Projects the weekend of 11/29.

1. Finish painting the doors.
2. Cleanup the floors before the carpet comes on 12/3!

Update: We were able to finish these both in time for the carpet. Pictures of that should be coming soon.

Literally a Breakthrough

I was really distraught on Monday morning because of those floors. It was a major pain in the a** and a lot of chisseling just to get very few results. I think I was on a pace of 2 sqft per hour. I didn’t see how I was going to be able to finish my closet (roughly 6 x 8) in time for the carpet to get installed. I was willing to have Jen's closet just carpeted over the old hardwood. Then, pure dumb luck hit. I was ripping up this small 3”x6” piece (which was taking me about 10 minutes), and it was ripping up not only the glue, but the flooring below the glue. The farther I went, the more subfloor it ripped up. It was like trying to pick a dangling piece off a scab, but getting the whole scab with it. I thought I was going to have to replace the subfloor because of it. So, I got my circular saw and tried to cut it off before it got worse. I knew I had to cut a bit into the subfloor to do it, but was thinking it would be only for this one spot. So I cut, and pulled up “the scab”. I noticed a staple under the scab, so I picked at it a bit more. I noticed that I hadn’t been cutting into the subfloor, rather it was a thin piece of plywood that the flooring installer must have put down to keep the glue from seeping through to the main level of the house. So, I got my circular saw and started cutting at that depth. The picture below shows what I had done up until that point and the result of my literal "breakthrough". After that, I was able to remove chunks that were 2’ by 3’ large, and ripped up the rest of the floor in about an hour and a half. Now I just have to figure out how to leave a nice line of existing flooring in the doorway. The circular saw is only capable of cutting within a few inches of the doorframe, so I have to figure out how to extend that cut. That's a much smaller problem than the one I used to have though.

Projects the weekend of 11/22

I really need to get back to posting before the weekend. I will write this one as if I did.
Here are the projects for the weekend:
1. Fix cracks in the stairway baseboards. Update: This was relatively easy. I just had to use a scraper to get rid of the old caulk, which is the hard part, then lay down a new bead. I had to buy the kind that can be painted over. This stuff, made by GE (is there anything they don't make?), can be painted over in an hour and doesn't shrink. Hopefully that means no more caulking for a long time.
2. Paint the baseboards and railings in the upstairs hallway and stairwell. Update: I was able to get this all done, but the white paint I bought is just a bit whiter than the stuff still on the doors. So, Jen started painting those Sunday night.
3. Rip up the hardwood floor in our master bedroom closets so the carpet can be installed in early December. Update: I thought this was going to be easy because a neighbor told me his floors were of the floating variety. Well, they were not. They were glued down, which was my worst nightmare. I started out with a circular saw, a claw hammer and a pry bar that I had laying around, a Michigan bleacher seat for my knees, and a few bruises on my thumb. I think I was able to pull up about 1 square foot in about an hour. Only about 90 more to go. So, thinking there had to be a better way, I started researching. Turns out, I needed a heavier hammer, some knee pads, and something better than a pry bar (note the hand protector). I got all of that home, and increased my output by 1 sqft per hour, up to 2 sq ft per hour with only 88 to go. I went to bed distraught, and not knowing how I'd get it all done before the carpet guy showed up. More work will be in store for me Monday and Tuesday nights, as well as next Saturday and Sunday (meaning we have to cut our Trip to Michigan short).
4. Watch Michigan and the Lions lose. Update: After Thanksgiving, the 2008 football season will officially be over. What? 4 more games for the Lions? Darnit.

Power tools are awesome!

I needed a circular saw to rip up the floors, so Jen and I went to Home Depot, armed with a 10% off coupon for recent movers. I really wanted to take my time because a lot of these tools come with batteries that can be interchanged with other tools. I didn't want to get stuck with one brand, then have to buy different batteries for another brand. It really came down to Dewalt and Ridgid. We settled on this one because of the lifetime warranty. It didn't come with batteries or a charger, so we were about to spend $200 to get them. Then, we noticed this. For less than the cost of two batteries and a charger, we got two batteries, a charger, a screwdriver, and a hansome carrying case. Jen and I both left very excited. She got to use a coupon and get a deal, and I got awesome tools!

Projects for the weekend of 11/15

I am posting this a few days late, but this was my chore list this weekend.

1. Paint hallway and stairwell. Update: Jen and I did a lot of painting on Sunday and managed to put one whole coat on. It looks really nice, and I was able to use our "Climb Tech" ladder as a scaffold. It was a bit scary though. We learned that Benjamin Moore's "Aura" paint is really worth the extra $10. It goes on so much smoother, expecially when doing the cutting. We looked this morning, and still should put one more coat on but it would be worse with the older Benjamin Moore "Regal" paint.
2. Watch Michigan and Detroit lose. Update: Done and done.
3. Enjoy the Hold Steady concert. Update: If you haven't yet heard the Hold Steady, I highly recommend them. Their lead singer has an infectious stage presence.
4. I also ripped the carpet off of the back stairwell, and had to do a little bit of caulking of the baseboards. A few cracks had developed. I learned that water-proof caulk does not wash off your hands very easily.

Projects the weekend of 11/8

It's a light load this week because my sister (Sue) and niece (Annie) are coming to town. Jen is handling most of the festivities, thank God. I say that because the sole purpose of the trip is for Annie to go to American Girl Place for her birthday. I guess they're eating dinner there. There are about 14 million things I'd rather do than that. It would be infinitely, except for my obvious love of food.

Anyway, all I'm doing this weekend is fixing a headlight and license plate light on my car. Oh, and I'm watching the Lions and Michigan lose.

Update: Michigan somehow managed to retain the little brown jug, Lions continued their consistent suckiness, Annie had the best weekend of her life, I have to admit I thought Wicked was excellent, I fixed the headlight, but new bulbs didn't manage to fix the license plate light. All in all, a decent weekend.

Halloween

Yesterday was halloween in Libertyville, and luckily they do Halloween on Halloween like they did when I was growing up. It was supposed to go from 4-7, and I was really excited to be here for it because we wanted to meet our neighbors. I was thinking that we'd just meet the dads that were walking around, but little did I know.

When I was driving up, dads leading their kids around the neighborhood. That was nice to see. Then I realized that the dads were pulling wheelbarrels with coolers full of beer. Then, I noticed that most people were sitting outside instead of being inside like I remember it being. In a way, it was like a giant block party. Jen and I had planned on the inside strategy, but I got the tailgate chairs out as soon as I got home.

I'm really glad I did, because our neighbor George (who we met shortly after we first moved in) came over and walked us around the neighboorhood to introduce us. I'm really glad he did. We ended up meeting several of our neighbors to the west of our house. We're going to have to work on meeting those to the east of our house. It sounds like we'll have other opportunities. Apparently, there will be several Christmas parties and some sort of "dinner progressive" in February.

I guess the progressive involves every house in the neighborhood making a course, and the party goes from house-to-house. Eventually it ends up at someone's house for a big party. They jokingly nominated our house for that, but then told us that the new neighbors usually get a pass on the first one.

We can't wait for Christmas now!

Paintings arrived this week

I mentioned that we bought some paintings last week. Well, they finally arrived and I hung them Thursday night.

This is the triptych. We're pretty sure that we're going to put it in our living room where we have it right now.

This is the diptych. It's currently in the hallway from the office to the kitchen/family room, but you can see it from the foyer. We're probably going to end up putting it over the fireplace after we fill in the "tv hole".

We decided to put the painting we bought on our honeymoon in the dining room, and think it's a good place for it.

Projects the weekend of 11/1

1. Put another coat on the master bedroom walls. I only have a quart left, so I have to buy another gallon of Pismo Dunes.
2. Paint the guest bedroom. We're going with Baja Dunes. The room is roughly the size of our master bedroom, so I'll probably get two gallons of it too.
3. Put two more samples on the wall. Shaker Beige and Putnam Ivory were too dark. I need to buy a sample of Palace White and a quart of Everlasting.
4. That doesn't seem like a lot. Oh, and watch Michigan and Detroit lose.

Update: When I went to buy a gallon of Pismo Dunes and two of Baja Dunes, the guy at the paint store told me that they were the exact same formula. That means two things. First, we saved the price of a gallon of paint. Second, we can pick which color name that we like the best. I'm thinking Baja Dunes sounds cooler. I'm not so sure about the word "Pismo".

Update2: Both rooms are painted, the sample colors are up, and of course Michigan and Detroit lost. 4-4 this weekend!