Well…okay, I really think I need to stop whining about all the work I’m doing on this house…especially after bending Tom’s ear this morning for quite a while…after all, I have a house that belongs to me that many people would love to have and would also love to be doing the work that I keep complaining about….I do hurt like crazy but damn, I’m old and should hurt after sitting cross legged on the floor…okay, that brought up the song by Chicago called “25 or6 to four” that I like and that’s how my brain works…it always goes back to music…and I can’t get that out of my head since I thought of it…so, I’ll quit whining about working on my house and take the rest of the afternoon off after putting in over 4 hours today…tomorrow is going to be a huge dust day in the kitchen getting the rest of the filling sanded to get ready to paint everything..but I am going to attach my sander to my shop vac since that seems to keep the dust down…and I forgot that I do need to wedge a day in to wash every surface to make sure I get the dust off so the paint will stick….and I think that will be Saturday so I can start on painting the trim Monday…hope I have enough paint….more later…
Category Archives: My Life
February 24th
Well…up early today and feel a little worn out…probably from only eating one meal yesterday since I worked on the kitchen until after one and that is too late to make lunch….so I just had an orange and called it good…and that pattern is going to happen again today since I need to finish up the sanding and filling on the trim…not looking forward to moving the stove out and discovering what is under it and cleaning that up before I work on the baseboard behind it…..and my right heel has developed it’s first cracks of the winter and that is going to make it pretty painful to stand on it all morning but it has to be done…I did get quite a bit of work done on the kitchen yesterday and I am edging toward just ending the work after today since I could keep working on it forever if I don’t….and this place is 82 years old and will never be perfect without spending thousands and thousands of dollars that I am just not going to spend…and I am not going to do that much work….since I started, my goal was to just make this place liveable and clean and I can accomplish that without making it perfect….and I can always come back to do the detail work after I get the major stuff done….not sure why I feel depressed this morning but I think it just one of those cycles that happens every couple of months and part of it is all of the work I’ve done on the kitchen and I feel like I’m no closer to finishing it than I was a month ago….I mean two months to do just one room? And I’m still a good two weeks away from painting the walls and ceiling but that will go pretty fast once I get to that point…and I still need to buy a range hood and hang it but that has to wait until the painting is done….so, you can see how this could contribute to being a little depressed…I think anyone would be….not much to do today…just the normal routine but I am not going to stop on the kitchen until I’m done with the prep in there…so it looks like a 5 hour day today and will probably use up the new tub of patching material before I’m done….man, I’m tired…more later….
Getting tired of the cold…
Well…damn, even though I’ve lived in Michigan my entire life and endured 60+ winters here, every year about this time I get tired of being cold…and going out to do the grocery run today and walking back to the car that really hit home…especially since Meijers is only about 2 miles from here and my car doesn’t even hit normal temperature or produce much heat by then….and with it being only 18 degrees out there, the car cools right back down during the 10 minutes I was in the store and then it was cold again on the way to Aldi’s…and that cycle repeated on the way back here so I might just as well have had no heat at all in the car…and my hands were damn frozen by the time I parked the car in the garage and got the groceries inside…they are still cold after being back here a half hour…and having some coffee…oh, well…and looking at the weather out 10 days, it is not going to change much at all with lows still in the teens to twenties…this is the grit my teeth part of the winter here in Michigan…where you just have to take it day by day…and keep looking forward to the spring I know is coming…sometime…and knowing I survived another winter…and in Michigan, that’s not an easy feat….more later…
February 23rd
Well…that was okay…didn’t wake up til 5:30 and was able to roll over for 45 more minutes and still be on time to get to this and on the bike before I head out for the grocery run today…and it’s going to be another week of about 30 bucks for groceries and that is cool…might even be less than that since I got 17 pounds of protein last week and the ingredients for lasagna that I’m going to make tomorrow…can’t remember when I had a grocery list that has less than 15 items on it for two stores….might have to thaw my garage door lock again with the rain we had yesterday and how cold it is now…will probably drag the wd with me when I go out since that worked to thaw it last time…with the rain yesterday, I think the trails may be almost melted and I may suit up and take a look at them the next time it gets to be over 40…and that will be early next week…I did get some work done yesterday and need to get the rest of the trim prepped so I can get it sanded by the end of the week but that may take me two days and I won’t get to painting til next week and then I need to do some prep work on the walls and I may do that before I sand the trim so I only have one cleanup day before I start to paint…and I probably should do the second door frame that I was going to leave til later so the entire kitchen will be done in a week or so….I wonder if I will have earned another week off after that? I know that my right hand and elbow will need the rest after I’m done since it is already hurts like crazy after just one part of the trim and the door frame from yesterday….not much to do today…just the grocery run and the rest of the baseboards and then on to the door frame tomorrow….should be able to sand Friday…I hope….and then do the cleanup…crap…forgot about prepping the walls and ceiling and that will take a full day so I probably won’t get to sanding til Monday…but I should still be able to paint next week…but I need to buy another gallon of gray paint since I don’t think I have enough to two-coat the walls with what I have…but that will be okay since I’ll need some touch up paint to maintain everything in the kitchen as I chip them…more later….
3 hours of work for one door frame?
Well….I really did have plans to get all of the rest of the trim for the kitchen sanded and filled today but the door frame for the door to the basement had another idea…after taking my good putty knife to chop off the extra plaster that was left on it and painted over, I started to scrape the rough edges that looked pretty beat up and I thought it was in the wood but it was only in the layers and layers of paint that was on the trim and that had been chipped and painted over with no prep for 40 years…so, after an hour and a half of scraping and chipping that paint off, I finally got to the sanding for all of it to get ready to try to smooth it enough to fill the bad spots…oh, after I used a screwdriver and a hammer to set most of the nails that were working loose…the I finally got to filling all of the flaws trying to not use as much filler as I had been using to keep the dust down when I start to sand it in a few days…but I am going to wait until all of the trim is filled and ready for sanding so I’ll only have one cleanup to do after I’m done…still…3 hours for one dang door frame? Way too much work and I’m glad that the rest of the house is going to be much less work…I hope….
Watched a movie in the afternoon…
Well…not sure how this happened but I just watched a movie in the middle of the afternoon…when I was reading the news yesterday, I came across an article about science fiction movies on netflix that were good and flying under the radar of the general public…so, I even wrote one of them down on a used envelope so I would remember it sometime in the future…so, I found the envelope this afternoon and thought what the heck, I’d check it out…oh, forgot to say that it was a 2021 Japanese version of “the door into summer” by Robert Heinlein and had no plan to watch it today…just went out to look to see if it was there and started it…then I got sucked into watching the first part to see if I remembered the story and that continued until I watched the whole movie….it was a little bit of work with subtitles but well worth the effort…pretty good movie and I only feel a little guilty for wasting my afternoon to watch it…I did get some work done this morning and the next one will talk about that…more later…
February 22nd
Well…that was okay…only got up once last night at 4am and slept in all the way til 6:17…but I don’t feel that hot with my allergies already getting bad and it’s not even spring yet…it’s probably from sanding yesterday even though I used the vacuum to collect the dust as I sanded….was miserable last night, too, and the allergy medicine that normally gives me relief didn’t work so I was plugged up all night and that continues this morning…but, I’m getting back into sanding and repair again this morning and I hope to have all of the door trim and baseboards done by tomorrow so I can paint Thursday…not sure about the door frame between the kitchen and dining room since it is in such bad shape but the sides need to be done so I can get the walls painted in the kitchen….still trying to decide how much repair work I’m going to do on the walls before I paint since I could work on them for weeks to get them smooth…and I’m not sure I want to do that much work….this place is 82 years old after all and it will have flaws but I will probably do some of the more obvious ones….not much to do today…just more work in the kitchen but it is a pain that my right hand is right back to where it was before I took a week off to rest it and it only took one short day of work to do that…so, I guess I just suck it up and get at it and can rest when I’m done with the kitchen….oh, I did have to use adhesive on the door seal to the basement since opening it pulled it loose last night…but damn, just about a 4 inch bead of glue is holding it fine this morning and it has gotten almost back to it’s normal shape….adhesive is a wonderful thing…and I need to get more tomorrow….more later….
Still shaking my head…
Well…you know I’ve been bitching a bit about how half assed lots of things were done on this house, and I just discovered another one that has me just shaking my head…as I was going downstairs to get another roll of paper towel, I noticed that the gasket seal to the door to the basement was distorted and I was a little curious why that would be….after looking at it, I saw that there were nails driven through the seals into the door frame and if it was to keep the seal in the groove, I just don’t know why they didn’t just take a little bit of adhesive and apply it to the tang that goes into the groove that is supposed to hold it in place….after I removed the nails and tried to get the seal to go back to it’s normal shape, it was stuck to the door frame and was not loose at all so again, I’m confused with the half assed way and reason why this was done at all….I really don’t think they knew that adhesive exists since they nailed the drawer head on the smallest drawer in the kitchen cabinets, too, and I had to remove those nails and glue the head on as it should have been…I wonder what else I’m going to find as I continue to work on this place? I wonder if that’s why my neck hurts…from shaking my head so much?
Back to work…
Well…had the discipline to get back to working on the kitchen today and got a 12 foot section of the baseboards sanded and repaired along with a big chunk of plaster that had fallen out when I was sanding off the extra paint that was on them….and I saw that the green was not the original color of the kitchen but a nice yellow that they shouldn’t have painted over with the dark green that they used….I did learn something with all of the other filling that I had to do for the cupboards…and that is to use the very smallest amount that I can and I even went over the parts that I filled with a wet paper towel to take off the excess and make it easier to sand by hand so I don’t have to spread dust all over with the sander…I am going to use the shop vac to plug into the sander to help control the dust like I did this morning with the original sanding…working down on the floor really hurt my legs to the point I could barely move when I finished with the filling and the sanding beat the heck out of my right hand so quitting after only 12 feet was the right idea…I can still finish the trim by the end of the week and be ready to paint them so maybe on to the ceiling and walls next week? That will finish up what I want to do in the kitchen and get me started on the dining room trim and windows…..and those are in much better shape than the kitchen so it should go faster…I hope, anyway….
February 21st
Well…running about on time this morning with getting up at 6 but I was up and down all night so I feel kinda worn out today…but that’s normal and I can deal with that…I did get out of here for a bit yesterday since I wanted to go out to the beach and take a look at the ice and get a photo of the MIata out there…didn’t plan on getting out on the ice with the wind blowing over 40 mph but I still may try to do that before it melts….and I saw a bald eagle come in for a landing in a tree over the road on the way back and that was cool…didn’t get anything else done since my Sundays are my one day of the week that I take the day off and really just veg out and that is the goal for finishing the house…to get to the point that I only have little things to do every day and taking a day off is the norm instead of a plan…I still haven’t really retired and I am looking forward to the days when every day is like a Sunday….and that looks like it is about a year off…I am quickly coming up on a year in this place in a week or so and I think I’ve made a lot of progress getting it cleaned up and getting the things done that make it livable….I’ll go into that on the 27th of this month since that is the anniversary of moving in here….not much to do today…back on the bike here in a few minutes and I hope the dentist calls back to set an appointment so I can get started fixing my teeth…the pain is almost gone but it still hurts to chew anything harder than steamed asparagus and I need that fixed….and I’m going back to work on the house after taking the week off to let my hands heal…they still hurt and will get worse but I want to get the kitchen finished in the next couple of weeks….more later…