Picking Upgrades and Options

It's an exciting time in the life of cohousing. In the next couple weeks we are finalizing our picks for interior options by making decisions on bamboo flooring, cabinets, countertops, etc. Nora and I are really excited thinking about new appliances and getting some of the things we have always wanted. Owning a 120 year old house for the past 8 years was filled with great memories but some bad ones too. We have adopted the Boelkin's rule that everything in an old house costs 2.5 times as much and takes 2.5 times as long to complete.

Speaking of the old house. We have a new renter moving in this week. I spent most of last weekend cleaning and fixing things in our apartment. One of the major repairs was on our shower. A few years ago we had a couple move in, and he was a tile layer. So in exchange for no security deposit he helped me (or helped him) put in a built in tile shower and tile floor. The valve stems for the shower ended up stripping this year so I went on a mission to replace the stems. After a failed trip to our local hardware store, Rylees, I started to get the feeling that this was not going to be a morning project. So later that day I ran out to Godwin Plumbing who are known in GR as the plumbing gurus.

When I got into the store there were many older men walking around the plumbing department helping out various customers. I walked up to the counter and told Fred that I was having a problem finding a replacement stem for my shower and handed over the stem. He looked at my offering, looked back at me, and said, "Where did you get this, Afghanistan?" I felt my confidence and weekend time line disappear. It turns out that I have a knock-off valve in my wall, sitting behind beautiful new tile. The Godwin experts recommended that I cut out some tile, cut out some drywall and replace everything. That did not sound very good to me. So in Faber style, I have come up with a no-tile-breaking solution. JB Weld to the rescue!

With another trip back to Godwin, hoping that Fred was not working, I requested some stem extenders. Using some magic epoxy, I cemented new extenders to the old stems. I'm really hoping everything holds together, so far so good. I know that in the next few years I'll have to bite the bullet and break into that wall. As I cemented the new extenders my thoughts turned to cohousing and a new house... level floors...right angles...tight windows...

Community Counts

So part of the reason I haven't posted much lately is because I've been working hard on a major publication and event. Last Monday was the big kickoff and it hit the street. You can check it out at www.deltastrategy.org under the Community Report Card link.

Each year The Delta Strategy puts out an annual report card that tracks key quality of life data for the greater Grand Rapids area. Indicators and community data is some of the toughest work I've been involved in. There is so much data available, but at the same time so little data that you actually need or want.