounds? Yes. No. Not sure. If you do believe that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, do you believe it is worth the sacrifice, so that more Americans could have health care? Yes. No. Does not apply. Do you believe that the government could still make the policy work if they exclude the individual mandate, keeping in mind that this would likely require more tax increases in different areas? Yes. No. Maybe. Having a basic knowledge of the Affordable Care Act, do you think that the government should abandon the policy and work on a new one? Yes. No. We should wait and see how this one turns out first. Do you stand to benefit from the Affordable Care Act? Yes. No. Not sure. Do you have any friends or family members that stand to benefit from the Affordable Care Act? Yes. No. Not sure.""

Cheapest car insurance for teen that doesn't have good student discount..?

can't afford state farm insurance without good student discount anyone no one i can afford without good student discount

How much would short term auto insurance normally cost in new york?

say i have a bmw 530i im single, 35 years old, male and all my driver's license records are clean how much would it cost to insure the car for only one day?""

How do I find the cheapest car insurance?

My rates always go up even tho my wife and myself have clean driving records, we drive a 2012 Chevy Traverse and an old 1998 Dodge Ram, how can I find more affordable insurance rates? Thanks!""

Car Insurance moving from one state to another?

I'm moving to TX from PA. My car got inspected in pa a couple months ago. When i move to TX im going to need to get new insurance because my company doesnt cover in that state. When i go to get new insurance does my car have to be inspected in TX to get insurance?

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Need help on car insurance for young driver?

Hi! I've been struggling to get a good quote for car insurance for a while now. I tried all the big name comparison sites and every one is quoting me 4k (monthly installments). I opted for third party and theft, i am 22 years of age and my postcode starts with sl1 (slough) and i got pass plus and had my licence (manual) since march 2011. I got my car already its a Peugeot 206 1.6l petrol manual 1999 3doors. If you have time you can try for yourself with the above details the quote is freaking too much. Is this just how it is or am i doing something wrong? If you can point me to the right direction that would be amazing!!""

How to get maternity insurance?

We are wanting to start TTC, but we are a little worried about the cost of the actual birth and doctors expenses, as well as any complications that might arise. Now, we do have enough money to cover the basics, but if anything else should arise to complicate things, we're worried. We both work from home for ourselves and have looked into private health insurance, even only maternity insurance, but the plans just suck and dang expensive! Anyway, I was wondering if you knew of any way to get legitimate insurance for only me while I'm pregnant, and for the baby after its born? Some sort of affordable state insurance? Im in AZ by the way. How would i go about finding something like that? thanks!""

Where can i get the cheapest car insurance if im 18?

93 prelude

What is the cheapest insurance company for a teen that's on a seperate policy?

I'm getting a car in about 2 months and I just wanted to know what the cheapest insurance company would be for someone that's a new driver with their G2.

How do i buy car insurance and how do I find a insurance company that suits me (cheap)?

ok so I've seen a car I would like to buy, how do I get car insurance? should I ring a call or get insured online? Also a list of names of insurance companies would be helpful? thanks""

What a good auto insurance for a college student?

going to be my first insurance so i really wanna get a good n cheap insurance

""State farm just dropped me for poor driving history, what insurance company should i go to now?

the title says it all...Statefarm told me they would no longer insure me after my last accident. So now i need to find an insurance company that would cover me. I live in California. i drive a sports car. and my driving record isnt pretty :/

(uk only) who is the cheapest for car insurance?

im male, nearly thirty and full no claims bonus i live in manchester""

How do i get my commercial insurance license?

i am on the road becoming a insurance agent and i want all the insurance licenses possible, but i can't find any places that give commercial insurance license.""

Why did my mothers health insurance affect MY credit?

So I was extremely sick back in June of this year. The medical bills were added up to be over 500$. I am 20 years old, in college, and I do NOT have my own health insurance. I have always been on my mothers. This debt went unpaid and as I checked my credit score today, in showed that I owed the hospital and it went into collections. I have spent the past year building my score. my credit score went down 142 points because of this!!!! How does this affect my credit???? I just dont understand. I neverr signed any papers saying that i was responsible for payments. EVER.""

Why should anyone be fined for not buying health insurance?

What should someone do if he/she is unable to afford it? Also, wouldn't such a law actually hurt the people it was supposed to help?""

How much would I pay for insurance?

I am a 17 going to be 18 on October next year I am going to go and study in FL and I wanted to know about cars would buying a new one be better than an old one? how much would I pay for insurance with either new or old? I want to know exact prices to compare if it would be better to buy a new car or a used one? How much would I pay per month on the insurance?

Illegals can buy health insurance now. If they pay the premiums BCBS will sell them health insurance.?

Is that wrong of Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield and the other Insurance companies?

Does your car insurance rate go up if you get a seat belt ticket in illinois?

Does your car insurance rate go up if you get a seat belt ticket in illinois?

""My boyfriend that has no insurance borrowed my car and got rear ended, will my insurance cover?""

I let my boyfriend take my car to go drop off his friend and he ended getting backed into by a truck and severely damaged my back bumper. Because it was on private property, the police couldn't do anything but observe us exchanging information. My boyfriend doesn't have insurance, but my car is insured. Will my insurance company be able to cover my damages, even though I was not present? This accident was the trucker's fault because he backed into my car, but this guy didn't even have an ID but the car was his family & supposedly it's insured. Please no smart remarks, I am asking because I'd appreciate some advice.""

I need some Insurance Help?

My father, just yesterday tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrist, luckily he had called the cops, but he also had to take an ambulance ride and another ambulance ride to the county hospital where he will be held for 72 hours. He does not have insurance due to his work laying him off, and him not being able to afford it. Is there any kind of insurance that will cover this kind stuff. He has been suffering from depression and high blood pressure for quite sometime, so I don't know if those are pre existing things that would stop insurance...but him and my mother cant afford this at all right now. They live in southern california, if anyone knows of some kind of insurance, please please respond!""

Do i need car insurance for a family member to teach me to drive?

I am 17 in 2 weeks and am going to start my driving lessons, along side my lessons with a licensed instructor I would like my mother to also give me some extra help like driving around quiet roads, or in a empty car park. For this I need insurance but I obviously don't want to pay full out insurance for just learning. I have heard of something called learner driver insurance would this work for what I want to do? If so do you have a link of where I could buy it or know any other way that I could legally learn to dive in the car? Thanks Josh""

My insurance quotes make no sense...?

I've been checking out some insurance quotes, I did a few thru progressive and got some weird results. First time, on a 2002 BMW M3 I got quoted $140/mo for full coverage (I'm 18, completely clean record), went back through to see if I could get the same result: got $199/mo, same information and everything. Why the change? And THEN (this is where it gets weird...) I checked my 97 Corolla (my DD/beater) and I did only that car on the quote, they wanted $240/mo. I'm really confused right now. Any advice?""

Does insurance cover a newly purchased vehicle?

I'm looking at buying a pickup truck, it's value is less than $1000. I heard that if you buy a new vehicle you have 6 - 24 Hours of coverage and in that time you would have liabality coverage is this true? As in just bought a vehicle, and am driving it back to my house from sellers house. Thanks""

Car insurance for 19 year old....?

whats the best car insurance how much would it be for me being a 19 year old, just got passed my driving test first time driver lives in L.A. what are the best car insurance companies out there for me""

How do I fight an insurance company over biased eyewitness testimony?

I was driving in a parking lot with wide lanes and perpendicular spaces when another driver backed out into my passenger side door. The other driver claimed that I was driving too fast and her insurance company is only willing to accept 75% liability for the accident, because of her statements and those of her friends. I don't have any witnesses of my own, but it seems rather unjust that they can base their decision on obviously biased witnesses. Neither the physical nor the circumstantial evidence supports their claims. I've written letters to the insurance company in response to their letter to me, but they haven't replied or made any effort to address my concerns. How do I fight them? This occurred in California.""

If my son is on my parents insurance does that mean they claim him on his taxes?

Okay my son is now 1 year old. He is on my parents insurance, we live with them, and my parents pretty much support him.(pay for all expenses).. Now my sons father wants to put him on his taxes. I know he just wants to get money to get him a new car. he also says he will get me a car too. but idk about that. When i told him i think my parents already claimed him, he started yelling its his son, and told me to give him his security card(he has a really bad temper and gets angry to where i get scared) so i did.. but now i need to sign a paper..and i dont want too.. Here is my thing i told him that he is automatically on my parents taxes, because he is on there insurance, so that would mean i would have to take aiden off of their insurance(Which means he wouldnt be on any insurance)he started yelling how stupid i am and just to sign paper, my question is is it true that because my parents have him on their insurance, he is on their taxes. What should i do? Thanks for anyhelp. Sorry long question. Please no rude answers""

Anyone no any cheap insurance companys for new young drivers ?

Anyone no any cheap insurance companys for new young drivers ?

What is the difference between life insurance and health insurance?

What is the difference between life insurance and health insurance?

Why does my dog make my homeowners policy go up !!!?

Ok ... a bit of a rant ... you people are the only ones who can relate ! Do i get a discount for the protection he provides me, my family, and the house ... noooooooooo .... but they want to raise my rate because he could bite someone someday ... {end rant}""

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

""Which car would you prefer? 2006 Volkswagen rabbit, 2006 toyota corolla, or a 2006 honda civic?

which do u think would be a suitable car for a university student and cheap on insurance and gas.

Where can i get good health insurance?

i just got kicked off healthfirst with no warning so i need to find something fast please help :-)

Israelic terms on health insurance?

I had to redo an experiment by Tykocinski. She researched the impact of certain primes, one of which is health insurance. She did this study in Israel. We replicated this study in the Netherlands, but we found different results and now we need to figure out why. For this reason I would like to know: What is the word for health insurance in Hebrew and Arabic? And how would they translate 1 on 1 with the english language. Example: the Dutch word for health insurance is zorgverzekering, but if I translate the words apart from each other I get either worry insurance or care insurance (depending on the interpretation of the Dutch language) The answer to this question could help me greatly in this research!""

Can I get Car Insurance in Texas without a D-License?

Can I get car insurance without a license. I'm located in Texas. Is there ways around to do it?

What is the cheapest car to insure for a 17 year old girl?

i am looking at buying a car when i pass my test, was just wondering what would be the cheapest way to insure a car and what cars are cheap for insurance?""

Question about car insurance...?

im trying to figure out if im being ripped off by my parents. i pay $200 every month for car insurance because that's what my parents tell me it is. I got one speeding ticket for going 14 mph over the limit and in 2 minor accidents. no damage to either cars. my question is am i being ripped off? I told some people that i pay that much and they said there is no way your insurance could be that high. help me out please?

Home owner's insurance in California?

I'd like to know whether home owner's insurance is the law in California? Or, if one chooses, can one not have it, if they don't want it?""

Can i collect disability insurance?

Can i collect disability insurance? i was shot when i was 18 in the ankle and the bullit is stuck between the bone in my ankle. i have worked for a company for 10 years and quit my job two years ago to start my own business. but now as im getting older i can't stand on my leg without experiencing pain or climb up and down things like i used too can i collect disability insurance?

Car insurance for a teenage female?

i'll be turning sixteen soon and im curious as to what the average cost rate with state farm for a new driver is?

Will my insurance rise if the accident was not my fault?

i was involved in a minor car accident which took place at a drive thru and the car in front of me reversed his car, and at the speed he had applied to the gas pedal was enough impact to smash my entire hood in and damage my front bumper. I filed a claim with my insurance as soon as I got home. The following morning the insurance company of the OTHER driver contacted me and verified that he will take full responsibility therefore my repairments will be covered by his insurance. Ive been reading online relating to my question, but in my case, will my insurance rate go up? This is also my very first accident and I've been ensured for 1 year since I've been driving.""

Is it legal for the car insurance to be in a name other than person paying the monthly car payment?

My sister's husband passed in November. Their car is in both my sister's and her husband's name; however, my sister can not drive and does not have a driver's license. She wants to keep the car insurance on the vehicle, but to do that she would need to have a valid driver's license. Soooo, she has asked me to get the vehicle insurance in my name using my driver's license. My question is this: Am I in ANY way responsible for anything that happens to/in/with the car if I am not the driver? I use my car and driver's license for work and I can not have blemishes on my driving record or my criminal background""

Can you get your drivers license without any insurance?

I live in West Virginia 17 and I have had my learners for almost a year and have got all my hours so would it be OK if i got my license w/o insurance

Is landlord responsible for pool insurance?

We signed a lease that required us to take out insurance for $ 500,000 if we used the pool and planned on having guests use the pool also . They also wanted the insurance to cover themselves . When speaking to our insurer, USAA, they said our renters insurance , which included $100,000 liability, would cover us having anyone besides us use the pool or being on our property in general . The landlord was responsible for having insurance for the pool and the house to protect themselves and they told us we were not responsible for paying for insurance for the landlord . The property was in Norfolk VA . We just wanted to know if he landlord was trying to get us to pay for their share of insurance when it wasn't our responsibility and if we were right to have stuck with USAA advice .""

About how will my insurance cost?

im 17, never been arrested and have passing grades. how much would it cost me to get insurance for a 91 camaro 5.7 auto with 135,000+ miles with statefarm. parents adding me to their insurance""

How to calculate california disability insurance?

How to calculate california disability insurance?

Discount car insurance by putting another name on my insurance?

I know plenty of people the same age as me, 19 who have put another persons name on their car insurance eg. family or friends so its cheaper due to the other persons experiance, my mum passed her test when she was 21 but has never drove a car or owned a car herself since... so would putting her name on my insurance be pointless.???""

Insurance For Car (New Teen Boy Driver)?

Whats the cheapest way to insure a car while still getting great coverage in case of accidents. I'm getting my license soon and I was wondering whats the cheapest choices for insurance. I heard I can be placed under my parent's account? I also heard that if i pay insurance under my own thing its like 2000... I live in california and i have great grades (if that helps).any insight would be appreciated :)

How do you value a damaged tree for insurance purposes?

Long story short, a guy ran his car off the road into my front yard and hit a tree. The tree is a complete loss. He has insurance (thank god!). How much should I expect to receive from the insurance company for the value of the tree? The tree is a mature Blue Spruce. It was about 20-25 feet tall, had an 8-10 inch trunk, and a spread at the base of about 15 feet or so. I know that I should at least be entitled to the cost of removing the tree/debris and planting a new tree. But you cant really plant a 25 foot Blue Spruce! So, the problem I am having is determining what value should I be entitled to considering the maturity of the tree? Who can I call to get an appraisal? Other info: I live in a subdivision of custom brick homes on a large lot (about 1 acre) and my home is worth about $275k. The tree sat on the edge of my property in the front yard in a group of two trees (the other one was slightly damaged also, but can probably be salvaged) that provide some shading from the neighbor and the road. Obviously, the amount of shading is now reduced and the aesthetics of the group of two trees is messed up to the point that I am considering just removing both trees.""

Why does car insurance keep increasing every year?

I got USAA when I was in the military and it seems every year my car insurance rates go up by about $10. I have had the same car the whole time, no accidents and barely ever drive it. Is it normal for car insurance to keep going up like that even though me and my car are getting older?""

Anyone know the best insurance companies for young drivers?

I know obviously insurance for the young is gonna get rocket high anyway compared to older people for the same old 'statistical' reasons as always although I don't intentionally drive like an idiot or least intend never to and I do take safety as a big priority and everything, I've passed my test just over 2 years ago with a clean license but still find insurance even for my micra (1 litre 1994 M Reg) costing me a minimum average of 1000 annually, and just below a grand like 900-950ish is roughly the best I've got for my micra from directline but wondering if anyone would know anyone better cost wise? Also why is there so much discrimination against young/new drivers when its actually only the small minority who take the worse of risks and drive like w*****s making it sky high expensive for the rest of us, I can understand it may be statistic but unless u actualy do drive like a so and so I don't see why 'everyone' should be punished with rip off premiums for the sake of the minority number of idiots""

When to get health insurance for your newborn?

I am in my first trimester and just wondering when do I need to get health insurance for my newborn-the health insurance is United Healthcare and offered through my job

Getting insurance on a bike?

I plan on getting a motorcycle near the end of February. I have never bought a motor vehicle before, so I'm not really sure about how I go about getting insurance. I plan on getting something used from Craigslist (most likely 2008 or newer Ninja 250/300), then either having the owner ride it to my home before I pay, or taking it in a truck or something. What do I do after that? How do I insure the bike? I will probably get Progressive. Also is full coverage worth the extra money, or should I stick with liability? I'm 17 years old so it will be more expensive for me than for others. I live in California by the way. Thanks!""

Where is the cheapest insurance in Michigan?

I'm an 18 year old driver, that hasn't been driving for long. I drive a 1999 Cavalier base model coupe. I also pay almost 300 a month for insurance through liberty mutual... Is there anywhere that insures young drivers for cheaper than that? I really cant afford 300 a month, plus 100 for a car payment, not to mention gas and repairs....""

Who actually has health insurance?

Just about everyone I know doesn't have health insurance. This sounds pretty bad. Who actually has health insurance?

Do you need insurance to drive a motorcycle?

and at what cc is considered a motorcycle? do u need any kind of insurance? i know u need a license i live in gainesville fl where do i get class for one?

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

Harrison New Jersey Cheap car insurance quotes zip 7029

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/health-insurance-cost-listed-state-jordan-andrews/"

[homewoodpage]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath syndicated from https://chaisesofassite.wordpress.com/

[sureyhny]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

from Home Improvement http://diydiva.net/2018/02/the-long-neglected-upstairs-bath/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[prouxvaire]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

from http://ift.tt/2ERRrnm

[cessanderson]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath http://ift.tt/2ERRrnm

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

Kit

[darensmurray]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

[opepin]

january: week four

23: i felt pretty meh in the morning. i stayed in bed until i had to get up and eat a small breakfast before heading out to get lunch with my fidelity team. i wore my bomber and didn't dress appropriately for the wind and the flurries x__x it was oddly not that cold though. azilah treated me to chicken and rice guys and i got to talk with her, leah, and david during lunch. apparently, vlad got some work and ben was going to be back next week or so. i'm happy that the original team got back together before february (: it was nice to see most of them again. then i told them that i accepted a full-time job offer at tandemseven and then basically said goodbye to them. it was bittersweet to me because i felt like i was letting go of possibly deeper friendships. i'm not one to become bffs with people on the spot so it made me a bit sad. i did get to hug everyone before i dropped off my laptop and badge. the leaving process was super easy. azilah was also surprised when she asked ann about it too. well, i'm no longer a fidelity employee.

i walked over to flour bakery in the cold anyway because i really wanted chocolate cake. i got their vegan chocolate muffin and their triple layered mousse. i saved the latter to eat with kevin when he got back home. the muffin was so good <3 i would definitely get it again. i stayed longer than i thought i would and bought a large white peony tea. i just sat in front of the window listening to music and chilling for an hour or so. i commuted back and had a list of errands to do before the day was over. i responded to tandemseven's office manager (i accepted the job offer in the morning!) and then i set up our awesome new ring floor light. i love it. then i did my daily things and then did cardio. kevin got back late, which irked me a bit and then he cooked while i finished exercising and showering. we watched supernatural together while eating a late af dinner and then we brushed together and went to sleep together before 1:30 am. tomorrow is my first day of work @_@; i kind of wish it wasn't because the weather is going to be wet and windy...

24: the rain and wind basically spat on me when i walked to work in the morning. i do miss running out of south station and into the fidelity building, but i like walking...not in this weather though...haha. i got a bit lost too, but i got there in time. everyone is super nice and yeah. i literally started working right when i got there. well, i got a tour from noelle, our office manager, tried to get my badge (will need to get it tomorrow), and then i got a  side project to do. i worked on a think pad for a bit until my stuff came in. omg, it was like christmas. sam, one of our IT guys, came into the office with apple bags full of NEW products for me. i got a new 15" macbook pro retina, 9.7" ipad with a case, magic mouse, magic keyboard, t7 swag: battery pack with charging adapters, notepad, pen, and lanyard, and a ton of adapters for my laptop. i also have my own office space with a 27" apple monitor. it was really overwhelming and i was giggling on the inside when i got all of these things. the best part was the t7 swag from noelle and that i got everything before 12 pm on my first day. yo, this company has their shit together LOL. i accepted the offer monday and i was in the office a day later. it's crazy! i love it.

it took me a while to clean up my area and move all the pc stuff around. then i ate lunch in the business cafe room. it's not as nice as fidelity's but it's cozy and nice. i'll need to bring my own tea, but i'm not really bothered. i got to connect with some of the dev team and they're soo nice. oh, when people came into the office, i got some hello's and introductions every now and then. i don't know everyone's names but i hope i will x__x; i finished my lunch alone because i took a pretty late lunch and then i went back and got into real work for the rest of the day. i had a meeting with phil and dave, who guided me through the start of a project, a team meeting, and then reconnected with phil to continue my walkthrough. our internet died for a bit and i took this chance to finish some employee paperwork and stuff. it was a busy but fulfilling day. i was one of the last to leave and i got to talk with dave and frank. i'm really happy here. dave gifted me a book about journey mapping and organizing user research for my first day of working there. i have no words. this is possibly the best first day of work i've ever had. actually, it is the best first day of work i've ever had.

i met kevin at south station to go home. we talked about our days and then talked when we got back home. he told me to tell him how i feel more often. it's true. i should. he is only a simple bear LOL. <3 i'm so grateful for having someone so caring and understanding by my side. often times i think he's going to give up on me but when i finally do talk to him, he never wavers...what a rock...what a brick wall, haha. i'm thankful for him. we played with my new apple products and we made omurice for dinner. we ate while watching supernatural and then i went to exercise while he showered and played some skyrim. i caught up some daily things and then showered, packed things for my desk, drank some tea while updating my job status, and tried reading the book before going to sleep. p.s. my tumblr is still deactivated.

25: lol the entire dev team was gone today. it was just me, dave, frank, and the marketing/sales team. i watched more videos in the morning and kept dozing. it's the videos and kinda my lack of sleep. i went from 9 hours to 6 hours. x__x i wasn't ready for the first day (it was sprung on me a bit), but i was excited to go anyway! i brought in my own cup, tea, notebook, and rock friend for my desk :3 i'm so happy to have one of my own! the rest of the afternoon was dedicated to learning more about ux360 with hands on practice. it's really fun. i love that i'm learning how to use a new software while having some knowledge of visual and ui design too so that i can make the best journey map layouts for our clients~ i took the project for myself in the last couple hours of work and it turned out alright. i think i need to show more initiative and just go with my gut. i'm scared of messing up our progress and not being able to undo it haha. my work schedule so far is 9 am to 5:15 pm. it's not bad because i get to go home with kevin (: i work a bit later because phil is in california. kevin went climbing today so i went home in a packed af train cart. i almost missed it too haha.

oh, my earrings slid down the sink drain this morning...i woke up kevin but didn't stress about it too much after sending an emergency email and a maintenance request to help get it out. kevin woke up early just for me hahahaha. awww. he went back to sleep after ofc. the maintenance guy, josh, got it out for me T^T i'm so thankful. so when i got back home, i cleaned it and moved my jewelry sack to the closet so it'll never happen again. i remember why i kept my jewelry on my desk instead of the bathroom for a while... i also separated my chicago keys from my keys here because i don't want to carry all of that. then i watched the latest episodes of 'jane the virgin' while prepping pork katsu. it took longer than expected, but i did it and then kevin came back and cooked while i washed dishes. we got our air mattress in and we tested it out! air mattresses are so cool! we ate dinner while watching supernatural and then kevin washed the dishes while i deflated the mattress, packed it up, and then i went to shower and wash my hair (finally). i forgot when was the last time i washed my hair. i really dislike my hair right now btw. i've just been using dry shampoo because i feel like it's always oily T_T or just heavy and my part wants to be in the middle again. bleh. i did some cardio after showering because i wanted to move at least a little before the day was over. i watched some youtube videos before hitting the sack at 1 am. my tumblr is STILL deactivated... 

26: i tried getting on a later train today and i got to work like 15 minutes late T__T i mean, it would be on time for me technically, but i felt bad. i got my badge today but they misspelled my name so i went back later and asked if i could replace it. so i'll be getting my badge probably next week. i spent a lot of time walking in and out of the office today because of that and just using the bathroom. i had to pee a lot o__O haah. i got on a call on noon and then had lunch late so when i got back, it was already time for our standup meeting. that lasted longer than expected but after, i had a lot of work to do. i made adjustments and then did bigger edits. i left work at 5:30 pm LOL. i made it up anyway. :x there was something i wanted to finish but it was late so i left, but when i got home, i did it! yay! i actually got to south station before kevin did and he had to run to south station to catch the train. gg him. we watched supernatural while we waited for our rice to cook and then caught up on pokemon sun and moon episodes too. then he went to wash the dishes and game while i kicked my own ass while exercising. i did chloe ting's hiit workout and her leg and butt video and i nearly died. i also fit in some hip hop cardio. after, i did some daily things and showered and went to sleep. i didn't doze off quite as much today! i also got to organize my space better. i moved all of my apple boxes into the unused drawer next to me lol. it's been a tiring, but good week. tomorrow will be my 4th day of work and first week!

27: the office was empty except for me, dave, and jim, which is basically the product team here in boston, lol. i got on a train at 8:30 am and made it to work at a reasonable time. i also got my badge with my name spelled correctly. what a good morning! jim and i were the first ones at the office and we realized that we needed keys to open the door. the front had keys and dave told us that they're on order and we'll get ours next week. umm, it was a pretty busy friday! in the morning, i joined dave and jim for a ux360 demo so i could get more acquainted with the product. jim and i got our iphones today. omg it came in a new box and it was glorious when i got it. then i had to do a few fixes to the project i'm working on before a trial with another client with phil. after the call, phil pointed out a few things that needed fixing or addressing so i did that and ended up not eating until 2 pm LOL. i was really into it. we didn't have our standup today but i remained busy after lunch. we found a kind of big problem and i tried solving it with photoshop instead of working around the product limitations and i failed haha. it's okay though because apparently, it's being addressed and hopefully, it will be changed by next week. after fixing everything up, i exported them into pdfs and sent them into phil. i really like my job. it's pretty challenging and i love being busy. i got out of the office at 5 pm just before jim left and locked the office.

i took the train home and then spent time personalizing my iphone and ipad and macbook for work. i know it's for work, but this laptop isn't like fidelity's contractor laptop -- i can download whatever and it's meant to be used lovingly. i'm a little bit uncomfortable putting some apps and using messengers and stuff on them but i downloaded them anyway just in case i get comfortable? haha. i had some youtube videos going on in the background. kevin went climbing and came back and showered. it was already 8:30 pm by the time he started cooking?! we also found out that the tofu is supposed to be marinaded too T__T so i got a little hangry. i was still really out of it -- i think it was because of the challenges i faced at work, so my head felt funny. i'm tired. LOL. i stayed up watching some youtube videos and eventually fell asleep after showering at like 2:30 am?

28: i woke up in time to pick up vivian from the train station! well, i woke up just in time to miss the train to get vivian T_T so she had to train to deco alone. i went back to the apartment after calling her and then i made rice and ate some cereal. then i went to cuddle with kevin some more and talk. woo! vivian just knocked on our door and we had a "bum" day. all of us ate lunch together and then vivian and i just caught up and talked. whenever i see her, it's super chill and we never have to do anything in particular together. so we talked, watched youtube videos, etc. then vivian cut my hair! omg i was not prepared. i had to cut up one of our nice febreeze-scented garbage bags and then i use one of our blanket sheets for the floor because i didn't want to use another bag. the deco girls didn't have anything i could use :( so then we watched hip hop cardio videos while vivian cut my hair. she's really good at it! there was so much hair left afterwards. i really like my haircut (((: she thinned it out nicely and cut it to the length i wanted. kevin went climbing during this so he came back to a bunch of hair and our "salon" hahaha. vivian curled my hair and completed the salon appointment ;D then she got super hungry and we spent a good amount of time figuring out what to eat.

i washed dishes and cleaned the area and then we all settled on picking up food from 'fat cat' and getting bubble tea from a place nearby called, 'oh my tea.'vivian drove bb and we got bubble tea first. i'm in love with this bubble tea shop. i got a honey green tea with boba and the boba is the best i've ever had. the drink was just right in sugar level too. vivian enjoyed her hot red bean matcha as well. i actually bought another drink along with kevin's taro milk tea. i got the 3-bubble milk tea with pudding and grass jelly. again, it was delicious. the pudding was so yummy at the end! i'm definitely coming back again! interestingly, this lady wanted our spot and boxed us in our parking spot -__-" she was cray. i told her we were leaving and she just stayed there? and then another car came and they kind of fought over the spot? i have no idea. vivian got us out though. then we drove a block down to pick up the food and it smelled so good. we drove back and maxed out on our food.

vivian got the red sauce seafood pasta and kevin got he lobster mac and cheese and i got the turkey blta. vivian says this pasta is the best pasta she's ever had! woot! she also liked kevin's mac and cheese. kevin tried eating all of it but failed and ended up overeating. vivian also really liked the fries, which i ate and only took like two bites of my turkey blta. ahha. everything tasted amazing. apparently, the fat cat and hakata ramen have really good ratings on grubhub and that's where we usually order from in quincy. anyway, we ate and then talked and watched more videos haha. we went to work out at 9:30 pm and someone was in there but he was finishing up. i felt bad like we were kicking him out T__T but vivian was so excited to do hip hop cardio with me! i don't know how long we spent, but we had so much fun and we just kept going. i killed vivian ahahaha. we recorded ourselves for jackson and then we called it quits maybe after one or two hours. x__x 

when we looked back on the recording, we realized we looked bad and couldn't screenshot any so we went back to the yoga studio and recorded ourselves doing one more song and then "staged" some photos. they came out ridiculous. then vivian wanted to do the couple's yoga challenge and we did that. it was LOL and i'm not flexible and we kept pulling things in our body. we did that for like another hour or so. we were in the yoga studio until 1 am or something ridiculous.we got back, vivian showered, and went to sleep. i showered and washed my hair and then dried it and got into bed too. i think it was like 2 am when all of us ko'd. zzzz. it was such a great day. also, it was lunar new year! happy lunar new year! i cut and washed my hair today (not supposed to if you are superstitious), but i look fab and feel really happy thanks to my lo gong <3

29: vivian knocked on our bedroom door and called my name and i woke up instantly. it was 7:30 am and she had to leave for her flight to georgia. she was going to stay with das and dami for her interview! hehe. i hugged her goodbye and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. hehe i love spending time with her. she's the best <333 i'll see her again soon enough. it never feels like a long time apart; especially, now because i've seen her so many more times ever since i moved to boston. (: it makes me happy. she left and then i went back to sleep. i woke up at around 10 am and then stayed in bed until 11 am. i emailed tumblr again in a panic because it's been 10 days since i emailed them about my account. i don't know why they aren't responding... kevin and i had leftovers for our first meal of the day and watched 2 episodes of supernatural. in between episodes we took a break so i could watch jenn im's proposal video and i was bawling. it was so beautiful. i walked into the bedroom and kevin asked me if i was sick and realized that i was crying because of the video and poked fun at me. LOL. 

then we cleaned up and meal prepped for this week. i spent some time organizing bookmarks and just downloading all the apps i use on my personal phone to my work phone. i think i'm going to use my work phone monday through friday for everything, and my personal phone on the weekends for everything. i'm going to carry both to work but only have my work phone out and check my personal one every so often. kevin and i went to kam man and bj's. it was a pretty quick trip. we stopped by 'oh my tea' to get bubble tea because i really wanted some :P i got the passionfruit green tea and he got the lychee green tea. both were delicious. the cashier remembered me and i told her that i really like this place i wanted more hahaha. we got back to the apartment and kevin sorted out a garbage situation with deco (the trash chute was jammed) while i organized our jacket closet and switched out the hangers with our new black hangers so that everything was uniform. we ordered 50 hangers because we needed more and the 50-pack was the cheapest. then i monitored kevin's vacuuming and swiffering while i dusted and made a pile of things to bring to the storage room. then i started laundry and put away the dishes and moved the stuff to the storage room. 

i took a break to set up imessage on my work devices and to download all the apps i need for my ipad and iphone. kevin cooked stir fried noodles for dinner while i cleaned the bathroom and some of the kitchen area. then i dealt with some tax things and budgeting. i paid off $3k more of my student loans. i'm getting there slowly but surely! i also got to video chat with das and vivian a bit. haha they're both so cute. dami said hello too and complimented my hair teehee. i look like a beauty thanks to vivian's hair cutting skillz. kevin and i ate dinner while watching supernatural. we're on season 11 now and the premise of the season is kinda ridiculous. then kevin went to wash the dishes, i folded laundry, and then i cleaned the rest of the kitchen and washed a few leftover dishes. then i found three shirts that i wanted to iron (finally using the board and the iron we bought on amazon) and did just that. the shirt i really wanted to iron had twisted af sleeves T_T i got some of it out but the vertical wrinkles are still there. i gotta work on that. it got pretty late pretty early in my mind so then i showered and went to sleep. i felt bad for not working out but i was also a bit sore from working out with vivian yesterday. i should have done another short exercise session today but chores and errands take priority. oh well, tomorrow is the start of a new week and more time for me to get fit (:

[homewoodpage]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath syndicated from https://chaisesofassite.wordpress.com/