Bathroom remodel continues... so do the warmer temps

Didn't have a lot of time to work on the bathroom this morning... but I did manage to get in about ninety minutes.

I finished washing the walls where my wife couldn't reach then I put in all the Hardieboard on the floor.  I managed to rearrange the boards so I saved an entire board that I can return to Home Depot.... SCORE!!!

I was planning on starting the Hardieboards for the shower, but my grandparents were ahead of schedule coming to Columbus.

Today's lunch clan was my wife, three brothers, cousin, aunt and grandparents.  They were in town to see my other cousin's final art project. Good times... and lots of laughs.

Rain showers for this evening.  The rain will be gone by daybreak Monday and then clearing skies.  More rain Tuesday, but it will be light and scattered.  We also warm back to above normal temperatures on Tuesday and stay above normal for the rest of the week.  More rain expected later in the week with another strong cold front.  Models are disagreeing a little bit on the timing of the cold front between 8PM Thursday and 11AM Friday... Depending on the timing it will change the strength of the showers/storms, but right not not super impressed with the chances of severe weather.  I would still keep an eye on the forecast through the week ahead.  Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Potholes, bathroom remodel, & warm-up coming

When do a story about potholes... you really cannot appreciate the scary feeling of a pothole without getting a view from inside the pothole.  Poor little fellas take a pounding... ;)

Speaking of pounding... I started my bathroom remodel at Casa De Michael on Wednesday evening.  The first big project for the first half was removing all the "stuff" including the floor and shower surround.

With a pregnant wife, the restroom is in constant use due to a baby doing bladder bouncing... so I didn't turn off the water... BAD idea.  The plumbing in the house is about 20 years old... and when I was trying to shut off the water valve for the sink.... I busted the pipe where it came out from the wall... Water came shooting out... I SPRINTED downstairs to shut off the water and got the mess cleaned up before any damage was done.  Hard to say exactly how many gallons came shooting out... but NOT what I had in mind for a "fun" time.  Luckily the bathroom was very well water-ized and no leakage to the lower floors or rooms.

Once the linoleum was removed, I had to pull about 500-600 staples from the floor that held down the 1/4" board underneath the linoleum.  I tried using a screwdriver at first, then needle-nose pliers and finally found that vise-grips and rolling them out was the most effective.  Some said just pound them all in, but with a blind dog downstairs that doesn't understand where the loud noise is coming from... and a wife working and making client calls... pulling was FAR preferred. 

Still ran the fan to get it all dried out 

And let some of the insulation air dry, but about 10% of it was too far soaked and had to pitch it.

I am not sure why they didn't install shut off valves when the house was built, but I took care of that.  One weekend when my wife is out of town I want to shut off the water to the house and put a lot more shut-off valves in the basement to shut off certain parts of the house.  My dad did that when he built his house and it is very nice to shut off just certain rooms for repairs instead of the entire house.

Needless to say... My fingers took a beating... mainly during the water clean-up when I was frantically trying to control the situation.

This was most of the mess after day 1...

Day 2 was just the shower surround.  It took a little longer than expected to remove the shower tiles and drywall.  Yes... drywall.  For the 50 sq. ft. around the shower... they managed to only use about 15 sq. ft. of cement board. Stupid! Anyway, got all that cleared out.

And cleaned up... Cleaning it all up is the worst!

Then I got a little Dexter when putting in 6 mil plastic over the studs.  The shower basin is in great shape so we are not replacing that... which is another 6 hours saved on the remodel.  We may get it resurfaced... but that all depends on the budget once we get it nearly complete.  I just can't caulk the lower corners before we make that call.  

But, all-in-all for two days of work, I am happy to be where I am.  I spent a few minutes today trimming the plastic and caulking that to the shower basin.  I have about 16 hours into the job so far.  (Which includes an hour of cleaning each day to run the vacuum and sweep any messed that spread downstairs)  Tomorrow I will start laying the Hardiebacker down on the floor and then the walls of the shower.  Then tape and mortar the joints.  Then start painting the ceiling and walls.  I am hoping to start tiling the floor by Tuesday... or at least getting all the tiles cut for a dry-lay of the floor.  I am not quite sure how long the floor and showers will take me to tile, but I am not really giving myself a hard-cut finish date... except the baby's arrival in about two months.  But I am taking Monday through Friday off next week to knock out as much as possible.   I HOPE to be grouting by Friday... but not hard-set on rushing.  I would rather get the job done right than fast.  The good news is that the tiles in the shower will require very little cutting with the wet saw.  CHA-CHING!!

Dawn is off all next week too & I know she will not be helping out too much with the bathroom, but I know she wanted to take at least one full day to do some fun stuff around Columbus.  Not sure what we have planned for our exploration day, but right now it is looking like maybe Wednesday will be the pick day of the week.  We will be COLD Sunday morning with lows in the upper teens and then clouds return Sunday PM with rain.  Rain should be gone by daybreak Monday with clouds slowly clearing.  More rain Tuesday, right now looking scattered.  Wednesday we cool off a little, but remain dry... Then we see another strong cold front later in the week.  So some rain possible Thursday with a warm front bringing warm, kinda humid, air and then the strong push of cold air comes on Friday and we see temps fall a decent amount by Saturday and a couple forecast models trying to bring more light snow later Saturday into Sunday.  Gotta love Ohio, right!!!  Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Nursery painted, motorcycle LIVE vehicle, spring here... snow coming?

I can't thank my sister enough for the work she did on painting the nursery.  It is truly one-of-a-kind nursery now with an amazing mural of Winnie The Pooh and the gang trying to rescue a pot of HUNNY.  It took two weekends, but I am not sure how we will ever be able to leave this room if and whenever we sell the house.

So I had an active week at work.  Since we warmed up to 69° on Monday I wanted to do some sort of motorcycle related story... other than the typical motorcycle safety story.  Sooo...

I hooked a LiveU unit up to my motorcycle. 

And went LIVE riding around Columbus on my motorcycle.  Yea, I love my job!

Bill Kelly called off sick on St. Patty's Day... Yea, a Kelly sick on St. Patty's Day... either way, I wore green for one of the forecasts...

Buckeye got his shots up to date this week so he could get a haircut... and he needs a haircut pretty bad. 

Oh, and spring came this week!

Which means time to visit the home improvement stores.  I spent over three hours at Home Depot rounding up everything on my list for my bathroom remodel.  That starts this week with the demolition... Can't wait!!!  (Seriously... it is all I can do to not start tearing apart the bathroom)  I will be sure to do a before and after picture.

I am just the messenger with the weather... but yes, we are looking at some quick rain/snow showers tomorrow.  A lot will come down to timing and temperature.  But the models are pretty much agreeing the some very fast moving snow showers are possible, if not likely, Monday afternoon for Central Ohio. We then warm up Tuesday with some late-day rain and a chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday & Thursday.  Temps fall fast late Thursday and we could see some flurries heading into Friday. Soooo... is it REALLY Spring yet?  HAHA! Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Active weather week ahead

Quite an active week ahead.  Sunday will be cooler with some passing high clouds, but still dry.

Monday we will have increasing clouds and a weak disturbance could bring some late-day flurries, mainly for Southwestern Ohio.

We then warm up with some late-day rain Tuesday and a chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday with a very strong cold front.

Forecast models showing a strong punch of cold air by the end of the week.  Temps fall fast Thursday and we could see some light snow showers late Thursday into Friday.   Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Warmer weather coming!

Last weekend might have been one final kiss of winter.  The clouds were getting squeezed and some snow was falling... but it was evaporating as it was falling.

Car washed... garage floor washed...

I tried seeing if the grass was greening up by splicing a photo from three different days... Stay tuned for more days added...

Glad that I can grill out without a coat on again...

And did the spring tune-up on the motorcycle.

Followed my a Motion Left meeting via Google Hangouts.  So good seeing my good friends.

I filled in for Bill Kelly on Friday... always great to be "called in from the bench" as Bob Kendrick calls it.

All the rain was funneling into my basement... but luckily I caught the issue while the water was still in the sump pump tank.  The float switch was busted, so I had to fix that today.

Time to dry out after the steady rain to start the weekend.  The good news is no significant rain on the way for a while.  Clearing skies tonight, but with the extra moisture we could see some patchy fog form in areas with ice still and areas sheltered by the wind.  Grab the sunglasses for Sunday... It is going to be beautiful.  Still a little cool, but a great day to get outside and get a taste of spring.  Monday will be the warmest day of the year so far with highs pushing through the 60's and some of Southern Ohio giving 70 degrees a run for its money.  But we don`t stay that warm for long... We cool back into the 40`s for highs by Tuesday as another cold front swings through.  The models are split later in the week, one shows rain, the other two are dry... so Just have a 30% right now.  Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Ohio State Weather Symposium & BIG warm-up coming...

I spent Wednesday night and Thursday reporting from Pike County.  The snow was coming down heavy Wednesday night at a rate of about 1" and hour.

By the time the sun came up in the morning... it was pretty darn deep.

I only measured about 8.5" in Piketon, but up on top of the hills there were reports of over 10" of snow.

Sure was a pretty snow!

Friday was my "off" day, but I spent the entire day at Ohio State for the weather symposium.

Lots of great speakers!  Loved this year's symposium.

Plus I got to  hang out with my two favorite professors afterward... Who would pass that up?  Congrats to Dr. Rogers on your retirement!

Alright... sick of the snow?  Well there is NO snow on the 7-day forecast. Clear to start Saturday night, but more clouds returning through tonight and Sunday with a few breaks.  A stray sprinkle possible, but otherwise dry the rest of the weekend.  A disturbance to the South may bring some rain for SE Ohio on Tuesday, but otherwise staying dry until Friday.  Our temperatures continue warming the entire week. We will be back into the 50`s by Wednesday.  Have a good one!


Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Parts of Ohio about to get slammed with snow

Rain today... Snow tomorrow. And we have the potential for a LOT of snow. 

Here's a look at the coming snow. There will be a sharp cut-off from 6" to very little. A lot will depend on the track of the heaviest snow bands and that will be a game-time observation based on radar data. So stay tuned to changes, but South/Eastern Ohio likely going to get a LOT of snow. 

We will see the rain transition to snow Wednesday morning and it will be fairly light at first then pick up in intensity Wednesday night through Thursday morning. 

This is the latest NAM forecast. It was the first model showing this snow moving in. I still think it may be running just a tad high on the totals, but time will tell. 

Cold air returns for Friday, but we warm up a little for the weekend. I hope the warm weather remains. Hey, sun sets an hour later Sunday... So there's that!  Have a good one! 

Best,

Andrew Buck Michael