Tag Archives: Ikea (Canton MI)

2015/05/20 (W) Duraclean

Today was carpet cleaning day.  Linda had been picking up the house for the last week getting ready but we still had a lot of last minute stuff to move, including the cats.  We put them in the library along with their food, water, and litter tray.  We also moved their cat “tree” out there.  They were confused and unhappy about the arrangement but we figured it would be less stressful for them than constantly trying to find new places to hide as Jack moved about the house with his big, noisy carpet cleaning machine.

Jack Hoskins runs a one-man carpet and upholstery cleaning business named Duraclean.  Located in Farmington Hills near our previous house, Jack took care of our cleaning needs for the last years we were there.  When we bought the house in Oceola Township we had him clean all of carpets after the painters were done but before we moved anything into the house.  We did not have him clean the carpets in 2014 but had him out today to do all of them, including my office / ham shack, which was under construction when he was here in 2013.  Jack arrived right on time at 8:30 AM, walked through the job with both of us, and then spent most of the rest of the day cleaning.  Jack works hard and always does a nice job.

Once Jack was squared away we bagged up the pieces of carpet and pad from the bus that would not fit in the trash container and took the container and the bags to the curb.”  (We live on a dirt road and don’t really have curbs, but it doesn’t sound right to say we took the trash to the edge of the street.)  We then unloaded the box from my car with the garden trailer I bought at Lowe’s yesterday, opened it, removed all of the parts, and assembled it.  Linda broke down the cardboard packaging, gathered up some other cardboard and our usual recyclables, and we loaded them into my car to take to Recycle Livingston later.

Keith Kish (Kish Lawn Care) showed up mid-morning to finish cutting our grass.  His Hustler zero-turn riding mower was not repaired yet but he borrowed an articulated stand-behind mower from his son.  Something failed in the hydraulic pump on his Hustler and blew a 1 inch hole in it.  The cost to replace the pump and put the mower back in service will be significant but his business is primarily based on that machine.

I mostly puttered in the bus while Jack worked in the house and Keith worked in the yard.  Linda eventually went to the recycling center and then stopped at Lowe’s to buy some plants, pots, and potting soil.  She is going to try growing some tomatoes, which are one of her favorite summer things, and some herbs.  She moved the hummingbird feeder away from our deck and hung it on a stand in the shade of a tree we can see from our outdoor table.

I boxed up the ceramic tile pieces that were still spread out on the floor of the bus and moved the box to the garage.  That stuff is heavy!  I turned on the chassis batteries so I could move the driver’s seat forward to get access to the seatbelt attachment bolts.  I unbolted the two seatbelt straps and removed them so I could remove the last pieces of the old white carpet from behind and next to the seat.  I then reattached the seatbelts, moved the driver’s chair back, and turned off the chassis batteries.  Refinishing the area around the driver’s seat will be its own special challenge and may not get done with tile as I may need something more flexible.  It will not, however, be heavy carpet intended for use on floors.

My next task was to remove the flexible duct adapters from the HVAC chases.  One of them has an AC electrical cable passing through it, so I will have to undo the cable from a nearby outlet box to get the adapter free.  While I was working on these relatively minor tasks I was also thinking about furniture options.  It finally dawned on me that we did not have buy an expensive custom made sofa-bed or use chairs instead and try to figure out how to finish that area.  I could build a simple but very effective sofa out of wood and have a bottom and back cushion made to the exact dimensions we need using a fabric of our choice.  That opened up the possibility of the fabric matching whatever we get on the chairs.  The seat cushion could double as a bed for one person, with the back cushion removed, and the seat could hinge up to reveal a large storage area rather than dealing with the complexity of a drawer on suspension glides.  The HVAC supply and return could also be easily be accommodated and I would not have to figure out how to finish the chase or conceal all of the wires that run along the floor in front of the chase.  I discussed the idea with Linda and she liked it.

I moved the dinette table up front and we considered its size and placement relative to the seating we would like to use on the passenger side of the coach across from the sofa. We agreed that one of the things we would do while we are at the GLAMARAMA rally is visit Lambright Furniture in Shipshewana and Bradd & Hall in Elkhart.  We also discussed buying a carpet remnant and trimming it to fit in the front part of the bus while we attend the GLAMARAMA rally.

I called Butch to see how his cataract surgery went on Monday.  Apparently it went well, at least his world is suddenly brighter and more colorful.  We talked through various bus projects, including approaches I might take to get a flat, level underlayment for the floor tile.

Keith wrapped up his work, collected his payment, and moved on to Sean’s yard just north of ours.  I suggested that he come every week instead of every other week as long as the grass is growing as quickly as it has the last two weeks and he agreed.  Keith normally does a nice job with our lawn but was now a couple of days behind schedule and trying to catch up using equipment that was not his.  He did not want to drive the stand-behind mower over or near gravel, so some areas along the pull-through driveway did not get cut.  He was also not able to work around obstructions as tightly as he can with his zero-turn mower, and appeared to not overlap some rows.

Jack wrapped up his work not long after Keith and took off for another short job before calling it a day.  I let the cats back into the house and then decided to get out our self-propelled Honda walk-behind mower and trim up the yard in front of the house and some of the areas Keith had missed.  It took a while to get the mower started but I eventually did.

Linda made a nice salad and baked an Amy’s pizza for dinner.  It was 6:30 PM by the time we finished eating.  Linda gathered up the plastic wine glasses and toilet paper holders she bought yesterday at IKEA and we drove to the store in Canton to return them.  The glasses were too tall to fit in our wine glass display case in the bus and the toilet paper holders did not fit in the places we needed them to go in the house.  While we were at the store we looked at their selection of refrigerators, none of which will fit through the entrance door on the bus, and just wandered through looking for ideas.  We were not up that long after we got home, it having been a long but productive day.

 

2015/05/19 (T) More Ceramic Tile

We were up by 7:30 AM.  A cold front moved through here last night with gusty winds and much cooler temperatures.  The overnight low was 49 degrees F so I closed up the house and made coffee while Linda got ready for her girl’s day out with our daughter, Meghan.  We had toast for breakfast and enjoyed our coffee in the living room to the warmth and glow of the gas fireplace logs.  We both agree that this was a good purchase.

Linda left round 9 AM.  I put a load of towels in the washing machine and then called Kate at work.  I left a message asking her if she would check with Brian about an X-Plan PIN.  I then returned a phone call from Kelly at Brighton Ford and had a nice chat about the F-150.  She worked hard to provide me with additional pricing information as a follow-up to our meeting with Frank on Saturday.  She was able to get the price on an in-stock $46,000 F-150 XLT 4×4 off-road down to $40,000 (with X-Plan but before tax, title, and destination charges).  Six grand is a significant difference, and the F-150 is a nice truck, but forty grand is way more than we were thinking about spending on a vehicle.

Kate called me back while I was on the phone and I returned the call as soon as I finished talking to Kelly.  Kate had already checked with Brian and he was willing to get us a PIN.  One of the odd things about shopping for vehicles in Michigan, especially the Detroit area, is that Ford, GM, and Chrysler all have several “plans” that provide non-negotiable pricing for employees, vendors, and family/friends.  These plans are so widely available that dealers practically assume that you have access to one of them.  I think Ford is making good vehicles and the availability of X-Plan pricing certainly makes them that much more attractive.  Unfortunately they are not selling the mid-sized Ranger in North America, just Europe and Australia.  Mid-size trucks are more our size.

View of kitchen floor looking toward rear from living room.  Black Ceramic tile has been removed to just past the refrigerator.

View of kitchen floor looking toward rear from living room. Black Ceramic tile has been removed to just past the refrigerator.

I moved the towels to the dryer and then got to work in the bus.  The high temperature today was forecast to be 57 degrees F so I figured it would be a bit more comfortable working on the ceramic tile removal.  I opened all three roof vents and set the front and middle fans on exhaust.  With the front door open there was plenty of airflow.  I put on my Tyvek jumpsuit and gloves and carried the unbroken tiles I got out the last couple of days to the garage for safe keeping.  I then put the pieces of the ones I broke in a laundry basket to get them off the floor.  They will eventually go in small boxes for disposal.

With all of that material out of the way I vacuumed up the small pieces and tiny shards as best I could along with carpet pad staples and tiny pieces of carpet, pad, and wood.  I then removed the small base molding from the hallway which turned out to be more difficult than I expected.  I put on my safety glasses and face shield, grabbed my floor chisel and 3-pound sledge hammer, and continued removing tiles from the floor.

Getting the tiles out of the hallway was more difficult than the kitchen/dining area.  The narrow hallway limited the directions from which I could position and strike the floor chisel and the result was a much higher percentage of broken tiles.  I did a little better as I moved into the area in front of the bathroom and bedroom doors and then into the bathroom.  I stopped when I got to the tiles under the toilet.  I will have to remove the toilet to get those tiles out and that is not going to happen until after the GLAMARAMA rally.  I do not to remove and reinstall the toilet more than once so it will not get reinstalled until after the new floor is in place.

It was 1:30 PM when I quit chiseling for the day and I left the cleanup for next time.  I got cleaned up and went out to take care of errands.  I picked up our freshly roasted coffee beans from Teeko’s, had French fries at McDonald’s for lunch, and then went to Lowe’s.  I was looking for some sort of grinder to grind down the thinset mortar that is adhered to the plywood subfloor but did not buy one.  I bought a wheeled cart to pull behind our lawn tractor instead.

By the time I got home Linda had returned from her girl’s day out.  She showed me all of the things she bought at Ikea, including four long-stem plastic wine glasses.  We took them out to the bus but they would not fit in our wine glass holder.  She also saw an 18 cubic foot refrigerator (Frostig) that might fit in our fridge alcove.

I turned on the gas fireplace logs, made some tea, and put a second load of towels in the washer.  We sat in the living room researching the IKEA refrigerators on our iPads to the warmth of the fireplace.  I had searched for roof access hatches this morning and found several places that sell them online so I showed that to Linda.  I need to call Pat at Apex Roofing and discuss thus approach.

For dinner Linda made very nice salads with raspberries and walnuts.  She then heated up the leftover risotto and lightly sautéed baby carrots as a side dish.  We sat in the living room after dinner for a while and then watched the 1st and 2nd episodes of season 1 of A Touch of Frost.  Although not a BBC production, it was very engaging.