The shower project

On December 16, during a maintenance job, (changing seals for the shower faucets), something broke in the faucet--behind tile.  Thankfully the water was off, so there wasn't a water loss.  But to get to the problem, the tile had to be taken out around the faucet.

 

 

The faucet needed to be replaced, but there would be no way to replace the tile again around it.  The wall of the shower had been spongy the whole time we've lived here and we knew there was water damage behind the tile wall.  We intended to replace the whole thing at some point--just not the week before the kids started coming home for Christmas.  But there we were, with no choice but to proceed.  Rowen cut the pipes and capped them off so we could turn the water back on for the rest of the house.
Rowen had some cancellations on his job installations the next Tuesday, giving him some time off work, so he started tearing out the bathtub (which had cracks in it), tiling, and walls.  From research, he found out an oversized bathtub like ours, (installed in 1991) wasn't available, so we decided to do a walk- in shower instead.

 
(Notice the short stub wall in the picture below.  There was a glass window above it.  This was removed and replaced by a taller wall later.)

 

Rowen found that the insulation was moldy behind the wall, and the tiles were holding onto the surface only of the green board.  It had delaminated behind the tiles.  He had to Saws-all the tub, piece by piece to get it out.
Meanwhile, we had called Jeff and Lesa and asked if they had time in their schedule to come and work for us sooner than they had planned to come for Christmas.  The Tuesday night before they were to leave Iowa and come, this happened to them:

 A deer came racing across the corn field and smashed into them before they knew it was coming!

 

 Thankfully they weren't hurt, and Lesa was leaning over on Jeff's armrest when the window busted.  A dear friend of theirs let them borrow his van so they could still come the next day.  They stopped by the scene of the death the next morning to pay their respects to the poor dear.  (deer)

 

 I heard they took the broken off antler along with them, but I never saw it.

So that was the interlude of the deer.  Back to the shower story:
They arrived on Wednesday evening, and he got right to work on fixing the capped off pipes and re-plumbing the new faucet on Thursday.  Rowen put new insulation and plastic on the outside-wall.

 He also found us a shower base for a better price without the wait that ordering from a store would have entailed.

On Friday morning, reinforcements arrived when Tim and Brenda came with their children, Charissa and Felix, and Elizabeth, who had spent the week in Joplin visiting her grandparents.

 Preparing the opening for new cement wall boards.  They also took off the little stub wall.

 Base in place

 Grandpa and Felix supervising the work Tim and Jeffrey were doing.

 

 Jeffrey built a new wall to completely replace the short stub wall that had been there before.  

 This is before all the cement board is on the front of the shower wall.  They insulated this wall too, and it makes the other bathroom noise next door quieter in our bathroom.  We wanted to have "niches" for shampoo bottles.  They were unavailable in stores, so they designed and built in niches, covering with the cement wall boards.

 They lined the new shower base with cardboard and taped it off to keep the glue and grout off of it.

 They covered the new wall with cement board too, even though it is outside of the water area.

 

 

 

 Saturday night, they started tiling the first shower wall.  It was "supposed" to be fast and easy...

 

Cute supervisors!

 

 Photographer got involved!

 Jeffrey doing straight cuts.  For the strange cuts like around the niches, they had a cutter in the garage.

 We had bullnose tile for the windowsil and all around the edges.

Work continued on the tiling on December 25.  We were swapping the 25th for the 28th for our family Christmas anyway, so it wasn't a problem.

On December 26, Tim and Jeffrey grouted the tile that was done.

We had to buy more tile for the new wall, so that got done after Christmas week.

Eventually, we got the shower part of the bathroom remodel done and started taking showers in it, but it was after the Christmas guests were gone.  Everything takes longer than you imagine it will, that's for sure!  We so much appreciate the work our boys did on the project.  When Randy got here, he helped too. We didn't get any pictures of that, but he helped with installing the shower doors, cutting the parts down to the exact size that was needed.

This is the view from our sink/closets side of the room, showing the new wall all done, and the far wall is the other side of the project.

 Taken the other direction toward the sinks and closets.

 The wall outside the front of the shower.  The corner tiles were different because the tile did not come with corner bullnose pieces.  

 The shower installed and the shampoo bottles installed in the niches.

 In the back of the shower, we have a foldable step stool to replace the edges of the bathtub we used to have.

There's more to come in this bathroom project in future months, as we want to replace the flooring and put down tile, replace the sinks and cabinet, put up towel rack and touch up paint. We are so thankful to have this much done.  It was a lot of work and we appreciated the extra hands and all the cooperation as we had 17 people here during Christmas week and only one working shower!  

We made some memories in unusual ways.  A later post will highlight the more normal Christmas memories.

Early December 2017

On December 1, Rowen and Janet drove Mother and Daddy (Wanda and Rex Scoles) from Joplin to Columbia.  Most of the Scoles family was getting together for a Thanksgiving/Christmas gathering because of Wesley and Lisa being in town from Tallahassee.  We had a big meal at Marlene's house on Friday evening.  The biggest surprise for us was that Randy, Jonathan and Jewelyn had come from South Dakota without us knowing they were coming!

 Jeff and Lesa came from Iowa.  It was so good to see them after their extended time out of the country from September through mid-November.

Tim and Brenda and kids were there too.  So that was the extent of our Albertson family represented.  Aunt Lesa is always a big hit with the kids.  Here is she showing Charissa, Jewelyn, and Brenda the book about their trip that we made them for a Christmas gift. 

  Daddy had a good visit with Cody.  We were so glad he was available to come to the gathering.

 Marlene and her guy friend, Tim DeOrnellis, who is Marlene's deceased husband's second cousin.

Tim and Marlene made a wonderful meal for all of us.

 Randy and Jewelyn visiting with my mother, their grandma and great-grandma.

 The cousins had fun playing together.

 All the Albertsons stayed in Lyndell and Sharen's former house that they call the barn now.  It was fun being with three of our boys and four of our grandkids.  Lots of food, visiting, games, and gifts filled the next day when everybody was at Lyndell and Sharen's new house.  

We played a game with pictures of faces and words describing people.  It was very likely politically incorrect and involved judging and profiling.  I think Jeffrey was one of the winners.

Wesley, Randy, Tim, Jeffrey, and Lesa

Jonathan, Jewelyn, and Charissa playing together

 Leah, Rebekah, Lisa, Lesa, Jeffrey, and Randy visiting

 Mother, Daddy, Tim, Janet, and Wesley visiting

 Two tables of people feeding their faces!

Jeffrey, Lesa, Felix, Jonathan, Wesley, Lisa, and Randy

Mother, Daddy, Brenda A, Sharen, Tim, and Charissa

Felix had fun in the box! Daddy,  Brenda A, Tim, Lyndell

 Daddy, Mother, Brenda, Leah

 Andrew, Charley, Lyndell, Jeff, Lesa

 Wesley, Daddy

 Andrew and Leah

 Rebekah, Mother, Brenda Owens

 Randy, Jonathan, Tim, Brenda

Charley, Uncle Deane

 Lesa, Jeff, Tim D, Marlene

Lisa, Sharen, Wesley, Daddy

Felix, Brenda A, Tim A, Charissa, Jonathan

Wesley and Lisa gave all the kids sock monkeys and candy canes.

 Marlene, Tim D, Sharen, 

Rebekah, Charley, Brenda O, Leah

 Brenda A holding up the doily Mother made all the grandgirls.

 Leah holding up her doily.

 Mother and Daddy with picture frames from Wesley and Lisa.  Their main gift was a new computer from all of the family.

 Jonathan, Wes, Lisa, and Randy 

 Mother, Daddy, Brenda A, Sharen, Tim A, Charissa 

We had two Tims, two Brendas and two Lisa/Lesas.  If the Wamplers would have been there, we would have had three Tims! Our Tim told Tim D. that he (Tim A.) was the original Tim in the family.  Tim Wampler is Tim #2, so Tim DeOrnellis will have to be Tim #3!

We left in the afternoon so we could get back to Kentucky for Sunday.  Tim and Brenda took Mother and Daddy back to Joplin.  It was fun to be with our extended family for a little while.

The Christmas Drive-Thru program at our church was December 2-3.  Emily was one of the actors.  Since Rowen and I were out of town for half of it, we just helped with the set up day.  We did drive through it on Sunday evening.  Everybody did a great job acting as the story played in guest's car cd players.

Emily is on the left.  In the story, these church kids shared their winter coat and wraps with a homeless man.  In the next scene, he came upon their church's live Nativity scene and learned about Jesus coming to the world as a baby.  He then was invited into a church service where he found Jesus as his Savior.  The story ended 7 years later with the man being married, having a family and living a productive life because of the involvement of church family in his life.  At the end, each car was given a gift bag to pass on to homeless or someone who needs it.

The next big event in our lives was the God's Bible School and College Christmas musical "Condescension."  Emily was in the orchestra and Elizabeth in the choir.  Our "adopted" daughters: Lily was a main character in the play, and Danette was also in the orchestra, playing her cello.

 The choir was behind a screen.  When they weren't singing, the screen was dark.  With a change in lighting, we were able to see them when they sang.

 Elizabeth said it was like looking through a trampoline mat.  The choir could only see the conductor because there was a light shining on him.

 Lily is the lady on the right.  She was the wife of the bearded fellow and was a matchmaker for the guy on the left. He was a government official who loved a shepherdess, so he disguised himself as a shepherd to be on her level and get to know her.  These shepherds were the ones to whom the angel announced Jesus' birth. The story depicted Christ's condescension to leave heaven, His power and glory, to become a baby born in a stable. The music was so outstanding! The Lord really helped all of the participants.

We got to have Lily and Danette over one last time before Christmas break on December 10.  

 We gave Danette a Mancala game for a gift.  Lily's gift was ordered and didn't arrive for a couple more days, so she had to wait to get her special journal.  We have enjoyed having the girls join our family and look forward to more visits in the new semester.

I finished the quilt top I had been working on for a couple months.  It is for my first "adopted" daughter, Joanna, who lives in South Dakota now, and I hardly ever get to see.  When we and she still lived in Colorado, she practically lived with us part of the time.