Fair Answers

Recently I noticed that the floor in my bathroom was uneven.  Near the toilet the linoleum had an odd line it where the floor underneath was curled up a little.  We had only lived in this house six months and I knew that this was a new problem, but we had family in for a week and I had just broken my leg, so I let it go for a while.

About a month later I was a little more mobile, and I started to investigate.  Let me preface this by saying I’m kind of a handy guy, but I had never worked on bathrooms or flooring.  I started by looking at the sink and toilet in that bathroom.  The sink looked fine, but the toilet’s bolts that held it to the floor were loose.  That’s not good.  I emptied the toilet and took it off (first time for me) and saw that the floor around it had started to weaken.  So, I started pulling up linoleum (first time again).  The floor underneath this was “underlayment” which is particle board for the floor to sit on, and it looked like the toilet had been leaking into the underlayment, which became swollen, and that’s the problem we were seeing.  Around this time my wife starts talking about replacing the linoleum with hard wood floors.

At this point, I’m a little out of my depth.  I call my dad, who is very handy, and talk to some people at Lowe’s.  Everybody says floors are easy, and I figure I’ll need a plumber and carpenter to put things back together, but I certainly don’t need them to take things apart.  I mean, I can see that the underlayment needs to be replaced, and surely I can pull that out.  So I do (another first).  But that means removing the vanity, washer, dryer, pictures, and baseboards (another first).  Then I cut into the underlayment and start prying it up.

Under the underlayment, theres a “subfloor”.  This is what sits on the joists that holds us up.  The subfloor is in really good shape, except for a couple of square feet around the toilet that needs to be replaced because it was wet and now it is weakened.  Again, I ask around, look on the internet, buy a new saw (yipee!) and figure out how to replace it.  Then we decide on new flooring, figure out how to install it, and get it in.  Then we still have to get the vanity (with new counter top and faucets, thanks honey) back in, washer, dryer, baseboards (which now need varnish) and, finally, the toilet.

All that was because, while trying to wash my hands, I thougth “Huh.  That line on the floor shouldn’t be there.”

That’s how blogging is for me.  I start with one topic, which leads to another, which leads to another.  I started a post on training this morning, which lead to some thoughts on how prepared you REALLY need to bee, which lead to a rant on continuous integration (which, like linoleum, I never spell right) which led to a catchy title for the post, which made me realize I now had at least 3 topics in the same post and I forgot where I was going in the first place.  Sometimes trying to do the simplest thing turns out to be a lot of work.

After some thought and much procrastination, I’ve decided to update the web site, start a blog, fill in my wiki, and update the PayPal book. I’ve also made a resolution to blog for 20 minutes a day every day this week.

Judging from past experience with resolutions, I suspect this will be my only post in 2008. Hopefully, I’ll get around to starting a list of resolutions to make, so I’ll remember to post again in January, 2009.

There are lots of things to write about. I’m learning some advanced Hibernate debugging techniques, getting interested in Groovy, looking for time to update the PayPal book, thinking about starting another book (or two) or web site (or two), and holding down a job. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t actually post again this year. But hopefully I’ll be adding content somewhere more useful.

So, welcome to the new site. If things aren’t working let me know.