Well…darn…another 3:40 night but I didn’t get out of bed until after 6 so I guess that fits on the normal scale…but I feel like I had cocktails last night but didn’t…I wonder if it’s the release of stress from getting the cupboards done yesterday? Even though I bitched about how the white paint looked, as it cured it started to look better and better and now it looks pretty good and I can easily live with it…I still really like the paint I chose and you can’t beat it for under 20 bucks a gallon…and while was waiting for the paint to be colored at depot, I found some black switch and plug plates that I put up yesterday and they look cool…and I adjusted the electrical outlets so they are straight instead of skewed so now they are level…and the plates are 3/8th of an inch bigger and cover all of the bad plaster around them…and I took the time to remove the old telephone landline that was there for a wall phone in the kitchen since I’ll never have a landline again and it needed to go before I get to painting the walls in the kitchen….I really do feel pretty beat up today and I may use the 24hours of Daytona for the excuse to take it easy today after I do the bike ride…or I may just do the touch up of the grey and call it good…I have to get at cleaning up the dining room since it has been my work room since I started on the kitchen and it is dusty and has tools and materials everywhere…and I need to do a haircut today, too since it is getting shaggy and I don’t like it looking messy…not much to do today….can I just take one day easy and screw around a bit instead of getting right on the doors? I need a day off since it still hurts to do this and my hands won’t heal unless I rest them….more later….
Category Archives: My Life
Done….
Well….finally, I’m done with the cupboards…or only the actual cupboards and not the 11 doors that I still need to fill, sand, paint, and drill new holes for the pulls…and my hands seem like they won’t take any more abuse for a while so I may have to take the weekend off and let them rest..I guess they look okay with what I had to work with and I do really like both the grey and white paint…but, I pulled off a couple of small parts of the grey paint on the interiors today with the painters tape I put on to keep the white off the grey…and I think that was just because they hadn’t had time to cure yet and I can fix those couple of spots in about a minute so no big deal…but, that reminds me that I do have to wait a week or so before I start putting the stuff back in the cupboards so the paint will be fully cured and won’t stick to my dishes….I am going to have to take a day to clean up my tools after all of the dust that the sander spread all over everything and get my work box ready for the rest of the work in the kitchen…but not now…have been on the run since 7 this morning and it is 4 now so that is 9 hours and that is enough for one day…still thinking about that cocktail…
Not satisfied with how the cupboards came out…
Well…after painting the first coat of white on the exterior of the cupboards, I am a little disappointed in how they came out…there are still so many flaws in them that I missed that they are little better than they were…okay, more than that but after 3 weeks of sanding, filling and working on them, I really expected they would look better than they do…I know they are 82 years old but damn, they should look better after the abuse I put myself through working on them….lots of the flaws just didn’t show up until I painted them and I blame myself for that…should have kept working on them and worked harder…oh, well….still have the second coat to put on later and I am hoping that will hide some of the flaws…darn…almost makes me want to have a cocktail or seven tonight….
Janaury 28th
Well…that was a little strange…slept all the way through the night with just some tossing and turning but not waking up at all…so for the first time in a long time, I got a full 7 1/2 hours of sleep and I’m not sure how that happened….but, I’ll take it and I hope it means I’ll have a lot of energy today since I’ll need it with getting to painting the exterior of the kitchen cabinets today and I am going to try to finish them…so that will take a few hours but the milestone of having them done and being able to use them while I work on the doors over the weekend….that means I need to go out and get more grey paint this morning and I am going to stop at Aldi’s, too, to get the fruit that I forgot Wed…it looks like it’s going to take about 3 gallons of paint to do everything grey in the kitchen but that’s not bad at 18 bucks a gallon….hope to have the doors finished and mounted by Wed of next week and the I can get started on the baseboards and door frames…may have to get a gallon of white paint to finish that stuff up but the white seems to go farther than the grey….it is nice to finally see progress but there is still quite a bit to do in the kitchen…I do have to remember that I have time and don’t need to rush but would like to have the kitchen finished in the next couple of weeks…I may have to rest my hands Sunday since the cuts, bruises, and strains are getting to the point that it hurts just to do this and the cuts are taking a long time to heal with continuously banging them on the cabinets I’m working on….not much to do today…okay, that phrase needs to be retired until I get the house done since I always have lots to do but it’s been a habit since I started this and a tradition that is turning into parody….more later….
The interiors are done…
Well…finally, I got the interiors of the upper cabinet done today with two coats of paint and that is a relief…I probably could have done a better job of prepping it but I just ran out of patience and got damn tired of all the dust…and I’m still feeling the effects of breathing in the dust even with wearing a dust mask all the time and I was just done with it…but, it looks a lot better than the dirty, stained white that was in there…and getting that done today gets me to working on the white exterior of the cabinets tomorrow…I may go out and get another gallon of the grey paint tomorrow morning so I’ll have it on hand if I want to get started on the doors over the weekend…and I forgot to get oranges at aldi’s and I tried some provalone cheese slices for 1.49 for half a pound that are really good so I think I may get more of those, too…I did get out and get more sanding pads and tape at HF this morning and I did get the seasoned beef steak roast for 1.79 a pound and I am thawing it in the fridge for a few days before I can use it for beef/broccoli stir fry over the weekend…so, one more errand tomorrow…man, I’m spending a lot of cash this month…
january 27th
Well…I like my new coffee mornings when I get up and smell the new pot brewing and knowing I’m going to have good tasting, fresh coffee…it’s enough to make a good start of the day and set me up for getting some work done…slept okay last night and didn’t get out of bed until 6:20 and now I’m running a little late for getting on the bike by 7:15…I guess I can get on it by 7:30 since I have to run an errand this morning to HF to get some sanding pads and painter’s tape and then across the street to DD to get a 5 pound seasoned beef roast for 9 bucks and a 1 pound breakfast sausage roll for 1.49 since I have two eggs left from last week and I can make a sausage and egg breakfast for a meal in the next day or so…yeah, I know that stuff is bad for you but I haven’t had anything like it in years so I guess I can have it once in a while…bought lots of protein this week since I got tired of chicken leg quarters and they had big ribs on sale…and I got boneless skinless chicken breasts to use in a lot of recipes…and most of them will end up in the freezer but that’s okay….I did get the insides of the cupboards painted yesterday and the second coat looks a lot better than just one….a nice smooth surface that I can live with even though the repairs weren’t perfect….and I do need to get on the upper cabinet today and use up the rest of the paint for the first coat….will need to hit depot for another gallon tomorrow to do the second coat and the doors that I’ll get started on this weekend…nope, need to do the white on the cabinets first but that should only take a day or so to do both coats…not much to do today…need to get on the bike soon but DD doesn’t open til 9 so I have time to finish my first cup of coffee before I get started….more later…
Now I remember…
Well…with all of the weather alerts that have been going on out here…I mean winter weather advisories for 5 days in a row?….as I was sitting here, I knew there was something that I was forgetting that I had read earlier in the day…another weather advisory…yay! And the only reason I remembered we are under a gale warning was when the wind shook the heck out of my house and started to rattle the porch….so, while this house is pretty weather tight, I can feel a breeze in here tonight so the blanket my daughter knitted for me is going to come in handy….at least it’s not supposed to snow…getting tired of shoveling, shoveling, and more shoveling…okay…time to shut down for the day….
Survived the errands…
Well…have been on the run since 7 this morning and it is now 12:30 and 5 1/2 hours are enough for one day…I did survive the errands this morning on the icy roads and it was so slick that I could spin the rear tires in 5th gear with the tiny little 130 horsepower in my car…there were cars and trucks in the ditch all over and the back end of my car started to slide even when I just lifted of the gas so that was a nice little warning to slow down and get in the right lane for a while…but, I will say that the summer tires are doing much better than I expected but I still wouldn’t take them out in heavy snow…but, I am going to go out tomorrow to daily deals since they have a seasoned beef roast on sale for 5 pounds for 9 bucks and I need some more painters tape from HF just across the street…I can use the roast for a lot of things and I’m going to make a beef/broccoli stir fry with it since I got broccoli from Aldi’s this morning for some reason and Meijers only had a beef/broccoli stir fry packet and not the normal chicken that I get…so, I’ll get to try something new tomorrow…oh, and I got the rest of the sink side cabinets painted today and did the second coat on the uppers…and I’ve used 2/3rds of a gallon of grey paint so I’ll have to get another one to be able to put the second coat on the upper cabinet over the stove…but right now I am going to have the rest of the coffee and figure out what I want to have for lunch…more later…oh, and I got my three free N-95 masks from Meijers today so that is cool…..
January 26th
Well….it’s a 5:44 morning today but I slept okay so I guess that’s getting to be normal…I did sleep on my right shoulder all night and the pain is shooting up into my neck and I hope it works out soon…I need to get on the bike here in a few minutes and I think I’m going to try to get the grocery run in and not bury the car…it looks like we only got about 2 inches of snow last night so I may be able to get out…have 4 stops again today and I’m going to go over to Stermberg road so I can hit Menards for some new wipers for the car since they have the same Michelin winter blades on sale that I have on the car now…and those have lasted for almost 3 years so that is a deal for 5 bucks each….then the normal stops at Meijers, Aldi’s, and depot to get more salt and filler for the rest of the windows…then back here for painting the second coats in the cupboards…it looks like I’ll use most of a gallon of the grey paint to finish up the cabinets and will need to get another one to start on the walls in a week or so…but that’s not bad at 18 bucks a gallon….I’m hoping to have the cabinets done by the end of next week but I still have two door frames and the baseboards to paint before I can get on the ceiling and walls…not much to do today…just the errands and paint work but I’m not sure how long my hands are going to hold up…I may have to take a day off to heal all of the cuts and stiffness but I’d like to wait until I have the painting done for that….more later….
Gonna need two coats…
Well…darn, after the paint on the inside of the cupboards dried, it appears that they are going to need two coats of paint to make a good finish…so, I painted the other upper cupboards on the other side of the sink so I can do both second coats and the last lower one tomorrow along with the one under the sink…then on to the one over the stove Thursday and I may be able to do both coats on that one in one day if I get started early enough….but, I don’t think I’ll get to the white paint until Monday…or maybe over the weekend…I would like to get started on the doors soon so I can start using my kitchen again although I can put the dishes back in the cupboards without the doors and that can probably happen over the weekend if I can get to the white paint by then….darn, I need to go out and do the snow again……no grocery run tomorrow with 6-8 more inches coming tonight…ick…