A Visit from the Plumbers

Through my friend Mark, I have contacted two competent Plumbers named Craig and Dave.

They came by the house a few weeks ago, before the demolition of the bathroom began, to survey the situation, find out what we wanted to do and give me a worst case scenerio bid. That bid was $1,500.00. That was within our budget, so I have picked them. As far as the quality of their work goes, a recommendation from Mark is good enough for me.

Craig told me that they are not available to do anything on the bathroom for another week and a half. That means we are looking at around August 6th before they do anything.

That works for me cuz we still have a shit load of work to do before they can get started.

The first thing I am going to do is make some beer.

I am using a recipe that is different from anything I have ever made before. As I write this paragraph, the wort (my Beer) is boiling. It contains some water, some syrupy malt extract, and a half ounce of Polish Lubin Hops. That mixture has about 20 more minutes to boil before I add a quarter ounce of Crystal Hops. After five minutes, I will add a quarter ounce of English Kent Goldings Hops and let that boil for another ten minutes.

Just before I end the boil, I will add a quarter ounce of U.S. Ultra Hops and then remove the mixture from the heat.

Now comes one of the unusual steps with this beer. I will add a mesh bag of Indian Sassparilla Bark to the wort and steep it for an hour.

By then it will have cooled enough for me to pour the wort into my Primary Fermenter and top it off with water. When the temperature reaches the exactly precise temperature of about 70 to 75 degrees, I will add the yeast and let the magic begin.

What follows are a procession of pictures from the brewing session.

The picture at top left shows my cooking apparatus. As you can see, I am cooking my beer out on the deck. It is much too hot to be doing this on the stove in the kitchen. The middle picture shows a pan with a cup of Malt extract. I carmelized it and then added it to the boiling wort.

Here I added some Hops. Also pictured is the bag of Sassparilla Bark and then the Fermenter filled with the wort and topped off with water and ready to receive the yeast. It should be bubbling away when I return from work tomorrow. More pictures to come at that time.

40 Days To Go

We took a little time off last week to visit some friends who where staying at Flathead Lake in Montana. We had a great time. We ate a lot, drank a LOT, and I still lost 2 pounds. THAT's a good vacation.

Now we're back and it's back to work.

While we were gone, Phil continued work on the destruction of the bathroom. The floor has become a problem. Under two layers of linoleum, was the original hexigonal tile floor. Check out the picture of a large chunk of tiles we were able to save. It was imbedded in about 6 inches of concrete that was just poured into the floor joists. That floor has been holding up about two tons of concrete for nearly 100 years.

I haven't talked to the Plumber yet but I think we need a substantial portion of the concrete removed before he can lay the new toilet line. Hammering the concrete out will be a bit of a problem for the Living Room ceiling. Cracks are forming already and chunks are probably going to fall down. We are making arrangements to collect what debris we can. WE will eventually cover the plaster ceiling in drywall so whatever falls is not a concern. Unless it falls on the piano.

On a side note, Susan and I are participating in a protest this morning against the Mayor. He is running for another term and is hosting a "Breakfast with the Mayor" event in the park.

The city recently changed our Garbage pick up from the alley to the streets. Many neighbors are quite pissed about this and have already been riding the Mayor in e-mail and phone call form.

Basically, the city bought new trucks that they say are too big for the alley. So rather than buy trucks that fit the neighborhoods, they have decided to re-design the city.

This is a very small issue that will probably not get a lot of sympathy from others. Hell, it sounds stupid to me to complain about such a small thing. This hardly effects me at all because I live on a corner and don't have to move my garbage very far. But, alleys are MADE for service vehicles. Ours is a historic neighborhood with lots of trees that will be pruned to accommodate these trucks. This is not something that the neighborhood is going to let go of.

It should be a fun breakfast.

53 Days To Go

Bathroom Demolition continued last night as we removed the sink. We didn't really run into any problems and it all came out rather smoothly...except for the dent I put in the stairway wall when carrying the vanity out.

I don't think I will repair that until I have the shower/bath tub out.

It Begins Again!

And now for the Bathroom.

We started on Sunday with a whimper. I wasn't really in the mood to work on the house. It was approaching 100 degrees outside and it was just too darn nice to be inside.

Still we wanted to accomplish something so we began by removing the built in cabinet and drawers in the anti-room to the upstairs bathroom.

They came out quite easily in two pieces that we put into the garage and will use for storage.

My original plan was to remove that wall entirely in order to make the bathroom one big room. Unfortunately, that wall is what we call in the construction and remodeling business as a "Wet Wall". It contains the water lines and the drain and ventilation for the toilet. It cannot be moved.

So what do we do with that space? One possible possibility is to possibly put the toilet there. We could create a little private water closet. We would probably have to move the back wall a few inch back to make the room large enough to be comfortable and that means we would loose some room in the closet behind the wall.

Another plan would be to put the sink there. Here's a picture of how that might look. I think it is a workable alternative but we still have some mulling to do.

However, the main thing I wanted to state here is that the bathroom remodel has begun. And I expect it to be finished by Labor Day. That is 54 days away.

What a Country

Susan and I had an excellent Independence Day!

We started by not starting. We slept in until 9. That was great!

Then we had a delicious breakfast on the front porch with coffee and mamosas and lots of cheese eggs.

We have some friends coming to stay for a couple of days so Susan had to finish her scrub down of the house. I went to work outside and did some work on the deck. I finished the decorative railing. The picture on the left is the railing that was already there. The picture on the right is of the work I did. I had to make two of those and they came out okay. Not great, just okay. They'll look better after they're painted.

About 3:00 and 98 degrees, we went out to the Little Spokane River and floated. It was just absolutely perfect. There were a lot of people floating the river but we were all spaced out and therefore, we felt like we were all alone.

Until we met this guy.

We floated by quietly and as far away as possible but he didn't seem interested in us at all.

There was a lot of wildlife activity on the river. Along with the usual ducks and geese, we saw two beavers, some muskrats, and a Partridege in a Pear Tree. Oh, and a Moose.

Armoire Construction

Susan worked late last night so I did some straightening of my lumber pile and then made dinner so it would be ready when she walked in the door.

After dinner we went upstairs to begin "ARMOIRE CONSTRUCTION".

It did not start well. We didn't have any glue and my Allen Wrenches are not metric. The unit comes with a little Allen Wrench but I thought that two would make it go faster. No such luck!

After a quick dash to the store for Elmer's Glue, we proceeded with the assembly. It took a moment or two to get our bearings and figure out what we were doing. Plus, we had to find all the parts. The various top, side and bottom pieces were not labeled. You had to indentify them by comparing them to the drawing.

We got the main case together and we'll finish up tonight. Then we start the staining.

Down Time

With the Summer Solstice Party successfully behind us, we are enjoying a few days to inactivity before we dive into remodeling the bathroom.

We have some friends showing up briefly next week and decided that having the bathroom gutted would not be the best way of saying, "Welcome! Come on in. Watch out for nails and loose boards. If ya gotta go, just pee down that hole."

So we are passing the time by doing little things. Last night, I started cleaning up the big pile of lumber in the back yard. I'm going to cut it into smaller lumber and then throw it in the fireplace this winter.

Later in the evening, we started a batch of wine.

Tonight, I will continue with my lumbering efforts and then we are going to put an armoire together that we bought several months ago at the unfinished furniture store. It's in a large, heavy box and needs to be totally assembled, then stained. We put off doing any of this because it was easier to have the box in our way than an unstained armoire. Now that we are finished with the bedroom, we can figure out the color of stain to apply.

So we will continue with our little projects for a few days and after Independance Day, the bathroom will fall.

By the way, if you were wondering how the Summer Solstice Party was, below is a picture of me taken about 1:30 on Sunday Morning. I think it says it all!

...And the Livin' is Easy!

The Summer Solstice has commenced so now it is time to get down to Summering.

My Annual Summer Solstice Party is Saturday. The deck isn't really in shape to receive a party. It needs to be painted which will not happen before Saturday. I spent last evening doing some wiring. I put five can light into the soffet where the new roof extension is. It went well but I tore the crap out of my fingers in the process. That outdoor wire is really difficult to strip.

But, I must have done something right because the lights came on and the house did not burn down . . . yet!

I must say that I am pleased with my method of routing the power up to the lights. I used the existing wiring that powered a spot light on the deck and channeled it up through the dead bug encrusted soffet and over to the new lights. I put 60 watt bulbs in each can, and boy is it ever bright. I'm going to buy some lower wattage bulbs today. Depending on how that works, I may consider installing a dimmer switch.

Raining from Above and Below on the Homeless

It was a cloudy Sunday that threatened to drop rain all day. That seemed as good a day as any to do some Power Washing on the deck. I mean, if I'm going to get wet, I might as well really go for it. I started about 11:00 and I finished up at 4:00. You would think I could do it faster than that considering how most of the paint was hanging on by a single paint molecule. But some of it was rather stubborn. Plus, I stopped a lot to have a refreshing sip of beer or tell homeless people they could rake my yard. By the time I was finished, I was soaked and covered in white flecks of former paint. As time passed after I finished, I realized how sore I was too. It's hard to hold that wand for all that time.

Anyway, it all worked out beautifully as referenced by the picture below.

Clearly, I still have some scraping to do, followed by sanding, re-scaping, more sanding and then some painting. I also have a nasty rotten spot on one board. You can see it in that dark spot at the top of the second board. I'm hoping there is an easy way to replace it. I have a couple of ideas but I don't know how it will effect the structural integrity of...well...everything.

Back to Homeless People.

At one point, I took a break. I grabbed a beer and walked across the street to the park to sit on the Hyslop Bench and take in the neighborhood. As I crossed the street, I noticed a bicyclist turn the corner at the end of the block and slowly ride up the street towards me. She was riding slowly and looking the houses over pretty closely, as if casing them.

I continued out to the park, sat on the bench, keeping a surrepticious eye on her when she stopped in front on the house and went up to the door. Since Susan was gone with her sister and I was across the street, I had little doubt that anyone would be opening the door.

But I decided to see what was going on and started walking over. As I approached I realized that she was a He. Long curly hair cascaded around his spacey stare.

I said, "Hi, I live here. Can I help you?" A fatal mistake. It turns out that I could help him.

His name was Brian and he began to tell me his hard luck tale of Woe. He needed some money to hold him over for a couple of days and wondered if he could do some yardwork for me. While I was impressed with his initiative, it was at that point that I realized he was riding down the street, looking at houses, stopping only when he came to a place that looked like it needed some yardwork done.

In my defense, all I can say is that this is not the Year of the Yard. We have lots of work to do out there, but for now, I keep it watered, mowed, raked and free of dandilions. Beyond that, the Yard is the Yard.

I told Brian that I would pay him $20.00 to rake out the beds and pull the weeds in front of the house. I figured that was fair for a couple of hours of work that I didn't really need done.

I got out the tools he needed and then I went back to work on the power washing. I had been working for about 45 minutes when Brian appeared. I climbed down from the ladder and he told me he was feeling kind of queasy and needed to quit. He seemed earnest and really wanted to return to finish the job the next day. I gave him $10.00 and told him he would get the rest when he finished.

I kind of doubt I'll see him again but he did get everything raked up into little piles. He even got a couple of the little piles into the garbage can before the queasiness kicked in. Perhaps he is allergic to work.

We shall see what developes from this.

Before & After

I'm very big on before and after pictures so here's a big one of our first finished project in about two years.

I cannot for the life of me, figure out why this picture is coming in so poorly. I tried re-uploading it several times in various resolutions and it always looks like this.

Oh well, you get the idea!

Nothing to Say

I have been on such a great roll lately with posting to this site that it seems a shame to let a day go by without some sort of report. Almost as big a shame as wasting somebody's time to read this.

Prepping for a Sister Visit

We have been on a mad cleaning jag for the last few days in preparation for a weeklong visit from Susan's sister, Margaret. Well, Susan has been on the "jag". I have been trying to do little touch up projects and get the bedroom and landing finished. There are still a few things to do but they are minute and it is going along nicely.

Margaret arrives Friday so we still have a couple of days to get everything done. I think we are doing fine but Susan seems to disagree. However, we also have a continuing disagreement on the definition of "clean".

Because I am just doing small touch up and clean up jobs, I am officially declaring that the Landing and Master Bedroom Project is complete.

Next we will be tackling the upstairs bathroom but that will not start for a couple of weeks.

Approaching the Finish Line

It was a long and busy weekend with many accomplishments to talk about.

Friday, my niece Samantha graduated from High School. She attended a small Christian Academy and there were se7en graduates. The whole family went to dinner and then the two and a half hour graduation ceremony. It was a little long.

We got home around ten and that pretty much was the end of the day for us.

Saturday was our annual neighborhood yard sale. This was the third one that we took part in and it was pretty successful for us. We made just south of $100.00 and got rid of a lot of crap.

What we had left over went to Goodwill on Sunday Morning and what they wouldn't take went to the Dump.

Then Susan went into "Operation: Massive Cleaning" in preparation for a visit from her sister, who is coming for a week from Iowa.

To keep out of her way, I went to work on the Landing and Bedroom doing all the little finishing touches. I wanted to be sleeping in our new bedroom on Sunday night and I was not going to be deterred by anything.







There were lots of things that tried to deter me. I was four feet short of baseboard for the bedroom. I ran out of nails for my airgun in the middle of putting in the baseboards. I ran out of beer. However, you can see from the pictures that I prevailed.
So now, we have just minor items to take care of. Most of those items involve the trim and some touch up painting. My plan is to take care of that tonight and then be able to help with Susan's "Operation: Massive Cleaning".

Working Out & Finishing Touches

Last nights' activities involved the installation of baseboards in the Landing area. Since I am not a professional, it required a great deal of effort and ciphering on my part to accomplish this arduous task.

I placed the chop saw down on the front porch because I didn't want to create a mess on the landing or risk scratching the new finish. So for every board I placed, I had to measure it and then put it in place to make sure it fit. Then, when it didn't fit, I had to run downstairs, re-cut it, run back up the stairs and then place it again.

I figure that for every board, I had to cut it three or four times. With 17 pieces, that means that I went up and down the stairs a minimum of 51 times.

I had been upset with myself for not having run lately. If I have any more nights like this, I should ripped in no time.

Everything is on schedule and I am still planning on moving furniture on Sunday.

The Home Stretch

The floors on the second floor Landing and Master Bedroom are now complete. They are not perfect, but they are one helluva lot better than they were. I am happy!

With any luck, we will be sleeping in the new bedroom on Saturday Night. Actually, no! That would be pushing it. Let's say Sunday Night.

In order for that to happen, we need some smooth sailing for the next three days. That means that the baseboard installation in both rooms needs to go well. The touch up painting on the walls in both rooms needs to go well. The Neighborhood Yard Sale on Saturday needs to go very well and then be ignored in the afternoon.

With precision timing, steely nervousness and some luck, I think we can make it all happen.

Stage C, Part B

It took us just over an hour last night to lay down another coat of varnish. Tonight will be the last coat. Then it needs about three days to completely dry before we start putting furniture on the floor. During that time, we have some minor touch up painting on the walls and the baseboard can be installed.

We have noticed two spots where there are glaring gouges that we missed when we filled with wood putty. One is right in the center of the landing floor. It's going to be covered by a carpet but we can't believe that we both missed such an obvious repair spot. The other spot is in the bedroom, right at the door. it is less obvious. It's more of a waviness in the floor, presumably caused by sanding. It just didn't stand out when the floor was naked.

It seems odd after two years to consider the possibility that this project is almost over. And yet, I'm willing to consider it!

Reflections on Polly (polyurothane)

With Stage Two (the Staining) out of the way, we were able to proceed with Stage C (the Varnishing) last night.

The whole project took us about two hours. Most of that time was spent preparing the floors. That involved a good thorough vaccuuming, followed by wiping the whole thing down with tack cloths.

To apply the varnish, we used lambswool pads on a mop pole. We started together but it went so fast that we ended up with Susan doing the application while I looked on and drank beer.

Actually, I had to mix up each quart can of polyurothane we had. We had purchased quarts because "the Depot" had a sale on them which made it cheaper to buy quarts than gallons. What we didn't consider is having to mix up a quart every 10 minutes. There's a thick goo at the bottom that must be extensively mixed in as thoroughly as possible. We used a gallon for the first coat.

With all the imperfections (Character) in this floor, I am very happy with the result. We have two more coats to put down which means two more nights of sleeping on an inflatable mattress in the Living Room.

The pictures I took don't do justice to how good the floor looks. However, here is one anyway. The urothane is still wet so it looks much more glossy than the satin finish it dries to. I like this picture because I have never seen this floor reflect anything!

The Adventures of Susan & Stan the Stainers

Both Susan and I had to work at our various and assorted extra jobs on Saturday. So not much was accomplished by us during the day. However, we got ourselves geared up to stain on Saturday night. It took us about two hours to get through 500 square feet of staining.

We got up the next morning and I was not very happy with the results of our first coat. We had some repairs to do before we put down another coat. The repairs required using the belt sander to remove blemishes, paint drops, and over flowing wood putty.

Once we fixed the boo-boos, we went to work putting down the second coat. This we did in much less than two hours and I was much happier with the results. The picture above shows the bedroom half way between coats one and two. I could almost argue for another coat, but that might make it too dark and then we would have to start over. The photograph below shows one of the repair areas.

The second coat filled the whole house with fumes so we left for a little bit and went to ArtFest. ArtFest is annual event held in a park with lots of artsy craft venders. I actually made a purchase of a hanging hammock, which I intend to enjoy on the back deck. Some day!

When we returned, we found the house still full of fumes (don't light a match) and the floor still kind of tacky. We had hoped to put down a coat of Polyurothane before the end of the night but that was not to be.

So, that is our goal for tonight. Get down a coat of Urothane. Then, we have to completely block off access to the upstairs from the cats and ourselves and sleep on an inflatable mattress in the living room.

Tune in to our next episode to see how we do.

Stage One Complete

The final sanding went smoothly. Get it! Sanding?! Smooth! Golly, I'm good!

We had a slight problem. The wood putty was somewhat resistant to the fine grit sand paper I was using and I didn't see fit to purchase any of the heavier grit paper.

So, Susan went off to "the Depot" while I continued sanding with the one sheet of 60 grit paper we had. I manged to get the bedroom completed while she was gone and got started on the repair section pictured below. That was the most difficult area to sand away as we had completely coated that area.

I think it looks pretty good and once it's stained and covered with a rug, it'll look fabulous.

5,000 Words Lost Forever

I left my camera at work last night so I was unable to photograph any of the progress we made towards finishing the landing and bedroom. I mean, if a picture is worth a thousand words and I could have taken just four or five crummy little pictures last night, I wouldn't have to be writing all this stuff now.

Actually, we didn't make that much progress last night. In order to complete this project in a timely manner, we are now on a schedule. Also, we really want this to be done and getting to this point, it's exciting to realize we are almost home.

I am hoping to have the first coat of Polyeurothane on the floor by Sunday night. In order for that to happen, a tightly choreographed series of events must take place at just the right time.

Last night, I did some minor repairs to a couple places on the floor. Susan did some touch up painting. We also decided that if we are going to put up Crown Moulding in the Landing area, it would be best to do it now while the floor is still un-stained. So, I painted the Crown Moulding out on the front porch and brought it in this morning. I'm having Phil install it this afternoon.

I'm renting the sander on my way home from work tonight and will do the final sanding. Then we have to get everything cleaned back up and ready for the staining.

This would have been so much better with pictures.

Filling the Gorges

We had a fairly easy night of work last night. We set about the task of filling the gaps, gouges and small canyons that is the landscape of our floor. The worst part of the floor is this 10 foot by 4 foot section I had to totally replace. You can see from the picture that we pretty much trowled putty into the whole area. I'll be taking lots of detailed pictures of this section as we progress to see its transformation. Fortunately, this area will be covered by a bookcase and a rug and anything else we can throw over it.

$550.00

We spent some money this weekend. Another way to look at it is we saved a lot more money than we spent. I have had people tell me that re-finishing a floor costs about $6.00 a square foot. That would be $3,000.00 for the approximately 500 square feet we worked on this weekend.

Of course, we're not done yet. We still have a few supplies to buy. But let's take a look at what we did!




















I would say we done good! The floors are not perfect. You can see in the after picture that section on the left that looks substantially different the the rest of the floor. That's the area I had to patch because it used to be a closet. The wood I used has a different grain to it and there is just no getting around the fact that it will not be a close match.

However, we plan to use a fairly dark stain which will help to hide the difference as well as all the other imperfections in the old wood floor.

The main thing is that we have gotten it done. Here's a good before and after shot of the crew, Mark, Susan & Stan.

Knee Deep in Sanding

We spent Saturday prepping everything for the arrival of the big floor sander. I rented an edge sander and finished all the edges. Below is a picture of the Alto-Clarke SR-7 Edge Sander and an example of what it does. I had to finish off that little corner piece with my belt sander.

I went to Home Depot bright and early on Sunday and got the sander. My friend Mark accompanied me because he just refinished his floors last year and was familiar with what we needed to get and do.

We ended up returning the sander almost immediately because we couldn't get it to start. It had a short or something in the electrical system. When we got it back to the Depot, it ran fine. The guy suggested that it might be a power problem on my end. I told him I had new wiring with 20 amp breakers which he agreed should be okay.

We swapped out sanders, he re-set the time, and we were off again. This time, the sander operated within normal operational sanding protocols.

So, our early start and subsequent stalls had me sanding the floors by 1:00PM.

We realized almost immediately that we would have to put down some stripper first to get the best result.

Susan dashed to the Depot while Mark and I continued working.

As of today, the bedroom is entirely stripped and ready for sanding. We are all very sore. Susan and Mark will continue stripping the remaining portion of the floors while I rip into the sander.

We hope to have everything sanded by the end of the day.

Well, enough of this blogging. I have work to do.

Countdown to Sanding

We are really zooming ahead now. We have accomplished a lot this week and I attribute our efficiency and speed to one thing. The end of the Network Television Season. Now that all our favorite shows are into re-runs, we have stopped watching TV and concentrated on getting this project done.

As of now, Saturday morning, we are planning on sanding the floors tomorrow. We are going to spend the day completing little touch up projects we need to do before the sand starts flying. I will get the sander this afternoon and we will be ready first thing in the morning.

We still have a lot of nails and staples to get out of the floor. Everytime I think I have gotten them all, I find more. When they carpeted up here, they didn't waste any expense on nails and staples. That carpet was NOT going to get away.

I am getting very excited for this to be over. I can't wait to see this floor with a fresh coat of stain and varnish. I think it will completely change the look of the whole room.

And then Susan won't like the color of the walls.

Painting Painting Painting

There's a good early morning shot of the landing with its new coats of paint. Susan still isn't quite happy with the color. She wanted something in a biege tone and this looks more yellow. I don't care one way or the other. The main thing is that it is complete...and we are not changing it. Now we have just a little touch up and then the sander comes out and we do that floor.

There I am on top of my $400.00 ladder with my $19.95 Wagner Power Pump Roller preparing to paint the walls with my $100.00 bucket of paint.

Not that I'm counting. No, wait! I am counting. That's why I'm writing this blog. To count and account of wazzup!

Painting Change Order

Well, I had the first coat up on about three quarters of the landing when Susan decided that she didn't like the color. It was too yellow. We bought the paint several months ago and before we started, Susan thought it was too light. So we trundled it back to "the Depot" and had them re-tint it.

Once she realized that it was now too yellow, we decided that we will buy a new bucket and start over. That's much cheaper than having her agonize over the color being wrong for the next several months until she decides to change it.

So, we went to work putting up Cincinnatian Hotel Dominica, which is a much lighter, mellower yellow, as you can see in the picture above.

Last night, I had to do some of the edging in the stairway. That requires getting waaaaay up high on the ladder in very precarious positions. I got all my edges painted when Susan realized that I had grabbed the wrong paint. She had poured a small container of the Way-Too-Yellow paint and I thought it was all the new paint.

I thought it was going down kind of dark but I just figured it would match up when it dried.

The Comedy of Errors continues.

A Friday in May

This entry is going to be a progressive kind of affair. I have taken the day off of work in order to accomplish some tasks around the house.

I have already gotten up and got in a two mile run around the park. In a moment, I shall shower and then begin the day in earnest.

We shall start with a series of pictures of the landing.

The picture at bottom is what we accomplished last night. It looks like it is going to need at least one other coat, but it looks pretty good.

Okay on to the next task.

5:32PM I managed to make three trips out to the dump today. While I am happy with the amount of crap I hauled away, I still have a ton of crap to remove. And I think a ton is an actual factual amount. I have a lot of clean up work yet to do with this little area at the back corner of our property. It seems the previous owner has used it to dump leaves and grass clippings for a loooooooong time. As a result, there is a very nice composted mulch back there that is littered with chestnuts from the yard. It's going to take me a while to get it all out of there.

Once again, I have bitten into a project that is a LOT more to chew than originally anticipated.

I think I'll go make some beer.

Another Task Crossed Off the List

The master bedroom ceiling is complete. It took us a total of about se7en hours to apply ten 18 foot panels of wall paper. Broken down, it was two hours on Tuesday, two hours on Thursday and about three hours yesterday. We had to do a little bit of minor repair work to a few seams, but for the most part, we are pleased with the results.

Now we have to get up some crown molding to hide the wavy edges and we are finished with the bedroom...except for the floor.

The only other major task to complete now is painting the walls in the landing.

and then the floors.

In other project developments, we started some work on the deck. We had a wheelchair ramp attached to the deck when we moved in. It has been great to have when it came to moving large, unweildy appliances and/or furnitures into the house.

But it takes up a three foot swath of lawn space in an already small backyard.

Half Way to Hell

Wallpapering a ceiling is no picnic. I think it would be the perfect torture treatment for Enemy Combatants. You put them in a room with a 13 foot ceiling, that's textured, and about 120 feet square. I think by the time they got the first panel up, they would want to start talking.

We achieved our goal of three panels in place last night but it was not fun. For some reason, we had a hell of a time getting the first panel lined up properly. By the time we got it up, my arms felt like lead weights.

But, we are half way across the room now and plan to finish up on Sunday.

In an unrelated developement, I shut down the furnace yesterday. Next I will drain the radiators and begin the process of removing the last two upstairs so they can be painted.

Purchases & Progress

This past Sunday, we bought a bookcase for the landing. We have been looking for a while and did not have much luck finding one that we liked enough to pay that much for. Susan was in a local Discount Mart and found a really nice one for $100.00. It was a Merchandise Return to Costco. It has some damage. There's a crack in the woodwork on the spacer between the two sides. We think we can fix it.


That remains to be seen.

Tuesday we started wall-papering the ceiling in the Master Bedroom. We managed to put up two panels of paper. Considering the amount of time it takes to get everything in place just so you can do the work, and then the Comedy of Errors in figuring out what you're doing on the first panel, completing two panels is great progress.
Tonight we are shooting for three panels. That's the halfway point.

STAND BACK! Something momentous is about to happen.

I am setting a goal!

The Landing and Bedroom project (which extends to the stairway project) will be completed by Wednesday, June 20th. That is five weeks and 6 days away.

The Word for the Day is atribilious. Ill-tempered, grumpy, melancholy.