The Gilded Age of America

On Tuesday Barbara and I stepped back in time to America’s gilded age. Around the beginning of the 20th century men were making and spending obscene amounts of money. One of these men was Henry Flagler who built a home in Palm Beach Florida as a wedding present for his second wife.

 

This 55 room 60,000 square foot gilded age mansion was built in 18 months by Henry Flagler all financed by his railroad and many luxury hotels. All the rooms had electric lights and a thermostat to control the heat. All the guest bedrooms had it’s own bathroom and closet for luggage. A separate building was built to store Flagler’s private train car named simply Railcar No. 90. While we were there we had a lovely tea for lunch as a Valentine gift for Barbara. During our walk through the house I took about 160 pictures of which here are just a few.

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Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Today Barbara and I went to Arthur R. Miller Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge ( http://loxahatchee.fws.gov ). This is an area that has been restored to the natural everglades state before all the land development. The information center is brand new (6 months old) and has a lot interesting exhibits. One we liked was were when you walk into the room it tells you about all the sounds you would hear in the everglades at night as told to a boy by his father. After walking around the visitor center we went out and walked along the raised boardwalk that goes through the cypress swamp. Then we drove to the end of the access road and I got some pictures of birds in their natural habitat (I love my 10X zoom on the new camera).

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We left Loxahatchee and drove to South Florida Science Museum (http://www.sfsm.org). This museum is a small science museum geared to kids, but I am just a kid at heart. They have a lot of interactive displays that show various science concepts. Outside they have a science trail with a set of whisper domes and a kaleidoscope that you can stand in and see thousands of images of yourself. Also outside they have a train set that runs on solar power. All in all we had another great day.

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Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden

Today on Valentines Day Barbara and I went on a 3 day trip down to West Palm Beach area. Our first stop was Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morikami_Museum). When we got there we first had lunch in the cafe and we both had a very tasty and filling lunch, Barbara had duck and I had Salmon. Then we went and watched the short film that told the story of the Yamato Colony were George Morikami who came from Miyazu Japan had come to be a pineapple farmer. The colony that was started around 1903 was never a big success and before George Morikami died he donated 200 acres to Palm Beach County to be used as a park. In turn the county has built this museum and Japanese Garden in his honor. The garden is a stroll through 6 different Japanese Gardens all of them are beautiful. They have one of the largest collections of Bonsai I have ever seen. In the building on the small island which was the original museum building has an exhibit that shows Japanese life from the eyes of a child. They have some very interesting ideas for in the classroom. One that we think would be a big improvement is that the children clean up their classrooms at the end of the day, would never get past any board of education here in America. After a lovely day walking in the garden we went to our Motel were we rested and had a delicious dinner in the room that Barbara had packed for us. All in all we had a very nice Valentines Day and we hope that you all did to.

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Bathroom Floor

Yesterday I started putting down the self stick tiles like we had used in the kitchen in the bathroom. This was the last step in completing the bathroom. First I cut the old linoleum floor around the spots were I had plugged the holes left by the old heating system and put in tiles we were not using to make everything level (or as level as I could). Next I planned out were I was going to start putting down the new tiles so that 1) the seams between the old linoleum and those tiles I used to level things were in the middle of the new tiles and 2) I would not have to small a space for the tiles next to the wall (I made that mistake in the kitchen). Then using the guide lines I had made in the floor I started laying tiles. I got as far as next to and in front of the toilet and had to stop. I would have to do that section while Barbara was out having lunch on the next day.

Barbara left around 11 AM for her lunch date and I started taking the toilet apart. I turned off the water to the whole trailer (no shutoff valve for the toilet) and flushed out the water in the tank but of course there is always some water left in the bottom so I got that out with a sponge. Then I tried to get the tank off of the bowl, I was able to get the first nut off but the other two were going to be a problem. I needed a deep socket wrench which I did not have. I was able to borrow a socket set from my neighbor that helped with the second nut and bolt but I could not get the last nut and bolt lose. The screw head in the tank was just too corroded to get the screw driver to stay in the slot. Now I was going to have to lift both the toilet bowl and tank together after removing the nuts that hold it all to the floor. This is not a big deal it is just easier to do it in two pieces instead of one. After I got the toilet out of the way I cleaned up the old wax seal from the floor and under the bottom of the toilet. Then I gave the wall behind the toilet a coat of paint and cleaned the floor and got it ready for the new tile. After laying the new tile were the toilet sat I used the hair dryer to finish drying the first coat of paint. I put a second coat of paint on the wall and waited 30 minutes before putting the toilet back in place. With the floor all tiled and the wall painted I put the toilet back in place and bolted it down. I reconnected the water to the tank and turned the water back on, no leaks. As you can see from the pictures it looks great if I do say so myself.

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Bathroom Project

Well I finally started on the bathroom and it is almost done. First thing was to wash down the ceiling and the walls getting them ready for paint. I also took down the old towel bars and toilet paper holder. It took 3 coats of white paint for the walls and 2 coats of blue for the ceiling. I still have to put the closet doors back up and fix the last drawer but that part is all done. Today I fixed the holes in the floor were the heating vents where, seeing as we are not going to fix the heat there is no need to have the holes there anymore.

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