Well…damn, this wall was a hard one…the first two in the big bedroom were quite easy with the wallpaper and paint coming off in big chunks that didn’t put much strain on me…but not today, there was something different about this wall and the paint they used and it stuck to the plaster much better than the other two…it was a struggle for every square inch and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to work on the last wall tomorrow….and there was pink paint in the multiple coats that I hadn’t seen on the other walls but is on the last wall so I expect it is going to be another chore and hurt like crazy just like this one…had to put 4 band aids on my right hand to protect it from scraping the skin off but there is still plenty of damage that was done…I even took an ibuprofen after I finished since my rib cage is in pain too….and it was so much work that I had to rest a bit 3 or 4 times and that better not be from getting old….not sure what I’d do about it but I don’t have to like it…still more later….
Category Archives: My Life
March 29th
Well…that was okay I guess…got up at 5:37 this morning but with going to bed at 10:30 or so, that gave me around 6 1/2 hours with taking time to get to sleep and the tossing and turning that is normal…looks like my plans are changing this morning and I need to do the grocery run today with the ice and snow that is coming overnight with a winter storm watch on from 8 or so tonight…and I don’t want to take the car out in that mess…don’t have anything to buy that is only available tomorrow so that works out…so I may only get half of one wall stripped today but we’ll see…I need to stop at depot to get some wallpaper adhesive remover to see if I can salvage the walls for paint so I don’t have to put up wallpaper….just doing the plaster repair is going to take a few days but the more I do it, the better I get at it…it was a little funny that lots of the plaster patches they put in were held in by the wallpaper and paint and they fell out as soon as I removed it….my shoulder and right hand are not faring too well with all of the abuse I’m heaping on them and they hurt like crazy….but that’s pretty normal and I look forward to taking the summer off and getting them healed….haven’t had to take an ibuprofen during the day since I started the wallpaper but today may be different…I struggled a bit with working on the room yesterday and had to stop a few times to rest and if that is from getting old, it sucks and I am not looking forward to more of that….I know I’m getting old but I’ve worked pretty hard to keep my capacities and I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much…biting off the second house rehab in the past two years is a lot of work for anyone especially an old guy…but I am not going to let up at all…won’t give any concessions to my age until my body fails completely…and then I’ll have an excuse…more later….
Looks like wallpaper in the big bedroom…
Well…after removing the wallpaper, paint, and plaster of the second wall in the big bedroom today, it has dawned on me that I’ll never get the walls in good enough shape to paint them and have them look okay….so I think the only thing to do is to wallpaper them instead…and that is something I’ve never done before so there will be youtube videos to watch before I start…and there is about 10/12 sq ft of skim coat plaster that needs to be replaced on just this second wall since I removed all of the loose stuff…and I will need to take my angle grinder with a flap disc to smooth down the plaster repairs that were previously done but never sanded…I may spend 10 bucks or so to try some adhesive remover to try to make the walls paintable again but I don’t think it will do enough….there is just too much paper left on the walls after scraping and I can’t get enough of it off…but, we’ll see…still have 9 weeks to finish the room before my summer off so I have time…need to get on the bathroom right now…damn, I’m busy…
March 28th
Well…damn, how the heck can I be running late when I have no schedule? Have been up since 5 or so but stayed in bed until I smelled the coffee maker…even a half hour after that and that is going to make it a sprint to get on the bike by 7:15….one of these days I’m going to just not do it…not get on the bike, not work on the house, not feel guilty about it…when that would ever be I’m not sure…I did take yesterday off and it is getting pretty painful to do that…it’s not really serving it’s purpose anymore to give me rest day to just veg out without guilt…so maybe that will change this week and I’ll keep working until the big bedroom and bathroom are done…I guess I’m not too good at being retired…I did get the blinds for the bathroom ordered yesterday but found that I will have to order the rest of them from another company since they only have two lengths, 48 and 72 inches and the 72 inch ones are a foot too long for the rest of the windows…but I think it will be okay since the living room and bedrooms will match and the kitchen and bathroom ones will match…and I can live with that…damn, it’s almost April and it’s 18 degrees out there and that is so depressing that I don’t even want to get moving today…and we get one day of 50’s weather and then back to the 40’s for most of April…I guess we have no spring this year….and that really sucks…I would like to get the window open in the big bedroom to vent the dust so it doesn’t fill the house…have lot’s to do today…need to get on the bike in 11 minutes, then make a run out to depot to get a big wallpaper scraper that has a long, padded handle that I hope will help keep my hands from damage…and get more fill to smooth out the divots that I put in the plaster along with smoothing out the flaws in the bathroom walls…more work and more later….
Going to make the first goal…
Well…after that rant, let’s talk about something a little more pleasant…when I got started riding inside this year, I had a goal in my head of around 600 miles before the first of April and for a while it looked like there was no way to make it when I got the chance to ride outside. But, with the cold weather coming back and staying after just 75 miles outside, I only have 16 more miles to do to make the goal…and that will happen Tuesday with two days to spare before the 1st….and I didn’t have an indoor bike last year and also didn’t get outside for any rides until almost mid April…and I still almost made it to 5K miles even with working on this place for hours every day…and with hoping to have the entire summer off after finishing the big bedroom by the end of May, I am going to try to beat my 6K record that I did a couple of years ago….and that will mean at least 45 miles a day from then on…with doing 30 a day as soon as it gets warm….I am really hoping to get down to 175 pounds by the end of riding season this year since I am close to end of summer weight right now with cutting out the booze and riding indoors….I ran out of holes in my belt a couple of weeks ago so that means I’ve lost a couple of inches off my waist so that is a good sign….but right now I’m just going to watch the rest of the F1 race and then the nascar race later…veg day!
Learned something new….
Well…even at my advanced age, there are still opportunities to learn something new every day…and this morning, one of those opportunities presented itself and made me smile a bit….as I have been watching the birds around here, for some reason I thought the black, speckled birds that travel in flocks were grackles but I was curious enough to check the internet to make sure since one of them ended up on my window sill and others have been feeding under my feeder window in huge groups…so, I found out I was wrong…they are not grackles but common starlings that I understand now are a despised invasive species by bird people in Michigan since they attack songbirds nests and drive out the native species with their aggressiveness….and these bird people are adamant that you don’t feed them or assist them in their spread in any way…but, how the heck do you do that? I’m not going to take my feeder down since the Juncoes and other birds come here to feed and I like watching them….hmmm….so, I guess I’ll have to think about that a bit…oh, I did see some sparrows out here when I was able to ride outside last week but they were a couple of miles to the west toward Lake Michigan…still don’t understand why none of them are around here when they are that close….something to think about….
March 27th
Well…damn, 23 degrees and it’s almost April? The lock into my garage was even frozen and I had to hold the key in my palm to heat it up so I could get it in to unlock…I did sleep okay last night and didn’t wake up til 5:21 and stayed in bed til 6:20 so that was okay…and I feel okay this morning with knowing it is my day off of everything…I keep talking about that, don’t I? Oh, well…it is nice to take one day a week off and just enjoy my life…but, I’m not sure it that will last today with needing to get the old wallpaper off the walls in the big bedroom….started on the second one a bit yesterday and I’m still not sure if I’ll ever get the walls paintable again…we’ll see….I am still pretty amazed I have a house that is mine that I can afford and it hit me yesterday how much stress that has taken off me no matter how much work I have to do around here….I read the stories on Kos about people my age who are struggling to keep a place to live and to pay their medical bills and I really feel for them…and that makes my situation even more of a relief as I think about it…but I have noticed a change in my thoughts recently where I am realizing that I’m coming up on the end of my life and have been thinking about what has been and what I think about how my life has gone….and that may make for some uncomfortable posts here in the near future so I’ll warn you when those start to come so you can skip them if you want…not much to do today….I’m still not that good at doing nothing but I am going to try to just fool around some today…I do need to order the blinds for the bathroom some time and will probably do a few of these, too, if I get motivated…hey, that is one thing I just noticed after not drinking any more…I don’t have to work to get motivated to work around here….I don’t think I’ve mentioned that in a while…and that is pretty cool….more later….
Done for the day….
Well…man, have been working all morning but now I’m done for the day….got the rest of the wall peeled and that only took and hour or so but that is the start of the work to make the wall paintable again…still need to go over it to remove the brown paper residue that was left behind after scraping and I think I’ll spend the 12 bucks and buy a 4 inch wide wallpaper scraper that they have at depot since I don’t want to go over the whole thing again with the one inch chisel…after that, I’ll have to go back and fix the divots where I dug into the plaster… and fix the big holes in the skim coat…will probably do a test patch of paint after that to see if I have to remove the adhesive, too….I did get the laundry done and a little touch up on the bathroom window where the blue paint was showing through even two coats of white….I think that is enough for the day…I do need to let my right hand rest since my thumb is really hurting and it will help taking tomorrow off for my normal Sunday….I will be back here for another one after I read the news but I am going to take my time with that….more later…
March 26th
Well…damn, I hope this isn’t the start of another wake up time recession where I get up an hour earlier every day….that’s two in a row and I don’t want three…I am a little surprised that my right side is not howling in pain this morning after peeling the wallpaper off 2/3rds of one wall in the big bedroom yesterday and how much it hurt last night…but I do have some pain on the top of my forearm so we’ll see how it goes when I get back at it this morning…it is a little weird to have stripped that much of an 8 by 12 wall with just a 1 inch wood chisel….I am looking forward to taking the day off tomorrow after all the work yesterday and today…and the window in the bathroom came out good and has a nice smooth finish on it now…I do need to order the new blinds for in there today and they should be here next week…I did get my refill of the generic flonase yesterday and I hope it continues to work since I am pretty stuffed up today…didn’t have a mask on doing the wallpaper yesterday and it does make some dust removing it so I’ll have to remember to use one today…the goal is to get the wall completely stripped by the time F1 qualifying comes on at 11 but that means I need to get my butt in gear and get on the bike since it is already 7…not much to do today…I do need to do laundry after I get off the bike but I may wait til I get the wall done so I can wash those clothes, too…and I need to cook some more chicken legs for lunch…damn, I need to get going….more later…
Have never seen this before…
Well…darn, after I finished up the window in the bathroom and it was only about 10:30, the guilts got to me again so I thought I’d start to think about what to do with the walls in the big bedroom and how damn ugly they were…and just on a whim, I took my new 1 inch wood chisel in there and started to scrape at the walls with it….and, to my amazed surprise, it started to peel the 5 coats of paint, wallpaper, and plaster off easily…leaving a pretty nice finish that I may be able to salvage and just repair and paint…at the very least, I can put new wallpaper in there if the plaster won’t take paint…and I’ve never seen where someone plastered over wallpaper with an eighth inch skim coat….especially when the surface under it is so smooth and in such good shape….so, I worked on that for an hour and change and have gotten almost half of the worst wall peeled off…but, I can already feel the pain in my thumb and right shoulder so this may be slow going…and to save 3-4 grand not having to have wallboard put in there is pretty darn cool and I can suffer through it…I may even learn how to use my left hand better when I do the other three walls…I think my estimate of it taking to the end of May is pretty accurate right now especially with still having the walls to prep and paint in the bathroom…it is cool to make progress and have discovered a method that I can use for it…I guess that will mean I’ll have to do the same thing for the small bedroom and take the ugly dropped ceiling out and trash it…but that is a next winter project if I make it to next winter….I need some rest….