December 9-11, 2022
You’d think that after two weeks of working on the house, my body would be accustomed to the labor and would be strengthening.
You’d think…
We started our weekend off a little differently. We made the drive out to Ottumwa as we normally do, but instead of just crashing at Craig and Sue’s, we dropped Ash off with them and Brandy and I went to the movies.
In the nearly three years that we’ve been together, this is the third time we’ve been to the movies together. Now granted, the first year of our relationship was in lockdown thanks to COVID, and we did spend about three months apart in 2021, but…
Now, I’ve been to the movies many more times than that since we’ve been together, but most of those times I was alone.
Anyway, we went to the Ottumwa 8 Theatre to see Violent Night, a joyous Christmas tale starring David Harbour and John Leguizamo. I’d heard some comparisons to Die Hard and I could see why.
Overall, I really liked the movie. From what I’ve heard, the theater had just gone through a bit of renovation and now has reclining seats, but they were still a little narrow for me and Brandy, but that’s OK.
After the movie, we headed back to Craig and Sue’s and quickly called it a night.
During the week leading up to this weekend, Sue pulled most of the wallpaper from the bathroom.
Saturday, December 10
As I’d forgotten to take my melatonin Friday night, I woke up at 2:30 Saturday morning. Per standard practice, I lingered about for a while as I didn’t want to head to the house too early and start making a bunch of ruckus before the sun was out. I let Ash out and fed him, then, as dawn broke, at about 5:30, I headed to McDonald’s for a bite to eat, then headed to the house to get to work.
As I pulled into the driveway, I was greeted with a dump trailer that had been left Friday afternoon. It was backed right up to the garage and was waiting for me to fill it with the rubble from the demo we’d done up until that point. I’ll get back to this in a bit.
I was planning on starting on the sanding of the floor in the spare bedroom. I’d bought three packages of 5 inch, 8 hole, 80 grit sanding discs for Craig’s palm sander that was at the house, but I’d inadvertently selected stick-on discs instead of hook and loop. I took the three packages back to Menard’s for and exchange then went back to the house.
At about 6:30, I applied the disc to the sander, strapped on my knee pads and got to work. I sanded and sanded and sanded some more, stopping every so often to change the sanding disc. I made my way around the edges of the room, sanding up all the finish that the floor sander couldn’t reach during week 2. When I got back to where I started, I got up and was covered head to toe in dust. So was the entire room. I grabbed a broom and swept all the dust out then saw all the low spots in the middle of the room that the floor sander didn’t get. I got back down on all fours and got to work on those spots.
It was a long and arduous task, taking 2 and a half hours to get the one room done. Finishing at about 9:00 or so, I took stock and appreciated the amazing looking floor that will get a coat of polyurethane next week.
I don’t think this picture does justice to the amount of work I did on Saturday, but seeing it in person, you can really see a difference.
I decided to give my achy legs a break and started emptying the trash from the garage. I spent about an hour pitching old underlayment, carpet, padding, the old medicine cabinet and whatever other garbage was clogging our garage.
Once I was done there, I moved my attention to the master bedroom. The entire edge of the master bedroom has the residue from carpet tape that was used to hold the carpet that we tore out in week 1. I figured the sander would make quick work of it, but all the sander did was heat the glue and spread it. I was able to get some of it up, but it was extremely difficult and I saw it was going to take a long time. I decided to forgo the task for the week and see if there was some way to get that glue up before trying to sand the finish.
Just when I made that decision, Brandy showed up. We huddled to go over the game plan for the day before I got back to work on the soggy underlayment in the living room. I laid a piece of new underlayment over the soggy spot and traced around it to mark where we were going to have to cut it. Just as I did that, Craig showed up with the Skil saw. He set the depth on the saw and I went to work cutting along the lines I’d drawn on the old floor. I finished the spots closest to the wall with a multi-tool then he and I went to town pulling the soaked wood. It did not want to come up as easily as the underlayment in the dining room and Brandy’s office. It chipped and splintered ferociously leaving what seemed like hundreds of nails in the deck upon which the room was built. It took way too long for us to pull the first half of the spot, then we went to work pulling all the nails that were left behind. When the last nail was pulled, we turned our attention to the last piece. We got about 2/3 of the way through that last piece when I ran out of gas. I’d been on my hands and knees all day and my legs were killing me, my hands were killing me, and my shoulders were killing me. I had to call it quits. I told Craig and Sue I had to quit with that project for the day. They weren’t having it though, so they plugged away at it. They finished up while I went to work priming the dark mustard yellow walls in the dining room and kitchen.
I filled a handful of holes left behind from the previous owner and sanded down so many high spots, paint drips and painted over hole filler. I then pulled the baseboards from the affected areas, taped off the fireplace and went to work. With a gallon of Zinsser B-I-N left over from sealing the subfloors, I cut in the corners all around the dining room then the ceiling in the kitchen. I then filled a paint tray with the primer and started rolling out the big sections.
The primer is pretty thin and it not meant for perfect coverage, obviously. The end result looked like garbage- splotchy, streaky and ugly. I asked Craig if that was normal and he said it was, so I kept going. As I was just about to start the last wall, Craig and Sue finished pulling up the last of the underlayment in the living room. They headed out, telling me it was only 3:40. I felt like it should have been pushing 6:00 with as long as I’d been there, or been awake for that matter. I was absolutely exhausted but I powered through that last wall. I cleaned up the best I could and headed home, stopping for rum and vodka for Brandy and I to have some drinks after a long, hard day of work.
I got back to Craig and Sue’s just as Brandy was finishing up a dinner of meatloaf, julienned potatoes and corn. I ate way too much of it, had a couple of drinks and was asleep before 7:30.
Sunday, December 11
I got nearly 8 hours of sleep Saturday night, but since I went to sleep so early, it still got me up at 3:30. Getting out of bed was a challenge, I was so sore. I hobbled down the stairs and took a steaming hot shower, got dressed and fell asleep in the recliner in the living room at Craig and Sue’s. I slept for another couple of hours waking back up at about 6:30 as Sue came down. Just as she came down, I headed back to the house.
My plan was to scrape off the glue in the master bedroom with a couple of scrapers Craig had lent me, and nail down the underlayment in the spot that Craig and Sue had finished off Saturday afternoon, but I wasn’t in any condition to be on my hands and knees. I decided to do some upright work Sunday.
I started by replacing the bathroom light that’d I’d put up just a week prior. The fixture Brandy had picked out was a five-light fixture that was simply too big for the little bathroom. She bought a smaller three-light fixture that went up pretty easily; it fit on the same mounting bracket from the five-light fixture so it was just a matter of wiring up the new lights and mounting them.
I then started working on the front porch. Brandy had bought matching front and back porch lights and a new mailbox to replace the banged up box that was hanging right next to our front door. I unscrewed the old mailbox and screwed the new one in. It went up pretty easily.
I then turned to the light fixture. After killing the power to the light, I took the old one down. The new one went up just as easily, then I stood back and looked at the work I’d done and… didn’t like it.
I feel like that porch light is a little underwhelming. Sue and Brandy agreed so that fixture will be coming down when she picks out a new one.
I then moved to the back porch. I replaced the light there with an identical one and was much more pleased with the light in that location. That one’s staying there.
While I was working on that, Sue came and started sweeping out the garage. There was about half a trash bag’s work of dirt, dust and debris that she swept up. I helped her with the last of that, then was going to install the new front lockset, but noticed there was no mortise in the door for the rectangular faceplate for the knob latch. I don’t have a chisel to make that mortise, so I will have to hold off on that until a) I procure a chisel, or b) Craig makes the mortise for us.
Either way, it’s a task for another day.
There wasn’t really a whole lot more I could do at that point so at 10:30, I headed back to Craig and Sue’s, we loaded the car up and we were back on the road home to Coralville a little after 11:00.
Weekly Wrap-up
In the day-plus at the Green House, I:
- Finished sanding the spare bedroom floor
- Cut and pulled the soggy underlayment in the living room
- Primed the dining room and kitchen walls
- Replaced the light fixture in the bathroom (again)
- Replaced the front and back porch lights
- Replaced the mailbox
- Cleaned out the trash from the garage
Pictures, as usual, are up on the Photo Diary for your enjoyment.
What’s Next
This week, Craig and Sue will be painting the spare bedroom, getting it ready for us to move into in a couple of weeks. We are planning on spending the week between Christmas and New Year at the house so we can work on it after work, much like we did the week of Thanksgiving.
This coming weekend, though, I will be finishing the sanding in the master bedroom floor, then will put several coats of fast-drying polyurethane on the floors.
I will also be finishing up the underlayment in the living room so that room will be ready for carpet before long.
I’ll likely spend the rest of the weekend patching holes throughout the house, sanding walls and taping off trim in preparation for paint throughout the rest of the house.
To-Do List
Here is the remaining to-do list, updated from last week:
- 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
By the end of the weekend, the house looks like things are finally starting to come together. The excitement is growing, and I’m looking forward to our first nights in the house come Christmas.
Stay tuned for more, this is going to be going on for a couple of months…
Thanks, as always, to anyone that stops by to read these stupid blog posts. I appreciate you.
-Phil