Well…that was better…was able to stay in bed til 6:27 but had a hard time breathing all night and I think it’s from repeated days of eating dust from the kitchen rehab that I am hoping is over today…going to get on the last of the cabinets and the big patch and get everything sanded today and then get started cleaning up but that is going to take a full day tomorrow since there is a fine coat on every damn surface….the screen in the window that I have had the box fan in for exhaust is coated with dust that I am going to have to wash in the spring but it helps so much in keeping the air clear enough to see that it is a good tradeoff…and I need to bring my pedestal fan up to force air into the cupboards and keep the dust moving to the other fan…and I am at the point that I am done repairing and I am going to live with what I have and just paint everything…there will still be flaws but the house is 82 years and I could spend a year repairing to make everything perfect but I’m done with that…can’t wait to get the plastic on the kitchen door down today and start getting back to normal….and getting the floor mopped…but I need to get on the bike first…I’m glad I’m back to no cocktails and feel so much better this morning even with the crappy sleep that I really do think I’m done with it….it’s going to be a long day…4 or 5 hours in the kitchen and I will still need to shovel the snow a couple of times at least but the fresh air will be welcome after all the dust…more later…
Tag Archives: life
Just a crappy day…
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…
January 23rd
Well…it was a fun time last night with going out to hang with some old friends that I haven’t seen for years and it did one thing for me…I think I’m done with drinking for good…feel like crap this morning and didn’t sleep at all last night and I really don’t like it…and being out with a bunch of unmasked folks freaked me out and now I’m just waiting for the infection to start and that was just stupid to even go out…and some of them were even unvaccinated and I just can’t believe it….probably the last time I’ll ever see them and that’s okay…I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday with sanding the upper cabinet but I am taking the day off today since I feel so lousy…and part of that is all of the dust that has plugged my head since I forgot to take my allergy meds last night…man, I can’t wait to get back to the new normal of feeling good in the morning….I really don’t miss trying to find a place to park at bars and being around so many people….it’s just too much work and I prefer being by myself….not much to do today…taking the day off completely to recover and I don’t want to do that anymore….I do have to shovel the snow later since we got about 3 inches of snow last night but that can wait since it is only 14 degrees out there and the snow will stay powder and easy to do…and that will be the only work I do today other than making lunch…going to make the alfredo sauce that I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks for lunch and I have chicken thawing that needs to be marinated for later…only had a grilled cheese yesterday and that is not enough…but that is the normal story for me…more later…
I keep making more work for myself…
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….
January 22nd
Well….3:14 and then up at 6 or so and I am feeling it today…and I think I may have eaten too much dust yesterday since my head is plugged up and I’ve been coughing a lot this morning…so I probably need to skip sanding today but I do want to be ready to paint next week…so I may just finish up the upper cabinet today and leave the rest of them til tomorrow….it may help to get the fan running as soon as I start since the airflow keeps the dust in the kitchen…it is going to be a mammoth clean up before I can paint, though, and I do need to sand down the crappy skim coat around the edges of the ceiling before I get into that…and I really should do the ugly patch on the wall since it is going to spread even more dust but that will put me back til the end of the week for painting….man, I’m glad that the kitchen is the worst part of the house and the rest of it should be pretty easy….there are other things to do today and I’m thinking about allowing myself to take it easy after the bike ride…Man U plays at 10 and then there is a race on from Daytona at noon but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get that..but if I do that, I will feel guilty about being lazy…maybe I can get the upper cabinet sanded before 10? Will need to get on the bike in a few minutes to make that work and I’m not sure I want to work that hard….more later….
I’m worn out…
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…
That sucks…
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…
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….