Moving, moving, moving

This weekend was the big weekend of moving. We moved Sam out of her place and into our house, or at least part of it. This is the view we saw many times heading with loaded cars to the house. Weather was great and it didn't rain.

The cats were pretty spooky as we emptied out the apartment but they had lots of things to check out at the house.
Moved in, not organized, but moved in.
Kind of looks like a house.
Gives new meaning to breakfast in bed.
A little work got accomplished on the bathroom too. I finished installing and grouting all of the tile. Tomorrow I will clean everything up and install the fixtures cause we have to use it.

We tiled all the way up to the ceiling, it looks pretty cool.

Dirty Duo Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from last saturday's race. I did the slip and slide like it was my job. I managed to empty most of the water.

Sam wasn't so sure about the mud.

Nope I didn't loose a tooth, that's just mud in my mouth, and eye, and ear, and a few other places that I am still finding it.

The winners!
Needless to say I was tasting mud for a while afterward.

More of the same

Not perfect but much cleaner.

The shower after two groutings. After Sam got off of work we unloaded some stuff and hung drywall.

Elbow Grease

We are now at the point where everything we do takes a little bit longer since it's what we have to look at. We took a few loads of things down to the house and realized it needs to be cleaned before anything goes in. So while John kept at the tile, I started cleaning. First: vaccuum and steam clean the carpet in the living room.

Before:


During:
Can you tell which side had been cleaned?

After: Oh wait, it's still drying. We'll post a pic after it is dry and re-vaccuumed. It only took 4 hours and a whole bottle of carpet cleaner before the water was less gray. You wouldn't believe what 15 years without a steam cleaning will do to beige carpet.

John started grouting the tile. It looks completely different with the grout. The depth of color is much better. This was time consuming, especially when John realized he had to grout everything twice.

Here is after the second time, with the top area buffed as well.
When all is said and done, this is going to be a spa-quality bathroom. And I have to say, John is damn near professional when it comes to installing tile.

John also mounted the light in the shower so he'll have more light to work by. The shower is no longer a cave.

Here's a picture of the back of the house at night. If you look carefully, you can see me mopping the kitchen floor.

It was a successful day - the majority of the tile is grouted, the light is installed, it's safe to walk barefoot in the living room, the kitchen was completely wiped down, vaccuumed and mopped. Side note: the central vac is awesome. Hopefully the rest of the tile will show up tomorrow so we can finish that, and then we start to move!

Mud, Tile, and Tired

Saturday morning started doing the dirty duo adventure race. It was a 6 mile course that alternated biking and running with obstacles at each transition. There were over 300 people in the race and the coed division was the largest, which WE WON! They had some pretty good schwag for winning so getting started on the house late was worth it.

The last obstacle was a giant mud pit you had to crawl across together on your stomach and run to the finish.
Ok, now on to house stuff. It was 2pm by the time we started tiling so it made for a very long night. The tiles seem to change color depending on the light and what color they are reflecting. We started by tiling the wall by the toilet for practice.
I put in the big sheets and Sam cut the detail tiles on the tile saw.
End of the night (or early morning) shot of the tub. Last week we changed our minds and decided to tile a little more area and had to order some more tiles. We used up everything with only a little left to go.
Things left to tile, inside of the shampoo box, inside of the window, above the shower.
There was a party going on next door so around 11pm we gave a tour to some visitors which was a nice time for a beer break.

One last rehash

John, I swear after this, no more race talk (fingers crosesd behind my back). They posted race photos, which some turned out great, and they posted final splits.

Overall Time and rank: 5:52:01 20/51

Swim 43:53 24/51

T1 2:11

Bike 3:06:00 15/51

T2 2:20

Run 1:57:37 20/51 (run was only 11 miles if you're calculating pace)

Using my run time, had I been able to finish, it would have been 6:14:28. 6:30 was my goal.

It looks like I know what I'm doing! Their photographers were great - easy to see and out of the way.

I was just informed the course was closed and I would not be finishing.
I think this photo is so appropriate and says it all: eyes closed, shoulders slumped, exhausted, barely holding the "finishers" medal.
They sent out an email saying we can register for next year at the early bird price of $175! Act now!! Yeah right. I'm going to hold out for the Barclays North Ironman 70.3 at Lake Stevens WA next July. And now, back to the house.

Getting Old

Sam has been working hard this week finishing the window in the bathroom. Since we never uploaded pictures of the tub and toilet, here they are. The tub is a Kohler with a pop up drain and slotted overflow. This is absolutely the largest tub that would fit in our bathroom.

You know you are getting old when toilets are exciting. This is the dual flush kohler sitting in our garage awaiting installation. It is normally a 0.8L water saver but if needed it will used a standard 1.6L, pretty cool.
Tomorrow we start tiling the tub surround.

Kansas Ironman 70.3 ... or 68.2??

On Sunday, I raced in my first Half Ironman-distance race in Lawrence, KS. We were up about 4:45 to head to the site. I had to check my bike in on Saturday, so here I am checking tires and getting my transition area organized.

Here is a look at what the transition area looked like with all of the athletes. There were between 1000 and 1500 athletes there, plus family and friends. The race itself had a great atmosphere. (Unfortunately, the town and the park were generally not very welcoming.)
It's a good day for a swim! Man, those bouys were far out there.
Here is what several million dollars in racing bikes look like.
This is the elite's bike rack. Probably over $100,000 on this rack alone.
My wave start. It was hard to get close to the starting line with so many people around.
I was very happy with my swim and feeling fantastic coming out of the water. Look at those rippling muscles!
I'm in the pink, just out of transition. My bike leg was really strong - all the hill work paid off. I was very proud that I passed at least 2 bikes with the solid back wheels. If you don't bike, that doesn't mean much, but those wheels are more expensive than my entire bike.
The beginning of the end. I was having intestinal distress and the run was rough. This is obviously the area I need to work on the most, which is funny since I've been doing that the longest! I was in pain later. This is the "good" picture of me running. :)
And then the death clouds rolled in, wind picked up and the temp dropped about 20 degrees. They called the course and I was pulled at about 11 miles. I can't even begin to tell you how upset I was when I was directed in the finish area, 2.1 miles from actually finishing. 6 months of training, 68 miles of racing, almost 6 hours of pushing myself! All to be cut short by 20 minutes. I was on the verge of tears but realized it was out of my control and I would have finished if I had been allowed to. This is my first DNF, even though Ironman Kansas has my splits. Any triathlete will tell you the same. While 68.2 miles is close, it is not 70.3. What a difference 2.1 miles can make.
I have to race again, but the next one will not be in Kansas. I'm thinking Washington State or Idaho. Weather aside, there were many issues with the safety of the bike course, the cops letting every hillbilly with their boat and camper into park (on a live course!) and the terrible run course. I promised John no more 'vacations' in Kansas.

I have to thank John, too, for being a fantastic spectator and supporter. I couldn't have done it without his support.

I'm so blue

Here are some pictures from yesterday. I took off work in the morning to fill out lots of paperwork at UMKC. After that I almost finished mounting the tile backer board and then started cutting pieces for the bathroom vanity. With the tile backer on it is starting to look better, a little like the smurf bathroom, but better.

Almost completed on the other side. This stuff is different, it isn't cement board and isn't drywall but very stiff.
Our tub. The bath fan is really quiet so good thing it is wired into the light over the shower or we wouldn't even know it was on.
Next weekend is Sam's big race and not much work will get accomplished. The weekend after that is for tiling the shower. Things aren't completely going in order but the shower is highest priority. Official move in date is fast approaching.

Rub a Dub Dub

John's got a blow torch in the tub! Today we finally were able to get running water out of the tub. Here's the close-up of John working and...


Here's the full picture. Kids, don't try this at home. Only experts drink while operating a blow torch. And no, this entry doesn't end in fire.



It works! And it doesn't leak! It's going to be one sweet tub when we're done. I can already dream of the bubble baths.

We were able to hang the majority of the tile backer. I love the Kohler tub, but something cheap and generic would have been easier to install and put backer around. It's like they expect high-end plumbing and fixtures to be installed by professionals. Good thing we watch a lot of HGTV. Being engineers helps as well.

John completely installed the exhaust fan and man, is that thing quiet. It's hard to see, but I temporarily rehung the window so there isn't a hole. I put it in just in the nick of time. Less than 5 minutes after it was in, a thunder storm opened up and it poured. Once the window is repainted and had it's new fixtures, it will look brand new. Or 'custom' as John would say. All in all, it was a very productive day, even with us sleeping in until 10 am.