Well…just finished with another 5 hours of work on the kitchen and all I can say is OW….halfway through all of the sanding and cleaning my right thumb gave up and decided to move from intermittent pain to ridiculous constant pain all in one step so I ended up doing most of the sanding left handed and that was really kind of a comedy since I don’t use my left hand much…but, I got it all done and mopped the floor and cleaned the stove and I am tired…you know I’m normally a pretty white person…after all, northern European ancestry and all that…but today I looked like one of those African tribes who used to paint themselves in white mud with how much dust I had on me….my eyes are really hurting from all of the dust and I think I’ll buy myself a set of goggles if I do this much sanding again….the floor in the kitchen was white with the dust and I had to clean the dust bag in the vacuum about a dozen times to keep it working…but I am a little amazed that this little 26 dollar shop vac has done two houses now and it is still working like a champ…and that goes for my new detail sander too…have sanded almost all of the fillers and thick paint with it and it just keeps on going… and I only used two pads to do all of the sanding today and the second one is still like new so that is cool….so tomorrow will be a wash day to get the rest of the dust off the cabinets and walls so I can start to paint Wed…and that will be so much easier than today…I still need to shovel the snow since it has been snowing like crazy all day and I have almost 8 inches so far…but I want to finish my coffee and have lunch first and just take it easy for a while…I am beat…and my hands hurt really bad…more later…

Well…damn, they just issued a winter weather advisory for out here and it is supposed to snow 6 inches from 4 am to 11 pm tomorrow…and the wind is going to be blowing around 30 all day so it will be pretty ugly for the next couple of days…but, I don’t have anywhere to be so I guess it’s no big deal…man, I had forgotten how much having drinks screws me up physically the next day…it took me til after lunch to even feel partially normal and be able to get to work on the kitchen and get the rest of the filling done and repair the big hole in the plaster that I cut out a couple of days ago…needed to get that done today since I want to have tomorrow be the last big dust day and then clean the kitchen up and wash everything Tuesday…and that will set me up to start painting Wed and that should take a couple of weeks including doing the doors….I do need to order the blinds for the last kitchen window and the range hood this week…it is going to be a month of not putting any money in the bank with having to pay my property taxes and house insurance and that is about a grand before I pay any other bills…so this month will be a wash and puts me behind in saving for the new Miata in the spring…oh, well…won’t have a lot of money going out again until August so I may have to make the rusted Miata last until summer…we’ll see…

Well….another morning of working on the kitchen and I keep making more work for myself as I notice things that need to be done…and there are way too many things to be done and I think I need to just stop and put a limit on what I’m going to do or I’ll be working on the kitchen for the rest of my life…after I got the final sanding done on the upper cabinet, I decided to get after the 2×2 section of the wall that looked like they just threw plaster at it and then painted over it…and I just couldn’t let that go so I took it all out and now I have a big section that needs to be plastered but I just couldn’t leave it like it was…and then I got after the edges of the ceiling where they just slathered on the plaster and never sanded it down to be even with the rest of the ceiling….and now I’ll need to fill that edge to even it out and then sand it before I can paint the ceiling or walls….and I took out a small section of the skim coat on the ceiling that was peeling so that needs to be patched and sanded…you get the idea…I need to just make a decision what is acceptable to me for on an 82 year old house….I think I’m almost there to put and end to new work and just finish up what I’ve got going….there will be time to do the other detail work the rest of the year…just want the kitchen done….

Well…I really think that I need to take the weekend off of working on the house…I am so worn out from the pace and I hurt everywhere…had a hard time just getting off the couch this afternoon with my back howling at me and my damaged thumb is having these weird, intense pains that come out of nowhere  and I know it’s from abusing it with the sander and I have two more days of that to do…I did find that I will have to drill new holes for one end of each new pull since the old ones were cheap walmart ones that are only 2 1/2 inches on center and no nice ones are available in that size…that’s not too bad since I have to sand and fill the doors anyway since they have paint from 3 or 4 other pulls built up on them….and I have 11 doors that will have to be drilled but that should only take about 15 minutes or so….I’m at least going to take the day off tomorrow with needing some energy to head into GR tomorrow evening and I need to make sure I eat enough for energy…just had a chicken leg quarter and some roasted carrots for lunch and a grilled cheese with nothing else for dinner..so that keeps me under 1K calories for the day…think I’ll make homemade alfredo sauce for lunch tomorrow with some fettucini and garlic bread.. but I don’t have a second meal so maybe that will be it…getting tired of chicken after buying 20 pounds of it last week…

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…

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….

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….

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….

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…..

Well…since the first time I saw the ugly white range hood in the kitchen when I bought this house, I had planned to buy a stainless steel one since I like the way they look…but the prices of them have ballooned to the point that the cheapest 30 inch stainless one is almost 100 bucks and that is a bit much…and, my range is black and the rest of the door hardware is going to be black to go with the grey doors…so, I thought about it today and think I’m going to buy a black one to go with the rest of the kitchen…and a black one is only 62 bucks so that will save me almost 40 bucks and I think it will go better than a stainless one…so now it looks like I have everything figured out and just need to get at it and get the kitchen done…