The fixtures get installed
We got the shower walls sealed and put the shower heads and controls in.
We also got the floor tile all laid and the grouting done. Now, we can start on the final installs, like the vanities, lights, baseboard and trim.
Christopher’s Ride
A friend of mine from the HondaShadow.Net forum has put this event together. You can see the original post and any replies here:
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To My Fellow HSN Members.
I have been wanting to do something for people who are suffering from a debilitating disease such as cancer, leukemia, diabetes, etc. Our biker community currently has so many organized rides for charities that setting up one more I felt would be just one more ride to raise money. I wanted to hit the emotional end of things - to lend emotional support to someone who is fighting a courageous battle. I wanted a ride that was personal, that was done for one individual who is close to the bikers heart.
I know first hand just what it means to fight a disease while having friends who are there thinking of you and supporting you emotionally. It makes a HUGE difference in maintaining your will to fight on. This forum group is a perfect example.
With this in mind I have been kicking an idea around for a very long time and felt ” it is time ” to launch this idea, this year. And why not start the ball rolling with the HSN gang. So here it is.
Christopher’s Ride:
On Sunday, July 20th 2008 the Nationwide Christopher’s Ride will take place. Unlike other rides motorcyclists participate in, the benefactor in the Christopher’s Ride will be the person the BIKER selects. It can be a family member, friend, co-worker or anyone you know and want to select who is battling a debilitating disease. You can ride 10 miles or 500 miles. It is up to you, the Biker. It can be performed solo or in a group with other members of your ride party all riding for someone close to them.
If you do not have anyone close to you that has a debilitating disease then consider riding for a child who is in a hospital pediatrics unit in your home town. Maybe buy a teddy bear, strap it onto your pillion and take it on the ride with you and then later present it to the child explaining just where that bear rode with you to.
If you want to make a donation to a charity after your ride, select the charity that you want to support and send them a check with a note. If you want this to be a non monetary ride, then ride for them to provide emotional support only. Consider taking a picture during or after your ride and send it to them with a note letting them know this ride was for them.
There are no guidelines in regards to Christopher’s Ride except that it is in support of an individual and not a charity. We also ask that if your riding solo, put down the rear pegs and take them with you ( in spirit ).
The whole purpose and intent of the Christopher’s Ride is to share your love of biking with someone who is fighting a horrible disease. It is a way to give an individual a moment of freedom that we all experience while riding.
Fire up your bikes and Take a Christopher’s Ride on July 20th.
Thank you,
Christopher
Tiling is almost done!!
We got all the tile on the walls and floor of the shower stall. The remaining floor area should be done soon. We grouted all the shower tile and put the sealer on. Once it is dry, we can install the faucets and shower heads. We will order the glass next week, and once that is installed, we can use the shower!!! Woo Hoo!!!!
We started this project on January 24th. We save a lot of money, but it has been a long time to have the bathroom ripped up. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Working on the floor next.
I got the final bottom row of wall tiles put up, and we are now getting the floor tiles down. We are using the small tiles that are 2×2 and mounted on a one foot square piece of mesh. We cut a few of them into strips that are 2 tiles wide and made a border around the shower floor area, and are putting the full size pieces down in a diamond pattern. Ricardo is getting the initial ones lined up correctly for me.
Here is what it should look like when it is all finished.
Next, I need to seal the natural tile floor and wall pieces so the grout does not sink into the tiles when we apply it. Once that is done, we can start the grouting.
Finally! Tile on the walls!!!
Night after night I spent cutting, fitting and glueing tiles to the walls. I am now to the point where I have to get the floor tile down in the shower area so I can put the final wall tiles on. At that point, I can begin grouting the walls and let that cure while I finish the rest of the floor. It is finally beginning to look like a bathroom again.
Finally getting some tile up.
My friend Ricardo came over and helped me get started on putting the tile up on the walls. If you don’t get started square and level…well…you know…it gets all hosed up.
The right tool for the right job…
I took over from there, and after a few missteps, got more done.
Added driving/fog lights to the Wing
For Christmas, my lovely wife had bought me a set of 55w Halogen driving lights for the Goldwing. Due to being a slacker, I just now got around to putting them on the bike. These lights were only $60.00 so I had to make some modifications to them to get them to fit properly. The stock switch that came with them was really cheesy, so I bought a nice OEM switch from Electrical Connection and put that into the side panel. Notice the nice stock look on the button in the upper right of the panel.
Here is what they look like turned off.
There is now a ton of light coming from the front of the bike.
Insane amount of light with the high beams on.
The Led Zeppelin jet aircraft
While on a business trip to Texas, a customer I was working with told me that during the 70’s when he was driving home from work, he used to pass by the Houston Hobby airport. He is an aircraft buff and he used to stop and see if there were any unusual aircraft there. If there was, he would stop and take pictures of them and then put the pictures in a binder, with dates and times.
On February 27th, 1975 he saw a Boeing 720B parked at the airport. This aircraft sported a red and blue color scheme. The bottom of the plane had a bunch of white stars on a blue background, with the name “Led Zeppelin” painted over the exit doors by the wing. He went home and told his wife that he had seen a “German Airliner” at the airport. Being a die hard C&W fan, he had never heard of Led Zeppelin, so his wife told him the plane most likely belonged to the rock band of the same name.
I did some internet searching and found some conflicting information. Some thought it was a B-707 instead. I did not find any pictures of this particular paint scheme, but I did find some of a maroon/gold paint job. As it turns out, Led Zeppelin was, in fact, performing at the Houston Coliseum that night.
I sent an inquiry to Boeing asking for clarification and received the following reply.
“These are photos of the ”Starship” which was a Boeing 720, registration N7201U, owned by Contemporary Entertainment Services Inc.
The maroon and gold is probably from 1973, the plane was painted in the red and blue “Starship” livery in 74.
Zeppelin used a different 720 for their 77 tour - ”Caesar’s Chariot,” a Boeing 720 registration N7224U, owned by Desert Palace, Inc (Caesar’s Palace).
An easy way to tell the difference between a 707 and a 720 is the 707 has two over wing exits and the 720 has one - the plane in these pictures has a single over wing exit.”
Michael Lombardi
Corporate Historian
The Boeing Company
Just a little bit of rock and roll history for you…
Getting the walls back up
Before we can put the final cement for the shower floor down, I had to get all the cement board cut, screw them to the studs, and tape the seams. I used mesh tape and crack filler as the “mud” to seal the seams.
Using a special blade for my circular saw, I cut the boards to size. The cement board throws off huge amounts of dust, so I cut them in the garage and pointed a box fan so that it would blow all the dust out the door.
The board is heavy, so it took 2 sets of hands to put some of them up. But, we persevered.
A few weeks ago, our vanities were delivered from Home Depot.
We did make a slight strategic error when purchasing the faucets. Notice anything out of order?
Oh well, it is not a true home improvement project unless you return to the home improvement store at least a dozen times.
I had to move the existing outlet to the left so that it would not end up inside the new shower stall. I discovered that the intercome system that is mounted on the other side of the same wall was interfering with my plans to move the outlet. We will end up removing a lot of drywall to run the wires for the new lights that we need to install over the new vanities.
The next step will most likely be getting the cement poured for the shower floor. Once that is done, we could actually do some tile work while I am getting the electrical work squared away.
Remodeling continues…
The next step was to raise the shower floor to match the level of the floor the tub sat on. Here my neighbor Ricardo is trowelling the cement smooth.
We filled in the old shower floor with cement and left it overnight to set up.
The next day I worked on getting the new pipes lined up since we replaced the copper with PVC.
I needed a “curb” between the new shower floor and the bathroom floor, so Ricardo created one with two 2×4’s by nailing them to the floor with his handy dandy nail gun. The right tool for the right job… Once that was nailed down, I covered it on 3 sides with the cement board. (Note, this picture shows the curb after the plastic shower pan was in place.)
Then we cleaned up the floor really good and put down the plastic shower pan. The final cement floor will be poured on top of the plastic.
To ensure that none of the shower water goes anywhere but down the drain, the shower pan sheeting is secured under the drain flange.
I had to work on the walls next. We are using Hardibacker cement board instead of drywall since it is extremely water resistant. The Hardi boards have to be put up before the final cement floor can be poured. First I cut the blue foam insulation sheets and glued them to the wall with Liquid Nails.
Then I began cutting the cement board and screwing it to the walls. When cutting cement board with my circular saw, I had to get the special blade for cutting this stuff. It throws out HUGE amounts of dust, so I cut it in my garage with a box fan turned on high and pointed out the garage door so that it would blow most of the dust out onto the driveway where I can just hose it down when I am done.
Here I have most of the outside wall done, with just a few trim pieces left to put up.
Once I have the showed heads lined up right and secured to the wall, I can proceed with putting the rest of the cement board up on the remaining 2 walls.