Little room, big job. [news]
I thought the hallway, being so small, would be an easy and quick project. All I had to do was clean the walls and ceiling. Whew! There are a lot of corners in that little hallway. Roof angles coming every which way and the stupid wall design. I expected it to be a quick job. Boy, was wrong.
There is chair rail along the walls that had to be done with a rag and all the rest with a mop. Both the soapy water and the rinse buckets became disgusting and brown with tar and nicotine. I think if you (...)
I can't wait to see the stripper in action! [news]
Well, today’s the big day! Neil came to help strip the cabinets for the kitchen. It wasn’t as big a day as I had hoped, though. They don’t make paint stripper like they used to. The stuff is weak. Each application of stripper removes only one layer of paint. It’s completely underwhelming and dissatisfying! Neil was just as disappointed as I was. He suggested that I just paint it all brown.
I discovered when moving things around in the garage that Debbie had already stripped the front of five of the (...)
Too hot to handle... [news]
Man, it is hot up there in that apartment! I just washed the ceiling and the floor of the dining room and it was steamy. Today the heat was in the 80s and it gets worse when the windows have been closed for days. I wanted to do more but the heat i unbearable. I was sweating buckets by the time I got done. The rinse water was brown with tar from the smoke residue. Gross!
Now I need to get the hallway done - ceiling, walls, and floor. The bathroom is going to be an awful job, but when it’s (...)
No license needed for angling here [news]
I had a nice dinner with brother Neil and Mom last night. I was just sitting here tinking about the leftovers I had for dinner tonight. I like to eat dinner right after work, especially on Tuesday, the first day of the work week. Last night’s doggie bag (box) was perfect for that.
Then, suddenly, on a whim, I got up and went upstairs to finish the angles. Yeah, I’d had a couple of drinks, but I can do this stuff drunk. Yeah, I was tired after work, having been on my feet during the entire (...)
Highs in th 90s but hotter upstairs [news]
Tonight is the first of the corners and ring, or as we say in the business, “the angles”. The trick to doing angles is to do them in such a way that you aren’t mudding into wet mud. If you do inside angles on the wall, you do the ring at the top. If you do outside angles on the wall, you do the lower part of the ring. See? It’s easy. Thankfully, I don’t need to do the ring all the way around as half of the walls are plaster and lath.
This time I’ll do the north and south wall angles and the (...)
Three trips to do one coat. [news]
I finally got to the last of the first coat drywall taping in the rear bedroom. It’s been too hot or too cold to tape up there. Today was pretty hot, but I figured I should just get it done and have a cold one. It was hot in the room, but I wasn’t there long enough to melt.
I had to use a 6-in-one tool and a hammer to remove the caulk from the plaster wall. Then I taped the corners with a new Ace brand 4-inch flexible taping knife I bought. I still haven’t found my “magic 4-inch” knife I had for 40 (...)
Good work, good friend and good food. [news]
My brother Neil came over to help me clean. What a great man! He worked on cleaning the kitchen cabinets and drawers while I cleaned the ceiling fan and worked on mopping the walls. Yes, I said, mopping the walls. I had one mop and to mop heads. I soaked one in water with some Dawn and the other in fresh water. I would mop with the dawn-water and then wring the rinse water head, attach it and mop again. Then wring the dawn-water, attach it and mop again. I had to refresh the rinse water several times. I (...)
Time to sling some mud! [news]
Well, on a whim, I grabbed my spinner and spun up the mud. I didn’t feel like carrying the whole bucket up the steps, so I took what I thought I would need. Boy, was I wrong. I think I went up and down those 18 steps a dozen times. What a workout!
I strung the tape by hand because I would have spent more time cleaning the banjo than taping. I taped around the plaster repair too. I haven’t lost my touch. It went pretty quick. I’m glad about that because it is Saturday night and I don’t feel (...)
Hidden treasures [news]
I finished glazing and painting the dining-room window. Now, if I decide to do the one in the bathroom, then I only have that one left. I had considered putting in a glass block window with a vent, but I don’t know if I will. If I do, then I’m done with double-hung windows. Someone painted over the sash cord pulleys on this window and upon further inspection I found they had caulked them shut too. It wasn’t easy getting the caulk out of them.
When I removed the window l found that there were (...)
Kitchen window - Filthy to clean... [news]
The kitchen window is finally done. Someone caulked it like the other one, but I didn’t attempt removing the crap off for fear I would break it (like the other one.) Usually the parting beads don’t have nails in them, but this one did. I suspect it was “fixed” by a former tenant. Part of the frame behind the parting bead had rotted away. The window weights for the upper sash were missing from this window like the one in the living room, so the upper sash will remain permanently up.
The glass in one (...)