Chris and Steve worked all last week on the bathroom. I have to say that for a project that I came up with, I have done very little actual work. This bathroom is the handiwork of the two guys – and they have done, and are doing, a marvelous job!

Once the plywood floor was in, they started on the walls. The space for the new medicine cabinet had to be framed in…

All of the electrical boxes had to be replaced, and moved. There was new wiring involved. We are going to have to have an electrician come out this week to deal with the old mess of wires in the attic. Neither Steve nor Chris likes the look of what's there.

They framed out the enclosure for the tub and put it in. This is a fiberglass tub and surround unit that has a nice, solid feel. It's going to be easy to maintain. They got this far and remembered that they needed to put insulation in the walls. They took it out, added insulation, and went from there.

They put in a SolaTube. We have 3 in our house and love them. This bathroom is in the middle of Chris and Lorna's house and it has forever been too dark. Not anymore! Here is the room, lit by the sun…

After installing the faucet and shower head in the tub and shower, they put up sheetrock.

Chris tiled the floor. I did help a little with this part. The tiles needed to be cut precisely at the edge of the tub. Our tile cutter couldn't do it so I took them to Lowe's to have them cut. Did you know that they will cut tile? They will.

My job was to spread the mastic, then Chris laid the tile. It took less than an hour. This is the same tile that he put down in Elanor's smaller bathroom.

Chris grouted the tile Saturday.

Chris is now on his way, with 3 other grad students, to Taos for a writing conference. Steve is back at work on the new towel closet. It used to open into the bathroom from behind the door, behind the shower. Now it's going to open into the hallway. He's also taping and bedding the sheetrock. In a day or two I will be painting. Maybe this project will be finished by the end of the week!

On Thursday one of the fluorescent fixtures in my sutdio began to flicker. On Friday it was mostly dark except for when it flashed intermittently, like a camera flash. Very annoying.

What usually happens in this case is that we replace the fixture. We've always bought into the idea that changing the ballast in a fluorescent fixture was just too hard. Well, this fixture matches the other one in the room AND Steve was busy in Chris's bathroom. I knew I couldn't change the whole fixture on my own because it is too heavy and unwieldy. But maybe I could change the ballast… I turrned to Google and found the following video by Oscar Moreno. Oscar makes it look really easy…

I did turn off the power to light at the breaker box. Didn't want to electrocute myself. I took off the plastic cover, then the bulbs, took off the cover to the ballast and wires. At one end there are 3 wires – black and white are power, the yellow is whatever it is. You can also see the slot at this end that the end of the ballast fits under.

The other end of the ballast had more wires – red, blue, brown and gray. And a nut that holds the ballast in place. I cut the wires close to the end of the ballast, undid the nut, and took it to Lowe's to find a replacement.

The replacement ballasts were a different brand and they didn't have as many wires coming out. Very confusing. The very nice man (who tried not to be exasperated) explained to me that the number of wires didn't matter. He even took a fixture out of the box to show me what to attach where. I decided to trust him.

Once home, I put the new ballast in place and puzzled over how to make all the wires come together. My fixture had two wires in every place that there could have (should have?) been one wire. So I decided to join the one wire from the ballast to the two wires that matched up with the diagram on the ballast. If you look at the photo below I attached a blue from the ballast to the two blues on the fixture; then a blue from the ballast to the two reds on the fixture; etc. The yellows went together.

If you have not done this before you may not know that the wires are covered in plastic insulation. You have to carefully cut the plastic, but not the wire, and then pull the plastic off – exposing about 1/2" of wire. This is called stripping the wire. That was the hardest part. I did a couple but then Steve came home for lunch and stripped the rest for me.

I used the orange wire nuts to hold the wires together. They are simple yet effective. You stick the wires to be joined into the nut and twist. You can see the tools I used below/ That flat thing is a wire stripper that my dad made many, many years ago.  

Once the wiring was done I put it back together and reinserted the bulbs. I wasn't sure they would work, but they did! I switched on the breaker and there was light.

I saved some money by doing this, and time because changing the fixture takes longer than this did. I also kept the old fixture out of the landfill. I am inordianantly proud of myself :-). I also want to share the news that this is not a hard thing to do. 

It's the 4th of July and we are all working on something until later today when the party begins. Steve and Chris are working on the bathroom. Lorna worked here a bit and then took the kids to visit her parents – they'll be back later.

I was working on the computer with Bear in his bumbo next to me while Lorna was working. He played with some stacking cups but his coordination is not good enough to hold onto them. It occurred to me that he might really like paper! 

I wadded it up so he was less likely to get a paper cut.

Everything goes into the mouth…

I didn't want him to eat the paper – just gum it a little so as it got wet, I gave him a new wad of paper. He was very happy – for several minutes. Doesn't he look happy!

Just a quick update. I took cissak's advice and called Logitech about the keyboard. The very nice fellow who answered my call took the information and then said they would send me a new one. How about that! So, while Best Buy is never getting another dime from me, I will remember that Logitech is just fine.

I feel compelled to share this story: Best Buy is the only game in town when it comes to electronics in Sherman. Steve and I have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars there. And they have officially lost all future sales from us over a $59.99 keyboard. A Logitech solar-powered wireless keyboard for a Mac to be exact.

I had worn out the option key on my old keyboard and went to buy a new one. I usually opt for a usb-powered keyboard because I don't like using up batteries. This solar power option seemed like a good idea. Got it home, put it to work and I really liked it. Until two days ago.

The keyboard stopped talking to my computer. It's not bluetooth, it connects with Logitech software and a little gizmo that goes into the usb port. I jiggled it and got it to work. Then, yesterday, it stopped connecting to my computer for real. I had to get the keyboard from my other computer so that I could try to fix this one. Luckily, I had another keyboard. 

After reinstalling the Logitech software, it worked. And then a little later, it didn't (no matter how many times I whacked on it with my frustrated hands). Yesterday was chock-full of stuff like this. If I had a gun, I might just have shot the keyboard. More than once. Instead I found the receipt and took it back to Best Buy.

Have you taken anything back toBest Buy recently? Be warned – take a cot because you might have time to nap. They are now routing returns through the Geek Squad line. That means you could be stuck behind people with 30-minute problems. Which I was, along with some other folks. 

I got to visiting with the man in front of me about the stupidity of this – expecially since there were five blue-shirted employees standing nearby chatting with each other. They looked relaxed and happy. I was not. He said he had noticed the manager walking by earlier. I decided to find her – after the nice man in front of me assured me that for someone so irritated I seemed to be remarkably calm.

I approached the group of blue shirts and asked for the manager. One said, 'What can I help you with?" I don't think she was the manager. I'll bet they have strick rules about calling the manager.

I was careful to keep my voice even and my words were carefully chosen. I do live in town and who knew who might be watching, right? I explained that their system of returns was not working and she said that they knew that! They were following the mandate from the home office. I pointed out that there seemed to be a lot of them doing nothing. She was so sorry, but there was nothing they could do. I think I said that her being sorry did no good at all. Then I went back to the line.

The group of blue-shirts knew I was hacked and they sort of moved away. The woman I spoke to went quickly to the back and darned if they didn't somehow figure out how to get another two people to help with returns! Yay.

So I take my keyboard to the person at the register and I'll be darned if I hadn't left the receipt in the car. She was able to look it up in the computer using my phone number and – here's big news – I had purchased it more than 15 days ago.

Best Buy has a new policy – any purchase more than 15 days old is non-returnable. I suspect that if I had pruchased the extra insurance policy when I bought the keyboard that I might have been able to return it. I never buy those things – it feels like extortion. This person was so sorry too. So, so sorry. There was nothing they could do even if they wanted to and she assured me that she really wanted to help me. $59.99 down the tubes. The thing isn't even good enough to use as a doorstop.

At this point I came very close to holding the thing over my head with the intention of smashing it to bits on the edge of the counter. (Have I mentioned that yesterday was not a wonderful day?) I didn't. Later, when I told Steve about this urge we decided that they would surely have called security. I might even have been arrested. Then it would have turned into a really, really bad day. Glad I didn't do that.

I have to have a keyboard. I went back to find a usb-powered mac keyboard and they did have one. But as I walked to the front to pay for it I decided that Best Buy is never, ever going to get another dime out of me. Unfortunately no one else in town has what I need so I am borrowing one from Steve's office and have ordered a keyboard online.

My mom pointed out that I have been really stressed for a long time. It's a combination of things that are just going to be the way they are. Other people have more stress and much harder lives. I cannot complain about my life. That said, it would be nice to relax just a bit. Maybe when this book is done…

I'd tell you about my day but then I'd have to think about it again. I've tried for 3 days to get back to my sewing machine… I did get one seam pressed. That's it. and then I realized that my new iron is brown on the sole. How did that happen! Sigh.

Steve and Chris had better luck on the bathroom. Over the weekend they laid the supports for the new floor. They laid plastic under the supports and then Steve put insulation between them. 

All of the old plumbing was exposed. Steve bumped against the cold water supply at the end of the day Saturday and it broke off. Water spewed but he did the little dutch boy thing until Chris got the water shut off to the house. (What is it with us and water!!!)

Chris, Lorna, and the kids went to stay with her mom and dad. The old plumbing needed to all be replaced anyway so this was not the end of the world. We lined up Mr. Plumber for Monday bright and early.

Sunday they added flooring over the floor supports and insulation. They did more but darned if I can remember what.

Lorna and I found (and bought) the sink and toilet. Chris and Steve opened the box with the tub only to find that it was mis-labeled from the factor. It was supposed to have the drain on the left, it was on the right. Honestly, I'm just not surprised. It took an hour but they exchanged it. I suppose I should be happy that Home Depot had the tub in stock.

Mr Plumber came and fixed all the water supplies: sink, tub, shower, toilet. 

Steve and Chris got the tub into the room but I don't have that photo. There's a lot more to do, but the worst of it is behind them. If I'm lucky, tomorrow will be a smoother day and I will get to my sewing machine. I hope. :-).