Home Improvement Glamour
Jan. 13th, 2004 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saffronhareSome progress has been made since last week's completion of wallpaper removal in the dining room and downstairs bathroom. I'm seriously considering the purchase of a few more 2" putty knives so that I can put others to work more effectively. Do putty knives lose their edge? How does one regain the edge?
In other news, my upper-body muscles are getting a good workout (sort of in the "wax on, wax off" tradition). If I keep this up, I'll have great definition again in a few weeks. Either that, or my arms will fall off. Anybody up to providing some aggressive massage?
1. The entryway is mostly scraped and the stairs are about halfway scraped. They both had a layer of paint and two layers of wallpaper; we had to scrape off the top layers so the wallpaper steamer would be able to penetrate to the bottom layer without the pain-in-the-ass factor being too high. I mean, scraping is tedious, but not so bad as trying to steam through three layers. Note: the top layer of wallpaper was sort of a pinky-beige polka-dot pattern and the bottom layer seems to be an equestrian scene.
2. I've started boxing the dining room cabinets so I can start a bit of paint removal on the wood trim in that room. With the heat gun, we'll see what the underlying wood looks like. If it's nice, we'll remove the paint and stain the wood instead of painting; if it's really ugly, we'll just sand the rest and repaint it.
3. In an hour of insanity, I started scraping paint/wallpaper in the back hallway (near the bedroom/office/bathroom). This, too, has a layer of paint and two layers of wallpaper. The bottom layer is a pattern of pine branches and pinecones (much like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittenpants's Winter Bazaar poster). I need to stop that and finish the front hallway/stairs before I divide my energy too much. Besides, agrnmn will need to be in the hallway for linoleum removal.
4. As simple as removing the bathroom wallpaper was, we probably need to hold back on removing the tile (at least on the countertop) until we have some sort of temporary countertop replacement. The underbelly of that stuff is pretty yucky, in my professional home-improvement opinion.
5. Removing the wallpaper in the upstairs bathroom is a different kind of task. There's only one layer, so that's good. But it's new and was actually applied well, so it's not coming off as easily. Plus, it's on drywall (well, the drywall that's water-resistant for bathrooms and such). Oddly enough, that is the room for which we could manage the quickest and most dramatic transformation. We'll have to see how my patience holds out.
I guess that's enough for now. More headline-grabbing news at eleven...
In other news, my upper-body muscles are getting a good workout (sort of in the "wax on, wax off" tradition). If I keep this up, I'll have great definition again in a few weeks. Either that, or my arms will fall off. Anybody up to providing some aggressive massage?
1. The entryway is mostly scraped and the stairs are about halfway scraped. They both had a layer of paint and two layers of wallpaper; we had to scrape off the top layers so the wallpaper steamer would be able to penetrate to the bottom layer without the pain-in-the-ass factor being too high. I mean, scraping is tedious, but not so bad as trying to steam through three layers. Note: the top layer of wallpaper was sort of a pinky-beige polka-dot pattern and the bottom layer seems to be an equestrian scene.
2. I've started boxing the dining room cabinets so I can start a bit of paint removal on the wood trim in that room. With the heat gun, we'll see what the underlying wood looks like. If it's nice, we'll remove the paint and stain the wood instead of painting; if it's really ugly, we'll just sand the rest and repaint it.
3. In an hour of insanity, I started scraping paint/wallpaper in the back hallway (near the bedroom/office/bathroom). This, too, has a layer of paint and two layers of wallpaper. The bottom layer is a pattern of pine branches and pinecones (much like
kittenpants's Winter Bazaar poster). I need to stop that and finish the front hallway/stairs before I divide my energy too much. Besides, agrnmn will need to be in the hallway for linoleum removal.4. As simple as removing the bathroom wallpaper was, we probably need to hold back on removing the tile (at least on the countertop) until we have some sort of temporary countertop replacement. The underbelly of that stuff is pretty yucky, in my professional home-improvement opinion.
5. Removing the wallpaper in the upstairs bathroom is a different kind of task. There's only one layer, so that's good. But it's new and was actually applied well, so it's not coming off as easily. Plus, it's on drywall (well, the drywall that's water-resistant for bathrooms and such). Oddly enough, that is the room for which we could manage the quickest and most dramatic transformation. We'll have to see how my patience holds out.
I guess that's enough for now. More headline-grabbing news at eleven...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 09:24 am (UTC)Yes, like any edged tool they will eventually lose the edge. How long they last before then depends on what you use them for, but you can usually hack-and-bash away for quite a while, even with a dull blade. The only way to restore the edge is to grind a new one; I've always done this on a bench mounted grinder, but you could probably get away with using a dremel grinding tool if you have a steady hand (not sure I could do it). Alternately, you could use a honing stone -- takes a good bit longer, but you have more control.
Yep
Date: 2004-01-13 09:27 am (UTC)Re: Yep
Date: 2004-01-13 09:33 am (UTC)Re: Yep
Date: 2004-01-13 09:43 am (UTC)A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 09:54 am (UTC)Re: A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 10:46 am (UTC)At what velocity must an M&M be traveling to shoot out one's nose?
Re: A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 11:05 am (UTC)Re: A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 11:55 am (UTC)Re: A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 02:22 pm (UTC)(I say this like a woman who didn't voluntarily make even more stew last night...)
Re: A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 03:09 pm (UTC)Re: A further comment...
Date: 2004-01-13 03:12 pm (UTC)