Thursday, December 13th, 2007
I finished up the sanding of the joint compound last night. Two nights ago, I used the power sander…the little palm one. That was great to do the first major sand with. Then, I reapplied the joint compound and sanded by hand. Overall, everything came out pretty nicely.
I was excited to get some paint on the walls. Paint means the major dust of the project is gone. I put up plastic in the doorways to keep the majority of dust from the rest of the house. Also, I used my new safety goggles and the new respirator I bought yesterday. I must remind you that one of my least favorite activities with remodeling is sanding joint compound. I really hate it. There is such a temptation to just paint over the compound before it’s sanded. I didn’t do that and things are really smooth.
We (I mean “I” - Laura was a little shocked) went with a light gray/blue color for the paint. This was a little bit of a surprise. It looked different on the one and a half inch by two inch tab from the paint store. It is growing on us. I think, with the light colored floor and dark cabinets, things will look great.
I didn’t sand and paint the spots where cabinets would be. I bought one gallon of paint, so this worked out nicely. Any spot that I don’t have to sand is a good spot. Also, apparently, I used an overhead projector marker to mark the areas that needed to be cut for an outlet or a switch. Let’s just say that I have put about eight coats of paint on those marker lines to only see the green of the marker bleed right through. Don’t use an overhead projector marker to mark sheetrock.
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Friday, December 7th, 2007
Today, after I brought the cat to the vet, I ran down to Lowe’s for a few things. I had to get some outlets, switches and face plates. I also had to get some joint compound. When I was leaving, it started to snow. For a while, it was coming down pretty good.
I thought I would get a picture of the front of the Lowe’s in Middletown that I always go to…
The snow got worse on my ride home. I took the opportunity to grab a nice shot on one of the back roads pretty close to the house.
I got a little further with the kitchen walls. Now I have two walls done. Well, they have the first layer of joint compound on them. They still need to be sanded and then another layer. I can’t wait to get them all done and painted.
Just a few minutes ago, I brought the floor cabinets out to the front porch for Paul to take in the morning. He wants to use them in his basement for a workshop. I then took the last wall cabinet down. Things are pretty messy upstairs right now. I brought that cabinet downstairs to use for my stuff. Now, I have a nice wall’s worth of cabinets down there, hanging from the ceiling. It’s good to keep things off the floor.
There is only one more cabinet in the kitchen and that’s the one with the sink in it. It’s a long sonofabitch, so I am not sure of my plan yet. I have to move it out to get to the wall. Maybe tomorrow, I will move it out, do the wall and then move it back.
Just for giggles, I thought I would show you the wallpaper that one of the previous owners decided to put on the walls.
Can you say, “crack head?”
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Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Ok, I am sure you all think I am rather crazy at this point. If someone told me they wanted to use a belt sander to sand their walls, I would think they were nuts too. That’s why I am writing this post. To show that actually, you are the crazy ones. Just kidding.
I went to Lowe’s this morning to get what was on my list (previous post). I got everything, except for the respirator. I found my old one downstairs. The best things I got were the shims and the Dewalt Belt Sander. I have to say, after talking to the guy who works in the tool department, I was a little nervous about this whole belt sander thing.
Well, here’s how it went. I got home and unpacked the sander. I found a nice spot on the wall that requires some sanding. I plugged the sander in and put it against the wall. A small part of me thought it was going to go right through the minute I hit go. Well, it didn’t. It did a very nice job of finding the high spots and lowering them. Here, take a look.
This is a before shot. I am sure you can see the imperfection in there.
This is the after shot. I spent just a few minutes sanding this. Can you see where the high spots were? Also, this roughed up the paint enough to let the skim coat of joint compound stick better.
What, you can’t really see what I am talking about yet? Take a look at the next picture and tell me you still don’t.
Uhhhh, can you see that? I have no idea how the people before us did that. I also have to say, the paint is like cement. It’s hard and slippery. The sander works much better once it gets through that tough surface. This thing is going to make this job much easier.
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