December 2-4, 2022
It was a short weekend at the Green House but I still got a lot done.
We packed up after work Friday and made the hour and a half drive into Ottumwa, arriving right around 7:00. Knowing it was going to be a short weekend stay, we didn’t pack nearly as much as we did on our previous visit so when we got to Craig and Sue’s, I only had a few bags to carry in.
Brandy hadn’t been feeling good all week so by the time we got there, she was ready for bed. I followed shortly after and got as good a night’s sleep as I could in preparation for the work ahead of me.
Saturday, December 3
I woke up nice and late, 3:30 am, took a quick shower and got ready to go. Sue got up shortly after I did and said she wanted to come with me. Which was fine, I needed to pick up a floor sander and knew I’d need help loading it into the car.
She got ready to go and we left the house just before 6:00 while Craig and Brandy slept.
We made a quick stop at McDonald’s for some breakfast, then to Hy-Vee as I had used the last of my contact lens solution the night before, and to stock up on Mio, then to Menard’s to rent the floor sander.
At the tool rental counter, I was escorted to the floor sanders where I selected a random orbital sander, $30 for four hours, $2 per hour after. I purchased three packs of sanding discs in three different grits, 36, 50 and 80, and was given until 5:00 to return the machine for an extra $14.
I grabbed the handle of the sander to start wheeling it out only to discover that it weighs an absolute TON. Well, a ton might be a bit of an overexaggeration, probably more like 150 pounds, but either way, it was WAY too heavy to get it into the car myself, and Sue, as helpful as she wanted to be, had a devil of a time helping me hoist it into the back of the car. We did get it done though.
We then made the couple minute drive to the house where we were now tasked with unloading this bear of a machine. We got it down, gravity helped a lot, but then had to carry it up three steps onto the front porch and into the house. It took some doing but we got it done.
I wheeled the machine into the spare bedroom while Sue swept and pulled the last few staples from the hardwood floors. I then stuffed a couple of rags into the vents in the rooms, Velcroed the sanding disks to the sander, plugged it in and off we went.
Considering the aggressive 36 grit sandpaper I was using, I was surprised at how slow the process was getting the finish off of the floors. It took several passes and numerous sanding disk changes to get it to where I felt comfortable calling it “done” but there are still a ton of low spots, especially in that second bedroom, that the floor sander didn’t get. Additionally, the sander didn’t reach the edges, so I’ll still be tasked with hitting those spots with a small palm sander. That should go pretty quickly though (still haven’t found the “sarcasm” font on WordPress…)
Once I got done with the second bedroom, I moved into the master bedroom where I quickly discovered a series of large nail heads clearly visible in the floors. Whoever lived in the house before us tried to kill some squeaky floors before laying down carpet and instead of using finishing nails, with tiny heads that’d be easy to cover up, they used big ol’ like roofing nails with 1/4″ diameter heads. Sanding the floors just buffed them to a shine so they REALLY stand out now… I’m not sure what we’re going to do about that. We could sink them then fill the holes, but there are a LOT of nails, and the heads are so big, I’m not sure how noticeable they’d be. I have some time to figure it out before we actually finish the floors.
I cleaned out the filter bag, wiped the machine down real good and asked Sue and Craig to help me load the sander back into the car so I coule return it. It was about 1:00 when I pulled up so I got an $8 refund for the time I paid for but didn’t use. When I pulled up, I went in and asked if there were a couple of guys that could come help me get it down. When they showed up, they took the machine apart and pulled it out in pieces! I was so mad for not thinking of that; I knew it was two separate pieces- the head and the handle- but it never dawned on me that hoisting it into the car in pieces would be SO much easier!
Ah well, live and learn, I suppose.
While I was at Menard’s I met up with Brandy, who was already there, and finished out her shopping trip with her, including the special ordering of a mirror to replace the medicine cabinet in the bathroom (we could not find a 36″ wide on-wall medicine cabinet that matched the vanity so we settle on replacing it with a mirror), a light fixture to replace the hideous, outdated light fixture that was in there, a couple more paint samples and some miscellaneous other items. I checked out while Brandy went back to the house then I followed her back myself.
Once I got back, I moved my attention to the underlayment. I nailed down the last piece that Craig had cut for us the week before, then started cutting the last three pieces that would need to go down. I miscut one of them and had to patch in with a smaller piece, and there are small gaps everywhere, but the whole thing will be covered by vinyl flooring so I’m not terribly concerned about it.
The last of the cutting I did that day was the small transitional pieces into the bedrooms, the bathroom and the hall closet but I left the nailing of those for the following day, and there was one last piece that needed to be cut before the whole floor would be covered.
At that point, I was pretty wiped out so I called it a day and we went back to Craig and Sue’s where we were treated to a beef stew that had been simmering in a slow cooker all day. I ate, took a handful of ibuprofen and melatonin and headed to bed.
Sunday, December 4
I slept surprisingly soundly, waking up for the day at 5:30. I got up, took a shower and headed to the house to start work.
I began with pulling down the medicine cabinet, which was secured with screws in the four corners- a nice and easy removal.
Under the medicine cabinet was a wallpaper that wasn’t present on the remainder of the walls. It’s clear that the medicine cabinet was wallpapered around the last time the bathroom was wallpapered. I say the last time because there is at LEAST one more layer a different wallpaper under that. I’ll guess that by the time all the wallpaper is taken down, we’ll gain a couple of usable square feet in that room. I jest, of course, but it is a lot of wallpaper.
When the medicine cabinet was down, I went to the basement to turn off the breaker for the bathroom lights then took down the old light fixture. The electrical components were not in an electrical box. The wires were just tucked behind the drywall. That made me nervous, but I pressed forward. Correction will be forthcoming, read on.
The old fixture was a small, three light fixture that maybe spanned 18 inches or so. I hooked up the new fixture, which is a much wider five light fixture, and it barely fit with a fraction of an inch between the end of the bar and the wall on the right.
I buttoned everything up and started putting the globes on the lights only to find out that the globe on the right extends beyond the end of the bar, so it would not fit into the light socket correctly. That meant I’d have to take the whole fixture back down and move it over just about half an inch. I experienced quite a bit of trouble in doing this, but I finally got the fixture up and powered. Satisfied, I cleaned up the trash I’d created as well as all the drywall dust and debris and replaced all of the hardware on the vanity before moving on.
Fast-forward to Brandy’s review of the light fixture later in the day, she’s decided it’s too low.
UGH!
So, she doesn’t know this yet, but when it comes time to re-address this, I’m going to get an electrical box and some drywall and cut away the drywall that’s in that spot and completely re-do the whole situation and do it properly.
So now, going back, I finished cutting that one last piece of underlayment that needed to be cut and was just getting ready to get down on my hands and knees to start nailing it down when Brandy messaged me telling me she needed her credit card for the purchase of the carpet we’re putting down in the living room. I headed over to Menards (I swear, we should just break down and get a credit card to at least earn rewards back…)
She had a small handful of other things for the house, including a second porch light for the back patio, we checked out and, in the parking lot, decided we would all break for lunch. We wanted to go to Coffe Pho 77 for pho with Sue and Hilary, but when we got there, we saw the sign on the door saying “We [sic] closed”.
A quick pivot later and we were at Jade Palace, just around the corner from the pho place. I was in sawdust covered sweats and was wearing my kneepads, and was in no condition to go to a sit-down restaurant, but, taking a note from my grandpa, if you don’t like it, don’t look.
I had some General Tso chicken with a side of fried rice, an egg roll and egg drop soup, and the table split an order of steamed dumplings and crab rangoons.
After lunch, I headed back to the house to finish nailing down the last pieces of underlayment then went back to Craig and Sue’s to pack up. We were back on the road at 2:30 and were back home at 4:00.
Weekly Wrap-up
In about a day and a half of work at the house, I:
- Laid down the rest of the underlayment
- Sanded the hardwood floors in the bedrooms
- Replaced the light fixture in the bathroom
- Removed the medicine cabinet in the bathroom
- Replaced the hardware in the bathroom
- Replaced all of the hardware in the kitchen
- Made countless trips to Menards
- and spent a TON of money
The list this week seems shorter than last week but considering it was only a day and a half of work, I still feel very accomplished.
Of course, as usual, pictures from last weekend are available on the Photo Diary.
What’s Next
This coming weekend, I will do the edge sanding in the bedrooms, empty the trash out of the garage into a trailer that will dropped for us Friday, and prime the couple of walls that have a very dark mustard yellow paint. If time allows, I will also begin painting, focusing on the bedrooms so I can get the floors finished with a few coats of polyurethane. Once the floors are done, we will make arrangements to get the spare bedroom furniture moved over there so we can start sleeping in the house rather than at Craig and Sue’s. We are hoping to spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day at the house and work after work, much like we did for the week leading up to Thanksgiving. The only problem I foresee is working from home with no internet at the new house. Brandy wants to work using our phones as hotspots but the data speeds may not be sufficient, nor do I know if the phone hotspot technology will support printing over WiFi. We may be able to hardwire her printer to her laptop, but that means it’ll have to be close.
Of course, these are all bridges that will be crossed when we get to them but at least need to be investigated in the meantime.
Otherwise, I can start internet service at the new house but that will be an additional $100 per month bill that we certainly don’t need.
What’s Left
Aside from the tasks planned for this coming weekend, here is a list of tasks still remaining on the Green House Project To-Do List:
- Prep for painting
- Filling holes
- Priming three walls
- Painting
- Two bedrooms
- Bathroom
- Hallway
- Dining Room
- Brandy’s Office
- Kitchen
- Install new showerhead
- Take down shower doors
- Finish hardwood floors
- Install flooring
- Hallway
- Bathroom
- Dining Room
- Brandy’s Office
- Kitchen
- Replace five ceiling fans
- Two bedrooms
- Bathroom
- Kitchen
- Living Room
- Replace hallway light fixture
- Replace front and back porch lights
- Replace house numbers
- Replace front doorknob
- Replace front door?
- Replace mailbox
- Adjust entry door to garage
- Carpeting Living Room and stairs to basement (hiring out)
- Replacing all light switches, outlets and plates
- Hang new blinds
I do acknowledge that this is a far from comprehensive list. I know more and more will be added to it as new problems arise, but this is a good starting point, as well as a general overview of things left to do.
I’m getting very excited to start seeing finished results and being able to say, “I did that.”
Until next week,
-Phil