I’ve reached a point in the renovation project where I’m tired of the entire thing. Consequently, although I’ve unpacked a few things (I now have a sofa along with the computer, desk and chair), I’ve been finding a number of excuses to put off the rest of painting. About all I’ve accomplished along those lines the past couple weeks is the prep work for the master bedroom.
That’s changed. Today I made a point of finishing the prep work for the bedroom and it is now officially painted. For Sunday, I hope to get the upstairs hallway painted. Then all that will remain is painting half the kitchen and getting things out of the basement again. (And there’s a bit of deadline too, Shore Leave is in two weeks and I’d like to have the project done before then.)
The only catch is, my bedroom now smells like paint. What’s worse though is that the drop cloth was blocking the air vent. Consequently, it’s also about 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. So tonight I’m going to sleep on the sofa. Happily, it’s not just a sofa, it a very comfy sofa!
Category Archives: Assorted Ramblings
Water Restrictions
The local water utility had a major water main break late on Sunday evening. Evidently it was one of the primary mains for the Northern half of the county. Consequently, we’ve been advised to boil water before using it for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear about the advisory until I was halfway to work yesterday.
In order to conserve water for emergencies (firefighting, etc.), they’ve also imposed water use restrictions. No watering lawns, washing cars, laundry (good thing I did mine Sunday afternoon!), no washing dishes, etc.
Also, because they can’t use the water in food preparation, most of the county’s restaurants have been ordered closed. Likewise, a number of supermarkets have closed their produce departments because they can’t spray water on the vegetables.
This morning, Wylie and I discovered a torrent of water running down the street from up by the elementary school. Apparently the main serving my neighborhood is also broken.
I have to wonder, does this mean I should boil the water twice? 🙂
At the office, they posted signs yesterday asking everyone to limit their use of the restrooms because of the water restrictions. Fortunately, there are bushes planted around the building…
Heat Advisory
Temperatures here in the DC area are projected to hit 100 degrees today and a little higher on Sunday.
We are now officially in that part of the year when it’s just too hot to mail anything chocolate (cookies, fudge, etc) unless you don’t mind it arriving as one solid (sticky) mass.
In Which I Cannot Find My Clothes
I arrived at Relay for Life on Saturday afternoon and except for going home to check out the work on the floors and write a check to the contractor (The floors incidentally are gorgeous!), I was at the event all night. I got to sleep around 4:00 AM and awoke a few hours later, about 20 minutes before the closing ceremonies.
My plans and relative priorities for Sunday were fairly straight-forward. Having expected to be at Relay overnight, I already knew that simple was going to be my best chance.
First up was a trip to Staples to obtain a chairmat suitable for wood floors and cutting it to fit in the bedroom doorway in order to prevent Wylie from digging through the new floor. (Instead, I came home from work on Monday and found that he’d jumped over the gate and was waiting for me in the living room.)
Next up was a trip to Mike & AJ’s house to pick up Wylie, he’d been staying with them for a few days while I was preparing for the floors to be installed. (So far he’s managed to avoid putting his head through the drywall, but when he comes down the stairs, he’s halfway across the living room before he manages to slow down.)
After protecting the floor from Wylie (and thus protecting Wylie from my wrath), the next priority was to reassemble my bed. That didn’t go so well. I eventually got it put together, but first I put the mattress in the middle of the guest room floor so Wylie and I could both take a nap or two.
The final item for Sunday was to unbox enough of my clothes that I could go to work on Monday. I brought a few things up from the basement and put them in the closet. After falling asleep again, I decided that was good enough and finally went to bed for real (actually getting into the bed instead of merely collapsing on top of it) around 11:30.
As I started getting ready for work on Monday, I discovered that I could not find my clothes!!!!! Turns out I’d been kinda wonky on Sunday evening (gee, how’d that happen?) and hadn’t unpacked the work stuff after all. Uh oh! After several frenzied trips to and from the basement, I finally found stuff to wear, though I’m also coming to realize that I desperately need to do some laundry! (Which means I need to excavate the washing machine, which means I need to figure out where to put a few other things…)
Relay for Life
Today is the Southern Montgomery County Relay for Life, a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. Because of the flooring installation, I’ll probably end up making a trip or two between the event and my house, but I’ll probably be one of the die-hards on the overnight. (I usually am. Besides, what else would I do at night? Sleep? Hah!)
A huge thank you to everyone who’s signed up to sponsor me. The list so far is:
My donations are down from last year, but there’s still time to sign up to be a sponsor. Just visit my donation site at: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/ThatBlairGuy
(And if you do choose to sponsor me, please consider adding a few extra pennies to your donation amount. In part because, as they say, “Every little bit helps.” But mainly because round numbers are boring.)
Thanks in advance!
Installation — Day 2
Last night was fairly uneventful. Seeing as how the upstairs wasn’t really ready for use, I “camped” in the living room, taking the sheets and blanket from my bed and stretching out on a foam pad I’ve used for camping. The work crew showed up around 8:30; today there were four or five of them, so the work might get finished today after all.
New on the glitch list, there are two lights in the basement that won’t come on. For the one I could get to, the bulb tested fine and none of the breakers were popped. I’ll have to do some poking around in the basement ceiling when there aren’t new nails coming through every few seconds and see if maybe something got cut. (Note: Dry wood, such as the stuff a house is built with, is a pretty good insulator. It’s fairly believable that an ungrounded piece of metal could cut an electric wire without anyone getting shocked, starting a fire, etc. Considering the subfloor is just a sheet of plywood, I’ll bet this sort of thing happens all the time.)
Installation — Day 1
The good news is that the floors are absolutely gorgeous; even better than I’d hoped. The bad news is that the lead installer told me he plans to finish on Saturday, but so far they’re less than half-way done. The upstairs hallway and the two front bedrooms have their floors complete except for the closets and the moulding around the edges.
The master bedroom has only half of its floor done and my bed is scattered between three rooms on two levels. The bed doesn’t matter all that much, I’ve taken several naps this week while stretched out on the living room floor. At this point, I’m so tired that sleeping on the living room floor should be a piece of cake.
But wow do the floors look good.
Good Night Dick
Dick Martin, January 30, 1922 – May 24, 2008
The Big Day
I’ve been looking forward to today for a while now. I hardly slept last night, even less than usual.
All the furniture is moved, all the bric-a-brac has been moved too. (I now understand why Dave has become such a fan of streamlining. Good Lord, I have a lot of crap!)
When I get home from work this evening, the first of the floors should be in place.
Have Paint Brush, No Time to Travel
After about three weeks of prep work and two days of washing walls and emptying closets, I’ve officially started painting. There’s blue tape everywhere!!!! (Look for photos in a week or so.) This evening I got two-thirds of the living room painted. With luck those walls will dry before any dogs or parrots make contact with them.
The floors are scheduled to be installed later this week and I already have this unfortunate mental image of Wylie sliding across the living room and putting his head through the drywall…