Michael put on his artist hat for the bathroom grab bar project. He had the vision. I lent tech support.

The original design involved finding ADA standards, measuring and listing parts.  I made my list and checked it twice. — The original design involved finding ADA standards, measuring and listing parts. I made my list and checked it twice.

The small hardware store in Milltown cuts and threads pipe. it didn’t have all the parts we needed, and we realized some of the pipe would be too large for toilet paper rolls, so we had to make some on the spot changes.

The connectors were in a plastic sack and not as photogenic.

Michael cleaned all the parts, found his pipe wrenches and set to work.

Michael taught me how pipe wrenches work. I hope never to need this knowledge. I don’t know what we will do when our work space becomes civilized.

The next step was painting the sculpture with rustolium spray paint.

A nice place under the trees where the paint couldn’t drift onto anything else we didn’t want painted.

Michael cut and finished a wooden pedestal for his sculpture. One thing about Pergo flooring: you don’t want to screw through it to the underlayment. It needs to breathe! We located attachment points and Michael installed appropriate anchor 2x4s in the walls. He held the sculpture in place while I did adjustments to ensure everything was square and plumb. We made marks on walls and floor, put silicone adhesive on the bottom of the pedestal and went to press.

I installed the trim on the inset shelf before we installed the sculpture. The grab bars are solid, although toilet paper rolls do not fit over the end caps. We need to figure out how to remedy this design flaw without compromising the sculptural in… — I installed the trim on the inset shelf before we installed the sculpture. The grab bars are solid, although toilet paper rolls do not fit over the end caps. We need to figure out how to remedy this design flaw without compromising the sculptural integrity.

It works really well as a grab bar at least. I think doing the ADA research helped. Wish we had remembered to bring a toilet paper roll with us when we were buying parts! This is becoming one of my favorite areas in the house. And yes, I have been taking baths!