Thread: My Shave Den Completed... Finally!

**I saw the 'Show Us Your Shave Den' Thread that was started a few years ago and saw that there was a bit of Topic Drift and the last Reply was about 3 months ago... So, I decided to put this here instead. If it should be in that other Thread, please accept my apologies and Mods please move at your convenience. I was just somewhat concerned about bumping an older thread like that and it wasn't pinned so... This is where I ended up.
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My Shave Den Project is both a Happy one and a somewhat Sad one...

Even though I'm only 46, I've had a few Orthopedic Surgeries that have left me with some significant challenges in mobility and function but up until May of 2013 I was trudging along working in Healthcare as I had been for the 26 years prior. 2013 was the make it or break it year for putting off my next surgery and I was desperately trying to make it until the Fall when our Clinic Schedule was a bit more manageable and they would be able to cover my patient load more easily. Well, the Hospital I was working for had other plans as they announced, with 2 weeks notice (... interestingly, our Individual Employment Contracts required a minimum of 30 days notice... Goose and Gander comparisons did not go unnoticed by me...) that our Clinic was closing and I was out of a Job and Health Benefits along with everyone else. 2 weeks is an absolutely horrifyingly short period of time to pull your life together and so, between my Wife and I, we were able to get enough appointments scheduled that I could cover my normal medical issues (... which are sadly significant...) and have our co-payments covered by the time everything ran out. I was barely limping/lurching along at that job and that was with the support I'd been blessed with over the nearly 15 years I'd been working for that Hospital... So, the subsequent Job Search went as expected and doing COBRA on my Wife's income alone was not even a choice. So, I joined the ranks of the Unemployed/Uninsured and was in the worst possible physical shape of my life and, even in May before being laid off was not confident I'd make it to Fall for a surgery date anyway. Between my Unemployment and my Wife's Income as both an EMS Dispatcher and a Professional Photographer we were able to tweak our Budget, save my Truck that was not yet paid off and then we were in cruise mode. Honing and Razor Work trickle in and keep me from needing to spend Budget Money on Shave Gear but not a lot more. So, we were doing okay and treading water but, despite being my area of specialty in PT, my orthopedic issues were worsening as expected and significantly.

During my career in Healthcare I'd done many Home Assessments, Recommendations and Instruction on how to use Adaptive/Assistive Equipment and was using a cane just for distances at the time I was laid off but I found myself using a cane 24/7 and finding our normal Home Environment, in a few words, scary as hell... I'd get stuck in the shower as it was in a bathtub behind sliding glass doors and I'd use up my energy while in there doing the normal things yet have such severe pain and spasms I couldn't stabilize myself well enough to make that big step out. That happened on multiple occasions and I quickly came to understand that the Bathroom was simply the most dangerous area of the house... Other areas were challenging but had enough room or options I was able to adapt technique or avoid... But, that damn bathroom was my personal hell and, despite the fact my Wife and I were surviving, there was just no way we could afford all the labor and materials for a remodel ourselves and, though we knew a few things about home upkeep/repair, we were clueless as to how to address a Full Bathroom Remodel to support Limited Mobility and the need for support.

This is where I have to back up a bit and explain how we sold a Schwinn Recumbent Bike the year before to a really interesting gentleman... He was buying it for his Wife and when he showed up to take a look his '86 Chevy Truck was covered in these cool wrapped graphics with HH4C/Helping Hands 4 Christ ( Helping Hands 4 Christ ) all over it. We asked and he was only too happy to explain that his was a Mobile Ministry that provided Tangible Acts Of Service while spreading the Gospel of Christ. In short, he wasn't a guy that showed up and wanted to talk... He was a guy that took his family (Wife and 4 Daughters) as well as an organized Group of Volunteers out into the community and did everything from helping to shovel snow off your driveway all the way up to major Contracting work... His background and business is Contracting but his passion is his Ministry.

So, as my Wife and I are looking through catalogs (I still had Professional Accounts with a small discount at Healthcare/DME Supply Warehouses...) she says, "Hey, what about that guy with the cool truck that bought our Recumbent Bike? Maybe he can help?" Did I mention that my Wife is smarter than me in a lot, likely 'most' ways? Well, she is and we called. On top of my issues we were also having an electrical issue where breakers were popping and we thought it was from a wrecked outlet in my youngest Daughter's room that she used as a foot-hold when sneaking out. The kid never had a curfew in her life and was simply told, "Take Care of yourself and be careful...", as she was leaving to go anywhere found that it wasn't "cool" to be a free and responsible teenager so decided the way to remedy that was to begin sneaking out and, despite my Wife's and I being quite tall, she needed a boost at her record height of 5'5"... Probably best not to get me started down that Memory Lane. So, anyway, we thought we'd call HH4C and see if they could just assess the electrical issue as we knew how to replace the outlet but just weren't sure that would fix what seemed like a much more involved problem. Turns out we were wrong... HH4C showed up, called in an Electrician Volunteer who took a look and said it was indeed the outlet and changing it in the bedroom and putting in a GFI in the Bathroom should do it... we did it and it did!

During that initial encounter, David, the Founder of HH4C saw that I was in much worse shape than when I'd seen him last and started asking some questions and my Wife helped drag out the details of our situation and he asked what our Dream Solution to the current issues would be... We both agreed that making modifications to the Bathroom was the most important as that area was simply and perhaps laughably the most dangerous. He took a look and found, on top of my issues in the Bathroom, that there was a significant leak behind the tub that had damaged much of the floor and started discussing total Bathroom Remodel, removing the tub, putting in a Walk-In Shower, Grab Bars that would pull double duty as Towel Racks, better Lighting, Tile Floor, etc... It all sounded great but we were in a predicament already and didn't know how it would work out monetarily... He said that all this would take quite a bit of time so paying for materials as we go, acquiring donated materials where possible, using My Wife's primarily and my very little Sweat Equity on top of his and the Volunteers time... He thought it was possible. The rest of the details are somewhat not necessarily Shave Related but I can tell you that YouTube gives you false confidence... I watched a Video where a gentleman demo-d his cast iron tub in a delicious fit of rage-focused sledgehammer work and I thought, "Hey, I might be able to make a couple swings like that!", so I am balancing my weight onto my good leg and my cane and stabilizing my core for what is surely to be a knee-crumbling yet cathartic impact but, at 6'3" and a previous HS Graduation Weight of 210# (LOL!) I felt confident I could at least do the first two swings that would send this tub into Busted Bathroom Crap Nirvana... Well, turns out 'Humbling' rather than catharsis was what I was in for... Sledge rebounded, hit the hollow core door and punched an edge through as if to say... "Dummy, you work with steel all the time! Didn't you think to consider what a newer tub may be made of?!"... And, the answer to that question is "No." and "Not cast iron..."... Between my Wife and I both wielding the sledge we were barely able to get one corner folded enough to get another corner bent and then free the tub enough to be removed.

Now we come to the very cool ending of the story and some Pics... Almost! We've since been helping HH4C in as many ways as possible and it has been incredible the amount of work they do and the number of lives they impact... Truly incredible and I cannot thank them enough. My situation has not changed except for my condition worsening and even more desperately needing surgery but that is just not in the cards for right now... Hopefully in early '15 we will have a court date that is successful and will start me on the first step to getting health coverage and the care needed so I can get my busted butt back to work as a Provider and ditch this Patient stuff... But, that is, at the most optimistic, way down the road. The length of time it took to complete this project has been both a frustration but also a blessing as we would have never been able to afford all that was required were we to have to pay for it in a shorter timeframe... Sometimes you don't see the Blessings until they are smacking you in the face.

My Bathroom now has a fully-tiled Walk-In Shower with a FLAT floor (... coved tub bottoms were becoming the bane of my existence...), Grab Bars are not in these Pics as we lost the pictures that gave us the measurements of their blocking locations but there will be 2 inside the Shower and 3 in the Bathroom... Once those are in, I won't have to use my cane inside the bathroom anymore so will have that small solace as a brief time away from that thing that is a blessing and a curse... The Toilet is oval and the highest one available and we got it before they changed to having just one height and then multiple heights for the seats so the porcelain itself is actually taller than what is available now... The sink is narrowly set so I don't have to lean forward too far to shave (... one of my previous surgeries was a Lumbar Fusion at L5/S1 where they went in through the front... Successful surgery but leaning forward and holding is just torture...) and the sink is tall and wide so I don't have to make a terrible mess while splashing my face. There are 5 drop lights over Linen White primary paint so no more shadows when shaving... If that isn't enough, we put in a 2x/10x Lighted Extendable Mirror which is just awesome at 2x and extreme overkill at 10x which I haven't quite found a use for just yet aside from looking closely at my pores and hairs and going, "Hmmm?!"... The Sink is Moen and features a faucet that swivels out of the way to decrease the chance of SR impacts... Moen R&D Guys must be Wet Shavers... The mirrors with the squares around the edges were the Manliest Mirrors I could find and I think they look awesome... The small Mirror is an Inset Medicine Cabinet and all mirrors are set so as to promote better position and accuracy while shaving as I shave both my face (... not all of it as I have a goatee/Van Dyke...) and my Head... The two drawers on the side of the Vanity are high enough I can access them without calling to my Wife to come get something out from under the sink for me and she likes that part a LOT... The other part that is really cool is the Orange/Burnt Pumpkin Accent Wall... It helps pull all the various colors from the both donated and purchased materials together and will eventually have my Wife's Photography on them of pictures she took of the Deception Pass Bridge/Oak Harbor Area during a trip to the Tulip Festival we took earlier this year. The camera shows it as much brighter but it is a darker, deeper orange and I love both the look and the energy it brings.

Pics, FINALLY!