Thinkin is dangerous

I was just thinking, 

Since the railing on the staircase, (behind you in photo) matches the wood wall stain color, as do the steps leading upstairs, Perhaps a molding. A one or one and a half inch flat decorative wood molding stained the same stain color running along both walls at the bottom of the upper trim molding and above the lower baseboard trim molding. Kind of connecting the two room ends.

Back at it...the Living room

Seeing as it was the last day of vacation and problems with the leg kept me from riding the Iron Adventure, I figured it was time to get something done on the house. So I called Julie the night before and asked for a hand. She arrived, child in tow, at just about 10am, we set right to work...going to the diner for breakfast. I had a healthy meal of philly cheese steak and eggs. 

Done we headed to the house, the first order of business was to move the kitchen table, then move the recliner into the kitchen. Getting rid of two end tables made it possible to move the couch back and forth as needed to keep it out of harms way. Julie taped off the wood area above the fire place as I started painting the ceiling.  One of the old fire heat sensors is still in place but the system supporting it is long, long gone. Instead of removing it cutting the wires and patching the hole it would leave we decided to mask it off. It now adds to the nostalgia and matches the 1960's era alarm box that was it's master in the kitchen.

Cleaned up the ceiling painting went fairly quickly, as did the trim work. As I started painting I realized  that the paint we were using was flat paint. I had wanted semi gloss to hold the pattern with the kitchen and give the room a little more reflected light. I also realized at this time that I only had 1 gallon of paint, not enough to do two coats. Julie, finished with the trim work, grabbed another rollercicle (roller on a stick) and started on the ceiling as well. I left her to it and took the kid for a ride to get more paint. At the paint store (True value), I decided to get the semigloss for the second coat. I also bought an AC unit for the living room and a small roller cart.

Arriving back home I decided the flat ceiling looked pretty good and mentioned that to Julie, knowing I just bought semi-gloss she just rolled her eyes at me.

 Since I had the Semi in hand we applied that for the second coat. As I started painting that, Julie started scrubbing down the east wall of the room. If we could get the ceiling and one wall done this day I would be happy. The west wall will require a patch.

Julie took over the ceiling as I got the wall paint ready. As I washed out the brushes and changed roller heads I heard a distinctive "Oh Shit" from the living room. Honestly I expected to find she had either got paint on the couch or tipped the paint can over on the hardwood floor. Neither of which would have made me particularly happy. What I found instead pissed me off. The ceiling had been patched and sanded two days prior, the section the issue was in was sanded almost a week earlier. As dry as it should have been, when the roller passed over the line, three nail head fills came off with the roller. 

I decided to leave that area as it was and continue on, With the rest of the ceiling and upper trim done, we began the walls. Originally I thought I had chosen a Peach tint paint, that orangy pinkish red and a light beige paint for the trim work. looking through the paint cans we found three gallons of Wheat and one gallon of peachtree. So perhaps it was the other way around. I shook up and opened the Wheat, expecting to find something along the color of, I don't know, a wheat field? What I found instead was an off white. So off was this white that it resembled the unpainted dirty white walls. As a matter of fact I took a brush out and hit two walls with it, you couldn't tell the difference. So, I decided to paint the Peachtree as the main color on the walls and an antique or brown egg shell for the trim. This would require picking up more paint but it would allow the one wall to be completed. As we started to apply this main paint to the walls I was shocked by the "Pinkness", I told julie I don't think this is a cool color for a guys house, it was a little too pink. This is when she yelled at me, something about how many times she would have to repaint this house if we panicked every time I looked at wet paint. (We went through this in the bedroom also). I took her advise, shut my mouth and continued painting. Once again she was right, dry, the paint loses it's bright "I'm a PINK wall" look and settles down to a calming white with a pinkish hue. Julie, as all this was going on, had changed jobs, She was scrubbing the walls, so much so in fact that she finished all the walls except for the staircase area because that area was blocked off with debris we had shifted from everywhere else.

 Ceiling done, except those three holes which I need to re-patch and repaint, Wall done, first coat except trim work. At this point I stopped, After seeing the results of the fill material and wet paint on the ceiling I decided I will leave the second coat off until the first coat sets up really well.

Julie set off to work at three, I moved the couch to an angle in the middle of the room and reran the cable wire so, for now, I have Tv and Wireless service.

Tomorrow, I will patch the hole in the opposite wall and do the second coat on the first and do the trim work, once I find an appropriate trim color.

End of Days

I am in the process of attacking the living room, the ceiling has been patched, sanded, and washed, and now awaits painting. The nail head dimples, of which there seem to be a never ending supply of, have proved annoying. After covering them and sanding, still some of the plaster does not attach itself to the nail head itself, so I am going with the, "most are hidden" policy, the rest will add a bit of rusticity matching the kitchen.

My vacation is over tomorrow and it is the only day Julie can be here, So since my uncle has temporarily moved in, I have kicked him out for the day (tomorrow) and starting at 10am, we will shove all the furniture left in the room to the east wall, then paint the clear section of the ceiling, then shove it all to the opposite side and paint the remainder. I would prefer not having the items in there at all but it would require disassembling some large pieces which were assembled in place.

With any luck, two coats to the ceiling and perhaps one wall will get done leaving one wall and one wall and stair case. The south wall is wood inlay over a brick fireplace and I still have to find something to remove the paint that was accidentally applied to it years ago without ruining the wood finish stain.

getting back to it...s-l-o-w-l-y

Patched the hole in the living room ceiling left years ago by the ceiling light being relocated. I also patched (filled) a few nail dimples

Julie and I spent most of the day on the bike and because of the new seat she was in no shape to do any "real" work, so she sat down and applied tread strips to the garage ramp.

this is rock hard seat Yoga

blowing off the dirt and dust

Reverse shed kit

I thought the shed would be harder to take down. Once the T1-11 was removed, the weight of the roof section meant a simple push brought the shed down. now it's just a matter of cleaning the area and scavenging what ever wood is good.

 As for the living room, patching has begun. The lack of beams where the sheets of Rock came together means a lot of taping and nail dimples are visible. The best thing to do would be to tear the entire ceiling down and replacing it. But...finances will not allow for it.

knocking out the nails

Started knocking out all the nails, screws, hooks, and hangers sticking out of the Living room walls, getting ready to fill, sand, and paint. Then I looked at the ceiling. The ceiling will be a little bit of work. Just about every nail head is recessed into a dimple and will need chipping out and filling. The main issue I found is the spot in the center of the ceiling where there was at one time a ceiling light. The light was removed years ago and a round plug was made and covered over with plaster or joint compound. It has cracked all the way around and some of the sheet rock around it also broke out.  No matter though, correct? Cut around the hole, screw in a couple pieces of wood behind it, screw in a replacement sheet rock plug, tape, mud, sand, and paint. Not so easy.

In most buildings when sheet rock is being hung, one tries to end a sheet on a beam, or "arranges" for the sheet to end on a beam..."supported"

Well not so on my ceiling, three sheets come together in the middle of a bay. The ceiling light was added at the three way joint. So cut out the hole to a square, except the "berm" of plaster and tape holding these sheets together blows apart. This means a bigger patch and some seam taping. I should step back a step here and mention something. This morning I woke up, showered, brushed, and got dressed for work. Sitting there with time to burn, I decided to cut this section for replacement.  This gives you a good look for work if you want to look like you just rode across Death Valley. 

The other problem I have come across is that I have determined that fire codes may have changed slightly over the years, because the sheet rock mounted in the house is a hell of a lot thinner than the stuff they sell today. Because of the difference and because I have a wall in my dinning room that needs to be replaced, I am stealing patch pieces off the dinning room wall to repair the living room wall and ceiling. The dinning room will not be an issue in that the entire lower section of the wall needs replacing and a simple molding strip will disguise the difference in the the sections thicknesses. 

they lied to me

The told me they would be arriving at the house between 11am and noon. So I decided, after going to the bank at 10am to stop for breakfast. I had an omelet, a bowl of bacon, rye toast, coffee and juice. At 10:36 I stood up to cash out, the phone rang, they were there.

Now just a little more stone and I will fill in along the base.

the second two tons

Ever been curious as to what a ton of stone looks like?

Well, that pile on the left is two tons, the base (already spread out, is six tons

Update

Two more tons of stone were ordered and received, it has been rolled out into position, Could probably use a little more but it should be fine. 

Work inside has slowed, mainly due to the weather, working in a building without AC can really get the sweat rolling. Mainly all that has been done is some more tossing out of items accumulated over the years by my parents, and even with that the amount tossed it is almost undetectable that anything was done. 

Getting ready to work in the living room. The kitchen is still not done (trim work and doors), but I have to get the majority of the bigger jobs done while I can. Plus I keep getting text messages from Natalie asking when she can get back to work. Most of the smaller items in the living room have been boxed up and now just need to be moved down the hall to the den. The Den looks more like a wild animals den than a Library/den. It has become the major storing area for anything in the way. My fathers dresser and the left over kitchen flooring material have been shipped out to Nat's cabin and are already in place there. Last night I pulled the new coffee table across the room, slid the television and modem onto it, then dragged the soon so be disposed of entertainment center out of the corner and next to the staircase.  The television is an older unit and will be heading out the door later, but since a new wide screen set up is not yet a priority, it can still be used sitting in the corner on the coffee table.

Am expecting delivery of the Garage today, it should be arriving late morning so I will be leaving work and heading to the bank then home for its arrival. The garage was all paid for but since I added a copper roofed cupola to the order, that will need to be paid for today. Why would I want a cupola on a garage? Because it comes with a motorcycle weather-vane of course.

I still need to find a Ladies room sign for the garage. The sign will go right on the garage doors, it is after all the room where the girls will reside. It will be nice to have Jenny and Charlene home.