I finally finished cleaning out my building in Virginia and I think I am finished with taking regular trips there for now. It is a relief to know that I don't have to struggle with driving back and forth every week to do this or that or to move things.

Just driving such a distance over and over is a struggle of sorts, let alone having to take along tools and supplies and then haul them and other things that were stored there back.

Not to indicate that I am finished moving everything — there's still plenty of my junk everywhere. I am to a point that I can start working on my own house and worry about moving and fixing the rest of it later. Saturday I did just that, starting to remove a few dead and dying trees around the yard, including one white pine that was perched right beside the parking place. White pines aren't known for their sturdiness to start with and having that hanging over my car wasn't something I wanted to deal with. In addition, it drops pine cones and sap all over everything.

I hope to replace it with another kind of tree, perhaps a maple or a birch. I will probably miss the shade this summer, but it is a risk I am willing to deal with to avoid a problem down the road.

One of my good friends came over and spent the better part of the day with me, helping me cut the tree and also install my new bathroom fixtures, which turned into quite an adventure.

After removing the old tub and shower surround, which was actually just some kind of wall board painted with a heavy epoxy-type paint, I was ready to put in the new tub. That's where the trouble started. The new tub exactly fit the space, so when we lifted it to clear the toilet and tried to put it in, it hit the walls.

After trying several times, we decided to remove the toilet. Once it was out, the tub could be placed in the proper position in front of the sink, where the room was wider. In order to move it over, I had to take down two pieces of trim and then slide the tub sideways into the hole. Once that was done, I tried to hook up the drain.

I had already figured out that the new tub's drain was in the middle, while the old tub's drain was on one end. I didn't realize this until I had already removed the old tub and opened the carton for the new one. Once that far along with a tub that was a special order item, I knew I couldn't wait another week for another tub to be delivered. My friends, family and coworkers wouldn't appreciate that at all. So, it was time for some major plumbing surgery.

First I had to remove the old drain and cut a new hole in the floor. Once the tub was in place, only then did I realize that my first drilling was in the wrong place by less than one inch diagonally. There is an old adage that states, "Measure twice and cut once." Instead, I measured once and cut twice. Oh, the joys of jack leg remodeling. After I drilled through the floor with my hole saw, I realized that there was a supporting beam underneath the tub drain, so I had to take a section out of that to allow the line to pass.

The beam, a piece of what appeared to be locust about five inches thick, wasn't exactly easy to cut. Adding to the problem was the fact that I had to crawl under the house to get to it and the shavings from the drill were flying right into my face. I couldn't find my safety glasses, so I had to stop every few minutes and clean the shavings out of my eyes, and sometimes from other orifices, including my nose, mouth and ears. Once I had reached the capacity of my hole saw, which was designed for installing door locks, I had to use my chisel to pop out a section of the wood and start drilling again. It took quite a bit of time, and more than a little patience, to go through the beam twice. The second time was definitely more aggravating, just knowing all that work had been unnecessary.

Underneath the house, I tied into the existing toilet line to hit the septic tank. The old line was hooked to a vent, so I left it be after capping off the part that went to the tub drain.

I was soon ready to move on to the next phase of the project, installing a new bathroom sink to replace the badly chipped and worn model that had obviously been in place since the 1970s. It was a lovely color of pea green and didn't have a pop-up valve.

The old sink came out easily after I removed the anchors under the counter. I also took out parts of the old drain and installed new seals in the process. I ran into another problem after I finished the sink — I didn't have a toilet seal and everything in Sparta that offers such things was closed. I then had to drive all the way to Galax to purchase a seal and re-install the toilet.

By the time that job was done, I was ready for a bath. Since I didn't get the new shower walls put up, a bath was my only option.

I just hope I can get the walls done this week. After all, opening day is already spoken for.

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