Cabin Bathroom Remodel +

 Now that the demo is done, Jen started painting the walls.  We went with a darker color which was controversal, but it turned out really sharp.  The drywall had been up for a long time and soaked up a lot of paint, which made the first coat challenging.  But once the first one was up the second went quicker.

While Jen worked on that I tried the old spray painter that Greg had in the basement.  It didn't work as well as I had hoped.  Paint came out and covered the wall, but it kind of made a mess too.

Once that was done I worked on building some shelves for the room as well.  Since we don't know what we want to do with the floor yet and I want to keep as much off the floor as possible I went with a hanging design.  I used old wood that had been shelves in other parts of the basement that we had taken done.

Cabin Bathroom Remodel

 The bathroom at the cabin is in bad need of a redo.  Greg had purchased a new toilet 2 years ago, but we never got around to installing it.  Since Jen and I had appointments for our COVID shot in Brainerd last week we went up early and spent the week working on it.  Here is the before:

It wouldn't have been so bad, but the toilet had a condensation problem and the floor around it was in pretty bad shape.  First we had to pull the baseboard tile off the wall.  It was attached with glue, so it was a combination of prying and using the oscillating tool.  There were some cracked wall tiles, which we were trying to preserve, but they were below where the new tiles would cover so we were OK.

Then we started pulling up the linoleum around the toilet and found that it was glued down plus the floor was in bad shape.

Luckily there is a subfloor that is in pretty good shape, so we started pulling up the floor which took most of a day.

That oscillating tool was the hero of the project for sure!  I used it and the circular saw to cut through the floor and pull it out in chunks.  

Why women keep men around!

This is fine.

Update:

My daughter continued to claim the drain was slow, so I attempted to same maneuver again.  Lo and behold there was at least an equal amount of hair further down in the drain again.  Happy to say it is flowing well now.

3D Printer Fun

 We recently got back from a trip to Colorado and Arizona.  Before we left I challenged Nick to design a robot dog for Maddie.  I said that I would get them a 3d printer once his design was complete.  Well he whiped out a design in a couple days and we decided to wait till we got back to buy one.

Of course the second we got back they wanted to get it, and we didn't have anything to do so we drove over to Microcenter and picked up a Ender 3D Pro, which Nick had scoped out and I reviewed.  It was very affordable and seemed to be highly regarded.

We put it together this morning in about a hour and a half.  It went together pretty easily and once the bed was leveled it has been happily printing away for awhile now.

Hoping we can get a lot of good use out of it!

Keyboard Replacement

Recently my Father-in-Law passed away.  My Mother-in-Law doesn't have a use for his old computer, so we thought Maddie could use it.  The issue is that the keyboard is in pretty bad shape, some of the keys don't work well and the W key is missing entirly.  So I thought it would be a good time to get Maddie to help me replace the keyboard.  It is pretty amazing how easy it is to purchase a keyboard and install it.  How many computer have gone to the dump because people didn't think to replace it.

The laptop is a Dell Latitude E7450, so we ordered this keyboard from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3aWwKVo

Maddie and I worked together to pull the old one off and install the new one.  Here is a link to the you tube video we followed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQE-1jy1eB4

The only tricky thing is the that cables on the new keyboard seemed a little long, but we just pushed the battery down on them and it is working well, so they must slide around a little.

Recumbent Bike Build

 My in-laws are trying to get a bit healthier this year and purchased a bike to with that.  We went up to help them get it out of their trunk and put together.  The thing is a beast, the box says it weighted in at 163 pounds and I believe it.  Jen and I were able to muscle it into the house, then Nick and I were able to work through the 4 steps to put it together.

It went together pretty easily and seem like a sturdy bike.  They purchased it locally, but it is a Spirit XBR55 Recumbent Bike.  They found it for $1350, about 1500 after tax.  We saved them $150 by putting it together for them.

Now the key is for them to use it.  Lets hope so!

A little organization comes into the world

 I forgot to take a before, but the cables coming into the box were long and coiled all over.  The panel was a mess.  I had to go in there to hook up the Ubiquiti router that I recently got to resolve some wifi problems we were having with our home school and work situation.

Once I got in there I realized the panel was a mess, so I went and ordered a little patch panel to help organize it.  At first I wasn't sure how to patch the wires in, but after reviewing the direction I figured it out.  Just match the colors, even though they are not in order.  It is the A style so hopefully that works with your setup, luckily it did for me.

I want to order some of the little black clips so I can attach some of the other things in there a bit better.

The Ubiquiti router I got is working a bit better.  I don't love the app interface that I have had to use though, it is very restricted.

Here is the little patch panel I ordered: