Steven Rubio's Online Life

my oscar night

We spent most of the afternoon hanging out at the Emeryville Food Court while our floors were being stained. I told our son that the basement flooding had been remarkably minor, and that our stay down there was reasonably tolerable. So, of course, we came home to a flooded basement, with water in the bathroom and bedroom, among other spots. There is no other working bathroom in the house, so there's no avoiding that room, no matter how wet it gets. We thought about going to a hotel, then decided to sleep in the attic.

As for the Oscars, we watched WALL-E, which Robin hadn't seen. The extent of my Oscar updates came from Charlie's Twitter reports. After our movie, we watched Big Love. Did I miss anything?

back by popular demand: house update pix

OK, OK, here ya go. First, a picture of the entryway into the attic room:

As you can see, there is an actual door, now. Next, a look at what they're calling the "master bathroom" ... this is Robin's pride and joy, folks, and it's getting closer, as you'll see here:

That's the tub on the left, the walk-in shower beyond that. Of course, to do the bathroom floor, they've had to remove all of the old plumbing. We have a new toilet, but it's not in yet, and they haven't really got a place to put the old one. Meanwhile, the bedroom was emptied so it could be sheet-rocked. Which means it can now be used for storage:

Yes, that's our bedroom, and no, the toilet isn't hooked up. Because of this, we are now sleeping in the basement, and it's not as bad as it sounds. Here's one view, with Starbuck looking particularly interesting:

Yes, Robin can knit anywhere, and yes, the cats love her more than they love me. Her fabulous LCD HDTV is down there to keep her company ... it may be smaller than my computer monitor, but as you can see in the above picture, she doesn't actually look at the screen:

The bookshelf is kinda interesting, too ... the worker guys must have thought we needed something to keep us company during our stay in the basement, so they put a bookshelf in the bedroom and threw whatever old books they could find on it. So there are baseball annuals from 1999, and books from grad school, and some of Robin's mother's notebooks ... a little of everything. In a timely fashion, they even put my old copy of Watchmen on there.

what remodeling is like

Our bedroom is mostly empty ... it's been demolished and dry walled, all the furniture is strewn around the rest of the house. In the middle of the otherwise bare room is a toilet, which came from the bathroom, which is in disarray and unusable. The bed has been moved to the basement, which is where we now sleep. We're in the middle of a lengthy storm which brings much-needed water but which is also starting to flood the basement. Where we are sleeping. Meanwhile, the scrawny three-legged cat is outside somewhere in the rain and cold, because the doors get left open during the day and she escapes.

meanwhile

The sheet rock guys are on the job. Here is the bathtub (the white thing ... you can see the legs, which are now encased in cement) with one wall covered:

look at what's in place

the new bathroom takes shape

For the folks who like the pics. The framework for the new bathtub and shower is in place:

You can see the tub on the lower left. The white fan is in what will be the shower. The copper pipes on the right are the cold and hot water for the shower ... I think that round thing connecting the pipes is the hot/cold faucet thingie. The shower head is above all of that, out of the picture.

Here's a different angle on the bathtub. Boomer is walking on what will be the entrance to the shower:

And a special bonus photo:

more remodel pix

I haven't posted any pix lately, because while work continues at a solid pace, the results aren't always apparent in a visual sense ... they change part of the floor, or they install electrical and plumbing, but it doesn't look much different. Still, people are asking, so here are a few. The first two are of the main bathroom, taken from either side ... as you'll see, it looks pretty much the same as the last time I posted pix. First, looking towards the bedroom/closet:

The beam to the front is where the bathroom will end and the sewing room will begin. That's still the old toilet ... they're keeping it around as long as they can, for which I am thankful. In the middle you can see a narrow beam ... that's where the bathroom will end and the closet will begin. Farther out, you can see a white door to the right ... that's about where the closet will end and the bedroom will begin. Here's the same room, taken from the other side:

Finally ... not sure this will make sense to anyone unless they've lived in the basement. I'll put the picture up and then try to explain:

OK ... the jagged lines on either side, opposite walls ... that's where the stairs from the main floor to the basement used to be. Those stairs are gone, leaving this hallway, which goes from the old washroom to the little space that led to the basement bedroom (straight ahead in this picture) and the basement bathroom (which is to the right at the end of this hall). If you've ever been in this area, then the opposite side, where you can see an orange extension cord ... that's that under-the-stairs storage area, only now there are no stairs. I have no idea if this makes sense.

Meanwhile, the post just before this one, of Starbuck looking through a hole, was taken with my cell phone ... I was in the basement bathroom, she was a floor above me looking through that hole in the floor and meowing.

starbuck wants me

it's my life and i won't do what i want

The absence of interesting posts of late is only partly a result of that occasional blog blah that affects even the most diligent bloggers. It's also due to the basis of this blog in my personal experiences. Whether I'm talking about movies or TV or music or whatever, I'm talking about me.

And "me" right now is someone who lives in a house that has been torn apart. There's really nothing to do except post photos of the process. I suppose it's an advertisement for psych meds ... I haven't gone totally bonkers, which would have happened long ago in the pre-meds era. But I rarely watch movies because it's too noisy around here, and I'm even more of a hermit than usual because, although the guys working on our house are terrific, I just get depressed if I go downstairs and see the wreckage. So I don't go downstairs. I play on the computer, which focuses my vision on the monitor, and that's a world I'm quite comfortable with. (Yes, I know I could go outside ... whatever.)

But I'm not going to sugar-coat this. The end result will be delightful, and Robin deserves every bit of pleasure it will eventually provide. But right now, plain and simple, life in this house sux. So I'm not posting much of interest.

just a toilet

This didn't take long. Here's the upstairs bathroom as it now looks. This is taken from the old computer room ... the wall between that room and the bathroom is now gone:

And here is the same bathroom, taken from the bedroom side ... you can see the old tub better in this one (and a couple of cats make an appearance):