Anybody I used to know still post around here??????

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Thursday, May 23, 2024 14:59
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It's probably a lot more than 200 :)

Thank god I don't have rats! These are just little field mice. I'm going to leave out a little piece of bread where the bread used to be tonight and see if anything happens. Another day and no action on the traps.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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I think my mice are gone!

Left out a piece of bread overnight and not a nibble.

I'm going to keep those traps handy in case I see a problem again, but I'm just going to let it be for now. Hopefully I can get to remodeling some places where they might be coming from before I get any more. I really have no clue were to start looking.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hey Wish,

I was wondering if you could run an electrical question by your husband for me. I'll try to paint as good a picture of my situation as I can before asking though.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so.....





So.... my question is....

What is the best way to go about cutting the existing conduit? (the black lines in the picture)

The conduit is above the joists and though it's not tight against the plywood flooring for the finished crawl space above, it's only got about 1/4" to 1/2" clearance.


I've given up any hope of using the sawzall like I did for the wall outlet. I didn't want to make a huge hole in the ceiling either, but I'm afraid that's inevtaible.

The only tool I have at my disposal that I think could do the job right is my battery powered Ryobi Circular saw with a 5 1/2" blade. I only have a wood blade for it now, so I'd have to research if they made a metal blade in that size (Im sure they do though).




I'm just wondering though if he has any other (possibly better) ideas before I go through all that.

Thanks :)




EDITED TO ADD:

If he has any other ideas, that would be super. I just looked at Menards and the price for a 5 1/2 metal cutting blade is 45 bucks before tax!!!!!


EDITED TO ADD 2:

Hmmmmmmm.... Good luck finding a wood cutting blade for a Ryobi 5 1/2" saw, let alone a steel cutting blade. The blade I found above that was 45 bucks might not even fit on my saw.

I suppose I may be able to fit my corded skilsaw up there, but I don't know if there's enough room to cut things exactly where they need to be cut. I'm sure a metal blade for it that I would hardly ever have any use for it would cost a small fortune too.

Maybe I'll just have to bite the bullet and rip out a large amount of the ceiling drywall and just take a lot of breaks between trying to saw through it twice with a hacksaw by hand. It can probably be done, but is it "worth saving boku bucks on a large metal cutting blade" doable?



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hubbs and I think you maybe could use a "mini pipe cutter" (about the size of a donut that someone bit a side out of, you tighten down a blade and twist it around, tighten and twist, tighten and twist and it will break off), if it's a solid pipe... They run about 15-20 bucks.(I think it was called an IMP on This Old House??)

If it's flexible conduit, good luck, and have fun chopping out drywall.

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Hey Wish,

Thanks for the advice. I tried one I found at Menards for only 3 bucks :)

I didn't actually cut it, but I just wanted to see if it would even work. There wasn't enough space. :(

Turns out it's probably moot. Upon further investigation behind the scenes, I can now see where 3 of the 4 conduits from the light go (Yeah, this house is wired crazy-weird).

My guess is that the 4th (unseen) conduit goes to the two outlets I just did work on. The conduit that I believed to be going to the light switch before I actually think runs straight into the box for the 3-way light in the hallway. (This also makes sense now why when I was working on the outlets and I had the power shut off on the bedroom circuit why I still saw sparks and shit myself when I was working on the neutral wire). The original electricians, or more likely the bozos who worked on the electric after the fact, decided that it was a good idea to split the hot wires to different breakers, but it was perfectly kosher to use the same neutral lead for at least two separate circuits.

I kind of hate the fact that any time I'm working on any electric in this house I'll look forward to resetting 4 clocks. The only breakers I can shut off individually while I'm working are the two circuits that I ran out to the garage.




Anyways....

This also means that my precise bending job that I was so proud of was premature. I put a lot of time into planning that and I was so happy I got it right on the first try. I'm going to have to put quite a bit more thought into how I'm going to get to that other conduit now. The conduit that I'll be needing to cut is at an angle towards the switch and away from whatever conduit that I add.

Here's a pic of what I believe the situation to be now....



Fun.... fun... fun....

I think the best thing to do at this point to make absolutely sure that I'm cutting the right conduit is to turn off the breaker and pull the wires going to the switch out from the light itself. From there I can measure the length of the wires and compare it to a guesstimate of how long they'd need to be to get to the light switch. There would be a HUGE difference between the length of a lead running to a 90 degree angle to the light switch as opposed to a lead angled to end up right over it "as the crow flies".



My step dad is going to come by tomorrow afternoon and see if we can't get that light switch situation finally taken care of. I think I can figure it out without him, but I'd love to have his input before I proceed any further.

At least I got the drywall up over the 2 outlets I worked on today. All set for mudding now. :) I can't wait to see what this room looks like after it's got outlets wired behind the walls (like they're supposed to be), a switch in the room (like it's supposed to be) and the flat white of primer on every wall instead of every color of the rainbow on the walls.

For P.C. reasons, I refer to it as the "Clown Room" now, rather than some more Cartmanesque terms. Besides, to call it the "Gay Room" would probably be a misnomer. I bet the Queer Eye guys would bitch slap whoever painted it that way.


I'm ready to party now though. That can wait until next year.


Happy new year everyone!



Hopefully the Mayan's weren't right. I'm just finally starting to get my shit together.


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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GOT THE SWITCH TAKEN CARE OF TODAY!!!!

WOO-HOO!!!!!! (Lot's of fist pumping going on today )

I'm so glad my step-dad came over this morning. I was so focused on thinking that I would join the new conduit to the old, that I wasn't thinking outside the box anymore.

He told me to just enlarge the hole by the light, and try to push some conduit through the hole by the door until it was clear and then pull it back to the box and join it to the conduit I've already made.

It required a few tricky 45 degree angle bends to get down to the box from above the joists, and a couple of other interesting twists I won't bore you with, but after a few hours I had it up and running.

Finished putting up all the drywall before calling it quits too, so I'm all set to start mudding tomorrow. Rather than expose enough of the ceiling to attach the new drywall to joists I simply screwed the existing ceiling to some 2x4 cutoffs and screwed the new drywall into it. Ordinarily, I wouldn't recommend that, but the ceiling in the room was 2 layers like the wall was and one of them was practically stone. Now that the work is done, it's kind of cool knowing that I have the most durable ceilings and outside walls in my house that I've ever seen with all my rehabbing experience.



I'll end up waiting to paint the room until I'm ready to do all of the upstairs and downstairs at the same time and design it all at once, but it will be so awesome to have the electric the way I want it, the walls all the uniform stark white color of Kilz primer, and the carpets up exposing the beautiful hardwood floor in that room. It will be just another addition to my growing list of 1/2 finished projects, but what a satisfying job this one in particular will be.



It just occurred to me today while I was thinking about that fact why I've been so lazy and unfocused in the last few weeks. Truth be told, with all the work behind me so far, I haven't actually completed any one single job on this entire house, inside and out. I've gotten everything that absolutely needed to be taken care of done, got the mold out but have bare skeleton walls for the first 3 1/2 feet to 6 feet, I've fixed the sub-facia/facia but no gutters, I've filled the hole for the pool with 11 tons of dirt but I'll need another 3 or so tons before planting grass seed come spring, got my washer and dryer and water heater installed in spots that I'll have to remove them at some point to finish the basement behind them.....

Today was a big win for me in the morale department. Though I may not actually get to finishing the 2nd bedroom any time soon, it is so great knowing that by this time next week the only memories of the clown colored room with its ghetto electric will be all the pictures I took.


Awesome start to 2012!

Actually, I can't remember a Janurary 1st since I was 17 years old that my biggest accomplishment of the day was nursing a killer hangover.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Triple Post Alert!

Haha!

Let's see if I can get 90 of the hundred posts on the journey to 300 all by myself, huh?


This thread seems to be my own personal diary, or journal, if I want to be a "man" about it.



Today was a good day. I got a lot of 1st coat mudding done, and most importantly all of the spots where I had to lay it on really thick are done so they'll have a day and a half or so to dry before I get back to them.

The ridiculous colors aren't the only problem with the walls. It's apparent that this room has about 20 coats of primer and paint on it from the last 53 years and that not one single time did the "painter" feel it necessary to remove any rough-spots or patch any holes before painting another layer. Divots just need a little mud slapped on them, bumps just need to be cut out in a circle before mudding... so most of it is easy. The moderately painful spots though are where I can see outlines to where every single wall fixture ever installed in the room. My guess is there's been some regular shelving, a very ornate shelving system in one spot, a few smoke detectors as well as a few fire extinguishers.

And don't even get me started on careless drip marks......

Freakin' amatures.....



I'm just a perfectionist like that though. When I was doing rehab jobs for my friend's dad he'd always be telling me "this ain't the Taj Mahal". LOL... he was a great boss. I know he never questioned the quality of my work, or if whether or not I was working hard, but I think I was just a tad too detail oriented for that line of work. I'm sure if he was working for a bunch of rich people who paid big bucks for jobs I'd be first in line for any work coming his way, but most of his work is for middle-income folk who's motto is not "money isn't an issue".

"This ain't the Taj Mahal".....

I think about that phrase a lot while I'm working and obsessing over the minute details. Sure... this ain't the Taj Mahal, but it IS my Taj Mahal.

Every little extra bit of work I put into the details will show in the final product and someday when it's all done I'm going to pat myself on the back so hard that I break my collar bone.


I'll have some new pics in a few days. Hopefully by the weekend I can show you what it looks like with stark white Kilz primered walls with no imperfections and no trim or carpet.

After that, I'll be done with that room for a while. I'm going to just get all the rooms ready to finish first, that way I can really formulate a game plan for the finishing work on the entire house at the same time and really make it shine.


Hope everyone is having a great New Year so far :)

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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I ripped out the windowsills and the trim beneath them and the crappy corner-round used on the sides, inside the windows today. They were all painted up yellow and blue like the walls, so they were basically ruined. I also took down the vinyl blinds, since I have no intention of reinstalling them when the room is done. I'll probably spring for a great looking set of wood blinds (on sale) when I finally finish the upstairs.


I patched up the windows afterward, as well as all of the cracks in the wall that I gutted out and put the second layer on the really deep stuff that needed to be mudded. I've also got one of the walls completely sanded down/mudded so it's ready to primer.

I've been kicking so much ass the first three days of 2012 in fact, that I believe I'll have the room primered 2 or 3 days ahead of schedule. Pretty amazing, since usually I work at a pace much slower than I plan ahead for.

Next stop is either the Master Bedroom or the Kitchen :)




I also figured out what I'm going to do with the basement to mold proof it today. It's so simple actually, that I can't believe I didn't think of it before.....

The only thing that was submerged in water in the basement that didn't have a speck of mold on it was the tile and grout on the floor. So, after mold-proofing the studs and tracks like I've done, it only makes sense to use concrete drywall on the first 4 feet and then tile the walls and grout them.

If a flood ever happens here again, the basement will be a damn aquarium until it's drained.

Hell... I'll probably even tile the damn stairs themselves as well!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Ieghct. I just finished 1000 square feet. Damn near killed me.It's not just dragging the tiles home, but dragging them downstairs, and the bags of underlayment and grout... and I hope you have a tile saw, and a sink down there for all the water. I just finished and it took me 2 years.

Never again. Ever.

Only paid $300 for the lot though, AUCTION!

Today I built a shelf that looks just like the one in my pantry( harder than it sounds, as the people who built the first one were on crack!!!, hemmed 2 pairs of pants, sorted vast piles of shoes, helped with homework, and made brkfast lunch and dinner for us all. (sarcastic*)SIGHS. Sometimes being a wife and mom sooooo gets in the way of my empire building...

On another note, the mower we bought at auction works, $25 for battery and changed the oil, and wha-lah! I was ridin' up and down the street in a victory lap and the neighbors done thought I lost my mind

I'm gonna do it again this weekend

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by Wishimay:
Ieghct. I just finished 1000 square feet. Damn near killed me.It's not just dragging the tiles home, but dragging them downstairs, and the bags of underlayment and grout... and I hope you have a tile saw, and a sink down there for all the water. I just finished and it took me 2 years.

Never again. Ever.

Only paid $300 for the lot though, AUCTION!

Today I built a shelf that looks just like the one in my pantry( harder than it sounds, as the people who built the first one were on crack!!!, hemmed 2 pairs of pants, sorted vast piles of shoes, helped with homework, and made brkfast lunch and dinner for us all. (sarcastic*)SIGHS. Sometimes being a wife and mom sooooo gets in the way of my empire building...

On another note, the mower we bought at auction works, $25 for battery and changed the oil, and wha-lah! I was ridin' up and down the street in a victory lap and the neighbors done thought I lost my mind

I'm gonna do it again this weekend

---

Tiles are awesome! I'm a 5'7" brick shit house.... hauling ain't nothing I'm afraid of

I don't have a wetsaw yet, but I'd have to get one. If I tried to cut those with a sawzall or even a rotary saw with a mansory blade the only future I see in that is sparks, pain and a lot of ruined tiles.

I'm not working a real job now, and I have no sig-other or kids to get in the way, so let's hope the basement comes together here quicker than 2 years.


I'm at least going to put the concrete board up soon. It's pretty expensive though. Nearly 10 bucks a sheet for boards that are only 2 1/2 feet by 5 feet. Since I just came up with this idea today I have no idea how much I'll need, but I'm guessing with all the nooks and crannys that I'll need about 200 bucks of concreteboard.

I should also shell out the 500 bucks for the biggest and best sump pump with a battery backup if I'm going to start the basement work ahead of schedule, and possibly many years before I buy the natural gas backup unit that costs over 3k installed.

I've heard online that Marble tile is the best for mold resistance, but even at warehouses they go from 2.75 a sq/ft to like 20 bucks a sq/ft.



There's no need for Marble here though. I'm sure the tiles on the floor now are made of the same material my toilets were made of, and there is zero mold on them.

Besides... the existing porcelain tile on the floor looks pretty awesome. But if I was to spring for marble walls than the floors would look pretty foolish.





You know me Wish, I would love to find a sale on these tiles for the walls, but I have absolutely no idea how many I'll need at this point, and I have to somewhat match the color of the floor tile. I think garage sales or swap meets are out of the question. I need to find a tile on sale that will still be available later when I find I didn't buy enough the first go around.





And about the mower....

I know we've been having an unseasonably warm winter, but why are you using a lawnmower in IN in Janurary?????

I'd think you kinda nutz too lol

Glad you got a great deal on it though.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Me an' the ol' possum, the last 30 secs.


Lawn mowers has more n' one use here, hon Luxury Recreational Vehicles

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Hey, Rock-Star Possum!

I'm not a real country music fan, but that one was pretty good. It's pretty cool how the genre can make so many happy songs about not so happy things.







Once I'm finished sanding a few things that were too wet to sand today and the few small things I put another coat on I'm finally going to be able to put the first coat of primer on tomorrow!!!!!

I know it's premature to do so because the walls aren't perfect yet, but I need a change. Between the 4 walls and the closet, I'm looking at about 600-1000 imperfections and I just can't keep anything straight anymore. I did, however, go over my last touch ups with a pencil and marked "X"'s over the stuff that will need to be sanded before I primer.

I figure it's going to take 3 to 4 coats to cover those awful colors anyhow, so I might as well look at a clean slate on Friday when I do my final mudding touch ups.

Me so excited!



Oh yeah, and there was a large bump in one wall that I had to sand down hard-core to get it flat with the rest of the wall. It's kind of cool because the MANY layers of paint left rings, similar to looking at a tree stump. Actually, it kind of resembles an eyeball.

The Walls Have Eyes!

I'll have to show you that picture when I get it uploaded. It's kind of funny to see that the room was also a very girly purple color at one point too.


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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No primer coat today... :(

Had one MAJOR mud i forgot to do between the east wall and the closet.

It was for the best anyways. It took me nearly all day to do the final sponge sand, wall and floor wash and to find the last few other final mud coats anyhow. Didn't get done with that all until after 6pm. Tomorrow for sure though I should have 2 coats up. Just have a few things to sand and vacuum, take last minute pics of the walls, and then put the painters tape on the hardwood and go to town.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Don't fergit ta vent! Paintin too much gives me a headache

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Hehe.... it was warm today, but not warm enough to open the windows. Got started bright and early and just finished the second coat of primer after about 12 hours of work (my feet are KILLING ME!!!)

In the last hour i felt a little feint while getting off the ladder and stumbled off of it. Lucky I didn't dump the primer. I thought I was just tired, but I did feel a little weird. I think I breathed in those fumes a little too much today.




So.... here's the fruits of my labor....

Entrance to room (before)



Entrance to room (after)



You can see the new switch inside the room and the old switch in the hall is patched.

Doh! I didn't take a picture with the ceiling hole patched up. You can't even tell there was one now.



Back window and entrance to closet (before)



Back window and entrance to closet (after)





Oh... and as a bonus, here's what the room looked like before I destroyed it. It used to have shitty baseboards, shitty carpet, shitty shelving in the closet, and two extra shitty window frames.




So clean now.....

Meesa happy!




Oh yeah, you can't tell from the pics, but some of the color still bleeds through, so it will need another primer coat. That's okay though because there are still a few imperfections I want to fix before I'd paint anything anyways.

My plan was to patch anything that needed patching after the first coat, but there was so much color bleeding through that there was no way I could tell, so when I finished round one, I went straight on to round two. It was cool because I didn't have to waste all the primer you waste when you wash up.

After the second round though, I found only 4 imperfections. Two circular bumbs about the size of the head of a thumb tack on the red wall, a "rash" of bubbled paint on the blue wall, and the crack I repaired on the ceiling is not flush, so it needs to be mudded out a bit. The cracks on the walls fortunately were completely flush and just needed to be filled.

So probably got about another 8 hours work in that room before I move on to the next one.

Every other room in the house will be easier and quicker because the electrical is fine and since the colors aren't so obnoxious and not SUPER-GLOSS paint, only two coats of primer should do her.




"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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GRRRRRRR!

Made a 2-day mistake today. A total amateur mistake. It's been a while since I did a ceiling and the mud I put up the other day to flatten out the crack I didn't remove correctly. I just used a finishing sponge without first flattening it out with a hand sander.......

Didn't realize I f-d up until after the primer went over it and I saw what it looked like. LOL... it looks worse now than it did before I mudded it. Guess I'm going to have to fix that tomorrow.

The walls look great now though after a few patches and a 3rd coat of primer. The only trouble spot is where a little bastard named "Owen" thought it was cute to write his name on the wall in magic marker. 3 coats of Kilz2 and it still bleeds through. I'll probably primer that wall one more time, just to be safe. Not a big deal since I have to primer the ceiling again anyways.


There will be so much down-time I suppose I can just move on to the master bedroom or the upstairs hall/stairwell. I'm going to be moving the box for the light from the very top of the stairs back towards the start of the seven stairs going up. I got a beautiful chandelier from Goodwill for 9 bucks that I mentioned a while back that I want hanging there instead. I won't mud over the old box though. Even if I wanted to, there is so much activity in that box that it would probably be dangerous to do so. I'll just have to buy an inconspicuous box-cap that can be painted the same color as the rest of the ceiling.

Fingers crossed the rest of the upstairs is a lot less work than that nightmare of a bedroom.





"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Happy 2012 everybody.

Herez wut Ive been working on for the last 3 weeks: http://www.zolkorp.com/TRiSeK.html

Actually, Ive been messing with it off and on since fall 2010, but didnt have anything worth doing a page about till now.

Since I put that up I came up with another procedure thats maybe more accurate and a little less complicated.

-------------------------------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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Happy 2012 JO753,

It sounds like whatever you and your buddy did is pretty amazing. I can balance a budget and a checkbook, and do my own taxes better than most of the herd, but if I step out of the boundaries of basic math I get lost pretty quick. Other than the fact it seems you may have potentially shoved the naysayers asses to them on a platter, most of that was over my head. I do love it when somebody does something that everybody said couldn't be done though.

Your company seems to have a lot of potential. Hopefully you can get it off the ground someday. Who knows, maybe when I get a job and get this house put together the way I want it I might have some free time to lend.

The idea of getting in at the ground floor to making millions is pretty damn appealing. I'd never have to work for a boss again and I could wake up and work when I wanted to. I could start buying up houses to rehab and then rent them out. It would be my dream life!








I got my 2nd bedroom done today finally!!!!!

Moving on to the Master bedroom tomorrow. I'm not at all looking forward to being without my king size bed, so I'm sure I'll be putting in 12 hour days to get that SOB done so I'm sleeping on the foam mattresses as little as possible. Thankfully, I don't have any electrical work to do and it's just straight up minor wall repairs and primering, and removing the carpet before she's done.

I've got my Pipefitter's Union test on the 21st, so hopefully I'm on the king size bed again on the 20th. The last thing I need is to get a shitty night of sleep before such an important thing.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Anybody got any tips or websites to recommend for making your closet?

I ripped out all the old ghetto metal shelving from both closets and when I'm finished with the master bedroom walls up to the priming point, I'm going to want to start thinking about how to design my closets so I can hang my clothes again. Till then, I'm living out of boxes like when I first moved in :(

Holy crap, trim is expensive! The old stuff had to go, so I can't cry about it, but boy.... I may have to put that stuff off for a while after the rooms are painted so I can buy more important things like gutters, a generator and a new sump pump. I've got a badass Rockwell router... maybe I'll try my hand at making my own baseboards and door and window trim.

Just have to decide if I want stained wood or if I want to paint it all white. I do really like both options.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Post got ate. will re-write later. *sigh.


Ok, gonna type fast, lest the Posty Monster get me again...


I would try making yer own trim, if ya can. We got a big batch of that universal three line trim at auction, and when I ran out we bought it in bulk. I like white 'cause it's easier to touch up, but we also have a room that has walnut stain to match the french doors, and it goes well with tuscan bronzed hardware-which I am in LOOOOVE with. I use a minwax product that is both stain and finish together called "wood sheen" that looks great and saves about a years worth of separate stain and top coats..

Just remember to bring light and darker elements into any color pallette, to create depth.

And as for designing closets, I don't. I'm a big fan of using decent pieces of furnature for that, the way they did 100 years ago. No matter where I go, my clothes are always in the drawer I left 'em in. We hang up dress clothes and shirts, but that's about it.

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Another eaten post Wish! The back button trick doesn't work for you, huh? Bummer... would have loved to hear what you originally had to say.

Thanks for the tips though. I'm going to be talking to my step dad about making the trim. I forgot that he has a machine in his shop that you can just run stock through and it will come out the way you want it! You can even do curved molding with it after the template is set up.

My taste is for Wide and decorative baseboards and door trim. To get that pre-made and ready to stain in Oak, it would cost a fortune!

Unfortunately, the trim is quite a ways down the road though. I'm going to finish primering the two bedrooms, the upstairs hall and the stairwell, the living room and the coat closet downstairs first. After that, it's off to Benjamin Moore for some premo paint once I figure out what colors I'm going with. Then I gotta clear out the upstairs completely and sand and treat the hardwood floors. Then I get to fill the upstairs back up and clear out the first floor. Then I treat the steps going to the 2nd floor and the livingroom floor, coat closet and pantry hardwood.

Only then will I be ready to put the new trim in..... Boy.... It's a lot of work, but this is going to look amazing when I'm done. I need to get my sister-in-law and my step-mom over here for some color ideas. They're good at that kind of stuff.




Oh... I finally got a chance to put my snowblower to use. It's AWESOME!!!!! It's as loud as a jet engine and shoots the snow 10 feet. It still took me about an hour to do it, but it went quicker when I got the hang of it. The driveway is so huge it would have taken me 5 hours to do by hand and some massive back pain.



BTW... what did you think of the bedroom pics? Did you see them? I know I've been posting quite a lot here, you may have missed it.





EDITED TO ADD:

Have I ever mentioned how freakin' awesome the internet is before?

I have a pipefitters union test coming up in about 10 days. Figuring it wouldn't be a problem at all, I didn't actually crack the study book until this morning....

Reading Comprehension..... check
Basic Math.... check.....

Lowest Common Denominator..... uuuuuhhhhhh????

Don't get me wrong... if you ask me the lowest common denominator of 1/2 and 3/4, i'll tell you it's 4.

But what is the lowest common denominator of 5/6 - 3/7 + 5/8??????

I honestly stared blankly at that question for at least 5 minutes before I looked at the answer in the back of the book.... 168.

After my house work today, I decided to put Google to good use. Searched for "Lowest Common Denominator" tricks.

The trick that came up was more than I could have hoped for. Even though the example used was only two fractions, it took me only about 15 seconds to figure it out with 3.

First, you throw away the Numerators (top numbers) as they don't matter when figuring it out.

Then you just make a graph of any multiples that make up the denominators and circle the Root numbers.

Ex:

___6______7________8

__2x3___prime 7___2x4
___________________2x2

Then you look at all three columns. Whatever column has the most of a specific number in the bottom row is what you go by.

there are 3 "2's" in column 3, so you write down

2 2 2....

Then, after throwing away the "2" in column 1, there is only one 3 in column 1, so you write a three next to them...

2 2 2 3....

7 (column 2) being a prime number, there is only one.

2 2 2 3 7

Multiply them all together.

2x2x2x3x7 = 168!

That sure beats the fiz-nuck out of the 3 suggestions the practice booklet suggested.

Not for nothing, but I don't think they'll even ask us to figure out the equation beyond that. If they do.....

6x28=168
7x24=168
8x21=168

So....

5/6 - 3/7 + 5/8

is

140/168 - 72/168 + 105/168 = 173/168 (unreduced fraction) or 1 5/168 (mixed fraction)

Between my two respected vouches, my story about fixing my own sabotaged furnace using the internet and being one of probabl

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I'd love him to be a girl- for a day... Then things wouldn't get lost in translation so darn much

I fuzzed out somewhere after "lowest common de.......???"
I didn't see any point in paying attention past geometry, and that was only half way.
Hubbs is gonna have to take over that part of our kid's edumacatin'.

Yes I saw the pictures, it's a nice blank slate. I'll admit- I'm not soo patient.

I remembered the other reason I like white trim, if you get gaps and not so great fittings, a tube of caulk and some more paint makes everything kosher. You can do the same with clear caulk and wood stain, but I think the white looks soo much cleaner...
If'n you didn't already know this. Few people I've talked to haven't, is all.

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Believe it or not, the lowest common denominator is pretty basic math. I just haven't used it in about 15 or 20 years. I got lost in honors Geometry and got my first C and when I took College Algebra and Trig Junior year I just skated by with my only D ever in public school. The only reason I don't have a damn Associate's degree today is because after three times tryin' I couldn't pass Algebra 101.

I know the white is easier to work with, and I really like the way it looks. It's just that if I'm going to be replacing everything and shelling out all of that cash, I think I'd rather have the stained oak trim. I was thinking of keeping the hardwood floors a pretty light color and staining the trim dark. Down the road, when money allows, I'd also like to put some dark oak crown molding at the top as well.



Thanks about the bedroom . I really put a ton of time into that room. I thought the master bedroom would be easier, but there is a ton of bad spots... cracks mostly, and the plaster layer over the stone drywall in that room actually has separated where a lot of the cracks are, so instead of getting to any mudding today I was just doing some massive prep work.

Hopefully I'll have the first mud coat up by tomorrow night. It was nice not having any electric to do in that room. I was thinking about adding electric in both rooms to have an overhead light in the closets, but I really don't want to create all that extra work. The closets aren't huge anyways. I bought those LED motion sensor lights, but I'm not really happy with them for a closet scenario. They're not bright enough and they have a really non-warm feeling to them. They have their uses in other spots, but I'm going to have to spring for more expensive models for the closets.



As for designing the closet in the master bedroom, it's not a perfect rectangle. An overhead view of it would look something like this:

0000000--------------------
0000000
0000000
|
|
|
------////////////---------

(and imagine a stright wall on the right side, but fff.net won't let me put spaces in like that).

The "0's" above, I believe, is for some sort of duct work, likely going out through the "chimney" on the roof. I'm thinking it's the exhaust path for the hot water heater, and if I had a furnace in the basement for that too. The "////'s" are the double sliding door that I removed temporarily.

It is pretty deep on the right side though. Before I took everything down, there were two rows of poles to hang your clothes on. I hated that though, and most everything in there was a nasty metal that was starting to rust anyways.

I was thinking that maybe I'd build a shoe rack out of oak planks on the left side in front of the duct work, and on the right side I'd hang a pole in the back that wrapped around to the right side. This way you could walk in it a bit and see all of your clothes. I'd lose a little bit of "hanging" real-estate this way, but who wants to try to grab any clothes from the back pole when you've already crammed the front pole full of hangers? That only serves to make you put clothes you never wear anymore on the back row and since you never look at them you're hanging on to crap you should just give to goodwill.

The closet in the small bedroom will be easy to design. It's only about half as deep, but it's a perfect rectangle.


Looking forward to having some more before/after pics in about 5 days or so.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Big tip for DIY'ers here:

http://drywallschool.com/

Awesome site. It's always really cool when somebody who knows a lot about something shares their knowledge for free. Sure, he asks for donations, but I'm sure he doesn't get much and that's to cover the website costs. He does drywall repair and painting for a living, so he also gives suggestions to minimize downtime for things like waiting for stuff to dry.

DO I WISH I FOUND HIS SITE BEFORE I FINISHED THE 2ND BEDROOM!!!!!!

His suggested methods for permanently fixing cracks in walls/ceilings are superb! The way he spreads the mud works great and only requires 2 coats, instead of the 3 coats I did before. I haven't sanded anything yet, but from the looks of it, there should be a ton less dust when I get to that.

The biggest reason I wish I saw this site before though was the preventative maintenance. If there are cracks in your wall or ceiling, it's because of the shifting of the house (duh). After you cut your divots out to mud, you should fasten screws on both sides of the cracks to the studs/joists before mudding to ensure that any future shifts are minimized. It seems elementary to do so now that I know, but in all of my years of rehabbing I never did it before. I was never taught to do so.

Oh well.... At least my Master bedroom and my future projects won't ever crack again. If it happens to my 2nd bedroom down the road, I'll just know how to do it right next time around.





Oh... BTW.... If I haven't mentioned it before, you'd be doing yourself a great service to buy a few plastic wall brackets for your plates for coaxial cable and telephone jacks. They sell them for about $1.20 at Menards. You cut a hole in the wall just wide enough to fit them in and then screw the movable braces in the back until they pinch the drywall. Gives you a perfect outlet to screw the plates in every time. No more loose plate covers from screwing into drywall.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Oh well.... At least my Master bedroom and my future projects won't ever crack again. If it happens to my 2nd bedroom down the road, I'll just know how to do it right next time around.

---

That's the one biggie I'm gonna pay someone else to do here...We were surrounded by surface mines when we bought the place and they got close enough the last couple years that the couple cracks we had have multiplied, fortunately the closest one stopped blasting- but not before makin a mess. I can't hold my arms over my head for too long, or I'd do that too. And I can't really blame the companies, after all- that's what hubbs does for a living...

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Tell hubbs to get on it lol......

I don't blame you for paying somebody else. It's miserable work. If I was a master "mudder", than it wouldn't be so bad but I keep dropping mud on the ground and I build everything up so much that I'm spending 20 minutes sanding a 4 foot patch on the cracks.

It will eventually be awesome, but what a bunch of BS work.

If I owned my own business I'd gladly be paying somebody minimum wage to do this sanding.

Then again, they would probably just F it all up, right?

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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I talked to a guy at a home improvement place today WHO KNEW WHAT THE HELL HE WAS TALKING ABOUT! Mark this day down, I haven't had that happen in YEARS...

I'm sure he'll quit next week...

I been busy re-organizing closets and pantry and cabinets this week.

Next warm day I get, I get to finish making doors, 6 of 'em. Matchin' doors with matchin' doorknobs- HERE I COME, WHOO!

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by Wishimay:
I talked to a guy at a home improvement place today WHO KNEW WHAT THE HELL HE WAS TALKING ABOUT! Mark this day down, I haven't had that happen in YEARS...

I'm sure he'll quit next week...

I been busy re-organizing closets and pantry and cabinets this week.

Next warm day I get, I get to finish making doors, 6 of 'em. Matchin' doors with matchin' doorknobs- HERE I COME, WHOO!

---

Haha! I've always thought the same thing about those home improvement places myself. I actually hadn't even been approached by an employee of one of the stores for years. Imagine my surprise when I started shopping at the Menards in Gary (of all places) and if I spend a half hour there I get at least two people asking if they can lend a hand! I've never actually had to ask anybody about a project, so I can't speak to there level of knowledge, but whenever I've asked somebody there where something is they always point me in the right direction.



Uh Oh...You know the cold weather has hit when you're reorganizing closets and cabinets. You're not right in the middle of the huge Indiana snowstorm they're talking about quite a bit south of me, are ya?




I don't have much room for anything in my kitchen, let alone any space to really organize anything. I don't have a drawer large enough to store knives, forks or spoons, I've got two Lazy Susans up high that really just seem to waste more space than they're worth, and the majority of the other cabinets are either narrow or short. It doesn't help that there's a huge black hole called a dishwasher that I'll never use wasting a full cabinet. Oh yeah.... I do have a very large pantry that I'll be able to use someday, but for now it's my tool shed. It's the perfect spot for tools right now since there is so much room in there and it's really in the most central location in the house.



"Making" doors, huh? Not sure what you mean there exactly, but I assume you mean that you didn't spring for the pre-hung doors and you've got a lot of measuring and drilling and chiseling in your future. Ouch. I don't envy you. I HATE hanging doors. I had to do it for the finished crawl since I had to cut a door that was 72" tall on one side and 53" tall on the other side (and I built my own door jambs for it too). When I finally get around to putting matching doors everywhere else though, I'll wait for a good sale on the pre-hung variety. As cheap as I am, I feel it's well worth the extra money not to have to make the 6 doors I'll be needing as well.

Good luck with that!



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Took my union test today....

Messa think I did good

I know I didn't get 100% of over 200 questions, but I'd be really surprised if it was less than 97%.

As a bonus, I felt invigorated enough when I got back to plow and shovel the nearly 8" of snow we got when I got home.

After figuring my own taxes yesterday to only be about 130 bucks over what I pre-paid, and realizing that there's no reason to call in a third party to pay to verify my findings, it's been the beginning of a beautiful weekend, regardless of the heavy snowfall.

But I just got the email saying my 6 month car insurance premium is due today.....

DAMN!

Why do I pay so much as a single, +25, unmarried male. No offense intended, Wish, but most of the infractors of my pet peeve (severe tailgating) are women. As much as I believe that women should make the same wages as men do for the same positions, I believe that women should also pay equal prices for car insurance, now that we're all driving to work a relatively equal distance.

There's nothing in the female psyche that says that they're inherently better drivers than males. That was an arcane conclusion back from the days when men typically drove more because they were the only ones who worked outside of the home.



I love driving. When gas was 99 cents a gallon, I REALLY loved driving. I would just drive anywhere and nowhere to blow off steam. Listening to music in my ride was the best therapy in my early 20's. I never suffered from any form of road rage..... that is.... unless somebody was riding my ass.

I LOVE this clip.


Don't invade my space

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Why do I pay so much as a single, +25, unmarried male. No offense intended, Wish, but most of the infractors of my pet peeve (severe tailgating) are women. As much as I believe that women should make the same wages as men do for the same positions, I believe that women should also pay equal prices for car insurance, now that we're all driving to work a relatively equal distance.

---

I'm sure you did a good job on your test, but if it were perfect you'd get $5. Heh. That's what mah kiddo gets when she gets her spelling test for the week right...

We didn't get ice, but I drove through where it was today, EESH. Ditches were auto graveyards... And yes, too cold for mama to do anything where it's not hot.

It's funny you should mention the women vs men driver thing because I had an argument with someone about that recently and looked up the stats. Men STILL drive more miles annually than women do(think truckers), and on average when they have wrecks the wrecks do more damage. As for women tailgaters, that just must be a your region thing, because the guys here with the big trucks will not hesitate to hump the bumper of ANY vehicle smaller than they are. I know I ain't in any hurry, po-dunk will still be there when I get there

I remember workin a gas station in 1999 and we had a price war with the peeps across the river... I personally lowered the gas to 88 cents a gallon that day

Oh, and that cut and paste thing when my comment won't post only works half the time, sorry...

Well, Happy chinese new year, Monday. May it truly be a dragon year for us all, even bad drivers

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5 bucks for a perfect spelling test!!!!!!!!

I remember getting 5 bucks a year in free tokens for the ticket-machines at the local arcade if i had straight A's, but WTF???? LOL... I shouldn't be surprised. All of our bills above a buck are starting to resemble monopoly money colors.

It's BS about men driving more overall, especially when you can easily store driving info in a computer and dole out prices based off of that info if you wanted to. I've had this car for 2 years and I've only put 4k miles on it. I don't have a CDL, and I don't drive a sports car.

As for a "my region thing", it's possible, but I've driven a 280 mile radius from the south suburbs of Chicago, and this is especially true there. I can only speak of what I know. 9 of 10 times or more that I'm being tailgated it's by a woman. In my mind, this is the number one cause of accidents after drunk driving.

Can't speak for the male-hillbilly-mentality. That's not to say at all that you or your family are hillbillies where you live (and I know you aren't), but that MO seems to be stamped out a lot in the "urban" areas where I've lived. Around here, the girls are the first to fight each other and scratch each others' eyes out. I've gotten in the middle of this several times in the last few years and carried a girl outside to make her cool off.

Seriously, about jumping bumpers and stuff, all I can think about is plots to "Justified". All I can say is that I don't envy anyone living in an area where there is probably 10 meth "labs" in spitting distance.

Any "civilized" part of America, I can guarantee that the Women drive much more crazy than the men. But, I digress.... I shouldn't be talking to you about this, I should petition my insurance company about that.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm 88 cents a gallon. I LOVE the late 90's!!!!!!

I remember the times when it was worth it for me to cross the border to buy gas for 78 cents a gallon and cartons of Marlboro for 15 bucks. (Saving me 10 cents a gallon and 2 bucks for a carton).

the new mellinium!!!!!!!!

I remeber when a 2 hour joyride to clear the mind cost a few bucks.... Now I have to work about half a day for the same pleasure.

As long as nobody is riding my ass, my ride is my meditation.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Ohh, you don't wanna get me started on she/he warfare this week, I'd rather have a woman ridin' my bumper than a man molesting my kid. One out of every 4 of you will do something atrocious to a kid...

Like I said at Xmas, my religion is Stay-the-hell-away-from-humanity. I've been stabbed in the back and used by sooo many people, I feel like the internet is the only place even capable of half-way nice human interaction...and that only a part of the time...

Anyway, back to the nice safe topic of home improvements.

Yesterday, I went downstairs to do laundry, and started it up and thought "Hmmm, why are my toes in a puddle??"
Flipped over the machine, unclipped the leaky piece, ran to the appliance part shop and said "I need one of these things!" I love my appliance shop, the guy had one in hand before I even set it on the counter, hah.
Came home, clipped it back in and even had time for a cuppa tea and a pat-myself-on-the-back before picking up kid.

I'm countin' yesterday a win!

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Woah Horsey! lol

Just remember, the original definition, the entamoligical definition of pedophile is actually "a lover of feet".

Why is this?????

"Both spellings "paedophile" and "pedophile" are correct. The British predominantly use "paedophile" and the USA uses "pedophile".

I suspect it was another case of Noah Webster "Americanising" the "British" English as paedophile doesn't "flow" as required. That being the case it has nothing to do with the root, the original root "children love" in paedophile is correct. "Pedo" does not mean "foot" in this context, it is just the Americanised spelling of "Paedo""

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100114164344AAVgaK1

1 out of 4 will only do something awful to your kid if you've been brainwashed by cop shows on TV.

If your daughter was 14 and complimented me on my sports coat, the most I'd give her in return is a thanks if she wasn't 18 and possibly a cheap gold and small diamond necklace trinket if she was over 18. (Don't hate me if your 18 year old daughter fell for me.... she could do much worse ;))


I feel for you being used. My brothers and I were mere pawns in the parents' "end game". The only thing is that my Dad is, and has always been the stable one. He never said anything bad about Mom... it was always Mom that bad mouthed him growing up.....

I love my mom, but only recently has she been "normal" after being diagnosed bi-polar and put on meds. I hadn't talked to her for nearly 10 years before about 15 months ago, but now we get along great. She ruined my relationship with my father twice in my life though. Looking back... he was the only one who cared about me with unselfish reasons at the time.

And I fucked him over, and in the process, fucked myself and my two younger brothers over with my decision with who to live with at the time.



Neither of my parents were bad, but especially seeing how successful in business my half-bro and step-bro are today, we'd all have been 100 times better off in the end game had I chose my Dad.









As for home improvement, neither of my parents knew crap. At least my step-dad can fill in there.

I'm just lucky that now that I'm 32, he thinks of me more of a son than either of my real parents did while using me and my brothers as pawns when I was 6-17

Thanks, Step-Dad,
~6


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book8

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I'm not implying YOU would do anything, I'm saying as the mother of a daughter-and someone who reads the news (btw, I clicked on our local news the other day, and ALL the top stories were pervs ) that I am wary, no matter how ya spell it...

Also, I had a neighbor who seemed like a nice guy until I heard the tone in his voice when he said "Oh, you have a daughter??" Then I found out he had a massive porn addiction, and then couldn't let my kid go outside alone...Needless to say I breathed a huge sigh of relief when he moved away...I've got other stories, but some people know I come here, soooo....next topic...

I will not divorce. And I understand all too well what you are saying. I won't get started though, because my past makes me angry. I'm sure you understand. Sooooo...next topic...

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Right-o, Wish

Pending the regular background checks, I believe I got myself a job lined up for about 3 weeks from now. I know I NAILED the interview today. It'll be something to tide me over and get me back into working on somebody else's schedule, which will be good since I haven't worked a real job in over two years. The pay isn't much, so here's hoping the Union job pans out a month or two later.



I've fallen WAY behind the master bedroom remodel though. I've spent so much time the last 2 weeks studying for the union test and doing my own wicked-hard income taxes that the rehab has taken a back seat. Hope to get back in the swing tomorrow.




This is the first time doing my taxes that I've ever had to call the IRS for help with something. Filing correctly for two separate IRA distributions from both a Roth and a traditional for a first time home purchase is a nightmare to the un-certified DIY'er. Google is NO help with that. WAY too many variables to construct the perfect text phrase that will give you the answer, assuming it's even out there.

The AWESOME thing though, is that I discovered that 401k/IRA retirement distributions are not taxable income in IL, even if you're not retirement age. I can't believe that...... How could that be possible? IL TAXES EVERYTHING THEY CAN GET THEIR GRUBBY, CORRUPT LITTLE HANDS ON!!!!!

So because of that the $850 tax burden I thought I'd be shouldering come April is a much more satisfying $130! (Thanks IL, for the free water heater and washer/dryer combo!)


I've never had to do a partial resident state tax thing before. That wasn't too hard, but it was way more detailed than I've ever had to be for state stuff before.

Not to mention us IN folk have a billion more forms to fill out than the standard 2 page IL forms I grew up with. It's a lot more work, but I like that better though. It seems like next year when I'm living here full time there are a lot of things that I should be able to deduct to go above the standard deduction. In IL, there are very few things like being blind or handicapped that I never fall under.

Not to mention that IN state income tax is (currently) 1.6% less than IL, and Lake county is the only county in the state that doesn't (as of yet) charge a county tax.

If only I didn't have to drive over the border to IL to dodge nearly $4.00 more in taxes on a 30 pack of cheap beer, IN living would be my own personal Nirvana......

Who am I kidding, it still is!






Anyways, if you don't pay somebody to do your taxes, and you need any help with something tricky, let me know. I'm pretty good at that sort of thing.




Glad to hear you got your washer water problem fixed. How's the pantry/cupboard re-org project going?

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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FINALLY!!!!!

I finished sanding the 60 sq/ft of overhead mud today. Got most of the other sanding done and put the 2nd coat on today.

I'm glad I wear contacts. I didn't spring for a non-fogging mask or goggles, so it's just a respirator here. Twice today I had to scurry into the bathroom and wash my eyes out when I got a big batch of the burning white stuff in my eyes.

Realistically, I hope to have the room primered 3 times by Wednesday. Most of the work will be done tomorrow, but the devil's in the details and the drying time.




My only regret so far now is finding out that in new construction houses are required to have smoke alarms that are hard wired to the existing electric (with a battery backup). Old houses aren't required to rip out existing walls to make this possible, but I wish I knew this before I made so many repairs and primered everything.

Oh well...

I WILL be hard wiring a smoke alarm in the hallway, which is much less than the required 15 feet distance from either bedroom on the 2nd floor. That should be enough to satisfy the nit-pickers when I try to sell this bad boy when the market stabilizes.

They'll just have to be happy enough with 2 closets with installed LED motion lights and 2 bedrooms with non-hard-wired smoke alarms they'll have to change batteries on twice a year.

Sure beats every house I ever looked at that didn't have either.







"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hi 6IXSTRINGJACK, well I didn't know you as I'm new, but Hi!

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Hey Wish,

I was wondering about something that I thought you could help out with. I'm still heavily considering going with stained oak trim for the doors, windows and floors upstairs rather than the white. I figure if I go that route, the trim will be a dark stain, and the floors will be a much lighter shade. When I put up blinds, they will likely be the real wood variety, and be a shade somewhere in the middle, leaning towards the lighter floor.

I'm just wondering if you're a lot more limited in the colors you can choose for a room when the trim is brown? Do you have any thoughts on this? Do you know of any website that has a easy way to peruse choices like this without having to browse through hundreds of DIY projects?




I'm actually going to have to weigh this color thing out really soon. Since I'm going to be working in about 3 weeks most likely, I've revised my plans. I'll have the bedroom primered in the next two days. After that I'm going to do everything that needs to be done in the hallway. From there, I need to have my colors picked out for the walls because I'll be under the gun to get the color up so I can still manage to sand and re-finish the upstairs floors before I start my job. I figure once I get to that point, I can do the window/door/floor/(ceiling?) trim at my leisure and when money permits.





BTW... I had a GREAT idea for the stairwell going up to the hallway. I believe have mentioned the large mirror on the wall at the top of the stairs that would cover the access panel to the shower in a previous post. This would offer a great reflection of the chandelier from the ground floor.

Well.. just today I thought a way to take it even to the next level.....

When you're in the hallway looking down the stairwell, there's a blank, boring half/wall up high that just stares you in the face. (Behind where the chandalier would be hung). I'm thinking that it would look GREAT to have a large wrapped canvas piece of art hung there behind the chandalier. This would look amazing either from the top of the stairs, or in the reflection of the mirror from the first floor.



(Without having a photo to show you, please allow my VERY humble stick work to explain what I'm talking about. An architect, I definitely am not )

I had a better idea though, that would take a lot more work, but I think it would be so worth it.



In this picture, I have "built out the corners of the end of the stairwell at angles with the intention of being able to hang a 3-piece wrapped canvas such as this one available at Overstock.com:





Wondering what you think about all of this. :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by ShadowTek:
Hi 6IXSTRINGJACK, well I didn't know you as I'm new, but Hi!

---

Hey ShadowTek. Nice to meet ya!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hey again!

I downloaded the "Gimp" free image editor. It's AWESOME!!!!!!

I got a few updated pics to show you what I'm talking about here :)

Here's the first, easy version....



Here's the more involved version....



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hey again Wish,

Grrrrrrrr....

I'm looking at DIY sites for bedroom ideas and I'm seeing a lot of things I would have liked to take the time to do before getting this far into the job. Most of this stuff is "lighting" issues. I haven't primered the room yet, but it would be so much double-work now if I were to rip up chunks of the ceiling to add things like track lighting and/or over-the-bed lighting. I also didn't take the time to add closet lights, which isn't as big a deal since my closets aren't HUGE and they have a lot of motion sensor/battery operated options out there.


I'm really starting to second guess my desire for wood stained trim. I'm not very good with colors, but I think I may be seriously limiting myself to what colors I can paint the rooms if I have wood trim and hardwood floors.

My mom's giving my brother and I each a large Oriental rug for our new houses that she was given by my Freat Aunt (Real Oriental, with the same connotations as "Fine China", not the dollar-store crap we've all come to know and love in the last 15 years).

Once I know what color(s) the one I'm getting is and I know how large it is, I'll know what room it's going in and I'll ask you how it would best work.

:)

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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First coat of primer up today!

Just a few "fixes" I needed to mud after the fact, but this room should only take 2 coats before I move on.

So excited to get to the hallway and finish the prep-work for the entire 2nd floor!


I can't for-sure tell yet, with all of the bleeding through that occurs in the first coat of primer, but I really think that my mud/sand job was perfect. There should be no visible shadows that you get when you don't sand the mud down just right.

I'll know tomorrow.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hey, Jack!
Sorry, I took a weee break and went to an aquarium in Tennessee for the weekend, we were sick with sinus crud all weekend but still managed to enjoy ourselves. Sooo many shiny happy skinny people in TN. Sooo vastly different from South IN...

I think doing a main show-off room in wood trims and floors is a good idea, the whole house would be a bit monotonous, BUT I FREAKING LOVE THE CHERRY BLOSSOM PIC!!! I was just telling hubbs I wanted to paint one in a room, heh.

I wish I had the unfettered time and energy you have. I can't seem to finish ANYTHING lately, soo much pulling me away, soo many projects half finished....

Soooooo much sinus meds

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Hey Wish,

Tennessee.... Dolphins and Manatees and Sharks and exotic fish!

Sounds like fun!

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was see the "Dolphin Show" at Brookfield Zoo, and then go "underground" afterward and just stare through the glass tanks and watch them play for as long as I could get my parents to let us stay there. They probably stopped using the song by now, but I later found out the song they used during the show was the instrumental from Chariots of Fire (which I've still never seen). I love that song to this day because of the childlike association to a high point of my childhood.

About Tennessee, after working closely for a few years with an older woman who was talking about how bad she wanted to move back to Tennessee when she and her husband retired, I found myself wanting to live there. Everything about it sounded like it would be so much easier to live a "Mal-like" existence. I didn't even look there when house hunting though because I'd be too far away from my family and friends. I'm not exactly the extroverted type that easily makes new friends. I'm plenty personable when I need to be and I know about 12 of my neighbors names on my block and their kids, but after nearly 6 months of living here it's not like we've ever broke bread or anything.




About the "too much wood", I was going to be putting large area rugs on much of the hardwood floors, so it wouldn't be all hardwood that you saw. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm getting that cool Oriental rug from my Mom, and in the other rooms I'll just wait until I can afford two more high quality area rugs or find them for a steal.

I think you're right though. I'm starting to lean heavily towards the white trim throughout. As much as I love the look of stained oak trim, it's a lot more work and the upkeep is much more intense. I've always liked the way that 4" white trim looks in any house/apartment whenever I see it on TV. I think with the white trim I'm also freer to use a wider range of color on the walls than I would if I had the wood floors with the wood stained trim.


So.... That being said, I'm desperately trying to figure out how I'll color the rooms on the second floor so I don't loose any precious days picking out colors when the hallway is complete. Any ideas of good colors for a master bedroom, a guest bedroom (maybe future kid's bed) and the hallway that joins both rooms to the bathroom the door to the finished crawl space and the stairwell to the 1st floor?

I'm pretty handy at doing the work, but I'm not so great at finishing touches. It would be nice to have a lady's point of view here too since the idea is to have a house that would instantly be attractive to any potential future Ms. 6's out there, while also maintaining a classy bachelor pad feel. Not that I ever went to college, but I don't want this looking the way that a frat guy would want his rooms to look. If the final touches were left to me alone without any female input, I might have done a whole lot of work for very little payoff in the end.

Rather than spring for the wooden blinds like I was thinking of doing, I may just go back to my vinyl blinds for the time being too. I figure if a woman were in my life, she might hate the (very expensive) blinds that I bought. I know there's no way that I'm going to pick out things like drapes while it's just me here. A) I think going that far without being married would more likely attract guys than gals, and B) I know things like putting final touches on a house are as important to a woman as the shoes or accessories to go with her outfits.

Not trying to be chauvinistic here if it comes off that way, actually it's quite the contrary. I'm really looking to make the house that's perfect for me now, as a single guy, but would in the end be a well oiled machine behind the scenes as well as a "brand new" looking house that would serve as a blank canvas for some special lady to put her magic to work on in the future.





I figure that I will likely keep the ceil

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My best piece of advice on colors is to go wherever you go to buy linens and look at the different combinations. There will always be a couple combos you come back to again and again. Find a piece that inspires you and work from there...I get the feeling from what little I've seen of the pics of your place that you could do with lighter colors and tints, but don't let me influence you.
I read an article that said if you have blue in your living room that it helps you be more creative, don't know if that's true, but I've always had a lot of blues around. There's a sage-y green color that was most popular new color for siding last year, and we like that with dark mocha and white. It would probably help if you figure out if you are a tint/shade/true/jewel/earthy tone kinda guy. I keep coming back to the clay-earthy colors, not because they are particularly attractive, but they are very calming for us...
You also need to figure out what kinda feel you want...Urban or refined or cozy or clean or jazzy or.... I kinda went with what I call "cigar lounge" feel- chocolate woods and brown leather with metalic accents(at least, in the living room, and mostly for hubbs).

This is a good time to figure who you are and how you want to feel when you come home.

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Thanks Wish,

That's all good advice....

Who am I though, lol? That's a tough question. I have absolutely no idea what to do about colors and the clock is ticking.

I must have had the most boring bedroom any kid ever had growing up. White walls, wood trim, gray carpet, and not a single poster hung up other than my Kathy Ireland poster on the door :). I didn't put any holes in the walls to hang anything for the same reason that I never got a tattoo. I always wanted to get a tattoo, but I can't commit to anything because I think that even if I liked it today, I probably won't like it 5 years from now.

My brothers, on the other hand.... hoo boy! While I was living at my Mom's and Step Dad's while doing my house search, I rehabbed the entire upstairs. My old room was a cinch. It was practically ready to paint straight away since I didn't do any damage to the walls. I probably spent 3 entire days patching hundreds of holes and ripped paint and removing tape marks and poster "gum" before I could even think of primering the first coat. I swear they must have had every single inch of space on the walls and ceiling covered with something.




The only "linens" I've ever purchased for myself were a black and white set for a twin bed (at K-Mart), and a burgundy set for my king sized bed (from Overstock.com). Both of these purchases were made while I lived in boring white rooms in apartments I was renting. (As much as I love my burgundy sheets and comforter, I will probably end up trashing them because I know there's no way I'm going to put up any color on the walls even resembling Red.

I never wear reds/yellows/pinks or really light/bright blues and greens. Most of my clothes tend to be black/white/brown/dark green/dark blue, and if I'm feeling particularly adventurous I throw on one of my dark purple shirts. I love wearing my dark purple dress shirt with my suit I bought at Carsons for special occasions. (70% off 550 dollars on double clearance, of course!)

That all sounds "earth-toney" to me, but I'm not an expert on those things.

Calm also sounds good to me. I'm a pretty intense guy by nature, and I'm looking to simplify my life and find some inner peace and an overall feeling of tranquility when I come home from work.

The only thing I know about the living room is that I will eventually have a large leather couch set. It will likely be either black or brown.... possibly dark green if I find just the right shade.



So.... I don't exactly know who I am , but I know I want a very relaxed atmosphere in the house. I also know that I don't want any colors so "loud" that it turns other people off whether it be guests, a special lady, or potential buyers if I ever decide to sell it.

It sounds like earth tones are the way to go then, huh?

Any further suggestions based off of that?




BTW... a cigar lounge type feel for the living room sounds great. Too bad I make myself either smoke outside or upstairs in the finished crawl. As much as I hate to admit it, there is a ton less dust when I don't smoke inside, and the place just smells a hell of a lot better.

The finished crawl (3rd floor), was actually the biggest selling point for me. I knew the moment I first saw this place where my man-cave would be and I'm thrilled that after nearly 6 months of smoking in here that none of my guests have been able to smell a trace of cigg odor when they come over.

Even better, I have no plans of ever rehabbing this area. It's not going to ever come close to the standards I'm setting for the rest of the house, but since It's really just a bonus extravagance and a glorified storage area, I don't see any reason to ever spend a dime or any future free time up here. Especially if I'm just going to smoke and ruin the walls anyways.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Master bedroom prime finished! It looks amazing! There's a huge echo in the room now without any furniture or carpet in there.

I hope to get the hall done by the end of next weekend and then its on to paint.



Anyways... I think I may end up doing a very dark wood color for the floors after seeing a room idea on BenjaminMoore.com that I LOVE. Do you know if there are any pitfalls that come with a dark floor? Also, if I decide that I wanted the dark floor only upstairs and a lighter color for the 1st floor, would it look awkward? Maybe I'd be able to stain the tops of the stairs the dark color while staining the vertical parts of the stairs the lighter color of the 1st floor as a unique transition that ties it all together?

Here's the picture of the bedroom that I loved:



I'm not excited at all about how they've decorated it, but I love the way the wall color works with the trim and the dark floor. The only thing I think I would do different in that regard is to put a slightly darker shaded accent wall behind the bed. What do you think, Wish?

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Heh. You read mah mind...
Seriously, I was thinking something pretty close to that pic (minus the thing at the end of the bed-one more thing to whack yer toes on ) I have no problem with darker floors, but I've only the one room in it, and haven't had it for long- so ask me again in a few years...

I like the idea of tying in the colors on the stairs, I've seen that done badly once and it still looked ok, so with your OCD, I'm sure it'll look perfect

I vote yes, go for it!!

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Great to hear you're on board Wish!

When all is said and done, I'm going to do one more thing on the stairs to tie the two wood colors together.... I'm removing the brown cast-iron banisters from the stairs (I HATE them!!!). I will replace them with some sort of sleek contemporary wood banisters. I figure the tracks that go up with the stairs I'll stain the dark color, and the vertical posts I will do in the lighter color on the 1st floor. The thick decorative molding that cases the stairs on the side opposite of the banister side will remain white. I've decided to use white trim throughout the house, so it will tie the 1st floor and 2nd floor trim together.

My only concern now is how slippery finished stairs can be, particularly if there are any little ones running around. Plus, any of the floors that are finished there will be a "no shoes" rule in place, making it even more dangerous. I wonder how to make those stairs safer without destroying the look I'm going for????





In non-theoretical news.... I finished my access panel to the shower upstairs today. It took me nearly all day to do it, but when the glue dries tomorrow it should be rock solid and perfectly flush with the rest of the wall. It's a paintable plastic composite, so in theory I should be able to blend it in nearly seemlessly with the rest of the wall. I thought it was a nice touch that the plastic cover already has an "orange peel" like texture on it, so after a few coats of primer on the walls and a few paint coats afterward the texture should match too, not just the color.

It would have only taken an hour to install the panel if I just glued it on top of the wall, but if I sell the house I don't think I'll leave a 400 dollar mirror behind so I'm glad that I took the extra 5 or so hours to make it as inconspicuous as possible.

In the end, a lot more work and time than I thought it would take, but at only 9 bucks on sale, the peace of mind that I can access the shower from behind without destroying the wall and kicking up a ton of dust on my finished floors was well worth the effort.




Man..... I wish this work didn't take so long for one guy to do alone. I'm so excited to see this 2nd floor and stair work for real and not just in my head. Showing people before and after pics of mold removal and wall repair is cool and all, but I really want to show some actual results for a change. Even when the walls are painted and the floors are done, I won't be able to justify buying the trim, window sills, and the materials to build out my closets until I'm working, but at least when I get it all to that point I will really start to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something and not just floating around aimlessly in a sea of "things to do".

At least all the work is still fun, for now. I just hope that I can keep that mindset when I'm balancing home repair with a real job that takes up a majority of my time not sleeping.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hey again Wish (and anybody else too),

I did the preliminary work for an inventive idea for the chandelier that I'm actually quite proud of. Being lazy at heart, I try to come up with the easiest way of doing things that is still safe.

A chandelier is heavy. Even if you're mounting just a 2lb decorative fixture, you are supposed to have the junction box either directly affixed to the joists above, or you need to use those extenders that affix to both joists if the fixture needs to be hung somewhere in the middle.

The only problem is, that this house has the thickest walls and ceiling I've ever seen, and a great majority of it is actual concrete and not gypsum board. (It's great knowing that it's all such high quality, but when you're trying to add electric or access panels, the work is really a BITCH.) It is VERY hard to cut through by hand and using a power tool throws so much dust everywhere that everything is covered in the end. I did not want to have to cut a 16"x6" hole in the ceiling just to hang a 4"x4" junction box, not to mention all of that extra drywalling and mudding necessary to cover it all back up.

Plus.... I'm doing this all while hanging precariously on an extension ladder that's braced up against the stairs. The 4"x4" hole I cut was scary enough to a guy that's afraid of heights and doesn't want to fall on stairs and roll down them with a broken neck.

So... Here's a mock up of the work I've done so far.....




I think the pic is self explanatory, but the main jist is that I didn't care what the floor above looked like since it's a hidden away storage area near the furnace that is the only non-finished place in the entire crawl space.

So my original idea was to use a "blank" junction box screwed into the "floor" plywood and let the actual fixture junction box hang from it.

In theory, it was a great idea by itself, but in practice, I just don't think I'm comfortable with hanging a chandelier and relying on the integrity of the board itself to hold the weight of the chandelier over the years, especially since the anchor lies almost directly between the two joists.

My question to you Wish, and maybe you could run it by your husband to, is how would you further anchor this, using some sort of metal support system that would branch out wide enough to span at least the length of the surrounding joists (which span 16" apart). I'm thinking using several lengths of small rebar under the anchor box would work, but since they're round they might roll with house settling and potentially drop the chandelier an 1/8th of an inch or so, enough to crack the ceiling. I want the solution to be thin though, because I would still like to screw 4 screws through the box and into the plywood in a way where the hanging box is completely level.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!!!


EDIT:

Oh, BTW...

This is all being done for this part of the project:



I decided against building the walls out for 3 hung pieces of artwork (cherry blossoms). It was really a bad idea looking back on it. If I want to do a 3 piece thing in the future, it would be much less work and much easier to "undo" if I were too just build frames for the artwork itself and hang them at the angles I was suggesting.


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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No worries......

Talked to my Step-Dad tonight about it. I sometimes overthink things so much that I become so tunnel visioned that the easy solution is beyond my grasp.

I'll just use a 2"x6" plank and mount the anchor above that. It could easily span 4 joists up there without ever getting in the way of any function and I would be able to shim it out any way I needed to to make the fixture box completely flush.

Hell... I'm going to even run an extra set of wires to that box. Right now, there's no light in that spot. It's the access panel door that you'd open to install a new furnace filter, which I just did today. It's really dark in there. If I get bored one day when all of the "real" work is done, I could extend a switch and a small light over the back of the furnace there to make filter installation even at night a snap!


Anyways, if you have any better, less conspicuous ideas, I'm still up for it. I just don't really care too much about asthetics where it's all located because nobody except for the "man of the house" would probably ever open that painted plywood door for any reason other than kids playing hide and seek. (Note to self: Whatever solution you use, make sure there are no accessable screws or jagged edges for any Curious Georges or Georgettes to sue me for)



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Anchor, junction box and flex conduit with two neutrals and two hots run near the "hot" box complete. The anchor is rock solid. Hope to have the electric done tomorrow and have my first coat of mud over the access panels and on the two fixture boxes and any other imperfections by tomorrow night.

When I was loading a complete living room set into my small Cavalier about 6 years ago, the mother said I must be an engineer to have been able to fit that entire set in such a small space. I do admit, it took a little creative work to get it all in there, but I'm just a dumb HS grad with some college. I told her that I was an Alumni of The College of Tetris.

Thanks Russia!



I'm really happy the electric thing is going to take a day or two less than I had anticipated, not to mention the extra day or two of mudding and drying time the other solutions would have added in the end. Damn... it's possible I'll have the priming done by Saturday and ready for the painting stage upstairs by Sunday!

Better get to choosing those colors ASAP!

Painting shouldn't really take more than 3 days if I plan it right. 4 or 5 days is more likely though. That would still give me 3 days before I find out my union test results, so I could, in theory, have all of the upstairs work minus trim, casings and ceiling fans done well before I even interview for the position.

Maybe I could even rip all of the hideous kitchen wall paper and repair those walls before I have a job even. Man... that would be so sweet!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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PIC UPDATES!!!! (YAY!)

Master Bedroom (Before/During):



More basic crappy windows/trim. Carpet was already removed.



Ugly closet and not put together very well.



Beautiful (not!) accent wall.



Though the coaxial cable was mounted properly with a plastic frame to attach the cover to, you can see they took a bit of a shortcut on the phone line. Hole-saw right smack dab in the middle of a stud. Nice touch :)



There were two cracks like this that spanned nearly 16 inches. The room took so long to do because the ceiling damage was much more than I had anticipated. As you can see here, I screwed 2 1/4" drywall screws through the 1" thick ceiling to the joists before mudding, which I have been assured is the only way to prevent the ceiling from just cracking again within the first few years of painting.



Mudded ceiling. 16 feet x 2 cracks x 2 feet of fanned out mud = 64 square feet of overhead sanding.... yuck!



Master Bedroom (After Primer Stage):



No more accent wall and a fresh start on the closet.



Proper installation of the coaxial cable and phone outlets.



No more cracks!


OOPS! I forgot to take a shot of the finished ceiling. I'll have to add that later. The entire ceiling looks smooth and free of defects like the corners you can see of it in the last few pics though!




Hallway/Stairwell Project:



Here's the access panel I added for the bathroom. I put the flange behind the wall so the cover will mount flush with the wall itself. All I need to do is mud around it and paint it and it should be barely noticeable, even before I get a mirror to cover it.



Hole in ceiling for junction box for Chandelier. After doing the project I mentioned in a previous post, thankfully, that was as large a hole as I needed to make, so mudding and sanding will be a breeze.



An overhead view of the contraption I made in a very hidden location to anchor the junctionbox for the chandelier. The white board is actually 2 42" lengths of 1"x6" that was shimmed with 2 halves of a wooden paint stirrer to maintain a perfect level. Four 2 1/2" screws were then drilled into countersunk holes through the plywood and into the joists. Four 1" 1/2" screws were then screwed through the box into the 1"x6" boards to the exact pressure to keep a tight, level box. (Up top and below). Two extra wires, a hot and a neutral, were also brought up into the unfinished area of the crawl so I can later add a light and a switch to illuminate the area when changing the furnace filter.




The Chandelier!!!!

Everybody I know won't have a problem clearing it. I had to remove 8 chain links to get that height. Unless Michael Jordan comes for a visit, it seems to be the perfect height for me. I also installed a decorative sliding dimmer downstairs which really makes it shiny.

Bummer that I found out you can only have one dimmer on a 3-Way, but at least I get to take one very expensive light switch back anyways. I won't say how much the switches cost, but let's just say that making this project really stand out in the end had a cheap guy like me do something he usually wouldn't ever do.

All I need now is to finish the hall, get my mirror and a nice piece of wrapped

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Anybody know a good way to remove contact paper from wood or walls? The tiny linen closet I have across from the upstairs bathroom is chock full of aqua blue-green flower print contact paper on the walls and shelves that had to have been born in the late 60's or 70's. I spent 3 hours today removing only about 60 % of it. And once you've left a small area un-removed, it takes ages to lift enough up to get a firm hold to pull that part up.

F-ing contact paper.

Sure... it has its utility uses.... It's very easy to wash if a bottle of drain-o or mouthwash explodes on them, or if you are a careless bastard and spill all over them, but really.... when would either of those things ever happen in real life when you're talking about a 9" deep storage closet for toiletries?

Just in case anything bad like that ever happens I plan on painting the entire closet in an ULTRA Gloss finish, and I will be staining the 4 shelves the same dark color as the floors and giving them 3 or 4 coats of poly.

Sure, it's a lot more work than contact paper, but it doesn't look so stupid and serves the same purpose... washable nearly-indestructible surfaces that will last decades to come.

The only difference is, my stained wood shelves on a stark, glossy white linen closet will aesthetically withstand the test of time 100 years from now. Any contact paper installed today would be out-daded 10 years from now.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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I would say hot blow dryer, if ya have one... but I think Beer would be better.

As in go get one.
Then find a pretty enough gal and send her one.

You working yourself silly is giving ME cabin fever...

C'mon, Valentines is just around the corner. Go get yourself a sqeeeze. Aught, aught, I don't wanna hear yer excuses. Now go...

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I actually have a blow dryer from my "hair down half my back days". If I thought there was a chance I could get hired in today's market with long hair I would do it again. Everytime I went for a haircut the girl cutting my hair would tell the other girls to run their fingers through my hair and feel how soft it was.

I cut it back in the day when I knew I was up for a promotion. I tried growing it long again, twice, but bailed out halfway. It's hard for guys to do that..... there's no way to make it look good in the "middle stages" as a guy, and when you're 32 years old you just look like a douche that lives in their mom's basement when you're trying. It's been nothing but short "controlled chaos" for the mane since then.....

I'll have to give the blow dryer a try tomorrow. Thanks Wish!

Beer on the wall probably wouldn't work though since this contact paper was made to outlive the cockroaches in a nuclear holocaust. Plus, I'd rather drink it.....



Oh.... I get it....

You sound like my mom and step-dad now lol.

My problem is I'm attracted to the high-maintenance girls and I don't have time for that in my life at the moment. I'm in mid-thrust building my castle for my future princess.

I just don't want to be distracted by "Mrs Right Now" when the end goal is to get "Mrs Right"



Once this house is a bit more put together and I get a steady job, that part shouldn't be too hard.

Relatively young, beautiful finished house, no mortgage, no kids, no STDS....

I'm looking for the girl that will give me a reason to stop drinking and finally shed those last 10-15 pesky pounds that are covering an awesome 6 pack that I know still lies beneath.

Valentine's Day is nothing to me. Just another Hallmark holiday. The last few years without a New Years makeout session with a model wannabe is what really hits home. There was a day when I was spending New Years with the hottest girl in the bar, whether it was my GF or somebody I hooked up with that night.....

My last two New Years were spent as the 7th or 8th wheel at married friend's houses with no potential 8th wheels, and even some of their kids.....



It's cool though... My old man did right the second time. Married a woman half his age that already had a kid. She's just as frugal as he is.... a perfect match. They put him and their shared kid through very expensive collages on full scholarships.

One is likely to be at the forefront of renewable energy and the other could pretty much do whatever the F he wants to do after showing his grades at the college he went to. Neither of them paid a dime for college except for taxes.....


I don't want to make the mistakes my old man made and marry early. I want to marry somebody that needs a leg up when I'm ready to provide it. He'd be sending his kids to college from free from his yacht today instead of in his suburban house while researching all the options from his modest suburban house.



My step brother today is one of the most stand up guys I've ever known in my life, after 12 years of my old man in his life. Being a kid without a father in the picture and a 16 year old mother he could likely be a drug dealer today if not just a hard core user. He had a stand-in-Dad that made enough that his mom could stay at home all day and keep a perfectly clean house and help the kids. She might not have made any money at her job all those years, but the dividends paid out by two well educated and well adjusted kids in today's climate will be paid in full.




This world? Kids of my own? Hell no. I'm not going to add any of my own to it. But I'd be honored to help the right Woman to make her illegitimate child from a deadbeat be everything he or she could be like my Dad did. I give him even more cred since he had a kid of his own the second time around and this one would probably be a household name in the average American household if he ever decided what he was going to do with his 172 IQ.



It's crazy to me that my s

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Thanks Wish!

Your blow dryer idea worked perfectly. I did think of doing that yesterday, but I didn't feel like figuring out where I buried it because I didn't think it would make that much of a difference. Man am I glad I found it for the top 1/3 of the removal... The "closet" is only 8" or so deep and is really only good for stocking toiletries. So to reach up that last 2' or so in such a small space would have been brutal if it kept ripping on me and I had to keep trying to peel up a new section with my fingernails. Not only did the heat loosen the glue a bit, but it also gave the contact paper a rubbery consistency so it was much less likely to break while pulling.

You easily saved me 4 hours of work here!


I Prepped the walls for mudding and actually worked a few hours late tonight to get the first coat of mud on. If things go well this weekend I'll have all of my furnature moved downstairs in prep for the floor refinishing and I'll be ready to primer the hallway on Monday. Should only take one day to primer it hopefully! Yay!



Oh yeah... I bought the coolest cheap little plastic tool today. Actually, it was one tool that came in a set of 8 plastic tools for 99 cents at Menards. It's a scraper that looks a bit like a shaving razor and you can replace the blade with utility knife blades when it gets dull. It made scraping away the gunk where the door casings and floor trim were removed a breeze. Since there are 7 doors in the hallway (2 of them are just a decorative doorless frame), I felt it necessary to try to get a tool like this rather than using a utility knife like I did in the rooms. I easily saved myself another day of work by spending a buck.

It's really cheap and I don't think it would last too much longer with the abuse I gave it, but at a buck, who cares? Most of the other tools in there are pretty useless, such as a plastic utility knife, but there is one of those keychain knives that could come in handy. I used to have one, but it was so dull I chucked it.


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Some GREAT news I realized today.....

I already know that I can't use large (3 5/8") casings on the doors in the hallway because too many of them are too close to the walls to even think about it, but I wanted to use large door and window casings in the bedrooms.

For about a week there, after primering my Master Bedroom, I thought I messed that all up. Measuring where the light switch is to the entry way, I was coming up with 3 5/8" overlapping the beginning of the junction box, which would mean that I'd either have to notch the casing, or score the plate for the switch......

In my mind, I thought I forgot that I needed to move the switch over a few inches.

But, truthfully/thankfully, the idea was no longer on my radar because I didn't have to move it. I don't know what I was thinking. I was measuring from the end of the drywall to the switch, and not the extra nearly 2" from the actual end of the door frame.

This means oversized casings for the windows and doors in both bedrooms. Yay!





Got my second coat of mud up today and should be on track to start primering on Monday or Tuesday, even though I have to move a ton of furnature downstairs when my bro comes over on Sunday.

Once I figure my paint colors, my God, this shack is really going to start looking like a home come late next week!!!!!



I'm glad the 1st floor hardwood looks as good as it does. I always hated that my Mom and Step-dad treated the house like a museum when I was a kid. I'm already going to be instituting a "no shoes" rule for the 2nd floor when the work is done, but I might not ever get around to doing the 1st floor hardwood because I don't want to be "that guy".

It's good enough by far to be presentable with a few area rugs over it and not have to worry about people spilling stuff or tracking anything in.

Of course, I'll kick their ass if they do it and don't clean up after themselves, but I won't go out of my mind in rage if accidents happen downstairs if I don't put the work in on the floor.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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NO....
MORE.....
DRYWALL DUST.....!!!!!

At least upstairs anyways

One step closer. Tomorrow, hopefully will be two coats of primer in the hallway and I'll be set for painting! Hopefully the first coat doesn't reveal anything I feel needs to be repaired and I can just move right on to the second coat after the first is complete. Aside from the access panel for plumbing and the electrical work, the hallway was a much easier job than the bedrooms. Only one 2-foot ceiling crack and just a few minor wall repairs over 2 doors.

Wow... I'll really be painting the upstairs by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

I do believe there is a very good chance that my 2nd floor will actually be completely remodeled short of the trim, casings and window frames before the end of the month.

I can't wait to look at those before/after pics.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Hey Wish,

I don't have the exact color names yet, but here's what I was thinking I'm going to do. I wanted to run the ideas by you, and the reason's why, and see what you thought of them.

1) Hallway/Stairwell - Light Beige-type tint on walls, in a semi-gloss.

Why:
EXTREMELY dark hardwood floor stain.

Glossy White trim/casings.

Semi-gloss is easy to wash, and it the hallway/stairwell is likely to be a fingerprint haven.

I've heard that neutrals like Beiges are great for linking rooms of contrasting colors together in the hallways.

The stairwell will be VERY busy with my plans. As I've mentioned before, I want dark stairs with light vertical parts for the wood, and I'll match the wooden banister with this theme in mind. I will also have the mirror that will reflect the chandelier with a decorative piece of abstract artwork behind it. I can't imagine any other color than a neutral would work with all of this action without looking chaotic.

Plus... there is the question of the living room color and how it works with the hallway/stairwell.......

And so....

2) Living room - Darker Beige tint (eggshell).

Why:
Light varnish on 1st floor.

White trim/casings. (Probably going to put some thick, decorative white crown molding on the 1st floor too).

The dark beige should mesh perfectly with the light beige upstairs in the hallway and stairwell, as well as all of the potentially "chaotic" things I mentioned before.

The living room will likely be a host to a myriad of artistic pieces, and from what I hear, the neutrals-to-whites-are a great way to make the art stand out, even if it's a dark neutral.

The reverse-transition of dark beige on the 1st floor wall to light beige on the 2nd floor walls should work brilliantly with the contrast of the light floor on the 1st floor and the very dark floor on the 2nd floor.

The white trim throughout will be the thing that ties it all together.

Eggshell, because even in that sheen it should be completely washable using high quality paint (Benjamin Moore). This should be good for a living room. If anybody is "fingering" the walls with something like axel grease, I'll have to figure out how to get blood off walls too

3) Master Bedroom (about 16'x16' - A light to medium reddish tone (eggshell). (Not pink, by any means, but a lighter red that wouldn't be to dark to be imposing with the very dark hardwood floors).

Why:
It's the color of passion. I figure a few years after I get married and the walls don't even do it for us anymore, I could always change it to a tranquil green, right?

My fancy King Sized bed set that I bust out on special occasions is a burgundy color. (I don't waste that on myself. It costs me almost 30 bucks just to get the comforter dry cleaned!)

I never thought I'd consider a red on walls, but my mind has been changed after seeing some things online.

4) Secondary Bedroom - A very, very light blue.

Why:
Well... I'm hoping for a son to carry on the name in the future

It turns out that the primarily navy blue oriental rug I've inherited from my grandmother will fit perfectly in that room and only show about 1 foot of hardwood on all edges.

Blue is my favorite color.

As long as I'm single, I could just sleep in the 2nd bedroom if the red ends up too loud for my sleeping habits. (It would be better to keep the Master Bedroom clean for any after-hours hook ups anyways, right? .... next Valentine's day, perhaps???)



In all rooms, at least upstairs, I was thinking I'd go with just a flat white ceiling to absorb the light and mitigate the few imperfections with my mudding that are driving me crazy with the glossy primer showing. I figure with the DARK floors and the glossy white trim it would be a great contrast.


So... what do you think, Wish?

I need to figure this out STAT!

I just finished painting 2 coats of primer in the hallway tonight and now I'm ready for paint. I have a few misc things to take care of like removing the paint from a sloppy trim j

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I'd have to say, based on the last few months, that you were already a little high wired at eight, hah. I've started a drinking game based on the number of times you say "primer". hehehe....

I was walking out of my kids school this morning and saw one of my kid's classmates counting the blocks in the wall to his class, so intently he did not see or hear me say "Morning ---" even though I was right next to him. He's 9. I remember counting driveways to town when I was five, and my kid can't step on a crack because she heard that old poem, and she knows it's not true, but can't help herself... I think most kids pass through a period where they tried to force the world to make sense, to work for them. The lucky ones get to pass through that... The unlucky ones I feel for... I can't imagine the constant panic they live in.

Anyway, don't let it eat ya, Jack, they are just... walls. But yours look better than mine, I will tell you that. I didn't have the luxury of repetition, the stuff makes hubby choke and gag.

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A drinking game every time I say primer, huh? Be careful... If you're drinking the hard stuff you're probably getting way drunker than me.

Holy crap... your poor kid. I remember that old evil little poem. I couldn't step on cracks either... I don't remember how old I was back then. Old enough to know better, I'm sure. I never counted things, but when I was alone in a room sometimes I'd space out and imagine lines bouncing off the walls from different angles and which way they would ricochet when they hit.... (Apparently, either I wasn't very good at it, or my hand/eye coordination blows because I never was good enough to hustle anyone at pool)

Thankfully I at least grew out of that and I don't needlessly count things. I can walk out of the house with two different colored socks, I don't wash my hands a hundred times a day, and I don't drive around the block 3 times before I park.

I'm a perfectionist and a monomaniac though for sure. (I found out at my best friend's wives 30th B-Day party that he tells people I've never even met about his friend they've never met because he keeps to himself because he buries himself so deep into a project. He tells them he's sure I could build a time machine though if that was my goal).

This house will be a painstaking process until it's finished for those reasons, and aside from working the inevitable real job, I doubt I'll have much interest in any outside stuff until it's done. Hopefully when this huge project is finally through I can try to temper that instinct and enjoy broader range of social hobbies and not obsess so much on one thing.

Hopefully that's sooner than later, because I keep noticing more pesky gray hairs popping up over my earlobes. I shouldn't ever be bald because nobody in my family is, but I can't believe I'm old enough to start turning gray. What am I, Steve Martin?





I had another question for you Wish.

First, a picture....



The large white moulding on the right side of the stairs. Turns out it's Oak that's been painted white.

I was playing around with the idea of stripping it and integrating it into my Dark Wood/Light Wood theme for the floors and the banister that I'll eventually put on the left side. If I did this, it would be light wood on the molding, and dark wood on the corner-round on top.

At the same time, leaving it white has its merits too. Leaving it white is probably the only way to really tie the 1st and 2nd floor molding together. I'm not sure how good it would look to make that varnished/poly molding when it adjoins to white molding at the top and bottom of the same wall.

What do you think?

Thanks!



BTW... Happy Valentines Day! I didn't have nobody else to say it to today, so might as well live vicariously through the one female outside of my family I have talked to most since I bought the house.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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BIG TIME MONEY SAVING TIPS AHEAD FOR BENJAMIN MOORE PAINT FANS!!!!!

I've used Benjamin Moore paint on the job for years back when I learned much of what I know today. My boss always said, why would you put this much work into the background only to cover it with final touches that were inferior?

I've also used Sherwin Williams (another outstanding paint), Behr and Dutch Boy and many of the other "contractor grade" paints.

Benjamin Moore has always been by far, my favorite. Not only to work with, but the finish on even their flattest sheens in their highest grade paints are very washable and, so long as you like the color you chose, should hold up for decades to come.


In the past few days I've had a wonderful experience at the local paint store that carries all BM products. I've never been an "Apple" guy, but everything the Apple People say about the Apple Store Experience is exactly what I found here. They have an extremely knowledgeable and attentive staff (Especially impressive, since their store was in shambles during a massive cosmetic upgrade they kept apologizing to me for).

My first conversation two days ago was on the phone with a woman who was on a ladder while painting over a 50 year old mural kept right on answering my questions while working. She must have devoted 20 minutes to that call and gave me a lot of ideas I never even considered before. She never pushed for me to let her get back to her work, and I'm sure I could have gotten another 20 minutes out of her if I kept on asking questions.

She mentioned a "whole house rehab" discount that I could enjoy for 6 months if I waited 2 days when her manager came back in. I told her that I doubted I'd be rehabbing the entire house in 6 months, but she told me to talk about it with him anyhow.

So....

Today I met her in person and spoke with her manager, who also seemed to be at least 10 times as knowledgeable, helpful, and interested in the subject about all-things-paint than even the best home improvement store people ever were.


I had to laugh when the manager was actually running through the "whole house discounts" to me and what they entailed and he was very "quiet" about it when some other customers came in that were only buying one or two gallons. (I was only buying two gallons today, but after the rapport we built and their trust that I will be buying much more in the near and late future, that was totally beside the point).

Bottom line.....

I walked out of there with 2 gallons of premium paint and a premium brush for 106 dollars. I know it sounds like a lot, but particularly with the price of the enamel paint I'll be putting on the trim and casings, I saved over 35 bucks being put on this premium plan.

The girl was heavily pushing the top of the line "Aura" paint on me, which runs for 62+ a gallon (before discount) for every wall in my house. The manager, however, told me later that he would only recommend that for walls that I'm going really dark on. At normal price, the difference is not to much in price per gallon, but he's able to discount the 2nd to the top of the line paint about twice as much per gallon, and since I have so many coats of primer up he feels that I would be wasting money on any light colors that would easily be covered in 1-2 coats. (They guaranty 2 coat coverage for any paint in any sheen, but since Aura is a self primering paint they say that many times you only need one coat... that's not the case with the 2nd best).


Your biggest savings with the whole house discount will be on the premium "Satin Impervo" paint. It is an acrylic enamel that is designed to cover your door frames, casings, mouldings, and window sills/casings. Enamel, meaning, tough... think about how your teeth hold up over 50 or so years to the elements.

While the Impervo costs about the same as their top of the line Aura paint, the Aura is only discounted about 7bucks per gallon, the Impervo is discounted over 20 bucks per gallon with the whole house discount!



So.... that's it!

Build up

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I'm not tring to harsh your buzz, but I never leave the same color paint up for more than a few years, so buying premium isn't worth it for me. 'Sides if the color isn't right, I'm not out much.

Expensive paint, cheap paint, don't matter much when it's under another layer of paint... And a warranty don't mean much unless you plan to leave it for the next fifty uears, and who knows if THAT'LL happen....

I've already painted my basement and bathroom twice!

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Hey Wish,

I'm a lot more "permanent" than every few years, so no buzz harshed

The only thing that would make me repaint it quick is if I absolutely hated the color after it went up, which is why I'm being majorly over-concerned with color now.

I'd really like to do a deep red in my Master Bedroom, but I'm too chicken to pull the trigger on it. I think a darker brown with some reddish tints, like I mentioned in the color thread, is about as adventurous as I want to get at 55 bucks a gallon.

Even if you buy cheap paint though, you can get quite a deal with the "whole house" discount at BM. Their new contractor grade paint called "Ben" is on par with dutchboy and Behr, and without a discount costs as much as those paints do at Home Depot or Menards. Even if you don't plan on doing the entire house within six months, if you convince them that you're planning to they will give you a discount making it cheaper than you'd pay at your local hardware superstore.



There's four bonuses to buying the "Aura" BM paint though.

1) It's guaranteed that if you miss a tiny spot that you can use the "Aura" roller over just that spot and you won't even notice any evidence that you touched it up. (Any other BM paint is fine to use with my favorite Sheepskin roller, but with Aura I've been told that it will apply too much paint without the specific roller)

2) You're actually told to cut in the entire room before you begin rolling. The paint lays on so smooth that you don't need to rush to cut in and then roll before you're pulling up the half-dried cut-ins.

3) Aura paint is mildew proof and mold resistant.

4) With cheap paints, especially in hallways where hands are more likely to be touching walls all the time, you need to use at least an eggshell sheen to wash the walls without damaging them. In bathrooms, you should use at least a semi-gloss with cheap paint. Aura paints are completely washable with soap down to the Matte finish.

Matte finish = more absorbed light, so any wall imperfections are that less noticeable. I've never even heard that Matte finished walls were washable with soap before I researched this line of BM paint.




Anyways.....

UPDATES!!!!!

Hallway/Stairwell progress damn near done. This should be the last post for a while that you can drink when I say "primer". I'll make it worth your while and say it a bunch of times here so you can get plastered.

I'm actually going to start PAINTING upstairs tomorrow!




Here's a pic of the stairs under the carpet. What you can see from the pic is how they slapped paint everywhere without using tape because they knew they were carpeting over it. What you can't really see is just how many gouges and imperfections the large white molding had before I stripped it, repaired it with wood filler, and sanded it.




Here's a pic of the pre-primer stage. I had stripped off all the unsandable paint, filled in the 100+ gouges in the molding, and sanded enough of the adjoining stairs so i won't mess up the finish on the molding down the road when I refinish the stairs after painting the molding tomorrow.



See how much nicer painters tape makes everything look????

Unfortunately, I have to put new painters tape down tomorrow before painting 2 coats, but if I left the old stuff down there I probably would be ripping up dried paint otherwise. The amount of tape is minimal, so it's not a cost issue, it's just that it takes so damn long to put it down perfectly so you don't paint the stairs at all or you don't accidentally cover the molding slightly so it's not getting the paint you intended it to.






Here's an old pic that shows the door frames that I forgot about. They're the reason that I'm not done painting the entire 2nd floor yet. There's r

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Hey Wish, and anyone else who has casually paid attention to the work being done between my ramblings....

Door frames, Master Bedroom and Hallway/Stairwell paint is done!



I love how good the access panel to the shower looks with the Aura paint up. You can barely tell from the 1st floor. It won't matter once I get my mirror up there though.



Here's a shot of the hallway from the small bedroom. I think the contrast of the hallway color and the Master bedroom color looks great.

I'm just imagining what this view will look like when the floors are finished and the white casings, molding and windows are installed!



If you didn't see the pics of the painted bedroom in the other thread, here they are:







Tomorrow I paint the 3 closets with BM's lowest grade "Super Spec" paint in a white pearl sheen. Monday I'll be going back to the paint store to buy a gallon of Aura for the 2nd bedroom. After that, it's time to refinish the floors.

It's amazing how fast things seem to be going these last few days after months of behind the scenes work. Adding color sure is a quick way to make major visual changes and really give a boost in the morale department.

~6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Damn... I hope I didn't break my finger yesterday. I took a nasty tumble down my stairs and almost kept tumbling down the 2nd flight of adjoining stairs to the basement since there's no banister between them at the moment. I don't know what happened... I didn't trip or misstep, I my legs just kind of gave out on me.

First I fell on my back and then I was falling forward. My face almost planted on the corner of the first step going down to the basement, but luckily I was able to break the fall with my right hand about an inch away from breaking my nose on the corner of the step, and then tumbling down another 8 steps......

I took a break from painting today. I think I've been breathing in way too many paint fumes day in and day out the last couple days without being able to open the windows to vent them out.

My swollen, messed up finger sure makes doing a lot of things you take for granted painful, but I'm really just grateful that it wasn't a broken neck or spine.

Thankfully I'm still alive and not injured badly enough that I can't get right back into the work this week.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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My finger's not broke! Yay!

In an odd turn of events, it seems to be healing at a RAPID rate. The swelling went down and it barely even hurts anymore. I've got the full range of motion again. Very strange, since any damage to my skin seems to take ages to heal these days.



Got all 3 of my closets painted today and I picked up the paint for the small bedroom. After painting tomorrow I will be scheduling the floor sander rental (100 bucks for one day, yikes!)

Hopefully I'll be done with the floors and ready to move furniture back upstairs by the end of the weekend.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Better to get a little cold and waste sum heat than to reck your brain with solvent fumez, dude.

and

62$ per gallon?!??!!!! Iz that American dollarz or Lithuanian?

A little story that may amuze you.

Many yarinz ago, back in the 80z, I got this airless paint sprayer. This wuz wen they were first appearing in the storez, and the teknolojy wuz still being ironed out.

Being a bit uv a rebel, I got wun that worked different than the rest - insted uv using a piston to pump the paint thru a spray nozzle, this wun had a spinning weel that literally flung the paint out! Seemed like a reazonable idea to me.

I started painting the wall in my parents bedroom. The can sed it shoud cover so many skwer feet and 2 or 3 layerz bla bla bla.

I put on the 1st layer over a big patch in the middle but thot I must be doing sumthing rong, kuz I'd alredy used 1/3 gallon and the coverage wuz very uneven. I coud still see the old color. So rered the sprayer instructionz & the paint can and tried to even it out.

And kept trying to even it out.

No paint left! The whole gallon gon & I hadnt even cover the whole wall yet! Then I noticed the paint starting to sag in sum areaz!

So I ran down sterz & got the roller and a scraper and spent the rest uv the day transfering the paint frum that wall to the other 3.

I sold the 'sprayer' to a second hand store for 10 bucks.

-------------------------------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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Hehe.... Me no have cold but me feel not so smart deez dayz.

Bah... what's a little minor brain damage from paint fumes when I drink 6-10 beers a night, right?


Actually, I was wrong about he price of Aura. I found out today that their "retail" price is $63.29 a gallon. And, yes, that is US dollars. TOTALLY worth every extra penny though, I assure you. It's AMAZING paint!

I'm getting the "contractor" discount, so it's only $54.99, which is still a lot, but it's a huge discount.


Sounds like your paint sprayer story is like my brush with Scientology back about 12 years ago. It looked good on paper, but in practice it was just a mess. You're probably lucky you got 10 bucks for it in the end. :)

How's your math problem/theory and start-up business going? It's been a while since you posted. :)

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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I'v reached a sort uv conclusion on the trisek project. I think I posted a topic here for it, or maybe it wuz for the new KoMIKS I added.
http://www.zolkorp.com/TRiSeK.html

I got sum math books, so in a year maybe I'll be able to figure out how the TRiSeK V5 actually works and be able to refine it to the ultimate utmost perfect. (if it iznt alredy there)

Bizness iz same az usual, less income than an average lemonade stand.

Howz the finger now?

-------------------------------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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Hey JO753,

I did read what you were doing before, but I commented that it was beyond me. I can't even pass a college Algebra class. It really sounded impressive though.

Good luck on figuring out the V5 and perfecting it. Hope business picks up for ya sometime soon. You seem to have very valuable skills. Maybe you just need an agent? Know anybody with good PR skills who could sell your product or services?


The finger is MUCH better today, thanks for asking. I thought it was pretty much healed until I bent it backwards a little while painting and it was excruciating for about 10 seconds. Doesn't hurt to type right now though like it still did last night. Probably will be like new in a day or two. Really lucked out on that whole ordeal.






I got the last of my painting done, besides a few last minute touch ups I'm going to take care of tomorrow while I'm prepping the floors for sanding.

Behold, the 2nd Bedroom!



Not sure if you remember the clown colors of yesterday, but besides pictures as proof, they are all a distant memory. In the end, I ended up going with a blue-gray shade of Aura called "Instinct". It turned out a little darker than I was hoping for in a smaller room that doesn't get a ton of sunlight, but I think it's a very relaxing and peaceful color for a bedroom.

Also, there is no zero evidence of the ghetto rigged electrical boxes that were placed above the drywall.




This pic shows the nice contrast between the blue-gray bedroom and the middle-beige hallway.



Finally, here's a shot of the contrast of both bedrooms and the hallway from the viewpoint of the 2nd bedroom.

Also, after paint there is zero evidence of the work I did to bring the light switch into the room from across the hall outside of the room.


Getting ready to refinish the floors soon after taking care of other non-house related things that have been piling up. It's so exciting to be this close to done with the 2nd floor now!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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OMG! You RE-painted the whole room??! I mean, you made the right choice, but DAMN... You make MY fingers hurt just thinking about it!

I put in a planter bed fulla strawberries! Soooo pretty...

No word on the jobs front lately?? There's bound to be something popping up with the warm weather coming...

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by Wishimay:
OMG! You RE-painted the whole room??! I mean, you made the right choice, but DAMN... You make MY fingers hurt just thinking about it!

I put in a planter bed fulla strawberries! Soooo pretty...

No word on the jobs front lately?? There's bound to be something popping up with the warm weather coming...

---

Hey Wish,

Long time no hear

I didn't re-paint anything that I did before, just painted over the BS old colors an 2 months of prep work. The final coats of paint only took about 5-6 days. Tons of prep goes into perfect walls before you paint them though

I'm glad you like the colors.

I want to make a video to post when it's all done. You can get a better idea of the final touches then.

My finger is good. It's been better, but in a few days it shouldn't hurt anymore.



You know it's been a warm winter when you're planting strawberries in southern IN before March... lol.



I've got a job interview with the pipefitters on Monday at 8AM. I got an early slot on the first day of interviews, so I'm assuming I must have done very well on the test to get such a prime position. If I was scheduled for 4:30PM on Tuesday, I'd be a bit more worried.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Wish me luck,
~6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Looks very smooth! I like the shade. At least on my screen it looks very similar to the color I did my room in. Therez no name for it kuz I just got wite & added blue & black tint till it looked OK.

I started trying to make it a gradually deeper blue az it went up, but it alwayz looked like eazily vizable zonez, so I just went with a uniform shade.

No, I don't know anybody with salez talent that will work with me. I've tried, but I'm sucha bad salezman I can't even talk salezmen into believing that I can't sell!

-------------------------------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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Hi Six,

Good to see ya.

-----
So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, While just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs. - Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (1850-1919)

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by JO753:
... At least on my screen it looks very similar to the color I did my room in. Therez no name for it kuz I just got wite & added blue & black tint till it looked OK.

---

My kinda kludger!

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Haha, J (and Wish).... I'm not that artistic. I need pre-approved colors before I mess with anything.

Hey Canttakesky!, good to see ya too.

What do you think of the rooms!!!







Well... I broke down and ordered the drum and edge sander for 24 hours starting tomorrow, much earlier than I usually care to wake up.

It turns out, I still have NO idea how I'm going to stain the floor though......

I originally wanted this type of floor:



But after researching stains, I'm starting to think this floor was painted, or at least had paint mixed in with the stain. I definitely don't want to paint the hardwood, and I'm WAY too novice at this to try dicking around with mixing stain and paint to still see a subtle difference in the grain.

I've seen some posts in blogs where people get close to what I want, but they stained the floor 2 or 3 times to get there!!!! Drat! The stain takes FOREVER to dry enough to even be walkable and I can't get up to my computer room or take a shower from the 1st floor in between coats. (My downstairs shower is currently de-funked after the mold removal).

Anybody got any hardwood floor experience here that could give me tips on a dark hardwood floor? I've been searching Google for hours and come up with only partial information.

THANKS!
~6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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SANDING HARDWOOD FLOORS IS NOT FOR THE WEEKEND WARRIOR!!!!!

It seems I have underestimated every single aspect of this job and what it entails. It wasn't even close to being done in one day (more likely 2 or 3 days for the 2nd floor and stairs). It's FAR more physical than I thought it would ever be, particularly on the back and knees while using the edger. It's also going to cost $100-200 more for rental fees because of the length of time than I had anticipated.


The first sand with 24 grit on the drum and 20 grit on the edger is an absolute bitch. First off, the floors had never been refinished in the past, so where a lot of planks meet there are "low spots" that are very hard to sand without running over them a billion times. Second, the floors were carelessly gouged by a previous owner, and to remove all traces of this takes 2 billion runs.

I can't believe you have to sand these floors so much with 24 grit paper. I've never seen 24 grit paper before. It looks like something out of your worst nightmare!

Fortunately for the back and knees, the edger (an orbital sander) with the 20 grit makes short work of the defects. Also fortunate is the next steps after the first sand are very fast and less strenuous. After everything is done with 24/20, you go back over everything 2-3 times with 40 grit, than 80 grit, then 100 grit. I'm skipping the 120 grit step because my desired color is DARK and the wood will accept more stain with a 100 grit finish than a 120 grit finish.



Anyways.....


PICS!!!!!!



My ancient digital camera doesn't do much justice to the seriousness of how bad the floors are here. You can see a few scratches in this picture, but there are a ton more all over the place, not to mention that the finish is worn down to the stain all over the place too.



Here's a close up pic of one of the worst spots. I don't know what happened here. I can only assume that the "house gremlins" were ice skating on the finish.



And... the finished product (at least the first sanding, anyways. As I mentioned before, my camera hides a lot of imperfections, but trust me, it really looks this good now. I sure hope it should, since all I got done in 8 hours labor today was the Master Bedroom.

I think I got the hang of the machine now though, and I hope to get the hallway and 2nd bedroom done in about 5 hours. After that, I'm hoping that it should only take about 2-3 hours more to put the last 3 final sands with lighter grit down so I can save myself a Hundo for the third day of rental that I am really hoping to avoid.

Here's me... going to bed early tonight so I can start sanding at 7AM.... :(

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Got it done after oh, only 12 more hours of work today..... 20 hours total to sand my floors. I was not expecting that.

Man, every inch of my body hurts......

I still need to use a fine grit random orbital to blend the edger/drum marks and get a buffer to buff out any imperfections that inferior drum sander I'm paying 200 bucks for left behind. The floor looked great after going up to 80 grit, but when I used 100 grit it left "wobble" marks. You can't feel them with your fingers, but you can see them. If you can see anything like that now, you'll REALLY be able to see them when the stain is down.

The over-sized and ancient edger scuffed up my painted walls in the corners pretty bad too. Glad I sprung for Aura paint since you won't ever see the touchups when I get to them.

I'll definitely do my research before I sand the 1st floor on sanders and where to rent a good (NEW) ones, since I now know that not all drum sanders are created equal.

I've probably got about 10 days of actual labor left to be complete with the floors. Everything else should be a cakewalk though compared to the last two days. After the final sanding/buffing touches, A LOT of that time is just trying to accomplish smaller things I've been neglecting while waiting for stain and poly to dry.


I do believe I will take a break from the work at that point. After these last two days, I'm officially burnt out.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Sanding floorz! More work than I ever want to do!

I like wall to wall carpet anyway.

Seemz like this forum never stops a page & starts another for a topic.

I wunder how the new forum iz doing. I'm gessing its not, since its taking so long.

Another forum I'm in switched to xenforo recently & it took 10 minits.

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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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It's finally here. The moment of truth....

For over 6 1/2 months in this house (and a year before that), tomorrow is the day that had always just seemed to be a theoretical date in the future that would "make or break" the rest of my life.

The HV/AC union interview.

The funny thing is, I'm not the ball of nerves that I thought I would be.

Me... the guy who had nightmares the day before a speech in high school. The guy who, 10 years ago, was so uptight at an iron workers apprenticeship interview that even the interviewer laughed and told me to relax.


I'm doing things differently now. I'm also, I suspect, doing things differently than most interviewees would do.

I will go into the interview with nothing in hand. No notepad. No pen. I know most of the questions they're likely to ask me, but I'm not obsessing over them because I know enough about myself now, and about my strengths (and my weaknesses), my desires for my personal future, and my own potential contributions to my employer. I will just let the interview flow as a conversation and the responses that flow out of me will feel natural, rather than drilling myself tonight on how I feel they would want me to answer each of these questions and giving them robotic replies and seeming "aloof" because I'm too deep in my own head trying to get every question perfect.

To say that I will not be nervous at all going into this thing tomorrow would be a lie, but I'm sure I'll be the least nervous guy walking in there that doesn't currently have a job, by far.

I'm still living very comfortably now, even though I've been hemorrhaging money through these home improvements. But all that considered, it's not as if this interview is the do-or-die situation I imagined it would be today. If it works out, I'm all but set for life. If it doesn't, I'm sure other suitable, if less desirable, opportunities will arise in the near future.

Wish me luck!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by JO753:
Sanding floorz! More work than I ever want to do!

I like wall to wall carpet anyway.

---

To each his own man. Personally, I'm so glad to be rid of the old carpet in here.

Carpet ages over time. If you spill on carpet, there's a good chance that you'll never be able to get rid of the mark completely. If you have pets that are more unruly, you have to always be on the lookout for fluid marks or even torn up carpet. Hardwood floors that are done correctly, on the other hand, are very easy cleanup as long as you don't leave spill or pee marks sitting for a day at a time.

I've always loved the natural beauty of a refinished hardwood floor anyway ever since my step-dad refinished the living room floor in the house I spent my teenage years in and at my Mom's parents 1st floor.

As great as he is at what he does, he was able to get the job done much quicker than I ever could, and much of that is because even after he stained and polyed the floors there are minor visible defects that most people wouldn't even ever notice. One reason for how slow I am is because I'm a novice, and the other is because I'm a perfectionist to a fault. Most of his living room is covered in a decorative rug so you wouldn't notice any scratches under there, and mine will be as well, but if I'm going to do something (especially on my own house) it's going to be PERFECT!


I don't blame you for not wanting to sand floors though, especially after having gone through it. I've done nearly nothing for two days to recharge. If it were a job I could do at my leisure, it wouldn't have been so bad, but when every day was costing me 100 bucks more I just had to man-up and get it all done in two days.

It's a painful, miserable process.


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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LOL....

Seriously?????

The top 50 posts on CareerBuilder.com about what to do and what not to do in a job interview come off to me as SERIOUSLY insulting overall.

I won't get into details, but, really..........?

Don't dress in pajamas, don't bring a cockatoo on your shoulder, don't ask about benefits 2 minutes into the conversation?


Don't get me wrong, there is some very good information on that site if you dig, but with all the "featured" articles out there along the lines I've spoken of, either CB is speaking to the absolute lowest common denominator, or I don't have a chance in hell of NOT scoring this job.



The moral of the story is, if you're a young white male with little college education but an ass-load of natural talent and street smarts just be yourself at the interview.

Sure, there's quotas to fill legally and this and that in the EOE environment today, but really.... It seems the bar is set very (VERY) low.

I'm sure a vast majority of the minorities and women actually hired in the end because of EOE laws today are extremely talented and much more equipped to handle the responsibilities than the average non-thinking-and-non-adaptable-white male is today.




I dunno.... Maybe this "cheat-sheet" from CareerBuilder.com is 10 years out of date from back in the good ol' days when anyone could get a job, but it just seems to easy to me.

I'm going to rock this MF tomorrow!

When I leave, the only question they'll be asking each other is why WOULDN'T they hire me?





"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Funny you mention that about carpet today.

Wun uv our regular vizitorz iz confined to the house on account uv nearly dying last week from (maybe) my mom letting him gobble Activia and he'z possibly 20 yirz old. Then she let him get out so I blew about 10 owrz over 3 dayz looking for him so he woudnt die out in the snow and he finally just showed up on the back porch Friday nite.

Anyway, he took a dump on the carpet wich wuznt too bad since it wuz mostly solid, but then I noticed he'd taken a leak next to the wall also, wich required me to drag the shopvak upstairz to clean it up. It wuz krazy since I'd taken him downstairz to the cat potty only an owr earlier and he must hav a bladder that a champion beer drinker woud be proud uv.

Good luck with your interview. Dont be too confident with the job for life idea. Did you see I, Robot? Not very far off, dude!

-------------------------------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by JO753:
Good luck with your interview. Dont be too confident with the job for life idea. Did you see I, Robot? Not very far off, dude!

---

So... I'm Will Smith in this equation, right?

So I should wear Converse shoes to my interview then?



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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So, how'd it go?? Rollicking good time?

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Hey Wish,

It's a coin toss. I'd give it 50/50 that I get it.

The interview went well, but was it top-ten-percent well is the question.

Going into this, I heard that there would probably be around 75 guys for the HVAC. Turns out there is only 35 guys this year for it. 150 guys interviewed today, plus the existing 200 (100 a year) from the last two years and we're all inserted together based off of our scores.

Scores are 100+100/2. Possible 100 on test, possible 100 on interview.

At least I was in and out of there quick. They took 10 guys at a time out of 150, and it was non-alphabetical. If it was random, I just got lucky... I it was based off of test scores, I was the first called in the 2nd group, so I scored the 11th top score of the 150 interviewed, which would give me a little wiggle room on the interview since i would have tested in the top 7.5%.

I assume the best here regarding the test, since if I were in charge of the interviews I'd want to talk to the guys most likely to get the job first, since even if you didn't consider the other 200 still on the waiting lists from 2 years ago the last 115 guys in the group today had no chance of getting in and it was all just a formality of going through the motions.

Of course, as long as their sons or nephews tested well, the interview scores of relatives of respected workers will be high enough to make it in even if they drooled through the interview.

I feel well about how it went though. After hearing about what I've been doing on the house and how I fixed my own furnace 3 days after not even knowing how to light a pilot and it still works now that winter is almost over, when they came to the question about "do you have experience with using tools/machines?", one of the two suits just kind of laughed and said they didn't need to ask me that question.

I'm not going to get my hopes up only to be let down though. 50/50 is what I'm giving it right now. If they were taking 75 guys this year like they have in the past, I'd be drinking Heineken in celebration right now. Knowing that I had to score at least in the top 10% in the interviews of 350 guys from the last three years, well... tonight I'm just drinking enough Icehouse to put it out of my mind for a few hours + sleep.

On the bright side, I'll know if I got in the school this weekend, and if I didn't I'll know my rank out of the remaining 215 guys.

If I find out I was accepted on the 10th, class starts on the 14th, so this will all happen VERY quick. I view this as a good sign even if I don't get in this class, since I'm positive I'm in the top 50 of the 350. The class was supposed to start a month later, but for unspoken reasons they pushed it forward a month. (I'd hate to be a working guy who had to bail on a job with 4 days notice). I'm just wishfully thinking here, but to move the class up 1 month in my mind can only mean 2 of 2 things.

One, they need fresh meat NOW. And two, they might have a second class available by summertime that I'd be sure to get in if I didn't score well enough for this one.



After this post, I won't think about it now until Saturday. I refuse to dwell on it and I have so much personal work to do in a short timespan so that should be easy.

The focus the next 9 days is refinishing that floor early enough to have my furniture moved back upstairs by the 13th now based on the iffy assumption that the spot is mine.

I don't want to be sleeping on 30 year old foam mattresses in my cold attic the night before my first class.


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Uggggh.... the floors.....

Note to Self: A pole sander by hand with 80grit paper doesn't put a dent in Oak flooring. Neither does a random orbital sander with 60 grit paper do anything to blend in the differences between a powerful edger and a drum sander.

All in all, I got virtually nothing done today.

I discovered a REALLY cool sanding machine I wasn't even aware existed today, and it's available for rental from Home Depot for 50 bucks a day plus paper.

The "Floor Sander", also known as the square bulk sander. According to the guy at Home Depot, it's a "glorified" pole sander. It's a heavier machine with a 14"x18" sand pad that vibrates in a forward/back motion that will go with the grain. It's designed to do final touch up work after using a drum sander, and to remove any swirl marks from the edger.

I'm so happy I found out about this today. I was going to use a buffer to do the final touches, but I was worried that it would leave tons of nearly microscopic swirl marks that would show up in the final product. I was also afraid that I'd have to go all the way up to 150 grit on the buffer to minimize the swirl marks, but then the stain wouldn't be nearly as deep a color as I wanted. With the Floor Sander, I'll be able to remove all these last imperfections that the ghetto drum/edge sanders I rented left and finish with a 100 grit paper that will leave the floor ready to take on a lot more color than a 150 grit would allow.

So... staining will be pushed back a day, but hopefully with the few days wiggle room I have I'll still be able to sleep in my bed the night before my first day on the job if I get it.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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I wish I could tell what a floor was by looking at it!!!!!!!

There is NO WAY these floors are Red Oak!

I picked up the square buff sander at Home Depot and the guys there told me not to go under 80 grit (we were all assuming I had Red Oak). A half hour later on a 4x4 spot of floor with the 80 grit and I barely had any dust in the bag. I practically had to beg for two sheets of 24 grit paper since they were telling me I'd gouge the hell out of my floor with it. After 3 hours of sanding with 24 grit paper, I've just barely got 3/4 of the Master Bedroom buffed out, and it is practically polishing the wood. I'm afraid to go with much lighter coarseness on future sands because I don't want to polish the floor and close all the pores. I want a VERY dark color and I'm afraid that if I sand it too much the wood won't take the stain.

http://tinytimbers.com/janka.htm

According to the Jenka Hardness scale, Red Oak scores a 1,290 in toughness.

I do believe I have Hickory hardwood floors, which have a toughness of 1820 (nearly 1.5 that of Northern Red Oak.




Working Properties

The heaviest of American hardwoods, the hickories can be difficult to machine and glue, and are very hard to work with hand tools, so care is needed. They hold nails and screws well, but there is a tendency to split so pre-boring is advised. The wood can be sanded to a good finish. The grain pattern welcomes a full range of medium-to-dark finishes and bleaching treatments. It can be difficult to dry and has high shrinkage.

General Description

The hickories are an important group within the Eastern hardwood forests. Botanically they are split into two groups; the true hickories, and the pecan hickories (fruit bearing). The wood is virtually the same for both and is usually sold together. Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest American wood. The sapwood of hickory is white, tinged with inconspicuous fine brown lines while the heartwood is pale to reddish brown. Both are coarse-textured and the grain is fine, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular.

Strong and hard to sand, especially with hand tools.... check.

High Shrinkage... check. (This would explain why there were so many pits around the corners that needed to be sanded a billion times with the drum sander)

White with inconspicuous fine brown lines... check. (This would make it "sapwood", and also explain why to the naked eye it resembles bare Northern Red Oak, which is also nearly white when bare.)

Tendancy to split if you don't pre-bore holes.... check. (There is a hole in the floor of the second bedroom closet that was made after the hardwood was put down. I don't know what was hidden there at one point, but it's empty now. The nails that were affixed to stud cut-outs were just hammered straight in and wouldn't go under the surface with a punch tool. I had to remove all of that and drill some countersunk holes so I could screw 2 1/2" drywall screws into the supports. The wood definitely was split around there, but with a little Titebond everything is good now. I think I'm going to install a safe in the floor and put a hardwood trapdoor over it, and then fit nice carpet in that closet when it's all done).


So, I guess I can't bitch too much about the time/money I'm spending on sanding this to an acceptable finish. It's much higher quality wood than your standard Oak flooring. I'm just hoping that it stains dark after 3 coats. It seems to score pretty low on the stainablity scales.

All I know is that when I decide to finally get the first floor hardwood taken care of, I'm going to leave that to a pro. This is not fun at all.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Bummer....

Out of the previous two years of applicants and the 150 that were interview the other day, I settle in at 54 on a cropped list of 245 people. They were only currently accepting the first 35 people. :(

54 isn't bad when you consider nearly 1,000 people applied for this position in the last 3 years, but.... in this economy.....

SHIT! If this were late 1900's or early 2,000's they'd have been hiring 75 guys! My timing sucks on everything.

I tested in the low 90%'s. But I interviewed in the low 70%'s. Damn my novice interview skills!

So close, yet, so far away.....

F-It. Whatever... I'm over it.

I could have just called it a day at 10:30AM and started drinking. The thought crossed my mind more than once, but thankfully, "keep on truckin'" prevailed.

Got my floor stained today. It looks AMAZING!

4 days of sanding really paid off. The floors are PERFECT! I can't wait to see what it looks like with 3 coats of poly and a buff job. I bet I'll be able to see what my face would look like with a woodgrain pattern.

The Hickory has SOOOOOO much more character than standard Red Oak. It was a bitch to prepare, but now that the heavy lifting and costs are done, I'm 1000% pleased with the results.

Looking forward to showing you the finished floor pics.

:)


EDITED TO ADD:

Oh yeah, I've read from more than one professional hardwood installer/re-finisher online that staining more than one coat is a no-no, even though Minwax tells you it's possible.

As scared as I was about blotchyness and the prospect of the finish poly coat not adhering correctly if I stained more than one coat, I was still on the fence after reading these testimonials against it from pros.

After one coat, I'm perfectly pleased with how the floor looks, so it doesn't matter.

As a side note, it's also funny that (like every other project I've done so far) the stain process took about 6 times longer than I expected going into it. For a one man OCD crew, a stain job for 2 bedrooms and a hallway is a full day's work, drying time not even considered.

I'm so glad that I love this finish and that I have no intention stain anymore coats before putting the poly down.



F-It....

I'll say one last thing about the union that interviewed me so low.......

It's their mistake for taking 20 or so guys above me just because they were less nervous than I was at the interview. When I need to get a job done, I learn what I need to learn to get it done. Maybe I shouldn't have told them I was working on my paid house. They might have just screwed me over because even with their mighty Union salaries they're underwater like everybody else because they have no "off button" on their spending habits.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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The floors are completely stained now. I'm going to wait 2 days before putting the first coat of poly. However long it takes me to do 3 coats, I'll wait another week before buffing it to a mirror finish, because trying to buff it before it's completely cured could chip it.

I want to post pics how it looks right now so bad, but I'm going to wait until it's complete.



While I was sanding the floors, my step-dad couldn't figure out what was taking me so long or making the job so hard. He was sure it was oak flooring with the previous job done to it. The guys at the rental places couldn't figure out why it was so hard to sand either (Likely because 99% of people restoring hardwood floors with rental equipment have Northern Red Oak flooring). I was SURE that I was doing it right, but something was wrong. It just had to be a different wood.

My step-dad is a furniture restorer by trade.

The second he came by today and saw the floor stained and the patterns of the grain he said "this isn't Oak".

"No Shit", I said....

He believes it's either Hickory or Ash, or a mixture of both. (He can't believe that somebody would make the effort of mixing both together, but he says he sees planks that make him think one way, only to see planks that make him think the other way).

The good news is, it's hardwood floor that almost nobody these days has in their house, and it's quite a bit more costly to install new than the traditional oak flooring. It's also much stronger.



The even better news is that even though poly won't be going down for another 2 days, this is the most beautiful hardwood floor I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. AND IT'S MINE!!!!!!

It has so much character. Every plank is entirely different than it's neighbor. When you've got Oak floors, you have the natural difference that comes from every living organism being slightly different from the next, but the grain patterns on these floors are so strikingly different that the finished product is a piece of art. I can't even do it justice by trying to explain it with words.

Can't wait to post pics!

~6

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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We should have the plumbing all run to our new bathroom by the end of the week!

*excitement fistbump*

Sorry 'bout the job though ...Keep on Keepin on...

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Awesome Wish!

Hopefully you and hubby's expected timeline for the plumbing is more in-sync with reality than any single aspect of my job has been in the last 7 months.

I'm assuming you're paying somebody to do it though, since he's an electrician by trade.... right?





Don't worry about me with the job. I'll find something else to get by. I'm good at least until Christmas without a job.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm assuming you're paying somebody to do it though, since he's an electrician by trade.... right?

---

Dear lord, why would I wanna blow cash like that fer?

You fixed a furnace, and you aren't HVAC...

We aren't running whole new lines, we are just adding to existing water and sewer that are already in the area...Our setup is not complicated at all really, and its C-pvc soo it's easy peasy. I mighta done without hubbs help even if some of the work wasn't in a creepy cramped dark basement closet and me with claustro issues... I made a 'tater gun in high school in PVC

Actually too, I prolly could do the copper lines with the soldering with very little practice too, as I have seen it done all told about thirty times...It's kinda fascinating to me how all the parts fit together. Wish I could afford to upgrade, but CPVC is just soo much easier to maintain out here in the south forty... Eventually, when our water heater goes out (it's not that old) I'd really like to put in a tankless heater, and I've already prepped a spot for it...for whenever...

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Haha!

If you're up to the challenge, than by all means.....

I HATE plumbing work, and what you're doing seems to be way above my pay grade.

I'd love to seriously revamp some plumbing here while doing the rough work so I could put a jacuzzi downstairs, but it's all on the wrong side of the bathroom to make it work now. It's just too big a project for me. I HATE plumbing, and I know I'm far too much of a novice to even contemplate trying to make it work without paying a pro some big bucks.

Sounds like this is an easier project though and you both have it under control. Good on you :)



I hope to start polying sometime tomorrow. I was completely mislead by the girl at Menards today. I saw online that Minwax super fast poly dries in 2 hours, but every way I read the can it said 6-8 hours before a recoat. She assured me it was only 2 hours. F-ing Minwax doesn't mention if you're buying "oil based" or "water based". Seems that the oil based is in a traditional metal gallon and water based is in a plastic jug, similar to what you buy OJ at the market from.

Menards doesn't carry water based, and I was right about the 6-8 drying time with the two gallons I just paid nearly 100 bucks for.

Now I've got to drive 15 miles round trip to the nearest Sherwin Williams tomorrow to get two gallons of the water based stuff......

At least it beats the feeling I would have had tomorrow afternoon when I was trying to clean my applicator with water and realized I'd have to break out the Lacquer thinner again.





Grrrrrrrrrrrr....

This Minwax water based better look REALLY FING GOOD when I'm done. It infuriates me that nowhere on the cans that I purchased did it say one way or the other if it was water or oil based.

F'ING liars!

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Make 'em pop the can anytime you have a question, one whiff will tell ya. But yeah, I've been there...Seems some companies are intentionally vague...

Reminds me of a news story from last year... Women was helping lay concrete, but didn't know it was corrosive...Damn near ate her knees off...
She sued and I think won, because nowhere did it have a warning on the bag... Not everybody is a science major... or uses a product enough ta know...I think Great Stuff should have a clearer label myself.

Speakin' of news, seen you in the dreaded RWED

Gotta go where the conversation happens

I dunno if yer weather up there is as good as our weather is, but DANG, go out and soak some up if it is... Dairy Queen and the sunshine in the park was awesome today!

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Hey Wish,

To be fair to Menards, i spoke with the same girl there today after I made my return and picked up some Mineral Spirits. She wasn't even aware of the product I was trying to buy. When I asked her if they had water based she happily showed me their "polycrylic" line, but that's not what I was looking for. Polycrilic comes in a gallon just like its oil bretheren. This "Water Based" Poly for floors ("for floors", being the key) is available in a 1 gallon black plastic jug that looks like a 96Oz container of Minute Maid OJ.

To give the girl at Menards even more credit, when I called Sherwin Williams ahead of time to confirm they carried it, when I got there the guy came up to the counter with the Polycrilic (which by the way, he wanted to charge me 7 bucks more a gallon than Menards did)!!!!! When I explained that it came in the plastic OJ container, he said, "Oh, I know what you're talking about". They only had two gallons in stock, which I think I will be able to just eek out 3 coats with (I might have to cut corners in the closets and only do 2 there).

When I asked the guy why I had to drive 15 miles round trip to by this and it wasn't available at every local home improvement store that carries the rest of the Minwax line, he said it's probably because it's a brand new product.


Interesting.... That's why even the Minwax site didn't have any reviews of the product.

The ultimate fate of the beauty of my floors lies with a relatively untested product that nobody has ever heard of before. I'm in a dangerous mood though I've got a good feeling about this stuff and I'm hoping I feel the same way 3 days from now when it's cured enough for heavy traffic.

I'll be showing pictures hopefully in a few days and let you know what I think about the finish. Good or bad, I'll be sure to write a very strong opinion either way on both the Minwax and the Sherwin Williams site :)

BTW... though the Polycrilic has the same 2-3 hour drying time as the stuff I'm going to be using, here's what grabbed me....

Q. How durable is Minwax® Water Based Polyurethane for Floors?

Water Based Polyurethane for Floors provides durability that is comparable to oil-based polyurethanes. It is significantly more durable than most water-based finishes available to consumers.

I assume that they even refer to their own Polycrilic line there as well (without actually knocking it as an inferior product for floors). In theory, it sounds PERFECT. 2-3 hours drying time between coats (as opposed to at least 8 hours for oil based), no "amber effect" that oil poly leaves on your stained floor, and the implication that it is MUCH stronger and suited for the heavy foot traffic that hardwood floors suffer over furniture restoration that my step-dad uses Polycrilic for.

Aside from the ballooned price and twice the work load I expected originally, everything has gone flawlessly so far. Here's hoping the last step is, literally, the one to make it really shine.








Haha... had to laugh about the "eating the knees off" thing. WHAT THE HELL CONCRETE WAS SHE USING THAT WAS CORROSIVE!!!!! I'd like to know myself, because I am quite partial to my unburned, if overburdened knees.

I'm usually 100% against 99% of the lawsuits out there, but if there was truly no warning on the bag that something like that could happen on a substance readily available to the idiot public at any major home improvement retailer, I hope she got the maximum amount and put them SOB's out of business.

That's not even implying she's an idiot. If she won, I can only assume that it's because she DID follow the instructions and there was NO mention that by not following the instructions you could burn your knees off.

It's not as if she was that dumb bitch that spilled scalding McDonalds coffee in her lap and successfully sued for millions. Now, anytime I order coffee from a fast food joint I have to be insulted with "CAUTION HOT!!!!" warnings all over the cup. NO SHIT IT'S HOT!

I dare you, McDonald

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Hey Wish,


Haha... had to laugh about the "eating the knees off" thing. WHAT THE HELL CONCRETE WAS SHE USING THAT WAS CORROSIVE!!!!! I'd like to know myself, because I am quite partial to my unburned, if overburdened knees.


Speaking of the RWED, kind of weird talking to you about it. You've got me at an advantage here. You're one of the only people I give to shits about on these boards. I'd hate to think that you despise my positions. Even some of the other people I respect there don't agree with me :)

---

Concrete mixes contain harsh chemicals, some have soda lye and other things that in combination with oils or sweat from your skin can cause chemical burns, and some have higher levels than others, and some people are also more reactive. Dad used to pour concrete and every once in a while he would come home and it would look like road rash, also hubbs uses a fair amout in the mines when they build walls to direct airflow and he got it under his suspenders and it a a "Y" shape burned into his back for a while... Diluted vinegar can help, as does not letting it dry completely on your skin.
The woman let it dry on her pants and I bet the chemicals concentrated in the material.

As for RWED, I appreciate the compliment, but don't be so quick to count those guys out. One of the reasons I love this place is all the real and passionate differences of opinion. I'd have to say FF taught me personally quite a bit about how ta not take things personally and how to forgive, even when you are called things unmentionable

There's quite a few brain cells being rubbed together here at any given time, and sadly- there aren't many places like that left.

Have fun in RWED, and say what you need to ( I promise not to hold anything against you for any longer than a day or two, like I do for everyone else in there, that's kinda my natural limit).... just try not to take it as seriously as you take your home improvements, for we would ALL be fubared if that were the case

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Road rash is one thing... If it was something that was going to heal, I don't think it really warrented a case. If it was something that left her disfigured for life though, and there was no warning, she's got me on her side.

Temporary burns aren't a big deal. I know we went over the temporary discoloration of my hands from the Great Stuff. It was slightly embarrassing for a week or so, but it went away. If my hands were messed up for life, I would have a problem with that... but at the same time Great Stuff does tell you to always wear gloves and goggles, so I wouldn't have a case.



Hehe... I wasn't counting anybody out. I was just saying that aside from a few people in the RWED (or this entire site, for that matter) you're one of the few I've actually made a meaningful connection with. I wasn't knocking anybody for their political beliefs. There are quite a few people here I agree with on almost everything, but I don't ever have any meaningful conversations with them.




In other news....

Got my first coat of poly down today. I wish I could say I was extremely pleased with the results, but I'm not. The instructions say to use a lambs wool or synthetic applicator, which I did, but I wish I opted for a paint roller instead. The coat may have been thicker that way, but at least it would be even. When I first put the poly down, it looked great all shiny like that, but as it dried you could tell every spot where I picked up or put down the applicator. Even the spots that still look wet aren't tacky anymore. There was no way I was going to try a second coat today. I'm hoping that by tomorrow morning everything evaporates and looks even. I'd really hate to think that the "built up" areas will look like they have extra gunk on them. I'm pretty sure it will look fine tomorrow.

Aside from that, the parts that look completely dry look AMAZING! Very Shiny! I can't even imagine how good these floors will look with 2 more coats, assuming the finish evens out when it's completely dry.





BTW, Wish.... do you have any experience with sod and/or grass seed? Before I start work on the 26th, one of the last pre-work projects I'd love to get done is finally filling in the crater where the pool used to be.

After some settling, I believe I need anywhere from 1 to 3 more yards (tons) of dirt. This will vary depending on whether I seed or sod.

With spring arriving so early this year, I'm hoping that either way I go I have a beautiful back yard by mid-summer.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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DUDE! Time to start a new topic! If this gets any longer it'll snap off at the base!

-------------------------------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.nooalf.com

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Ha!

Nonsense...

I was the head of a project for four years at another website and had a thread that had over 3,000 posts and over 1/2 of a million views before I stepped down and closed it. (No joke)

Granted, that website was just a tad "upgraded" and allowed you the choice of only seeing the last 10 posts so it didn't take 30 seconds for the entire post to load. Most of us have cable internet now though, so it's not really that big a deal



I sure do miss working on that project. :(

As little responsibility as I have these days, I had even less then when I was making great money and I didn't have a rehab project eating up 40 hours a week or more.

Oh well.... It's better I'm gone from that project. It was completely unpaid work, and with my OCD tendencies it could probably have eaten up every spare second of the rest of my life if I never severed ties with it.

Not to mention that when I worked on a computer for 42 hours a week (paid) and then worked on the computer for nearly 40 more hours a week (unpaid), I was really getting fat. I'm 50 lbs lighter than my worst doing that "volunteer" work 2 years ago. 10-15 lbs more and I can show off my killer six pack that I haven't seen for 6 years.

EDITED TO ADD:

Quote:

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Originally posted by JO753:
DUDE! Time to start a new topic! If this gets any longer it'll snap off at the base!

---

That's what she said


"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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