Lyndhurst Garden House

Lyndhurst Garden House
Lyndhurst Garden House

Friday, July 26, 2013

Air Conditioning is not Immoral

As someone very concerned about global warming, the carbonization of the earth, and sustainable economics, I often hear predictions, often tinged with a little schadenfreude, that in the future to make a sustainable society we will eliminate air conditioning.

This is easy to say when you live in San Diego (as I once did, but still wanted AC) or don't have efficient and reliable AC, or can't afford to use it, etc.

It's not so easy to say when you live away from the coast, as most of the land in the USA actually is, and especially in placed like Texas where I live.

Anyway, how much electricity is used by residential air conditioning in the USA?  The answer is 7%.  And that's only electricity use, it makes up a far smaller proportion of total CO2 emissions.


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Door Negotiations



Good News!  Eric Pollard of Sound Isolation Store has agreed to check out other options than MDF as the core of a regular IsoDoor.  Both he and I agree that the IsoDoor Basic would probably deliver disappointing performance.*  It's not much more massive than the hollow core doors I already have.  I could use a regular IsoDoor for both Queen's and King's rooms, yielding excellent acoustic separation and excellent isolation from the living room stereo.  I personally feel this is one of the more important home upgrades, especially for people like me with weird hours and audiophile habits, and a friend with pets.  My friend doesn't think I should spend so much money (even though I haven't begun to admit how much this will actually cost).

(*What almost predictably led Eric to this conclusion was my confession that I was attaching the new door to a wall with 5 layers of drywall, green glue, and whisper clips.  That is a 65 STC door assembly, and would not be a good match for a 29 STC door.)

I've found something that may just be the ticket.  Purebond Hardwood from Columbia Forest Products.  This uses soy based adhesives exclusively.  No formaldehyde or isocyanate based adhesives.  Soy adhesives are also used in milk cartons because of their safety.

Wonder of wonders this premium product is sold at Home Depot, and they may be the best place to find it.  After finding this out I went down to the closest Home Depot store, and there it was, a beautiful piece of Red Oak plywood with Purebond.

I carefully smelled it 3 times.  It had very little smell, but from what I could tell it had a slight milk carton smell.  Not bad at all.  Meanwhile, other stacks of plywood went from barely tolerable to totally unacceptable in smell.


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Overly Doors

Well, they're metal doors filled with rock wool.  Pretty much what I expected.  But the door might not be an metal object open in one end, welded together elsewhere, as I imagined it my mind.  It may be the whole thing is built up with insulated channels.  Good for sound--but I don't find it inspiring me not to worry aabout fiberglass particle emissions over time.  If the whole thing is bolted together then it can also become loose.

That rock wool and other materials (apparently heavy on the rubber seals) may use formaldehyde also.  There is no guarantee this gets us away from formaldehyde (thanks to the rock wool...thought I dunno, it might be clumps that never needed gluing).

The No Added Formaldehyde alternatives

Starting with the No Added Urea Formaldehyde (UF emits the most formaldehyde) the first alternative is Phenol Formaldehyde (PF).  This is a red and black colored substance, used as a substitute for UF in outdoor products because it has better moisture resistance.  PF emits considerably less formaldehyde than UF.

The most commonly used No Added Formaldehyde options are MDI (methylene diphenyl isocyanate) and PVA (Poly Vinyl Acetate--this is NOT a PVC).  Offhand PVA sounds more interesting to me, as far as less toxic breakdown products (this is just an offhand reaction, I've done no actual research), but in a list of NAUF products only one used MDI, and none used PVA.  Offhand I would not be happy about having 60 pounds of MDI or whatever in my door.

There are also soy based glue alternatives, but possibly only used in plywood, not MDF, so far.  MDF is a challenging product to make, it uses more glue than other products which only need to layer wood together, etc., and therefore has the biggest problem with formaldehyde emissions.

My friend suggested I just get another of these all wood doors (Isodoor Basic) for my room as well.  I might just do that, looking at these limited (and unavailable) alternatives.  But actually, I was thinking about going in the opposite direction for both door, getting both with NAUF Isodoor HD's.  Well scratch that, I'm afraid.  I might try NAUF in my door, which is much farther from the bed.  But PF or something like that was actually the kind of thing I might be smelling in Lyndhurst!

Now what about those Overly doors?  Actually a 300 pound metal door might not be the ticket for a lady with pets, or either.  But I don't see a problem with it for me, and I do really like to sleep all morning, and I'm footing the bill for both doors.

So that's what I'm thinking now, Overly (unapologetically heavy metal) door for me, Solid Fir Isodoor Basic for her.  Will have to check that Overly doesn't use MDF.  It's said that UF is used in fiberglass...but I have to think that is trivial compared with MDF--compare the weight!--and that it all gets released quickly and isn't a problem for decades like UF--well that might not be true, perhaps even the reverse.

Which leads to a question actually.  Just why do these things release formaldehyde?  Is it that there was present from free formaldehyde that just slowly leaks out?  Or are chemically glued together things coming apart slightly--and then releasing the formaldehyde as the bond is broken.  I don't know and it may well be something I wouldn't even think about.  But the latter would suggest the release of formaldehyde forever, as the product slowly breaks down into dust.  That can't be it though...that isn't at all consistent with a half life, in at least that way.  MDF isn't 89% dust in 20 years, even though its emission level may fallen that much.  But it could fit the description if there are a minority of say sloppy bonds, just waiting to give away.  And over time, perhaps even 20 years, those have mostly gone broken apart, leaving the more strongly bound stuff, which might have half life of 10,000 years in a cool dry climate, or about 100 in a San Antonio garage.  That long half life stuff doesn't have to be worried about, that's another way of saying it's incredibly stable, and isn't emitting much, and we're talking about something that is naturally in the air, in our breath, etc.  Formaldehyde is not plutonium, but all the same we don't want it elevated much, so we worry about those things that release lots of it, as ordinary unfaced MDF does.  When the kitchen was new (or if I moved into any new house!) it had hundreds of pounds of MDF cabinetry, and you would also get formaldehyde from the furniture, the carpeting, etc.

(As I'm writing this, I'm rubbing my foot against a small microtable under the kitchen table which I made a couple of years ago.  It is never painted formaldehyde MDF and weights about 25 pounds.  It was ultra clear at Home Depot that this was the one wood product which would be easy for me to work with.  I could barely touch the plywood without getting splinters, and it was warped and whatever.  I cleaned the surface off meticulously before moving it into the kitchen, making sure there were no particulates.  I did notice some smell for a matter of weeks.  I never thought about formaldehyde until now.)

But if only Some of the UF bonds break apart, then it is only them we need be worried about (except in case of catastrophe, but that's another story).  So don't think you are sitting next to 100 pounds (or whatever) of UF (actually, it would not be surprising if you were in a modern house) but only 1 pound, say, of sloppy bonded UF that is going to go in the next 20 or so years.  So how many sloppy bonds are there in the fiberglass batts surrounding a room?  Well this depends not only on the quantity of UF which has to be much smaller, but what the proportion of sloppy bonds is.  So just knowing the weight of a formaldehyde product doesn't tell us much.  We might even have to know which supplier and what process they used, etc.






Monday, July 22, 2013

Slab Foundation Cracking and Inspection

Here is a great primer on slab cracking and what it means.

I will be seeing the crack in the master bedroom floor when I finally change the flooring this year.  In more than 20 years of owning this home (purchased when it was 9 years old) I have never removed the master bedroom carpet, and I have suspected from the beginning there is a major crack there, which fortunately doesn't seem to go all the way to any exterior load bearing wall.  Or so it seems.

Bathroom Fans

Just happened upon this page talking about noisy bathroom fans.  Supposedly not a problem anymore because you can get really quiet fans (about 0.3 to 0.4 sones) and retrofit kits for older fans.

My experience was not so wonderful.  I had a hard enough time getting a motor, any motor, that would work in my master bath.  Broan/Nutone has no replacement for my model.  They were called by the motor repair guy, and that's what they said.  The motor repair people got me a similar motor made by someone else.  Unfortunately, that similar motor seems a tad more powerful and noisy as hell.  Sometimes it sounds like it's going to tear up the little fan box.  I'm afraid to run it.

It's funny if Broan/Nutone has no replacement motor, as they still sell a very similar light and fan combination unit.  I tried the motor in the new combination unit (which I also bought, beforehand) and it is acceptibly quiet, an extreme difference from the new noisy-as-hell motor.

I'm thinking I'm going to try the new motor (from the new unit) in the old fan box.  When I get around to it.

Duct Silencer

I need to ask about this now, a duct silencer.  It says only aluminum.  That would be great, wonderful, and amazing.  I want to verify that there are no materials inside which could harbor mold, which is my concern about silencing duct material and so on.

Metal Sound Doors

Wenger and Overly offer metal acoustical doors designed with STC ratings at or above 50dB.  (Single wood doors get to mid 40's, at most.  Higher ratings can be achieved with a sequence of two wood doors separated by a gap or passage.)   Wenger, who makes chairs, stands, and other products for professional musicians, does not list prices on their website (few in the commercial and architectural world do).  You have to join Wenger before you can even submit a request for a quotation.  My guess was $4000 and way higher, and perhaps even that is too low, with additional minimum order and/or setup charges.  These doors would not look out of place in a glamorous music theater.  Wenger shows an impressive page of technical information.

Here is some info on Overly doors, which can be had for as little as $3329.  From the small photos, these do not look as classy as the Wenger doors, but same basic concept.  These are still commercial grade heavy solid metal doors which would be at home in a professional recording studio or university music department, though perhaps not ivy league.  The standard door achieves STC 50dB and the highest rated door achieves STC 57.  The standard $3329 door is said to weigh 11 pounds per square foot.  That rules out being filled with sand or lead btw.  At most, it could be stuffed with rigid fiberglass, but I haven't seen details about what the door is stuffed with--if anything.  Most likely this is a much lower VOC option than an MDF wood door.

Somewhere on the web I have seen, but cannot find now, a more homebrew looking metal acoustical door.  I recall it might have been priced quite a bit lower.  I'm thinking it might have even been Acoustical Solutions, who now sells the Overly door, previously had their own product for cheaper (but perhaps it wasn't making enough money for them).  I know you can get a commercial 90 minute metal fire door, which requires heavy gauge metal, for around $1000  Then, pack it full of rigid fiberglass (easier said than done) and voila, you have a metal acoustical door.  I have conflicting memories as to whether the price was $1350 or $3150, or just below $3000, but around $3000 would make more sense, given that company doing the packing and sealing would want to earn money on their work, most likely at least doubling the direct cost of the door, perhaps then $1350 was do-it-yourself price, they supply their door, and/or their materials, and $3150 ready made.  The nice Overly door is just a tad more than $3150, I wouldn't sweat that difference. But I still wonder what was in the $1350 metal door package, if it wasn't simply mistaken about that price.  It's not showing up under any search I do now, months ago it was always near the top.  One thing that makes me suspicious is that there is a stale link that keeps coming up on my google searches going back to Acoustical Solutions.

There is also the door from Cascade Audio.  It weighs 300 pounds, but but Cascade doesn't actually say it is a metal door underneath the wood.

Here is a metal door from Acoustic Geometry.  They have fewer pictures than I remember from the web pages I can no longer find, but the door shown looks absolutely identical to what I remember--could be the exact same photograph.  The door is covered in a (particularly plastic looking) oak veneer.  It looks like a traditional institutional door that has been beefed up somehow.  They say custom wood veneers are available.  It is a 300 pound door, just as I remember.  The price is $2834.  OK, it could be that Acoustic Geometry is a company that was reborn from the previous company that offered this door.  It looks like the same door, the price sounds about right (though not the low price I had hoped for), and I've never heard of "Acoustic Geometry" before, so it does sound like a newly reborn company (such as if the old company went bankrupt, or just decides to sell off the business, somebody buys the surplus and starts new company).

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Formaldehyde emissions

TruStile says their doors are CARB compliant.  Here are the CARB standards.  Interesting that the standard is 3 times more stringent for wood faced products with composite core (0.08 ppb) vs actual MDF product (0.21 ppb).  These are numbers like what you might expect from near-best-practices, and suggest the wood facing does indeed cut back formaldehyde emissions about three times, or the equivalent of 9 years of aging (if the 6 year half life estimate I've seen is correct).  You should get even better numbers with No-Added-Formaldehyde.  Possibly you would get better numbers with thicker wood surrounding the composite core, more than just thin veneer.

Unfortunately, I have no guarantee right now my door is an actual TruStile door to meet even the CARB MDF requirement.  It is only made to duplicate the TruStile design 4080.  That was all I ever asked the BMC salesman for ("a door like the TruStile 4080").  He never said it was a TruStile door, it didn't say that on any of the order paperwork, and it doesn't say that on the side label.  It might say that on a label on the side of the door slab, but I haven't unfastened the door (it is screwed together to jamb as delivered) to check.  It might be an actual TruStile door slab, it might be a fake (of which even TruStile admits they exist), or it might be a door made by a TruStile factory but for which the company doesn't want their name on it...such as if it was not made to Carb compliance.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Other door options

Doors for Builders has some very expensive doors.  Real wood, they say.

ETO doors has some douglas fir doors that look similar to IsoDoor Basic.  It looks like you could order the door with exterior jambs, which could be fitted with insulation.   Looks like the door and jamb would be 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the Isodoor.  Unless you could duplicate SIS's seals and threshold, it wouldn't perform quite as well, though.  And the prices shown don't include custom design either.  On close examination, these do not appear to be true rail and stile doors, nor look as sharp as the IsoDoor Basic.  The description says "Engineered Solid Wood" which means MDF is likely a part (possibly major part).   Some of their doors do say "Solid Wood" fwiw.  It doesn't seem like you could make a solid core door out of 100% real wood and sell it for $200 and make a profit.  Only way to do it would be to start with a MDF door and add very thin veneer.

Wenger makes solid steel acoustical doors.  Minimum width is 3 feet (I need 30 inches).  I probably don't have to ask how much they cost.  I'd guess $4000 or more for the smallest one, plus delivery.  That's pocket change when you are building a university music department building for which doors like this might be put on every professor's office.





Before I forget

The door replacement has blown apart for now.  I am pretty sure I am not going to use the MDF door on the Queen's Room.  I'm strongly considering getting an IsoDoor Basic in the exact same 4 panel style instead, and adding an A/C return to the room so that the IsoDoor seals will routinely seal this .door completely every time.  That means real sound isolation all the time, positive ventilation all the time, and a real wood door not outgassing formaldehyde for 20 years.  And the current door will find a good use as the new door for the remodeled Gym to Garage passage--which would require an MDF fire rated door anyway.

Blogger is running very slow today again.  So I will keep this short.  Before the door replacement blew open, I was figuring out what kind of hardware to get.  That's still going to happen, once I decide on the door itself.

I liked the special edition Gatehouse forged brass passage knobset I am new using on Lyndhurst.  But that was purchased on clearance and is no longer available.  A comparable knobset, possibly the exact same manufacturer (Chinese), possibly updated, is made by Double Hill, for about $60.

The name brand competitor would be in the Baldwin Estate series.  (The cheaper Baldwin series just look like overpriced Kwikset, no need to buy Baldwin unless you are getting the Estate series IMO.)

The Baldwin I like is the 5020, Colonial, with the 5048 rose, sold as a package here.

Now when Baldwin displays the 5020, they show it with a different rose, the 5017.  After much digging, it appears that the 5048 rose sold above is larger than the one Baldwin shows.  They may do that to emphasize the appearance of the knob itself.  But on the actual door, a larger rose would probably be nicer.  So I decided the package above is the one I would go for.  I think the 5017 has a slightly more curvacious look, and not realizing the size difference, I preferred it first.  I think retailers prefer the 5048 since being larger it is more likely to hide defects or wear on the door itself, therefore fewer unhappy customers and fewer returns.

Another online store sells the Baldwin Estate pieces separately as well as in the packages.

Here's another forged brass knob, by Rockwell (which is imported).  Double Hill under a different name?

Another issue is the finish.  Baldwin offers both a Polished Brass option and a Lifetime Polished Brass option.  You can see how they look on the 5020 page.  They look pretty much identical and I would pay the extra money for the Lifetime version.  I do sometimes fear the use of things like nanotech particles, but I think the sputtering of the finish should not out-particle once it is cured and polished.


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The Rub

My beautiful new Queen's Room door, with beautiful custom 4 panel transitional style I selected out of hundreds in the TruStile catalog, has a faint smell of Urea Formaldehyde.  Probably much less than a brand new plank of particleboard at Home Depot.  But enough to make me worry.  I now think this was a mistake (though possibly it could be fixed).  I sniffed other doors and real wood planks at Home Depot tonight, and none of them had as much formaldehyde smell as my new door.

The thought that this might not be right occurred to me several times in the specification and ordering process.  But it got overshadowed by the knowledge that the two most affordable sound reducing doors are MDF and heavy gauge steel as in commercial fire doors (not flimsy builder store exterior doors), and MDF seemed more appropriate.  Metal doors seem cold and not suitable inside a house.  Only certain hardwoods would be as good, such as Hard Rock Maple, and who can afford a door made out of that?

But for health's sake, I'd sacrifice a few db of sound reduction.

So what are the options now?

I could try to make do with current door.  This would require 2 things: coating the inside of the door to reduce outgassing inside the Queen's Room itself (polyurethane is said to be effective at blocking formaldehyde, and there are other blockers), and adding the A/C return register to the room.  My key idea--that I would not need the return register because blocking the door undercut would not be the typical case--was wrong.  The return register is needed as much or more for air quality as room temperature (this room will probably be one of the most comfortable in the house, due to recent room sealing and new window).  A person choosing to block the undercut for a night's sleep (or a daytime freedom from pet noises) would face devil's choice.  Peace and quiet or toxic air.

Following that reasoning, I'm now thinking that not doing the A/C return is NOT an option.  Even without a formaldehyde laden door, rooms are filled with things that outgas, and it's best that there always be adequate ventilation.  Shutting off adequate ventilation for noise reduction...no one should have to make that choice.

Given the A/C return, there is no good reason not to go for a fully sealed door, either this one or another.  (Well, actually I did have a reason, not sure how good, that sometimes occupant would prefer to hear what's going on elsewhere in house.  But I now think it's better to block the noise always, because an optional noise block just won't be done when it is most needed.)

One excellent fully sealed door option is the IsoDoor Basic from Sound Isolation Store.  They have assured me tonight that it's made out of 100% douglas fir, no MDF at all.  It comes with hugely effective seals so that the door achieves an STC of 29.  While other doors in the Jeld Wen and TruStile catalog have higher ratings, those ratings are only achieved with a custom sealing job that neither doormaker actually provides.  In other words, their ratings are theoretical, based on a configuration they won't actually sell you, whereas the Sound Isolation Store rating is what you actually get, the door was tested exactly as it is sold to you, seals and all, tested by an independent laboratory.  I like that, as getting the seals right doesn't look easy and was in fact the thing that preoccupied me most of all (while I was forgetting the formaldehyde issue).

Here's a discussion of Douglas Fir vs Pine.  Douglas Fir is better than pine, harder, though not as hard as a real hardwood.

If I bought another door, I could re-purpose QRD1 as the door for the laundry room.  That way it would help block the noise from the washer and dryer, not an insignificant task, though it' hadn't been a priority, and it actually seems like a bit of a waste to have such a fancy door there.  Another possible repurposing is as the new room from Gym to Garage.  That door will need to be replaced when I remodel the Gym (the current door is ridiculous), and that door does in fact need to be a fire door, and sound absorbtion there is pretty important too.

Home Depot sells a pine door from Steves for $99.  NOT prehung, and that might be a bit of a problem.  I saw another door online for $99, and you could choose to have it prehung for $13 extra.  These cheap doors worry me a bit.

Both Jeld-Wen and TruStile offer real wood doors.  The Trustile doors are likely to be sufficiently expensive that I'd just get the Isodoor Basic instead.   Plus, they use a laminate called VFL internally.  It's not clear what kind of outgassing one would get from VFL.  I suspect it would be a lot less than from an actual MDF door, however.

Jeld-Wen is a bit canny about their doors.  They admit that the "Authentic Real Wood" doors have a partial MDF core.  But they don't say that about the Custom Wood doors.  I was told tonight that the Custom doors were more expensive.

Here is an interesting discussion of outgassing.  While time is our friend wrt reducing outgassing, it doesn't work fast enough for MDF products.  MDF products can be outgassing substantially for 20 years.  They're only down about half in 5 years, so in 20 years they be down to about 10%.






Monday, July 15, 2013

Door Arrives!



Second weekend in July (seemed like the 3rd) Saturday I mowed the entire front yard (previously done 3 weekends ago) and a bit of the back yard.  I also started getting caught up on laundry after my vacation in Fort Worth during 4th of July week.  On Sunday I had a wonderful trip to Boerne for the last Cactus Pear concert with my friend, preceded by a brew and dinner at the Dodging Duck Brewhouse, and followed by wonderful Cactus Pear desserts at a nearby bakery.

Palmie in the front yard is beginning to look grown up...before I get a chance to move her.

I downloaded DrawBerry to draw the layout for network wiring my house.  Next big priority might be doing the carport, however.  My friend suggested that during the trip--a good sign of her thinking about moving over.

On Saturday it looked like the roof shingles and tar paper were blowing off the house behind me.  Much later I saw the neighbor removing and replacing the tar paper, very slowly.  This is at least the 3rd time that roof has been replaced in the past 20 years.  I wonder if there isn't some underlying fault with the roof decking that is just getting papered over each time.  Anyway, it's a good sign that work has been and is being done on houses around me.  Currently there are 3 houses for sale very close to mine.

Around 3pm Monday Afternoon, BMG delivered the new Queen's Room door.  Fortunately, it was not raining when they took it out of the (large covered truck).  I was not expecting this.  They gave their first and only call just a minute before delivery.

I was expecting a hardwood threshold, so I need to check that out.  I also need to get a good passage door knob (and not the cheap builder store variety).

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Less challenging new bathtub

I'd love to have the Tea-for-Two Bathtub by Kohler.  Or at least I think I do.  It's awfully high for shower use: it presents a 24  inch stepover instead of the usual 15 inches or so.  That's 9 inches higher.  But to go along with that, the water height is about twice as high as a typical shower bath, as is the volume of water it can hold.  It's a true bather's bathtub, available in alcove style for shower use as well, and the 3 corner alcove version nearly always becomes a shower-bath.  The front and back are both sloped for comfortable bathing either way.  The length is long (66 inches) enough that the space lost to end contouring is not much lost on the floor, it has a respectable 45 by 20 inches of floorspace.

But not only does the stepover present a long-term challenge (I think I could manage fine, now and in the future, with some added grab bars), but the installation poses huge challenges.  I would have to bump out the closet in the master bedroom to make 6 inches more room for it.  And, worst of all, I'd have to move two drains in the slab floor, for the new tub itself and the toilet.  In addition to it costing a lot of money, I worry that it might not be done correctly, causing drain leaks in the future, or it might weaken my already overstressed slab.

[Update: I might not have to move the drains after all.  After seeing that a neighbor has recently had expensive foundation repair, I don't really like the drain moving idea.  House foundation is already overs stressed, cutting more holes won't help.  However, it turns out that existing bathtub is nearly 18 inches from the toilet center.  Code is 15 inches.  That means I could use a 6 inch wider tub.  Assuming I can get away with nearly.  I would still need to bump out the closet wall--no big deal--and possibly the exterior wall--that does worry me but not as much as new drains.  So this is back on the hoped for agenda.  Tea-for-two with grab bars everwhere needed, and possibly a 6 inch step up on half farthest from the toilet.]

On Saturday, just before mowing the front lawn again, I noticed what seemed to be my neighbor's house collapsing.  It seemed like roofing material was spontaneously falling off the back neighbor's roof.  I went to check the front of their house, and there was a sign for a slab repair company.  It looked like the roof was sinking slightly, as if the interior had lost support.  But later I saw there was someone actually working on the roof, very slowly.  Possibly the same person who years ago was working underneath their slab (it looked like he was digging a basement) leading to the needed slab repair.

Anyway, that got me thinking about the wisdom of moving the two drains for a larger bathtub.  What would be the next best bathtub option?

I think I've found it, the Kohler Highbridge bathtub, available in 60" x 32".

It doesn't hold much more water than the standard bath, but the water height is 3-4 inches higher.  It has a nice sloped back, on the non-drain side only.  It's only 60" long, but loses only an inch of floor length to the Tea for Two (which has end sloped on both sides...uselessly in a shower-bath).  It has a 17 inch stepover, two inches higher than standard (but you are getting more than 2 inches of water depth).  That's nothing compared with the 9 inch height increase of the Tea for Two.

I think I could squeeze this in without moving drains or walls, but it would be a tight fit, and professional advice needed.  If it could spare moving the drains and walls, that's at least a $4000 savings (maybe $5000 or more) and also a lot less worry.  The tub itself is nearly $1000 less expensive.

With much lower stepover than Tea for Two, many people might consider this a better choice for the shower bath, if they consider Tea for Two acceptible at all.


Friday, July 12, 2013

Ordered two bathroom design books

The remodeling of master bedroom and bathroom is the next big step.  Or just call it the big step.

I need to do both at once because (1) I will need to move out of master bedroom temporarily to do either one, so might as well do both, and (2) by the current plan, I will need to modify closet to fit in the larger bathtub that I want.

I just ordered two bathroom guides from Tauton, including this one.

Before that, however, I will be doing these things:

1) whole house network (should call electrician next week, I drew up the plan and need to find that, also should get F connector inserts).

2) Install Queen's Room door (when it arrives) with special insulation behind jamb.

3) See about A/C return for Queen's Room (should call A/C servicer next week).  It might be best to do this before network because I trust electrican more to seal up soffit vent when done.