Well…not sure why I did this to myself but I had another damn schedule to meet this morning and got up already behind…and that is kind of funny when I got out of bed at 5:37….so I was on the bike before 7 today and done by 7:45 and then right into painting to get done before Man U came on but I shouldn’t have bothered with them playing with no defense again…I mean up by 2-0 and losing the darn game?…Okay, that was wrong…they won by 3-2 but against Norwich City? I turned it off after they were tied…but, I did get the closet painted to a certain point….ran low on this grey paint and needed to save some for touch ups so I couldn’t do two coats on the entire closet but settled for the outer part that I’ll have to look at…but without a light in there the rest doesn’t matter and can wait until I have leftovers from the next gallon of a little darker paint….so, after I finished painting and could put my painter clothes in the washer along with the rest of the laundry, I ran a load and I am waiting for the dryer to finish so I can put the clothes away….and that met my schedule for the day when I was supposed to have the day off…oh, got some bad news that I will relate in the next one….
Category Archives: My Life
April 16th
Well…dang, the moon was so bright last night it looked like a spotlight was shining into my bedroom from about 2 am on and that was not good for trying to sleep…after tossing and turning for a few hours, I gave up and got up at 5:37 but still feel okay so I can live with that…my hands are pretty puffy this morning from all of the abuse I’ve been heaping on them and that won’t stop today since I want to paint the closet in the bedroom after doing the trim yesterday for some reason…but covering the dark blue in there is going to take two coats…and I need to get that done before Man U plays at 10…why, I don’t know since they have been stinking up the place for months now and will probably do it again today…I was going to take the weekend off and clean but that can wait til this afternoon….and I am going to take the entire day off tomorrow to get ready for the big push to finish the bedroom next week…and I am wavering on taking the summer off since I could get the painting done in the dining room and living room in a couple of weeks….but I may take a few weeks off anyway…with the bedroom going better than I thought, I still may be able to get those rooms done before the end of May which was my goal anyway….not sure if my body will hold up, though, and the yard is going to take about a week of prep work to get it ready for summer…damn, all I do is talk about work anymore…I wonder what happened to science, astronomy, and sports? I will make an effort to broaden the topics out in the future…it seems I have tunnel vision right now but working on the house has become my life and I know I’m getting tired of it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a few minutes and the straight into the closet painting and I know I’ll have paint all over me from the tight space…but it will be worth it….still have dust patrol to do later since I am so tired of having everything coated….more later….
Still worked today…
Well…you know, I was going to take the day off today after painting the bathroom yesterday but, you know me, I just can’t do it…so after the bike ride today, I headed out to run errands and try to get parts to rebuild my front gate and got the corners I needed but they only sell the rail I need in 10 ft lengths and I only need about 30 inches…and it was too cold to put the top down on the car and stick it in the seat and up in the air, so I couldn’t buy that part of it…the rail costs 20 bucks so the repair now is about 32 bucks but still cheaper than the 120 bucks they want for a new gate so I guess I can live with it…so, I’m going to have over 7 feet of rail left and I need to figure out what to do with it…maybe use it for the hummingbird feeder hanger that I wanted to make? I decided against the blocks for the garden border since menards is such a pain to deal with when you need construction materials…and once I measured the garden, it was going to take 50 bricks and I just don’t feel like setting that many of them right now…and can always do that later if I get bored this summer and have some extra cash…but I did work on the closet in the bedroom…cleaned it up and painted the baseboards and trim in there and will need to paint it grey in the next couple of days…but I’m not going to paint the ladder right now…just going to clean it and leave it for another time since it needs so much detail work…oh, and I hung the new blinds in the bathroom, getting one step closer to finishing it…just need to do the register next week when it’s warmer and I can paint it outside….so I did work today…maybe I’ll take the weekend off…yeah, right….
April 15th
Well…darn, I wonder why I don’t sleep well on the days where I work my butt off? Tossed and turned all night last night and feel worn out today but part of that may be only having a square of lasagna to eat all day….when I don’t get to eat til after 2 in the afternoon, it is too hard to try to force a second meal in before the end of the day so I normally don’t…and I didn’t ride the bike in or out yesterday so I shouldn’t have eaten more anyway…will do better today with the big ham in the fridge and not a lot do today…probably should clean the closet in the bedroom I’m working on since it is still full of dust from the repairs in there and I need to paint it to get rid of the ugly blue…going to paint it the same color as the kitchen and bathroom since I have 2/3rds of a gallon of that paint left and have no plans to use that color again….I wonder if my hands feel like they would from a bare knuckle fight? They are so stiff, cut up, and sore that I know they should be rested today but I still have work to do so that probably won’t happen….thinking of going out to Menards to get my gate repair parts so I can do that next week and check out the bricks I need to make a border around the garden this morning….I need 42 of them and I think I’ll make it red with some grey accents like I did with the trash bin landing pad….and that will be about 150 pounds in the back of the Miata and that is about the load limit for it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a minute to get a ride in and I do have the blinds for the bathroom I can install today….and I need to order blinds for the bedroom window so I can install them as soon as I get that painted and take the newspaper down….damn, this became another house one and I didn’t want to do that…oh, well….more later….
Bathroom is done!
Well…damn, finally have the bathroom painted and it is such a relief to have it done…but the damn tape peeled off some of the paint from the trim and that is pissing me off..it even pulled paint off some trim that had the old paint on it that has been there for 20 years so I guess letting it cure wasn’t enough…I’m now thinking that it is the cheap HF tape I’ve been using so before I do the bedroom, I’m going to spend the big bucks on 3m tape to see if that is better…it costs about twice as much but if it will do the job without making more work for me, the cost will be worth it…damaged both index fingers today cleaning up the light that goes over the sink on the sharp edges on the back of it…it is just a cheap stamped steel that is razor sharp and rubbing on it to get the paint off that was the last paint job did a number on my fingers…so now I have bandages on both hands and my right thumb has told me enough so I’m glad I have a couple of weeks until I need to paint again…the grey paint looks pretty cool in the bathroom and much more modern than the weird blue they had in there…and the white baseboards and trim add a nice accent to it…but, I am beat and still drinking coffee at 2:30 in the afternoon…and still haven’t eaten anything yet today but I just want to relax for a while and read some news before I get back to work and re-hang the lights and mirror in the bathroom….I guess I could let that stuff wait til tomorrow or much later today…the paint still needs to dry and I don’t want to push it…owww….
April 14th
Well…darn, up at 5:14 this morning…oh, do you wonder how I know exactly what time it is when I get up? Don’t have a clock in my bedroom…at least one that has the correct time, but I do have my phone in the drawer of the small table that is next to my bed and I can just roll over and reach it…I used to be able to tell what time it was innately without a clock and it was always fun to guess and then check the time with a clock…and I did that this morning and only missed it by about 8 minutes…yeah, I know I’m weird…but I did sleep okay and feel okay today but I think I’m skipping the indoor bike ride…my legs are really sore from riding hard outside yesterday and I think they need a rest today with too much wind and cold to go out…and that’s okay since I need to go out and get paint and work on the bathroom anyway…so that leaves me with a little time to do this and have some unrushed coffee this morning and I sure do like it….should be able to get all of the prep work done on the bathroom today and then get it painted tomorrow but it is going to be a pain to paint with how small and tight it is…and then I need to get some garden soil to get my tomatoes started from the seeds I have left over from last year but that may not happen til next week…normally, you can’t plant outside until late May to avoid any remaining frost so I don’t need to rush…it is going to be nice to take the weekend off this week and just fool around on some small stuff around here…and after the last of the dust today, the kitchen and dining room will need to be scrubbed to get it back to acceptable clean….then no more dust! Damn, I’m tired of having everything coated…okay..there will be some dust when I start on the baseboards and window in the dining room over the summer…not much to do today…just out for the paint and then the bathroom work…I may get on the inside bike later today but I’m not going to be anal about it….the bathroom will be enough work for the day….more later…
A busy but good day…
Well…cripes, I may be getting used to these busy days…just sat down for the first time at around 4 and 48 minutes later, I’m ready to find something else to do…got the grocery run in and got my big ham and then hit aldi’s, depot, and the dollar store to get everything I needed for today and found that I didn’t need to stop at depot since all I needed was a drop cloth and the dollar store had them for 1.25 which is half price of depot so I guess I’ll be getting them there from now on…and I got new led bulbs for the fixture in the bedroom, too…then, when I got back here, I got right at painting the ceiling in the bedroom and got two coats on by 11:30 and then cooked the big ham and the rest of the food to go with it and had a huge lunch…so only one meal today I am still so full….the ceiling came out better than I had any reason to expect but it’s just the paint and not me…although I did get lots of painting practice on my son’s house so it’s pretty easy to do it right….and after the paint dried, I hung the fixture up and put the glass shade on it and it looks pretty cool with the shiny copper finish…after that, I decided to do the last repair on the wall above the sink in the bathroom so I can sand it all out tomorrow and get everything masked off so I can paint Friday…need to go out for paint tomorrow….again…but I should be able to finish the bathroom in a couple of hours…and then I am taking the weekend off to get ready to start on the yard as I wait the two weeks for the paint in the bedroom to cure….and I need to order the blinds for the window in there so I can hang them as soon as I get it painted…break time…oh, and after I repaired the wall in the bathroom, I had a two hour window of no rain so I got on the bike and did 15 miles…almost forgot about that….busy day…
Got the painting done…
Well….got the painting done in the bedroom! The white anyway….and now comes the two week wait for the paint to cure so I can mask it off for the grey for the walls…I am really looking forward to see how the bit darker grey is going to look in there…should be pretty cool…I hope….I am really happy how the trim and ceiling came out even with the 82 year old plaster….and my patches on the ceiling are so much better than the ones that were in there that I can live with them…and I’ll keep chanting French Chateau every time I notice how flawed they are…but they are good enough for me and look so much better than they did…like I almost knew what I was doing…almost….can’t wait to see how the wall patches look after painting and then start to gradually move my stuff in there…not sure how I’m going to set it up yet but I have options I don’t have in the small bedroom…..I think the echo in there is going to be a little weird but putting the bed and dresser in there will probably help with that….man, I never thought I’d get to this point with it when I was deep into it…glad I decided that I had done enough work in there and didn’t keep trying to make it better…cripes I’d still be working on it next year….
April 13th
Well…boy, had some weird dreams last night that included boats, fireworks, and weird house stuff and that was pretty cool…and I slept four straight hours before I woke up the first time…and then was able to get back to sleep for 3 more and I’ll take that any day….with it being over 60 outside right now, it only makes it harder to know that the temps are going to crash for the rest of the month starting Sat…I mean, 39 degrees for a high in the end of April? I really like being able to get outside to ride and being able to do that make my mornings much more relaxed since I don’t have to rush to get on the indoor bike to start the day….oh, well….I can’t wait to feel my hands healed up after I’m done working on this place for the summer…but I still have outdoor work to do that will probably hurt them some more but I won’t be abusing them every day and I hope that is enough…but I am concerned that the damage I’ve done is going to be permanent and I’ll hurt the rest of my life….already have enough of those pains and don’t need to add more…I did get started cleaning up the dust in this place yesterday but I’m not sure I should have with still having sanding of filler in the bathroom…need to get the paint for that tomorrow so I can get started painting over the weekend…and since I have to wait to paint the walls in the bedroom until the white paint cures, that will give me time to get on the yard and get the front gate repaired…..not much to do today…another 4 store grocery/errand run this morning and it’s warm enough to put the top down on the car but the sporadic rain will probably keep it up….need to get a big ham this morning and that will keep me eating for a week or so but that means I’ll have to cook between coats of paint on the bedroom ceiling…and will probably get on the downstairs bike later….we’ll see…more later….
Salvaged the light…
Well…as I said before, I was going to try to salvage the overhead light to try to keep my costs down since I’m spending hundreds of bucks a month just getting the supplies I need to keep going forward here…so, I took the fixture down and it wasn’t plaster but 4 coats of paint on it and I don’t understand why they didn’t just unscrew the caps and drop it down so they wouldn’t get paint on it…but, they didn’t so I took it downstairs and hit it with heavy duty oven cleaner and after two coats and a little scrubbing, the paint came off and it appears that it is made out of copper and it polished up pretty nicely with the copper scrubber I was using to get the paint off….so, it can go back up Thursday after the paint dries and it will look pretty cool…it looked like the fixture had never been removed since the house was built with the electrical tape they used to cover the bare wires hard as a rock that I had to chip off to get the connections loose…so it looks like I’m on schedule to finish the room in a couple of weeks after the white paint cures and I can mask it off to paint the grey on the walls…on to the bathroom…just might be done for the summer by the end of April instead of May…4 months off? Sounds pretty damn cool right now….