Back to the Shower (Day 634)

I've tired of landscaping, so I'm leaving it to Bill when he arrives around Labor Day. However, it would be nice to have a second shower by then, so the press is on to get the guest bathroom shower completed. We have all the Wedi board (pan, panels and drain), so it was time to trim out the stud walls to the correct size (width and length) and make everything square. Square is the word for tiling; anything but 90° sucks, and you'll pay for it in the long run.

Yesterday I attacked the walls. Shims here & there, additional support, modified the size of the inset (for body products), and got the pan to fit. The problem with this shower is that its 3' x 4' and the drain pipe isn't centered. So the solution was to buy the standard 3' x 5' Wedi pan and cut it down to fit. No biggie, its high-density foam with a fiber mesh and cement coating. Cuts easily on the table saw. Whipped it down and the pipe is about 1 in off center, front to back. So down I went into the crawl space with my handy ABS pipe saw. Off came the trap, which is easy enough to reinstall.

After I put the pan in place with thinset mortar, I'll hook up the drain assemble to the ABS drain pipe (2") and the bottom will be done. From there, the Wedi panels go up, setting on a rabbit in the pan and butt jointed to one another up the walls. This is the same process as we used on the master bath shower (see Day 545), so no reason to dwell over it. The difference with this shower is that its smaller but has 600 pieces of tile. We're using 6"x 8" field tile, then three rows of 2"x 4" across the stall at eye level and in the inset. The floor is 11" x 11" pre-mounted flat pebbles (variegated) and the ceiling is more 6"x 8" tile. Add in a bunch of 3"x 6" bull nose for all the corners, and we're talking a sh--load of tile to be cut, placed, and grouted.

Started the tiling on the weekend (Aug. 13) and got most of the back wall and alcove finished. Worked out pretty good, but it took a lot of measuring to make everything come out balanced. Luckily the 2x4 tile works on multiples of the 6x8 field tile. I suspect I'll be cutting and tiling for at least another week. Most importantly, I need to get the door side jambs tiled so we have a final width measurement for the door. The door company won't order until this measurement is finalized, and then the door takes about 2 weeks to make, ship to Sequim and have mounted. This means we might shower with a curtain for a few days while we have visitors in early September. By then, the rear end of a shovel might be pretty appealing.

Dirty Dirt (Day 633)

Not had much to report lately as I've been piddling along with the landscaping. All the irrigation lines are in, I've built the manifolds for the solenoids (control values), and pulled a lot of weeds that came up before our recent dry spell. Summer arrived here on July 6, lasted 5 days, then Spring came back. But Summer is here again, with temps in the high 70s, maybe even 80 by Sunday. All the locals are talking about getting AC installed—wimps.

We need to finish off the front yard, which will have an area of shrubs and flowers separated from a small lawn by a walkway. I had picked up a load (1 yd, 1500 pounds) of Magical Soil from a farmer about 5 miles south of here. Took my little "trailer that can" and had him load it up. I backed it around the house and off loaded it into an area that was low and was going to be a planter bed. No worries, mate.

The Magical Soil isn't so magical, at least to an old dirt bag (aka surficial geologist) like me. So yesterday we moved a lot of dirt around, by hand. The magical soil is about 1/3 clay and silt, 1/3 peat, and 1/3 composed manure. The farmer who blends it is running a grass-fed beef operation in Chimacum Valley, and he gets all the material right there in the valley. The valley is a 15,000-year-old glacial drainage way that flowed north to Discovery Bay. After the Puget Sound Vashion Glacier melted away, all these drainage ways were left stranded and wet, so peat deposits started to form in them. The farmer, Roger Short, says he had drilled the deposit and its 60 ft thick, although the water table is about 10 ft down in the dry season. So unless he wants to do some major water pumping, he can only mine the upper 10 ft. To make the soil, he blends composed manure (from the cows) surface soil (clay and silt) and the peat. Organic is high and it retains water pretty well. So I ordered 8 yds for delivery onto the driveway, then Tim Hamm brought another 2 yds over late in the day. I hired a local kid (young, strong) named Bison, yes like the buffalo. What were the kid's parenting thinking (or smoking). He showed up at 8 am, wheel barrow in hand, and ready to go at it. By the end of Saturday, we had moved 10 yds (15,000 pounds) of magical soil from the driveway to the front yard in two wheel barrows. Sounds like fun, yeah (4 Advil at 9 pm).

Nancy's in the hopper next. She needs to plan the magical soil plantings, and I'll do the grass. So my plan is already finished — 800 sq. of sod. So, I think the sod will go down in a few weeks and the shrub/plant install will be later, like September. Maybe Bill and June will want to help (he already said no).

The Costco Syndome (Day 613)

You know about the Costco Syndrome, right? If you see something out of the ordinary you like, you better buy it now because the next time you visit the store it will be gone.

I learned this lesson last year with some woodworking benches. They were 3' x 6', 1.5' thick maple with steel legs. Would have worked great in my garage shop, but when I returned the next week with my trailer they were all gone. Shit, screwed again by the Kirkland company.

Well, that corollary carries over to building products too. I'm not talking about plain vanilla 2x4s and the like, but other speciality items like TREX Decking. When we bought decking for our four decks and porches last fall (see Day 296), this was a "always in stock" item. No problem. 2 x 6 boards, 1/1/8" thick (5/4 x 6), and in Winchester Gray (gray). They'd sold millions of board feet: the Levi 505s of decking. So now we go to order another 72 linear feet, and the answer is that Trex has "discontinued that product." Only available as a 1" product, which won't really span 16" joists according to last year's literature. We're screwed. Either go thinner or go to a different product, which may or may not match.

Luckily, Magic Melissa at Carl's was able to round up enough of the old product for us to finish the steps for the sunroom deck. The supplier was probably happy to get rid of the last of the old Trex Accents decking that they had. Two of the boards look like bananas, with about 2" of warpiture in 12 ft. Luckily, this stuff is pretty flexible, so I can screw down the ends and bend the middle in or out to make it straight again. We have some Trex spacers that allow you to fit the boards parallel, so we'll put these in place then force the boards into a parallel configuration (with blocking) and screw them in place. We're using 3" TrapEase composite decking screws (Fastenmaster.com), which make a pilot hole and then grab the decking and screw it down to the joists. Square drive bit, makes for easy work. I'll start the decking tomorrow (Tuesday) when I have all my wits about me. If I screw up and ruin a board, then there is no replacement, so there's no reason to start his little job at the end of a holiday.

Oops. I started cutting the deck boards and noticed a little problem. The 20 ft one was going to be on the outside, with 45° miters on the corners. No problem; cut the two pieces to size than got some leftovers from the previous decks and cut the returns (pieces going back into the deck). Discovered that the 20 ft piece was a new dimension board (1" thick) so I have a mismatch on the returns and all the other pieces. At first I thought about shimming up the outer board (add 1/8" plastic shims), but this is a hokie fix. So back to Carls and Melissa. The solution is to find at least 20 ft of old Trex (1 1/8" thick) or send the "old boards" back and get all new material. She's shaking the trees, but it will take a week to ship either material to PT. Looks like this project is on hold, and its back to landscaping and garage organization.

Crab season opens (Day 610)

As you might recall from last year's blog (Day 262), the 2009 crab season in Port Townsend was a moderate success for this landlubber. Bought a dinghy with a friend, got a crab trap, and learned how to lure those little crustaceans into my trap (chicken legs of thighs work best). Total investment for 2009 was $240 and I harvested 16 crabs (ca. 24 pounds). That's $10/a pound, not as low as market price ($5-8), but approaching it considering that you can't get fresher crab. I bought a second trap setup over the winter; now my total cost is $300, so my price went up to $12.50 per pound. Time to get fishing.

Season 2 started on Thursday, July 1. The forecast is for a good season, so every one of those little buggers I catch will get my per crab price down. Another 16 crabs this year will put me at $6.25/pound and I'll be at the break-even point. Not to mention the whole process, which is priceless. After this season its all gravy, unless the boat sinks or worse. We won't go there for now.


On Thursday pm I got a total of one Dungeness crab, male about 1.5 pounds. Had to toss out a couple females and a couple under size, so it was ok but not great for two traps. My crab buddy, Hugh, has a single smaller trap and he managed to snag 5 crabs, 3 keepers. So I wasn't too pleased with my power effort. However, this Friday evening I hauled up a total of 10 crabs; 5 Dungeness and 1 Rock of legal size (total of 8.5 pounds). All of the sudden, I'm up to 7 crabs (10 pounds) for the 2-day old season and my amortized crab price is down to $8.82/pound. So far so good. Nice detraction from house projects and landscaping. Not that much will get done this holiday weekend. Sunday is the Fiddle Fest, a beach BBQ, and the PT Fireworks display. Monday, I'll be back on the deck extension, now that the Trex has arrived and is patiently awaiting getting screwed (down). More on this later. Ciao, Crabby Mike.

PS. Pulled the traps on Saturday evening and netted another 4 crabs (6 pounds). Now I'm at $300 for 40 pounds = $7.50/pound. However, I'll never equal the Steve Parker deal: 20 pounds of free Alaskan King Crab legs for free in the winter of 2006; the result of a tractor-trailer accident and the cause of many poker parties with crab legs. Remember, Ken?

PPS. Its Saturday, July 10, the end of the second week of crabbing. Total to date is 18 Dungeness and 2 Rock crabs. This is 4 more crabs than I caught all last season, so its a bountiful year. A financial update: 36 crabs (54 pounds), $300 invested, for a per pound price of $5.55. Safeway had them on sale for $5 ($5.42 w tax), so I'm about one crab from paying off my boat, traps, and line investment. Its gravy from here on.