Well…just finished up three hours of eating dust sanding the upper cabinet and all I have to say is it sucks…had so much dust in the kitchen I couldn’t even see where I was sanding and then I opened a window and taped my box fan to it and put it on high to draw the dust out…it looked like the house was on fire from the outside there was so much dust…and the bad thing is that I’m not even halfway through the sanding…have all of the other cupboards to sand next week along with the finish sanding on the one I worked on today and it looks like two more days of eating dust until I’m done and can do a thorough cleanup and wash everything down to get ready to paint…the damn dust has screwed up my eyes, too, and they are really blurry right now…have put eye drops in and will have to do that again later….I did get the hardware for the doors and it cost me 66 bucks for all of the hinges and pulls but it is going to look really cool and modern when I’m done….looks like about two weeks to finish it but I am done for the day…I am sore and just beat so I am going to take it easy this aft and watch some soccer after lunch…more later…
Tag Archives: life
january 21st
Well….that was a little different…went to bed at the normal time but was back up at 1:05 and then back to bed til 5:50 and then I just gave up and got going with my day….I did sleep okay but with lot of tossing and turning and, again, that appears to be the new normal and I’m okay with that…and that was 18 days of being good and I really do like how I feel but that is going to break Sat night with heading into GR to meet up with the old gang for a couple….but I will be back to being good after that since it’s my new normal…I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday and I have a couple of errands to run this morning…heading out to Menards to get the hardware for the kitchen and that should cost me about 40 bucks but that’s not bad for some modern hinges and pulls in black that will update the look…I really won’t need them for a couple of weeks but I do need to know if they will fit without drilling all new holes…but today I’m going to keep working on the upper cupboard to get it ready for final sanding…still have some filling to do since it was in such poor shape and I think I’m going to just have to accept that it is not going to be perfect but it is going to be acceptable to me and will look 100% better than it did…and I won’t cringe to store my food in it as I have been doing…I could be painting next week if the final sanding goes well on the rest of the cabinets…but I do want to sand the sloppy skim coat that was put on the ceiling so I can clean the dust up once and for all before I paint…and that will be the last of the big dust except for the wall repair that I plan to do next week, too….not much to do today…you know, I think I have to retire that phrase when every day I have lots to do….but after the kitchen, it could be true again…more later…
You know me….
Well…you know me, I just can’t sit here while there is work to do…so I mixed up another batch of plaster and finished up the interior of the upper cupboard….didn’t get the mix right on the plaster, though, and it set up a little too fast and had to throw away a bunch of it…but, with a 20 pound bag, I’ll have enough for whatever I need to do around here…and I don’t think that’s a bad deal for 20 bucks…and now all I have is detail work to do on the interior both sanding and filling some…it is going to look much, much better than I expected after I get it sanded…and any imperfections will be covered by the paint and the fact that is mounted up by the ceiling…so, I can get on that tomorrow but I may take the weekend off since I need to run into GR to meet up with the old gang…whoever is going to be there…it looks like the snow will be over in the morning Saturday so it should be okay to do the 80 mile round trip….now it’s break time for a while….it’s already been a long day….damn, I’m old….
I guess I’m a plasterer now….
Well…only did two hours on the cupboards this morning since my thumb is howling at me and my back is not much better…but, I did get the upper cupboard cleaned up and ready for plastering…and I got the bottom part of it plastered and I can say I’m a plasterer now…it came out so much better than I expected that all I have to do is run the sander over it lightly to knock down the ridges…it is new for me to plaster since I can’t remember ever doing it before and you have to go really fast since you only have about 6 minutes until it sets…so, I hauled butt and got it done and even got my paint pan cleaned up before it set so now I know the method I need to use and I should get better at it as I go along….I think this cupboard is going to look much better than I had any reason to expect with how bad it was…but going so fast using my thumb to hold the putty knife has really hurt it and I know I need to take something for it…but, I’ll have the whole interior of that one done tomorrow and I can get going on the exterior Saturday….crap, even my right forearm and elbow hurt now…ow….
January 20th
Well…5:04 and 6:36…and I really do think that is getting to be the new normal but I went to bed early so I guess that’s okay…crappy sleep is getting to be part of that new normal and I’m sure I don’t like that…I did have dreams about shoveling snow that turned into shoveling dirt for some reason and I’m not sure what that is about…but it was in my yard so at least that was familiar….I am still sore from the kitchen work that has been going on what seems like forever but I’ll be back at it after I get on the bike here in a minute…and I need to teach myself how to plaster today since the cabinet over the stove is just a frame and the plaster walls that show on the inside are too crappy to repair with the filler I have been using…so I got tools for that yesterday and I am going to give it a try after I get all of the loose stuff removed…so that is probably going to take a few days and then I have to wait for it to dry before I can paint…so I may start to work on the doors or finish up the other cabinets and get them painted…at least the airlock screen I put up in the kitchen door is working to keep the dust in the kitchen…but I still have a good months worth of work in there with the repairs to the plaster on one wall and then sanding and repainting the baseboards before I paint the walls…and I have some skim coat peeling on the ceiling that I am going to try to repair before I can paint that…I do feel good that the kitchen is the biggest project that needed to be done and the rest of the house will be pretty easy….not much to do today…it looks like I have some snow to shovel this afternoon after I get this day’s work done on the kitchen and I do need to cook so it’s going to be a bit busy once I get started here in a few minutes….more later…
Taking the rest of the day off…
Well…it’s been a busy one today with doing the grocery run this morning…and I laughed at what the total bill was today…only 15 bucks but Meijers and Aldi’s didn’t have a lot of the stuff I wanted so that saved me some cash…but 15 bucks? It’s pretty cool when you don’t buy cocktail materials…and today is the 17the day of being good and I am starting to like it….but I am really sore from working on the cupboards but only have the one over the stove to do…but it is by far the worst of all of them and it is going to take a few days to get it done so I may not get to painting til next week with still having to do the final finish sanding on all of them…but right now, I’m taking the rest of the day off after cleaning up after this mornings work…Man U plays this afternoon and I want to start to watch them but if they suck like they have been, it will be a short watch….
Ordered my covid tests….
Well…as I sit here finishing up my coffee before I get to work on the kitchen, I decided to try to order my 4 free covid tests and it was the easiest damn thing I’ve done in a while…just went out to covidtests.gov and it only took about a minute to enter my address and hit the order button…and that was it…no insurance information or anything else was necessary to get it done and they will be shipped in a week or so…not sure if I’ll ever need them but with going out this weekend, if it’s not snowing, it will be nice to know if I’m sick or not…order the tests, they’re really free….more later…
January 19
Well…3:30 and 5:54, and that’s all I’ll say about that…slept pretty crappy with lots of tossing and turning and I hope that’s not the new pattern like the old pattern that I struggled with for years and years….I know I talk a lot about sleep but you don’t know what it’s like unless you’ve lived not being able to get any….just wears you right out…but hey, I’m not as sore as I expected to be after the work yesterday so I guess that’s something….and I really hope to have the cupboard work done today but I think it’s going to take until tomorrow…damn, just saw that there is a winter weather advisory in effect from later today through Thursday with at least 6 inches of snow and possibly more and there is a gale warning to go with it so there will be some drifting…glad I’m going out for groceries this morning and don’t need to go anywhere til Saturday…there is a reunion of sorts of the old gang I use to hang with in GR on Saturday but I won’t be going if it’s snowing…I am a little torn about it anyway with being in an enclosed space with people who aren’t wearing masks and omicron still tearing through west Michigan….not sure if it’s worth it to take the chance…sure don’t want to get sick….not much to do today…just the grocery run and a stop depot to get some more filler and some plaster tools since I need to get at the bad plaster patch in the kitchen…think I may buy a big bag of plaster this morning since it is so much cheaper than the filler I have been using and I do need to learn how to do skim coats with the bathroom ceiling needing a complete redo….and it’s only 20 bucks for 20 pounds which should be enough to do everything around here…and more work on the the cabinets in the kitchen to get ready to start painting them…so, I’ll be damn busy again today…just like every day…more later…
Four hours and I’m sore…
Well…a body this old is not supposed to be pretzeling itself into tiny little cupboards…it just isn’t…but that didn’t stop me from doing it for 4 hours today to sand and fill and I am damn sore from it…have only one more to do on the side of the kitchen near the sink along with the cabinet over the stove that is probably the worst one….and I am going to try to get both of them done tomorrow so I can do the final sanding Thursday and set myself up to start to paint the interiors Friday…and that is about a week earlier than I had planned but I can’t string a job out when I have work to do…and that is going to unleash huge clouds of dust in the kitchen that will have to be cleaned up before I can start to paint…and I know that there will be other repairs that will need to be made as I go along…as old and decrepit as the kitchen is, I know I’ll miss something and have to come back to it to fix it…but I am losing patience with everything that needs to be done…the cupboards probably should have been torn out and replaced but I just don’t want to spend the money for the next owners of the house when I can live with however the kitchen comes out…after all, it will still be 100% better than it was and clean….I wonder if it will help if I just put the shop vac running in the middle of the floor when I do the finish sanding? At least the airlock is doing it’s job to keep the dust in the kitchen…but it will be tested Thursday….I’m sore…..
Not a bad winter so far….
Well…as I sit here finishing my coffee before I get to the kitchen, the thought came to me that this has been a pretty good winter so far…we’ve had some snow that hasn’t been bad to shovel and I just looked at the weather and, while it’s going to be cold for the next week, there is not a lot of snow in the forecast for the rest of the month…maybe a couple of days with snow showers but that is about it…and that only leaves about 6 weeks where we can potentially get some big lake effect snow storms….but, if they set up, we could get feet of snow so I guess I shouldn’t be happy yet….one strange thing with how cold it’s been out here is that the lake ice is at the lowest in almost 20 years…and I do need to get out to Lake Michigan to take a look at the shore ice and wander around on it a bit…I do need to get a new phone so I can take photos again without dragging my tablet with me…okay, back to work….