Don't forget me!!!

After work today, I headed back over to the house to put the second coat of butterscotch paint on the walls in the foyer.  Because it's Robyn's night to work late, I ran by the house to pick up Copper and take him for his afternoon constitution.  As soon as he was done, we loaded up and headed to the house.

...and of course, when I was halfway there, I realized we were out of paint rollers.  This necessitated a side trip to Home Depot to pick up a package of rollers, along with garbage bags and 2 gallons of Killz primer.  Since it was finally starting to get warm (70's), I didn't want to leave Copper in the my black truck so I loaded him up in the cart and brought him with me inside.

He always enjoys riding in the cart in the hardware store and just about always gets a lot of attention.

Once at the house, I made quick work of getting that second coat of paint on the foyer wall.  But first, I wanted to leave a remembrance underneath...

I'm really pleased with the rich colors Robyn chose for the house.  Except for the kitchen, the downstairs is now ready for the new flooring.

I watered the new plants that Tino and Mary planted and was back home in time for a late supper.

Friends... the force multiplier

Another busy weekend at our old house.  Saturday, Tino and Mary joined us, helping to paint among other things.  It was a good thing too because Friday morning as I was getting ready for work, I tweaked my back.  But hey, that's why I buy ibuprofen in bottles of 500 (and the muscle relaxers weren't too shabby either.)

Saturday morning, Robyn and I went to our storage locker and picked up our propane powered lawn mower and my table saw and then stopped at... Home Depot... on our way to the house.  Dreary day.. mid-50's with drizzling rain so we weren't able to cut the grass nor was I able to set the table saw up for use outside.

But we still were able to get stuff done.  While Robyn pulled up masking tape in the closets and did touch-up in the master bedroom, I sanded the soffits.  Boy... does it generate a lot of dust...

This air return just seems to have the worst luck.  If mud was going to fall off my knife, it was just about a guarantee it would happen over this return... and about half the dust seemed to go down it as well.

Tino and Mary's timing was just about impeccable.  Just I was finishing sanding this and Robyn was finishing masking the entrance foyer, they showed up.  Their hands were quickly filled with brushes and rollers and all of us were slapping some primer on the ceilings and walls.

Once we were finished priming, Tino started on that 800 pound gorilla that was on my back, otherwise known as the cast iron tub.  With my tweaked back, about all I was good for was throwing my weight around... on the end of an 8 foot long 2x4.  While I was levering the tub up, Tino was putting blocks under it.  Once we had an edge we good get our fingers under (about an hour later), Tino and I were able to stand the tub on end.  I was standing on top of the toilet with a leg braced against the wall (I didn't even work about the toilet seat lid cracking because I knew I was putting in a new toilet later) while Tino had the awkward position down on the floor.

We strapped that sucker to my appliance handtruck and wheeled in down the narrow stairs with the nice 90 degree turn that had about 1/4 inch of clearance.  I WISH it were as easy as it sounds.  Tino, because he must work out, was guiding the bottom while I held onto the handles up at the top.

Once we got it outside, Tino took a well deserved break.

Later, after the break was over, Tino installed the curtain rods for Robyn's dining room curtains.

A long day but we accomplished a lot.

Sunday, we didn't make our customary trip to Home Depot.  We went to Lowe's instead.  I'd ran out of sheetrock screen and I needed some more to sand the middle bedroom which I had finished mudding during the week.  As I was putting that last coat of mud on, I thought I was going to run out once again.  I didn't but I did cut it close.  This is all I had left from a 3 1/2 gallon bucket.

The reason for the trip to Lowe's rather than Home Depot was to check out their selection of bathroom vanities.  We found one that Robyn and I both liked.  We didn't buy it 'cause it wouldn't fit in Robyn's Eclipse.

Five minutes after we got to the house, Robyn's co-worker and friend, Pat, showed up to help Robyn paint.

While Robyn and Pat were painting, I unpacked and put together the lawn mower as well as started plugging some of the holes from where the radiator pipes once were run.

I made a couple of loops around the yard to try the mower out and then Robyn took over as Pat was painting the foyer.  Just as she was finishing up, Tino and Mary showed up bearing gifts.  Mary was dividing some of the plants in her garden and she brought some over to share.  Tino was kind enough to prepare the beds and plant them for us.

Once the 2nd coat of paint was dry, we were able to put the curtains up in the living room.  Mostly gold with dark red trim, they were hard to get a good picture of with the sun shining through the window.

At the end of the day, here is a picture from the front of the living room to the back of the dining room, complete with the construction mess.

As we headed to the local Holiday Stationstore to get gas for Robyn's car and a 52 ounce fountain diet Coke for me, Robyn sighed like I'd been for the past couple of days... seems like tweaked backs are contagious.

Thank you Pat, Mary and Tino for all of your help this weekend.

Tornado...

Tornado certainly describes the past couple of days in our household.  Robyn had been complaining about her leg for the past couple of months.  She strongly suspected that the artery leading to her leg was blocked; she had stents put in about 3 years ago.  Friday, she had an angiogram and the surgeon found that the stent in the right external iliac artery had closed.  He said this was basically due to tissue growth caused by inflammation; the left side was okay.  He put in a new stent inside the existing stent that rotated as it was inserted to remove the tissue.

Friday was a long day.  We had gotten to the hospital at 8:00 am expecting her to go back shortly thereafter.  She was taken back for the procedure until about 12:15 pm.  They finished up about 1:45 pm.  After laying completely still for 3 hours, Robyn was moved to a room in cardiac care where she spent the night.  She on restrictions (no driving for 3 days) and then reduced activity for 10 days.

As for the other tornado in the news, my sister, Tammy, who lives in Mississippi about 30 miles south of where the tornadoes went through, went over to Alabama near Tuscaloosa with a friend of her's to volunteer at one of the local churches.  After spending the first part of the day sorting donations, they went to a local residence where they worked to clear debris from the yard.  Tammy compared the devastation to that which was caused by Katrina.

Here are a couple of photos she took yesterday:

Saturday morning, while I was waiting on Robyn to be discharged, I went over to the house, which is only 10 minutes from the hospital where she was, to put another coat of mud of the soffits in the living room.  Robyn was discharged at 12:30 pm.  We picked up some El Loro for lunch to celebrate a late Cinco de Mayo ( the line was out of the door on May 5th) and had Robyn home by 1:30 pm.

After getting her settled in, I headed back to the house for some more work.  I actually had a very productive day.  

I worked on the small closet in the master bedroom which I needed to complete so I could put down the flooring.  Alternating with the other closet in bedroom two, I spackled, masked and primed.  I could hardly believe, in one of the closets, I could see wallpaper patterns bleeding through; I wondered if it was the original and if there had been only one coat of paint over it in the past 110 years.

As spackle was drying, I pulled the ugly cove molding off in the middle bedroom.  I couldn't understand why anyone would have put something so ugly and sloppy up... until I saw what was underneath.

Once again the original wallpaper was visible... along with a gap of anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4's of an inch.  Apparently when the house was re-wired, they put sheetrock on the ceiling.  Rather than tape off the edges, they covered the gap with cove molding.  Although the joints were pretty sloppy, they weren't anywhere as sloppy as the tape job I saw in the larger closet.

Rather than replace the cove molding after we painted the room, I decided with all my new mudding experience I would go ahead and tape and mud the junction of ceilings and walls in the room as well.

We had to do our most extensive wall repairs in this room.  The floor has settle some and the stress had caused the plaster to crack and, in some places, fall out.

Between the general grunge and scribbling on the walls, sometimes it was difficult to see where to patch.

One more layer of mud and some sanding, this room will be ready for paint.

Mudder's Day

As it gets closer to summer (hard to believe as the trees are just starting to get leaves), the days outside are getting longer and so are the days inside the house.

We bring Copper with us and he hangs out as we work. he's never been the type to lay down whenever their are people out and about.  Sunday, he was nodding off on the arm of the couch and Tuesday morning he was still having issues getting out of the bed.



At the apartment, there is an informal "adopt a piece of furniture" corner next to the recycle bins.  Robyn and I will keep an eye on stuff that appears there and if it's something we like, we'll wait a week or so to see if anyone takes it and then check it out closer.  We found an interesting octagon end table this way a couple of months ago.  I found this lamp a few days ago...

We'd also been scouring Craigslist looking for a headboard or bed to go in the 2nd bedroom.  We were at the point where I was going to make a headboard when this one showed up that we picked up a couple of weeks ago.



The basic styling fits the house and we'll sand it a bit before we do a "shabby chic" paint job on it.

Tuesday evening, I went back over to the house and finished screwing the sheetrock to the soffit boxes covering the ductwork in the living room.  I brought an electric drill this time with some 1 5/8" self-tapping sheetrock screws.  It went much easier.  I also was able to mud most of that sheetrock except for a couple of corners (I ran out of mud.)

As three coats of mud are recommended before painting, I'm headed back over there this evening to finish the first and get started on the second.

Hold me back... Hold me back...

At the apartment complex when we take Copper for a walk, he is always on a leash.  The terrier half of him strains at the leash to get to the rabbits, birds and squirrels that he encounters.  He'll run to the end of the retractable leash until it stops him short.

At the house, we can take him outside off the leash.  He minds well enough that he comes back when he calls.  However, we were wondering how he would react the first time he encountered a critter in the yard. Would he go tearing after it?

Yesterday, when Robyn took him outside at the house off the leash.  There was a gray squirrel in a small tree just outside the back door (I saw a black one the other day.)  Copper just stood calmly on the steps and stared at it.  Guess all that stuff on the leash was just bluster.

Sunday was another productive day for us.  An early start at Home Depot where we picked up the new tub and the wall enclosure.  Interesting loading it in the 35 degree weather with the 30 mph winds and occasional snow flurry.  I learned my lesson from trying to haul the 12 foot long 2x4's down the interstate so we took surface streets from Home Depot to the house. 

I used every inch of the 50 foot rope I keep in the back of the truck to tie everything down but the wind still blew over the box with the enclosure walls.

My corner trim for the sheet rock got caught between the box and the side of the truck and all three pieces have a nice little crimp in them now. 

We bought a white fiberglass tub with a reinforced bottom so we don't have to pack it with mortar to keep the floor of the tub from flexing when the tub is used.  The walls and tub have a joint which hooks together and doesn't require caulking or greenboard.  (I'll put up the greenboard regardless.)

Robyn's main project for the day was to finish putting up the replacement for the ceiling fan that used to be in the dining room.  Here she is attaching the crystals...

Once all the crystals were attached, we wrapped the chandelier in plastic; sanded the spackling over the holes of the drywall screws attaching the medallion to the ceiling (the screws were countersunk); and then Robyn did a bit of touch-up...

For those of you who may not remember what this room looked like when we first started, here is a before shot...



We still need to put the crown molding and curtains up and install the flooring, but this is how the room looks now.

Even after cutting off over 4 foot of chain and wire, we're going to have to shorten the chain some more.



But that's a project for another day.

Another big accomplishment for the day, was finishing up the master bedroom.  Here's some shots of it...

As soon as the closet is painted, we can put the flooring down and start moving furniture into this room.

We also got the last of the sheetrock up on the soffits in the living room.

Unfortunately, my cordless drill ran out of battery about the same time I ran out of sheetrock screws.  Robyn was raking the yard to get pieces of debris up so we can cut the grass next weekend.  She encountered some issues as well.

Final bit of work for the day was to carry the bathtub upstairs.

Copper was just about as excited about this tub as he was with one full of water.

Expedition Ikea

Friday, Robyn was in continuing education classes all day at the Rivercentre in St. Paul.  She got back to the apartment just as I was wrapping up my walk with Copper and I was headed over to the manager's office to discuss our rent bill for the month.  The bill had come in for the full month and our lease was up on the 27th so there was a small overbilling.

However, this provided me an opportunity to discuss something with the manager Robyn and I had talked about earlier in the week.  Since the 27th fell on the Friday before Memorial Day, we wanted to extend our lease through at least Monday.  This gave us another weekend to work on the house.  I figured since it was a holiday weekend and our lease was up on Friday and it was unlikely they would be able to get anyone in to inspect and paint the apartment over the weekend, the manager would be receptive.  He was.

As soon as my discussion with the manager was done, Robyn and I headed to Ikea to check out the kitchen cabinets.  On an earlier visit, we had seen a model kitchen with a design similar to the kitchen in our house so we wanted to price the cabinets.  I figured it they were within a $100 of what I had priced at Lowe's and Home Depot the Ikea cabinets would be a viable option as I was going to have to paint the other ones.  They weren't; just 2 cabinets were $100 more than the 4 comparable cabinets I had priced out at Lowe's and Home Depot.  C'est la vie.

However, we didn't go away empty-handed.  Robyn picked up the painting she had identified for the blackberry bedroom.  I got this cool tubing cutter that is designed to cut tubing in confined spaces.  We also purchased track lighting for the kitchen.

The lighting is 11 foot long with 5 halogen bulbs.  The track is flexible and has the additional benefit of being a green product.

Friday evening, we had to go to a birthday party so my trip to Home Depot Saturday morning wasn't until 9:15.  When I walked in, the same manager who had helped me Wednesday was there.  She looked at me in surprise thinking I'd had a problem with the delivery.  I said, "Nope, the delivery folks hadn't called yet. I'm just here to pick up the toilet that was special ordered and a gallon of white paint for the closet."

Forty-five minutes later as Robyn and I were driving to the house, the call came in to Robyn.  The driver said, "I'll be there in 30 to 45 minutes."  Robyn said, "Perfect."

About the only thing not perfect was the weather; a heavy drizzle.  The washer, dryer, dishwasher, stove and refrigerator were on 3 pallets.  Ivie (sorry if I misspelled the name), the driver, parked his semi out in front of the house and brought the appliances by forklift around to the garage in the back.  Thank goodness because the stairs at the front of the house are about 7 foot higher than street level.  I'm also glad the city inspector had complained about the garage being opened; I had secured it 4 or 5 weeks ago as a result.

Ivie was a great guy.  From North Carolina, near Raleigh, originally, he was personable as only a true southerner is.

Saturday, we saw the fruits of a lot of the work we had done before.  I finished building the box around the ductwork in the living room.  Robyn even helped hang sheetrock for the first time in her life.

I painted the ceiling of what will be our bedroom.  As I was finishing up building the ductwork box, Robyn painted the walls; I came back upstairs and did the edging at the top of the walls.  Here are the results after one coat:

As soon as the second coat is done, we'll be ready to put the laminate down in the room.

Back down stairs to the sheetrock which we weren't able to finish because my cordless drill ran out of juice... but we're getting closer.

But it isn't like we don't have a bunch of other stuff to do... Like the chandelier for the dining room:

Gonna be fun to put all the crystals on it... Right Robyn???