Monkey Traps

Last night in youth, Chris Gulley was speaking about being attached to things instead of Christ. He used the analogy of a monkey trap.

If you aren't familiar with the term, a monkey trap is some sort of container (usually listed as a coconut) that has an opening that barely fits a monkey's open paw. A piece of fruit is placed inside. When a monkey tries to grab the fruit, he can't pull it and his hand out of the whole. The idea is that a hunter will use this to catch, and presumably eat, the monkey. The irony is that the monkey can escape at any time if they would let go of the fruit inside. In the other words the only thing trapping the monkey is it's unwillingness to let go.

Now I don't know if it really is true or not (about a 1 hour search online revelead referneces, poor comedic videos and illustrations), but it is very easy to relate the concept to our walk with Christ. As we broke into small groups, I we talked about the rich young ruler. The story transpires in Matthew. A man came and asked Jesus what was needed for eternal life. In Short Christ said keep the 10 commandments. The man replied he had done so. Then Christ replied, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The man was sad and turned away for he was very rich. Despite the promise of treasure in heaven and eternal life, since this was the topic, he couldn't let go of his wealth. He was in a monkey trap.

It amazes me sometimes how simple it is for us to get sidetracked in our faith. And how simple the fix is. The first commandment is to love the Lord with all your Heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. It may seem like a harsh line, but anything that detracts from God is a sin. Anything that causes us to take our eyes off the Lord should be removed. Christ said we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him. That implies letting go of items I hold dear, just like a monkey trap.

It was one of those things that God was speaking to me as I was speaking to the kids. I honestly don't have one big thing that prevents me from being full out for God. But, I do have a million little things that added up distract me alot. I think Paul says it best for me in Phil 4:8;

And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

It's hammer time......

As I don my parachute pants, shades and low v neck flashy gold shirt, I prepare the jack hammer for duty. This thing really is 2 Legit.

Now that that is out my system here is a pic of some results...

That is the remainder of my old brass fixture in the floor. I do a lot of hammering. Everything looks good. I finally remove the flange. I make (yet another) trip to lowes to pick up some new recprocating saw blades to try and make this faster.

Lo and behold this baby is cast iron. Woot. (this is a sarcastic woot if you couldn't tell) I begin removing rock, sand and dirt to get down far enough to put on a rubber coupler. I notice the drain seems a little loose. I keep diging. I pull.....

That right. It had cracked at the base trap. Oh joy. More digging. I now have a hole in my floor.

How long does it take to dig half a hole?

I have put it off and put it off but now it is time to tackle the shower drain. It looks to be brass and sturdy. Applying a little heat, pressure and good 'ole elbow grease I get the first piece of. This is the piece that lays flush with the shower floor tile. I can't seem to budge the next piece, which is flush with bathroom floor (actually it was a little lower to create some semblance of a slope).

After 2 days of messing with that I get it off. I am trying to decide whether to jack hammer the slab (really not interested in doing that) or replacing this older assembly (guess which one I choose).

Step 1 get new drain assembly:
Head over to Ace hardware, because I know Lowes doesn't have it. Ace has less. However, helpful employee says try Locke supply. Duh. Why didn't I think of that. But that will be tomorrow.

It's tomorrow. I head over to Lock in Midwest City. "You have a shower drain assembly". "yep." "Do you have a non-PVC drain assembly?" "uh.....no.....Try...Norman Supply". I call them and guess what. They don't have anything like that either. I guess in the 40 years everyone decided to throw out all their old brass drain fixtures. So it is off to jack hammer slabs.....

...Cough....Cough.....

Dust is everywhere. Despite attempts at keeping things clean it just doesn't seem to work. Mostly done with demo work. Let's see, I took a hammer and destroyed the shower pan. I removed the old wall into the shower and commode area. The vanity is gone. All the dry wall is now down and gone. I have also now removed part of the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom in preparation for the new pocket door. Now the image below isn't great but you'll get the idea.


I rented a electric hammer (a mini jack hammer) to remove the tile from the floor (dealing with a slab here).

I have now run some new electrical lines (that was a little interesting) but all in all things are looking pretty good.

Now to work on that shower drain...

Crack kills....

It's time to tear out the vanity. Our hope is to keep it and refurnish it. However, after pulling it out, we found it was rotted on the back and underneath. It didn't seem worth salvaging. Did a little plumbing (hence the title) to put new cutoffs where the fixtures will be. Most of the supply lines look in good shape. Drains.... well..... that's another story (or post if you would prefer).

Now it's off for more demo....

Tear Down Begins.....

Unfortunately (or not depending on mindset) I didn't take any pictures of the actual tear down process. Oh well. The process began simply enough. Taking down some dry wall, attempting to take down some tile. Only to find that the tile was installed really well.

It was a pretty tough job. The must have been about 200 pounds of thin set on those walls. Also found out the base around the shower pan was rusted and rotted.

If you not familiar, tearing out dry wall is normally pretty easy. But, for some reason they had hung two sheets back to back with about a half inch spacer. I'm sure there is some good reason, but I couldn't figure out what.

All in this process took the better part of about 3 or so weekends and about 6 full "Big Blue" trash cans.

joy....

Bathroom Remodel

Anyone reading this probably already knows, but just in case Les and I have decided to redo our bathroom. Now, this process has already begun but for the purposes of reliving frustrating moments in my life, I will recount the events (and backdate this blog) as they happen. What could be more fun than that? Without further ado (nudge nudge wink wink).......

Tales from the Commode