Dualing mattresses

This much I'm sure: I'm going to get a split queen adjustable bed.  The split feature is well worth having, even when you're in bed alone, and you can keep one side flat for computer, books, etc.  But more, it makes for the ultimate luxury human pairing space, allowing each person freedom to view, read, rest, sleep as they wish, but together.

King size is just too big, 16 inches wider than the queen size bed I have used since I bought my first house in 1983.  My tracing out the border of the King Size in my King's Room master bedroom, it leaves so little extra room space between bed and closet as to make the room feel like mostly bed.

It seems to me there is far too wide a gap between the Queen and King sizes, from 60 inches to 76 inches.  There is only a 6 inch gap between the old fashioned Full Size, at 54, and Queen.  What would suit my room perfectly might be a 67 inch mattress.

So like I said, Queen size is a given, and my unshakeable ambition is to have split adjustable queen.

Well here's one full package option, for $4757, the Habitat 6" with Ergomotion 400.

That's one I'm pretty sure I saw before, and might have linked here before.  There many latex mattress products on the web, and they make competing claims.  For example, Habitat claims that their shipping method (vacuum packed and rolled) is the best, whereas others say flat shipping is a must.

Another similar set of offerings is found at Bliss, the latex core sounds identical, but Bliss includes a second layer for all firmness choices.  That's a great concept, since then one could have each side of the spit queen have a different firmness level.  However Bliss does not seem to offer split queen, and their adjustable base sounds like the less desireable Ergomotion 100 which also lacks a split queen choice.

"It's Beautiful"

That's what my friend said, when I opened the door of the newly remodeled queen's room.  And I couldn't agree more.  It is the among the most beautiful small rooms I have ever seen.  It reminds me of rooms in various Mansions I've seen from before the 1950's.  They might have similar visual impact, but often combined with warped creakiness and draftiness.  But like them, this room has an understated charm.  Formal but not stiff.  Playful but not experimental, though in fact it is quite the leading edge room, and getting it right required experimentation.  How many people do you know with Armstrong's best underlayment, the Quiet Comfort Premium S-1836, and their Luxe Vinyl Plank flooring in the Best collection with lifetime warranty?  It has their strongest vinyl surface known as Urethane Plus.  The underlayment is polyethylene foam with polypropylene sheet. Those are two of the most stable polymers in existence, used in the best electronic wire and capacitors.  Few vinyl plank floors are even laid with underlayment.  Few existing vinyl floors are even vinyl plank floors.  This is leading edge for someone who wants a waterproof, durable, beautiful, comfortable floor.

And of course the incredibly beautiful Exotic Fruitwood Honey Spice which will match pink trim and many other things.  It can handle light and medium colors extremely well.  It might not be the best for the darkest colors, but those are probably not going to be used much in this room.

Rob has now completed the second of two phases of work he did on the room, and the results are the highest quality.  But the results had as much to do with my project management, my vision, my choice of materials and my insistence that he do things correctly, as his fine workmanship.  If I do say so myself.  I think I handled this small project much better than Lyndhurst.  It helped that Rob is the best builder I've ever had in San Antonio.  Not perfect, but better than all of the others, and malleable toward perfection.  That's important.

I still plan a 3rd phase of remodeling in which a ceiling fan with light is added.  Rob couldn't figure out how to do that given the limited crawlspace above the room.  I'm hoping my favorite electrician will be more imaginative and flexible and figure out some way to do it.  I also plan to make all outlets in the room GFCI for shock protection.  And at the same time do about 7 other electrical projects around the house.

This is the way I do things, less focus on the flashy, and more focus on the practical things you really need, the must-haves, that actually make life better and safer.

But I got the flashy right on this too, pretty much, thanks to the cool flooring and floor molding I picked out.  I spent far more on molding than most people do, I believe it was $150 for the room.  Hardwood molding in colonial style.  I think it was the molding that gives this room magic now as much as anything.  So that $150 spent on molding, which would seem outrageous to many, was worth every penny and far more IMO.  I might also add that I spent more than a half hour picking out the straightest and best looking pieces at Lowes.

Rob's first attempt at doing the floor resulted in a floor with lots of too large gaps.  His chief arguments were either that underlayment should not be used at all (He called me from a Lowe's store and told me that was what the salesman said.  I told him the salesman was uninformed.), and later, that I had received the wrong underlayment.  We argued about the underlayment and correction strategy over 3 phone calls on Wednesday night.  He eventually said he would do whatever it took to make it right.

It turned out, of course, that Armstrong approves S-1836 underlayment for their Luxe Plank flooring, and that I had ordered and received the correct kind.  Once that was established on Thursday morning, thanks to my eagle eyes, he worked with great enthusiasm to rebuild the entire floor from the farthest corner, never walking on previous work.  That had never been necessary before with all the vinyl plank flooring he had laid since he had never previously used underlayment.

Floorplan like mine

Here is a "ranch, traditional" flooplan that is similar to mine, closest by far that I've seen yet.

http://www.homeplans.com/plan-detail/HOMEPW00367/three-bedroom-traditional

With 1159 soft, which is about 100sqft larger than my home was when built, it nevertheless has these issues compared with mine:

1) None of the rooms are especially larger.  Notably the small 10x10 bedroom is exactly the same as both of my original small bedrooms.  The 11x10 bedroom is the same as my new Queen's Room.  The so-called formal dining room is simply a slightly extended kitchen with island, and without the island it would actually have less counter space.

2) Bed cannot be arranged to look out window in ANY of the bedrooms, or at least if you do so in the master bedroom there is little space for night stand and you have to walk around bed to get at master bath.  The other bedrooms have a closet where the bed headboard should be.  My master bedroom never had that problem, and now my Queen's Room doesn't either.

3) If you put stereo around fireplace in living room, there is essentially no wall space for bookcase.  This is one of many drawbacks of the "open floorplan" type design.  I put my stereo around the fireplace and I still have 2 1/2 walls for bookcases, sofas, etc.

4) The staggered back wall of the house would not go with full length patio, etc., in the back yard.  My house has a flat back wall so the entire back could be patio/solarium/sunbathing space.

5) The dining room needlessly has bay window facing to the side of the house.  In most subdivisions, including mine, this means it simply stares at the next house which may be as little as ten feet away.  All that extra glazing has no good view and is energy inefficient.

6) Both bathrooms are minimal.  I have one long bathroom which has long counter (could have been double sinked).  I'm thinking I may use that space for a larger bathtub.

7) The master bed closet is actually smaller than mine.

8) The island is just another obstruction on the way to the refrigerator for me.

9) While I feel the glazing on the dining room is excessive with 3 windows and a sliding glass door, the living room only has one large window on one side.  While the side windows in my living room mainly just face the next house, they are close enough to the front that you also get some street views from them, depending on where you are in the living room.

By my standards, however, it's not terribly bad as compared with my original house, but except for kitchen-centric people, for which the larger kitchen+island+dining is a must, I greatly prefer my currently modified layout.

Lame Floorplans

I have come to appreciate my small (by US standards) home.  It had started as 1050 sqft when built in 1983, was expanded to about 1230 sqft by the previous owner who converted half of the garage to an extra room that was (originally) used as a bedroom but lacks a closet.  That room is now my Gym but mostly filled with junk (to be cleaned out this year).  Then I added an external building, the inspiration for this blog, which is now called Lyndhurst.  Since that building is fully insulated and finished, actually better than most rooms in my house, it qualifies as additional 167 sqft of "living space" bringing my total to 1397 sqft.  The Queen's Room remodeling carves space out of the garage to replace the previous closet resuling in a 10 sqft net increase, bringing the new total to 1407 sqft of total living space.

Beyond that 1407 sqft I also have a half-garage large enough for my Prius (but not for the Tesla Model S I wanted to buy this year).  Many people I know do not have a garage at all, having converted it all.  I can park the car in the garage and unload groceries without ever stepping outside.

Then I also have an 84 sqft shed for garden tools.  (It's actually a top-of-the-line Tough Shed Premier...and that's my lowliest structure).

OK, but back to the 1050 sqft home.  It's was a very plain and outdated ranch style (I think) floorplan lacking the combined living/dining room that gives many recent homes that wide open spacious look.  This was an unpopular style even in my neighborhood when built in 1983.  It was only used in the first phase and does not appear in any later phases.

But I like this floorplan.  A lot.  Here are the reasons:

1) The separate kitchen/dining area is my #1 area for light relaxing with a bit of wine, browsing the web, listening to music, munching on snacks, watching TV, even producing videos (I did that for awhile).  It's AV gluttony and I have audiophile quality stereo and pretty good 5 channel and video as well.   I have never seen a room as usable as this for me, principally because most women would not allow a kitchen/dining room to be made into a mancave like this.  When I tried to figure how I would fit a room like this in new homes in the 1800-3500 sqft range, I was very disappointed.  I have an additional advantage here too.  The one and only window, a sliding glass door, faces the back yard.  There is no window facing any neighbor.  Thus I can play loud music at any time without disturbing anyone, and nobody can see me naked.  In addition, neighbors on both sides of my house have no windows facing my house at all.  That is an advantage that reaches almost infinite improbability.  About the only way you could be equally sure of not disturbing others with loud music would be to live far away from others--at much greater cost or inconvenience.

2) The separate kitchen is fine for parties.  Advantageously it permits two groups of friends to commune independently.  And yet the opening between living and dining rooms is still large enough I can prepare food for quests in the living room without losing track of what is going on.

3) There are no never-used countertop spaces with bar stools.  My previous home had a countertop which I never used except to store junk.  It was far nicer to carry my food into the main dining room where I could watch TV.  The home I mostly grew up in did have countertop space, and we used it a lot.  But times have changed, and I don't live in the kind of family where a countertop would be useful. And besides, my kitchen table, which seats 2 despite all the AV equipment, is much nicer to sit and just as convenient.  Countertop spaces work best with strip kitchens, but IMO strip kitchens don't work at all, they feel like prison galleys.  Kitchens that are not kitchen-dining rooms are too small or not organized for man cave use, having useless (to me) obstructions like islands.

4) No bedroom windows face the street.  The only windows facing the street are in the living room and the garage.  Rooms facing the street inherently get more noise and have less privacy.  Much better to face the back yard, as my master bedroom does, or the side yard, which my two smaller bedrooms do.  There is no great benefit of being able to watch the street from your bedroom window in suburban living.  The side windows face the windowless wall of the house next door, so there is no loss of privacy there either.  Nicely, the neighbor has a little garden on the side of their house which is the view.  That little garden surrounds their air conditioning compressor.  I am getting good enough windows to block most of the noise from that.  I moved my compressor to the opposite side of the house to reduce noise in the bedrooms, especially in the master bedroom.

5) The master bedroom has the prime location facing the back yard.  Now it has a view of my beautiful building Lyndhurst, and the tree garden.  Eventually I may add a back door for convenient access to my hot tub (to be built in about 10 years).

6) It has the essential 2 bathrooms.  You need two bathrooms to have a "nice" house.  Otherwise, people have to wait for the bathroom.

7) It has a laundry room inside, right next to the master bedroom.  With both doors closed I can sleep while doing laundry.

8) There are no costly-to-replace and energy-wasting huge expanses of windows, just the right and modest amount of glazing for each room.

9) The living room is (though just barely) large enough for the sort of parties I like.  I have hosted over 100 discussion and movie watching parties at my home.

Now compare my home (I can't find diagram unfortunately) to this example of a small three bedroom ranch home:

http://www.homeplans.com/plan-detail/HOMEPW19399/three-bedroom-ranch

The Kitchen area is too small and shaped wrong to be used as I do.  The two small bedrooms face front.  The laundry room is far away from the bedrooms.  The main entry door wastes living room space, which is already smaller than mine and has very limited wall space for book cases and entertainment system.  The master bathroom, where I sometimes head when arriving home, is at the farthest location from car and main entry.  This quaint design also has carport instead of garage.  It does have one advantage--there is a nice if smallish separate dining area (called breakfast room though it functions as the dining room in this house).  I have never needed that, though I often think about adding one for a partnered lifestyle (most partners would think the lack of a dining room to be a significant limitation.  But I wouldn't give up the advantages I have for that.  I don't want to give up actual comfort and convenience of the fantasies of having a family lifestyle that I don't have.

When I grew up my family had a 3/2/2 home which got garage fully converted to family room and very extended 2nd bedroom for my college age sister.  The bedroom extension was incredible, it gave that room a sliding back door to the back patio area which featured a small decorative garden with statue right at that point, then opening to larger covered patio areas, large pool, 3 large fruit trees in independent pods.  And it was the only bedroom having the hilltop view of the San Fernando Valley as well.  (Uselessly, the only other two original rooms to have that view were the bathrooms.)

But this was all my mother's fantasy.  The reality was that my sister only lived with us in that home for 3 years, then went off to 4 year college in another state.  For most of the 14 years we owned that home, nobody lived in the super improved bedroom with access to the pool.  It was a junk room.  Meanwhile, I lived in that house for 13 years in a 10x10 bedroom with small window.

The family room got used a lot, and it was really the nicest room in the house, with full glass view of the San Fernando Valley.  But that room really just displaced the formal living room which faced the pool.  That living room was only rarely used.  I have seen many other homes with formal living rooms that are almost never used.  In some cases, people just keep a covering on the furniture mostly.

After conversion, there was no garage, of course.  Mother had a carport built along the side of the garage going deep to the side.  The carport quickly filled with junk, and beyond the covered part a lot of more junk that got weatherbeaten over time.  Cars were parked in the driveway, thereby usually blocking the great view.

The master bedroom had window facing the street.  It was noisy and useless.  The bed was actually pushed up to that window, so you looked at the wall instead of out the window when lying in bed.

The worst story of all was the pool.  We used the pool heavily for about 5 years.  After some time, it never got used again.  It was a big pain to maintain, I was assigned that task, and I never did it.  I envied richer familes that had automated pool cleaning systems or pool service.  The pool turned green.  It was basically a swamp about half of the time we lived in that home.  Then we had to spend a fortune to fix it up when we sold the house.  I've learned my lesson on that.  While I still want a backyard hot tub (it may be just part of my fantasy) I'm not going to build one until I get very close to retirement age.

Floored on second try

Wednesday had been set aside as the final day for Queen's Room remodeling.  I took the day off of work.  But instead the builder worked on the floor the entire day.  And when he left, it was flawed with gaps in between various planks.  Unfortunately I did not measure or photograph these gaps, but one of the largest was right in the middle of the room and most visible just as you opened the door.  I would guess it was wide enough to stick 5-10 sheets of paper into it.  So it was good I had taken the day off, since I was able to talk about the issues with a friend and the builder in multiple phone calls from about 4pm to 8pm.  Finally, the builder agreed he would make it right.  I was still worried.  Was he really going to fix it?  It seemed to me he would have to re-install every single plank to get it right.  And it seemed to me he would probably not be willing to do that.

So on Thursday the builder came back.  He himself decided to remove and re-install every single plank, starting from the wall corner, so that he never had to walk on top of his previous work.  That was the trick.  He had never had to do that with Allure brand flooring sold at Home Depot because it sticks hard much faster, and also because he had never used cushion underlayment beneath a vinyl plank floor.  He dedicated the entire day to fixing this problem because he was interested in having my continuing business, and just personally he wanted to get it right to show he could.  Even though he hates how hard the Armstrong Luxe is to install (compared with Allure) he thinks it is the most beautiful vinyl plank floor he has ever seen.

The result is now a very beautiful and tight floor with just a tad of cushion.  As of Thursday night it has been rolled with the 100 pound roller two times.  The builder left the roller, and plans to give the floor another roll or two on Friday when he is going to install the window.

And that's the short version of the story, leaving out the long and interesting arguments I had with the builder before he got it right, starting from the very beginning.

Carports reconsidered

My friend really does want me to have a carport so she can keep her car cool when she moves in.  Also, when she comes over, I find it hard to get my car out of the garage due to limited space in my two car driveway.  For these two reasons, I want a 3 car driveway and a carport to match.  And since this is the best place on my entire property for solar panels, I also want it covered with 10kW of solar panels.

The concrete guy last week gave me a quick estimate that sounded very reasonable to add additional driveway area.  He felt that just adding some piers underneath the new section would be sufficient for a carport.  But I think the structural needs have to be considered all the way through this project.  Starting from the fact that the solar panels may add weight to the structure, and also add value that needs to be protected from the wind.

So the carport itself needs to be a fairly heavy structure that doesn't blow away.  If I weren't concerned about the solar panel aspect of the project, I might be very happy with one of these industrial strength carports from Stephen's Roofing.

That carport in Kirby (near where I live) is wide enough for 3 cars and was built around the existing two car driveway.  The structure itself is free standing, neither side has any attachment to the concrete driveway.  That would be great for me, since my driveway isn't wide enough.  But I wonder if such a structure is strong enough to deal with the highly expansive clay soil I have.  It might well be.  It also looks heavy and strong enough not to be flustered by wind.

I went to see the movie Chasing Ice last Friday night.  After the movie, Lanny Sinkin of Solar San Antonio spoke for awhile.  I went to the table in the back of the room and it was still showing the same federal and local incentives for installing solar that I almost acted upon last year.  I really do want to do this, for several reasons, even though my house still needs a lot of efficiency improvement as well.  But I need the carport right now.  Additional energy efficiency can be worked on over time.

Speaking of wind, an old standard used to specify 70mph wind bearing capacity.  The equivalent number is now 85 mph because the measurement standard has changed to short gusts rather than longer average.  According to this document, building where I live are supposed to be designed for 90mph wind gusts.  I'd like to push this to at least 110 mph to allow for the effects of global warming.

Cement dust cleaned and hole patched

Since the floor is going in soon, I focussed on getting those essential things I want done first.  When I got back home from work on Friday night, the air was clear but the dust in the queen's room was so thick the table top was grey.  I knew cleanup from the concrete grinding was called for.  Hazmat!

On Saturday afternoon I proceded to do 2 hours of vacuuming with full face respirator on.  I used the vacuum rod to pull up loose dust on the floor until I got to the table.  Using my Hoover WindTunnel vacuum with high performance bag and HEPA post-filter.  Then, at the table I used a similar technique to get all the dust off of the table.  Or most of it.  It was disappointing to see how slowly the dust was being vacuumed up, when you could clearly see what was left.

Actually, the first thing I did on Saturday was to vacuum the Living Room floor.  I figured that this needed to be done (since the party last week) and since it had picked up concrete dust and general construction dust also.  Since vacuuming the Queen's Room would get the vacuum dirty, I should vacuum the Living Room first.  Strangely, the subwoofer near the front door had gotten quite dusty.  But there was no sign of any kind of construction dust anywhere else.

After vacuuming the Queen's Room floor with vacuum rod, I proceeded to vacuum the moldings, then in the closet, using the genuine hair brush (from my old Electrolux cleaner).  Then I vacuumed much of the closet that way also, then much of the main floor.  The brush picks up far more than the rod by itself.  I re-cleaned the table with the brush.  I also vacuumed the floor using the Floor mode of my Hoover cleaner, and then with the carpet mode.  Neither of those seemed to do much, possibly the carpet mode was better, but sometimes I saw the red "dirt" light coming on so it was doing something.

After a long trip in the evening (see section below) I resumed the vacuuming, and started vacuuming the walls with the brush.  By this time, I felt that the room was 90% cleaner and I didn't need to use the respirator.

On Sunday I finished vacuuming the walls using the hair brush, and did extra vacuuming in the closet, including vacuuming the closet ceiling with respirator on to protect my eyes from falling popcorn mainly.  I also took down the now drooping plastic covering the A/C vent.  It was absolutely clean, not a trace of dust.  There were two tiny blobs of dust-like stuff on the vent.  I thoroughly vacuumed the vent, then sprayed it with canned air, then vacuumed again, then opened the vent, vacuumed, sprayed canned air, then vacuumed again.  Besides those two blobs, there was nothing visible there, but I wanted to be sure it was clean.

I cleaned the clothes rod in the closet.  The top was covered with concrete dust, AND it had several blobs of gooey stuff, possibly from the price or bar code stickers, or possibly from some fallen paint.  Pure alcohol, everclear, was the best thing for cleaning off all the sticky stuff.

Wearing respirator, I took the vacuum outside and changed the vacuum bag, also brushing off some of the cement dust with a paper towel.  I then got out the broom (it was buried in the hardest to get to corner in Lyndhurst) and swept where I had changed the vacuum bag.

On Sunday night, after changing my sheets, I proceeded to mop the floor.  I mopped using plain water, but actually reverse osmosis water so no chlorine.   I just mopped without drying.  I mopped the main floor first, then the closet area, then the closet floor last.  After just a few feet of mopping the water got darker and by the time the job was done the water was completely opaque from concrete dust.  The mop head just disappeared as I dunked it in.  I dumped the water down the bathtub drain and rinsed the bathtub.

Monday morning, the room smelled a lot cleaner than ever.  There was no remaining smell from the concrete grinding, and just a bit of the smell I started smelling during the removal of the old closet, smells a bit like old tide detergent, but far less of that smell than since before construction started.  Though I've already done far more construction detailing than most people, I plan to do another mop before Wednesday.  It's just not good enough, IMO, to cover up the crud with flooring.  The concrete subfloor should be clean also, for a clean smelling and safe room.

*****

On Saturday night, after the initial hazmat cleaning work with respirator on, I took a trip to Home Depot to buy a mop, bucket, and the concrete patching compound called "Hydraulic Concrete" by the concrete grinding guy.  I had to look all over the Home Depot store to find the Hydraulic Concrete.  It was not with the paints and caulks and the lady there told me to go to a particular aisle that had lumber molding stuff.  I looked there, then in the plumbing section.  Nothing.  But I had not explored the south end of the aisle the paint lady mentioned.  So finally I went there, where the real concrete was.  Sure enough, that was where the "Hydraulic Concrete" was, but there was none left in the shelf.

It was already 8:45 PM but I drove as quickly as I could to the Lowe's store and went all the way to the concrete section.  I picked up what looked like the Hydraulic Concrete and brought it to the nearby contractor register.  But then I noticed it was not actually "Hydraulic Concrete" it was "Hydraulic Water-Stop Cement."  I was worried that was not the same thing.  I left the container at the register and took another look back at the concrete supplies and other stuff all the way down the last aisle.  Then some guy, not having any store uniform or badges, was putting away the can I had been about to buy.  He asked what I wanted to do, and then suggested some other products.  I asked him if he worked at Lowes and he said no.  I left.

At that point, I was hoping the Home Depot store at Bitters, one of the largest I know, might be open until 10 pm.  So I headed up that way on Austin Highway, not knowing exactly how to get there, but figuring I would hit the Wurzbach Pkwy before long.  But I didn't.  It was a long and difficult drive because of traffic and bright headlights, and I made a lot of wrong turns, ending up very lost several times.  Finally I programmed my navigation computer for the correct Home Depot store.  It guided me through neighborhoods and back streets, and finally I got to the Home Depot store at Bitters at 9:58 PM.  If it had been open until 10pm, I would have been done.  But it was totally closed, and had been closed since 9PM.

Tired and disappointed I stopped at EZ's to have a second dinner.  Then I drove to HEB and bought groceries and a bucket for the mop I had bought at Home Depot.

I looked online and it appeared that there was no such item called, exactly, Hydraulic Concrete.  If you search for Hydraulic Concrete you find the Water Stop Cement I almost bought.  I spend about an hour online searching before I decided that the Quickcrete Hydraulic Water Stop Cement was indeed the correct product.  It was in a green-colored container too, just like the concrete guy said.

So on Sunday afternoon, before my friend came over, I went back to the Lowes store and bought the Hydraulic Water Stop Cement.  The strange guy I had talked to the night before was not there.  I also got a 75W equivalent LED dimmable light by Sylvania for the garage (only $39).  Then I stopped at Subway and had a sandwich before going home.  When I got home, I took a few extra minutes to install the new light in the garage door opener.  The old light, a 60W equivalent LED by Phillips, was working very erratically.  After the concrete grinding, the light stopped working, but just as I was going to change it, it started working again.  I hope the new LED light will be more reliable.  The Phillips LED was my test bulb going back a year, but it became flakey after being used with the X10 timer light in the living room.

After my friend had come for a short visit, I made the bed with fresh sheets and put way the clean underwear.  Then I could make space in the dryer for the cleaning cloths that had already been through 2 cycles (regular and sanitize) and I put them through a third cycle because they had been sitting in the machine all day.  Then, and only then, I got back to the mopping described above.  What a day!

*****

The patching went very quickly on Monday afternoon from 12:30 to 1:30.  The first thing that happened was that the water stop concrete started hardening into the bowl I used to mix it.  I ultimately trashed that bowl but saved a second one I had been rinsing the sponge with, and a spoon I had used.  As the concrete guy said, sponging the stuff in was best.  I never used the trowel.  I cleaned up afterwards very throughly, starting with a vacuum to clean up all the hard dry pieces instead of smooshing them into the concrete.  I didn't bother trying to patch the tiny holes near the outside wall.

Meanwhile I washed my work pants and socks to get the concrete dust smell out of them.

All in all, a very focussed and productive weekend, for me anyway.  Others may see this all as a pointless waste of time, but this is the way I do things, and I had fun.  It was even adventurous, though I will aim to avoid adventures like that in the future.  Still, the scavenger hunt for the hardest to find things--that is pretty much the story of my life going back to my childhood.  It seems I am always trying to track down the hardest to find things, and other people are telling me it doesn't matter.