What a mess.

This weekend's work started out quite nicely. We hung pictures in the living room, and cleaned out the scary room next to the kitchen. The living room looks much homier now! And then it just all went messy from there...

Max came over and helped on Sat. It took him an hour to do what would have taken me a full day - go Max! He pulled off all the baseboards in the dining room, so we can extend the drywall we put in to the floor (Dad, should I pull off the doorframe too?). Unexpectedly, this released a HUGE cloud of plaster dust. I don't know why I didn't think that would happen. Luckily the room was already taped off with plastic sheets as I was sanding down the first layer of patching I did... Anyway, quite the mess. It's also pretty ugly:


And then the paint removal started in the scary room off the kitchen. It has a tin ceiling - gorgeous! - and the paint was literally falling off. Because it's tin, all of the paint had to come down, since we can't just patch spots. Paint removal isn't pretty. A lot of the paint came down with a scraper (wielded by 3 friends!) and a lot of muscle, and Peel Away Smart Strip is hopefully removing the remainder as we speak. Though it too will take a lot of scraping and will make a big mess in removing. The worst part though was the discovery of several holes in the tin. It's no big deal to order new panels - my pattern is pretty common - but I'm truly scared of what I'll find under there when I go to replace it! It definitely rusted for a reason. I have some crossed fingers that whatever leaked has been fixed - but I'm so not holding my breath on that one...

Butcher, baker, and candlestick maker - and one uninvited guest.

All came over yesterday. And all were late! Really it was the insulation estimate guy, the window bar installers, and the plumber. The insulation guy said that his company didn't do my kind of attic and referred me to the group I had already spoken to. The window guys did a great job (pictures soon), though I kind of wish the bars had been painted with a matte finish. Should I have tipped them? I hope not. But I did give them water. And the plumber guy was really nice and really thorough (it turns out my chimney is clay lined, yay! - though the seams aren't perfect - not so yay), and will give me multiple quotes for my oil to gas conversion in a week.

And there was an uninvited bug guest. A big one in the basement. I missed it with the Raid (b/c I refused to go down there without Erin backing me up - yes, I know I'm a wuss), but did spray it where I thought he might be, causing my clean laundry to smell like Raid. Apparently to no avail, since Erin spotted him the next morning in the kitchen. At least, I hope it was him. One is enough. Ew. Think it might be time to call the exterminators again, and then put down some bait traps in the basement...

See, we did do some work...

A couple pics -
The closet is finally finished, and has cleaning supplies back in it - yay for something off the list!
Floor:
Max showing how he hung the clothes rod:

And last weekend we did a lot to Erin's wall. She finished sanding the drywall tape, and I managed to put up the top part of the cabinet, the baseboards, and some trim. Now you may laugh, but that actually took 5 hours. It was fraught with crookedness, inexpert tool use (me), poor planning (so what if I did the math wrong and the new piece of oak was too small?), and lots of decision making. Another trip to Lowe's and Dyke's Lumber (they have the best moldings) will be necessary. And for all of that, I actually think it went quite well. Erin is very happy that she can no longer see into the ceiling through her cabinet!



This weekend I'm off to Dad's for his pig roast, so there will be no work done by me. But I suspect there will be lots of planning and discussions ;)

Time flies...

When you're just plain busy! Last weekend I finished the closet (with some timely help from Max!), and worked a bit in the backyard. Max set up the composter, and we discovered there were actually some flowers growing in all those weeds. We also discovered that Dad brought some water in that dishwasher - which is really kind of impressive, all the way from Rochester! ;)

Pictures soon, I promise.

This weekend - I will make more progress on Erin's wall. With the goal of completion in the foreseeable future...