Next up: tub/shower conversion

 A lovely young man named Joshua showed up on schedule to start in this morning.  He rang the doorbell, and Ember did not bark!  Yes, my attempts at avoiding her getting overly excited by that specific noise have so far been effective.  She's 18 weeks old, only learned the word squirrel last weekend, and thinks the doorbell is just another TV sound effect.

The calm before the storm:  drop cloths on the hallway tile and up the stairway carpet.  Ember is (I hope snoozing) in her den.  I'm hiding out in the family room.

Before Josh arrived, we had our usual routine in Emberville:  fed the cat, took the dog out for business, fed the dog, then took her on a "big girl walk" on the leash around her regular block.  Came home and fed mommy her breakfast, and Ember fell asleep to DogTV.

Oh, and I practiced the poop pick up with the piles she dropped overnight.  A mini-training session in our own patio area, since I won't let her into the back yard while all the flags are still in place.  She was already on leash, and it is good practice for pick up on a regular walk.

About ten minutes before Josh arrived, I lured Ember into her normal "crate time."  I asked Josh about the door to the bathroom and whether it would need to be removed for his part of the work.  He said no, he will be trying to control dust by keeping the door closed, and running a shop vac, so no, he would not remove it.  I was concerned about the puppy getting into a half-done project!  I mean, I have enough troubles with the outside work leaving flags in the yard for multiple days!

Josh, on the other hand, was concerned about the deconstruction dust getting spread throughout the house!

I took Ember out for a potty break a little before 11 a.m., then coaxed her back into the "den" with cheese.  She is a little barky but pretty good, all things considered.  Josh took his lunch break around noon, and while he did, I persuaded Ember to put on her harness for a "round the block" break.  She got a LOT of "high value" treats on this walk.  I'm not sure she's even going to want her supper.  But in the process we got several interruptions to the jumping behavior by asking her to sit.  We also got some good "leave it" training.  I have four bags of different flavors / brands of these training treats, and so far have opened three of them to try to see which ones she likes the best.

Nearing noon:  out with "the old".  There's a bigger chunk of tub that he called for assistance with, and then another truck hauled it all away.

He'll be doing some framing today and tomorrow to get it set up for the install of "the new" next week.

Ember has FOMO (fear of missing out), so I put her on leash for a potty break again, and we went out to watch the men work at the hauling away part.

But I have not let her on the drop cloths or loose in the house... oh, no.

Many thumps and bumps and whirs later, we are down to bare framing.  Questions about height to put in the faucet control and how high the shower head should be.  The standard height for shower head, says Joshua, is 84 inches.  That would be great for my son, who is 74 inches tall.  But I'm only 63 inches tall, and if the shower head is at 84 inches, I need a step stool to reach it!

So in my new shower, it will be set to 76 inches for the shower head.  Tall enough to clear my son's head, but short enough for me to reach.

We had one little adventure that I learned from, and so did Joshua.  He had turned off the water, and when he turned it back on (from the main water supply), the house did not "fill up".  Well!  Turned out the new backfill prevention valve on the sprinkler system they just worked on "did its job".  Joshua had to call someone, hear the story of how it had just been worked on, and they talked him through what to do to reset it.  We have water again!

But of course the tale of the construction will continue!

Life is good.  Spark on!