Heading back into the storm
I’m sure by now you’ve realized our contributions to this blog seem to run in fits and starts- really it is an accurate tracking of how our work on the house tends to go. I’m amazed when I think back to the phenomenal productivity I was able to achieve back when I was in grad school and stripping trim literally every night. I’m not sure if it’s the pregnancy or the weather (or the combination of the two) but any of the work I have to do I just can’t seem to get motivated to tackle. Part of that surely rests in my inability to get the things done that are most pressing- such as stripping the door frames upstairs. If I haven’t fully explained how renovations upstairs need to go- here’s the abbreviated version.
One of the more critical aspects to the entire upstairs renovation is getting the floors refinished. Naturally anything that could potentially ruin newly finished floors, such as stripping wood, must be completed first. Since we realized that we can pay someone to do about 75% of the work stripping the trim and because that work is off limits to me until the baby is eating solid foods (due to the possibility the paint could be lead-based) our new approach has been to pull it off what we can and take it to New Albany where they “dip strip” it. This leaves us with only door jambs and window sills that must be stripped in place, which leaves us with only Clint and a heat gun to get this done. There are two challenges inherent with this- one is that unlike me, heat gunning is not Clint’s favorite type of renovation work. Second, those of you who know Clint are aware that he likes to keep his schedule at about 110%. Nevertheless we managed to get around to starting this process under threat of the floors possibly being redone in two weeks. What we hadn’t anticipated is how disruptive this will all be. We started in the office/nursery with the closet, which meant removing all of Clint’s clothes and my sweaters. Currently they are parked in our bedroom on a garment rack and sweaters are stacked in the corner on our shoe rack. Now we have to decide just how much we’re going to tear apart the office/nursery (and in the process our bedroom) to be able to work on it to get it to the place we ultimately want it to be. Do we do a little bit at a time making about 4 times the work over the long haul, or do we just go forth and go crazy, making our lives chaotic for the time being, but in the long run much more manageable? Normal people might choose the former option with a baby on the way in only 8 short weeks- but order and logic really never have been our strong suits. I’m still not sure how it will all go, or just how much we can get done before baby Reno arrives but I’ll post our tentative plans tomorrow so everyone can see just what we’re up against.
One of the more critical aspects to the entire upstairs renovation is getting the floors refinished. Naturally anything that could potentially ruin newly finished floors, such as stripping wood, must be completed first. Since we realized that we can pay someone to do about 75% of the work stripping the trim and because that work is off limits to me until the baby is eating solid foods (due to the possibility the paint could be lead-based) our new approach has been to pull it off what we can and take it to New Albany where they “dip strip” it. This leaves us with only door jambs and window sills that must be stripped in place, which leaves us with only Clint and a heat gun to get this done. There are two challenges inherent with this- one is that unlike me, heat gunning is not Clint’s favorite type of renovation work. Second, those of you who know Clint are aware that he likes to keep his schedule at about 110%. Nevertheless we managed to get around to starting this process under threat of the floors possibly being redone in two weeks. What we hadn’t anticipated is how disruptive this will all be. We started in the office/nursery with the closet, which meant removing all of Clint’s clothes and my sweaters. Currently they are parked in our bedroom on a garment rack and sweaters are stacked in the corner on our shoe rack. Now we have to decide just how much we’re going to tear apart the office/nursery (and in the process our bedroom) to be able to work on it to get it to the place we ultimately want it to be. Do we do a little bit at a time making about 4 times the work over the long haul, or do we just go forth and go crazy, making our lives chaotic for the time being, but in the long run much more manageable? Normal people might choose the former option with a baby on the way in only 8 short weeks- but order and logic really never have been our strong suits. I’m still not sure how it will all go, or just how much we can get done before baby Reno arrives but I’ll post our tentative plans tomorrow so everyone can see just what we’re up against.
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