Finally, a few words from our sponsor.....ME!

Its been a few months since I put this blog together, inspired by my cousin April, and I must say that maintaining such an entity is a very serious undertaking indeed. You see, my life consists of only a few things. Work, work and, oh yes, more work. Being a locomotive engineer is demanding as hell and it seems that as soon as I get rested legally I'm gettin called back to run another train. It's fun work but it can get to be a drag. This last half I worked 12 times in 15 days and for each time I go out its two days in a row because we go from Grand Jct halfway to Denver, then zip to the hotel for our 8hrs and then back on another train to Grand Jct. I get home and its either later that night or the very next day early the phone rings. Oh, such is the life of a railroader. Thank God for the women who are married to us, kinda like being married to the mob without the violence, that can deal with this hectic schedule.
Other than that, I am trying to remodel our house as best I can with the small time frames that I have in between runs. Our little ole shanty is just under 1200 sq. ft. and is a tri-level, the basement of which was "finished" when I moved in 2 1/2 years ago. I cant imagine the state of mind the people were in that did the work but to put it mildy it looked like @#$*#% hell! I, too, am guilty of not gettin any before pics that would prove beyond any doubt that they were on some kind of drugs.
Needless to say, the first modification to the house was to add a roll up door to the back of the garage leading out onto the patio in the backyard. I figured why waste a perfectly good parking space. I also finished the inside of the garage where the supports and runners for the door go. I still have to finish the rest of it. Then there was the upstairs common bathroom. It needed new paint and caulking as well as a rearrangement of some shelves and towel racks. Believe it! They put the towel racks behind the can and the shelves on the wall opposite, right in front of you. To be graphic, sit on your crapper and stand up. You lean forward to get your balance for the manuever. Guess what you hit your head on every time? Those damn shelves! Did I mention they must have been on drugs? If your not convinced, you should have seen the bathroom downstairs. Anyway, we trimmed the wall out for a bigger medicine cabinet, put in a new light fixture, painted the existing vanity cabinetry and put in a mirror, some pictures, new switch plates and the door recieved new hinges and knobs. The entire bathroom took on a completely new persona. Amazing!
Then I went for the downstairs. Hoo boy! I, as a single bachelor, used the downstairs as a hobby room. That is, I had about 90 sq. ft. of HO scale train layout down there and a ton of crap stored under the benchwork. Everything had to go to storage and the layout was disassembled and framed for transport. I took a chance and advertised it and some dude called and bought it! How cool is that? Then I tore out the bathroom down there. It was horrifying! I so wish I had pictures of it. As a matter of fact, I may somewhere. It was only a 3/4 bath so it was a shower. A horrible conflagration of the nastiest color tile from the floor of the damn thing all the way up to the ceiling including the ceiling! YUCK! And to top it off all the fixtures were gold with a little green on there, too. Nasssteee! I've used a sledge hammer on the railroad, but I never enjoyed it more than breaking out that old shower. I had to knock out the walls adjoining the bedroom as well. They had it angled and I needed to frame it all back in square because I put in a tub/shower insert and drywalled around it inside the bathroom and drywalled the adjoining walls in the bedroom. I even insulated the common walls so it would be warm in the winter and quiet in the bedroom when someone was in the shower.
The bedroom has a support beam down the middle of the ceiling. They put the most butt-ugly stick on conduits along the wall and that beam leading out to a stretch of ancient tract lights. Ooooooh! They went with the train. I wired for ceiling lights, drywalled in my access holes and then did the entire bedroom and bathroom in knockdown texture. I did the ceilings on both sides of the support beam in popcorn accoustic texture. It had to match the rest of the house. The bathroom recieved a new vanity, sink, fixtures (not gold), toilet, medicine cabinet and tile. All thats left is to prime and paint and replace the blue carpet in the bedroom and lower stairwell.
Once that part is done and Danielle and I get moved downstairs it will be the upstairs bedrooms turn. All they need is paint and carpet. The main floor is the real doozy. Its the living room and kitchen. We are knocking down a wall and opening it up. All new appliances and cabinetry and hardwood floors. A little paint and shazam! Done deal. Then I can finish my garage and replace the other two garage doors and start thinking about repainting the outside of the house. Whew!
So, as you can see, I was a tad bit excited to see what April did to her bathroom. Its good to know that I'm not the only crazy one in this fam.