In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 248 of 1154
So... didn't do the clothes/linens thing last night. I decided to do something else that was nagging at me and I wasn't even sure if I was going to do it.
I tore up the carpet in the furthest room away from the stairwell into the attic that was finished for some reason probably decades before I bought the house. With that overhang issue and my front roof, I'd noticed this spring that some of the plywood floor under the carpet had popped up in places which has been a huge cause of concern for me. Although this room (that doesn't need to be carpeted) doesn't have carpet down anymore, I'm glad that I did this to ease my mind. It's no big deal. It's not the nightmare situation I was imagining it to possibly be. There are two layers of plywood flooring. What's happening is a much smaller shift than I had imagined, and these floors were put down in the good 'ole days with straight up hammers and nails instead of screwed in. The slight shift that I will realign when I jack up the overhang and get it back to level just caused the edges of the 2nd layer of plywood to pop up about 1/4" under the carpet.
Sigh... Glad to have figured that out. One less potential catastrophe to give me house crumbling nightmares. 
Worked with the state on some online resume action stuff. Things I know I could have done at home, but sometimes it's good to make appointments and do things like this outside of your own home where a million and one things can distract you from the task at hand. Probably did more on that front in 3 hours today than I would have done in months at home if left to my own devices.
SOMEBODY TOOK THE EXERCISE MACHINE FINALLY!!!!!
Idiot didn't read the sign I put on it apparently though. They left the brand new replacement computer/screen for it in the box that was set right on top of one of the legs. I sure do hope the one that was on there still works after having been out in the rain all day the other day. Going to leave the backup screen out on the curb until trash day, but I can't imagine any scenario where they'd come back to pick it up. Well... maybe if they haven't thrown the sign away yet they might actually read it and realized they didn't take everything.
Dummies.
Decided after emptying out all of the dressers to go through clothes that I'm going to keep the antique set afterall. Even though it's not as "masculine" as my folks old set from the 70's that was built like a brick shit house, it's made of much higher quality wood and it just really smells nice when you open the drawers. The set I was going to keep have that "old dresser funk" smell that seems to permiate any clothes that are left in there too long without the drawers being opened.
Another bonus to this set is that it has high legs so it's easy to clean under with a vacuum hose, and is just easier to move around on the pads on the legs than the other monstrous set.
Talked to my friend today too. He's working out his shit with his fiancee still, but it looks like he is going to still come over tomorrow after work so we can get those measurements and maybe pick up lumber. REALLY looking forward to that, but I won't get my hopes up until it happens.
Anyway... I've got more free time today than I thought I was going to have going into it. Need to figure out what I want to tackle next so it doesn't go to waste. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Nice. Somebody just took my old mini-fridge from my drinking days and the busted computer monitor.
Found it odd that they took a busted computer monitor and didn't take a box with scrap wire that was under it though. Worth a few bucks even if he didn't bother to strip the rubber off the copper.
Wish I had something else that was ready to put out for the light haulers, but I still have some decisions to make on manageable stuff that still can go out from the garage and there's no way I'm getting that bedroom set out to the curb without some assistance.
Already have 2 1/2 cans full and it's not even garbage day. And the lawn and all my yardwork is already done too. Strange not having a super heavy load of work to do in a rush to get the trash out on garbage day.
I think I'm going to take it easy the rest of the night, enjoy my dinner that's going to have some homegrown tomatoes added that a neighbor gave me while I was mowing my lawn, then finally get to sorting through the clothes and linens tomorrow before my friend comes over to start our game plan.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey SIX, sounds like you managed to give your friend lot of advice. I wonder ... the two of you are in very different situations. He "has" a lot - a lot of connections, but also a lot of responsibilities. I wonder if he was thinking to himself ..That SIX, he's a lucky guy. He can do what he wants, when he wants, without having to think about anyone else A little bt of the grass being greener on the other side, perhaps. It sounds to me like you did a pretty good job describing the downsides of your lifestyle. Maybe gave him a little bit of a wakeup call ... not just about drinking, but about other things too. I hope he takes your discussion to heart. I hope he can solve the dilemmas that seem to be so stressful to him.
*****
Yesterday was kind of a dud. Took the dog for her usual walk. Did KP. Started the dinner. Had to get more painter's tap, a couple of 2X4s for hubby, a new edger's brush, and some weedkiller ... but before that I had to fill a car tire ... turns out all of them were low ... but before that we had to drag the compressor out from under a pile of lumber. Refill the washer fluid. Hose the car off, it was filthy. Also grab some essential groceries that we were missing. By the time I got done it was 3PM. Hubby wanted me to watch something (45 minutes). Then I was so sleepy I nodded off ... for over an hour! Gave up on the idea of painting and just finished fixing dinner instead.
So we're painting today.
The flaw with the painter's tape is that the sealer didn't stick to plaster. How does THAT happen? But we just repaired the holes as best we could and are painting today.
Speaking of which ... this was my break. Back to work!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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"The flaw with the painter's tape is that the sealer didn't stick to plaster." UH ... no primer or sealer?
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As for me, yesterday wasn't the hottest day ever, but BOY was it humid! So I didn't manage my 6 hours.
I just wanted to explain that whole '6 hours' thing. If I do anything physical at all under adverse conditions, I poop out in an hour, maybe two. And I'm finished for the day in the literal sense. But if I limit myself to easy stuff, I can keep going.
It looks like we ALL have the stack of before I do this I need to do that - except maybe Brenda! Anyway, yeah, I too need to get going on stuff.
See ya!
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Quote:There were areas where some wall repair was done ... where a bookcase was pulled off the wall, a built-in desk removed (to be able to replace the window) and a door frame replaced, so some areas had been freshly plastered for repair. We wiped the dust off the plaster (spackle, probably) with a damp rag, then coated it with drywall sealer. Then we coated it with the specialty sealer (because I found that after I found the first). But when we taped it for painting and pulled the tape off afterwards, the sealer failed right at the plaster, there was no sealer left on the wall whatsoever, just bare plaster.
Originally posted by 1kiki:
"The flaw with the painter's tape is that the sealer didn't stick to plaster." UH ... no primer or sealer?
Between yesterday and today we managed to get dear daughter's room (wall stripes) almost entirely finished. There is just a little bit near her doorway that needs doing, plus a few touchups here and there. We could have done a better job, but given that we had no idea what we were doing and my overall lack of energy and dear daughter's overall lack of troubleshooting skills, I think it came out really well: The stripes are straight, the lines are crisp.
Now dear daughter gets to clean the paint drips off the floor! I refuse to get involved! I told her a million times ... "Watch your drips because you're going to have a big cleanup job!"
Now comes the cleanup job! Yes, we had long cardboard pieces to catch the drips, but dd would mange to shift it away from the wall, and she'd let big drips hit th cardboard ... no big deal ... but then she'd step in them and track paint around. No matter how many times I told her not to. Sigh. Well, maybe the pain of cleaning up will get to pay attention next time.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Work today. Got back and did my dishes, cleaned some more earrings. Found another couple of broken ones. I am now down to 1 earring tree still to tackle.
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Quote:I was wondering! I thought you were doing sealer! My experience says it was badly applied by whomever did it. Generally one applies joint compound or whatever in thin layers with drying, some sanding, and wipe-up in between. But if you apply it it too wet/ thin over a dry spot, or don't remove the sanding dust before re-applying, you'll get a poorly bonded later. :( DANG NAB IT!
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
... some areas had been freshly plastered for repair. We wiped the dust off the plaster (spackle, probably) with a damp rag, then coated it with drywall sealer. Then we coated it with the specialty sealer (because I found that after I found the first). But when we taped it for painting and pulled the tape off afterwards, the sealer failed right at the plaster, there was no sealer left on the wall whatsoever, just bare plaster.
Quote:THAT SEEMS LIKE A BIG BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT!!! YAY!! I hope you're as pleased as I am for you!
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Between yesterday and today we managed to get dear daughter's room (wall stripes) almost entirely finished. There is just a little bit near her doorway that needs doing, plus a few touchups here and there. We could have done a better job, but given that we had no idea what we were doing and my overall lack of energy and dear daughter's overall lack of troubleshooting skills, I think it came out really well: The stripes are straight, the lines are crisp.
Quote:Sigh as well. What is the cleanup remedy? I hope not too error-prone.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Now dear daughter gets to clean the paint drips off the floor! I refuse to get involved! I told her a million times ... "Watch your drips because you're going to have a big cleanup job!"
Now comes the cleanup job! Yes, we had long cardboard pieces to catch the drips, but dd would mange to shift it away from the wall, and she'd let big drips hit th cardboard ... no big deal ... but then she'd step in them and track paint around. No matter how many times I told her not to. Sigh. Well, maybe the pain of cleaning up will get to pay attention next time.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
What do you think of how it looks? What does DD think?
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey SIX, sounds like you managed to give your friend lot of advice. I wonder ... the two of you are in very different situations. He "has" a lot - a lot of connections, but also a lot of responsibilities. I wonder if he was thinking to himself ..That SIX, he's a lucky guy. He can do what he wants, when he wants, without having to think about anyone else A little bt of the grass being greener on the other side, perhaps. It sounds to me like you did a pretty good job describing the downsides of your lifestyle. Maybe gave him a little bit of a wakeup call ... not just about drinking, but about other things too. I hope he takes your discussion to heart. I hope he can solve the dilemmas that seem to be so stressful to him.Y
Yeah. It's hard to get a read on him. I usually don't get him to give me any info. He stays so positive about things in general, it's only a few times now that I've seen his anger get the best of him, which never used to happen back in the day. I was actually surprised I got him to admit the thing about him worrying about feeling the need to self medicate with beer.
We didn't talk about it at all today, but that's because he was here to kick ass and take names. (more on that later, I'll just say that he didn't crack open a single beer until we were wrapping up for the night).
It was a GREAT day. Two full cans of trash and a can of recycle stuffed to the brim are gone. All the stuff I put out this week was picked except for that box of scrap wire, which I just threw out. I'm done dickin' around with that stuff.
Two bags of washed clothes in my car ready to go to goodwill. Did about 6 loads of laundry today.
Sadly, my bud brought a bike with him in his car for some reason, so he wasn't able to take the torpedo heater out of my garage yet. :(
But we made good progress today in only 3 or so hours. Picked up all of the dimensional lumber for the framing, along with the nails, screws, construction glue for the caulk guns and some metal joining pieces. Pretty impressed that it only cost roughly $200.00 so far for all of that. Plywood isn't going to be cheap when we get to that point, but we decided against buying it today since we knew we weren't going to get that far. Got everything in my garage without anyone being the wiser.
Took up a lot more of the flooring. No safe entry in and out from the back I'm afraid until more work is done. Need to use a ladder to even get in at the moment. Have a section of the wall on the south end jacked up on one side of the door, but his second jack wasn't any good. He's going to get some from his old man and hopefully get him to come out and give some advice or maybe even lend us a hand. All in all, I'd say it was a great day. I'll feel much better when it's solid and the floor is back in. I'm hoping I don't have to wait too long for him to come back. I think he realizes we can't just sit on it now though.
Got some "homework" to do before he gets back. I'm also hoping that I can finish all of the clothes and linens tomorrow too. I'm going to keep all of the extra towels and stuff for now, maybe put them in bags and keep them in the garage. I think I'm going to have use for a lot of crap towels with the work coming down the pipe. :)
My brother should be coming some time late next week too, so we can move the bedroom set I'm not keeping either out to the curb or to stage it in the garage until we get a few sunny days so it doesn't get rained on and somebody takes it. Then I'm going to move the other set into the master bedroom and my other bro will have much better sleeping arrangements when he comes in for Christmas this year.
Anyway.... pretty amped up right now. I'll probably be having a late night even though I'm exhausted.
Glad to hear we're all making such great progress. Keep on keepin
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
The flaw with the painter's tape is that the sealer didn't stick to plaster. How does THAT happen?
Not to raise any alarms since it's likely a very minimal amount of moisture otherwise you would have noticed severe damage or at least some cracking and crumbling by now, but the plaster walls have probably had some level of moisture from inside the house.
Quote:
Old plaster from the 19th century was based on lime held together with sand and animal hair. Around 1900, gypsum plaster began to displace lime plaster because gypsum didn't need the animal hair binder and cured within three weeks rather than 9 to 12 months. But whether lime-based or gypsum-based, plaster's biggest enemy is moisture. The first symptom of a moisture problem is a fine white powder on the plaster surface caused by soluble salts that migrate to the surface of the plaster. If the wall stays wet, the plaster eventually will crumble.
You've probably got a fine powder on the surface, so the tape was actually sticking, but what it was sticking to wasn't sticking to the rest of the wall. Even just washing plaster in preparation for work could be enough moisture to leave behind a residue.
Not sure if you figure it out yet, but I might try putting up some primer first if it remains a problem. For a job like that, I'd probably use Kilz. If you make sure to put good cloths down and wear crappy clothes, as well as using cheap rollers and brushes that you can immediately throw away after, you're better off using the oil based Kilz too. That stuff is virtually impenetrable once it's up. The water based stuff is good too, better than most other brands, but I swear by the oil based stuff. Just be sure to throw the shit out when you're done. It's not worth trying to clean it out. If you have other stuff to primer at the same time it might be worth just doing it all in one go before dumping the garbage.
And for cleanup, get some mineral spirits. Even though you're throwing out the roller sleeves, you'll want to wipe the roller tools themselves down real good with a rag soaked in mineral spirits so that oil paint doesn't gunk up the works and ruin the tool.
Oh... and if you use the oil paint, when you take off your painting clothes just let them dry out in the sun or something for a day and then they're safe to wash so you can use them again. I'm sure it goes without saying, but you don't want to put clothes that have any wet oil based paint in your washing machine.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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