In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

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In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Friday, May 8, 2026 03:41
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VIEWED: 256237
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Tuesday, May 5, 2026 12:42 PM

BRENDA

Out soon to get things done one of which is the vampires.

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Tuesday, May 5, 2026 6:11 PM

BRENDA

All done for today. Vampires done with, library return and then found 3 more tv shows.

Supper too and ran again to that lady who used to look after my mum. We had another good chat. She's been busy. Her husband is still getting treatments for his cancer. Immunio therapy and she is working. Hopefully we will get together for coffee next Friday. Have to send her an email.

I have 2 more appointments for this week and next for my doctor's office. Both of them are around 9am. I wonder what is going on that the nurse and my doctor are so busy.

There is quite a breeze out earlier today. Made me wish I had a jacket on.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2026 1:14 PM

BRENDA

Out soon with a cool down. I buy new hair clips and of course the weather cools.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2026 11:01 PM

BRENDA

Off to mah jong tomorrow.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 5:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Man.... I could use some heat.

I've still got the damn furnace on right now and it's May 3rd.

I said I wasn't going to do it, but it was getting miserable in here.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

Sorry to hear that SIX. We are going to be sweltering where I am until at least Friday of this week.

And we've got fires starting to go in province too. Think it's going to be a long summer.

You're so much further up north. That's just silly.

Still cold enough that I didn't want to go outside to sand things down today so I've been working on the bathroom. Not too much done yet, but I've decided I'm going against my dad's suggestion for getting a bigger vanity and I'm just going to restore and paint the existing one. It's a savings of probably $600 in the long run, and I don't think not having an extra 6 inches is going to make or break a sale on my house down the road. There's been at least two families living here before me and one of them were quite large and they all made due. I like having space on both sides of the toilet too, and if I got a bigger vanity I think it would encroach upon your bubble when sitting down.

Besides... I think he's thinking this is necessary because of how things currently are anyhow. First was the problem where the vanity, medicine cabinet mirror and the vanity lights above it are all uneven. It looks terrible. On top of that, I installed a small IKEA shelf thing up high to the right above the light switch/outlet, and I use that to put my electric toothbrush and beard trimmer on top of. It sticks out a little more from that wall than the right edge of the mirror for the medicine cabinet, so it looks needlessly crowded in that corner. That shelf won't need to be there anymore when I get the new medicine cabinet and the over the toilet cab hung, and I'll be evening out everything above the vanity before this is done.

Inside of the cabinet was a horror show that I've never gotten around to clean before. I'm sure I did some minor cleaning when I first moved in before putting cleaning products and the like down there, but I never cleaned the wall or anything underneath the lone drawer at the bottom of the unit before today. Every few years I end up doing something else where I think "That ought to be the last of the mouse shit in this house", but here we are again.

I don't even want to know what is between the walls anywhere, so we won't be removing any more of them.

I don't know who did it, if it was the people who were here 35+ years or the idiots that lived here before me, but at some point the wall behind the cab had been busted out all willy nilly to get some plumbing done and some point, and that looked nearly as ghastly as the disgusting wall it was cut into.

I've wiped EVERYTHING down thoroughly with cleaning wipes from the unit to the wall to the drawers and door and the drawer slides, and every nook and cranny in between.

I also cut everything in that opening for the plumbing into a perfect square behind there, which I am going to be capping off with some nice trim. I've decided not to go white with the vanity, and instead use a mid-tone grey color I have about a half-gallon left of that I had used to paint my shelves in the shed a few years back. That way I can keep the white sink top without it looking funny, and it should all look nice with the darker grey I'm going to be using on the walls. (Although, I still might flip those two and paint the lighter gray on the walls and the darker grey for the vanity.... not sure yet). But because I'll be using darker paint for all of this, including the wall, I will also be painting everything IN the wall that is within view of the opening a dark color too, so it really should all blend in much nicer than it does now. Down the road when everything is finished I'll likely be putting some insulation back there regardless, and if I do good job with the cutting for around the pipes it should cover all of that up with the paper in the front being what you'll see. If it's not torn up, I'll probably just paint the insulation paper the dark color too and it should all really blend in back there.

I think I'm just about ready to start power sanding down whatever I can reach in that vanity before hand-sanding the rest of it. I just need to remove the drawer slides first. I was going to keep all of them intact both in the cab and on the drawers, but I didn't do that in the kitchen and I don't really feel like cutting any corners now. That would just lead to a somewhat sloppy looking paint job inside, and I don't want that. We're going to do these right like I did all the kitchen cabinets and hopefully even with hot showers and the like it will hold up as well as they have so far.

My hips are killing me from having to sit crosslegged while doing a lot of this. I need to ease my way back into this work so I don't put myself out of commission for a week or two doing stupid things.

I don't think I'll be doing any primer like I wanted to when I woke up today, but plans changed and I'm adding a lot more work to the current docket. One day at a time here...

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 5:35 PM

BRENDA

It maybe silly but that is the way things are going in BC. There are fire bans already all over the province except for the south east corner which is around Cranbrook. These fire bans are early.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 5:40 PM

BRENDA

Temp is sitting at 68F right now which is 19C to me. Starting to warm up again after the cold of yesterday.

And I am all finished for now. Dishes done, will tackle putting some paper work away later.

Got a call from my doctor's office. My thyroid test is normal but am I still going in next week because he didn't put down on the requisition form how often I should go in. Lab gives you a card for certain tests and they didn't know what to put down. Have to straighten that out.

Had one decent hand at mah jong. 900points, so broke 1,000 easy. Finished with over 2,000points. But a lot of 4,000point scores. So no winnings for me.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 7:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

It's days like today that really make me laugh about Covid masking...

I had my filter bag on my sander, and I was also wearing a hostpital mask while sanding the inside and outside of the vanity. You don't even want to know what came out of my nose when I was done. I'm sure my post-8cm-growth-pneumonia lung appreciates it.

Had to be done.

But all the drawers will be sanded outside along with the other stuff I still need to sand out there. It's a little warmer tomorrow. I think the high is 60 degrees. There's supposed to be some rain, but it's spotty. Hopefully I can get most of the sanding I still need to do done outside tomorrow if that's what I choose to do. I have my doubts though because a lot of it is sanding by hand. It's even warmer this weekend, but I think we're supposed to have more rain too.

Got all the dust cleaned up and the vanity wiped down. I pretty much lost out on the sunlight now, but if I want to prime that cabinet inside and out I could still do that with my portable lighting. I just may.

I'm debating on painting the inside of the drawers or not. They're a really light wood color and the finish has held up very well over the years. Just like that kitchen table, I'm hesitant to sand them down and paint them. I may just separate the faces from the drawers and sand/paint them and leave the drawers themselves the light wood color. It wouldn't match the rest of the stuff, but this was a very dark stained vanity and that didn't match the light wood color either.

It's inside... Let's just leave it, right?

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 11:04 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I did get to primer today.

Got the window trim and sill primed as well as the inside and outside of the vanity (and all that crap inside the walls behind it.

Before I even think about any final paint, I need to re-seat that thing. It's always been a little loose, and after what I've done today it's totally loose. The only thing really keeping it in any sort of place is the drain pipe now, not that I've moved it much where that's going to be a problem, but they definately did not do a good job affixing that thing to the wall at all. I saw two shims up high on the right side, with a drywall screw only screwed halfway in through them. No other screws on the top, and none on the bottom either.

They didn't put it all the way back to the wall for some reason either, and since it's attached already to the basin I've got to live with that unless I want to probably break things trying to separate the two.

That's cool. I've got two long cardboard tubes of cabinet trim out in the garage still. That's what I used a month or two ago to make my thresholds for the coat closet, the attic and the pantry. I'm going to sand those down and prime/paint them on the horses, and when the vanity is otherwise finished, I'm going to be using those to frame out the inside and outside of the vanity right up to the wall after I have it firmly in place. That trim is also what I'll use to frame out the hole to all the pipes that I squared off today too.

I won't say the outside looks better with just a single coat of primer on it than it did this morning before I did anything, but the inside looks 1,000% better than it did before. Even with my big bright work light shining in there, the pipes/wood/etc behind the wall blends in with everything much better when it's all primed. Once I get a dark paint on all of it inside, it should blend right in... and there won't ever be any super bright light shining in there like there is now.

I don't even know what I'm going to do tomorrow. I have a lot of options and plenty to do. Depends if I want to go outside and sand or not. If I don't do that I still have plenty to do inside. Maybe I'll even put a coat of paint on the vanity tomorrow. I don't want to put any final paint on until after I have it all trimmed out and I patch the brad nails, but I think since this is a humid bathroom I'll be putting 3 coats on it, so I could probably paint the first 2 coats tomorrow.

I'd love to start doing the walls and ceiling, but I'm nowhere near ready for that yet. There was some wall damage, especially by the corners of the ceiling where paint flaked off. That's going to have to be patched up and sanded first.

This is exciting. I'm finally starting to visualize what the room is going to look like when it's done.

I should be able to get everything done from the ceiling down to the floor in a few days if I keep at it. Maybe a week. All that will be left to do after that would be ripping up the vinyl tiles, replacing some rotten sub-floor, installing a MUCH bigger toilet, and finally putting new baseboard down.

Hopefully one of the two buckets of thinset mortar my buddy gave me a while back is still good. If it is, I won't have to buy anything to finish this bathroom except for that new toilet, a new faucet and drain for the sink and maybe some new baseboard if I don't have enough left in my garage to get the job done. I might have to buy a 4'x4' piece of sub-flooring... Depends on how thick the current stuff is and the pieces I have in the garage are.

My old man just paid somebody like 8k to remodel his bathroom a few years back. Mine will cost me about $800 max. And if everything went perfect, it would probably only be about $400.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 11:26 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
It's days like today that really make me laugh about Covid masking...

I had my filter bag on my sander, and I was also wearing a hostpital mask while sanding the inside and outside of the vanity. You don't even want to know what came out of my nose when I was done. I'm sure my post-8cm-growth-pneumonia lung appreciates it.

Had to be done.

But all the drawers will be sanded outside along with the other stuff I still need to sand out there. It's a little warmer tomorrow. I think the high is 60 degrees. There's supposed to be some rain, but it's spotty. Hopefully I can get most of the sanding I still need to do done outside tomorrow if that's what I choose to do. I have my doubts though because a lot of it is sanding by hand. It's even warmer this weekend, but I think we're supposed to have more rain too.

Got all the dust cleaned up and the vanity wiped down. I pretty much lost out on the sunlight now, but if I want to prime that cabinet inside and out I could still do that with my portable lighting. I just may.

I'm debating on painting the inside of the drawers or not. They're a really light wood color and the finish has held up very well over the years. Just like that kitchen table, I'm hesitant to sand them down and paint them. I may just separate the faces from the drawers and sand/paint them and leave the drawers themselves the light wood color. It wouldn't match the rest of the stuff, but this was a very dark stained vanity and that didn't match the light wood color either.

It's inside... Let's just leave it, right?

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

I think leaving them is alright. I doubt anyone will pay attention to what the inside of a drawer looks like.

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Thursday, May 7, 2026 11:27 PM

BRENDA

Off to my doctor's tomorrow at 9am. Ears have to be flushed out and there is a nurse that does it.

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Friday, May 8, 2026 12:36 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think leaving them is alright. I doubt anyone will pay attention to what the inside of a drawer looks like.

Thanks for the input, Brenda.

Yeah... I think that's what I'm going to do. With the kitchen ones I went kind of crazy. I didn't just paint everything, but I caulked every seam inside of all the cabinets and the drawers too before final paint went on. Then I bought bright white contact paper to cover all the cabinet shelves and drawers too. Like I said, they've held up perfectly all these years now, but that's just so much work. Even for one vanity I don't really feel like doing it. And because the light wood drawers cleaned up so nicely, I really don't have to.

I lied about the painting. I already painted the first coat on the vanity and I've got a fan on it now. Probably going to put the 2nd coat on it before I clean up the paint.

Late night again, but totally worth it. Vanity looks awesome, even without doors or drawers.

I'll probably have some pics up soon on this one since it's inside and it won't get me doxxed by tweedle dee and tweedle dumb.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Friday, May 8, 2026 2:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Done and done.

Thought I wouldn't even get to priming today and I put 2 coats of paint on the vanity.

Looks awesome. Can't wait to finish the doors and drawers now.

Gotta start getting the medicine cabinet and over the toilet cabinet/towel racks ready to rock.

I'm not sure how much of a mess I'm going to have to make to get my electric where I want it to go yet. I will be putting an outlet in that toilet cab. Not sure if I want to put it inside the doors, or in the little nook that's underneath them. Having my beard trimmer plugged in would be easier for me to use if it was in the nook, but then that isn't hidden when people come over. Gotta think about that one.

I'm guessing that I can probably tap into the box for the vanity light fairly easily through the hole where the current in-wall medicine cabinet is. I just have to make sure I do my electric up right when I get to that point. I'm going to install a GFCI outlet next to the light switch, and daisy chain that to the 1 or 2 other outlets I will be adding. That can be either really easy or a bitch, depending on how the electric was done behind the walls. If they screwed me and used either romex or flex conduit to get to the light, I'm probably going to have to spring another $40 for a 3-pack of GFCI outlets and just make each outlet a GFCI since I won't be able to daisy-chain them.

I think I'm going to skip putting in a ceiling fan or a light above the shower, as much as I wanted to do it. My walls and ceiling are so thick and hard to cut through because of the way that they made them, and that it would be a bitch of a job. Also, unfortunately, the joists in the ceiling run perpendicular to the direction I'd be putting in the new electric, so I couldn't just fish a length of flex conduit between joists up where I need it as I'd have to remove drywall so I could drill holes in the joists to get it through.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

I've talked myself out of doing work like this because of all the extra things I was going to do and how much work it would take. Let's just get it done and except for the 2 closet bifold doors I still need to do, that's pretty much the entire 2nd floor finally finished.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Friday, May 8, 2026 3:41 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

There we go...

Big day.

Not only is all of that done, but all the drawers and the bottom is empty and I'm going to make good decisions of what actually needs to go back into them when I'm done.

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USER	POST DATE
6ixStringJack	05.08 03:41