Is that a light? There, see it? At the end of that tunnel.
The last five days represent what must be the most productive span in our short history of owning our house. Having Thursday off for my Mom’s brief, but splendid visit, and Monday for Dr. Martin Luther King Day, I decided to take Friday off and bask in five days without work. It’s amazing how long five days can feel at the start of the break, and how short a time it seems when you have to wake up that first morning back to work. A normal person may have relaxed but I decided to make it my mission to see just how much I could get done on the trim.
I started by cleaning the front room because the floor was nearly covered with steel wool, paper towels, sand paper, tools, and various containers of chemicals including stripper, tack cloths, denatured alcohol, shellac, mixed shellac, various stains, wood pre-conditioners, and all of the necessary products to clean out my brushes (not to mention all the sanding dust and stripping debris generated). Once organized I took stock of the room, and made a list of exactly what I wanted to accomplish and assigned each task to a designated day. This may seem like the drive of a mad woman, or one spurned on by overzealous intrinsic motiviation, but alas it is not- it’s driven by the arbitrary date I choose to get the downstairs floors refinished, February 12th. At that date at the very least any and all woodwork that is not removable must be stripped. While theoretically it might be possible to cover the floors and work over them, as you may have noted at the onset of this- I am not a clean worker and there is no way I trust myself enough to play roulette with newly refinished floors. With polyurethane (shellac isn’t durable enough for floors), once any part is damaged the entire floor must be redone- there is no patch-refinishing.
So- what all did I get done, you ask? Drumroll please… with the exception of a few more coats on the large window, the entire front room trim is finished! My hands are marred by scrapes and cuts, I pulled out at least three splinters, and from all of the sanding and subsequent washing of my hands the skin has a thirst no lotion can quench, but it was all worth it. There is still much to be done- in the living room we need to figure out how to stain the quarter-round (we had to buy this new as the whole house is missing it- probably when the carpet was installed), remove the “track lighting” and installing the ceiling fan, paint the ceiling and room and last but not least, we have to figure out the daunting task of reinstalling the trim. In the dining room we need to pull off the trim for dip stripping (I’ve had enough for now), heat gun and strip the three remaining door frames, and paint. The rooms will not be completely done as we’re hoping to one day replace the windows in the two rooms (the small one in the living room is cracked) and we’re still working on the front door. And to top it all off- the date for refinishing the floors was moved up to February 5th! I’m confident we can do it, I’m rejuvenated by actually seeing progress, even if I can’t lift my arms above my head, or make a fist with my right hand. It will all be worth it…one fine day.
I started by cleaning the front room because the floor was nearly covered with steel wool, paper towels, sand paper, tools, and various containers of chemicals including stripper, tack cloths, denatured alcohol, shellac, mixed shellac, various stains, wood pre-conditioners, and all of the necessary products to clean out my brushes (not to mention all the sanding dust and stripping debris generated). Once organized I took stock of the room, and made a list of exactly what I wanted to accomplish and assigned each task to a designated day. This may seem like the drive of a mad woman, or one spurned on by overzealous intrinsic motiviation, but alas it is not- it’s driven by the arbitrary date I choose to get the downstairs floors refinished, February 12th. At that date at the very least any and all woodwork that is not removable must be stripped. While theoretically it might be possible to cover the floors and work over them, as you may have noted at the onset of this- I am not a clean worker and there is no way I trust myself enough to play roulette with newly refinished floors. With polyurethane (shellac isn’t durable enough for floors), once any part is damaged the entire floor must be redone- there is no patch-refinishing.
So- what all did I get done, you ask? Drumroll please… with the exception of a few more coats on the large window, the entire front room trim is finished! My hands are marred by scrapes and cuts, I pulled out at least three splinters, and from all of the sanding and subsequent washing of my hands the skin has a thirst no lotion can quench, but it was all worth it. There is still much to be done- in the living room we need to figure out how to stain the quarter-round (we had to buy this new as the whole house is missing it- probably when the carpet was installed), remove the “track lighting” and installing the ceiling fan, paint the ceiling and room and last but not least, we have to figure out the daunting task of reinstalling the trim. In the dining room we need to pull off the trim for dip stripping (I’ve had enough for now), heat gun and strip the three remaining door frames, and paint. The rooms will not be completely done as we’re hoping to one day replace the windows in the two rooms (the small one in the living room is cracked) and we’re still working on the front door. And to top it all off- the date for refinishing the floors was moved up to February 5th! I’m confident we can do it, I’m rejuvenated by actually seeing progress, even if I can’t lift my arms above my head, or make a fist with my right hand. It will all be worth it…one fine day.
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