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….

Well…it’s been another one of those days where I have made progress on the house and that means the work in the bedroom is winding down and should move into waiting time after tomorrow…I did get two coats of paint on the baseboards and wash all of the ceiling and walls today..but I ran out of paint and had to make a run out to depot to get another gallon of white paint…should have planned that since I knew that I was going to be painting the trim and ceiling this week but I was focused on doing all the other work that needed to be done in there and it slipped my mind…oh, well…I am going to take the overhead light down and paint the ceiling tomorrow and then I need to get all the plaster off it so I can put it back up and have it look okay….and I started on the last repairs to the wall behind the sink in the bathroom that I will finish up later in the week with hopes to paint in there next week and finish it up with hanging the new blinds…got a bike ride in and started cleaning up the dust in the living room but when it got to 3:30 or so, I had enough for the day and quit….so, all in all, a good day and now I’m waiting for the t-storms to come in later tonight….

Well…damn, this has been the longest day so far…almost 9 hours including the bike ride and I am beat…just finished up mopping the floor in the bedroom after vacuuming it so I can walk around in there without tracking dust everywhere….and I am done with sanding and filling…whatever I have is what I have from now on…and I know there are are still flaws in the patches I did but I’m done with those, too…I really need to get on the yard and get started with the raking and cleaning up since the grass has started to grow and they will pick up yard waste on trash day now….I do need to get out and get more white paint to do the baseboards and ceiling later in the week but I need to take the overhead light down first to see if I can get the paint off it that was glopped all over it before….and will probably have to paint it black if I have to strip it..we’ll see…I need a break….

Well…it’s always a good day when you hit the transition day of any project you’re working on…and today was the transition day for the bedroom project as I moved from prep work to actually starting on work that you can see is moving it forward…and painting is easier than filling and sanding…but I will go back to prep work Monday and I am really hoping that I can get all of the rest of the sanding done then….if so, then I can have all of the trim and ceiling done by the end of the week and can move over to sanding the repairs in the bathroom and get that painted the week after next…but I have to remove the tank from the toilet to get to the wall behind it and that may take some time…and masking off all the trim in there is going to be a pain…I think it’s going to take a couple of weeks to heal up after how I hurt today…damn, I feel like I’ve been in a car accident after the past couple of days…everything hurts…badly…and I am looking forward to the ibuprofen I can take later…oh, and getting on the bike at 6:30 with no coffee is just the damn worst thing in the world…and that wasn’t even necessary since Man U stunk the place up and I only watched the first half hour and got to work on the bedroom by 8am….so, another long, busy day and I just realized that Tuesday is going to have to be a dust clean up day for the entire house even with the airlock I have up on the bedroom door..everything is just coated with dust and I don’t like that at all…and I know it’s not good for my allergies, either….damn, I’m exhausted…need to take a break…

Well….another day of working on this place trying to get ready to eat dust on Monday when I sand the entire bedroom but I didn’t accomplish what I wanted by getting the door frames sanded and filled and then sanded for painting…but for some reason the filler didn’t dry so I couldn’t do the final sanding and that is irritating me a bit…I know I can do that tomorrow and still get the painting done, too, but, when my plans don’t work out, it leaves me a little uneasy for the rest of the day…I did get the hinges painted and they came out okay but I think I need to sand the next ones better after the strip for the finish to be acceptable to me….I am going to put them back up just to see if I’m being too critical but if I’m not, I can always take them back down when I work on the door and refinish them…but, I’m done for the day…I did get the airlock up on the bedroom door and the fan evacuated the dust pretty well earlier until the wind changed to out of the west and then it overpowered the fan and the airlock so I had to stop for the day…back at it tomorrow…

Well…okay, have a catch 22 that has reared it’s ugly head as I’ve done damage to my right arm with all of the work around here…when I hit the sack, I need to lie on my right side to keep my nose from plugging up so I can’t breathe and can’t sleep…but that leaves me howling in pain as it is right now…and if I sleep on my left side, my head immediately plugs up and I can’t sleep on that side, either, but my right side doesn’t hurt…need to figure this one out and I think it will probably include resting my right arm to let it heal up…but I don’t have time for that in my schedule to have the bedroom done before the end of May…hmmmm….I was down in the basement when I got up at 5:30 to take a look at the hinges that I let soak in strip overnight to get the multiple coats of heavy paint off….it worked pretty well and I cleaned them up and wire brushed the parts and screws…they will be usable with a new coat of black paint that I’ll do later today so I can put the door back on after I repair and paint the door frame later this morning….I think these old hinges will look pretty cool when I’m done with them…have them soaking in soap and water right now to get the last of of the strip off them and will take them out to dry as soon as I get off the bike…and that gives me the process I need to do the door frame in the bathroom before I paint the walls in there….too damn much work and I am going to try to take Sunday off to rest my hands since Monday is going to be a dust day and I am going to try to do all of the remaining sanding so I can start to paint the trim and let it set for a couple of weeks to harden before I mask it off to do the grey walls….damn, this one turned into a work one so I guess I owe you a life one later….will do that when I get off the bike….more later….

Well…you know I’m pretty pissed off about how my body seems to be gradually failing me as I work on this place so I’m going to whine about that a bit…I ran out of energy again this afternoon but not as badly as yesterday so that’s not something to whine about…or maybe it is…still not sure why it’s happening but it’s probably food again and I did it again today with just having as square of lasagna to eat all day today…and again, it’s because I decided to work until the baseboards were completely filled today and didn’t even get started on putting the lasagna together until almost 1…and after eating a little after two, there is just no way I can eat again today…just not hungry with the big slab of carbs still sitting in my stomach….and after I did eat, I got back to work taking the door off the bedroom so I can do the two frames tomorrow….I did buy some new hinges and don’t like them at all…I mean needing to remove a plug in the bottom with vicegrips and then take a special punch to punch the pin out…what a pain…and that drove me to using the old hinges so I am soaking two of them in strip overnight and it looks like they will come out okay so I can paint them black…which is the original color from 82 years ago and it will go with the heat register that I’m also doing in black….one thing I will whine about is my damn thumb…didn’t run the sander at all today…just a  putty knife for filling and it hurts so bad I can’t use it again…and I will be using the sander tomorrow so it’s not going to get better…maybe the ibuprofen is just wearing off from this morning…who knows? I’m done for the day….

Well…started on the trim in the bedroom this morning with getting at the baseboards with the sander and that didn’t work very well….so I got my angle grinder out with the 60 grit flap disc on it and started to try that…after about a foot, all of the upstairs smoke detectors started to freak out and scream every alert they have at me…with the one in the living room cycling through both the fire and carbon monoxide alerts….so I just removed the one in the bedroom that is just like the one downstairs that freaked out when I was using the grinder on wood and had to remove that one, too…and, like an idiot, I forgot to open the window and put the fan in it to take the dust outside since I didn’t think there would be a lot of it…but, there was and I was coated before I finished…but the grinder worked great in taking off the carpet infused paint and after three hours, I almost have the baseboards ready to be filled and sanded…but, the work really screwed up my shoulder and thumb again so I may have to be a little more careful for the next week and try to let them heal a bit….break time….

Well…along with my other disorders, eating and sleeping…I now think I have a work disorder, too…you know that I normally take Sundays off to let my body heal and to just live for a bit every week but today I just couldn’t….so I got to work on the bedroom and got all of the plastering done that took about 3 hours…it looks okay but I think I do need to smooth it and maybe even fill a bit more later in the week after I give it a week or so to dry….I am still having problems getting the consistency of the plaster right and only having about 5 minutes from mixing to it setting up is a pain in the butt….so I had to make up 5 batches to fill the 10 places I needed to cover…but I am going to try to not be anal about it not being perfect…after figuring out that perfection is not what I’m after anymore…just clean and better than before is good enough…and that is really hard for me right now….and I can’t use my right hand much other than to do this…so I guess I do need to pay attention to that and maybe cut back a little on the work…but not much…

Well….after I had a brainstorm yesterday, I think I’m going to start thinking differently about this house and what is acceptable as I clean it up and repair the big faults in the walls and everywhere else…I think I’m going to start thinking of this place as an old French chateau or an Italian villa instead of the pristine American house where it is necessary for everything to be perfect…when you look at some of those old European houses, they seem to embrace the age and flaws in brick work, walls and floors instead of covering them up and trying to make them perfect….and that is part of the character of those old houses…now, this one is not 150 years old or sitting on a hill in Provance but I can treat it as it is and take my mantra of letting the next owner make it perfect to it’s logical conclusion….is this a rationalization for not wanting to spend the time or money to make this place perfect? Yes, it is….but it also serves the purpose of quieting the guilt for running out of steam as I get older and as I stare at the huge missing pieces of the plaster skim coat in the big bedroom that I know will still be visible when I’m done with them….and I do need a way to accept how they come out no matter how good or bad…so, I’ll give that a try and see how it works….may change it tomorrow…who knows?