Skip to main content

Chipping Away - 2020 ROW80 R3-W3

I've been chipping away at my bathroom reno this week and haven't made much progress on my writing. I've had to carefully scrape some adhesive off the tiles to prepare for grouting, which hasn't happened yet as I forgot to get the drill bit for mixing the grout. As I'm writing this now, it's Saturday and I had to wait to leave my house to get the drill bit because I was waiting on a delivery. It turns out that it's good I didn't go before as in order to put the new drain on my sink, I need a wrench bigger than all the others I currently have. After grouting and sealing the tile, I intend to install my sink and use it. During painting, I'll just cover it. Bad news for me though, I have to cut the old drain off to install the new one because it can't be pulled through the hole since it was modified. I feel like I've stepped backwards here.

I've installed my light, though it will be taped for painting. It takes up vastly less wall space than the old one. I truly expected that I would have to do something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBhKSZH6SLg&t=12s, but I instead just had to rotate the box in place and add a little piece of metal to interface between it and the light because the hole the light had for connecting to the box wasn't in the right spot to reach the hole on the box. Fun stuff. Unfortunately for me, I will have to adjust it slightly because my little piece of metal is visible and that's obviously not ideal. And no wonder the former 6-light monstrosity was shorting out; they used the connectors for copper wiring and should have been using the ones for aluminum with the special compound either already inside or the ones you add the compound to. I'm lucky there hasn't been a fire! I wonder if this is the problem with my fan light in my office, because the light portion doesn't work consistently. It's a hideous light, so I'll probably just replace it with something more modern in the coming months, but I am curious. I just stopped bothering to use the light and with the air conditioner, I don't need the fan right now.

Next up for the bathroom project is sealing the tile, then a lot of drywall repair and painting. I'm actually not fond of drywall work, but I didn't feel like tiling the whole room. It's a good thing though because grouting was not my favourite activity. It was messy. I have to wait three days before I can seal the tiles and grout. As I have to cut the old drain off the sink anyway, it's OK. Hopefully that doesn't take me three days. After all that, I will need to do flooring. Eventually, I'll also do something with the shower area in the room, which may be installing a tub surround over the weird light brown tile, and renewing the tub surface. There's a lot of work ahead yet, but even torn up it looks better than what was there before.

I have a lot of other work around the house I want to do at some point. Most of it can be broken into short projects like replacing one light, or redoing one wall. Someday, I'd like to redo the kitchen, but I don't know if I can do that without help and maybe I'll just want to pay someone for that.

Well, I think the home portion of this update has been covered.

FINANCES
I think I'm doing OK here. I've been making steady payments on my student loan while they gave us a break on interest because of Covid-19. I'm also regularly paying off my credit cards.

FITNESS
I made it out on my scooter for 30 minutes on Thursday. It was fun and a good workout. I'm looking forward to doing this more often. Only one day isn't ideal, but it's more than zero, so I'm calling it a small win. Plus I've been working really hard in my house and I think it counts to a degree.

1/7 days

FRENCH
I haven't missed a day!

7/7 days

MUSIC
I haven't practiced at all this week.

0/7 days

WRITING
As I said, I haven't done much here. I've had ideas and written them down at least.

Sparks: 1/26 chapters edited
The Mockumentary: 15/120 pages written
Other: 30/30 minutes spent on other projects
Skills: 0/30 minutes spent on skills.

Well, all said, I feel like making progress on my bathroom is important, so I'm not too upset with myself over my writing progress this week. I do hope to improve on it next week though.

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...

Fortifying Friday - Rejection

Yesterday, I received my first rejection from an agent. It stung. It wasn't that it was bad. It was worded in a way that it may have even been personally written. Regardless, rejection never feels good unless you were secretly hoping to stay home and do nothing when a friend made plans with you. Then it feels great! I might be an introvert ;) Anyway, it hurts a bit extra when you have other things going on. Between the worries of the state of the world and being unemployed, it felt much like being kicked while I was already down. The agent said she couldn't connect with my book though she really wanted to. She also said not to take her rejection as any kind of sign that I should give up. It was nice as far as rejections go. So, I lay there for a bit. Then I let my friends know via social media. Several said that I had hit a milestone and I should try to collect as many as possible this year. Rejections, they said, were a badge of honour awarded for putting myself out there. See...

Thoughtful Thursday - Dental Access

I haven't made use of it yet as I discovered it only this week, but there are free dental screenings in Ottawa for people who have a low income. I'm not sure what happens at these things, but I imagine they're rather like the once or twice yearly visits we had in grade school from the health unit where they checked our teeth. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that in case anyone is in need. There is a schedule with the locations listed and I'm guessing it's hard to get there early enough to get seen, but I'll check it out soon. I've been using dental products that are supposed to repair and whiten. I'm unsure they are working, but I figured they were worth a try. Also, I hear if you add activated charcoal to your toothbrush before the toothpaste, it helps whiten too. It makes a hell of a mess, but I tried it. I think it might take a while to whiten, but my teeth are definitely cleaner, so I think it really does help with plaque. Activated charcoal is als...