Foreplay at Home
Jan. 5th, 2004 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saffronhareSo, some of you probably noticed that I wasn't at ritual yesterday. Part of the reason was that Fiona really wasn't quite back to herself and needed some quiet time; the other reason was that I was at home, being in love with my house.
Saturday afternoon, I decided not to nap after all (gasp!) and went to Home Depot instead -- where I purchased a heat gun and a wallpaper steamer. After some thought over the last few days, we'd realized that winter would be a great time to begin stripping down the interior of the house. That means we'll be ready to paint and refinish and such as soon as spring rolls around and we can get the foundation fixed. Steaming off wallpaper and melting linoleum off hardwood floors is tough work, but it's cheap (less than $100 up front for equipment and trash bags) and can be done a bit at a time.
Living with temporary ugliness is a small price to pay for finally getting started. This is what I would have wanted to do a year or so ago, but we were busy growing a baby and trying not to go bankrupt...
So now I can protest that my house is a mess not because I'm a lackadaisical housekeeper, but because we have home improvement projects going on, dammit. The crazy project list goes something like this (items appear in no particular order):
Items appear in no particular order:
1. Organize linen closet and crap hallway again (figure out another sewing location?)
2. Basement cleaning — will involve a lot of bleach and organizing; purchase of some Rubbermaid storage boxes (for water-tightness); re-shelving a few areas; maybe installation of some lighting?
3. Removal of wallpaper all over the fecking place — need to price and purchase a good steamer. Yeah, I know it’ll make things ugly for a while until we can resurface/repaint, but this is something we can do a bit at a time pretty cheaply.
4. Removal of linoleum flooring in hallway and entryway — need to price and purchase a good heat gun
5. Redo upstairs bathroom - lay down a new floor (can probably go on top of vinyl already there bc it's in good condition and pretty level); repaint walls (tile can stay); put up new shade and curtain
6. Remove tile in downstairs bathroom. Again, temporary ugliness is an acceptable price for feeling progress, IMHO.
7. Pull up living room carpet and put down an area rug instead. This is more practical now that Kira is walking so much more than crawling.
8. Strip and refinish some bits of furniture - Andrew’s old coffeetable; some of the dining room chairs (not the newer ones, not the red ones)
9. Begin replacing shades and making curtains for rooms. It’s about time.
10 Reclaim the damn porch for human use again.
After foundation work (which I honestly hope will incorporate pouring a new floor for the basement so it’ll be readier to finish):
1. Painting downstairs
2. Stripping and repainting kitchen cupboards? Replacing cupboards?
3. Resurface entryway (better as tile or something, I think)
Expensive things; things requiring outside help
1. Refinish downstairs wood floors; pull up kitchen floor and refinish??
2. Redo upstairs bedrooms - gut walls and add insulation; put up drywall and install new windows; repaint; new carpet
3. Expand downstairs office - knock down walls into closets and crap hallway; incorporate into a single room with crafting/sewing area? (or perhaps break up into two rooms?)
4. Finish basement - What do we want to do down there? Workbench, brewing area, play area, etc.? - perhaps relocate some walls and install some built-in cupboards/storage instead of haphazard shelving all over the place (do we really need to keep the piano?); replace windows; improve lighting; insulate walls, add drywall; pad the floor and add carpet (carpet tiles?)
Saturday afternoon, I decided not to nap after all (gasp!) and went to Home Depot instead -- where I purchased a heat gun and a wallpaper steamer. After some thought over the last few days, we'd realized that winter would be a great time to begin stripping down the interior of the house. That means we'll be ready to paint and refinish and such as soon as spring rolls around and we can get the foundation fixed. Steaming off wallpaper and melting linoleum off hardwood floors is tough work, but it's cheap (less than $100 up front for equipment and trash bags) and can be done a bit at a time.
Living with temporary ugliness is a small price to pay for finally getting started. This is what I would have wanted to do a year or so ago, but we were busy growing a baby and trying not to go bankrupt...
So now I can protest that my house is a mess not because I'm a lackadaisical housekeeper, but because we have home improvement projects going on, dammit. The crazy project list goes something like this (items appear in no particular order):
Items appear in no particular order:
1. Organize linen closet and crap hallway again (figure out another sewing location?)
2. Basement cleaning — will involve a lot of bleach and organizing; purchase of some Rubbermaid storage boxes (for water-tightness); re-shelving a few areas; maybe installation of some lighting?
3. Removal of wallpaper all over the fecking place — need to price and purchase a good steamer. Yeah, I know it’ll make things ugly for a while until we can resurface/repaint, but this is something we can do a bit at a time pretty cheaply.
4. Removal of linoleum flooring in hallway and entryway — need to price and purchase a good heat gun
5. Redo upstairs bathroom - lay down a new floor (can probably go on top of vinyl already there bc it's in good condition and pretty level); repaint walls (tile can stay); put up new shade and curtain
6. Remove tile in downstairs bathroom. Again, temporary ugliness is an acceptable price for feeling progress, IMHO.
7. Pull up living room carpet and put down an area rug instead. This is more practical now that Kira is walking so much more than crawling.
8. Strip and refinish some bits of furniture - Andrew’s old coffeetable; some of the dining room chairs (not the newer ones, not the red ones)
9. Begin replacing shades and making curtains for rooms. It’s about time.
10 Reclaim the damn porch for human use again.
After foundation work (which I honestly hope will incorporate pouring a new floor for the basement so it’ll be readier to finish):
1. Painting downstairs
2. Stripping and repainting kitchen cupboards? Replacing cupboards?
3. Resurface entryway (better as tile or something, I think)
Expensive things; things requiring outside help
1. Refinish downstairs wood floors; pull up kitchen floor and refinish??
2. Redo upstairs bedrooms - gut walls and add insulation; put up drywall and install new windows; repaint; new carpet
3. Expand downstairs office - knock down walls into closets and crap hallway; incorporate into a single room with crafting/sewing area? (or perhaps break up into two rooms?)
4. Finish basement - What do we want to do down there? Workbench, brewing area, play area, etc.? - perhaps relocate some walls and install some built-in cupboards/storage instead of haphazard shelving all over the place (do we really need to keep the piano?); replace windows; improve lighting; insulate walls, add drywall; pad the floor and add carpet (carpet tiles?)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:12 am (UTC)Anything that involves knocking down walls, I'm all for. And I learned the basics of drywalling on the last Habitat house, too!
Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:16 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:22 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:32 am (UTC)And when there's only one wallpaper steamer and one heat gun, work gets done in rotations, not en masse. Having a group of people over to help would likely mean taking turns working, preparing food, entertaining kids and rubbing sore muscles. Real destruction and construction will come later.
That said, I'm sure there are lots of people who would be happy to help
Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:59 am (UTC)1) destroy something. Either by hitting it with the souped up lawn tractor or simply by picking at it with vigour.
2) get the Home Depot book on the subject and spend a few good sessions in the reading room (a.k.a. restroom) and learn all you need to know.
3) destroy/pick at the remnants to see how it was originally put together
4) make a list and go to Home Depot to get supplies.
5) curse at the Bannister Home Depot for never being open when I need suppies, then to to Lowe's and find better stuff, cheaper. Pick up a 'spare' tool or two for a project that you hadn't planned on, but want to do now that you saw the display by the registers.
6) Set the tools and supplies right inside the front door, and become distracted by some pressing engagement (damn Neoquest!)
7) when someone trips over tools and starts yelling, quickly apply all you have read about an make the repair.
Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 10:08 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:26 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:28 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:39 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:44 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:47 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 09:52 am (UTC)Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 10:11 am (UTC)Seriously, holler if you want a hand. If the choice is to make a mess of y'all's place or clean my own up... well, entropy is easier than encosmy.
Help Please
Date: 2004-01-05 09:55 am (UTC)Re: Help Please
Date: 2004-01-05 10:05 am (UTC)Re: Help Please
Date: 2004-01-05 10:07 am (UTC)Err, I meant wonderbar. Whichever gets you up quicker.
Re: Help Please
Date: 2004-01-05 10:34 am (UTC)Re: Help Please
Date: 2004-01-05 10:43 am (UTC)wonderbar, n. A hand tool resembling a crowbar, but made from a flat bar instead of a hexagonal bar. It generally has a hooked end, a flat end, and a cut-out for pulling nails on the central bar. Also called a prybar. The wonderbar is often nicknamed a "wonderbra" in theatre departments because both are used to 'lift and separate' things.
Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 11:09 am (UTC)I sit corrected: you are MUCH more dangerous in the shop than I am. I only tape down the trigger on tools that are not designed to send projectiles at high velocity.
Err, well done. (?!?)
Re: Woo!
Date: 2004-01-05 11:23 am (UTC)I actually feel much safer using contractor-style shooting with larger nails, because it's less likely to doublefire. If you've ever tried to shoot a nail directly onto another nail, you know the kickback isn't a pleasant thing. And I never do the idiot trick of holding back the safety with one hand and firing into the air. I've seen the results of that once, and that was more than enough.