The Log

Last weekend we started another project. With all of the timber lying around we couldn't resist the opportunity presented to use the available logs to make something cool, so we picked up a 5 foot long and 3 foot across section of an old oak (I think its an oak) that was blown down during Ike. It was lying on the side of the street in front of the neighborhood elementary school.

How did we do do it you ask? Well, let's just say that even though we thought we could use the truck, there was absolutely no machine power involved, all muscle power. We simply went over to Father Jose's house for migrant labor and hired a few helping hands, and rolled this puppy about 6 blocks down the middle of the street, including up and over a railroad grade and into the garage. You can imagine the looks we got as we were cruising down the street pushing this baby by hand. When we finish a few other projects around here, hopefully we can turn it into a table base for the back of the house.

Bathroom Update

We're finally making more progress on the bathroom, so we thought we should share a few pics of how that is going. We've got most of the walls and floors prepared for the final covering (except in the shower area). This meant a lot of joint compound and sanding, as well as a bunch of hardibacker for the floor and some walls.

Here's a shot of the wall that we'll cover with slate, next to to the tub.

Here's the stairs with almost all of their hardibacker on.The last two weekends we've spent time cutting the slate from 12 x 12 down to about 2 x 12 to put it on the wall. Its a long process when there's 30 some boxes of slate. Here's some shots of some of the slate drying on the driveway and then stored in the garage.

Friday this week the plumbers came back and fixed the shower pan. Now we just have to hope that we pass the city inspection on tuesday. If so, then we'll be able to start putting the wall back together in the shower (cool!)