We took the first step on our bathroom remodel journey last night, and after that first step, Kris and I are both a little wary. The changes to the bathroom alone are going to be more complicated, and more expensive, than the comnbined changes we made last summer to the parlor, den, and dining room.

Our friend Craig, an architect, is serving as design consultant on this project. He joined us yesterday to go over our plans for the room and to help us evaluate our priorities.

The meeting was productive, but disheartening.

We've budgeted a tidy sum for the project, but it may not be enough. As we were looking at the plumbing and wiring in the cellar (beneath the bathroom), Craig called our attention to the floor joists. "These are alarming," he said. Alarming. (And yet he's not alarmed by the bouncy room upstairs...)

We knew about the joist problems from the home inspection, but we hadn't really paid them any mind. Sometime in the past, holes of various shapes and sizes — some large, some small — have been carved into the joists in order to allow for the plumbing of the bathroom, to provide for more headroom when descending the cellar stairs, and for other less apparent reasons. These compromised joists have never been reinforced.

Other causes of woe include:

• It's really not feasible for the tub to face the direction we'd planned.
• Changing the orientation of the toilet isn't worth the cost.
• In order to not feel crowded (as the room feels now), we'll need to resign ourselves to a smaller vanity.

Despite these initial woes, we're excited to have begun this project. We won't do any actual work on the bathroom until after July 1st, but we hope that by starting this early on the planning, etc. we'll save ourselves headaches down the road.

Best of all: we've already picked out a clawfoot tub! Only a few more months until I'm able to bathe again!

We've begun to make a list of woodworking projects for me. We'd like:

• Bookshelves for the library.
• A picnic table.
• A garden bench.
• A little cubby-shelf cabinet thing for the bathroom.

This all sounds fun and keen until you realize that I'm as novice a woodworker as they come. I may need to call in the expertise of my friends (Paul J., Andrew C., Dave, etc.), such as it is. We're all mostly novices at this, I think.

Still, it'll be fun to learn through practical projects for the home.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2004 — Best of Netflix   We've been doing Netflix for five months now. In that time, we've watched 64 films. Here are my favorites.

2003 — Hacked!   Mac notified me that my site had been hacked!

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