Restoration Girl

I bet you’re sick of lists. I’m sick of lists, but until the master bedroom is finished up they’re just going to keep coming.

First off, I’d be remiss if I didn’t post a picture of my supa-stylish headwear from Monday’s adventure in taping, mudding and sanding:

I do all my DIY in a vintage Harley-Davidson bandanna. Doesn’t everyone?

I have a week off in between book projects, and ideally here’s what I’d like to accomplish (and yes, more items than I care to admit migrated from the long weekend):

Bedroom

• Remove AC unit from master bedroom window
• Patch last remaining holes
• Tape and mud all remaining seams
• Sand walls and seams
• Strip woodwork (I use citrus-based eco-friendly stripper)
• Clean up debris from last round of master bedroom demo
• Wipe down all dusty surfaces with D-Lead (not that I have a room full of lead particles—it also works great for picking up drywall and plaster dust)
• Sand floor with 150-grit sandpaper
• Tape up woodwork and molding, cover floor with rosin paper
• Wipe it all down with tack cloth
• Prime

Not the bedroom:

• Finish wardrobe purge
• Laundry
• Take purged clothes to thrift shop
• Put all miscellaneous cardboard in the basement for recycling
• Hang up 2012 calendar

Asters from back in September/October, taken with Instagram

My alter ego finished the draft of a novel on Friday, so Saturday was spent lying under my favorite scruffy blanket watching the ID Channel and eating pretzels. Authors sure know how to party, don’t they?

Anyway, today and tomorrow are full of all the stuff I put off while finishing the book, which fills me with almost more terror and dread than trying to finish a book on time. But only almost.

Sunday

• Work out
• Buy ridiculously expensive prescription food for the diabetic cat
• Take down and throw away holiday tree (I know, I know)
• Finally finish my agakljdkahog wardrobe purge
• Laundry
• Remove 1,000 empty cardboard boxes from upstairs landing

Monday

• Remove AC unit from master bedroom window (I know, I know, all right???)
• Clean up debris from last round of master bedroom demo
• Supply run to Home Depot and Target
• Patch plaster in MB with drywall
• Tape and mud all remaining seams
• Sand existing mud for painting
• Grocery shop for fancy “I don’t have to do any real work today and can spend an inordinate amount of time on it” dinner

Now if we can just get through the rest of this freezing day without the boiler shutting off again, I should be able to keep both my hair and my sanity.

(It’s funny if you shout it like “Fore!”)(Maybe only to me.)

I searched in vain for a photo of the horrendous vinyl floor the previous owner saddled me with in my kitchen. Just imagine the worst, most offensive pastel-colored, floral-encrusted horror ever to cover a flat surface, and add a layer of grease and dirt that will not be moved even over the course of five (5! on my hands and knees!) deep scrubbings and countless more moppings and steam-cleanings.

Once you can visualize this cosmic entity made of dirt and petroleum-based products, you will begin to conceive of the madness-inducing void that is my kitchen.

The kicker is I know they pulled up entirely salvageable wood or tile to put this monstrosity in. My hatred of their bad taste grows a little stronger each day.

But enough of that. This morning, I finally took the plunge and ordered all new wood floors. This after months of waffling, measuring, losing my tape measure and measuring again with a sewing tape (not as bad as you might think, if you’re limber), and plugging my measurements repeatedly into several online floor calculators to obsessively check I was ordering enough “waste”, I bit the bullet.

(Photo via The Woods Company)

I worked with Karen at The Woods Company, a small firm in Pennsylvania, to order reclaimed chestnut boards in 4” width, with distress marks. (Nail holes, squirrel bites, all that fun stuff.)

Now I just have to tear up the vinyl, find an installer, and remove all the base cabinets and appliances so they can work!

That’s the easy part, right?

New year, new list!

I wish I had gorgeous photos to put at the top of all these lists, but you’re going to have to settle for a picture of my cat helping us decorate the tree…

Yes. Helping.

• Email a Certain Website again, because they sold me bad coupon codes for an item I actually need fairly soon and have been totally unhelpful over the course of a week
• Finish my wardrobe purge
• Organize and clean the kitchen
• Finalize the order for my kitchen floors
• Make a kitchen design mood board for the blog
• Order a new vacuum cleaner (a wheel fell off my old one. It’s time to retire.)

I wish I had pictures of this, but it’s difficult to do with water pouring on your head, so have a blow-by-blow of the Sink Adventure:

Scene 1: I put some silicone on what I THINK is the leak (this is important—it was not) and leave it. Roommate reports that water is still running freely.

Scene 2: Try some clog cleaner (Liquid Plumbr Gel, if you’re interested. I know, I know, so bad for the environment.) Kinda works. Gurgles a lot.

Scene 3: Insert myself back under the sink. I’m 5’10” and our bathroom is dinky, so I have bruises on both elbows and my legs from wriggling around on the tile. See the U-bend joint (nowhere NEAR what I perceived as the source of the leak) is foaming as copious amounts of drain cleaner leak from it.

Scene 4: Curse, wipe drain cleaner from every surface, shoo cats away from drain cleaner with more cursing, wash down the floor tiles, put a bunch of plumber’s tape on the bad joint, curse more.

Scene 5: Success! Joint no longer spraying water everywhere. For now…

I know it’s not a permanent fix, but hopefully the final one will be ripping out that sink (it’s hideous, huge and ancient) and installing a nice little wall-mount. And all new PVC piping. It’s the future, you know.