Well..damn, I am so disappointed with myself that I’ll probably be depressed for weeks…fell off the wagon last night and had cocktails and feel like crap today…not sure why I did it but part of it was all of the work I’ve been doing and….nope, that’s just a damn excuse and throwing months of healthy living out the window for nothing is just another failure that I am gong to have to live with…along with all of my many other failures….crap, crap, crap….and I had some chicken I was thawing leak all over the bottom of the fridge so I’ll have to tear that apart to clean it….and I’m going to skip the bike ride today so that will add to the depression that is going to blanket me all day…and the pain from overdoing the work yesterday is making it hard to move…okay, enough wallowing in my failures…when this crap happens, I need to just get moving and start doing better…and that starts now…I do need to go out for an errand this morning to Ollies outlet since they have t-shirts on sale for 1.99 and it is next to HF where I need to return the heat gun since it really doesn’t work to remove paint that I bought it for….I’m sure they won’t have the shirts but it is only a couple of miles from here so no big deal but I could use some new painting shirts since my old ones are falling apart…I am going to make a burger for lunch since I bought 5 pounds at Aldi’s Tuesday to fill the freezer…and I’m going to make lasagna this weekend….the rest of the day is going to be a waste and I am going to try to not get more depressed about that…but how I’m feeling now, that isn’t going to happen….more later…
Category Archives: My Life
Ow….
Well…after the booster shot and 3 1/2 hours working on the final wall, I am sore everywhere and have blisters all over my right hand to go along with the thumb pain…and I have just now finished up and it is almost 4 o’clock…this last wall took almost as long as the other three combined and I think I’ve figured out why the others were so easy…there are water stains in the plaster on the two walls that were the easiest ones to strip and that must be from before they replaced the roof…or the reason they replaced the roof and there are two spots where they replaced plaster on the ceiling by those two walls so it was leaking pretty good…but not now…and I really may have to take the day off tomorrow since I can’t really use my hands too much right now…but the walls are done! This phase, anyway and I even went over one wall to remove the paper residue and adhesive before I started on the stripping….so, that’s enough for a couple of days and I really do need the rest….this day was a struggle…
Getting my second booster this morning…
Well…on a whim, I thought I’d see if Meijers had any appointments for the covid boosters today and they did….going in at 10:30 to get it out of the way and that is pretty cool…one less thing to think about but it will make me late for working on the wall today…will probably wait for that until after lunch….and take the next hour and a half to just sit and read the news…and that is such a big luxury to me that I don’t know how to act….but, I’ll figure it out…yay booster!
March 30th
Well…it looks like we didn’t get the snow or ice that was in the forecast and that sent me on the grocery run a day early and I’m okay with that…but it is going to rain all day today and I hope that starts to green up the lawn and washes all the crud from winter off the sidewalks…it looks like they are going to replace the crappy patch they put in the road out front of the house finally and there was a crew out here yesterday with a huge diamond cutting machine that was putting straight cuts across the streets on both sides of the patch…I sure hope they clean up after themselves this time after leaving gravel, concrete, and mud all over my lawn when they dug it up last fall…I am still pretty sore from yesterday’s wall work and I am going to abuse myself one more time today to do the last wall in the big bedroom….my right hand looks like I was in a bar fight with every knuckle rubbed raw from scraping it on the wall but today I’m going to tape it up before I get to work and I hope that will protect it enough so there isn’t more damage to it….I do need to get on Meijers website today and try to get my next vaccine scheduled since they were approved yesterday for old farts like me and I really don’t want to take any chances with getting the damn virus…I have a summer to enjoy and don’t want any covid effects to screw that up….not much to do today…just the bike ride and the wall that I should have done by noon or so and then will probably sand the patches in the bathroom so I can paint that next week….more later….
Found something that works…
Well…I am so damn sore after doing the wall today that I feel really old and I can’t figure out why just removing wallpaper takes so much out of me…and I tried the last wall and it is going to be just as tough as this one so I am not looking forward to tomorrow…but, I did finally find something that works and I’m pretty happy about that. After trying to dry scrape the rest of the wallpaper backer and adhesive off the walls, it was looking like it was going to take at least as much time as taking the bulk of the paper off…but today I bought a gallon of Zinsser wallpaper stripper and just gave it a try a few minutes ago and it worked! The leftover paper peeled right off and left an almost smooth surface that I now know I can get smooth enough so I can paint it and won’t have to paper it again….it is still going to take me another 4 days or so to finish the paper removal but it’s not going to be a lot of work once I get the heavy stuff off the last wall tomorrow…then I can get into redoing the skim coat that has fallen out and then sand the walls to make sure they are smooth…then I’ll move on to the trim before I paint the walls…I could have it done before the end of April and I wonder if I should then start my summer off in May? Yeah, you know me…I probably won’t take the entire summer off…but I won’t do any big projects but the doors in here…and they will be big enough….done for the day…
3 down, one to go…
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….
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!