Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Master Bathroom Remodel

When I wrote the “before” post for our bathroom remodel, I said I’d have finished pictures in a couple weeks. That was being very generous in case there were mistakes that I found to have them clean up, etc. I’m happy to report that the job is finished and I will make the final payment tomorrow. This room is perfect! As a reminder, here’s the before photo:

And here’s what it looks like now!

It’s difficult to get good photos in such a small space but hopefully you get a decent idea of what it looks like now. Everything is in the same place and the cabinets are the same, but everything else is new. You’ll notice that we didn’t pay the contractor to paint for us. We’ll do that ourselves later. Tyla also wants me to point out that the “ugly curtains” are being replaced too. Here’s a list of some of the more visible changes:

  • We had a half wall between the shower and the tub. That’s gone now.
  • The tub deck juts into the shower creating a little ledge for bottles or to help Tyla shave her legs. That’s actually where the wall used to be but now it’s even with the top of the tub so the shower floor is the same height. That extra ~6” of space makes the shower feel quite a bit bigger.
  • The frameless shower glass is probably my favorite feature and one of the bigger splurges in the project. Three brackets and two hinges hold the hole thing together! The door swings both ways and auto-centers when it’s within 20 degrees of center.
  • You already know the story behind the tile. I’m thrilled with the way this looks. I was really trusting the designer on the first round of tile, but I love what we ended up with and I feel much more confident that it will still look nice in 15-20 years.
  • The countertop was another good score. The original plan was to use a product called Caesarstone but the counter guy suggested another product that was half the price and about the same. (The difference is that it’s not from Italy and it’s not as eco-friendly.) Because of the size of our counter, we had to buy a full slab so the cost savings was enormous.
  • We went with undermount sinks. Tim and Chelsea put those in their bathroom and I love the look. They should be easy to clean too.
  • All of the plumbing fixtures and towel bars are new. They are the Moen Brantford line in brushed nickel. Tim suggested that we wide mount the sink faucets given the length of our counter and they look great.
  • There’s a door to the bathroom! It’s one of the changes that’s easy to overlook because it seems like it should have been there all along, but it’s new.

There are also some great changes that aren’t quite as obvious:

  • The shower uses a Moen Posi-Temp pressure-balancing valve. They say that it won’t let the water temp vary more than 3 degrees if someone turns on a sink or flushes a toilet. From our limited testing so far it seems to work very well.
  • The shower is built for a big man! In almost every shower I use, I have to duck to wash my hair, but not in this one! The bottom of the shower head is 6’6” off the shower floor and the shower glass is extra tall too so I don’t splash over the top.
  • We swapped out our noisy 50 CFM vent fan for a super quiet Panasonic 110 CFM model. It’s so good that it makes me want to replace our other fans with this model.
  • Our other big splurge on this project was a heated floor. It’s on a 7 day programmable timer and feels wonderful.

The project all went remarkably according to plan. They finished a couple days before planned and our total overrun was less than 2%. The only surprises in the project were:

  • The vent pipe for our fan was a smaller diameter than normal and just ran to a soffit vent instead of going through the roof. I kept this one simple by having them put on a reducer and leave the pipe as it was. I can fix that separately if needed, but it will probably be fine the way it is. Since I kept that simple, it didn’t cost any extra.
  • The old shower head was never lined up with the shower drain and the new shower pan made that even more obvious. Of course there was a stud in the way so they had to carefully remove it and do some new framing.
  • When they plumbed the supply lines to the tub, they went from 1/2” to 3/8” and back to 1/2”. The plumber fixed that up. The tub was also not set in mortar or framed in. It was simply hanging about 3” off the ground. I can’t believe it never cracked! The nice part was that we were able to reuse the tub since it just pulled right out. The next people who remodel won’t be so lucky because it’s now set in a mortar bed.

Now that the project is done, I can give a 100% recommendation for Ron Palmer Construction. He was not the cheapest bid, but he was super detailed. The other contractors gave one page bids. Ron’s was 9 pages with only one page of boilerplate content. Everything was completely broken down so I could see exactly what he was charging for each task. We had a schedule listing what they would be doing every single day. His whole team was very professional and friendly. We had no problem leaving them a key to work in our house each day. From day 1 until they end, they did a marvelous job of protecting the rest of our house and cleaning up after themselves. They had plastic down on the carpet all the way out to the front door, padding on the hardwood floors, and even a huge plastic sheet with a zipper door separating our bed area from the bathroom dust. And as I said before, he was almost spot on with his cost estimate and beat his schedule. Once we save up our pennies for the next remodel, I’ll have a hard time picking anyone but Ron.

So there you have it. The project we talked about the very first time we saw the house is done! Given the same budget, there’s nothing I’d do differently.

benmartens February 13, 2013 Home Improvement

Calendar For Couples

Early in our relationship, Tyla and I set up a joint calendar. There’s so much going on that without it, we’d be constantly confused about our upcoming schedule. It’s so useful that it seemed worth sharing. There are many calendar apps you could use, but we use http://calendar.live.com. I created the calendar on my account and then shared it with her. Not only can we access it through a browser, but it shows up on our phones and even in my Outlook calendar at work. Tyla is really good about keeping it updated so whenever we need to schedule something, we know that if we check the calendar, we can grab any open slot. If you have trouble planning with your friends or family members, give this a shot!

benmartens February 12, 2013 Links

Martens Pilsner

Late one night a few years ago, I discovered a Martens Brewery in Belgium. For a 255 year old brewery, they have an embarrassingly bad website that stymied my attempts to learn more about them. Here’s what I do know. The brewery is in Bocholt Belgium and it was founded in 1758. Their signature beer is the Martens Pilsner, and like me, it’s tall. It’s sold in 16.9 oz cans. I don’t know how big they are, but they do seem to be distributed around the world since I found a Taiwanese commercial for Martens beer. But that’s about where my research ended. I couldn’t figure out how to buy any.

When Andy and Stephanie showed up to watch the Super Bowl, he had a four pack of Martens Pilsner! Apparently they sell it at a local Whole Foods, and after checking the Total Wine website, I think they might have it too. I was so excited to finally get to try it! At the risk of offending my namesake brewery, the beer isn’t anything to special and is reminiscent of a Coors Light. Then again, I’d say that about a lot of pilsners. Yes I realize they’re different types of beer, but they’re so different from my normal beer that they kind of blend together in my memory.

So now I have a source for Martens beer. My quest continues to find t-shirts, hats, neon signs, pint glasses, or anything else from the brewery. This might require a trip to Belgium.

benmartens February 11, 2013 Commentary

Bathroom Remodel: Before

When Tyla and I walked through this house in the fall of 2011, we loved a lot of things about it, but the master bathroom was not one of them. It was almost a deal breaker. In the end we bought the house with a plan to save our pennies for a remodel as soon as possible. When that positive pregnancy test came around, I tossed out my hopes of doing some of the work by myself and started the search for a general contractor to run the project. The project should be completed in the next couple weeks, but before I get to the pictures of our new bathroom, I figure it’s worth spending a post talking about what was there before.

I’ll start by saying that I know some of you have these features in your current bathrooms. That’s fine! Everyone likes different things and has different priorities. Just because we changed out something in our bathroom that you have in yours doesn’t mean we think you should do the same in yours (or that we even notice!) But I do think it’s useful to talk about this kind of thing. When we were shopping for houses, we learned a lot about what we like and don’t like. That info was supplemented by talking to friends about their preferences. The only way you can really form your own opinions is to see lots of ideas and hear what other people think so I’ll give you one more data point.

This is one of the few projects where I actually remembered to take a bunch of “before” photos. The one below gives you the basic idea of what we started with. This photo looks towards the sinks with the reflection of the tub and shower in the mirror. The door to the right goes into a small room with a toilet.

Actually this isn’t exactly how it was when we bought the house. There was originally carpet on the floor, but we knew that was one thing we wanted to change. When we had new carpet installed before we moved in, we didn’t put carpet there and I laid some vinyl so we didn’t have to walk on the subfloor.

The entrance to the bathroom is to the left of this photo. What you can’t see is that there is no door to the bathroom. Some people like that, but it felt so odd to us (in addition to being too noisy when we got up at different times) that we have been using the guest bathroom the entire time.

I’ll include a full project list when I post the “after” photos, but some of our top goals were to add a door to the bathroom, get rid of all the yellow synthetic marble stuff, and tile the floor. That meant that the bathroom was pretty much taken down to the subfloor and studs. The contractor estimated this at as a six week project and he’s on track to hit his estimate almost to the day. His cost estimate is coming in right on target too. I’ll reserve a full recommendation until the final tasks are crossed off the list, but we’ve been very happy with our choice so far.

While the project is six weeks on the calendar, the last couple weeks are mostly waiting around for the counter top and the shower glass to get templated, cut and installed. It’s hard to pay somebody for work that I could do myself, but I would have had to subcontract chunks of this out anyway. It was also hard to contract this out after watching Tim redo their bathroom by himself. His end product is extremely impressive and comes with a huge sense of accomplishment. All I get for contracting our project out is a hole in our bank account. But after I see how much work they put into it, I know it would have taken me forever and there’s no way I would have finished before the baby arrived. The bid included 236 hours of work. If you assume that it would take me twice as long as a professional and if I could find 15 hours a week to work on it, that’s 31 weeks of work!

I know this post is kind of a tease, but we’re hoping to have the second, more interesting post ready by mid-February. Stay tuned!

benmartens February 8, 2013 Home Improvement

Beard

I’ve gotten used to having my hair cut pretty low. I like being able to cut it by myself for free whenever I feel like it, and I like being able to wear a hat or helmet without getting hat hair. This winter I’ve been supplementing the short hair with a beard.

It started around mid-November when I had my sinus surgery. It hurt to shave so I let the beard go for a couple weeks. That’s also about the same time I got hooked on Duck Dynasty and those guys have some great beards. That was also about the time that the ski season started and a beard works really well to keep your face warm when you’re skiing.

When I was growing up, I remember seeing a photo of Dad with a beard and I just thought it was so hilarious that my clean shaven Dad once had a beard. I don’t have a copy of it anymore and I don’t even know if I remember it correctly, but I remember it being a fun moment in my childhood. Part of me wants to keep the wild beard going and photo bomb my child in the hospital. “Daddy? Who is this homeless guy holding me in the hospital?” I’m not sure I’ll take it that far though. While I love not shaving, I think I might break out the razor once the ski season ends.

And no, the color on that photo isn’t wrong. My beard is red and my hair is blonde/brown. I don’t know how that works.

benmartens February 7, 2013 Commentary

Your First Shotgun

Last year I bought my first shotgun, and even though I’d been around shotguns my whole life, I didn’t really know where to start. There are many people who know way more about guns than me. If you have detailed questions, go ask someone like KenC or LoganB. But if you’re just looking for the super basics, maybe something in this post will help you. I know it was a daunting task for me. As I looked around online I found forum and after forum of people arguing tiny little details about very specific gun parts instead of giving me the overall guidance I was looking for. So in this post, I’ll describe what I was looking for, some features I looked at along the way, and what I ended up with.

First off, I’m not really interested in hunting. I have nothing against it and could see picking it up in the future, but this gun purchase was 100% for shooting trap. If you’re going to be hunting, then you might want to research what characteristics work well for the animal you’re hunting.

There are lots of shotgun sizes. You could get (in order of smallest to largest) a .410, 20 gauge, 16 gauge, 12 gauge, 10 gauge or even an 8 gauge. Those numbers refer to the diameter of the barrel. The 12 gauge is the most popular and is pretty much the only thing you’ll see at the trap range unless a junior is there with a 20 gauge.

Once you decide on the size of the gun, you need to figure out how the gun will cycle through multiple shots.

  • A single shot gun means that you put one shell in at a time. Every time you fire you break the barrel open, eject the old shell and put the next one in.
  • Pump shotguns will hold about five shells. After you shoot, you pull the forestack back and push it forward again to eject the old shell and insert the new shell. This is a very common entry level gun.
  • A semi-automatic shotgun looks roughly like a pump shotgun except that every time you shoot, the shell is automatically ejected and the next one is chambered. You can immediately pull the trigger again to fire the next round.
  • An over-under shotgun has two barrels with one on top of the other. You break the barrel open to manually insert a shell in each barrel, but then you can rapidly shoot two shells in succession.
  • A side-by-side is similar to an over-under except the barrels are laid out horizontally instead of vertically. These aren’t too common anymore.

A semi-automatic or over-under is what you’ll see more advanced trap shooters using because the more complicated versions of the game require multiple shots. You can’t really use a pump shotgun fast enough to get off two shots in trap. Those types of guns are also significantly more expensive. This was going to be my first gun. I didn’t know how long I’d stick with the sport so I didn’t want to spend a ton. That meant I was getting a pump.

At this point I knew I was getting a 12 gauge pump and I just had to pick out the specific model. Two of the most common entry level guns in this category are the Mossberg 500 and the Remington 870. Both have been produced for the last 40-50 years. That means they’ve worked out all the bugs and there is a huge after market parts selection if you want to customize your gun. Plan on spending about $400-500 for the gun, a cleaning kit and a case. I chose the Remington 870 but they’re both good American-made guns. The other things you’ll need right off the bat are some kind of ear protection (foam ear plugs work fine) and safety glasses.

Both of these guns come in multiple barrel lengths. Most trap shooters will use a barrel between 28 and 32”. The longest Remington 870 gun I could find came with a 28” barrel, but as I mentioned before, you can buy other barrels for it down the road. I haven’t done that yet and don’t plan to. My first purchase will probably be a longer stock because that part is a bit to short for me. This is also useful if you’re looking for a home defense shotgun. You could buy one of these guns and then buy a second, shorter barrel.

So how do you buy a gun? That varies widely by state and what type of gun you’re buying. In Washington, you just walk into a store, fill out some paperwork, wait a few minutes for them to do a quick background check by phone and then you’re walking out with a shotgun. Shop around because prices do vary. While Sports Authority isn’t the first place I’d think to buy a gun, they had the best deal so that’s where I bought it. There are used markets for shotguns, but be careful to check the laws about transferring ownership and make sure you know the quality of what you’re buying. If you really want to go used, you might want to start with an actual gun dealer for your first purchase.

Once you have the gun, check out wheretoshoot.org to find a range near you. If you live around me, check out the Kenmore Shooting Range. They have archery, rifle, pistol, and shotgun facilities available. Their website is about 10 years old, but the facility and the people that run it are great. I’d be more than happy to go with you and show you around.

benmartens February 5, 2013 Commentary

Your Credit Card Was Stolen

Credit cards are getting stolen a lot these days, but the credit card companies are getting really good at detecting this. The last time it happened, I received a call after only one fake charge had been made and I hadn’t even noticed it! The replaced my card and the whole situation barely made me miss a step.

The flip side of this is since it’s becoming more common, it’s a good place for scammers to hop in and confuse us. I just received a call saying my card had been compromised so it was now locked and I needed to input some information into the phone system. My suspicions were already high because the call was from 000-000-0000 and it referenced a card from a company that I didn’t think I did business with.

The bottom line is that you should assume ALL calls pertaining to anything like your credit card, bank information, retirement accounts, etc are fake. When I get a call like this that I think might be legit, I ask for the caller’s name and extension and tell them I’ll call them back. I then go look up a number that I trust from their main website or from the back of the card and try to get back to that extension. I did that last time my card was stolen and the guy said, “Wow, that was smart. I’ve never had anybody do that before.” It should be very common!

You’re not required to give out your information to anyone. Think about how you can verify the person you’re talking to. Social engineering scams like this are increasingly popular and you need to always have your guard up. If you’re interested in the topic and/or want to learn more ways to protect yourself, check out Kevin Mitnick’s book called The Art of Deception.

benmartens February 4, 2013 Commentary

A Tale Of Tile

We’re a couple weeks away from having our master bathroom remodel finished. I’ll do a full write up on that with lots of pictures when it’s finished, but I wanted to share one small slice of the project with you now.

Going into this project, one of the biggest question marks in my head was how in the world we were going to decide on what tile to used. We needed to pick out a new counter top, tile for the floor, and tile for our soaker tub and the shower stall. I looked around at the websites of a few tile places and was scared away by what I thought would be extremely high prices. Looking to save a buck, I headed to a discount tile store in Bellevue. They’re small but they have a nice showroom and the employees were fantastic in helping me design our bathroom. I took in a door from the cabinet and walked out with samples to show Tyla. The floor was white with some gray and brown in it and the shower/tub tile was 8×20” sage. The counter was a gray color. She loved the look so as soon as we signed the contract with our general contractor, we placed the order for the tile. Everything was scheduled to arrive two weeks before the contractor started any work on the bathroom. Perfect!

The tile arrived so I picked it up and set it in the garage. We had the 8×20 wall tile, 20×20 floor tile, and rocks for the bottom of the shower. The next day I realized that the wall tile and the rocks were wrong.

No problem. I called, they ordered the new stuff and said it would arrive in a couple days. A couple days turned into a couple weeks but they were sure that it would show up on the exact day that the tile install was scheduled to begin. The correct rocks did show up pretty quickly but I had to wait for the tile.

While I waited, I got more and more nervous about what would happen if the tile didn’t show up. Additionally, I wasn’t sure I even wanted it to show up. Was that sage green going to look ok? Would it still look good in 10-15 years?

The magic day came with silence so I gave them a call. They had to check on it and get back to me. “Your tile isn’t here. It’s not coming. It’s never coming. It’s discontinued.” Apparently the warehouse they work with had been sending mixed messages and here I am at the end of the chain with a contractor waiting to install tile that I don’t have. Yikes.

Thankfully my contractor was super helpful. He suggested a couple places in this huge complex of tile warehouses in south Seattle that kept a lot of tile in stock. They looked pretty fancy but what could I do? We were in a hurry. Tyla and I headed down there with our contractor and asked to only see tile that was in stock. We pretty quickly settled on a 12×12 tile that was gray with some brown in it. And the price? The price about 40% of what the original tile cost! We picked up the tile that same day and we were back in action. On top of that, I felt a LOT more comfortable with our less ambitious design. I figure that gray, brown and white are going to be at least sort of in style for a long time.

I eventually got my money back from the original tile store, the new tile got installed, and it all has a happy ending (minus a few weeks of little sleep, but that’s just prep for a baby, right?) If we ever need tile again, I’ve learned my lesson and will head back to one of the big tile warehouses like Daltile where we ended up getting our tile. The prices were excellent and a lot of it was in stock. What does the new tile look like? You’ll have to wait a couple more weeks until the bathroom is finished!

benmartens February 1, 2013 Home Improvement