Taking the plunge

We finally took the plunge yesterday. It was really expensive, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. After weeks and weeks of trying to decide what the bathroom remodel is going to look like, we went out and bought almost all the stuff yesterday.

Shopping can be a real ordeal for us. It is about 150 miles to Bend, where the nearest major shopping is. So a trip to Bend is an all-day affair and $60-some in gas. So we try not to do it too often. The shopping in Bend is pretty good. There's a Costco, a Target, Home Depot and Lowe's, Cost Plus, Wild Oats, Wal-Mart, Grocery Warehouse, Michael's, Albertson's, all that stuff that we are accustomed to. There's no way to hit all of those in one day, though, so we rush around and try to get as much done as possible. If it doesn't get done on this trip, it's not going to get done for another month. This is why we have lived here for 3 months and have no TV yet. So we have to buy lots of stuff, but we also have to fit it all into the truck. And we usually bring the dog with us, just to complicate the day even more.

You know how when you are working on a little home improvement project, it seems like you have to run to the hardware store about twice a day? There's always some little piece that you forgot, and you can't get any farther along with the project until you have that piece. Or, you hit something unexpected, like a rotten subfloor, and all of a sudden there's a whole new dimension to the project that seemed so simple before. Since we live 70 miles from the nearest hardware store, it would be very impractical to make all those trips. We tried to buy everything in one trip. I spent at least three hours putting together the shopping list for this trip. And once we were at the home store, I think we spent another three hours wandering from aisle to aisle, finally getting almost everything we needed.

Today, we started on the first little project, which is replacing the kitchen sink drain. Well, the part that was supposed to connect to the disposal didn't fit. And the tee that was supposed to connect to the trap didn't fit either. So we are back to the radiator hose system until further notice. Good thing we hadn't chucked it.

Today's second project was to get a little work area organized in the basement. That went much more smoothly. I set up my new sliding compound miter saw and just admired it for awhile. It's probably total overkill for the things we are doing right now, but it is just a thing of beauty. And it works great. I used it to build sawhorses to hold up a little plywood workbench. The saw takes up almost the whole bench, so the effect is somewhat of a shrine for the saw. I put up some nails to hang my other motley tools from, and everything else is still in plastic storage boxes.

Today the basement, tomorrow the bathroom....!