11-23 Grab Bar and Manifold Gaskets

Having Fun

At 2:00 in the morning we had a rain storm coming through with thunder and lighting and a down pour of rain but it quickly moved on. When we got up it was nice and cool. After breakfast we loaded Flo into the car and Larry took me to the gym. I was a little sore from the workout yesterday so I only did the treadmill for thirty-five minutes. Afterwards we walked next door to Ace Hardware to get a few bolts and screws for a couple of projects Larry's working on. Once we got the bolts we headed home. Larry thought about going to HEB to pickup a few things but the parking lot was almost full. Instead we filled the car up with gas and then went home.

Larry's mom (Shirley) is coming to visit us for a week. The last time she was here she said she had a hard time getting in and out of the tub in the second bath. Larry spent quite a bit of time researching grab bars, he even had me climb into the tub to trying to figure out which bar would would work best. He wanted to know if we should mount the bar going up and down, on an angle or across. We decided to get a long bar and then we could decide how to mount it. Once we made a decision on what bar to get Larry ordered a Moen Pull Bar via Amazon, he actually tried to find one locally but nobody stocked the bar he wanted. Yesterday we received the grab bar and after lunch today we installed the bar. Before starting the installation we decided it would work best to install it on an angle, it doesn't look quite as nice but it will be more functional. First he had to find a couple of studs. This was a little difficult to do considering we have culture marble for the tub and walls surrounding the tub. He found the studs and taped off where he wanted to put the screws for the bar. The next step was drill the holes for the screws. As he was screwing the screws in he stopped and put some sealant around the screws to make sure that once the bar was installed there won't be any leaks. Hopefully the bar works well for Larry's mother, if not we will remount it or try something else.

Drilling holes for grab bar

The finished holes

The grab bar once it was installed

The next project Larry worked on was replacing the boat's manifolds leaky gaskets. He worked on one yesterday and could not finish it because he wanted to replace the bolts. The first step was to take the manifold apart. Where the bolts were located he had a hard time getting a couple of them out. But he did get all four of them out. He then had to clean what was left of the old gasket by scrapping it off and then using an air powered wire brush to finish cleaning and removing some paint left on by the factory. He wanted to make sure there would be no leaks when he finished the project. Once the manifold was cleaned up he put the new gasket on it. Before putting the manifold together again he put sealant on the gasket. The last step was bolting the manifold back together.

One of the boat's manifolds

The gasket before it was replaced

Scrapping of the old gasket

The new gasket installed on the manifold

The new gasket before it was installed

The wire brush used to remove the paint

While Larry was doing these two projects Flo and I kept him company. In the evening we watched YouTube videos and a couple of documentaries. The first one was Wild Giants of Denali, which was about the wildlife that live in the six million acres of wilderness in Denali National Park in Alaska. The second one was The Genius of George Boole, it was about the huge impact George Boole's work has on technology. Both were very good. Then we started to watch the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation. We had a very nice day.