Not one, but two, contractors visited us today

We were surprised to see a truck coming up the driveway this morning. We knew the concrete guy would be coming by to take a look at the failed stain on the bump out floor, but we were expecting him in the late morning.

Turns out it was the plumber. We had planned for all the various fixtures and amenities, from the shower head down to the TP holder, to be in a brushed chrome finish. Alas, when the shower/tub fixtures were installed, whoops, they were polished chrome.

Before…

 

…After.

   

The plumber also took care of a loose nut on the union coupling on the intake to the water tank. Gosh, that sounded so technical! Go, Princess Groundy Pants! It had been dripping recently.

But that’s nothing compared to the recent mini-flood in the basement through the bulkhead door. The other night, I went down there to tend to the cats’ litter box and was overjoyed to see a six foot long puddle. My prayers to be nudged to mop the basement floor have been answered!

We checked the bulkhead – which sorta looks like Snoopy’s dog house in profile – and structurally, it seemed sound – totally dry. Our buddy Michael had even put a new roof on it last fall. The flashing between the new siding and the bulkhead also seemed to be fine. The only thing we could see was that the concrete floor and walls were damp. So later in the day, when the concrete guy showed up, we asked him to have a look. His feeling is that the cement blocks that comprise the below-ground walls of the bulkhead have been absorbing water – perhaps the sealant that was (presumably) coating them all these years is failing. We suspect that all the digging in the immediate vicinity over the course of the summer may have something to do with it as well.

*Sigh.*

But this is what the concrete guy actually came to see us for:

This is just one example of where a wipe-your-feet mat has pulled the stain right off the concrete – which shouldn’t be possible. The stain is supposed to have penetrated the concrete. He thinks he’s going to have to use a grinder/sander kind of device to scrape up the stain, and we’ll start all over again.

That’ll make an unholy mess, but we’ll mitigate it by putting up a plastic barrier between the bump out and the living room. And he’ll use a grinder that’s got a bag attached to it, like a handheld sander, or a lawnmower with the bag attached.

 

Just so long as it doesn’t interfere with our ability to use the treadmill in the meantime – we’ll just drag all eight hundred pounds of it into the living room.

Speaking of the treadmill…My plan for today was a two mile run – that doesn’t sound like much, does it? But that’s what Training Guru #1 called for. Training Guru #2 calls for micro walking breaks. For the running parts, I was at nine minute miles today and I have the insane (?) goal of getting to 8:30 miles. (One such mile is a piece of cake. Thirteen of them strung together, on the other hand…) 

I’ve also been “lifting weights”, if you can count the baby girl dumbbells I’ve been using as “weights”. I mention this because Charlie’s trying to help me strengthen my forearms as I type up this blog post:

That’s not just his delicate little paw on me – he’s got half his not inconsiderable weight on me here. Such a helpful kitty.