Monthly Archives: August 2005

Film: The 40 Year Old Virgin

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Like a Virgin?

Denne filmen handler om fjompen Andy som ikke har drag på damene. Når de sprengkåte kompisene på jobben finner ut han er jomfru vil de “hjelpe” han og diverse komiske forviklinger osv følger. Men selvfølgelig er dette til ingen hjelp og tilslutt finner Andy damen sin bare ved å være seg selv. Happy ending!

Som Wedding Crashers er dette en komedie med “voksen” aldersgrense så vi får mye banning og sex preik. Det blir preik for det meste med noen synlige brystvorter her og der. Temaet tatt i betrakning er det veldig lite action. Banningen er kontinuerlig og det er Andy’s usmaklige venner som bidrar med filmens beste kommentarer og situasjoner. Men det blir liksom litt formularisk etterhvert og omtrent halvveis er det jo ganske klart hvordan resten kommer til å gå. Grei nok underholdning i halvannen time.

Hairy nightmare

Morsom anekdote: hovedrolleinnhaver Steve Carrell insisterte visstnok på total realisme i denne scenen hvor de røsker av 1/3 av hårene på brystkassen hans. Om dette er sant er ikke greit å si, men han skrek ihvertfall veldig realistiskt.

Building the shower

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So early on we decided on a custom built shower, as opposed to a prefab fiberglass shell. This allows you to use ceramic tiles inside the shower, which looks great, but is also a bit harder to do. To guide me in this whole thing I found some great online tutorials at the John Bridge Tile forum “Liberry”. Definitely worth a look if you happen to be building a shower!
We also had Dog the plumber run new piping to the bathroom instead of using the old stuff that was there. We could probably have used some of the existing stuff but would have had to run some new lines anyway. Now its all nice and shiny, well not really since its all modern plastic piping. Looks pretty easy to do being all flexible and not requiring any gas-torch welding.
When completed the base has many layers. First a reinforced concrete base which establishes the slope towards the drain in the center. Next a PVC liner to waterproof the base and direct seepage towards the center. This is topped by another layer of reinforced concrete. The base is now ready for ceramic tiles.
With the base in place it’s time to put up some walls. I’m using cement board since it is the most water resistant (and this being a shower….) It’s really heavy though but fortunately it comes in smaller sheets than regular wall board. You can see the cutouts for the shower handle and head. The original plan was to put both on the inside wall, but apparently there is some code against putting the handle on a wall you cannot access from the other side, so off to the side wall it went. I think it works ok, although I wonder if it couldn’t have been a little further out from the corner.
For the other wall we are putting up a glass block wall. I am doing the lower third in brick, covered by ceramic tile. Here I am leveling the top to prepare for the glass blocks

More on the basement

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With the old bathroom mostly gone it was time to start the new one. We are using metal stud framing for the walls, it’s lightweight and very easy to install.

But then we hit the first problem: the floor drain would not work properly with the planned new shower base! A properly built shower base contains a PVC liner that seals the shower area and directs water to the drain. There was no way to secure the liner to the older floor drain. A new drain was needed, which meant digging into the concrete. Scary!
bad drain
To fix the drain we got the assistance of a professional plumber. Since he was already there we had him also dig up the toilet drain and move it further away from the wall. This lets us do a nice finished back wall, previously the toilet was right up against the concrete brick wall.
hole

 

 

 

Den store overraskelsen (2005)

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Ja, det var mye spenning på gang denne helgen, vi annonserte våre bryllupsplaner til nærmeste familie. Det var vel ikke helt uventet i og med vi har holdt koken i snart 6 år nå, men jeg tror vi fremdeles klarte å overraske litt. Snøballen har begynt å rulle.

The problem with a “blah” basement

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So we had a “blah” basement. 1970’s style complete with ugly carpet and dark faux wood paneling. And lets not forget the “prison-style” bathroom. It was in urgent need of serious TLC.

I had wanted to do something to it for a while but it wasn’t until Sabine’s parents came to visit that things got started. Sabine’s dad was itching for some renovation action and I think hoped to get this all done in the week they were visiting. Oy! Not happening. But he did make a serious dent (no pun intended) in the bathroom!
 

Exploring the vast unknown

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We went on a day trip to Des Moines earlier in the week, and took the long road through the wilderness. Along the way we saw strange things like this Corn Roaster!

It’s almost as good as this classic:

Angry Yellow Dog

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So across from us there’s this thing that loves to bark its little brains out on a regular basis. Sabine snapped this candid of the beast….