Greg In The Desert

A CatGenie is a automatic cat litter box: it removes large items from the litter, washes the plastic litter and dries it. It’s like a toilet and litter box combined in one device and if it works like its supposed to it should eliminate a lot of hassle for the cat owner.

A friend of mine recently bought one and I installed the connections for the device. The CatGenie requies an elecrical connection, a water connection and a drain connection. It connects just like a washing machine with a hose fitting for the water supply and washing machine style drain hose.

The CatGenie comes with adapters for connecting to an existing washing machine connections so the washing machine and CatGenie can be connected at the same time. I also comes with adapters to connect to a toilet. (Note: Don’t loose these connectors, even if you don’t use them. Replacements can be extremely difficult to find.) My friend has a small room underneath the stairs and near a bathroom that the litter boxes are kept in but no connections already in place. Since the studs were exposed I could tap into connections from other rooms. I tried my best to make the connections in such a way that pictures of the installation doesn’t end up on the internet as the way not to do home improvement.

There are exposed electrical boxes under the stairs and I was able to run a wiring into one of the boxes and connect a new box in the room. The existing box was in the kitchen so it was on a GFCI otherwise I would have installed one in this new installation since there’s water involved.

There is a drain and a water connection in the area under the stairs that are for an adjacent bathroom and I modified them to connect to the CatGenie. I wanted to make sure they would be easy to close off and disconnect if the CatGenie wasn’t used in the future.

The water supply to the toilet is PEX tubing and I cut the PEX and added a GatorBite T-fitting in between the two cut parts of PEX. There’s probably a few ways to make that connection but the GatorBite T-fitting (called GatorBite at Lowes and SharkBite and Home Depot) was the easiest for me to work with. The GatorBite pipe fittings are a push on style fitting that work with PEX, PVC or Copper pipe and seem to be a type compression fitting. They are extremely easy to push on and can be removed. They are expensive compared to other types of fitting, the T-fitting normally costs about $21. Some plumbers would probably disagree with the idea of using these types of fittings but I am not a plumber. I wanted to go from PEX to a solid copper connection for the hose and I was in a confined space. The GatorBite was the easiest and quickest to install and has not leaked.

There is a 2 inch drain-waste-vent pipe from the toilet. I cut a section out of the vent portion of the pipe then installed a 2 inch pipe with a 1 1/2 inch Y-shaped extension. The drain from the CatGenie goes in this extension. Since the pipe is a vent pipe I don’t want sewer gasses going into this room through the extension so I installed a rubber gasket that is designed to go over vent pipes with a hole in it that washing machine drains are installed into. The drain pipe seals up into the gasket and should prevent any sewer gaskets from leaking.

So far the CatGenie has operated using these connections without any problems. The cats operating with the CatGenie is a different problem.

I am what is call a AFOL, Adult Fan Of Lego. I got my start with legos in the 1970’s and 1980’s with the town and space themed sets. I couldn’t tell you which set I had first but I did have the much coveted LL-497 Galaxy Explorer.

Lego no longer makes the straight space them any more. They instead make the Mars Mission and Star Wars’s themes. There’s no mistake that the Star Wars sets are awesome and I very occasionally buy one for that reason.

Many of us AFOL’s are nostalgic for the original Space theme and March 2009 is the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the original space themed sets from Lego.

Neo Classic Space is celebrating by introducing a new model of day of march in the look of the original blue and grey space theme but using modern Lego building techniques.

Their first model, the LL-414 Deep Space Perimeter Patrol Ship, does not disappoint. Note the lack of studs anywhere on the model.

Last fall, I threatened that I would have the master bathroom completed by the end of the winter. Here it is spring and I did almost nothing to the bathroom. I have a variety of excuses that I wont go into now, however I did finally make some actual progress on it this weekend.

Before I can do anything I need to install the pocket door. Before I install the pocket door I need to relocate the wiring that exists on the wall where the door goes.

The wiring consists of power in, a wire to the lights controlled by a switch and a power out to a outlet. The good news is the wiring was easy to move to the next wall, it was loose in the attic and there was plenty of room to move it. I thought I would leave the outlet unpowered for now, until I figured out how I was going to rewire everything, apparently the wire to the outlet is also hooked up to the living room.

Now I have a problem that I need to wire that outlet back up, so i have Romex running along the other side of the bathroom along up to the switch. It looks pretty messy and dangerous in the pictures, I know. Trust me it’s safe and temporary.

I need to decide how to wire up a exhaust fan, will it go near the light switch or near the toilet? I also need to figure out if I’m going to use a fancy digital shower control. If so It will use the power from the outlet then I can wire it up properly.

Finally I can install the pocket door. I have the studs marked to cut down, but I’m waiting for some friends to come by and verify my measurements before I screw it all up. I will save the pocket door install for another post.

Now the the master bathroom is down to the studs, it’s my chance to put in exactly the kind of shower controls that I want. The Grohe digital thermostat looks like the kind of controls I’m looking for. Their website states:

The main control unit allows you to select the temperature, flow rate and to program the three personalised user buttons. These buttons illuminate when selected directly or via the remote control. Two backlit LCD panels display the water temperature and flow level and are controlled by the temperature and flow dials. The flow control dial can also be used to start the shower. To prevent children from turning the water above 38ºC, the SafeStop (temperature override) button must be pressed before the raising the temperature above this level – so there’s no risk of accidental scalding.
For convenience, the Pause button allows you to temporarily stop the water mid-shower – great if you want to wash your hair. When you’re ready to re-start you shower, press the button again and it will return to the exact same setting. Finally, the Stop button is used to turn the shower off. This button can also be used to turn the shower on at the safe temperature of 38ºC – perfect for when you have guests staying.

Pretty nifty. I can’t seem to find US pricing or availablity for this product. Anyone familiar with this product or similar devices?

About a year ago most house remodeling projects came to a halt. Costs got a little out of control and I ended up with some large credit card bills. I’ve eliminated those bills and am ready to start back on my projects. I didn’t waste any of that money, it was just a bit too much to spend at once. I now have this radical new idea that I will call “planning and budgeting” and I will apply it to projects going forward.

A quick recap on this project, the house was a foreclosure. Though not trashed, it was pretty dated and in need of remodeling in several places. The master bath showed signs of leakage in the shower. It’s pretty clear that it’s been going on for a while, it had leaked into the adjacent bathroom and into the master bedroom.

I was sure the bathroom wasn’t usable in it’s current condition and would need to be tore down to the studs. As I started to demolish the walls of the shower I found that it was pretty much being held together with tree roots. Roots had grown a good foot up the wall of the shower in between the tile. As the roots took hold of the tile, it probably just made the leaking worse.

This bathroom has not been used in at least 4 years. Yet as I broke up the mortar and shower pan I found the mortar was still pretty wet. There were so many roots that it smelled like a nursery. Finally, I think i have found the root cause. The drain pipe is basically floating, there’s a huge gap of missing concrete around it and I can clearly see where main roots have made their way through the floor (this isn’t the first time I’ve had issues with the cement in this house). I assume that a little water made it’s way around the drain, signaling for the roots to come through. As the roots grew threw the tile the wall leakage just got worse causing more roots to grow. At least I know I wasn’t wrong that there was no saving it.

The demolition is about 99% complete. I intended to get a good amount of this bathroom completed this winter. I’ve got a basic plan put together, but that’s a post for another day.