Picture

Here’s a picture I like from last Thanksgiving. This picture is of me, Carys, and Carys’ mom Jackie. Jackie sent me a disk of photos she took when she was here visiting from St. Louis and this is one of my favorites.

Finished Bathroom

My parents, Carys, and I put the finishing touches on the bathroom this past weekend. My dad and I got together during the weeks and Carys and my mom came out on the weekends to help us put together our awesome bathroom. Here are some pictures:

We used treated drywall throughout the non-shower areas of the bathroom to better guard against moisture damage. We did the mudding and taping ourselves.

This is concrete board which is heavier, messier, and harder to work with than drywall. It stands up well against moisture and is a good base for tiling.

Here is a bit of the floor pre-grouting.

Here is the finished bathroom with sink and toilet put back in place. It was my idea to fit the tiles in diamond shaped on the front of the bath and I think it looks very nice.

All in all we tore out the old plaster and floor, replaced the window with glass block, put new concrete board and drywall in all the walls, ceiling, and floor, tiled the walls and floor, painted the walls and cabinet, put new fixtures in the sink and shower, installed new towel and toilet paper holders, and painted the all the trim. I think it looks great and I am excited to have a new bathroom. Thanks mom and dad for helping Carys and I with the bathroom!

Glass Block Window:

The window guys came out today and installed the glass block window in our bathroom. I took a couple of pictures but wasn’t very savvy with how to blend the bright back light with the foreground:

Tomorrow my dad and I continue to work on the bathroom.

Bathroom:

We didn’t shoot any “before” pictures of our bathroom before tearing out all of the plaster, but I do have a picture of how it looked afterward– here is a glance at the bathroom without plaster, a toilet, or a sink:

Here I am taking a break from helping put up the ceiling to strike a pose:

Here’s a bit of progress and my dad working:

A window installer is coming in tomorrow to put in a glass block window. Later we’ll be installing the rest of the drywall and cement board and tiling and painting.

It has been fun so far working on the house. I am excited for when the bathroom is complete and we are able to start cleaning up and moving in. We’ll be moved in by the end of the month.

Carys and I bought this house today:

We don’t have any more pictures now (this one is from the seller’s web site) but we will hopefully have more soon. I don’t think we’ll have internet at the house, but we’ll try to get stuff posted one way or the other.

Also, if you don’t have anything going on in a few weekends, can you help us move?

Resolutions:

1—Run the Twin Cities Marathon. I’ve never ran a marathon; the furthest I’ve probably ever run was 6-10 miles in one shot. A marathon is 26.2 miles, which is no joke. I keep checking back at the web site looking for when registration opens up. I’m excited to train for this run. I may have some co-runners which would make the preparation more fun. I recently bought new, nice running shoes, and I’ve already started to run at the gym. I’m going to research how best to train for a marathon and plan to be prepared on race day.

2—Get a credit card which offers rental car insurance, learn how to and become comfortable with renting a car, and be prepared to rent a car for the 2007 holiday season. Carys and I will not own a car for the foreseeable future. In the mean time, I think it’s time I learn how to rent a car. The fact is, there are some parts of my life that I cannot sustain alone without use of a car, and the holiday season is the main one. For the past couple of years I have gotten rides from Kass to holiday and family events. I am very grateful for these rides as they help me participate in family events. The time has come that I learn to rent a car and start contributing to the carpool. One huge advantage to not owning a car is financial savings. This year I’m going to prepare to spend some of those savings on renting a car for key holiday events. I’m not ruling out carpooling with Kass/CJ, but this year I don’t want to count on it. As the family keeps reshaping itself through marriages, etc, it’ll get harder to coordinate carpools so I want Carys and I to be prepared to go it on our own when we need to.

3—Get married. This one is a given considering Carys and I are already engaged to be married. The tentative date is August 25th, 2007. We still need to lock in the official date with the city for the reservation of Theodore Wirth Park, so we aren’t making invites or complete plans until it’s a lock. I’ll keep you posted (however sporadically) on wedding details as they become available.

4—Begin and maintain a new athletic/health activity that I can maintain into my old age. The marathon will be fun (maybe), but I know it’s not sustainable. I want to begin an activity in 2007 that will benefit my health that I can maintain into my old age. Ideally I will have already decided on an activity before the end of January and will have begun it. For now I can’t decide what I’ll do, but I’m thinking I’ll take classes in one of the following:
– Yoga
– Stretching
– Meditation and/or breathing
– Swimming
– Aikido
I think all of these would be good candidates for things I can learn that will make me fit, are low/no impact, and are mentally relaxing (except maybe swimming which makes my body and mind burn with pain and panic—mostly because I don’t know how to swim).

5—Ride in the MS 150. I’m already registered.

6—Go to a Twins game with Carys. She hasn’t been to a Twins game yet, and I like going to games though I haven’t gone to many the past couple of years. We talked a lot last year about going to a game but never went. This year we’ll go to one for sure.

7—Gain and maintain 10 new pounds. That’s right—one of my New Years resolutions is to gain weight. Ten pounds, to be exact. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been commuting to my new job in St. Paul primarily by bicycle (and a few days by bus when the ice/snow is bad), and frankly I’ve lost a lot of weight. I didn’t have that much weight to lose, so I actually dropped below my “ideal” weight. Currently I’m tipping the scales at about 175lbs. At 6’4” and being male my ideal weight should be somewhere around 185lbs. I’m going to continue to bike into work (though I have had more bus days lately due to snow/ice), and I’m also going to start running a lot more, so I’ll have to start putting away a lot more food in order to gain weight. This is harder than it sounds. First of all, when I’m more active I also eat healthier, which pulls my weight down. Second, I feel more busy than ever lately, which makes it hard to find time to eat (like breakfast, for example). Thirdly, Carys and I are going to try to budget our spending a bit better which means more eating at home and less going out for drinks. Eating out and drinking are two things I can count on to gain weight, and we’re trying to phase them out. The only plan I do have is to go grocery shopping more often and to have food on me at all times. We’ll see how it goes.

That’s all I can think of for now—if I come up with some more I’ll post them here.

Happy New Year, folks!

Back

Hey folks– I’m back. If you’re reading this you must be a very committed peterchurch.com reader. Actually, you should probably BE committed, but it’s all good. With any luck, things will start trickling in here again soon. For now, I’ll just write I’ve got a new job, a new routine, I’m engaged, and life is great. I’ll write again soon.