The 3rd and final bathroom

This is the final bathroom. I needed something "easy" before moving on to the kitchen. It's in the basement, which is the ground level for the front of the house and consists of family room, bonus (ie, junk) room, a tiny bedroom (ie, junk) and this bathroom. The family room was the first project that we tackled 9 years ago, pulling up carpet, putting down laminate flooring (MUCH cleaner, no carpet cleaning needed, and major reduction in allergens) and replacing the wood burning stove with a gas heater, that looks like a fireplace. The bathroom has always been a 'one of these days' project. The shower is large and enclosed, and is the dog-wash station. Part of the family room is the home gym. It would be nice to have a clean bright bathroom with a bright shiny shower, instead of the aged dingy "what were they thinking" ugliest bathroom in the pacific northwest. And of course, because it is so ugly, it has been the neglected step-bathroom, and has become even uglier.

No major wall-moving, no re-framing, no major moving around of fixtures and plumbing. No enlarging. Given the awful condition of the walls, and need to replace tile, there will be re-dry wall work. That's easy.

This is a strange bathroom. I guess the vertical mirror wall was supposed to give the impression of space. This is the only wall that isn't some dark dingy color. The wood is unfinished. I didn't realise it, but the mirror wall actually covers a basement window. It's on the south side of the house, so could be interesting.

"Let's make a small dark space even darker, and tile the shower with dark blue tile with dark grey grout. " At least mildew won't show.

Really kind of pretty tile, but SO dark. This will probably be the most difficult de-construction project. I suspect I will have to just bash through the wall with a sledge hammer, pull of the wallboard and tile, and clean it up. The replace with new cementboard and prep to re-tile.

"Let's be creative and paint a wall dark red! Oh, maybe that's not so good. Let's see if some spare paint will cover the red. Oh, not enough time. I give up." Ugly uglier ugliest.

Another wall is covered with unfinished fir flooring. "Let's go for a sauna look behind the toilet!"

The bare joist ceiling is my fault. When I replaced the bathroom directly above this one, I tore out the subfloor and replaced it. I fell through the absent subfloor, taking the ceiling with me. I've pulled of the unfinished boards between the mirrors. 5 minutes work, barely fastened in. Better for me. Oh look! Upper left aspect, there's a plywood panel. Oh - there's a window! Cool! I went outside. Behind some weeds (bad me) there IS a window down at the ground line. The mirrors are glued to a sheet of panelling - not unusual for the basement rooms in this hours. Once that's pulled off, I'll get a better look at the window, but no reason not to have a real window there. That will let in light, and save energy. We usually just use this bathroom briefly, and now we won't have to turn on the light for every daytime use.

The floor tile. See how square the walls are? I'll fix that, might need to do some minor work on the framing, but not a re-frame job I'm sure. This was a case of "We wont have to clean it if the tiles and grout already look like grime". These are butt-ugly tiles and the grout is a matching shade of butt-ugly.

I kept wondering, "will I be able to pull up the old tile?" Ning suggested just tiling over it. That's the way the other bathrooms were done in the past, with floors that had lasagna-like layers. For those bathrooms, I pulled up all layers, and even replaced subfloor so that all mold and dry-rot were removed and everything was properly water-proofed and sealed. Here, the "subfloor" is concrete, so not an issue. I don't want to raise the floor level, so took a hammer to a couple of tiles. As luck would have it, the floor is sealed, resulting in a poor bond with the tile adhesive. About 15 minutes of work and almost all of the tile is gone.

The sink will be closer to the corner, compared to the current sink. It will be a pedestal sink, to stay clean more easily and give more room. In addition, it will go nicely with the floor and wainscot tile patterns.

The old over-mirror light and plug will be replaced with a GFI outlet next to the sink and a pair of sconces on both sides of the mirror. Almost everything else stays where it is.

Playing with a floor-plan program online. I could not find exact matches for the shower, but this is close.

The window is fairly high on the wall, but that's OK.


I don't want to spent too much time or money on this project, but I also want a nice pleasant bathroom that won't need repair or re-do for many years. I'm planning on a 'retro' white porcelain tile floor with black inserts, and white brick-style glazed tile wainscot. Above that the walls will be painted something light and bright.

Handsome self-reliant sedums giving fall bloom

These sedums have been growing here for several years now. The clumps enlarge each year. I have a few in shady spots - not good, they are leggy and fall over. These, in containers or in the yard, grew with minimal (container) or no (in ground) watering this summer. The flowers aren't flashy, but quite handsome and the bees love them.

In a strawberry jar, with smaller sedums and sempervivum in the side pockets. Minimal watering needed, and in full sun.

Same idea as the other strawberry jar. This variety has burgundy leaves.

There was no chance this summer to keep this area clean and watered. The sedum didn't care, and is now quite handsome.

Sedums are great for areas where water conservation is needed, sunny spots, and are also fully freeze tolerant. For the large, bushy types, here aren't a lot of choices when it comes to flower color, but the honeybees enjoy then as they are.

Generous fall harvest, tomatoes, peaches, chives

Also mint, basil, volunteer cilantro, bell peppers, chilis (still green).

A couple dozen fell off with the heavy rains the past few days. They taste very 'peachy' although not super sweet. There are also about 2 dozen left on the tree. Cool!

Tomatoes continue to produce. The heavy rains caused splitting of the cherry tomatoes, and a few big tomatoes. The Better Boys have given us some humongous juicy tomatoey tomatoes, and the others have done well, as well. "Fourth of July", while not producing until mid august, has been quite rewarding with plum-sized juicy fruits.

This is very late for a chive crop. These gave enough for a big batch of chive-filled dumplings.

Spring Bulbs, time to plant.

With so much demanding my time, I'm not planting as many Spring bulbs this year. More than that, I'm not ordering via mail order. I did pick up some packages at a big box store. There was a big bag with 75 daffodil bulbs (standard yellow "Dutch Master" and the ones below. Doubtless I'll add some more this fall. Not wanting to overdo it. Plus, there are hundreds in the ground from previous years, and some have probably multiplied.

The price is lower than last year. These don't seem to make it. I have about 25% or 50% survival, then it takes a couple of years to reach blooming size. Not sure why. They are usually quite dried out by the time I get them, which I think stresses the plant significantly. I planted this one in a slightly raised area, to avoid rot during the rains already happening and soon to increase.

Irises are a challenge even when established. The rhizomes need to be at soil surface. It's difficult to weed under and around them, so the tend to be very weedy. I plan to reduce the number somewhat this winter, keeping groups of each variety but not letting them roam all over the garden beds.

I've given up on bulb planters, and instead use a shovel, dig a hole about 1 foot diameter and 6 inches deep, and plant 5 or 6 at a time. That way there are nice bunches the following spring, instead of one bulb here and one bulb there.

According to my study program, I should take a 5 min break per hour. I'm taking about 10 min, enough to plant a few bulbs.

Orchid Blogging

Still learning about orchids, and watching their progress over the past year. It's been about that long since I started becoming more interested in them.

The way I look at it, the first part is to not-kill them. The second part is to get them to grow. The 3rd part is to get them to bloom. Propagation is optional, but fun. If purchased in-bloom, another aspect of the first part is to keep them blooming as long as possible. That seems to be rather easy.

This unlabeled Paphiopedilum hybrid, Maudiae type, was one of the first that I obtained. I need to check - I think it's a green flowered type. Should be back in the links (labels). I've been treating it as the books instruct, medium light, general orchid plant food weakly weekly. It added a couple of new growths. I count the leaves, thinking that if a growth reaches 5 or 6 leaves, it will be time to bloom. Not certain it that's true, but last week I noted the appearance of a bud. Cool!

Close-up of the bud. Another may be headed there as well, I'll add it if it really is a flower bud. I understand that the process from bud to blossom is gradual, and patience is needed. The upside of that slow process, is that once in bloom, the flowers can last a month or more. Regardless, I'm excited!

The books and the Yamamoto website (see prior posts) promote a season of coolness in bright light to promote Dendrobium nobile hybrid blooming. These are under eaves (out of the rain) south side of house (bright light). One can hardly call the light here in the Pacific Northwest "direct sunlight" so I'm not concerned about sunburn, and anyway these plants were in full unfiltered sun all summer long. This treatment, allowing coolness at night and not soaking them, keeping them in bright light, is considered key to obtaining nice flowers on these hybrids.

Of course, this NOID Dendrobium nobile hybrid continues to cheerfully violate the rules, blooming and blooming and blooming. It is indoors in a south exposure, but spent the summer in the same location as the others.

Dendrobium phaelenopsis "Genting" obtained last month at Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, after traveling to midwest for my dad's funeral. It continues to bloom cheerfully. I'll hold off any repotting until it finishes blooming.

This Cymbidium has been in a full-sun exposure, all summer. I generally gave it "weekly weakly" feeding, but on occasion provided some higher nitrogen plant food, because most instructions suggest higher nitrogen in summer. I'm keeping it outside for cool nights, per standard instructions for this genus.

Here's the question now - Is this a flower bud? Or another growth spurt. Watchful waiting!

Now we get to "the problem with impulse buying". Last year I bought this plant on impulse at a big box store. It was in a tiny plastic bag. The label is below.

I didn't know anything about Vandas or Ascoscendas at the time. Both are probably inappropriate for this setting and my house, needing more light than I can provide.

Instructions not too helpful either. Can't even tell, is it an Ascocenda or a Vanda? Peobably should throw it away, space is valuable. But, it stays alive, growing slowly, so I'll keep it for now.