Well…I hate dust….and after eating it all morning, I hate it even more but it had to be done to make progress on the bedroom…had all of the plaster patches that were just slapped into place that needed smoothing but the sander wouldn’t dent them so I took my grinder with a 60 grit flap disc on it and that worked…but I had to run the box fan on high pointing out the window to be able to see anything in there and it looked like the house was on fire with how much dust was blowing out of the room….and I had to hit another 5 places where there were ugly patches so I was pretty white with dust by the time I was done….and then I had to sand all of the paint that was left on the walls to smooth it out for painting…still will be able to see some of it since I’m not going to to sand it all off…and it took me almost a half hour to clean up all that dust….and had to clean the filter on my shop vac 4 times as I cleaned to keep the suction working….did I mention I hate dust? But now I’m done for the day other than some light cleaning in a bit…I do need to take something for the pain in my hand that always comes after I use the sander, even though I used my left hand a lot today…just hurt too damn much….maybe more later…

Well…after waking up and feeling sore as I have in a while, I really never entertained taking the day off to heal…so, after a good bike ride, I get started on removing the leftover wallpaper backing and adhesive in the big bedroom…and 3 1/2 hours and 3/4ths of a gallon of wallpaper stripper later, that part of the job is done and making progress made me notice the pain a little less…not completely, but a little less but I do have to pay attention to how my body is reacting to all of the work…as you know, I’m not young anymore and just powering through a full day’s work on this place just isn’t in the cards…it is nice to have a clear path to finishing the room and that starts with hitting the sloppy patches with my grinder Monday to see what has to be done to smooth them and make them less noticeable…I may start with my sander first just to see if I can smooth them without spreading dust everywhere….I may start on filling the divots tomorrow since that takes little work and I can even sit on a stool while I do the low ones…but, I’m done for the day…I do have to remember that I’m not trying for perfection on the wall surfaces…just clean and better than it looked before…again, the next owners are the ones who can shoot for perfection….or they can live with my work…I’ll be dead so I won’t care….

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…

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…

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….

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…

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…

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….

Well…you know me….again, when I have work to do and it is just sitting there staring at me, I can’t let it sit when it’s only 1:00 even though I sanded and filled the widow in the bathroom this morning…so, the filler turned from pink to white meaning that it is dry and ready for sanding so I did…and now the window is ready for painting tomorrow morning and that will give me a weekend off since I don’t want to start on prepping the walls in there until Monday and that will probably only take a couple of days…but I can’t paint for three more weeks so that will mean starting on the big bedroom…and I just noticed that they wallpapered  across the corners and, as the paper shrank, it pulled away from them so I’ll have to chop that out and fill the corners so it doesn’t look so ugly when I paint it….as I said earlier, it will be nice working in a room where I don’t have to contort myself to get to the things I have to work on…and unlike the bathroom, I don’t really need the big bedroom right now so I can leave my tools out when I’m working on it….so maybe I’ll have that done by May or so and that will give me the entire summer off….yeah, going to take the whole summer off…as I get older, I don’t want to work full time on this place…and the yard will give me enough work all summer with all I want to do out there…I’m tired…again…

Well…after thinking about taking the day off to heal, like a moron I decided to get to work on the bathroom window so I pulled the shade down and got to work removing all of the other brackets that were on it…and the weird thing was that there were nails pounded into the frame all over it….and no reason whatever for them to be there…so it took me a good 45 minutes to get them all out…if I did…and then got started scraping the extra paint off that looked like it had been poured on the frame and finally got that done after another hour and a half…will have to spend the day tomorrow with the sander and I’m not sure if my hand will take it…I hope it does so I can get the filling done and get ready to do the final sanding Friday and maybe even paint Saturday….still have some touch up to do on the quarter round moulding but that will have to wait til I’m done with spreading dust all over….and then I can get on the prep for the walls but won’t be able to paint them for a couple of weeks as I let the white paint cure this time before putting painter’s tape on them to make a nice edge…more work…and more work….