Reconstruction

a few weeks ago, we declared, quietly to ourselves and i suppose anybody who asked (not that anybody did), the end of major combat operations on our porch. since then, we've been blissfully, leisurely spending most of our free time still working on the porch. of course there was a break in porch operations.

about two weeks ago, i went to Palm Springs for the annual SCEC meeting (about earthquakes, seismology, and all that good stuff). there, i learned several important things. 1) seismicity along faults appears to obey Gutenberg-Richter statistics. there was some disagreement amongst the participants as to the appropriateness of that conclusion from the study presented, but for the most part, i buy it. 2) some kinds of slider-block models have an interesting, tunable chaotic threshold. 3) there really ARE wood floors in our bathroom.

the first revelation i learned in a morning talk; the second was an excellent poster by a very smart UCSB student, and the third i learned on the phone. rebecca usually takes on a project when i go away for a few days. things get painted; furniture gets rearranged. it is always wonderful to come home.

so i get a phone call. "good news!"

"we'll have to make some exploratory cuts and see what we've got there."

"ummmm... i'm pretty sure there are wood floors. that is pretty much definite at this point."

the really good news is that it was surprisingly easy to tear down the bathroom to its bare bones. a diamond blade on a circular saw, set to the appropriate depth, makes very short work of tile grout (or just tile, but the grout cuts more easily and leaves the tiles intact). i mean, it makes a lot of dust. wear goggles, breathing mask, and all that good stuff. get a fan and blow out as much dust through the window as you can. the really key part is to have an assistant with the shop-vac on the trailing edge of the saw blade. with those bits in play, a person can tear up two or three hundred square feet of tile in a few hours.

of course all the toilets at home depot are crap, recognizing the pun, so we ordered a toilet. it will be here maybe tuesday. for a few more days, then, we have but a gulag style hole in the floor and the spider-toilet in the garage (see ZoD articles).

the truth is that it is worth it. the floor is wonderful; troy once again did a great job. i'm off to AGU in december, so i'm sure we'll be seeing him around christmas time.

pictures coming...