The graduation trip

May 15 2022 Sunday

 

This is day one of our 22 day road trip. The main reason for the trip up north is to attend my granddaughter’s college graduation. She will graduate with honors on the 21^st from Salisbury State University. We will also get to see the house she and Nick have purchased nearby.

 

Millie and I decided we might as well make it a road trip, we will visit some kinfolk, and also visit some Civil War battlefields before they start bull dozing them over, it’s only a matter of time before left is successful in erasing every bit of evidence from the war of northern aggression.

 

We left Myrtle Beach this morning at 7:10am and arrived in Newport News this afternoon at about 2:45pm. As you can see on the map, we traveled the entire 300+ miles on local roads. 87 octane gas in Myrtle Beach was $4.10 a gallon, we watched it rise steadily as we navigated north. Here in Newport News Virginia it is averaging $4.40, the highest price we saw was $4.70.

 

We are staying in the city owned campground in the Newport News Park. Water and electric hookup is $36 a night. They are all shaded sites in the woods; ours has an old asphalt surface and is almost level. A lot of the sites are sand/dirt, some are slopped and some look fairly level. There is a major interstate somewhere close, I can hear the traffic, but it won’t keep me awake!

camp site in Newport News Park Campground

 

We stopped for breakfast at a MickeyD’s near Shallotte NC and just snacked the rest of the way here, stopping once for fuel and once at a rest stop to stretch. Millie made a quick dinner in the RV, We didn’t go anywhere this afternoon, we must be getting old!

 

All but one of the systems in the truck and travel trailer worked as purposed, the exception being the cruise control. A couple times I had to repeatedly press the on/off button to get it to turn on. I haven’t looked in the manual yet, maybe you have to hold the button down for a second or two…….wishful thinking. PS: It's working now, I'm an electrician, I perform miracles!

 

We listened to part of a audio book on the trip today, ???? by ???? DVD in the RV tonight will be “The Quiet American” with Michael Caine

 

Monday May 16, 2022

 

Two objectives today, Tour the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News and visit with Millie’s 93 year old aunt, both were highly enjoyable.

 

I’ve been to the Mariners Museum before; it was back in the late 1990’s. From my home on the Bohemia River first wife and I ran our Bayliner Contessa 200 miles down the length of the bay. We stayed in a marina in Poquoson Virginia for 5 days, rented a car and toured many of the historical sites in the Hampton Roads/Newport News area. There is a cornucopia of Colonial, Revolutionary war, civil war, naval heritage, army transportation, Air Force and space history on the peninsula. I highly recommend the area to anyone interested in American history.

 

The prominent display in the museum is still the USS Monitor. The remains of the ship are forever enshrined in an offshore sanctuary 16 miles off cape Hatteras and 240 feet underwater.

 

There have been many diving expeditions to the site in the last 30 years and many important artifacts recovered. Perhaps the most prominent being the turret and its two cannon.

 

The monitor has been placed upon history’s pedestal and called the ship that changed naval warfare from wooden sailing ships to iron ships with mechanical propulsion.

This happened largely due to a sea battle near Hampton Roads with another warship that although framed in wood it was iron clad and propelled by mechanical means.

 

 It was during the Civil War and the “Yankee” USS Monitor dueled with the Confederate iron clad warship the “CSS Virginia”. The battle ended in a draw with both sides claiming victory at the time. Ironically, neither ship survived the war, the Monitor lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras and the Virginia burned to keep it from being captured by the northern aggressors.

 

I found it very strange that the Monitor is receiving so much admiration while the Virginia is barely mentioned at the museum. The victor’s get to write the history I guess.

 

On a side note, the museum also has a large impressive collection of ships models.

 

Millie’s Aunt Ida is 93 years old, her eyes still sparkle and her mind is sharp. Married for 70 years but now a widow, she still lives independently in her home. She drives her car locally and likes to putter in her garden. She is blessed with three daughters and family that look out for her.

 

We spent over three hours with her and her daughter Judy and the conversation never lagged. Even though I didn’t know most the people they talked about, I was never bored. Their stories of living a simple country life in simpler times are always interesting.

 

On the way back to the RV we stopped at Costco, gas is $4.19. We also bought some soft serve ice cream and Chicken Bake rolls for dinner.

 

DVD for the evening will be “Twilight” an old detective show with lots of recognizable actors. I gave it a 7.

Tuesday May 17, 2022

 

We departed Newport News a little after nine this morning and drove country roads all the way to Waldorf Maryland. It was here on route 301 that we first encountered busy highway traffic. The red light camera’s are still up and running on Rt 301 through Waldorf, luckily GPS units now give you advance warning when you approach one.

 

Traffic got progressively more manic as we approached Washington DC. The beltway (I-495) traffic was heavy but moving steadily and soon we reached our destination, Cherry Hill RV Park. It’s just inside the I-495 beltway in College Park Maryland, about 12 miles from the mall in of the District of Columbia.

Thats us on the end with the silver truck

 

After setting up and having a meal we attended a session here in the campground on navigating to downtown using the subway system. Afterwards, we ventured back out to refuel the truck, gas prices we’ve seen have ranged from $4.43 to $4.71 on average. I did see a couple stations with posted prices over $5.00 but they had no one at the pumps. We headed for a Costco about two miles from the campground but the lines to the pump was way too long for me. There were at least 20-25 vehicles each in two lanes inching their way to the pumps for $4.43 a gallon. We found a shell station with posted price of $4.53 and pulled in there. It was a scam, discounted price was if you bought a $15 car wash, but the car wash was inop so everyone had to pay $5.59. PS: calculated milage today for the past two tanks of fuel, we are getting 11.4 miles per gallon. Not bad considering the past two motorhomes we had only got 6 miles per gallon

 

It was now afternoon rush hour and every road was bumper to bumper with impatient drivers. We went a round about way back because we wanted to drive through and check out a National Park campground. Greenbelt Park campground was old and primitive. Most of the sites were not level and there are no elec/water hookups. $20 a night but it would not be my first choice, that’s for sure.

 

We have cable tv and fairly fast internet here in Cherry Hill campground, but we watched a DVD movie for the evening entertainment. It was called Independence Day, starring Will Smith. It was by far the corniest movie I’ve ever seen. About halfway thru it I told Millie I could give her my rating number now but it kept going down. I finally settled on a -3 and that was generous of me.

 

Tomorrow we go to downtown DC.

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

 

Today we ventured downtown to the Memorial Mall of Washington DC. We drove a few miles to the metro station and took the subway to town. A short walk down 7^th Ave and we were at the Circulator bus stop, this is a city bus that loops around the tourist areas of town.

Different times of day the subway was either empty or full

 

We rode the bus to the end of the mall near the Korean/Vietnam and World War Two memorials. We meandered along and stopped at each of the memorials. The path between them curved in and out under the cherry trees. We discussed the senseless of war and perhaps ironically that it is important that the trauma of those who fought and the ultimate sacrifice of those who died should forever be remembered and honored.  How sad it is that mostly young people have to die or be maimed because of the folly of others.

Vietnam War Memorial

Just the facts; The Vietnam Memorial is by far the most visited. The Korean war memorial is undergoing a makeover, the ghost soldiers still patrol out of the woods, but at the top of the hill will be a wall engraved with the names of all the Americans killed there. The WW2 memorial is a little distance down the mall from the others and unlike the secluded and reverent feel of them, WW2 is right in the pedestrian path. It’s big, its got granite, its got Bronze, its got engraved quotations and yet it just doesn’t tug at any emotions.

World War Two Memorial

Millie and I spent some time there and spoke mostly of our recollections of people we knew who had served during the great war. There where a few other small groups who seemed to search for the “Service, Sacrifice, Unity, and Victory” the monument is supposed to convey, but most seemed to be just passing thru. Sad.

Sad

I personally am so discussed with the current regime I had no desire to visit any of the halls of government. I did notice that there are more fortifications around the White House than there ever was around any military installation I’ve been on and that includes ones in combat zones. What's up with that? The Capital is undergoing some kind of armor plating. To the left of the Capital at the District court building (I think) there were some pro-abortion activists shouting something on a bull horn, I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Not too many weirdo’s on the streets, only a couple pan handlers, but lots of people with coolers selling bottled water on the mall and food trucks everywhere on the streets.

 

The Metro subway: I can only speak for the line that we took from College Park to the mall. The stations and cars were ok. I didn’t see any Graphiti anywhere at the stations or the cars. The seats didn’t have any tears or stains on them, also no litter in the cars. The riders on our line were divided between college students (we passed three schools), tourists (we’re easy to spot) and black folk (from all levels of society) There was no security personal visible at the stations or the cars, but we didn’t feel a need for any. I did keep an eye on one young man who was rolling a joint on the train, he didn’t light up though! He probably couldn’t operate the lighter and hold his britches up at the same time.

I just did a proof read of this entry with Millie and she wanted to add that she was pleased to see so many well dress and groomed young people in the group tours on the mall and waiting to get in the museums. She says there is still hope for humanity.

On a related but touchy subject I fear our youth are being brainwashed on this woke bullshit right here our nations capital. We were told yesterday that it was nearly impossible to get a ticket to the National Museum of African American history and Culture. At the time I thought it odd that it would be in such high demand. When we went by the building I found out why, there were lines of mostly young white students and their overseers (teachers) brought here by bus and waiting to be led into the museum. I suspect this museum wasn’t their first choice and inside they were going to be fed the current line of bull about white racism.

Thursday May 19, 2022

We took the metro downtown again this morning, past the mall this time we got off at the waterfront stop. It was about a three block walk to actual waterfront but it was a beautiful morning and the walk was through a very affluent area.

 The last time I was here was about 30 years ago, I came by boat and stayed a week in the municipal Marina here. The area is unrecognizable now other than the marina still being there. The area around the water has been transformed into a very high end urban residential area. Along the waterfront is an endless line of expensive looking restaurants.

 

We walked the waterfront path to the water taxi dock and secured tickets for the next ride. We chose the 45 minute ride up the Potomac River to Georgetown. It was a big but rather ugly boat, the inside cabin was frigid from air conditioning so we sat outside on a long bench across the stern.

The last time I was here none of those buildings were there.

 

There was a recorded commentary about the land features we passed; I couldn’t decipher most of the noise from the garbled speakers. It did confirm my telling Millie that the round shaped building we passed was the Watergate complex. This was the scene of the bungled burglary of the Democraps campaign headquarters. This of course led to the infamous “I am not a crook” speech and subsequent resignation of President Nixon. Apparently politicians have been less than honest for quite some time, imagine that!

 

Millie and I agreed that the most impressive thing we saw was the perfect timing of the jets taking off and landing at Reagon National Airport. As one was lifting off the end of the runway and climbing out over the river another would be touching down at the opposite end. They did this over and over the whole time we were on the boat.

Georgetown waterfront

 

To be honest, Millie and I were less than impressed with the DC area river-scape. I think we’ve become jaded by these tourist destinations. It’s like Millie says about museums, “if you’ve seen one dark 200 year old painting of some dead guy, you’ve seen them all”

Georgetown waterfront

 

We took a misstep again today. Yesterday’s wrong turn caused us to walk two blocks in the wrong direction before we discovered our mistake. Today we got on the wrong metro and instead of going uptown we crossed under the river and headed south. I knew right away we screwed up and we got off at Anacostia Virginia. I don’t want to sound racist but an old white couple does not belong in Anacostia Virginia. Lucky for us the people at the train station all had their faces planted in their phones and nobody appeared to notice us.

 

We stopped at the College Park Diner again on the way back to the RV Park and enjoyed another excellent meal. I had the same thing I had yesterday, fried fish and French fries. Millie had a scrambled egg breakfast for dinner. Its, that kind of place, vintage 1960’s, open till 3 am, breakfast served all day.

I took this picture to show Millie the newspaper the man behind her was reading. Chinese writing!

Tomorrow we cross the Chesapeake Bay and on to our next destination, Trap Pond State Park in lower Delaware.

Friday May 20 2022

 

We departed Cherry Hill RV Park this morning at 9:30 am. The morning rush hour traffic was about over and the beltway was normal mayhem. We only had 8 miles to travel on I-495 before exiting onto route 50 east. Traffic was light on 50 with no back up at the bridge, soon we were cutting across the Delmarva Peninsula on rt 404.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Annapolis to the Eastern Shore

 

Trap Pond State Park is about ten miles north of the Delaware/Maryland border and in the country a few miles from any highway traffic noise. It’s an old park, On most sites there is no clear rv parking spot, you pretty much park however you can fit your rig between the trees and still reach the water/electric hookups. Water and electric was the one redeeming factor in the campground.

Typical RV site at Trap Pond State Park

 

The trip was not without problems; early on I noticed there was something amiss with the trailer brakes. When I applied the brakes, the trailer brakes would engage but would then release even though I was still firmly pressing on the brake pedal. The brake controller is processor controlled and was indicating a current overload and thus turning off the brakes. I don’t think I would have programmed it that way! We continued on safely keeping our distance from traffic in front of us. The truck has upgraded towing brakes and does an admirable job stopping the combination, but brakes on the 6000lb trailer are a comfortable safety cushion.

 

Nick, Delaney and Kristie came to visit around three that afternoon. We had a nice couple hour conversation, good thing too because of the brake problem we are cutting the trip short. We hope to have less traffic through Norfolk on Sunday morning.

Me Delaney and Millie

 

Cutting the trip short was not an easy decision; it’s been a long time since I was up here and had planned on visiting family and spending more time at Nick and Delaney’s recently purchased house in Salisbury Maryland. Next on the agenda was visiting Civil War battle fields and visiting Millie’s sisters. It is only because we have a short turn around at home before leaving again for a trip out west and this trip can’t be changed. I want to make sure I can get the parts and fix the brakes before we depart for the Scottsdale Arizona.

A happy day for all of us

The good news is we did get to see the new to them house and attend Delaney’s college graduation from Salisbury University. We're really proud of her; she was a straight A student all through college and graduated with several honors and awards. She has had a job waiting for her with an engineering firm that has an office in Salisbury. She was debating whether to stay for another year and master's degree but decided to go with the job. She will work with a mentor for three years and then become a certified Geologist. Nick is doing the same thing with the firm he works for and will become a Civil Engineer at the end of the mentorship. They have a very bright future ahead of them!

Nick and Delaney

After the graduation ceremony we all went to a local brew pub for a meal and camaraderie. My brother John and his wife were there, but I didn’t get to spend any time with him, that’s unfortunate as we haven’t seen each other in a few years.  

On the map below you see the projected route of our trip. From home at the bottom we traveled counter clockwise to Newport News, then  Washington DC and finally at Delaney's graduation in Salisbury Maryland. We cut the trip short at this point because of the brake problem and traveled straight back to Myrtle Beach.

As far as we got!

Sunday May 22 2022

 

Last evening we prepared for departure, the trailer was connected to the truck and everything packed away. In the morning all we had to do was disconnect the water and electric lines and retrieve the leveling ramps under the right side tires.

 

When the alarm went of at 4am we were ready to spring into action, we pulled off the site in about 15 minutes. A quick stop at the dump station took another few minutes and we were on our way. We were on the road by 4:30 am.

 

We live in a 24 hour a day world and even on these back country roads there were a few cars, but his shouldn’t have surprised me. I remember a time when I would drive 22 miles to work at 11pm and never see another set of headlights. By the time I retired driving those same 22 miles I would never be on the road alone, always having someone else’s lights ahead or in my mirror.

 

Out on route 13, a major road traversing the state from north to south there were more commuters but not a lot but enough headlights to keep the deer off the roads I hoped. Actually we never saw a deer dead or alive the whole way home.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel

 

We passed thru Maryland in short order and continued down route 13 heading for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Somewhere in the Virginia potion of the peninsula we stopped at a Royal Farms for coffee and a breakfast sandwich, I also topped off the fuel tank on the truck.

 

It was probably after 7am when we crossed the bay and entered Norfolk, traffic was light and we sailed thru without having to hit the brakes. We switched to route 17 and continued nonstop until we got to the Elizabeth City bypass. We stopped at the Walmart for fuel, not that we needed to, but it was in my original itinerary and a good place to stretch our legs.

 

The rest of the trip was uneventful, we turned off of rt 17 before we got to the traffic in Calabash/Little River and took Hickman Road over to rt 9 and then rt 31. When we exit 31 at Socastee we are within two miles of the storage lot where we keep Little Stinky.

 

We did minimal unpacking, mostly refrigerated food and were home by 4pm.

The shortened trip log

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring trip the Hunting Island ST Pk

April 2-5^th 2022

 

This is our first RV trip of the year. We secured a camp site at Hunting Island State Park near Beaufort, South Carolina. This ocean front campground is very popular and difficult to get a reservation. We got these 4 nights stay due to a cancellation.

Site 121

All the roads in the campground have been repaved.

 We didn’t have anything planned in the area and never ventured out of the park during our stay. Even with the campground being sold out most of the time the beach is still unspoiled and lightly used. It is one of the last natural beaches with tourist footprints the only noticeable intrusion by man. The wind and waves renew the beach and for the most part the human visitors leave little evidence of them having been there. It’s a wild and beautiful place.

Looking south towards the lighthouse

Millie and I did a little beach chair sitting and staring at the ocean, but mostly we like to walk the beach.

 

On one day we saw a sign for one of the many trails in the woods behind the beach. The trail that would take us to the historic lighthouse located on the island. The sign said it was 2.2 miles, that would be easy we thought, we can do that even though we were wearing sandals and carried no water. We would walk down to the lighthouse through the woods and return walking north on the beach.. Well it was 2.2 miles one way, so the hike was closer to 4.5 miles. We got to walk barefoot on the beach for the return so it wasn’t bad on our feet, but we sure were thirsty by the time we got back to the RV.

It looks easy!

Trail thru the forest

Still going strong on the trail

It was a pleasant trip and a shake down trip for the RV at the start of this years RV travels.

Back to the bathroom renovation

 

Monday Feb 6 Back to the bath renovation.

 

There are an overwhelming number of wall covering materials, the majority of them can be installed by do it yourselfers, but one one reason or another, we could not find anything that fit the plan. I mentioned earlier one wall was 16 feet tall and we wanted to make a feature wall there. Most of the wall covering materials we kind of liked would cost a wopping $1000 for materials. That was a mental block we kept running into, but Millie also had a vision of a piece of art that would dominate the space.

 

She planned to make it herself, I think it cost $17 and some trim lumber we had in the shop wood rack. I think she’s got the gift for this stuff; it’s perfect for the wall.

Wall art by Millie

It’s February 8^th and the end is near. We have been in the final assembly phase of the project for several days now. Having the floor tiled seemed to be the turning point. There is no more destruction, all our efforts now are installing fixtures.

 

Wednesday Feb 9

 

Today we set the free standing faucet for the soaking tub and also set the tub in place. The faucet was an item of great anxiety for me. I researched extensively all the possible faucets, downloading the spec sheets and installation instructions for each. Decision made, we ordered the one we wanted and I set the PEX water lines exactly to the specifications from the manufacturer. I know I should have had the part in hand before I laid my lines but we didn’t want to drag this project out all summer.

 

Weeks later the faucet arrived, it was not made to the spec’s they spelled out in their literature. The two flexible water lines extended out the bottom of the stand a measurement of 5 ½ inches, they were supposed to be 1 ¾ inches. My water service lines are set in concrete, there is no moving them.

 

We now had a $300.00 faucet that will not fit. The lines inside the faucet stand had a standard ½ FPT fitting on the lower end but a custom fitting at the upper. The ends are crimped in place with a ferrule like a hydraulic line. This is not something we were going to be able to have made locally. I procrastinated a full day before taking my cable cutters to the stainless steel jacket of the water tubes.

 

I made my cut so I would have two options once I was able to see what the size and material of the inner tubing was. It was the exact dimensions of PEX connectors, I used a PEX connector and S/S clamps. I have PEX tools for both the clamping bands and copper crimp connectors, but I think in this case the S/S clamps will give us a secure assembly.

 

The rest of the install went smoothly, I had predrilled the tile and concrete for the anchor bolts the night before. Millie held the 42 inch tall faucet upright while I made the connections to our water service and then set the base to the floor with the anchor bolts.

 

The tub has been sitting in the bedroom for several weeks so it didn’t take long to move it into place and get the six hidden feet adjusted to sit soundly on the floor. The drain also went as planned and soon the tub was in place under the fancy looking faucet.

 

We achieved out objectives for the day before 3pm and decided to get a jump on tomorrow’s project. The vanity, complete with the stone double sink top has been sitting in the garage for nearly a month. Securely packed in foam and cardboard, I still walked a wide berth when working out there. I was happy to get it moved into the house undamaged this afternoon.

 

It is very heavy; we jacked it up with a floor jack to put a borrowed platform truck. I made two temporary ramps for the steps at the front door and Millie and I wheeled it thru the house and into the bathroom like we knew what we were doing!

 

There is only one thing on tomorrow’s schedule, setting the vanity in place and making all the connections to put it into service. I know it will take at least one trip to Lowes for S traps, hopefully we have the rest and it will go smoothly.

 

February 12, 2022 Saturday. Securing the vanity to the wall and doing all the hookups took much longer than anticipated. I finished it this morning with a little caulking. I also touched up a few spots in the shower floor grout. The bathroom renovation is pretty near done.

 

I came up with an innovative solution to securing the soaking tub to the tile floor. After researching online and finding no acceptable method I looked inward for I knew I could do better. After experimenting with several ideas, I hit upon the perfect method, Velcro! I used industrial strength Velcro on all six feet under the tub’s fiberglass shell and the mateing pieces of Velcro are self stuck to the tile floor. The tub feels as solid as a rock, but can be removed if necessary to access the drain pipe.

 

Tomorrow I will take a load of packing materials to the recycling center, stop and check the RV at the storage lot and then return unused materials to Lowes. I may do a little housekeeping in the garage in the afternoon, but by Monday I should have my workshop clean, organized and ready for the next project!

Before and after

The end

 

 

The Isaacs

 

Feb 5 Saturday. We took a break this afternoon and went to the Alabama Theater in North Myrtle Beach. The Isaac’s were performing and Millie had said she would like to see the live performance. live.

 

To tell you the truth, up until we got there I thought they were a gospel group. Praising the lord is part of their genre, but they are also Bluegrass, a little bit country, a lot of their own writings of which classification I have no Idea. If it isn’t hard enough to put them in a group, they also played a Beatles song and another one from the Rock era, I forgot which song it was.

Lilly Issacs

 

Confused yet? Well, they are also story tellers and regaled us with story's of their journey through the music world. The family matriarch, Lilly Issacs told a harrowing story of her entire family starting with her grandparents on both sides perishing in the Nazi death camps of World War Two. I almost forgot, they also sang two songs in Hebrew, Old standards, I recognized the music, don’t know the words.

 

Wait, didn’t I say they were a Gospel group, yes they are Christens, they converted for Judaism some time ago. It was an interesting evening; I was entertained by most all the music, and moved by their stories of toil and trouble. Mostly I was impacted by the holocaust tragedy. I thought about it for several days afterwards. It was a mostly senior citizen audience and I remember thinking, its sad there are no young people in attendance to hear this story. People should never forget when a madman led a country of sheep to do his biding and slaughter 6 million Jewish people. All told it is estimated 70-85 million people both civilian and military perished in the war before the killing stopped.

 

I know, this is supposed to be a travel blog!

 The Dispatch will start off with something new in 2022. At the last moment Millie and I cancelled our south Florida reservations. We had planned on snowbirding for about 6 weeks this winter but south Florida is a hotbed for china virus deaths and we decided prudence was the better part of valor. 

Village quarantine marker from 17th century England

Not that we live in fear or advocate all the crazy restrictions the various governments are trying to impose on us, but we’re not stupid either. I believe in the old way of handling infectious diseases, isolate the village and let nature run its course. Guards were posted around the village and no one was allowed to enter or exit until the epidemic was done.  Homestead and Florida City are the village and we aren’t going until it is rendered safe thru natural herd immunity.

January 2022

I’m not sure which of us came up with the idea to take our Florida vacation money and remodel the master Bathroom. I don’t think it was me, I mean it was a perfectly good bathroom, ok the corner Jacuzzi tub was from the same era as a harvest gold refrigerator but everything worked. I just can’t see a guy saying, hey, I’ve got a great idea, let’s rip out the toilet and see how much trouble we can get into trying to make it work again! 

This clearly was a creative endeavor; we don’t have any gay people living here so that leaves Millie as the crafter of the redecorating idea. Granted it is the ideal canvas for someone with vision and artistic expression. It’s a three room ensemble, walk in closet, a throne room with shower and an outer room which had a vanity and a Jacuzzi tub that sat at the base of a wall that soars 16 feet to the ceiling. Yes, this clearly was the brain child of my talented wife.

The creative half

Nothing happened right away because it was a new idea and we had to agree on a plan. Materials and appliances had to be ordered and as you probably know a lot of homebuilding stuff is in short supply right now. Some of the bigger purchases had to be shipped from California, what’s up with that, no warehouse space anywhere else in the country? 

Demolition started the day I took a saws-all to the fiberglass Jacuzzi tub. My original intent was to take it out intact. My reasoning was I would be able to get someone to come haul it away if I was giving it away. It would be a package deal with the vanity, Take them both and they would be free. 

Well that didn’t work out, I realized right off they built the room around the tub and there was no getting it out in one piece. Demo was easier than I thought it would be, a good blade in the saws-all and I cut it right down the middle. It was still a job getting the pieces out but they were soon on their way to the Horry county landfill. 

The Vanity was also a custom built in and it also had to be dismantled for removal. I did save some of the wood from it. I gave the granite vanity top to my tile guy; he said he was going to have it cut to fit in a townhouse his niece had recently purchased here in town. Good riddance, it was too heavy to stay around here.

Demo day!

The next big job, and the one that created the most dust was removing the old tile floor and grinding off the thin-set mortar that stayed stuck to the concrete. I used a shroud on the grinder hooked to a shop vac and a dust removal filter and I think I captured most of the dust. Millie wasn’t quite as pleased with my abatement system and spent considerable time housecleaning because of the fine mist of concrete dist that escaped the construction zone. 

Under the old Jacuzzi we found a trench in the concrete floor that was only filled in with gravel. It appears to me someone messed up when roughing in the plumbing and the drain had to be moved for the Jacuzzi. That saved me some work because I had to move the drain for the new tub. I also had to tunnel under the concrete floor to run water lines for the tub fill faucet. I was able to do this working from the old trench line. Afterwards I filled the trench with concrete.

New tub drain

There was no drywall from the height of the tub down to the floor on the three walls that bordered the Jacuzzi. That was ok, because I needed access to those walls to run two electric lines around to the vanity. 

The shower room walls had nice tile walls; we liked the color and it was like new. I don’t think it was original to the house, someone had it installed somewhere along the line. The shower floor was a different matter, Millie didn’t like it. We researched tiling over the existing tile floor and found it is commonly done. This would eliminate any chance we would damage the walls should the old floor have to be removed.

Next comes my first mistake; I said I could do that…..Did I mention that Millie had picked out a tile that was little octagons, there must have been a million of them. It wasn’t so much keeping them evenly spaced while putting them down, I handled that with minimal cursing. It was the damned grout that caused all my frustration! 

New shower floor

The spaces around all those little tiles probably equaled the same linear footage as a room ten times the size. It was almost impossible for me to wipes a smudge of grout from somewhere it didn’t belong without dragging grout for one of the other close by lines that seemed to zig zag everywhere! I finally finished it, Millie says it looks good, I want to touch it up a bit before we use it. 

In the area of the original vanity I removed some drywall to continue my wire run and access the plumbing for the changes we would make. There seemed to me to be a lot of copper piping in the wall. In several places it was stubbed up from the foundation only to be turned back down and returned to the concrete. It seemed to me to an abomination, by any skilled trades standard. 

Some of the original pipe work

I did cut some of it out and replace it with pex piping, but only because I was reworking some of it for my systems and it was easier to cut the old out and redo with all new stuff. In the end I resigned myself to the fact that I don’t need to know where all that piping is going under the floor, it has worked for 30 years and will continue to work. After some thinking on the subject, I think some of the wayward piping may be justified, they probably brought them up into the walls so there would be no pipe connections under the concrete. 

New pipe work for 2nd vanity sink, new tub fill and hot water recirculating pump

 

The only positive thing that came out of me tiling the shower floor is I told Millie I’ve retired from laying tile and would not be doing the big floor. She thought I was kidding at first but I assured her I was done, I haven’t done enough of it to be comfortable doing it, I don’t enjoy working on my knees, I’m too old to learn excellence in the trade, I’m done.

The throne room

Millie put out a request on a local social media page requesting recommendations for a tile company. We interviewed three and chose the one we felt most comfortable with. He turned out to be an excellent choice; he did the job when he said he would, completed in the time he said it would take and did an outstanding job. Millie and I are both pleased with the new floor.

Now we're getting somewhere!

One of the new systems I am installing is a hot water recirculating system that will heat up the pipes before you shower without running any water down the drain. I am also reinstalling the Bosch 3 gallon water heater for the vanity sinks. It feeds instant hot water to the sinks and the water it saves far outweighs the cost of its operation, its amazing! We like it so much we have another one in the kitchen.

We decided that it would not be possible to make an invisible repair to all the drywall patches. The rest of the walls have been painted several times over the years and I didn’t think I could make the new blend in with the older walls. We looked at every conceivable wall covering that we could think of and finally decided to cover the bottom 34 inches of wall with beadboard. I had the tile installed first, then set the paneling on spacers 1/4 inch above the tile. I then filled the gap with silicone sealant. This will prevent the paneling from wicking up any water that gets spilled on the floor.

Bead board paneling over the drywall patches