some awfulness, and home improvement porn

[saffronhare]

This morning, I was listening to Dora the Explorer (which was on the TV in the living room) while I got ready. And it came to me that it's much funnier if you think of it as a metaphor for the immigration process.

Told you it was awful. Blame agrnmn...he told me to post it. ::snerfle::

Anyway, lots of work got done around the house yesterday. At one point, agrnmn stopped and asked me if we were going to do anything else with the day. I stopped for a moment, can of primer in hand, and blinked at him. Why would we want to do anything else? I asked. You know, he said, like something together. I blinked some more. But we *are* doing this together! Good sport, he was.

The best thing about the progress we made yesterday was that we used supplies we already had on hand, and moved forward projects that had already been started. That was tremendously satisfying.

First off, agrnmn and his wonderful dad put up the textured wallpaper on the hallway ceilings. It looks great! So, yesterday, agrnmn confirmed we had enough left to do the entryway ceiling and proceeded to sand the bejeesus out of that textured ceiling. Doesn't look like it'll need any patching, so we'll get that mounted as soon as we can purchase some sizing. ::happy dance:: Also, painting experiments have been successful -- after the paper has had some days to dry (like, a week) and we've got the budget to purchase some more paint, we'll go ahead and start painting it. Then some quater-round masquerading as crown moulding at the edges and it'll be done! We'll gradually get those walls sealed with polyurethane, but we'll need to purchase more of that to finish the job.

Next, we applied some oil-based primer to the formerly wallpapered walls in the little girls' bedroom upstairs. If you've seen the room, you may recall that the walls are partly wood paneling and partly drywall...and peeling back wallpaper on the drywall had revealed a layer of bicentennial wallpaper. Well, that's all covered up now. The girls even helped for a little while, and got less primer on them than their dad. (He ws using the roller overhead, so he's got some excuse, but it was still pretty funny to see him acting as his own dropcloth.) We figured Princess Boredom was done when she started blurting out that "everything looks blue!" We'll use the water-based primer we have on hand to prime the paneling sometime soon, but the wallpapered parts needed oil-based primer so it won't bubble when we paint it. We're also replacing the awful flourescent fixture (since it had to come down for painting anyway) with a nicer flush-mount fixture we had in the garage. Yay! The stank is almost gone now and it's already much brighter in there. Yes, the painting over wallpaper is an imperfect solution, but it'll be a few years before we can tear out thsoe walls, reinsulate, and put better walls up -- so we figured a little cosmetic work would be nice in the meantime. As it turns out, we finished the job with only drops of oil-based primer to spare. SCORE!

Finally, we started applying drywall plaster to the walls in the upstairs bathroom. After months of picking off the wallpaper and finally sanding the walls down a few weeks ago, it was great to start *adding* things in there, you know? We'll need to apply two thin coats of plaster on the walls (which hadn't been prepped for wallpaper) and then we can paint and prime in there. The first layer is about halfway done. In the process, we discovered that, while I suck at putting icing on a cake, I'm very very good at plastering. Wow, was that ever satisfying. My goal is to finish the first layer up there so sanding can maybe happen over the weekend (a task I'm happy to have <lj user="agrnmn" undertake for me) and then start on the second layer next week. But with the God Auction coming up I might be on crack. We'll see. Of course, the second coat will need to wait on the budget too -- we've got enough plaster to finish that first coat, but that'll be about it. Still, really excellent progress on some long-term projects. I'm so very happy.

Comments

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm pretty comfortable with the fact that I suck at icing. It's a flaw with which I've made my peace, you know?

But that's quite an inspiration for the kitchen remodel. :)

[zylch.livejournal.com]

1. You have so much more patience than I. After over 2.5 years on a single project like the hallway, I would have either given up or burned it down. Glad it's progressing, along with other projects!

2. If I have my geography right, the joists that frame the window in Princess Boredom's room should be in about the right place to hang some sort of harness over the counter without interfering with the cabinetry. Unfortunately, the only horizontal suspension systems intended for human weight that I know of... well, they're not so much intended for the kitchen, iff'n ya know what I mean.

3. Is PB liable to be home this evening, or is she off sleepovering?

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

1. I am relentlessly patient, but you already knew that. :)

2. Being not so excellent a cook, I was looking at spicing up the kitchen remodel in other ways, so that sort of works.

3. Yes, I think she is going to be home. Overnighting begins tomorrow.