House Deconstruction Update

[saffronhare]

I'm cautiously optimistic that last week's offering to Sekhmet was well-received. We burned a candle and left out a cup of cherry-flavor Nyquil for her enjoyment. There's been no bloodshed since (knock on wood). Progress lately -- many thanks to the enthusiastic and destructive assistance of zylch -- includes:

1. The stairwell is entirely scraped; the back hallways are almost entirely scraped, so the later part of this week will likely see a return to steaming. After that, the living room. Ugh. Those walls are huge.

2. Linoleum has been removed from the hallway connecting the master bedroom to the dining room. We'll probably clear out the crap craft hallway to scrape/steam and get to that later this week, too. The black felt stuff still glued to the floor is a pain in the butt, however. And it's also nasty to keep stepping on...so I'm motivated to get it cleaned up. We've landed on a method that seems to work, but it's awfully slow. Need to do some research on alternate methods (I just have to keep reminding myself that it's worth the extra elbow grease to avoid damaging the wood and stay relatively chemical-free).

3. Last night, agrnmn started taking tiles off the bathroom walls and countertop. Yucky undersurface. Again, need to do some research about treating the walls...we'll probably end up retiling, but in a less objectionable color scheme. Saving the old tiles for possible donation to ReStore.

Tonight, I really ought to concentrate on ordinary kitchen-cleaning instead of remodeling work. But that felt on the hallway floor is equally gross. ::sigh:: Decisions, decisions. :)

Comments

You lot are much more industrious than we are.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

We did, however, manage to get all of the white wire shelving up last night, so that the craft room can start to be reconstructed from the ashes dining room.

I'm amazed kittenpants could sleep through the power tools and hammers at 11 o' the clock, but I don't know why...

Re: You lot are much more industrious than we are.

[zylch.livejournal.com]

But right now the walls are so... so... visible. Are you sure you want to hide them again?

Re: You lot are much more industrious than we are.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Wow. That involves measuring and everything. At least we have entropy on our side (for now, anyway). I can't wait to see the new stuff!

[zylch.livejournal.com]

You have minions children, right? And I know the eldest is both tall enough to see over the kitchen counter and intelligent enough to not eat the black crap. It's all about the delegation.

Speaking of black crap, the two words I found that might work are sikkhantos or melaisikkhos. They both roll off the tongue pretty well when one is pissed off.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Ooh. I like melaisikkhos. There's a very nice transition from a sour grimace -- with a bit of a growl -- to the "mmm" sound. What does it mean?

[zylch.livejournal.com]

melas, aina, an = black
sikkhos, ho = abomination

Though I did make one error in calculating collision. It should be melasikkhos, pronounced "meh LAH sik khos," not melaisikkhos

Black Abomination Update

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Online research has given me good news and bad news at the same time. The good news is that soaking the area with hot-hot water and then gently prying the melasikkhos up with a putty knife (heat gun optional) seems to be the best way to go about removing it. The bad news is this is how I was going about it before...meaning there isn't an easier, better way. ::sigh::

+ no extra equipment required
+ hardwood floor protected
+ no chemicals
- really hard work
- very slow process
- sort of stinky and blechy