2011 triathlon season is finally over. For a while I didn't know if I'd make it. I've had a lot of fun, enjoyed some success, and seen some good improvements. But a few months ago I realized that I was mentally just DONE. Not done with triathlon for good, but I do need a break. I could force my body to keep going, but if I'm mentally burned out and not enjoying it, what would be the point? So the plan became, just make it through Long Course WCs and then take as much time as you need. I wouldn't sign up for anything until I was itching to race and train again. I'd spend time with Kai, pay more attention to my job, and hopefully even investigate what the phrase "social activity" means.
It was a good plan, and the right plan, but what it meant was that as time went by and my "A" race drew closer, what I was looking forward to most was it just being OVER. Tough to get motivated to perform when you're thinking like that. I did what I needed to to prepare myself physically but my brain was not quite bought in to the idea. And on a course with 7000+ feet of climbing on a 75 mile bike, followed by 2000 feet of climbing on an 18.6 mile run, my head, heart, and body were all gonna have to be engaged. I put my trust in the hope that when I finally got there, I'd catch the race fever and start getting excited.
I was very fortunate that my parents and best friend Rich were all able to come out and support me. We stayed in a nice house in a great part of Henderson, NV. My coach was also racing, so it was really great to have her there as well, especially since I don't get to see her much.
In the last few days leading up to the race, my thoughts and emotions were all over the place. I was nervous, I was excited, I was ready, I was terrified. Fortunately, having my coach there and also reminding myself that I've raced plenty of times before, I know how to do this, helped me to go through the motions of what I needed to do to prepare without overthinking things too much.
The weather had been beautiful the few days we'd been in Henderson so far except for some rain that had passed through the previous day, but race morning dawned clear and COLD- somewhere in the upper 30s. I was gathering my nutrition bottles and getting ready to head to the start when I got a call from my coach- "Swim is canceled". Um, whut?? For a second I thought it was a joke, but clearly it wasn't. Combined air and water temps did not meet the safety standard of the ITU, so there would be no swim. We would start out of T1 on the bike.
OK, I thought, readjustment time. I did take a small moment to note the interesting coincidence- at Myrtle Beach last year, the qualifier for this race, the swim was also canceled. And not only that, but I had done two other races this year that had canceled swims- IMNOLA and 5150 NOLA. I also took a moment to be kinda bummed that I wouldn't be doing a Long Course Triathlon today. I'd be doing a Long Course Bike/Run. But there wasn't time to dwell on it, I had to get to the start and get myself re-calibrated. Race day always throws some unpredictable stuff your way, and how well you adapt can make all the difference in whether it throws your whole day off or not. I was finally calm, I was ready- let's do this.
The race officials pushed back the start time to let everyone make their adjustments. I did all the normal pre-race stuff- putting nutrition on the bike, pumping the tires- then picked up my T1 bag with all my bike stuff in it and brought it back to Jen's room. My coach had gotten a condo that was about 10 yards from T1, so it was the perfect staging/waiting location. She, her friend Cristy and I waited, warm and stress-free, until it was time to go down to T1 to start. They were starting us on the bike one at a time at 5-second intervals in race number order. Mine was the first one up, so when they called all the 600s I said my goodbyes and headed down to Hazel waiting for me.
It still wasn't even 40 degrees, so I decided to go with vest, arm warmers, leg warmers and gloves for the bike. I wound my way up the hill out of transition as part of a giant slow-moving bike-walking procession. Up to the top, it was finally my turn, and off I went to tackle the hills of the Nevada desert.
The thought of whether or not I would survive this bike course had been haunting me for months. I'm generally a pretty good climber, but there's just no way to adequately prepare for the amount of climbing on this course in the flat swamplands of south Louisiana. I did the Six Gap Century ride in Georgia about six weeks earlier, which was the most climbing I had EVER EVER done and was a lot more than I'd be doing in the race today, but it had taken completely everything I had to finish that. There was NO way I'd have been able to run after. But I also knew that I had done everything my coach told me to do to prepare, and I trust her completely. I kept telling myself that even if I doubted myself, I didn't doubt her- so when she says I'm ready, I must be. As I rolled out of transition, clicked my feet in and started pedaling, I knew that there was no more time to worry. I'd been building up my training bank account all year and now was the time to cash out.
To sum up the entire bike ride- it was GREAT. It went just about as good as it possibly could have. I rode conservatively but not scared. I spun up the hills to save my legs and took advantage of the downhills as much as I could. I never looked at my watch; I knew I was riding as steady and strong as I could while still saving my legs to be able to run. There were high and low moments as I knew there would be, but mentally this was easily the best long bike ride I've ever had in a race. I was appreciating the beautiful desert scenery, I shouted encouragement to other riders as we passed, I stayed focused on each hill and section of the course. I especially enjoyed when my coach flew by me as if I were standing still :) I was definitely working, but I actually enjoyed myself out there!
Reason #437 that my coach is a genius: it was SUCH a good thing that I'd done Six Gap (which was her idea). Every time a hill got tough or my legs felt a little burn, I could truthfully remind myself that it was nothing compared to what I'd ridden out there. Knowing that I'd made it through something that was so much tougher gave me a ton of confidence- definitely a welcome feeling, since the bike is where I normally feel the least sure of myself.
Near the end of the course are three hills called the Three Sisters. They're short but very steep climbs back-to-back-to-back. I had the thought of these on the back of my mind the whole ride, hoping that I'd have enough to get over them without trashing my legs right before I got to the run. What made me the most nervous was that I hadn't seen them yet- they're on a bike trail through an area where there are no roads, so I couldn't get out to see them before the race. I'd heard they were STEEP, but I had no idea how much or how long they were.
When I finally rounded a turn on the trail and saw what looked like a vertical wall of asphalt in front of me, I knew I had reached them. But then, my immediate reaction took me by surprise- a message flashed through my mind as clear as if there were a billboard in my head: "BRING IT." A devilish smile spread across my face. I got up to the hill, dropped it into my climbing gear, and was up and over practically before my legs even started to burn. Yeah, it was steep- but Hogpen (at Six Gap) was steep like that for SEVEN MILES. This course had nothin' on me ;)
I was feeling so good that as I crested the top of the third one, I turned to a spectator and joked, "Is THAT it??" After that it was a fairly easy ride back into town, except for the truck that almost ran me over. I had been growing more and more eager to finish the bike, as I normally do in long races, but today it was for a different reason. Usually I just want to get OFF the damn bike, but today I was feeling so good that I just wanted to RUN already! I knew I had ridden the course exactly as I should have, and I couldn't wait to see what my legs had in them.
Turned into transition, tossed Hazel to a volunteer, in and out of the changing tent with the best volunteers ever, and finally I was running! The run course was 4 loops, each made up of two out-and-backs heading out of the transition/finish area two different ways (which meant that I got to pass the finish line about eight times!). In one direction you were heading uphill, and then downhill the other way. So it was two miles up, two miles down for 18+ miles. My legs unfolded just as I'd hoped- yeah they were tired, but they were moving and there was definitely fuel left in the tank.
The uphill/downhill was going fine, I was enjoying the cheers from the spectators (especially my parents, Rich, and Jen's husband Dave) and all was well, until about halfway through the second lap. I started getting stomach cramps that were just annoying at first, then painful, then FRIGGIN OW to the point where I was thinking I might have to stop, because the jarring from each step was really hurting. I rounded a turn where I thought I might see my parents, and I was glad I didn't because it would have been hard to smile at that point. The only thing I could think of was that some Coke might settle my stomach, so I decided I'd go for it at the next aid station. That's always a gamble early in the run, because you can't run on Coke forever- once you start on it, your time is limited. But there was absolutely no way I was taking in any more of my gel flask, so Coke it was. And it was magic- almost immediately I started feeling better.
It was still tough to take in fluids though, and I knew the desert air was probably sucking a lot more water out of me than I realized, so I was just crossing my fingers and hoping I'd have enough to make it to the end. I was still moving really well but the uphills were getting harder and the downhills were definitely getting more painful. Early on in the fourth and final loop, my legs really started to feel it. They were getting heavy like bags of sand. I could tell I was in a calorie/fluid deficit and that eventually it would catch up to me- I just hoped I'd hit the finish line first! I hit the bottom turnaround and thought, here we go- ONE more 2-mi uphill, then coast a mile downhill to the finish; do my legs have ONE more climb in them? Heck yeah!
I passed the finish line for the umpteenth time, but it was also the LAST time I had to pass by it- next time would finally be MY turn! I headed around the corner for the fourth and last pass up what I was calling the Hill to Forever- over a mile straight up a looong road. There were runners, runners, runners as far as the eye could see. My bags of sand that used to be legs were threatening to quit but I was not listening. Not now! Just make it to the turnaround, smooth sailing downhill from there... When I finally got there, I remember thinking, I got this now- even if my legs DO give out, I could ROLL downhill from here!
I was in the last mile of the last race of my whole season. I had done everything exactly as I should. Even with the few surprises that race day had brought, my day had gone exceptionally well. And an offseason of seemingly unlimited possibilities was right there up ahead of me. With those thoughts and many others swirling through my head, my feet lifted and carried me on my fastest mile of the day, joyfully through to the finish line. Finally, I got to go LEFT at the sign that said "FINISH LEFT/ 2ND, 3RD, 4TH LOOPS RIGHT"!!
And just like that, it was over. My legs had made it after all, I had survived the bike, the course hadn't killed me, and I hadn't even come in last! I hadn't exactly finished too high in my AG either, but I really wasn't worried about that. It was truly a world-class field out there, and just to be able to go out and race with them and to wear the USA uniform was really an awesome experience. Of course without my coach, none of it would have even come close to happening. And without my parents and Rich as an awesome support crew, it would not have been nearly as enjoyable.
So now, offseason- I said I wasn't going to put any kind of timeline on when I'd come back, whether it was a month or a year or whatever. I'd come back when I really WANTED to come back. The rest has really been great, mentally and physically, and sleeping in on a Saturday morning was an exquisite luxury I had forgotten existed. I figured it would be at least a few months of total downtime, but it's been two weeks now and I *think* I just felt a little itch... the kind that only gets scratched by training and racing...........
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Athleta Iron Girl: We Finally Got To Swim!
Another last-minute signup. I hadn't planned on doing this race either (just like 5150), but when it got close to race day I just couldn't resist. It's so cool that now we have races right here in my backyard, on the courses I train on all year. I can't NOT participate. So even though it would be my 5th race in 6 weeks, there I was at the expo, registering.
The Iron Girl is a series of women's-only events. This was the first year they had one in New Orleans. It would be on essentially the same course as the 5150 race last week, just shorter. It was advertised as a 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run. The day before the race though, as I was signing up, I heard they had shortened the bike because the area where they originally had the turnaround was being used for something else on race day. The bike would now be 10 miles. Holy Hammerfest, Batman! This was going to be fun.
Iron Girl also attracts a lot of first timers. I heard someone say that 50-75% of the field would be first time triathletes. Very cool! I am a competitive person by nature and enjoy pushing myself to the limit, but this wasn't going to be that kind of race. Of course I always want to do my best and this time would be no different, but I just couldn't go into it with my normal race day killer instinct, knowing that I was racing with ladies who had baskets and bells on their bikes. I looked at it more as a chance to practice some race-day skills & strategies in a low-stress environment. And a chance to enjoy some raging Girl Power, of course.
The whole race experience was a bit of a whirlwind- starting off by being mega late to transition. Somehow I must have miscalculated my morning prep time, because I ended up showing up at the race site with about 2 minutes to get body marked, pump my tires, lay out my stuff, fill my bike bottle, put on my sunscreen, lube up my shoes, and get the heck out as they were closing transition. I was already DFL, and the day hadn't even started yet!
We FINALLY had good conditions in the lake and were able to actually have a swim (the swims have been canceled at the last two races at this venue). In fact, the conditions were just about as perfect for swimming as I'd ever seen them.
On the start line, I thought I recognized the girl to my left, though I don't think we'd ever spoken and I couldn't quite place where I'd seen her. Probably at other races in the area. She looked awfully serious- definitely had her game face on and looked like she'd done this many times before. I decided that she looked fast, so I'd try to stay with her through the swim.
She did end up being fast, and I lost sight of her before we even got to the first buoy. Oh well :) I swam strong- and more importantly, straight- but wasted some time in T1 getting out of my wetsuit (Race Day Skill Practice #1- wetsuit removal). It was only my 2nd time having to take my wetsuit off by myself in a race, so even though I could've swam without it (water was 74-75 deg), I figured I could use the practice. It probably would've gone a tad faster if the empty bike rack I leaned on hadn't started to fall over when I leaned on it.
Bike- hammertime! The bike is my weakest leg of the 3, and I always push the edge of under-performing because I'm afraid of blowing up on the run. Since this race was so short, I knew I really couldn't hold back at all (Race Day Skill Practice #2- GO HARD on the bike). The 10-mile shortened bike route must not have been measured very closely, because everyone's Garmins had it as closer to 11. Remembering the slight mishap from last week's 5150, I started the feet-out-of-shoes thing a little earlier and managed to get it done properly before the dismount line (Race Day Skill Practice #3), but I did not attempt the full flying dismount.
I wasted some more time in T2 fumbling with my race belt, trying to get it to clip properly. If I were smart, I would've finished putting on my shoes, grabbed my visor, and taken care of the race belt while on the move out on to the run, but I guess I didn't think of that. So I stood there fumbling with it for several seconds and THEN finished the shoes and headed out. Lesson learned. Race Day Skill Practice #4 (although unintentional)- order of operations in T2.
Run- I came out of T2 right on the heels of the girl in my AG who I had seen on the start line for the swim. I had caught up to her on the bike, she passed me right back, I passed her again a few minutes later, and apparently she rolled into T2 right behind me. Whatever lead I had on her had evaporated while I was messing with my race belt. After doing my best to hammer on the bike, my legs weren't exactly feeling perky. I tried to rally my spirits by telling myself that it would be over quickly, I only had to go half the distance that I did last week when I came through that exact spot onto the 10K run at 5150.
The other girl and I were matching stride-for-stride with me slightly behind as we rounded the parking lot out of transition to get out on to the road. I didn't like the idea of running like that the whole way, but I wasn't willing to go much faster at that point than I already was. I'd find out soon enough if she had speed to burn or was just hanging on. If it came down to which one of us could gut it out harder, I knew I'd have the edge. At least that's what I always tell myself- running is so mental that any confidence boost you can give yourself will help.
Another thing I'm pretty good at on the run is running the tangents. If you run corner-to-corner rather than following the middle of the road, you can save a significant amount of ground. There were a few right-angle turns heading out onto the road, and I couldn't believe it when I saw her sticking to the middle of the lane. I lined myself up on the tangent line and, without altering my speed at all, squeezed out ahead of her around one of the corners. Tangents, people! It works!!
I was ahead, but now I had the problem that I couldn't see her. Was she falling back, or keeping pace with me, or about to blow past me and leave me in the dust? I had no idea, and wouldn't know until the turnaround. I read one time that it takes a lot of guts to come from behind, but that it takes a different and special kind of guts to run in front and stave off challenges from behind. I always remember that passage whenever I'm running in front of someone I'm competing against. (Race Day Skill Practice #5- general tactical running skillz. I know I had said that today wasn't going to be about all-out killer competition, and it wasn't- but I could tell this girl wasn't new at this, so between her and me was fair game, I reasoned. We were both pushing each other to be our best.)
I wasn't running all that fast for a 5K- not nearly as fast as I would've liked. But it was what my legs were giving me, and I had to work with it. In between the one mile mark and the turnaround my legs finally decided that they'd had enough racing after all I'd put them through in the past 6 weeks. Unfortunately, I still needed them to deliver me to the finish line, so we struck a bit of a deal: just keep moving, legs, and I won't ask you to go much faster. They accepted, barely.
At the turnaround, I saw that my fellow age group competitor had indeed fallen pretty far back. Of course I knew that wasn't a reason to slack off, so I kept to the deal I'd made with my legs and plodded along steadily to the finish line. One step a time, until- YESS! DONE!!
I did the usual post-race mingling, found my friends & other GNOTri-ers as they finished, congratulated my competitor on a great race, and headed over to the post-race "Breakfast Cafe", complete with danishes, pancakes, coffee, fresh cut fruit, and bagels with smoked salmon. They even had capers! This is a women's race, after all- of course they'll remember all the important details! Our male support crew was bummed that there was no beer. I joked that maybe they'd have Chardonnay instead, but alas, no.
Turns out that I ended up 1st in my AG, and 5th overall out of 305 ladies. Very cool! My transition rankings, however, were more in the 40 to 50-something range- lots of room for improvement there!
Because there were so many first-timers though, the day really wasn't about the final placement- it would be hard to rejoice too much over "beating" an 11 year old or a lady with a basket on her bike. There was some great racing among the more experienced competitors in each age group, but for me the day was more about going out and trying to get the best out of myself and also enjoying the opportunity to race on my home course. The fact that I won something was a really nice bonus.
And of course, Miss Kai had to model the hardware.
The Iron Girl is a series of women's-only events. This was the first year they had one in New Orleans. It would be on essentially the same course as the 5150 race last week, just shorter. It was advertised as a 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run. The day before the race though, as I was signing up, I heard they had shortened the bike because the area where they originally had the turnaround was being used for something else on race day. The bike would now be 10 miles. Holy Hammerfest, Batman! This was going to be fun.
Iron Girl also attracts a lot of first timers. I heard someone say that 50-75% of the field would be first time triathletes. Very cool! I am a competitive person by nature and enjoy pushing myself to the limit, but this wasn't going to be that kind of race. Of course I always want to do my best and this time would be no different, but I just couldn't go into it with my normal race day killer instinct, knowing that I was racing with ladies who had baskets and bells on their bikes. I looked at it more as a chance to practice some race-day skills & strategies in a low-stress environment. And a chance to enjoy some raging Girl Power, of course.
The whole race experience was a bit of a whirlwind- starting off by being mega late to transition. Somehow I must have miscalculated my morning prep time, because I ended up showing up at the race site with about 2 minutes to get body marked, pump my tires, lay out my stuff, fill my bike bottle, put on my sunscreen, lube up my shoes, and get the heck out as they were closing transition. I was already DFL, and the day hadn't even started yet!
We FINALLY had good conditions in the lake and were able to actually have a swim (the swims have been canceled at the last two races at this venue). In fact, the conditions were just about as perfect for swimming as I'd ever seen them.
On the start line, I thought I recognized the girl to my left, though I don't think we'd ever spoken and I couldn't quite place where I'd seen her. Probably at other races in the area. She looked awfully serious- definitely had her game face on and looked like she'd done this many times before. I decided that she looked fast, so I'd try to stay with her through the swim.
She did end up being fast, and I lost sight of her before we even got to the first buoy. Oh well :) I swam strong- and more importantly, straight- but wasted some time in T1 getting out of my wetsuit (Race Day Skill Practice #1- wetsuit removal). It was only my 2nd time having to take my wetsuit off by myself in a race, so even though I could've swam without it (water was 74-75 deg), I figured I could use the practice. It probably would've gone a tad faster if the empty bike rack I leaned on hadn't started to fall over when I leaned on it.
Bike- hammertime! The bike is my weakest leg of the 3, and I always push the edge of under-performing because I'm afraid of blowing up on the run. Since this race was so short, I knew I really couldn't hold back at all (Race Day Skill Practice #2- GO HARD on the bike). The 10-mile shortened bike route must not have been measured very closely, because everyone's Garmins had it as closer to 11. Remembering the slight mishap from last week's 5150, I started the feet-out-of-shoes thing a little earlier and managed to get it done properly before the dismount line (Race Day Skill Practice #3), but I did not attempt the full flying dismount.
I wasted some more time in T2 fumbling with my race belt, trying to get it to clip properly. If I were smart, I would've finished putting on my shoes, grabbed my visor, and taken care of the race belt while on the move out on to the run, but I guess I didn't think of that. So I stood there fumbling with it for several seconds and THEN finished the shoes and headed out. Lesson learned. Race Day Skill Practice #4 (although unintentional)- order of operations in T2.
Run- I came out of T2 right on the heels of the girl in my AG who I had seen on the start line for the swim. I had caught up to her on the bike, she passed me right back, I passed her again a few minutes later, and apparently she rolled into T2 right behind me. Whatever lead I had on her had evaporated while I was messing with my race belt. After doing my best to hammer on the bike, my legs weren't exactly feeling perky. I tried to rally my spirits by telling myself that it would be over quickly, I only had to go half the distance that I did last week when I came through that exact spot onto the 10K run at 5150.
The other girl and I were matching stride-for-stride with me slightly behind as we rounded the parking lot out of transition to get out on to the road. I didn't like the idea of running like that the whole way, but I wasn't willing to go much faster at that point than I already was. I'd find out soon enough if she had speed to burn or was just hanging on. If it came down to which one of us could gut it out harder, I knew I'd have the edge. At least that's what I always tell myself- running is so mental that any confidence boost you can give yourself will help.
Another thing I'm pretty good at on the run is running the tangents. If you run corner-to-corner rather than following the middle of the road, you can save a significant amount of ground. There were a few right-angle turns heading out onto the road, and I couldn't believe it when I saw her sticking to the middle of the lane. I lined myself up on the tangent line and, without altering my speed at all, squeezed out ahead of her around one of the corners. Tangents, people! It works!!
I was ahead, but now I had the problem that I couldn't see her. Was she falling back, or keeping pace with me, or about to blow past me and leave me in the dust? I had no idea, and wouldn't know until the turnaround. I read one time that it takes a lot of guts to come from behind, but that it takes a different and special kind of guts to run in front and stave off challenges from behind. I always remember that passage whenever I'm running in front of someone I'm competing against. (Race Day Skill Practice #5- general tactical running skillz. I know I had said that today wasn't going to be about all-out killer competition, and it wasn't- but I could tell this girl wasn't new at this, so between her and me was fair game, I reasoned. We were both pushing each other to be our best.)
I wasn't running all that fast for a 5K- not nearly as fast as I would've liked. But it was what my legs were giving me, and I had to work with it. In between the one mile mark and the turnaround my legs finally decided that they'd had enough racing after all I'd put them through in the past 6 weeks. Unfortunately, I still needed them to deliver me to the finish line, so we struck a bit of a deal: just keep moving, legs, and I won't ask you to go much faster. They accepted, barely.
At the turnaround, I saw that my fellow age group competitor had indeed fallen pretty far back. Of course I knew that wasn't a reason to slack off, so I kept to the deal I'd made with my legs and plodded along steadily to the finish line. One step a time, until- YESS! DONE!!
I did the usual post-race mingling, found my friends & other GNOTri-ers as they finished, congratulated my competitor on a great race, and headed over to the post-race "Breakfast Cafe", complete with danishes, pancakes, coffee, fresh cut fruit, and bagels with smoked salmon. They even had capers! This is a women's race, after all- of course they'll remember all the important details! Our male support crew was bummed that there was no beer. I joked that maybe they'd have Chardonnay instead, but alas, no.
Turns out that I ended up 1st in my AG, and 5th overall out of 305 ladies. Very cool! My transition rankings, however, were more in the 40 to 50-something range- lots of room for improvement there!
Because there were so many first-timers though, the day really wasn't about the final placement- it would be hard to rejoice too much over "beating" an 11 year old or a lady with a basket on her bike. There was some great racing among the more experienced competitors in each age group, but for me the day was more about going out and trying to get the best out of myself and also enjoying the opportunity to race on my home course. The fact that I won something was a really nice bonus.
And of course, Miss Kai had to model the hardware.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
2011 IMNOLA 69.1
Yep, that's right, 69.1. Swim got canceled. Which means that the last 2 half iron distance races I have done have had canceled swims. It seems that people who would like to do an *entire* half iron-distance triathlon may want to avoid the races that I'm signed up for...
I wasn't planning on doing the whole race anyway- I was signed up as part of a relay team. I was the swimmer/biker, and fellow GNOTri-er Jescica was the runner. She called me from transition race morning as I was on my way there to tell me there was no swim. In Myrtle Beach last year, they canceled the swim due to high e. coli counts in the water. Sunday at Lake Pontchartrain was a different story. A front had come through 2 days prior, and ever since Friday the winds had been ridiculous. I train up there all the time and I know that there's always going to be some wind at the lakefront, but this past weekend it was pretty bad. And it was a northerly wind, which is the worst for swimming conditions since we're on the south shore of a huge-ass lake.
When I got to transition, I went over to check out the lake. The chop was definitely not the highest I've seen, but it was coming FAST, and HARD. I even spotted some rip currents running parallel to the shore. It looked borderline swimmable, but it wouldn't have been pretty. The buzz around transition, though, was that the swim wasn't canceled because of the swimmers but rather because they couldn't get the support boats out there. Apparently they weren't even able to set the buoys. No support craft = no safety for swimmers = no swim. Makes sense to me. It was a bummer, but the right call.
Over at the relay rack, Jescica and I were readjusting and discussing our plan. Everyone was pretty good natured about the cancellation, probably in part because I was at the relay rack and most of the others there were only doing the bike leg anyway. I ran into my hairstylist, which is not as odd as it sounds since he is a cyclist himself and was there to support his friend, who is also the owner of the salon where he works and who was racked two bikes over from me. He asked me how my new haircut was working out - he recently cut my hair reeeally short, Halle-Berry-style - and I told him it's been great!
In Myrtle Beach, the way they started us was we all got corralled into an area right by swim out, with no shoes or bike helmets, as if we'd just gotten out of the water. They let one person go every 5 seconds in totally random order. When it was your turn, you ran to transition to put on your bike gear. So we still had T1 times. On Sunday, they had us all pack into transition, get all our gear and bikes ready and file out of transition two by two (Noah's Ark style, as one person put it). So we skipped the swim and T1 and just started off on the bike. They also had us maintain our wave order, but it was random within the waves.
Relays were the very last wave to go off, and somehow when we lined up I ended up at the back of our wave. This means I was approximately the 3rd to last person to start in the whole damn race! I thought to myself, "I sure hope I'm faster than at least SOME of the people in front of me, because I do not want to be the last bike out on the course!" It was about 8:30 AM when I finally got going.
The bike ride.... hmm what can I say. A 20-knot wind out of the east on a primarily east-west out and back single loop made for some fun times out there. It was a hammerfest the whole way out just to keep moving in a forward direction. When I could finally see the turnaround way up the road, I was literally counting pedal strokes just to make it to the cones. One, two, one, two, just make it there, one, two... Then of course the tailwind on the way back was not as satisfying as I would've liked, but isn't that always the case? As you can tell, riding flats into a headwind is not one of my strong suits. Which is frustrating, because more often than not it's what we get down here.
I've ridden that exact course once a week for about 3 years and I can honestly say this was easily in the top 5 toughest ever out there as far as windy conditions. Around mile 10-15 or so, on top of one of the highway bridges, a gust of wind was so strong that it actually blew one of my contact lenses out of my eye. So I did the rest of the bike ride with one eye. I was kind of sweating it that I might lose the other one - my prescription in the missing-lens eye is -7.0 and in the other eye is -8.0 - so there would be no way I could go on if I lost both. There were a few close calls but thankfully it didn't happen.
Rolling back into transition, I was thrilled to hand the chip over to Jescica and let her take over! The relay transition was actually pretty cool. I ran in and racked my bike like normal, then ran over to the relay pen next to run-out where all the runners were waiting. A friend standing at bike-in had waved over to Jescica when he saw me roll in, so she was ready and waiting for me. I ran up in my socks, since I had to run all the way across a huge transition and figured I could do that faster in socks than in bike shoes. She grabbed the chip strap off of my leg, slapped it on hers, and off she went.
After a quick trip home to get a new contact lens, we went to meet Jescica at the finish line, collect my Relay medal (it's the same medal but it says Relay instead of Finisher, which is pretty cool), and enjoy the post race festivities. The festivities, that is, not the food- seriously, in one of the very best food cities IN THE WORLD, the best you can do for post-race food is fruit, pizza, and Wal-Mart soda?? That is embarrassing. I was embarrassed for my city and felt like I should apologize to all the out of towners. At least the free beer was plentiful. They'd have had a riot on their hands from the locals if they'd tried to put any kind of limits on THAT.
Jescica and I stayed around for the awards ceremony, since we couldn't tell from the printouts if we'd actually won anything. The relays were all jumbled together with male, female, and mixed teams. Turns out we were either 4th or 5th out of female relays by my estimation (they never did split out the results so I have to guess based on people's names) but they only gave relay awards to the top 3. Age groups got top 5. Oh well!
I was a little disappointed in my time and wished I could've been a little faster, considering the work I've been putting in on the bike. But I did go into the race a little depleted- I got super, super sick on the previous Saturday night and couldn't really eat anything until about Wednesday. And, looking at my power numbers, I averaged a much higher wattage than I ever have on any of my training rides. So it looks like the effort was there, even though the time was affected by the weather conditions. So I'm cool with it.
I took a photo with Monte at bike check-in, but it's not uploaded yet. There are also one or two pics of me biking courtesy of Gary, Sherpa Spectathlete Extraordinaire. I'll post them later.
What a bummer for all the first-timers that they don't make a 69.1 sticker!
I wasn't planning on doing the whole race anyway- I was signed up as part of a relay team. I was the swimmer/biker, and fellow GNOTri-er Jescica was the runner. She called me from transition race morning as I was on my way there to tell me there was no swim. In Myrtle Beach last year, they canceled the swim due to high e. coli counts in the water. Sunday at Lake Pontchartrain was a different story. A front had come through 2 days prior, and ever since Friday the winds had been ridiculous. I train up there all the time and I know that there's always going to be some wind at the lakefront, but this past weekend it was pretty bad. And it was a northerly wind, which is the worst for swimming conditions since we're on the south shore of a huge-ass lake.
When I got to transition, I went over to check out the lake. The chop was definitely not the highest I've seen, but it was coming FAST, and HARD. I even spotted some rip currents running parallel to the shore. It looked borderline swimmable, but it wouldn't have been pretty. The buzz around transition, though, was that the swim wasn't canceled because of the swimmers but rather because they couldn't get the support boats out there. Apparently they weren't even able to set the buoys. No support craft = no safety for swimmers = no swim. Makes sense to me. It was a bummer, but the right call.
Over at the relay rack, Jescica and I were readjusting and discussing our plan. Everyone was pretty good natured about the cancellation, probably in part because I was at the relay rack and most of the others there were only doing the bike leg anyway. I ran into my hairstylist, which is not as odd as it sounds since he is a cyclist himself and was there to support his friend, who is also the owner of the salon where he works and who was racked two bikes over from me. He asked me how my new haircut was working out - he recently cut my hair reeeally short, Halle-Berry-style - and I told him it's been great!
In Myrtle Beach, the way they started us was we all got corralled into an area right by swim out, with no shoes or bike helmets, as if we'd just gotten out of the water. They let one person go every 5 seconds in totally random order. When it was your turn, you ran to transition to put on your bike gear. So we still had T1 times. On Sunday, they had us all pack into transition, get all our gear and bikes ready and file out of transition two by two (Noah's Ark style, as one person put it). So we skipped the swim and T1 and just started off on the bike. They also had us maintain our wave order, but it was random within the waves.
Relays were the very last wave to go off, and somehow when we lined up I ended up at the back of our wave. This means I was approximately the 3rd to last person to start in the whole damn race! I thought to myself, "I sure hope I'm faster than at least SOME of the people in front of me, because I do not want to be the last bike out on the course!" It was about 8:30 AM when I finally got going.
The bike ride.... hmm what can I say. A 20-knot wind out of the east on a primarily east-west out and back single loop made for some fun times out there. It was a hammerfest the whole way out just to keep moving in a forward direction. When I could finally see the turnaround way up the road, I was literally counting pedal strokes just to make it to the cones. One, two, one, two, just make it there, one, two... Then of course the tailwind on the way back was not as satisfying as I would've liked, but isn't that always the case? As you can tell, riding flats into a headwind is not one of my strong suits. Which is frustrating, because more often than not it's what we get down here.
I've ridden that exact course once a week for about 3 years and I can honestly say this was easily in the top 5 toughest ever out there as far as windy conditions. Around mile 10-15 or so, on top of one of the highway bridges, a gust of wind was so strong that it actually blew one of my contact lenses out of my eye. So I did the rest of the bike ride with one eye. I was kind of sweating it that I might lose the other one - my prescription in the missing-lens eye is -7.0 and in the other eye is -8.0 - so there would be no way I could go on if I lost both. There were a few close calls but thankfully it didn't happen.
Rolling back into transition, I was thrilled to hand the chip over to Jescica and let her take over! The relay transition was actually pretty cool. I ran in and racked my bike like normal, then ran over to the relay pen next to run-out where all the runners were waiting. A friend standing at bike-in had waved over to Jescica when he saw me roll in, so she was ready and waiting for me. I ran up in my socks, since I had to run all the way across a huge transition and figured I could do that faster in socks than in bike shoes. She grabbed the chip strap off of my leg, slapped it on hers, and off she went.
After a quick trip home to get a new contact lens, we went to meet Jescica at the finish line, collect my Relay medal (it's the same medal but it says Relay instead of Finisher, which is pretty cool), and enjoy the post race festivities. The festivities, that is, not the food- seriously, in one of the very best food cities IN THE WORLD, the best you can do for post-race food is fruit, pizza, and Wal-Mart soda?? That is embarrassing. I was embarrassed for my city and felt like I should apologize to all the out of towners. At least the free beer was plentiful. They'd have had a riot on their hands from the locals if they'd tried to put any kind of limits on THAT.
Jescica and I stayed around for the awards ceremony, since we couldn't tell from the printouts if we'd actually won anything. The relays were all jumbled together with male, female, and mixed teams. Turns out we were either 4th or 5th out of female relays by my estimation (they never did split out the results so I have to guess based on people's names) but they only gave relay awards to the top 3. Age groups got top 5. Oh well!
I was a little disappointed in my time and wished I could've been a little faster, considering the work I've been putting in on the bike. But I did go into the race a little depleted- I got super, super sick on the previous Saturday night and couldn't really eat anything until about Wednesday. And, looking at my power numbers, I averaged a much higher wattage than I ever have on any of my training rides. So it looks like the effort was there, even though the time was affected by the weather conditions. So I'm cool with it.
I took a photo with Monte at bike check-in, but it's not uploaded yet. There are also one or two pics of me biking courtesy of Gary, Sherpa Spectathlete Extraordinaire. I'll post them later.
What a bummer for all the first-timers that they don't make a 69.1 sticker!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Some Bumps In The Road...
I'm trying to figure out how big of a deal I should make over this:
It's the corner of the kitchen countertop. I can tell that the two pieces of granite probably have the same *name* as far as their color, but they are obviously quite different. The sample he showed me was like the upper portion, with quite a bit of the yellow/gold color. The lower piece has hardly any yellow/gold and is mostly black, white and grey. I know he noticed it as it was going in- there's no way he wouldn't have- so he must just be hoping I won't say anything. So do I tell him to rip it out and redo it? I'm leaning towards yes, but I'm not looking forward to the battle of wills that I'm sure will ensue.
There's a 2nd issue with the granite. He's installing a granite table that's going to be attached to the back wall of the kitchen. It will be supported by one leg in the middle. I saw the leg they're planning on using, and it's a turned table leg with some funky designs on it (was that a bunch of grapes I saw??). In my head, I was thinking it would just be a plain round leg. I don't like turned legs; never have. But according to the contractor, the granite people ONLY have this type of leg. And the local lumber yards aren't open on Saturdays, so I couldn't find what I wanted. They didn't have anything quite right at Home Depot or Lowe's. Should I just use a 4x4? I guess if plain round is good, plain square would be OK too. Then would I paint it trim color, or stain it to match the cabinets? Ooh and the big question about the table- counter height or bar height? I was always picturing it at bar height in my head, but is that a bad idea? I feel hesitant about that for some reason.
Oh, and the medicine cabinet. ARGH! I got a recess-mount, 20x26 frameless beveled-edge cabinet that was very nice. I figured the larger size cabinet would be good, to maximize storage space. But it turns out that it wouldn't fit in the space between the studs. So I went back and ended up with the espresso one that I liked best in the first place (and was 1/4 the cost):
The worry was that it's not the same espresso, but I held it up in the place it would be mounted and it really looks OK, I think. The bathroom is so tiny that you can't back up too much from the vanity to really be able to compare the two. So maybe I can get away with it.
But the new question is this: should I just get a plain mirror for over the sink, and get a mirrorless cabinet to put over the toilet for storage? That idea is suddenly seeming like a better way to go. Do you think the different-espresso issue would be more or less of a big deal for a cabinet like that? I may just have to bring one home and compare the medicine cabinet idea vs the over-toilet-cabinet idea. GAH so much trouble for a silly medicine cabinet!
Here's another issue: windows. Originally, he had put replacement windows in the quote. I wasn't convinced that was really necessary, but I left it in. I figured that if I decided against windows I could use the money to upgrade something else. But as everything started coming together, I realized that I really did want the new windows. I figured he would probably want to install them before all the painting and tiling got done, but before I knew it it was done, so I just let it go and figured he had a plan. But when I talked to him yesterday and he said we were ready to move on to final punchlist items, I thought, "what about the windows??" When I brought it up, he claimed they were never in the quote. Ah, but everything lasts forever on teh internets! So I got out a copy and showed him where new windows were specifically identified. He said he'd take care of it. I wonder how much of the tile, paint and trim he's going to have to redo.
About the punchlist: this is going to be a long list. There are a LOT of little things that are just not quite right. There's paint that's not finished, caulking not done, gaps under the base moulding, gaps behind the granite backsplash, nail holes not covered, the kitchen faucet is loose, there are no doorknobs, the valves under the bathroom sink don't match... and those are just the obvious ones. I'm sure I'll find plenty more when I actually go and LOOK for them. It's a little disconcerting to see that such lax attention to detail is apparently OK for him.
And the TRASH again!!! After the original Trash Fiasco, when I told him EXTREMELY clearly that he and his workers were to haul off their trash themselves and not put ANY trash in my outdoor garbage cans, they were again filled with his construction crap when I got home yesterday! Are you kidding me?? The trash people already warned me about overloading the cans, and that they're not to be used for construction debris. I am VERY irritated about this. Especially because he promised a dumpster, and it has never shown up.
Now for some good news- the shower floor is done! And it looks fabulous!
I do kind of wish that the grout lines on the lip lined up with the grout lines on the floor, but I'm not overly bothered by that.
The finished product:
I also really like the new front door, I think it's very cute:
The ceiling fan is up in the kitchen:
And I think it goes quite well with the one in the living room:
I had them switch the blades to the darker side. They had originally installed them both with the lighter side down.
The kitchen faucet is on and working!
And today, the vanity finally got installed!
It is so cute! I (stupidly) didn't realize the drain pipe would be so visible, but I guess that can't be avoided. Maybe I can make something to hide it a little bit. Also a bummer that it takes away some of the storage space, but that's probably the case with all vanities to some extent. I still really like it though.
The light fixture is installed too. I like how the squareness matches up with the squareness of the vanity- what do you think?
Oh and as you can see, there's a toilet now too:
And that picture right there ^ shows the entirety of that teeny tiny bathroom!
A shower curtain rod was apparently not included in the work scope, so I may have to mount that myself. I can't stand those screw-into-place ones; they always seem to fall down after a while. So I bought one that screws into the wall. I might be able to get the guys to put it up for me. I thought about doing shower doors but I figured with the shower curtain, you can pull it back to show off the shower tile. I certainly don't want to hide it behind frosted glass! And I don't think that the few hundred I'd spend on a custom, unfrosted shower door is really worth it for the guest house. Oh and lastly, the tininess of the bathroom means that you probably couldn't open the shower door all the way anyway. So, shower curtain it is.
Current assignment: find a suitable table leg. And prepare myself for some difficult conversations (granite, sloppy details, TRASH) that are sure to be coming soon. Blah.
It's the corner of the kitchen countertop. I can tell that the two pieces of granite probably have the same *name* as far as their color, but they are obviously quite different. The sample he showed me was like the upper portion, with quite a bit of the yellow/gold color. The lower piece has hardly any yellow/gold and is mostly black, white and grey. I know he noticed it as it was going in- there's no way he wouldn't have- so he must just be hoping I won't say anything. So do I tell him to rip it out and redo it? I'm leaning towards yes, but I'm not looking forward to the battle of wills that I'm sure will ensue.
There's a 2nd issue with the granite. He's installing a granite table that's going to be attached to the back wall of the kitchen. It will be supported by one leg in the middle. I saw the leg they're planning on using, and it's a turned table leg with some funky designs on it (was that a bunch of grapes I saw??). In my head, I was thinking it would just be a plain round leg. I don't like turned legs; never have. But according to the contractor, the granite people ONLY have this type of leg. And the local lumber yards aren't open on Saturdays, so I couldn't find what I wanted. They didn't have anything quite right at Home Depot or Lowe's. Should I just use a 4x4? I guess if plain round is good, plain square would be OK too. Then would I paint it trim color, or stain it to match the cabinets? Ooh and the big question about the table- counter height or bar height? I was always picturing it at bar height in my head, but is that a bad idea? I feel hesitant about that for some reason.
Oh, and the medicine cabinet. ARGH! I got a recess-mount, 20x26 frameless beveled-edge cabinet that was very nice. I figured the larger size cabinet would be good, to maximize storage space. But it turns out that it wouldn't fit in the space between the studs. So I went back and ended up with the espresso one that I liked best in the first place (and was 1/4 the cost):
The worry was that it's not the same espresso, but I held it up in the place it would be mounted and it really looks OK, I think. The bathroom is so tiny that you can't back up too much from the vanity to really be able to compare the two. So maybe I can get away with it.
But the new question is this: should I just get a plain mirror for over the sink, and get a mirrorless cabinet to put over the toilet for storage? That idea is suddenly seeming like a better way to go. Do you think the different-espresso issue would be more or less of a big deal for a cabinet like that? I may just have to bring one home and compare the medicine cabinet idea vs the over-toilet-cabinet idea. GAH so much trouble for a silly medicine cabinet!
Here's another issue: windows. Originally, he had put replacement windows in the quote. I wasn't convinced that was really necessary, but I left it in. I figured that if I decided against windows I could use the money to upgrade something else. But as everything started coming together, I realized that I really did want the new windows. I figured he would probably want to install them before all the painting and tiling got done, but before I knew it it was done, so I just let it go and figured he had a plan. But when I talked to him yesterday and he said we were ready to move on to final punchlist items, I thought, "what about the windows??" When I brought it up, he claimed they were never in the quote. Ah, but everything lasts forever on teh internets! So I got out a copy and showed him where new windows were specifically identified. He said he'd take care of it. I wonder how much of the tile, paint and trim he's going to have to redo.
About the punchlist: this is going to be a long list. There are a LOT of little things that are just not quite right. There's paint that's not finished, caulking not done, gaps under the base moulding, gaps behind the granite backsplash, nail holes not covered, the kitchen faucet is loose, there are no doorknobs, the valves under the bathroom sink don't match... and those are just the obvious ones. I'm sure I'll find plenty more when I actually go and LOOK for them. It's a little disconcerting to see that such lax attention to detail is apparently OK for him.
And the TRASH again!!! After the original Trash Fiasco, when I told him EXTREMELY clearly that he and his workers were to haul off their trash themselves and not put ANY trash in my outdoor garbage cans, they were again filled with his construction crap when I got home yesterday! Are you kidding me?? The trash people already warned me about overloading the cans, and that they're not to be used for construction debris. I am VERY irritated about this. Especially because he promised a dumpster, and it has never shown up.
Now for some good news- the shower floor is done! And it looks fabulous!
I do kind of wish that the grout lines on the lip lined up with the grout lines on the floor, but I'm not overly bothered by that.
The finished product:
I also really like the new front door, I think it's very cute:
The ceiling fan is up in the kitchen:
And I think it goes quite well with the one in the living room:
I had them switch the blades to the darker side. They had originally installed them both with the lighter side down.
The kitchen faucet is on and working!
And today, the vanity finally got installed!
It is so cute! I (stupidly) didn't realize the drain pipe would be so visible, but I guess that can't be avoided. Maybe I can make something to hide it a little bit. Also a bummer that it takes away some of the storage space, but that's probably the case with all vanities to some extent. I still really like it though.
The light fixture is installed too. I like how the squareness matches up with the squareness of the vanity- what do you think?
Oh and as you can see, there's a toilet now too:
And that picture right there ^ shows the entirety of that teeny tiny bathroom!
A shower curtain rod was apparently not included in the work scope, so I may have to mount that myself. I can't stand those screw-into-place ones; they always seem to fall down after a while. So I bought one that screws into the wall. I might be able to get the guys to put it up for me. I thought about doing shower doors but I figured with the shower curtain, you can pull it back to show off the shower tile. I certainly don't want to hide it behind frosted glass! And I don't think that the few hundred I'd spend on a custom, unfrosted shower door is really worth it for the guest house. Oh and lastly, the tininess of the bathroom means that you probably couldn't open the shower door all the way anyway. So, shower curtain it is.
Current assignment: find a suitable table leg. And prepare myself for some difficult conversations (granite, sloppy details, TRASH) that are sure to be coming soon. Blah.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Somebody Pinch Me!
The two most-anticipated jobs were done yesterday- the granite people installed the countertops, and Eddy tiled the shower. I hurried home from work, eager to see how both had turned out. The shower had until now been only a figment of my imagination, and the last time I saw the granite countertop sample was weeks ago.
After talking over the design with Eddy & Walter the night before, I felt a lot more comfortable that it was going to look how I wanted it. But it was still a pretty big deal for me to be able to let go, to let it happen without me being there supervising or calling and checking in every five minutes. I really trust Eddy and Walter and the quality of their work, and that definitely helps. I would also like to think that I'm learning to let go of my normal tendency (compulsion?) to Supervise, Monitor and Control. I realized this when I couldn't remember whether I had told them I wanted the center accent tile to be oriented diamond or square. I thought to myself, "well, I trust their judgement and I'm sure it will look fine either way." This may not sound like a big deal, but trust me- for me it is! I knew that things would probably come up that required them to make judgement calls or possibly alter the plan a little bit, and I trusted that they'd do a good job.
Well guess what- THEY DID!! And then some!!
I am so BEYOND thrilled with the shower! It's one of those rare instances where the reality turns out just as good as the picture in your head, if not better! Everything is perfectly lined up: the corners of the diamond with the stripe around the middle, the stripe with the soap niche, the top of the diamond with the window, the diamond centered on the wall. One thing I didn't have in my drawing was the row of small tiles around the top of the shower- Eddy must have thought of that himself. I think it's a great idea and looks fabulous. Also in my design, I had the niche reversed- with the small tiles lining the back and the larger tiles cut to line the indented sides. I guess Eddy must have thought that putting the small tiles lining the indented part would make it match more with the window recess, and plus the stripe hits right at the lower edge of the niche so keeping the same tiles there would make it flow better. I think he's right on the money with both of those ideas.
I was already thrilled, but there was even more to discover! I tore myself away from gazing at the shower and walked into the kitchen, where I was greeted with this:
Holy Transformation! How on earth does that tiny kitchen look BIGGER with all those cabinets in it? And how did they manage to even fit all those cabinets in that tiny kitchen, let alone make it look good? And the granite color is perfect! It blends with both the richer, more gold-toned tile in the kitchen and with the lighter tile in the rest of the house, just like I hoped it would.
I talked with Zoltan this morning about the rest of the jobs that are left. There really aren't many- I can't believe it's almost done!
There's a little more granite to install in the kitchen. They're putting in a granite table, sticking out from the wall, with a round pedestal support. This is the spot where it's going, and you can see the slab leaning against the wall:
That reminds me... I have to tell him whether I want table height or bar height. For some reason, I always pictured bar height in my head. What do you think- would that work?
There's also a little more grouting to do, and the tiling of the bottom of the shower.
I was trying to decide between three options for the shower floor: 1) use the larger main tiles; 2) use the small tiles; or 3) small tiles on the lip of the shower base and around the perimiter of the bottom, and fill the middle with the main tiles. I didn't think Zoltan would go for option 2, because they'd already used so many of the small tiles and they'd have to buy even more of them to do that. I figured if I really wanted them on the bottom, I'd pay for the extra few sheets that we'd need. But when I spoke with him this morning, he said Eddy & Walter were already out buying the extra sheets! Bonus! It turns out that I'm getting a mixture of option 1 and 2. They're doing the bottom with the small tiles and the lip with the main tiles. I was a little upset when I first heard this because I was thinking that the lip would look really great with the small tiles. But I was assured that it looks good with the other tiles, I adjusted the picture in my head a little, and I think I'm cool with it. This is another BIG deal for me- I have always had a very hard time adjusting to Changes To The Plan. Once I get an idea set in my head, any changes to it can feel disastrous. But this time, it was no big deal. So I'm one step further on the road to emotional maturity, and I can't wait to see my finished shower!
Also today, they may be installing the new vanity. I am so glad I found this one, it is totally perfect. Still in the box, but here's the photo on the outside:
And here's the space it has to fit in (where the hammer is laying is where the toilet is going to be):
It's 20.5" wide, which is a little bigger than the old one at 18". In such a tiny space those couple of inches could mean a lot. Cross your fingers that it all fits!
Also as part of my assignment last night, I brought home a shower faucet, a bathroom faucet, and some associated hardware doodads (TP holder, towel bar, etc).
I agonized a bit over these decisions. Not only because I agonize over ALL decisions, but because I was having a hard time balancing saving money vs getting something really nice. On one hand, if I'm going to spend extra money, I'd definitely rather spend more on the main house where I'm actually going to be living rather than in the guest house. But on the other hand, I don't want to take away from the niceness of things I put a lot of thought and effort into, like the countertops and the shower, by putting in cheapy fixtures.
It turned out, though, that I actually rather liked the construction-grade brushed nickel fixtures and hardware. There were faucets that I thought were only marginally better-looking that were $100 more expensive. So I think it's going to end up looking good, and I saved a good bit of money. I know that some of the lower-end brushed nickel finishes are bad with fingerprints and water stains, so I'll just have to wait and see on that.
As I write this, the shower floor is being finished, the granite table is being installed, the ceiling fan is being hung, and they may even be installing the bathroom stuff. The pile of tiles outside the house has gone from this
to this
and by tomorrow, all the major work should be complete and we should be talking about punchlist items. I can't believe it!
Today's assignment: a medicine cabinet. I looked at them at Lowe's and Home Depot yesterday and couldn't find one I liked. Actually I found two espresso-finished ones that I really liked, but they weren't the same espresso as the vanity cabinet. Bah. Then I tried to find one that was an untrimmed plain mirror front, but all of those had molded plastic insides that looked like utter crap. I thought about just putting a mirror instead of a medicine cabinet, but with a bathroom so tiny, it needs all the storage space it can get. I did find one of those over-the-toilet storage pieces, which was great, but it also had an espresso finish that didn't match the vanity. I promised Zoltan I'd have a medicine cabinet by tomorrow, so it looks like I have my work cut out for me today!
After talking over the design with Eddy & Walter the night before, I felt a lot more comfortable that it was going to look how I wanted it. But it was still a pretty big deal for me to be able to let go, to let it happen without me being there supervising or calling and checking in every five minutes. I really trust Eddy and Walter and the quality of their work, and that definitely helps. I would also like to think that I'm learning to let go of my normal tendency (compulsion?) to Supervise, Monitor and Control. I realized this when I couldn't remember whether I had told them I wanted the center accent tile to be oriented diamond or square. I thought to myself, "well, I trust their judgement and I'm sure it will look fine either way." This may not sound like a big deal, but trust me- for me it is! I knew that things would probably come up that required them to make judgement calls or possibly alter the plan a little bit, and I trusted that they'd do a good job.
Well guess what- THEY DID!! And then some!!
I am so BEYOND thrilled with the shower! It's one of those rare instances where the reality turns out just as good as the picture in your head, if not better! Everything is perfectly lined up: the corners of the diamond with the stripe around the middle, the stripe with the soap niche, the top of the diamond with the window, the diamond centered on the wall. One thing I didn't have in my drawing was the row of small tiles around the top of the shower- Eddy must have thought of that himself. I think it's a great idea and looks fabulous. Also in my design, I had the niche reversed- with the small tiles lining the back and the larger tiles cut to line the indented sides. I guess Eddy must have thought that putting the small tiles lining the indented part would make it match more with the window recess, and plus the stripe hits right at the lower edge of the niche so keeping the same tiles there would make it flow better. I think he's right on the money with both of those ideas.
I was already thrilled, but there was even more to discover! I tore myself away from gazing at the shower and walked into the kitchen, where I was greeted with this:
Holy Transformation! How on earth does that tiny kitchen look BIGGER with all those cabinets in it? And how did they manage to even fit all those cabinets in that tiny kitchen, let alone make it look good? And the granite color is perfect! It blends with both the richer, more gold-toned tile in the kitchen and with the lighter tile in the rest of the house, just like I hoped it would.
I talked with Zoltan this morning about the rest of the jobs that are left. There really aren't many- I can't believe it's almost done!
There's a little more granite to install in the kitchen. They're putting in a granite table, sticking out from the wall, with a round pedestal support. This is the spot where it's going, and you can see the slab leaning against the wall:
That reminds me... I have to tell him whether I want table height or bar height. For some reason, I always pictured bar height in my head. What do you think- would that work?
There's also a little more grouting to do, and the tiling of the bottom of the shower.
I was trying to decide between three options for the shower floor: 1) use the larger main tiles; 2) use the small tiles; or 3) small tiles on the lip of the shower base and around the perimiter of the bottom, and fill the middle with the main tiles. I didn't think Zoltan would go for option 2, because they'd already used so many of the small tiles and they'd have to buy even more of them to do that. I figured if I really wanted them on the bottom, I'd pay for the extra few sheets that we'd need. But when I spoke with him this morning, he said Eddy & Walter were already out buying the extra sheets! Bonus! It turns out that I'm getting a mixture of option 1 and 2. They're doing the bottom with the small tiles and the lip with the main tiles. I was a little upset when I first heard this because I was thinking that the lip would look really great with the small tiles. But I was assured that it looks good with the other tiles, I adjusted the picture in my head a little, and I think I'm cool with it. This is another BIG deal for me- I have always had a very hard time adjusting to Changes To The Plan. Once I get an idea set in my head, any changes to it can feel disastrous. But this time, it was no big deal. So I'm one step further on the road to emotional maturity, and I can't wait to see my finished shower!
Also today, they may be installing the new vanity. I am so glad I found this one, it is totally perfect. Still in the box, but here's the photo on the outside:
And here's the space it has to fit in (where the hammer is laying is where the toilet is going to be):
It's 20.5" wide, which is a little bigger than the old one at 18". In such a tiny space those couple of inches could mean a lot. Cross your fingers that it all fits!
Also as part of my assignment last night, I brought home a shower faucet, a bathroom faucet, and some associated hardware doodads (TP holder, towel bar, etc).
I agonized a bit over these decisions. Not only because I agonize over ALL decisions, but because I was having a hard time balancing saving money vs getting something really nice. On one hand, if I'm going to spend extra money, I'd definitely rather spend more on the main house where I'm actually going to be living rather than in the guest house. But on the other hand, I don't want to take away from the niceness of things I put a lot of thought and effort into, like the countertops and the shower, by putting in cheapy fixtures.
It turned out, though, that I actually rather liked the construction-grade brushed nickel fixtures and hardware. There were faucets that I thought were only marginally better-looking that were $100 more expensive. So I think it's going to end up looking good, and I saved a good bit of money. I know that some of the lower-end brushed nickel finishes are bad with fingerprints and water stains, so I'll just have to wait and see on that.
As I write this, the shower floor is being finished, the granite table is being installed, the ceiling fan is being hung, and they may even be installing the bathroom stuff. The pile of tiles outside the house has gone from this
to this
and by tomorrow, all the major work should be complete and we should be talking about punchlist items. I can't believe it!
Today's assignment: a medicine cabinet. I looked at them at Lowe's and Home Depot yesterday and couldn't find one I liked. Actually I found two espresso-finished ones that I really liked, but they weren't the same espresso as the vanity cabinet. Bah. Then I tried to find one that was an untrimmed plain mirror front, but all of those had molded plastic insides that looked like utter crap. I thought about just putting a mirror instead of a medicine cabinet, but with a bathroom so tiny, it needs all the storage space it can get. I did find one of those over-the-toilet storage pieces, which was great, but it also had an espresso finish that didn't match the vanity. I promised Zoltan I'd have a medicine cabinet by tomorrow, so it looks like I have my work cut out for me today!
It's Starting To Look Like A House...
Over the next 2 days, the work continued at a crazy fast pace. Minute by minute, it was getting closer to my vision of the finished product that I have been anticipating for so long.
The tiling in the main living space got finished,
and grouted.
The trim got painted:
See Kai's weave poles over to the right? I tied those poop bags to them so the guys knew not to throw them out when they got rid of all the trash in the yard :)
Trim is back on, looking sharp!
The guys came up with this idea for the threshold to the kitchen, using the leftover scraps from other tiles they had cut. I thought it was a very nice touch and a great surprise!
While I'm on the subject, I really can't say enough about Eddy and Walter, the two-man Dream Team who have been doing most of the work. They're at my house over 10 hours a day. They always show up on time. And not only are they reliable, they also do excellent work. And fast! Pretty much everything I've posted up until now, except for the structural beam replacement, is their work.
In addition to everything else I already posted, over the last 2 days they also framed the soap niche in the shower,
installed the box for the bathroom vent,
and hung the new closet doors.
The guy who Zoltan (my contractor) used to replace the structural beam was the same guy he used for pouring the new concrete in the shower floor. This was going on at the same time that Eddy & Walter were tiling, painting, grouting, and drywalling.
This whole sequence happened in about a day, starting from this (see the hole in the floor?):
to this:
then this:
then more concrete, et voila- a shower floor.
That same day, 2 days ago, the kitchen cabinets went from here
to here.
Starting to look like a house, right?? The next two jobs were the two that I had been anticipating the most- the kitchen countertops, and the tiling of the shower. I talked to Eddy & Walter the night before they were going to do the shower (which was yesterday). Walter had the picture I had drawn, but it was just a sketch and I found out that he really wasn't clear on exactly what I wanted. It was a good thing I got home from work before they left for the day. We went into the bathroom with the different kinds of tiles, we talked it out, I drew on the walls, and Walter helped explain it to Eddy, who was going to be doing the tiling and who doesn't speak as much English as Walter does. I was very relieved after we talked and I knew that they were clear on my design. I had been worried that they were working so fast, they would tile the shower while I was at work before I had a chance to talk to them about it. I was also happy that Zoltan didn't ask me for more money because of all the small tiles I used in my design. It was a lot more than I think he was anticipating, and those sheets of small tiles aren't cheap. I think after the whole trash fiasco, he figured he owed me one. I agree.
That evening I also brought home that day's assignment- ceiling fans and a bathroom light fixture. My good friend Beverly owns several rental properties and has a lot of experience buying this sort of thing, so she came with me to help out. And given my normal speed of decision making, this was a Very Good thing.
They put the living room fan up the next day (yesterday) but since I don't have a picture of it from the store, here's a sneak peek from when I got home last night:
The kitchen fan isn't up yet. Neither is the bathroom fixture, but here it is in the box:
I headed off to work the next morning with a teeny bit of butterflies, knowing that when I got back home I would have kitchen countertops and I would see my shower tile design in real life for the first time!
I also had a new assignment- come home with a bathroom vanity. Not all that easy of a task, considering the teeny amount of space I have to put one. Most teeny vanities are of the low-grade, 49-bucks variety and I didn't want that. I finally found the perfect one on Home Depot's website. They were in stock at one of the local stores, so off to HD I headed after work. I also wanted to look at faucets, showers, and medicine cabinets. It's all coming together, FAST, and I need to keep up!
The tiling in the main living space got finished,
and grouted.
The trim got painted:
See Kai's weave poles over to the right? I tied those poop bags to them so the guys knew not to throw them out when they got rid of all the trash in the yard :)
Trim is back on, looking sharp!
The guys came up with this idea for the threshold to the kitchen, using the leftover scraps from other tiles they had cut. I thought it was a very nice touch and a great surprise!
While I'm on the subject, I really can't say enough about Eddy and Walter, the two-man Dream Team who have been doing most of the work. They're at my house over 10 hours a day. They always show up on time. And not only are they reliable, they also do excellent work. And fast! Pretty much everything I've posted up until now, except for the structural beam replacement, is their work.
In addition to everything else I already posted, over the last 2 days they also framed the soap niche in the shower,
installed the box for the bathroom vent,
and hung the new closet doors.
The guy who Zoltan (my contractor) used to replace the structural beam was the same guy he used for pouring the new concrete in the shower floor. This was going on at the same time that Eddy & Walter were tiling, painting, grouting, and drywalling.
This whole sequence happened in about a day, starting from this (see the hole in the floor?):
to this:
then this:
then more concrete, et voila- a shower floor.
That same day, 2 days ago, the kitchen cabinets went from here
to here.
Starting to look like a house, right?? The next two jobs were the two that I had been anticipating the most- the kitchen countertops, and the tiling of the shower. I talked to Eddy & Walter the night before they were going to do the shower (which was yesterday). Walter had the picture I had drawn, but it was just a sketch and I found out that he really wasn't clear on exactly what I wanted. It was a good thing I got home from work before they left for the day. We went into the bathroom with the different kinds of tiles, we talked it out, I drew on the walls, and Walter helped explain it to Eddy, who was going to be doing the tiling and who doesn't speak as much English as Walter does. I was very relieved after we talked and I knew that they were clear on my design. I had been worried that they were working so fast, they would tile the shower while I was at work before I had a chance to talk to them about it. I was also happy that Zoltan didn't ask me for more money because of all the small tiles I used in my design. It was a lot more than I think he was anticipating, and those sheets of small tiles aren't cheap. I think after the whole trash fiasco, he figured he owed me one. I agree.
That evening I also brought home that day's assignment- ceiling fans and a bathroom light fixture. My good friend Beverly owns several rental properties and has a lot of experience buying this sort of thing, so she came with me to help out. And given my normal speed of decision making, this was a Very Good thing.
They put the living room fan up the next day (yesterday) but since I don't have a picture of it from the store, here's a sneak peek from when I got home last night:
The kitchen fan isn't up yet. Neither is the bathroom fixture, but here it is in the box:
I headed off to work the next morning with a teeny bit of butterflies, knowing that when I got back home I would have kitchen countertops and I would see my shower tile design in real life for the first time!
I also had a new assignment- come home with a bathroom vanity. Not all that easy of a task, considering the teeny amount of space I have to put one. Most teeny vanities are of the low-grade, 49-bucks variety and I didn't want that. I finally found the perfect one on Home Depot's website. They were in stock at one of the local stores, so off to HD I headed after work. I also wanted to look at faucets, showers, and medicine cabinets. It's all coming together, FAST, and I need to keep up!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tiles! Paint! Cabinets!
Lots has been happening over the last few days! As my elderly next door neighbor, Miss Ella, says, "They sho been makin' a lotta noise back there!"
They finished ripping everything out- floors, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets- just about anything that could be removed, was. Then after the structural beam got fixed and the ceiling got replaced, it was time to get to work on the exciting stuff. Like tiles! The color is "Coral Almond". It was a tough choice between Coral Almond and Coral Beige. The fact that I thought that Coral Almond looked beige-ier and Coral Beige looked almond-ier did not help the decision process. The wall color choice was a little easier. Sam, the decorator, handed me three options and all I had to do was point to one of them. And since it's such a small space, we're using the same paint color throughout. The colors look a lot more bland in the pictures than they do in real life... I think they look great! I'm really happy with my decisions.
New pretty ceiling and new paint!
Some tiles laid and one coat of paint:
One of the only things I kept was the tile in the kitchen. It's in good shape and the color actually goes well with the other tile & the walls.
The kitchen, with old crusty cabinets removed (the tile is covered in drywall dust, so you can't see the real color of it):
The guts of the bathroom wall:
The rest of the bathroom (yes it really is that small):
At the end of that day, my assignment was to pick a grout for them to use the next day. The sample my contractor originally brought was a nice color, but too light. I have NO desire to be cleaning grout in the next, well, EVER- so I knew I needed a darker color.
Which one do you like best?
The top one? Yeah me too!
Also on Grout Day, guess what showed up in my yard? Some lovely new Honey Maple kitchen cabinets!!
Very sturdy and good quality. I was impressed.
Last but not least- guess what that is on the ground over there?
That's my shower! I had a very clear idea in my head of what I wanted the tile in the shower to look like, but I wasn't sure my contractor and I were on the same page. When I saw the special tiles show up in the yard, it was a good sign. It also meant that I better get my design finalized with him QUICKLY because soon it would be too late!
They finished ripping everything out- floors, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets- just about anything that could be removed, was. Then after the structural beam got fixed and the ceiling got replaced, it was time to get to work on the exciting stuff. Like tiles! The color is "Coral Almond". It was a tough choice between Coral Almond and Coral Beige. The fact that I thought that Coral Almond looked beige-ier and Coral Beige looked almond-ier did not help the decision process. The wall color choice was a little easier. Sam, the decorator, handed me three options and all I had to do was point to one of them. And since it's such a small space, we're using the same paint color throughout. The colors look a lot more bland in the pictures than they do in real life... I think they look great! I'm really happy with my decisions.
New pretty ceiling and new paint!
Some tiles laid and one coat of paint:
One of the only things I kept was the tile in the kitchen. It's in good shape and the color actually goes well with the other tile & the walls.
The kitchen, with old crusty cabinets removed (the tile is covered in drywall dust, so you can't see the real color of it):
The guts of the bathroom wall:
The rest of the bathroom (yes it really is that small):
At the end of that day, my assignment was to pick a grout for them to use the next day. The sample my contractor originally brought was a nice color, but too light. I have NO desire to be cleaning grout in the next, well, EVER- so I knew I needed a darker color.
Which one do you like best?
The top one? Yeah me too!
Also on Grout Day, guess what showed up in my yard? Some lovely new Honey Maple kitchen cabinets!!
Very sturdy and good quality. I was impressed.
Last but not least- guess what that is on the ground over there?
That's my shower! I had a very clear idea in my head of what I wanted the tile in the shower to look like, but I wasn't sure my contractor and I were on the same page. When I saw the special tiles show up in the yard, it was a good sign. It also meant that I better get my design finalized with him QUICKLY because soon it would be too late!
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