Where does it hurt?
Yes. Errr I mean, all over.
I’m writing this and it’s about 12:45 Sunday morning. The weekend of code didn’t happen, and it’s not going to… but there’s a really good reason.
I needed to switch which bedroom was my “office”. I had been using the smallest of the three bedrooms, and it was a bad setup. I’ve got a computer in my office, computers on a 5 foot table in my great room, and it’s just way too much. They’re not all my computers — I’ve got a few friends that leave a few systems here and show up occasionally to use them…
Anyhow, so I was thinking I need to get all the computers in one room and make that my office.
But… that room had my drum set it in. Ok. So I move the drumset… but where? Oh! Right where the other people’s computers are right now! It’s the perfect location, why didn’t I think of this sooner?
But there was a problem.
The big bedroom in the back (where the drum set used to be and where the office is going to be) was a kids bedroom prior to me buying the house. It was two-toned white and red, with a border mid-way up the wall (about chair rail height) of sketched children doing sommersaults. It was no “office” color, much less the kind of room you’d find in a “man house.” It needed a change of scenery.
I prepped the walls (removed border, patched, sanded, removed all hangings) realized that whoever had painted before didn’t bother to tape off the stained wood trim, and had gotten red and white paint all over them, and got ticked off about it. One of the reasons I liked this house is that is has stained wood trim. I hate painted trim. I think it’s almost a type of sin to cover the beauty of wood grain with paint. So rather than do what 99% of the worlds population would have done in this situation (just paint the trim an accent color) I grabbed my prybar and went to work. The trim was all removed, dismantled, and moved to the garage for later refinishing. I’ve also learned in the last few months that instead of washing walls with TSP, you can scuff them up with a rough-grit sandpaper and rinse them off with damp rag and warm water. So I did that. I got the first coat of grey (victorian pewter I think was the name of the color) on the walls by 1:00 AM saturday. I was in the bed by 1:30.
I woke up around 10 in the morning, and had started the 2nd coat by 11. By 12:30 the second coat was done, and it was time to think about tackeling the trim. I picked up an indoor safe, ventless propane heater (my garage isn’t heated) and started sanding the trim down. It took about five and a half hours. I finished up around 6:30, and realized I didn’t have an tack cloths around to get the dust and powder off the trim. So I cleaned up everything as best I could and headed to Lowes to get a few tack cloths. On the way a friend from work called and we ended up meeting up for dinner. Good times.
Anyhow, I got back home around 9:30 and got to work with the tack cloth and staining and putting on the first coat of polyurethane. It’s done. The first coat is on, and the trim is drying (hopefully not freezing) in the garage.
I should be able to finish up the trim tomorrow with the light sanding and second coat of finish. While that’s drying I’ll put in the new electrical outlets and light switch I got. Not only did the previous owners not tape off the trim, but they totally disregarded all common sense when it comes to painting around electrical outlets. Doah!
So tomorrow night I should be able to fire up the new P3 I picked up.
Excuse me while I go collapse in bed.