Update on the Auction Shower :  Somewhat of a disaster.  It was a Bargain!  We were there for 6 Hours, and it took another 2 hours to get my Crew fed and delivered to their homes.  Several days went into planning and preparation.  After all that, DH & sons could NOT get the thing up the stairs to the bathroom it was to go into.  Un-be-lievable!  He had measured the doors and stairs and landings and hallway.  I had measured the tub and it's surround.  Soooo ....  When I got it home, the first thing he had to do was to remove the bathroom door; just like he was planning to anyway to get the old tub out.  The old tub came out peacefully and is currently sitting in the coffee table space in the Living Room.  (Yep, it gets better.)  So he removes the bathroom door, and it's frame.  Re-measures.  Removes part of the wall.  Removes more of the wall.  Finally he thinks it'll work. 

So, the big day comes when both Sons are home for the day to help.  (I was thankfully at work.) 

I get a call from DS#2.  Do I know where their gloves are?  (The regular coat closet is part of this renovation, all gloves are in the Green Bin, not the Blue one.)  While the front side of an "Acrylic" tub is all smooth and pretty, the back side is the opposite:  Fiberglass is hard on the hands and other body parts. 

I get a call:  "Geometry is NOT my Friend!"  We discuss alternative ways to turn the tub on it's way up the stairs.  Did I mention that this is a One Piece Tub and Shower that is 5' x 34" x Over 6 feet tall?  Did I mention that the stairs have a short run, a 90 degree right turn, a long run, another 90 degree right turn into the hallway, and then Another 90 degree right turn into the bathroom (which has an XXL wide opening right now).  And, when you get there, the tub really needs to be turned 180 degrees from where it needs to be to get up the other turns?  That means that the faucet end of the tub will actually be roughly 10' directly above the bottom Newel Post.

I get a call from DS#1.  He's biding his time on the upper landing where he's trapped while DH goes to get a tool.  "Dad want's to know how much you want to keep this bannister / guardrail thing."  Ummm, I do want it to go Back if it has to come out.

I get a call from DD#2.  She's been sent to find the SAWSALL.  She's the Pink Girl and 13.  She has no idea what a sawsall is.  Until I remind her that DH was using it to take out the bathroom door last night, both making so much noise that she couldn't hear her TV show AND getting all kinds of "dusty gunk" ALL OVER the bathroom counter and Mirror AND IN HER TOOTHBRUSH !  "Um, SweetTea:  What does your Daddy want with the Sawsall?", I ask.

Call from DH:  Can he cut the top of the Shower Surround off the Tub and take it up in two pieces?  It seems he might have mis-measured the Height of the "little slopey part of the ceiling" over the bottom run of stairs.  And he thought I was surely mistaken about a 6 Foot Tall Shower surround.  Why would it be that tall?  "Surely you meant 60 inches."  I suggest that it's time for a cold drink, a little TV, maybe a nap.  We should go out to dinner....

I come home early.  I admire the new "rustication" on the woodwork and paneling of the stairway.  I complement him on not removing the banister or newel posts.  DS#1 has "gone to work", he got called in, emergency, you know.  DS#2 and DD#2 are sheepishly washing dishes and doing all their other chores that have been let slide due to The Renovation.  DH is sacked out in the recliner.

I remeasure everything.  DS#2 and I build a "mock up" of the tub using Pink Insulation Board and a refrigerator box and Duct Tape.  We keep cutting it down until we get something that CAN fit up the stairs.  DS#2 helps us dry run it several times.  Then we wake up Dad to go to dinner, and Big Box Building Supply in The City, because he's allready driven the Local Hardware guy to request that he not Always try to Shop Local......

to be continued.....

Goin to the Auction to get plumbing fixtures! Yeee Haaa!

Only a few of you will understand this:  I'm pretty excited about going to the Auction to get Plumbing Fixtures tonight!

Yeah.  I know, most people don't think of an Auction as the best place to get new plumbing fixtures.  But, this Beige Recyclable has learned from experience that the Auction is one of the cheapest places to get building materials.  There's an Auction house a little ways up the highway that frequently handles materials for several high-end builders in "the city".  Back in the good old days of a few years back when the building boom was still going strong, they had truck loads of materials every two weeks.  In these days of austerity, there's likely to only be a few items there once a month.  But it's still a good, cheap source.

Now, you're probably asking "Where do these materials come from?  And why do these builders want to sell them so cheap?"  Well, I can only speculate as I don't know for sure.  But, I have been around more than my fair share of construction sites.  Home building is especially prone to "that's not what the owner was expecting".  The builder orders a product, say some flooring, and when it arrives it turns out to not be what the owner wanted.  There might not be anything wrong with the product.  It's just not what they expected.  There is a difference in the material in person from the photo in the catalog or online.  Or maybe the sample varies from the full sized product.
Or, the builder ordered the wrong item or the wrong item was shipped.  On a window especially, the width and height dimensions can get transposed.  A 42" wide by 30" high window is not going to fit in the same space as a 30" wide by 42" high window.  Maybe they ordered all 36" doors, and when it comes to installing them, they won't all fit. 
Sometimes there is damage in shipping.  If an owner is paying a huge sum for a perfect piece of wood work, a ding, dent, or scratch can be a huge thing.  On the other hand, if I can get it for 10% of it's worth, maybe I can live with a scuff or two.  Or maybe I can put the time and effort into fixing the flaw.  Maybe I don't need that last foot anyways.
So, instead of returning to the manufacturer or somehow trying to get their money back, the builder sends it all to the Auction.  It may be more cost effective in the long run for them to sell it for a fraction than to try to ship it back.  A Skilled Construction Worker's time is valuable and shouldn't be wasted on trying to put tile back into a box and then paying the shipping to send it back.  Their loss is our gain.

DH has scoped out a fiberglass shower/tub unit at the auction tonight.  From his assessment, it was probably damaged during installation.  The hole for the shower head and faucet has to be cut out at the building site to make sure that it's in the correct location.  The manufacturer doesn't cut it out at the factory because there are too many different variables.  Stud spacing, plumbing access, faucet type, control type and size, number of openings required.  The list is long.  But this time, somebody must not have "measured twice" because when they "cut once" it was in the wrong place.  Will we end up with an off-center shower head?  Possibly.  Will it matter to my family?  Not at all when they know that the alternative is to continue trying to shower with the hose attached to the antique/vintage (and not in the good way) faucet that is on the rusting out claw foot bath tub in the kid's bathroom.

So, Off I go to save some bucks!

Bird Feeders or Hanging Trash Update

Ok, time for an update on the Feeder/Hanging Trash report. 
Yes, it was cheap to make and an OK reuse of materials.
And, I can almost live with the look.  I did move it from the "out front tree with very public view" to the "back of the Christmas Tree that faces the unseen side of the house".
Take into consideration:
Form Follows Function has always been one of my favorite sayings.
This particular feeder is a looser.  It's Form doesn't allow for easy filling.  The light weight when running low on food leads to blowing in the wind.  The Cardinals didn't like it even when I filled it with sunflower seeds.  The holes were too little for the seeds to flow out and when I made them bigger.... well it was just a mess.
So, back to the drawing board and the trash bin.

Oil for spinning wheels from the gun shop??

You find out the most wonderful things at Ravelry.com.  DakotaSkipper, one of my favorite Ravelers, recently posted that the Gun Oil, Ballistol: 

Ballistol can be used On virtually anything! It does NOT damage wood or leather, it cleans metal as it lubricates and it can spread very easily into the smallest areas. It is also biodegradable. AND it does not build up into a hard, black gooey mess either.

Cabela's !  Yea !  Any of those stores, including Bass Pro are some of my favorite places.  The one has "stuffed" animals and the other has a huge, I mean Humongous, fish tank.  There were even live wood ducks in the indoor waterfall at one years ago.  My older kids, born when DH & I were college students, would think they had gone to the zoo and the aquarium on Saturdays when we went from Cabelas to Bass Pro to Pet World, sometimes we even stopped at the animal shelter and volunteered to walk doggies and socialize with cats.  All good fun and no cost.  The kids eventually caught on and had to reconcile the differences between their classmates zoo experiences and their own. ;-)

Last fall, I went with the boys and perused the hunting caps and sweaters as they shopped.  I got some great ideas for their knitted Christmas gifts.  Got great deals on "knit in the dark" flashlights for the DDs & nieces, too.

But NONE of them has EVER bothered to clue me in on Ballistol.  And THEY have been the first to complain when a squeaky wheel disturbs their Surround Sound.  Must be because they're all the nerd/geek bow hunter photographer nature hiker woodcutter types instead of the gun toters.  It astounds me how a squeaky wheel can disturb the soundtrack of a Star Wars movie or the explosions of a Die Hard Terminator Zombie Apocalypse.

Tote Bags from Bird Feed bags

Since the subject of Bird Feeders has come up, I think it's time to mention making tote bags from Bird Feed Bags.  They looked really good at the Middle School Craft Fair.  The bags must be made of a very durable material, it takes forever for them to disintegrate if they blow away and get stuck on a barbed wire fence.  We're going to have several of them very soon at the rate these birds are eating.  Aside from the cost of the bird feed, they're "free".  By the way, name brand bird feed definitely comes in more attractive and tote-worthy bags than the generic.
One of the many pages of directions can be found here:  http://www.curbly.com/users/stephee/posts/2064-make-a-bird-seed-bag-grocery-tote

Notes that might help:  Heavy Duty Sewing Machine with Heavy Duty Needle only
Reinforce stitching based on intended use:  If you're going to carry heavy stuff, sew more lines of stitching.
Some of these can survive a machine wash, cool water, delicate cycle.  But I wouldn't throw it in with anything you don't want it to fade on.

Bird Feeders or Hanging Trash?

It's winter. 
I want to feed the birds.
Bird Feeders from the store are expensive.
So, we could make our own.  Searching on the internet results in many directions for how to make birdfeeders from household materials including:  peanut butter jars, milk jugs, detergent bottles, sticks, coat hangers, all stuff we have around the house.
So far, the three kinds I've tried are difficult to make, more difficult to refill, and, quite frankly, ugly and look like trash.

Forced Air Central Heating is AWESOME

Well, after several weeks of tinkering with it ourselves, I finally got the DH on board with calling a certified repairman to work on the furnace. 
Liquid Propane is not a gas to be trifled with, if you didn't know.  Being heavier than air, a gas leak can fill a basement with fumes.  From that point, the ignition of the furnace or a water heater, or any number of other things can cause a catastrophic explosion.  The only upside to such an explosion is that it usually "blows itself out", whatever that means in "Volunteer Fire-ese". 
Now, How?, you might be asking, does this apply Beige Recyclables?  Well, in researching the furnace online while we were trouble shooting to find out what its problem was, I discovered that the poor little furnace is actually a Mobile Home furnace.  Oddly enough, made by Coleman, the camping people.  And, yet, somehow it made it's way into the quasi-basement, glorified crawl space of a 1911 Four Square Craftsman farmhouse with about 2500 sf of living space.  Hmmm, I'm thinking my Engineering friends would go pale if asked to do the calculations on that heating load.  So, it's probably a miracle that it has kept us this warm for this long.
And, I am so glad that the repair-guy could find a part to repair it at all, and really thankful that the whole saga added up to a little under $1000 when all was added up.  It could have been so much more.
So, we'll be taking as much advantage of those Insulation Tax Credits as possible.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.........