“We Are Better Than the Last Eight Years”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZCrIeRkMhA

Vote.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation – A Timeline in Pictures

Before and After:

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Volume Whatever – or Happiness

The last few days has been spent watching paint dry. 

Between each coat of polyurethane I sanded and then reapplied.  There is nothing more disturbing than sanding a floor that is finally all pretty and shiny.  But it has to be done.  The first coat of finish really pulled up the grain of the wood, so although the pictures looked gorgeous, it ended up dulling the finish a bit and feeling rough.  After sanding and reapplication, though, it was right back to perfect.

I think I’m done. 

The weather has been sweltering for the Northwest and it is taking a bit longer for the finish to cure…but I don’t care.  My furniture can sit patiently outside while I do a dance of victory on my new floor.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Volume 4 – or What Was I Complaining About?

This morning was spent wiping down walls, windows and floors – trying to rid the living room of offending dust.  The Shop Vac was used more than once.  And Tack Cloth.  Lots of Tack Cloth.  I am amazed at this stuff.  Basically it is just sticky cheesecloth, but it picks up minute particles of dust like nobody’s business.

I then spent a few hours trying to find things to do other than putting the first l coat of polyurethane on.  This step scared me.  After all that work, what if I did something wrong?  Is the floor clean enough?  Could it ever be clean enough?  Should I invest in more tack cloth?

Finally, I decided to just jump in and do it. 

And check this out…..

Does anyone else hear angels singing?

I have at least two more coats tomorrow.  Hopefully one in the early morning and then the final sanding followed by another coat tomorrow evening.

Yesssss!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Volume 3 – or Waiting for the Dust to Settle

I finally finished the first sanding at noon.  It took forever.  The followup sandings were relatively uneventful.

That is if you call bruising my knees through the constuction kneepads unevenful.  At one point I was hand sanding the floor, bent over from the waist – trying to save my sad and decrepit knees from any more time spent directly on them.  Now my hamstrings hurt.

This is some serious work, but I do think I’m on the downhill side.  The worst part will be the waiting between coats of varathane now.  I chose the oil base varathane so it would be more durable and prettier.  Yes prettier, dammit.  It’s important.

By the end of day three….voila!

If you aren’t completely amazed please scroll down to the post with the “before picture”.  If you are still not amazed….well…I think I might hate you.

Good night.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Volume 2 – or This Was a Stupid Idea

If refinishing floors could be correlated to giving birth, I would be dilated to a seven and begging for my epidural.

So.  I am halfway done with sanding.  I can see a big difference, but amazingly I don’t care.  I would rather just live in the tent than to continue.  Maybe that isn’t really true.  Only tomorrow will tell. 

We spent last night, and I’m sure many nights to come, sleeping outside in the tent in the front yard.  The girls think it’s fun.  I think it’s practical.  A win-win.  Let me tell you, I am just sitting here waiting patiently for the damnable sun to set so that I can go to sleep.

Here are the progress pictures:

Just imagine a whole me as dusty as my feet.  Now that I’m a sandpaper expert, I would guess that I was about a 60 grit by the end of the day.  I also love the picture that captures the floating dust motes. You can’t even imagine how dusty it is.

If I can actually get out of the tent tomorrow AND decide to care…there will be another update by the end of the day.

*ouch*

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Volume 1 – or How I Became A Stripper

I have taken this next week off work.  I will not be taking an exotic vacation in Hawaii, backpacking across Europe or even camping at a local campground.  Oh no.  That would be entirely too much fun.

I am refinishing my wood floors.

This spring, after a bout of neverending sickness I decided (high on sinus medication, mind you) that all my illness was coming from the gross and dusty grey carpeting in my living room.  I ripped it up to find…

I actually liked it.  I felt like I was living in some sort of Bohemian art studio.  Plus, it was less dusty than the disgusting carpet.  I did, however, understand that I would have to address the carpet staples and paint at some point in the future.  These things normally bother people.  I was unperturbed – informed the girls to wear some sort of shoes at all times – and continued to patiently watch my vacation accruals build through the spring and summer.

I shopped for supplies at Home Depot earlier this week and did a couple of test strips with the paint stipper I chose.  I picked up some “Citristrip” – a less harmful concoction than normal paint stripper.  It apparently takes longer, but I can actually stand to be in my home when using it.  And?  It smells like oranges.  I did choose to use a ventilator after the first hour when I started to get a headache.  I have lost enough brain cells and just can’t be too careful in my older age.  The ventilator makes my face all sweaty and gross, but the upside is I can do a totally killer imitation of Darth Vader.

I’m on my second day of stripping (bow, chicka, bow, bow) and things are going well:

I am actually much farther along than this, but I am tired and need pizza before I can venture to take more pictures. 

Can I just mention here that people who staple down carpet are spawned directly from the devil?  Curse you carpet pad staplers!  A pox on you and your families!

Check back.  If I ever get these damn staples all removed I will soon be moving on to sanding!  (Aren’t you thrilled?  Just on the edge of your seat?)

I’ve Been Ultratoasted

I knew the day would come.  I have been waiting three long months since my blogger friend set foot on the North American continent.  I watched his posts, coming closer and closer to the Northwest.  After he posted about San Francisco I knew the wait wouldn’t be long. 

Ultratoast was coming to town.

I got the email informing me that he and his traveling companion, Patch, were going to be in my area Monday night.  The girls and I hurried around – tidying up, buying bbq goodies, inviting friends.  We were ready.

Monday at work I received a voice mail.  It was garbled with background static and drenched in accent.  It went something like this…

“Hello Shari.  We xlkjedrlkjg Glass Museum.  Adnorij kweljrigh  ish mvoe about 5 or 6 o’clock.  Ljklrji thirty cousfnm.  Bye, bye.”

Hmmm…  the Glass Museum is in Tacoma.  He might be to my house around 5 or 6 o’clock.  Tacoma is about thirty minutes away…or actually 15 – but whatever.  He was definitely on his way.

They appeared right on time.  Natalie and I were throwing the last of the red onions into the salad.  They looked a bit road weary, but perked up a bit when plied with cold beer and the myriad of backyard bbq delights.  I had invited Eric and Natalie from next door, and Sean and Megan from down the street.  Then I remembered to invite Adam and Jessica from across the street….Oh, and Matt from down the street at the red maple tree, and Brandon…  When all was said and done we had 11 adults, 7 children, two dogs and a cat in attendance.

Wonderful discussions were discussed and conversations conversed.  At one point it was discovered that neither Patch nor Ultratoast had ever experienced a s’more.  We remedied that quickly.

 

Please click for larger images

They eventually were pulled off into the night by Brandon and Eric to a derilict bar called the Thunderbird to sing karaoke until 2 am.  Then, more entertainment was had and they stumbled back in at 4 am.  While I was at work the next day, they made very good use of my couch and chaise lounge to nurse themselves back to health.  They seemed a little worse for the wear at this point.

The next day found them hail and hearty once again.  They took the train to Seattle with a riduculous amount of suggestions on what the “had to” see.  Another bbq was had that night and the next morning they were off, north to the Canadian border.

I was very sad to see them go.  It is very strange to know someone through their blog for a number of years and then actually get to meet them.  I have been extremely lucky to meet a friend from Canada this way (she is currently anonymous), and of course Ant – not once but twice.

Who’s next?