Grippy, but not too distresssed

I've ordered Armstrong Alvina Buff sheet flooring for the King's bath.  This is nice looking, not too distressed looking (not distressed at all actually--it could be brand new stone decking around a built-in hot tub, but made of slightly weathered stones), and yet looks (and actually feels) quite grippy.  It has variable texturing everywhere and the grout lines are noticeable and fairly dense.  At the same time, it's vinyl not stone, so is actually fairly smooth (despite the slight bumpiness on the order of a millimeter or two), and doesn't have hard edges you might hurt your feet on (if it were real stone decking).  It' has a nice amount of give to it for cushioning by design.  Padded smooth flooring with very slight and variable bumpy texturing for grippiness is perfect for a bathroom, I think.  And the colors go well with my Calacatta Porcelain shower, my Kohler Almond bath and toilet, my golden beige wall paint (same as in King's room) and black (for vanity and such).

I just don't get why people like tile floors.  They are cold, hard, and slippery usually.  The only reasonable way to do a bathroom tile floor is with very small tiles and a high proportion of grout lines.  Then you get at least some friction when wet.  But they're still cold and hard.  Hard floors are hard on feet, ankles, and ligaments--giving you heel spurs and the like.  I like to walk around the house in bare feet, and so I love padded flooring.  The master bathroom is the most important place for bare feet after the master bedroom, since even if I were to wear shoes elsewhere in the house, I'd still be barefoot mostly within the master suite while I'm getting bathed, dressed, or undressed.  Now it's true that within the shower itself it's a good idea to wear flip flops.  I do that mostly these days.  However there is always a time when one is putting on or off the flip flops when the floor could still be wet.  Preventing slipping is a very valuable floor feature.

I think people like tile because they believe it's easier to clean.  Or that it's permanent.  The permanence part may be true, though eventually everything will be replaced or refurbished (the tile in a vintage house might be saved but re-grouted after 100 years).   But nowadays other floors can last sufficient long that it barely matters anymore.  WRT cleaning, why is that so important?  Any good floor can be pretty easily cleaned, as long as you don't wait a few years to let the dirt bake in.  A monthly housekeeper can keep all the floors from getting baked in dirt, and I've gotten used to having a monthly housekeeper for that and other reasons--I wouldn't want to go back to not having one.

A quality vinyl floor can last 30 years or more.  My original bathroom floor probably had a 5 year warranty and is still OK after 31 years.  I'm only replacing it because it got torn during the new bathtub installation, and since a new toilet has yet to be installed, it's the perfect time to install a new floor.

With a tile floor, over the course of 30 years you might be looking at several "grout sealing" operations would would add up to the cost of a new vinyl floor, let alone the fact that the tile floor was a couple of times more expensive in the first place.  A new bathroom vinyl floor isn't actually very expensive.  And then you get the fun of choosing something entirely different in 15-30 years.  Or not.

I am only disappointed the Alvina Buff has the 15 year warranty instead of the 20, 25, or lifetime warranty.  But none of the longer warranty vinyls have as grippy looking a pattern.  Instead they often look like smooth large format tiles with deep distressing.  The grout lines are too far apart to be of much assistance and it's hard to tell from photos how much grippiness the deep distressing provides.  But they don't look as grippy, and I'm guessing and believing he look is accurate as the cause makes sense.  The higher warranty floors have thicker but also smoother wear layer.  A thicker layer can't make as much curvature, so less dense texturing is possible, and likely the grippiness is less too.  A layered flooring product has to bend the entire wear layer; you can't add layers on top for texturing because those might peel off.  The whole surface has to bend, and the thicker it is, the harder it is to bend or make bent.

The Alvina flooring has 10mm wear layer, as does the other most highly textured pattern Bleeker Street, Armstrong has two higher grades up to 20mm (the 20mm being very new to Armstrong), but those all look less textured, and the top line Congloleum I was interested in, but dismissed because it didn't look grippy, has a 20mm wear layer.

There was only one other pattern in the Armstrong catalog that looked possibly even more grippy is one with small squares, perhaps about 1 inch.  One example of this pattern is the Montauk which has an appropriate color G3A93.  Another example is Bleeker Street Uptown.  The density of the grout lines suggests this would be most grippy, maybe even more grippy than the Alvina.  But I don't find these patterns attractive.  When you zoom in on them, they are very distressed looking, as if they were snapshots of real sidewalks in some US city.  Not only is there mottling, there is some whitish stuff that looks a bit like baked on bird turds.

In principle vinyl flooring can be made to look like anything, pristine or distressed.  Why are almost all the patterns now distressed, and often horribly distressed like Montauk and Bleeker Street?

It was also hard to tell from the photos, but it looked a lot like the grout lines on these faux-street vinyls are raised instead of depressed.  That would have a tendency to trap water, possibly not good.  I can't tell from the pictures if that is actually true, and even if it is true, the raised grout lines would still have added traction, perhaps a lot of added traction.  But it was really the awful close up look that made me decide against them.  And they have the same 15 year warranty as the Alvina Buff that I'm getting.  Also the same floor technology, Fiberglass Masterworks Technology 3D with VTx.  That makes for a floor with good texturing, and therefore presumably good grip.  I think the fiberglass should be long lasting also, meaning the texturing will stay like new for a long time.  My old flooring had decent texturing originally but has gotten nearly flat.

I was unable to find any discussion online about the grippiness of vinyl floors.  AFAIK vinyl flooring has inherently more grip than typical ceramic or porcelain tile.  But it would still be nice to have numbers.  Ceramic and porcelain tile have a Wet Coefficient of Friction (wCOF) specification which is useful for comparison.  But an actual tile floor made out of such tiles would have a different effective grip depending on the spacing and thickness of grout lines.  The grout can be a much more important factor than the tile itself, and yet nowhere do you get an "overall" rating of a particular tile/tile-size/grout with regards to grip.  Even a coefficient of friction alone is not a sufficient way of describing an actual floor, because the wCOF varies according to position, and not all patterns of such wCOF variation are equally useful in preventing slip, which is a complex and dynamic process.  My own sense is that although vinyl floors don't have the highly varying COF and level of real tile floors, vinyl texturing is more important than you might think if your thinking is based on static calculations.  As one is gaining traction, the smallest textured point can be taken advantage of with transient downward force.  On my old vinyl floors, I think they would be useless without their fairly dense texturing.

Really you need something more like real world testing, though I'm not suggesting inducing actual slips.  Some kind of synthetic test…or just subjective feel objectively recorded, might be the best we can do.  I was thinking about measuring the distance of slip with a footlike object after the floor is evenly sprinkled with a coating of water.  Not just one measurement, but an very large number in random locations and directions.  From which an "average slip" would be computed.  But a complicating factor is that it would vary according to weight a lot.  So one would have to do the test with a range of different weights also.  And then not just "slip direction" but also a random "direction of force".  And then variation of force.  Ultimately you might need to do a gazillion measurements.

The random pattern of Armstrong Alvina (with random relatively dense grout lines and varying stone look textures) flooring suggests to me it would do well with a hypothetical random slip test.  Other tiles which simulate large format stone tiles--a very popular theme in the most expensive vinyl flooring--might not do so well, because in anything like a linear direction you slip a long way to the first grout line.

Deciding on the Alvina pattern was difficult, because I had to defend it in my own mind against a more classical bathroom flooring pattern, or at least what is seen a lot now, using large format stone or porcelain tile pattern.  It was also easier to find those faux large stone patterns in compatible colors.  My favorite among the large stone patterns (and actually my favorite looking tile of all) is Congoleum's Berlin Oyster Bar.  They show it in a bathroom scene which looks elegant and totally gorgeous.  It has a lifetime warranty, a thick wear layer with aluminum oxide, and silver for microbial action.  This is a top line vinyl (the Armstrong Alvina is only midline), it looks great, it works with my colors obviously (it was not so obvious with the Alvina Buff, I had hopes, but all the same it wasn't clear if it had too much orange or not…now I believe after studying many pictures and print outs right next to the tile that it does not).

But THE thing which killed the Berlin Oyster Bar was my concern about how grippy it is.  For starters,  an actual stone tile floor like that would not be very grippy at all, or certainly not when new anyway.  It has the highly distressed look (which in this case I find OK because of the cool and random coloration) which suggests some added grip over a brand new stone floor.  But maybe not much.  And the grout lines are of no help at all being so widely spaced.

Too bad, I suppose, that I didn't have time to test a sample of the Congoleum.  But I felt that even if the distressed stone has a texture like sandpaper, when wet it wouldn't help much.  Though possibly, in actual use, the Congoleum would do fine because of the cushioning.  This is in their Air Step Vibe series which should have impressive cushioning (though I don't really know how it compares with the various Armstrong vinyls).  That cushioning adds grip, but it's hard to know how much without testing.

There were many other top line stone look vinyls made by Armstrong and Congoleum that might have worked.  Distressed stone look is the most popular pattern in the most expensive vinyls, and the lightest color of every pattern had a chance of working with my Calacatta shower tile.  Among all I saw (and I tried to look at the full catalogs) the Berlin Oyster Bar had the best look and coloration.  But I worried that none of them would have sufficient grip.

I'd buy the vinyl with a longer warranty if I could mainly because it would likely wear better over time.  Actually collecting on a vinyl flooring warranty is another matter, probably not worth losing any sleep due to being stuck with shorter warranty.  Usually most vinyl floors are replaced not because of "ordinary wear" (as would be covered but likely pro-rated in most warranties) but because of an adverse rip or tear (as just happened during the bathtub installation) which would not be covered anyway.

Now it's not surprising that a random grippier pattern might not wear as well anyway.  But it also appears that because of being a midline tile, the Armstrong Alvina Buff has a thinner wear layer.  Now it's also possible that a thicker wear layer might be too difficult or costly with the grippier pattern.  In examining both Armstrong and Congoleum catalogs, I found no exceptions, in all cases the vinyls with the grippiest patterns were not available in the longest warranties, and the patterns with the longest warranties were either large format stone or wood, neither of which looked very grippy.

It was very hard to tell this from on screen photos, which are hard to compare.  But printing out both the Berlin Oyster Bar and the Alvina Buff showed them both to have compatible colors with my bathroom, with the Alvina being just a bit less good for the Calacatta but better on everything else, and also favoring the general golden tone (the Oyster Bar coloration has some useless-to-me blue in it and only weakly accepts black and gold tones).  So actually, from what I've seen in prints, I like the Alvina Buff coloration better, a little, in my bathroom.  But I do worry that the actual flooring may have more orange.  It already pushes the limit a bit on that (Orange and Calacatta don't go that well--and my Kohler Almond already pushes that to the limit also), but harmonizes with calacatta due to random elements with white/black/purple.  The Berlin Oyster Bar never pushes the orange problem in the first place, but only weakly accepts black.

I quipped above that when one ultimately does replace a vinyl floor, it's an opportunity to try something different, or not to try something different.  Well actually I love the pattern of my existing vinyl floors in kitchen and both bathrooms.  The pattern is of 1.5 inch hexagon tiles with slight distressing and wide grout lines.  I don't know how the floors were originally (my mother and I bought the house when it was already 8 years old and noticeably abused) but even now they have some grip…and it is largely because of the close spaced faux grout lines.

Now even if I could get an exact replacement for the bathroom vinyl, I wouldn't buy it because the color is not quite right for the Calacatta.  I was planning on living with the mismatch (until it became clear I'd need to replace the floor) but it wouldn't be worth repeating giving the new shower tile.  The color is too yellow/orange for the calacatta.

But what might have been cool would have been a similar hex tile with gold veined calacatta.  I've seen real gold calacatta in hex matrix for sale.  That would be cool but high maintenance.

But I am puzzled why the basic hex tile pattern seems to have completely disappeared from both the Armstrong and Congoleum catalogs.  It is a grippy yet elegant pattern with infinite variations possible in color and distressing.  Has it become too 1980's?  To me it seems like a timeless pattern, and if it had been available in a grippy top line vinyl I might  have preferred that to the random Alvina--which has a kind of casual mountain lodge or vacation spa look which maybe I will get more used to but wasn't really something I had been seeking.

In my mind, though, I've created this image where my bathroom door is really the gateway to The Spa. The highlight in the Spa is the Shower/Bath.  Though the Shower Bath is an elegant classical structure, the floor that leads there is modern casual.  Welcome to my eclectic palace (and this is hardly the exception)!

Bathroom Flooring

Bathtub installation tore the flooring near the door.  Also, the toilet is being replaced.  The only reason not to do the flooring at this point is that I'm not not not replacing the vanity, and a future vanity will likely be smaller.

I want vinyl.  Vinyl sheet seems better to me than plank flooring for bathroom, despite the assurances from plank flooring people that it's great for bathrooms.

The best Armstrong I've seen is Milan  in the darker X4A18 color.  The white color might be better for bathroom, though, but I don't really like the white, so I'd choose the X4A18.

The Best Congoleum I've seen is Panning for Gold.  It bugs me, though, that the virtual tiles are too large.  I think bathroom should have the smallest faux tile pattern possible for better handling of shower splash water.

So I'm choosing the Armstrong Milan tonight.

Fixing the missing insulation under the new tub

Tub work is now entering 3rd day.  On the first day, the tile demolition team arrived at 9:30am and were done by 10:15.  They removed all the old tile, but left the sheetrock just above the tile.  I called Carrillo and they said that was OK.  Considering the mess that must have been made, they left everything amazingly clean afterwards.  The old fiberglass insulation was looking somewhat rotten in places, but I doubted it would make much difference.  I spent much time thinking how the niche was going to be installed in the somewhat off-centered and peculiar space in the side wall, but in the end decided it would just be a bit off-center and my plan (as of Sunday night, when I had previously emailed Naomi) was still good, that is for 12" wide nice that's 28" high with shelf in the middle.  (Naomi said the shelf would be made of the tile itself, so no trouble with color matching.)

On the second day, plumbers arrived around 9:30, took a one hour break around noon, and left around 4:45.  They removed the tub and toilet and installed the new valves and water lines connecting to the spray head and spout.  They had quickly sealed the existing water pipes (1/2 copper) with caps in the morning so I can't even remember how short the water was off.  They dug out the tar in the tub drain and put new drain into place and aligned it to tub (by lowering tub a few times).  They soldered in the new toilet flange (the old one had been merely crimped on, not soldered, so no wonder the toilet had often felt loose).  When they left there was still a smell of flux in the air, but I left doors open to the garage and my efficient ventilation system took care of it quickly.

Around 6:00 my friend took a look.  She was appalled at the appearance of the old insulation.  She asked me if they were going to fix that.  I said that nobody had said anything about it, and the plumbers surely weren't going to replace it.  Since I was not doing this project through a general contractor or builder, just a plumber and tile company, I didn't think there was anyone to fix the insulation.

Looking some more, I also realized there was a missing piece under the tub near the front of the tub, actually in the plumbing drain void in the house…a particularly bad spot for missing insulation.  Cold air leaking in through there would reach all under the tub and the bathroom and kitchen walls, and perhaps even deeper into the house.  I remembered later how this piece got missing--it was my fault!  When my mother and I bought this house in 1992, it had been badly treated.  There were openings behind where a refrigerator would go.  (I didn't learn until later that these openings are often needed for plumbing and extermination work.)  The bottom opening, wide open, had a large ant mound inside.  I dug out the ant mound, and then I started pulling on something that seemed like fibrous garbage.  Before I could see what I was doing I had pulled out an old rotten piece of fiberglass.  There wasn't any way to push it back in from there.  I soon forgot about that amidst all the repainting and minor repairs.  The first handyman we hired plugged up the holes with with sheetrock.

In the years since, I always wondered why the bathtub seemed so much colder than the bathroom itself on cold days.  Cold air seemed to be coming from somewhere.  The tile around the tub also seemed especially cold.  The lack of insulation in this critical part of the house could even have caused the deterioration in the tile itself (though, shower water leaking through increasingly large cracks could also explain it).

I never would have thought that underneath the bathtub the wall wouldn't even be finished, making the insulation there even more important.

Around 7:45 PM I went to Home Depot and selected R13 insulation (I picked the nicest looking roll, many were half open, stained, etc), a stapler and staples (I had only recently discovered my old Arrow T50 was broken), a dust mask, and a pair of garden shears and a new pair of gloves.  Though the correct way to cut fiberglass is somewhat involved (you are supposed to cut with on a scrap piece of plywood) an easy way is with garden shears, as I had just read online, and I had just one piece to cut, 13 inches long.

After Home Depot I went grocery shopping and got home around 9:45.  I watched a short video on how to (mostly how not to) install fiberglass insulation.  Sometime around 11 I started working on replacing the fiberglass piece and I was finished around 1:30AM.  I put towels around the work area and cleaned out the weeds that had grown into the void and some bits of old insulation.  Putting on mask and gloves, I removed the roll of R13 from the car and cut off the plastic cover with regular scissors.  I marked 12.5 inches with scissor cuts then cut somewhat crudely, intending to fill the gap below with a second piece.  I took the piece and pushed it into place.  Well I had failed to notice that there was a gap above the piece, so it was more than 1/2" short.  I pushed up a little hoping to push the piece into the upper gap, but that didn't work very well.

This was where it started to get complicated and difficult.  It was hard to cut a very short piece that was very straight, and where the fiberglass was cut to the same length as the paper backing.  Mostly it wasn't.  Finally I filled the bottom with several pieces, and some extra paper where the paper backing had come off.  Then I noticed that the far side was short too.  For some reason the spacing for this inner void was actually wider than the normal 14.5 inches between studs.  So I cut some pieces to fill that.

Here I had an idea which goes beyond typical construction (not that my actual work does).  It occurs to me that I want all open airspaces like this void to have paper in front of the fiberglass.  The paper protects the airspace from fiberglass breaking off and going into the air stream.

When I had pushed the pieces into the far side of the gap (which was also hard to reach) it left a big piece of visible fiberglass.  I fiddled with this for the longest time.  Finally I decided simply to cut off a new piece of paper (with fiberglass on it) and press it over the exposed pink.  I did similar work on the near side where there was visible fiberglass after stuffing another piece underneath.  All this extra fiddling was at least an hour's work and I even had to take a break to wipe of perspiration.  I also tried to stuff a bit of insulation into the gap above the piece, behind a horizontal 2x4, but that didn't work well and I gave up easily.  It was hard to work in such a tight space, being careful not to touch any of the new plumbing.

By code, I didn't do a great job, maybe not even passible.  But by my standard, I at least did get all the visible fiberglass covered with paper.  And the insulation work, if not great, is at least far better than nothing.  I may have squeezed too much fiberglass in the far side, but not enough in the gap up above the main piece, and I think those were the biggest technical weaknesses.  I continued looking for awhile and took pictures.  I was thinking I could already notice the difference in warmth and lesser transmission of noise from the refrigerator.  That was probably just my imagination.  WRT the noise, it now seemed to be coming from the ceiling instead of from lower down.

Even though the energy savings will probably never be as great as the cost, I think it will be nice for the bathtub not to be so cold in the future.  My version of construction goes like this.  I get the best professionals I know to do the big jobs, then I do little bits of detail work, sort of like extra hot rodding.  That's because making my home is art, not genius.  I once got a fortune cookie which said "Art does what it can, Genius does what it must."  On my home, I do everything I can to make it nicer.

I emailed the tile company about the ratty looking fiberglass above the tub, and they said they would fix that when they come out to do the tile on Thursday.

Shower Arm Mount

The plumbing company had identified the hose required for the new handheld shower spray, but not the shower arm mount for it.  I looked for that and found it, available in Delta stainless: U3401-SS-PK.

Bath Shower Heights

Soap Dish: 27 inches from floor to bottom of fixture (soap rests 1 inch higher), and 6 inches off center toward the back of tub (left).  This is a "compromise" bath/shower height, higher than my original (and all my life) of about 23 inches.  At 27 inches I can grab the soap without the least bending.  Yet it is still easy to reach in the tub, and fits neatly below the grab bar at 36 inches from finished floor.  I also had to consider interference between grab bar and soap dish, which is no problem at 27 inches but would be at 32.  But then 32 would overlap the grab bar for the top art of the soap tray.  It seems the soap tray designers got the minimum height, at about 5 inches, built in.  Minimum for 5" high soap dish would be 31 inches.  Still 27 gives more comfortable clearance than 31 would, and is an excellent overall height.  Standard call for showers having soap dish mounted high--above 48 inches, but that doesn't work for bath shower, and I've never liked high soap dishes for some reason.  I find it nice to plop the soap down lower.  But to further remove the dish from shower spray, just enough backward positioning.  Don't want it too far back to be inconvenient.

7 inches off-center, towards the back, seems to reject shower spray sufficiently in the Queens's bath.  (Actually, I live with the current one in far worse position, but the spray is usually narrow.)  7 inches back is not at all inconvenient, though convenience does diminish as you go further back.  8 inches possibly being a tad less convenient, but it would work also.

Shower Outlet (pipe on center): 78 inches, three inches higher than current 75.  Higher than 78, and it gets tougher for me (and worse Noelia) to work the arm diverter.  Tall people in my shower can use the fine handheld with almost 7 foot high head when attached to arm.  Current 75 barely clears my head by about 3 inches with big diverter and tall head, so it needs to be more.  (I've read current average construction is 80 inches, custom construction usually 84.)  I'm 5' 6.5", and I don't ever intend to sell this home.  Old code minimum, which was virtually standard before the 1970's, was 72 inches.

Niche: 44 inches high (or slightly lower) from floor and 28 inch high niche, divided into two parts with a shelf, meaning 13.5 inches high storage top and bottom.  14 inch is a good size for large bottles, even my largest are actually 10 but that means 12 would be about minimum.  Niche heights seem to go in 14 inch increments, 14, 28, etc.  44 inches puts shelf upper around 59 which is an easy reach, even for short person.

Shower valve (pipe on center): 47 inches the standard 48 inches seems just fine, especially for the Lahara control whose control action for velocity is a few inches below center.

Spout: bottom of spout has to be 4 inches from flood level of bath, probably 5-6 inches from tub to center of pipe, or 20-21 inches from floor.  (Tub is 14 7/8 inches high.)

Bath valve: 27 inches.  (

5.5/27 is what it is now.  No reason to change unless necessary for code, it seems right on target.

Separate Bath and Shower Mixing Valves

My latest idea, as I just posted to Terry Love's Blog:

I am really liking separate valves for tub and shower and hoping I can get the plumber to do it. Especially with a valve like Delta 1700, my plumber's favorite, it can't be too low when you're taking a shower because you have to reach underneath the center of control to control the all important volume, so mounting it below 48 inches on center is lousy when your taking a shower, but obviously makes the valve unreachable if you're taking a bath.

AND, I think a Moentrol single handle V/T control (it appears no one else makes a control like this anymore) makes the best sense for a tub. My plumber seems not to like this valve and strongly prefer Delta. But let me explain why the Moentrol is perfect for bathtub. During one bathing session, you may need to adjust the volume and temperature in many different ways. You start out full force hot or nearly so. Then if you overshoot, you run colder water for awhile at some intermediate volume. Then you run a trickle hot during the bath itself. If it gets too hot you may need another blast of medium cold, and so on. A single handle valve is perfect for making all these changes on the fly, even if it doesn't allow finer control of pressure, and the "memory" aspect of temperature control isn't that great.

OTOH, the 1700 with dual handles is perfect for a shower. For a shower, and for especially for one person, you basically can set the temperature control once and forget it. Just turn on and off and up and down the volume as needed with the larger volume handle.

So this gives another reason for having dual valves. The temperature dynamics are completely different. For shower you just want constant temperature, for bath you need to vary the temperature all over the place. And if you take a bath, you need to remember to re-set the temperature next time you take a shower. And it might be good to have different kinds of controls as well, with dual handle control for shower and single handle for bath, as I have just described.

Finally, there's a third good reason for separate mixing valves. No surprises. This is especially true with spout type diverter. I can't count the number of times I've pulled the spout diverter and it doesn't go as expected--wrong spray head selected, wrong spray option, too much pressure, etc. If you have a fixed control (or another kind of diverter) you don't get those kinds of surprises. You just ramp up the volume from zero. But even with an in-wall diverter, you can still have the surprises coming from forgetting to check which way the diverter is turned.

Getting the ISY994i Insteon Home Controller to Work Again

I finally got around to installing the new Insteon 2413s modem on Sunday evening last week.  I had figured installation of the new modem would be a piece of cake.  I imagined that all I would have to do is unplug the old modem, plug the new one in, connect it to the ISY994i serial port, and run the "Restore PLM" and "Restore Devices" in the web based program, and my home control system (with automated lights and bedroom macro controls) would be working again.

It was not at all that simple, it ultimately took me about 4 hours of frustration to get my home control system working again.  At least I now have ideas as to what was going wrong and how it can be done relatively quickly if I should need to again.

Here's my thinking (which is easier to explain than the nearly endless trial-and-error).  When the new PLM is plugged in, it has no links to other Insteon devices in my network.  That means that other devices cannot "relay" the messages that the ISY994i is sending out to link and program those devices, and the RF/PLC signals just have to be strong enough from the ISY994i itself.  This is particularly difficult after the front door light (a fluorescent with daylight sensor) turns on because that light generates huge amount of electrical and RFI noise.  The LED patio lights and Kitchen Table light on dimmer also generate a huge amount of noise.  Once I figured that noise was blocking the signals, I turned off the lights I could but I had no switch to turn off the front door light (yes, that is the way I arranged it…the front door light is automatic only, cannot be turned off by accident, and if I need to change the bulb once every 7 years I turn off the breaker).  But then, the breaker for the front door light is on the same circuit as ALL the Insteon devices nearest to the ISY994i (as it turns out, just my luck).  I could have waited until the next day (Monday?) but I never have time to mess with this stuff before going to work.  So I tried to solve the problem as best I could at night with the front door light on when I have it's circuit on.

The trick was to pull out the Insteon module which controls the living room Lava Lamp (on the same circuit as front door light) and plug it into the outlet nearest to the ISY994i.  THEN I could flip the front door light breaker to off and still program that module.  (There's also any ISY994i trick in which you right click on each individual device and a menu lets you link/program JUST that one device, rather than ALL the devices--which takes a LONG time and can still fail completely when there are connection difficulties.)

Then I programmed all other Insteon modules this way, by temporarily plugging them into still active outles in the kitchen near the ISY994i.  With 3 Insteon modules plugged in in the kitchen, and capable of relaying Insteon messages, I finally had enough signal strength flip the front door light breaker on again and program the kitchen light and patio light (which are on the same super noisy circuit as the Front Door light, wouldn't you know, no wonder I had so much trouble with X10).

Then I put all the modules back in their places…and everything worked despite the line noise because of the way Insteon modules cooperatively relay messages.

Before discovering this method, I had endless tried running the "Restore PLM" and "Restore all devices" programs in the ISY994i menus.  It seemed as though they were always linking my devices in the reverse order that I had done originally…starting with the last modules I had added to my system and working back to the first modules I had added to my system.  That is likely the wrong approach.  Better to start from the first devices added to the network (which are likely the ones closer to the PLM which you *could have* programmed initially) and work forwards to the last devices added to the network (which might not be reachable until the previous ones are linked).

But I don't know if that would have made any difference, since even when I tried manually I couldn't link the closer devices by themselves first anyway, I actually had to remove modules from their existing locations and flip the front door light breaker before I could get sufficiently signal quality to do the linking.  Now I don't know whether if it would have been easier had I waited until daylight (which turns the front door light off) or pulled out the front door light bulb first.

One interesting thing was I discovered you could make the PLM signal devices that it can actually communicate with by pressing the button 3 times (or was it 4 times?).  Then the nearby devices that it can communicate with start blinking their comm lights.  When I tried this (which was before I finally came up with the working strategy described above) it seemed I had native communication to the Lava Lamp module, the kitchen light, and the patio light.  But then with the PLM connected to the ISY994i it seemed to be unable to link those devices anyway.  So it seems like the linking process that ISY994i does might require better signal quality than the "test" performed by the PLM.

Meeting the Plumber

I finally had consolation with the Plumber, the principal Plumber himself.  As a result, I've made the following choices:

Valve will be Delta 1700 series.  He has installed and used this himself for over a decade and highly recommends it.  It gets high marks elsewhere too (though in this link they put the Hansgrohe…read very expensive and hard to get parts…on top).  I had pre-selected either this Delta or the Moentrol, depending on plumber's advice.  The plumber knows how these things stand up to local hard water, the availability of spare parts, etc.  So I go with his advice, and AFAIK the Delta has many advantages, intuitive use, upgradeable platform, and made-in-USA.

When the plumber was out I suggested the 17078-SS valve cover, but have subsequently decided I like the 17038-SS slightly better and will update the plumber on Monday.

I will not get second hand spray head mounted on vertical rod with in-wall flow valve.  That would add $750 to the price for something I don't much use, and I'm not sure I like it better either.  I will use shower arm diverter and hand spray attached as I now have in other bathroom, using the Delta paddle type shower arm diverter which is a small miracle--it works better than anything.  Plumber recommends getting some more of those paddle type diverters for future replacement.

As an aside, this will also permit a full length horizontal grab bar underneath the spray heads.  The vertical rod might have interfered with that.

For the time being, I've chosen the Delta H2OKinetic 52660-SS spray head.  It sounds very good and gets good reviews, and the finish will match the Delta valve cover of course.  Plumber says spray head is a personal choice and easily replaced later and he didn't recommend anything.  I had pre selected this spray head (also supposedly self-cleaning) even if I were to get the Moen valve.

I will replace the toilet.  The old one has to be removed to get the tub in anyway.  It wasn't that I didn't want new toilet but rather only I wanted to avoid the additional expense now.  But it would be nice to have new toilet particularly to get comfort height and elongated bowl.  So I told the plumber that and he recommended the Kohler K-4484 and K-4304 combination with Sloan pressurized flush unit.  Apparently the Sloan unit (actually available for many different toilets) has become the top standard since new water regulations (1.2 gallons or something like that…1.6 is now ancient history here) went into effect…it has the best pressured flush system available.  The Toto toilet I had preselected was only recommended in the 1.6 flush version, I had no preselection in 1.2 gallon flush.   Kohler is a top quality brand, good styling, an American brand which does a lot of manufacturing in USA, and the Almond color will match my Kohler tub perfectly.  The Sloan flush unit will be repairable for the foreseeable future, especially through my current plumber who recommended it.

I will get the Kohler Coralais 8 inch bathtub diverter spout.  The plumber was aware of how heavy and solid this unit is compared with others.  It's solid brass.  But the finish will have to be Chrome since it's unavailable in Brushed Nickel or Stainless steel.  At that point, he suggested making everything chrome, or going with the 7.6 inch Moen diverter spout I had preselected to make everything brushed nickel.

But I had already decided otherwise, that it was OK for the spout to be chrome and everything else Brushed Nickel.  I know this is bending "the rules" but if you read design blogs as much as I do, you find that nearly everyone bends the rules.  Mixing different finishes *can* be done.  My thought was a chrome spout, sort of in "the middle", with everything else brushed nickel would be OK.  If the Corolais had been available in Brushed Nickel I would have gotten that.  But function is the most important thing, and the Coralais looks like the best diverter spout for someone with a Bellwether tub.  Looks made for that purpose.  Matches the style too.  Most other spouts are too short.

Speaking of which, the Delta valve cover and shower head are not actually brushed nickel either.  They are "stainless steel."  But apparently Delta's regular Stainless is pretty close to what everyone else calls Brushed Nickel.  It has a slight yellow undertone.  Delta doesn't have a brushed nickel option for most parts.  From all I can see online it's close enough, and I've read discussions on this too.  Delta has recently introduced "Arctic Stainless Steel" specifically to be less yellow and match what other manufacturers call Stainless Steel.  I want the original Delta stainless, basically the same as Brushed Nickel.  Stainless Steel gets its colors from the steel, large amounts of nickel, and tiny bit of chromium.

The warmth of Brushed Nickel and Delta's stainless is a great match for the Almond color of my tub and the gold lines in the porcelain tile.  Chrome looks bluish and cool, good for white but not almond.  I also just like (have always liked) the look of brushed nickel, and it doesn't show water spots, etc.  For something that gets cleaned only once a month by my housecleaners, that will be best.  Some people say that Brushed Nickel is a fad…but I don't think so.  I see Brushed Nickel, which was the standard high end finish before the 1920's, as resuming its rightful place beside Chrome.  My idea of a fad would be oil rubbed bronze…who needs that kind of maintenance hassle?  Brushed Nickel is said to be equally durable to Chrome, and some say Brushed Nickel is more durable than Chrome.

The plumber will pick up and deliver the tub when it is needed from Ferguson.  That way he provides delivery and warranty.  He says he deals with Ferguson all the time, and will buy the other parts from them also.  So I will need to cancel existing order with Ferguson and have it switched over to the plumber.  I have emailed Ferguson.  I worry that the sales lady might loose some commission doing it this way (going to the plumber instead).

Ants, Ants

About two weeks ago, following the onset of cooler wetter autumn weather, ants invaded 3 key areas of my home: the two bathrooms and the kitchen.  Previously this sort of thing had not much happened, usually a few ants in bathroom OR kitchen were easily dealt with by spraying around the foundation of the house nearby.  Right now, my foundation is nearly all up to date with ant spray (from last weekend) but I still have ants, and I'm beginning to worry that they are actually coming into my house through the plumbing voids in the foundation, which are accessible but just barely.  They used to be inspected when I had annual termite inspections…and the termite inspectors cut the required holes in the walls and put covers over them.  But they are still not so easy to get to, necessarily.

Up until last weekend, I was pretty much just fooling around about the ants.  I bought some ant traps and placed them in what seemed like strategic places Sunday before last.  But the ants ignored the ant traps, and kept growing in numbers.  I also got some ant baits.  Those seemed to work better, at least the ants detected them and started carrying them away.  I renewed the baits in the kitchen (put near an ant trail leading to the cupboard) several times in the kitchen during the week, and twice in the hall bath (in the most inaccessible corner of the outside of the bathtub).  But after days of apparently taking the baits, the ants were still coming.  For a few days I was hopeful the baits were working, but it was not to be.  I've never had success with ant bait type products…going back to my childhood.  It's almost always the case that ants ignore them, and then when they don't ignore them, they just don't seem to work.  But it seems like such a great idea, I keep trying.

The tried and true method it to stop ants with a permethrin type spray like Raid.  It not only kills ants, it creates a barrier they refuse to cross--and that's the most important part.  I'd recently discovered the unscented version of Raid and have been using that.  I try to use ant spray mostly outside around the foundation, and that almost always works.  Sometimes I spray baseboards inside the house.  Last year the ants in the new hallway floor were so bad (they were having a huge ant war or something right on my new hallway floor…millions of ants coming from all sides during a rainstorm) I actually sprayed the floor itself as far as 8 inches from the baseboards.

The kid gloves came off this weekend.  I was getting quite tired, especially, of the ants starting on my meals before I had even finished them.  And they loved glasses left on the dining room table.  Previously I sprayed a key foot of the table, and that seemed to help for awhile, but then it was clear the ants were getting on to the table via the maze of wires that connects to my computer, monitor, and accessories on the table, which was not so easily dealt with.  I am not going to spray the dining room table or my computer equipment!

On Saturday I sprayed the front of the house, from near the garage door, across the front door stoop, and to the chimney.  That was all I could easily access, even then I had to remove many new leaves from my neighbor's tree from the crack between the house and the walkway leading up to the house.  The leaves in that crack provide a path for ants to walk on and also would deflect the ant spray.  I couldn't spray any more of the front of the house or the north side because it seriously needed edging.

I also sprayed just along a line above the kitchen doorway, where it was clear ants were going from one side of the kitchen to the other.  (I'm not really sure which way they were going.)  That stopped the train of ants going over the doorway, but they still seemed to be on both sides.

By Sunday, it was clear that wasn't helping much.  So then I edged the entire north side of the house using a string trimmer and a pair of scissors for the tricky bits that the edger can't do.  (People don't believe this, but if you trim with a string edger first the fine work is most easily done with something really small, like a pair of scissors).  After I had it all perfectly trimmed (the best I've ever done, actually) I sprayed the entire exposed cement foundation from the north side of the back patio to the front door.  That took more than a half can of Raid.  Then I sprayed where the hose attaches in the back yard (I saw ants coming in via the hose from the back yard).  By that time, there was little left in the can so I sprayed the back yard side of the foundation, which had been previously done a few weeks ago--but there's been heavy rains and wind since then.  I tossed that can, but still had a little in the can I had been using previous weeks.

By evening it was clear they were still attacking the dining room table.  The appeared to be coming from the special audiophile quality AC outlet near the kitchen table.  So then I did what I really didn't want to do.  I unplugged the UPS that powers my kitchen computer and A/V equipment, covered the AC outlet receptacles with painters tape, and sprayed the outlet cover and nearby wall.  I wiped it off with a paper towel so it wasn't dripping wet (I was wearing gloves, of course) and then let it dry or at least settle for 8 minutes.  Then I removed the painters tape and plugged back in the UPS.  Well that was the trick!  I haven't seen any ants on the kitchen table since Monday morning.

I also sprayed around the baseboards of the vanity in the master bath.  That kept them off the bathroom floor, which was getting worrisome, but not off the bathroom vanity.  Maybe once in my life I've had to spray an actual counter top (and later cleaned it off) but that kind of thing I seriously try to avoid.

As of today, the kitchen table is clear of ants, as is the master bathroom floor.  But they are still on the kitchen counters (though somewhat diminished), around the hall bath and lavatory, and on the master bath counter top, as well as in the dishwasher until it cycles (so I've been cycling it every day, just rinse cycle until I have a full load to wash, as I do right now, and had to go to store to get more Cascade Complete with Dawn).

I bought a fresh can of raid and I'm going to do the last bit outside that still shows ants…the crack between foundation and driveway in front of the garage door.  The ants might be getting in there, traveling through the attic, and down into the kitchen and bathrooms.  (Or, as I now worry, they might be actually coming into the house through the plumbing voids.)

I have been treating nuisance ant mounds in the yard with Dawn in water solution for the last year.  Dawn actually seems to work and is probably less toxic than most such things.  I bought some "safe for food preparation areas" natural ant spray called Orange Guard, and used that on a mound near the back patio on Sunday.  It seems to work about as well as Dawn.

*****

Updates: Ants continued into the next week.  A critical line of Raid on the wall beside the kitchen table now seems (finally!) to be blocking ants from the kitchen table.  I've been routinely spraying the inside of the dishwasher with Orange Guard.  A friend cleaned the counter tops.  I put some Raid on a kleenex and wiped under the counter above the dishwasher.  That seemed to help a lot.  I sprayed Raid into and around the spout and drain in the Queen's bathtub…which seems to have stopped the very persistent ants there.  On Thanksgiving Day I trimmed the one bit of remaining weeds alongside the front walkway and sprayed there and around into the crevice in front of the garage door.  The ants had been quite active in and around that crevice.

Augie the Cat

My friend rescued a cat we call Augie (Augustus…because he was discovered in August) and asked me if she could take care of it in my back yard as an outside cat.  I gave my consent.  I didn't necessarily want a cat, but I like the fact that it has given my friend a reason to come over to my house every day.  Before Augie, my friend could never remember how to use my security system even after 5 years of knowing me and trying.  Now she operates it without problem, and it's seeming more like she may be moving over before too long.  She has already been spending much more time at my house.  Augie is a nice cat too, and I'm thinking my gentle but firm paternal influence has helped him mature better, though he still has a tendency to swipe at you with his claws.

In early October I got the new house with heated pad (heated pad not yet used) which has done very well.  (The first house my friend bought had collapsed within a week, and kept needing re-assembly daily due to cat fights and cat sitting on top.)  The new house now sits on top of a homebrew table made of cinder blocks and a piece of plywood.  The homebrew table is essentially impossible to move or tip over, and it also gives Augie a place to sit underneath with some protection from the neighbor cat we call Alexander, who is still much bigger than Augie and has often come back to my backyard to reclaim what he thought was his territory.  They do get into fights, but seemingly less as time goes on.

Augie got his vasectomy last week, after the previous week of false starts--she recruited her daughter to take the cat to the vet, and her daughter wasn't entirely reliable for the first week, then finally we got everything pre-arranged with me taking Augie to the vet as a backup plan on the next Monday, and this time my friend's daughter followed through and got it done, so thankfully I didn't have to take Augie to the vet myself after all (in the early morning when I'm usually sleeping).

I had thought my friend was going to do neutering, but apparently she hasn't done that with her last two male cats and she finds that vasectomy seems to stop spraying as well as neutering, or maybe better, since her first two cats were neutered at the correct age but still ended up spraying, while none of her vasectomized cats have sprayed.  For 3 days after the surgery he had to be kept inside in the Hall Bathroom.  I moved my showering to the unused (and in some disrepair) master bath during that time, and haven't moved back yet.  After the 3rd day my friend cleaned the bathroom out, and only after that she decided not to keep him in the bathroom for the remaining 10 days of "reduced activity" usually suggested after cat surgery, not wanting to clean the bathroom again.  So we have kept him outside, and he has been relatively passive anyway, sleeping most of the night away, except for a couple of brief fights with Alexander that I broke up.

One of the bigger problems in the back yard recently has been ants, including very nasty fire ants.  My friend does not want to use Amdro ant killer, and would rather not use any chemical ant killer (someday we might want to grow organic foods and spices) but does allow me to spray Pyrethrin based Raid Ant Killer alongside the house which has helped.  I remember one day in late September walking across the back yard in my bare feet--and getting welts that took weeks to go away--it seemed like the fire ants were were everywhere.  The back patio is often swarming with ants also.  My friend cleaned the patio last weekend and it didn't help and might have even made matters worse.

I resprayed Raid ant killer along the back side of the house today (I like the new unscented version) and also very carefully removed and then sprayed the very bottom of the feet of the table where Augie is fed, wiped the excess spray off, and let it dry before putting the table back.

I tried to get ant proof feeder at a pet store, but ended up ordering a new Fool-A-Bug feeder online.  I already have one of those somewhere in Lyndhurst but needed it now.

I'm researching natural ant killing or diverting techniques and will post on that.

**** Update

Augie was taken into the house several nights when it was below 32 degrees and windy.  I actually think the house is good down to 0F (they suggest that in the online advertisements, and reviewers have done it safely also) but it makes my friend worry.  I created a rule that says he should be taken in either when it goes below 30 degrees, or at or below 32 if it is very windy or rainy.  I think this rule is safe even if the cat heater fails.  Because the cat house is in front of the sliding glass door, it gets some residual heat from the house, and the cat inside, even if the heater were to fail.  To be safe, I have also tested the cat heater with infrared thermometer several times…it works exactly as claimed.  I have an alarm on the AC circuit so if the ground fault detector breaks the circuit, or anything else causes the breaker to trip, an alarm will wake me up.  I monitor the temperature on Weather Underground before going to bed.

Despite all these precautions, my friend wanted me to take Augie in when it had only gotten down to 35 the first time this fall, but I refused, and Augie was fine.  It seems mostly that Augie would prefer to stay in his house, and I have to wait very patiently and beg him to come out of his house.  I know better than to pull him out of his house.

Augie has behaved perfectly in the Queen's Room overnight.  I put him on the bed and he mostly just stays there.  He uses the covered litter box.  I also provide him water but not food (I want to feed him only outside, at least if possible).  He also has a scratching pole.  I never hear any whining or scratching (but thanks to the soundproof doors in my house…I probably wouldn't anyway).  All my friend has had to do afterwards is clean the litter box and sweep a bit of litter that has fallen on the floor.

Even though he has behaved perfectly, I try to put Augie back out as soon as possible.  Since I sleep late, that was as late sat 12 noon on one day.  But I didn't need to worry, the room was fine.  Still, it's probably not good to press my luck with a youth cat if I don't have to.  It's best if he does not acquire bad behaviors in the first place.   I would not be surprised if this winter we have some deep freezes, and Augie may have to stay inside for a whole day or more.  But by that time, he'll also be more mature, so there's hope he'll continue being the perfect back yard cat.

In fact, and I think this is largely or at least partly due to my (experienced with cats since being a child) skill with cats, Augie seems like one of the best behaved cats around.  He doesn't whine or anything.  I feed him strictly on schedule (as soon as I get up) and try not to respond positively to any whining or scratching.  If he is whining, I might hold off from feeding him for a few minutes until he stops, if I have time.  If you make a point of not responding to whining, they don't keep whining very long.  I always do feed him, so he has no need to whine either.  Cats don't really need to talk, and might prefer never having to.  What's good for them is purring, and Augie does that quickly when picked up or taken inside to the bedroom.

But he does start whining when he senses my friend is around.  That's because she does respond positively to whining behavior.  "Oh, see, he's lonely, he misses me," she says.  She responds positively to cat whining, but unpredictably to human male whining.

Cleaning the Front Yard

My friend and I worked the front yard for three weekends through October 26 to get it cleaned up.  The front sidewalk area had gotten particularly bad because of intense rains, regular irrigation, and a water leak up the street which ran down my sidewalk for at least one day.  So we edged and dug up all the dirt on the sidewalk, which took two garbage day loads to remove (and still isn't completely removed).  My friend poured 2 gallons of vinegar into the cracks to help kill weeds.  I think I mowed the lawn twice in October alone (though the first might have been last few days of September).  In the Jul-Oct timeframe, I mowed the back yard completely at least twice also.

We have started removing Palmie.  Palmie apparently didn't root well, and in September she was leaning half way sideways after a strong wind.  Palmie's leaves had grown too big for the weak and cracked root structure to support.  Palmie will have to be replaced.  She had not been installed by a tree or nursery specialist.  Next time I will get the nursery to install the palm.  I also wanted the palm installed further back to get a better view when backing car out of driveway.  Because of broken roots it was not possible to transplant palmie.  Also the nursery won't do that, and tree specialists are very expensive, like $250/hr.  Much cheaper, and less risky even under the best circumstances, simply to get a new palm and let the nursery install it.  Only problem is our sentimental attachment, and after seeing the sad truth of palmie's poor rooting my friend was able to get over that.

Glass Tiles

Here is website selling glass tiles.

Haven't seen anything I want.  Meanwhile, my chosen tile company took measurements today and is obtaining a sample or I Bianchi di Rex Calacatta, so that path is looking good.

Kohler Almond Sample

I received the sample of Almond colored porcelain from Kohler on Tuesday.  It's not as green appearing as the picture on my monitor, so much more neutral and does go with many colors it didn't seem to go with on screen, including hues with a bit of orange or pink which looked like they clashed horribly with Kohler Almond onscreen.

I'd still skip the Crema Marfil's, however, but now most Calacatta's seem to work OK, even the one from Piastrella that seemed to clash worst of all.  The Porcelanosa Calacatta Gold now works, and may be my #3 choice after Rex and Gazzini.

Turns out the bathroom floor has a LOT of orange and may still clash with Kohler Almond.  But if the floor is always below the tub, you can get used to it.

La Crosse Wall Clock

Every time I replace the battery on my 12 inch round La Crosse Atomic Wall Clock, I'm perplexed about what to do.

Here's the video instruction.

What to do?  Nothing.*  The clock hands will move just a bit, then the clock will try to receive the radio signal.  If nothing is received, the clock will then set itself to 4, 8, or 12, and stay there until it does receive a radio signal, which might take up to 5 days.

Once the clock has received the signal, it will set itself to Pacific time.  You then press the time zone button and it will set to local time.

*Not always.  If the clock is still running before you replace the battery, you press down on the lever 20 times after removing the battery to discharge the circuitry.  Then you put in the new battery.

I have always tried to get the clock to do something by pressing the time zone button or using the lever.

I'm glad to have this clock.  But a perfect design would be more like this:

1) No lever you have to press 20 times to discharge.

2) A slide switch for time zone.  You set it once and never have to set when replacing battery.  Plus you always see what it is set to.  You don't have to wait for the clock to set before setting time zone.

3) Another slide switch for Daylight Savings Defeat.

4) Notice on back: please wait up to 5 days to complete first signal reception.

5) On inserting battery, time would go forward to 12:00:12 and stop until time signal received.  Brand new clock comes set to 12:00:00.

My 9 year old clock also has a peculiar defect on daylight savings time change days (which it has automatically kept up with thankfully).  At first, it changes the time correctly at 1 or 2 am.  But in the afternoon, it changes back to the now incorrect savings mode.  Then at 8pm (or 12 midnight, can't remember which) it sets itself correctly until the day of the next change.

I wonder if they have fixed that bug by now.  I got two round clocks in 2005 or maybe earlier and they both had the same bug.

BTW, I am a big fan of daylight savings time.  I like it as it is, or better yet I would make it year round and then double daylight savings time in the summer.  I care not what "God's" time is.  What is God's time zone anyway?

Mother Lode

I've just found a huge number (5500) of stone look porcelain tiles at buytile.com and just in the first hundred I'm seeing some good matches to Almond.  The plainer or darker ones would work in two tone combination, but the lighter ones like Roma Stone Avorio Natural could work by themselves like the best Calacattas I like.  I see the manufacturers include Rex and Gazzini.

Gazzini: Another Great Italian Tile

Reading a gardenweb thread I stumbled upon the name of another Italian tile maker: Gazzini.  They might be a little easier to get than Rex.  Their Glamstone collection has two imitation stone tiles that work OK with Kohler Almond: Cream (which matches so well it's almost boring), Ivory (whiter but compatible with Almond), Palissandro White (interesting), and Calacatta Ivory (very good).

Now Calacatta Ivory from Gazzini is a very close second choice to Calacatta from Rex, both being far better match and far more interesting than my #3 choice, Calacatta Gold from Marazzi.

Updates

1.  Here is an interesting possible new table to support the new heated kitty house I just ordered.  It's a bit higher than the current table at 24 inches, but otherwise perfect.  Here is another interesting table, 24x24 and lower at 18 inches high, same as current table.  Here is the house itself, where I bought it at Overstock.com.

2.  First weekend in October 2014 saw me and my friend working on the yard on both Saturday and Sunday.  I mowed front and back and did some easy edging.  She did some hand edging and started cleaning the sidewalk which was covered in mud a couple weeks ago due to water line break up the street.  We examined the palm and started taking it apart for trash.  We agreed I will need to get a new palm and have it planted properly so the bottom section doesn't rot out and the roots secure to the ground.

3.  I'm about half way done sealing the flat speaker wire to the wall in the Queen's Room with caulk.  When removing the scaffolding tape from one section I tore some of the wall paint badly enough it needed repair with speckling compound, which did work.  I can only seal a few feet per day and it requires lots of hand washing afterwards.

4.  I Bianchi di Rex in Calacatta looks by far and away the nicest tile to match Kohler Almond.  Marazzi Calacatta Gold is a distant second.  No other Calacatta's seem to work.  I've found a few Armstrong sheet vinyl flooring varieties which work, if I need to do floor, which I hope to avoid.

Porcelanosa Calacatta clashes with Kohler Almond

Back when I was looking at Porcelanosa, I wasn't looking for Calacatta.  I was still looking for Crema Marfil, which I later determined to generally not work with Kohler Almond color.

Also I didn't know their little trick, the Porcelain tiles are under "floor tiles."  But those are what you want for everything in a bath.

Sure enough, Porcelanosa has a wonderful Calacata Gold in porcelain.  I thought I was saved, this was it, perhaps even more engaging than Rex, and probably far more attainable.

Unfortunately it doesn't match Kohler Almond at all, on any monitor, and especially on my near calibrated 34XBR960, the best CRT TV ever made, which has far more accurate colors than most LCD monitors (regardless of whether the light comes from fluorescent or LEDs).

In fact, few colors by Porcelanosa work with Kohler Almond at all, and especially not most beige like colors, which are far to pink, and strongly clash with the slightly greenish yellow.  The I Bianchi di Rex is a remarkable exception whose basic coloration is something like gold, itself a more saturated greenish yellow.

But Porcelanosa's "gold" is a tad orange and pink, like most of their beige colors.  You have to go to the olive type browns to find something that matches.  The color has to have bite to match Kohler's boldness.

Roble Cognac is a nice contrasting brown, with it wouldn't make for a good single tone shower.  It would have to be used with another tone that is more like the Almond itself, and what color is that???

Recife Gris also works, and is somewhat lighter.  But this looks like some abused boulder found at a construction site, ugly, compared with Calacatta, the Marble of Kings.  Which would you prefer in your shower?  It's amazing to me how many these days are choosing the turds when they could have the jewels for the same price.  (Recife Gris is particularly weatherbeaten looking and ugly.  Roble Cognac is better, quite nice for a refined liquor keg, but too dark for the whole shower.)

I'd seen the Rex at a website sold for $8.xx, down from $10.xx, with list price of $25.00--higher priced than quite a bit of real Calacatta.  It's better looking than most real Calacatta I've seen too, much of which doesn't actually match Kohler Almond.  The mismatching Calacatta has background that is too pale white, or veining that is too black, tending toward navy black instead of brown black.

That website with the $8.xx Rex seems to have disappeared.  Anyway, I was not counting on getting mine at a gray market price.  Most tile seems to be sold online at about half of suggested retail, and that maybe something I could hope for through a tile installer.  I think it's best if they can obtain the tile.

That would still be hugely expensive relatively speaking.  But I'd feel lucky to have it all.

How much remodel?

Re-thinking, and inspired by the likes of Victoria Elizabeth Barnes, I've decided to go the way that most girls want, tile on the bathroom floor.  It gets wet a lot, and nothing handles that better than porcelain tile.  Scrub it all you want.  With gold on white calcatta porcelain tile, you feel clean when it's clean.

But when installing a tile floor, you generally want to do it all at once.  That means removing toilet and vanity.  That means full, not partial, bathroom remodel.

I don't think I want to do all that now.  So I don't think I'll do the floor now.  So it follows that it might not be good to do the wainscoting either.

If I did want to go all the way, I've decided to get the highly regarded Toto Ultramax toilet, 1.6 gallon if I can get it, with ADA.

Picking out the vanity, bowl, and faucet I just can't do now, I don't think.

Castle in Scotland

Looks very nice.

Colors that match Kohler Almond

Kohler Almond is too yellow for all the Crema Marfil's that I've looked at, even the one from Rex that I thought would work.  I am putting the colors side by side on my monitor now, color accuracy is far better on my Sony 34XBR960, which I can switch to.  But the effect of Almond being too yellow for Crema Marfil is so strong I can't believe it would be ok with a better rendition.

It seems like Crema Marfil is a perfect match for Kohler Bisque, which may be why Kohler Bisque is like that.  It is basically, as my friend says, dirty white, with basically no yellow to rub against the Crema.  Crema and Bisque go together, makes sense, right?

What does go with Kohler Almond, however, may include many charmers.  One it does include, apparently, Calacatta.*  The white in Rex Calacatta (I Bianchi di Rex collection)  matches Kohler Almond perfectly on my Samsung monitor.  The gold in the Calacatta resonates well with the Almond also.  It looks like I Bianchi di Rex has 4 different Calacatta's (!) and two of them work especially well, and two others just so so.  But no Calacatta clashes like Almond with Crema Marfil.

(*Calacatta is the marble of kings, rarer and more expensive than the well known Caracarra.)

Calacatta is very cool.  Could I imagine a solid bathroom in Rex Calacatta.  Dreaming.  Dreaming.  It might be too much anyway.  But forget the two tones and whatever, to dip down to wainscoting have a diagonal piece that connects full shower level to wainscoting level.  Ta Da!

Looking some more online, some porcelain calacatta are too white, with the lines too gray.  I need the one where the white is very off white (just like almond) and the lines are gold (which matches my wall coloring, and I just like it).

So far, as I might expect, I like the Rex Calacatta the best.  It seems to have exactly the right colors, and interesting veining.  But not surprisingly it's very expensive.  List price is $25 per square foot but I've seen it on sale for as low as $9 per square foot--which is still 2-3 times more expensive than porcelain calacatta tiles by US manufacturers I've seen so far.

Piastrella has pretty good colors in their $3 per square foot (discount price) White Calacatta.  It's not as good as Rex, but it's the best alternative I've seen so far (I wrote, before seeing the Marazzi, which may be a tad better).  Except that it's made in China, which I'd rather avoid, but probably OK in a porcelain tile.

Marazzi also makes pretty good calacatta in their Timeless series.  Frankly I like the Rex a lot better, but what brought me to Marazzi was also the fact that they make small calacatta porcelain in small hex tiles, and they are the first company I've seen with that offering.  Small hex tiles are the only kind of tile suitable for bathroom floor next to tub.  Curiously, I can get genuine Calacatta hex tiles for less than Calacatta Porcelain next tiles.  I still want the porcelain for less maintenance and zero staining.  I actually like the huesin Marazzi's fake calacatta better than the real thing from Builder Depot.

But if I thought BD's porcelain calacatta in hex mosaic was expensive, Marvel Calacatta in square mosaic tiles costs twice as much!  And I don't even like it very much.  The white is more gray than almond, the veining is more like gray and black blotching, no gold colors and no particular depth.  The quire pattern is boring.  To be fair, I'm only judging from a Mac monitor.

Now I was just thinking, I don't actually need the floor to match perfectly.  I'm already mismatching by using small tiles on floor, and large on the wall.  I'm thinking I could use a darker color than calacatta white on the floor.  And I like the Marvel Bronze Luxury Mosaic, or at least I like it better than the Marvel Calacatta.  But it's also very high priced,  I don't like it that much.

Looking at all the Carrara Marbles at BuildDirect, I like the Calacatta Statuario the best--it has the most almond toned white, and interesting veining.  But I still like the look of the Rex better.  The Rex has similar tone to the Statuario but it has maven more interesting veining, with gold instead of black.  Most of the other Carraras and Calacattas look almost blueish by comparison, with exception of the Statuarietto Venato, which has a nice tone, but much less interesting veining than the Statuario.

Even better marble porcelain

Crema Marfil by rex.  I love the way they give very complete specs.  The color is a very nice beige which goes well with brown…but what about almond and black?

This is a porcelain floor tile, but it basically looks flat from what I can see.

Now it appears the wall tiles at Porcelanosa I was looking at are all Ceramic.  The wall tiles appear to be ceramic and the floor tiles porcelain, and that seems like it might be a fairly general rule.  I haven't started looking at their floor tiles.  Perhaps they are suitably flat also, like the Rex.  Porcelanosa doesn't give readily accessible specs, but they do show little icons, and you would expect that when the Porcelain icon appears (it's a hammer pounding a tile) that means the tile has the added strength and lower water absorption of Porcelain.  I definitely want Porcelain…I think.

Tile Wainscoting in Bathroom

I've started discussing the bathroom tile at Terry's forum.  One idea I have is to continue the lower portion of tiles from the bath alcove down the main wall of the bathroom as wainscoting.  This would work perfectly with 35 inch high tiles, which would reach a height of 50.5 inches above the bathtub, then I'd continue that line, 50.5 inches high, for the wainscoting.  But what is the proper height for bathroom wainscoting?

According to this source, the typical height of bathroom wainscoting is 38 to 42 inches, but 48 to 54 inches is also common.  So my 50.5 which seems about right would be right in there.

It would also be just above the existing towel bars.  It would seem better to me to have the towel bars mounted in the wainscoting than above it.

Back Yard Cats

Here's an article claiming that outdoor cats are bad for the environment.  I think this is basically true, and unfortunately TNR (trap-neuter-return) can't work (reduce feral overpopulation) without very high compliance which is never going to happen.

Meanwhile, I've agreed to let my friend adopt an outdoor cat in my back yard.  It has been going pretty well so far in temperate autumn weather.  The cat is just now becoming old enough to be neutered, and will be neutered next weekend.  So we are doing our part, according to TNR dogma, but since I already know it isn't enough,  have I become the Bird Killer?

Well, yes, but then like most people I already was.  I think the way to think about this is something like "Everything in Moderation."  Nearly everything we do hurts something, so harm is reduced by not doing much.  One cat is "not much" I still believe.  So I'm not going to feel very guilty for just one outdoor cat.

If I were feeding a colony of strays…that would not be good at all.

For what it's worth, I also have a little rationalization.  My pet free back yard had become something like club med for stray cats, who loved to lay on my patio, and over the past 10 years, I've found a few dead birds in my back yard.  All without feeding a cat myself.

So anyway, assuming my back yard had already become a killing field (or at least shooting gallery) for cats killing birds, having a permanent outdoor cat wouldn't increase the bird killing much.  It might actually reduce the bird killing if my friend's cat kills fewer birds than the previous hordes of strays, and if my friend's cat keeps the strays away..which it already seems to be doing.  There is a cat fight every other day or so, and it seems that other cats are more and more being kept away by my friend's cat's instinctual territoriality, plus the fed cat has not only a territory but a feeding system to defend.  My theory has been that other cats will quickly give up, as they were never getting that much from my yard anyway.

So as far as bird killing goes, if you can restrict your feeding to just one outdoor cat, and keep it reasonably well fed, in a territory it defends from other cats, it's probably a wash.

Maybe I don't really have an "outdoor cat" in my back yard.  What I really have is a back yard cat, and that's different, as I just described.  I suppose he isn't actually being restricted to my back yard, but in the long run, it's the only really defensable and worth defending territory he has, and he hasn't gone much farther yet.

I'm also fine with a few coyotes around (not many and not too close) to keep the excess stray cat population down.  As long as back yard cats stay in their place, they will be fine.  Many environmentalists praise the role of coyotes in the wild as the bird's best friends.

My friend doesn't think so highly of coyotes as I do.

OMG! Onice Marfil from Porcelanosa

Somehow stumbled upon this company, which does segregate wall and floor products.  So I would think that wall would be without unneeded texturing.

And this is just incredible looking, and 35 inches high (it might work!) and 1/16 grout line (top quality pros should be able to do it right).

Some Tile CHoices

Tarsus Beige.

Takla Desert Sun.  I like this color a lot.  I could combine it with either a lighter or a darker color.  I don't especially want a textured tile, I'd rather have smooth polished, but Desert Sun appears to have only a very gentle texture, so I think OK.

Takla Milky Way is a lighter color that Desert Sun could be paired with.

Takla Venus is a darker color.  Perhaps too dark, but bold.

I discovered Takla looking for porcelain version of Crema Marfil marble, but their Crema Marfil has distinct 3d crack lines which I think unsuitable for shower.  The other Takla's above are also 3d rendered tiles that are not perfectly flat/smooth.  But they have an amorphous flatness, which I think is OK, since it doesn't tend to attract lime in a particularly visible way.  Why can't I have my fake marble perfectly flat???

In the same series (ironically "Polished Marble") as Crema Marfil, there is one (and apparently only one) fake marble that is without fake crack lines (at least as far as I can see in photos).  But it's white and useless for me.

Marble shower at Carrillo Tile

I think it was Carillo tile that was recommended by my plumber.  Here's a nice colored ultra luxury bath and shower done in a amber brown marble tile.  I love the color of the tile.  I'm not sure I'd want actual marble tile…need to look into that.  I once lived in a San Francisco house with highly upgraded bath and kitchen (suitable for a then million dollar house) and it looked similar to the above.  I loved the look but hated the slippery marble floor.  My version might well have vinyl plank flooring.

[The link above does not apparently select the actual picture I'm talking about, which is in the middle row on the left.]

Photo at middle row on right is ugly, IMO.  But very interesting as it appears to be exactly the kind of space I have, and similar tub to what I'm getting.

There has been a strange bulge in the wall where existing bathtub is, removing about 4 inches from the wall.  I figured that if you ordered the larger tub from Ray Ellison Homes, the space would already be there, but if you ordered the smaller tub, they stub the wall slightly.  Well that could be taken out.  Unfortunately it appears there still isn't room for a 66 inch tub, and this is a load bearing wall, but I do have this extra space I think.

So that middle row on the right gives one suggestion, have a tile shelf just above the tub on that side.

My idea is different.  I want to have the wall rise from the edge of the tub up to 38 inches.  At 36 inches grab bars are installed.  The idea is to have them stand out as far as possible, and make up for the large front and back areas of the Bellwether 32" wide tub.

Then the above is a storage area.  Up there gets less spray, but easily in reach if you are standing up.  In fact, I could have the "shelf" even higher for convenience, or matching the tiling pattern, up to 45 inches.  42 may be about optimal.

Anyway, corresponding with that line the tile color changes around the tub from darker color around the tub (so as not to mismatch the lighter tub) then back to lighter tile above 42 inches, or whatever.

So I was thinking I could keep this same line at 42 inches going down the wall where the towel bars are.  I would run the darker colored tile up to 42 inches, then painted wall above that, or continue the same tile all the way.  The lesser tile might have better acoustical properties.

Anyway, I hate the color that blends with the tub as in the picture in the middle row on the right.

Much better the two tone approach.  If I had tile (not marble) I might have patterned tile just at the border of light and dark.  With the marble not, it looks like they use a rounded moulding which may also be marble of the lighter color.  The marble sure looks nice, I wonder about practicality.

(Crema Marfil Marble)

I like travertine colors but I don't like the look of unpolished travertine that I've seen elsewhere as having been fashionable.

Grab bars

Here are ada grab bar guidelines.  Basically bars on all sides, two in back of tub, height 33-36 inches for top bar.  I'd go for 36 inches because I'm short…and hard to reach low bar with short arms.  The guidelines go into great detail about bar minimums.  I'm going for full coverage as much as possible and reasonable.

Here are some fancy grab bars.  At first I didn't get it, why so much more complicated?  But given that the mounts have to be on studs, the additional bar beyond the mounts is helpful, and allows you to maximize the available bar rather than be limited to what the studs give you.  So I do want something like this…and these look nice.

Here are some less expensive fancy bars from Moen.  Great reviews.  But these don't have the flexibility of the Greatgrabz Wave and Horizon bars…which feature moveable mounts.

50 lumen bulb

I've found and ordered this 50 lumen amber LED bulb with (standard) medium E26 base.  It was not easy to find, rather expensive at $14.32, and 1000Bulbs.com charged me over $10 standard UPS shipping for one tiny bulb.

But just what I was looking for, and hopefully will last almost a decade or more and I won't have to worry about replacing the tiny 7w incandescent bulbs with 50 lumen output ever 7 months or whatever.  The only place I found that 7w bulb now was also 1000Bulbs.com.  I got them online last time, but can't remember where.

I still like my Miracle 2W bulbs.  I know many hate them because they don't put out as much light as conventional bulbs, and the 50W equivalence seems rather exaggerated (I think more like 30W).  But I still find it a good amount of light for my back yard.  I notice the light is made of lots of LED's and I wonder if they are simply in series and thereby avoiding the need for a power supply--the usually most unreliable part which also wastes energy.  I think these bulbs are special and I hope they keep making them.  Andy they now cost less than the overpriced 50 lumen bulb (7.5W equivalent) I just bought which seems to have just one big LED.

Pro and Con PVC

PVC is THE worst, or THE best plastic, depending on how you look at it.

It's worst features are it's lifecycle contribution to toxic chemical waste, and toxicity to workers (now much better than it was in the 1960's due to stringent laws and practices).  It is uniquely among plastics made with toxic Chlorine, and the Vinyl Chloride precursor is one of the most toxic gasses there is.

Fortunately Vinyl Chloride isn't one of the usual breakdown products of PVC when it burns.  But what is, Dioxins, are still very toxic, low level exposures won't necessarily kill you right away so much as giving you cancer later.

So, don't burn the stuff.  Fortunately, and on the good side, PVC doesn't burn easily, with combustion point as high as 450 degrees Celsius or 842 degrees Fahrenheit.  That's way way above the burning point of most other plastics, wood, paper, etc.  At that point, you're melting lots of metals, in fact I solder at a mere 720 degrees F.  When I solder vinyl coated wire, the vinyl sometimes melts but rarely burns (mere singing).  I've never seen it catch fire.

Unfortunately, some does get burned anyway, in the inferno of building fires, auto and plane crashes, etc.  And municipal incinerators.

PVC is actually very special among plastics, being amorphous in nature (made possible by the highly polar Chlorine atom), highly viscous when melted and very easily molded into complex and detailed shapes (LP records have a micro grove that requires precision so great it's a challenge to read optically…pressed on a mechanical stamper…no other plastic can do anything like that, it's almost a miracle).

Here's a great puff piece on PVC where I learned about the wonderfulness of PVC.

I still prefer other plastics, such as polyethylene, when possible, and especially for wire dielectrics.

With Urethanes, the breakdown product in fire, which is easier to stimulate, is cyanide gas, also known as Zyklon B.  For immediate exposure, I am thinking that must be worse than the Dioxins from burning PVC.  Urethane foam generally contains a fire retardant--so I'm not sure how the mixture compares to PVC products, despite PVC's inherent superior fire resistance.

Not so easy

On Thursday night and Friday morning I took the first steps I had planned toward making the Aurum speaker cable stick to the wall.  I used a #2 pencil to mark the right edge of the cable as currently installed, then I removed the cable.  Then starting at the bottom instead of the top, I pressed sections of the cable back onto the wall, lined up with the mark I had made.  Several times and especially just at the top I use blue painter's tape to hold the cable up while doing the next section.

It turned out that this process made no difference to the length of the cable.  Once the cable had been re-attached to the wall, it came to exactly the same height as before, and I ultimately screwed the top terminal block into exactly the same hole I had drilled before.

If I had known it was going to work out like this, I could have skipped this entire procedure and gone on to step 2: rubbing caulk behind the cable.  And if I had skipped this step, I would have saved a lot of hassle and some worry.

Anyway, I then had this pencil mark on the wall.  I used a Staedtler white plastic eraser to remove it.  It didn't come off easily at all.  As I was furiously erasing, I held a vacuum cleaner hose right underneath to pick up the eraser dust.  I got off most of the line (you can still see a trace) from the TV on upwards.  I didn't bother with the part of the cable below the TV, where the pencil line was less visible.

Well unfortunately the vacuum cleaner did NOT pick up all the eraser dust.  Lots of eraser dust actually stuck to the sticky side of the speaker cable.  I pulled some of that (about 4%) off using some shipping tape.

Then, the horror, I noticed eraser dust all over the top of the TV.  I thoroughly cleaned off the TV with the vacuum cleaner, removing the TV from the wall temporarily to do so.  I also cleaned off the HDMI extender hanging below the TV, which also got considerable eraser dust.  Then I cleaned the cords underneath the TV and even the 3 plug splitter plugged into the wall.

All done?  I still worry, because eraser dust also get into the little ventilation openings at the top of the TV and at the top of the HDMI extender.  That eraser dust consists of PVC and other chemicals.  As it oxidizes, some of those chemicals may be released.  Heat inside the TV may accelerate this oxidizing process, particularly around hot running components inside the TV.  I did do my best vacuuming through the ventilation holes, cupping with my fingers to focus the vacuum force, but there is still no doubt some eraser dust still in there.

This is probably something nobody else would worry about.  And it also worried me that PVC is made using Vinyl Chloride, one of the most toxic substances known.  When vinyl (the plastic eraser is made of vinyl) oxidizes, does it release Vinyl Chloride?

I did some quick research which was somewhat reassuring.  Firstly, Vinyl doesn't burn until about 400 degrees C, which is something like 800 degrees F, far hotter than burning wood or paper.  In other words, vinyl doesn't burn easily.  So I wouldn't expect it to oxidize much even if some dust lands on hot resistors inside the TV.  (It wouldn't be surprising if most of the wire inside the TV is made of vinyl already touching those same hot parts.)  Secondly it doesn't apparently produce much Vinyl Chloride even if it does burn.  What Vinyl does produce when it burns is dioxides, which are also very toxic (if not as singularly so as Vinyl Chloride).  But you are not going to get much of that simply from vinyl being warm inside a TV.  It's going to have to actually burn.  One probably gets much more exposure to these chemicals elsewhere.

Anyway, I expect in 10 years when the TV is replaced the eraser dust inside is likely to be pretty much the same as it is now, without having released measurable toxic gas.  So it's probably not worth worrying about, though I do plan to take the back off the TV and see if I can clean it more.

Here is the MSDS for the Staedler Eraser.  It generally makes it sound pretty safe.  The only chemical listed is kaolin which is a kind of clay used in medicinal products.  That's 37% and the rest is vinyl (which is not listed--deemed "safe").  No toxic chemicals (and there shouldn't be, as if you are an artist you will be inhaling lots of eraser dust).  Fire decomposition products are listed as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrochloric acid.  Those aren't great, but we are already exposed to them a lot.  I'm thinking you'd probably get more exposure to hazardous chemicals in one drive to the  laundrymat than 10 years of watching this TV with minuscule bits of eraser dust inside.  Dioxin and vinyl choride aren't listed as decomposition products.