Lack of Posting

My apologies for the lack of posting this weekend, but I’m getting tired having my office torn apart, and all my furniture scattered all over the rest of the house. I have decided to get to work and finish this. It’s one of those things that didn’t seem like it would be much, but like most things with home improvement, it always more work than you thought initially. I mostly wanted some fresh paint and carpet, because when I first moved in, it looked like this:

Office - The Horror

It looked like Rainbow Brite had a few too many tequila shooters and threw up on the walls. Without giving it any thought, and before the ink was dry on the settlement papers, I went and bought plain white paint, and covered over that crap before I moved any of my stuff in. Once my initial revulsion passed, I kind of regretted not taking time to pick out a decent color, and so started the current project.

Of course, it’s more than just a paint job. You can see the baseboard is in sorry, sorry shape. It hadn’t gotten any better with age. Has to get replaced. It turns out there was a 3 inch drain around the perimeter of the basement. They put wood in there to act as a bridge for the carpet around the edges. It’s not something you’d notice unless you pulled up the carpet. Surprisingly the carpet and padding was dry, unmolded, and in good shape. It doesn’t get much water in there, but it is moist. The support legs for their little wood bridge were in sorry shape. I replaced all that with a PVC wood-like product that won’t rot. There some paneling in the stairwells that looks like it was put in by someone who wore bellbottoms. Has to go. Turns out the paneling was put in before the stairs, and it extended all the way down. I had to cut out all the paneling at the stair level with a razor blade knife. The paneling was composite, and did not cut well. Pain in the ass.

For some of the finish woodwork, I had to borrow a circular saw from my dad, then get a new blade because I think my dad bought all the saw blades he’s ever owned in the 70s, and has never replaced any of them. Next up is to cut the drywall. I hate drywall. I can think of dozens of materials I’d rather work with than drywall. After that, on to the finish carpentry, which I don’t find as tedious. This house was a built-by-owner job, and he sucked at finish carpentry. I’m no expert, but I can do a lot better than he could. I’ve replaced a lot of his crap work already, but not in my office yet. After I’m done that, then Bitter can get started on the painting (painting is girl work). After the painting is done, I can put up the new baseboard radiators, then carpet. I don’t do carpet. I bring in contractors for that. I’m hoping to be back down in my office by spring. When I started this in the fall, my goal was to be done by the new year. Yeah, missed that deadline. I will say that the pneumatic nail gun is perhaps the greatest invention of all time.

15 thoughts on “Lack of Posting”

  1. “my dad bought all the saw blades he’s ever owned in the 70s, and has never replaced any of them.”

    That’s about when our generation grew tired of that bullshit. You will too. If you aren’t already.

    1. I’m pretty much there. I hired out for the last two jobs, but I’m low enough on the home improvement fund, this one and the next one I’m going to have to do myself.

  2. “painting is girl work”

    When I was younger, me and my mother painted my room. She asked if I knew how to paint, and I did, but mostly outside stuff, not inside stuff.

    So I start painting one wall, then I get yelled at, apparently up and down painting is bad, you need to do V’s instead. Then I used too much paint and it made drips down the wall. Then too little and it didn’t cover the walls properly.
    After that I went and built a fence with my dad… Digging holes is less complicated than painting walls.

    Still, building things always feels nice. I made a gun rack for my classy looking guns that have dark nice looking wood or faux wood (870), and even though it’s not perfect (still need to get around to evening out the slots for holding the guns), I really like it.

    Building stuff is fun. That’s probably why lathes are so expensive. If they were cheap everyone would be making tables with fancy legs and eventually the world would get too heavy and collapse in on itself.

      1. You won’t mock me when your walls are beautiful shades of blue. :p My painting skills have been complimented before. I’ve even done a room in multiple shades before, so not even the extra attention to detail that will be needed for corners will be new.

        1. Bitter, be sure to let us know how much weight he loses on that boiled hay diet you started him on after that remark…. 8-)

  3. You don’t own a circular saw?

    You’re man card has been revoked. Please reapply when you have acquired some basic tools.

    1. I have an 18V 10 inch circular saw which works fine for small jobs. When I’m cutting all day, I don’t feel like having to wait to recharge the battery.

        1. The opportunities opened up by that comment are too many to list this early in the morning… ;-)

  4. Your task with the razor-blade knife was exactly why the Fein Multimaster was invented. And fortunately, it was invented long enough ago that the patents have recently expired, and everyone and their brother is now making inexpensive “oscillating saws”

  5. Usual rule of thumb RE: tool procurement is: If using tool X cuts work time by 1/3 or greater, rent or buy one. If renting it for period needed is > 40% of purchase, buy it. Some stuff is “just foundation tools one should not be without” – 7 1/4″ 115V circular saw; 115V 3/8″ drill; 24″ level; 25′ 14 gauge and 50′ 12 gauge 3-wire extension cords; decent inch and metric socket sets and combination wrenches; decent screwdriver assortment; decent plier/diagonal cutter/T&G plier (aka Channellock). There are others, but you get the idea. A man without tools is like beer without refrigeration.

    I’m with Skullz – your man card has been suspended until you get some real tools. Oh, and if you get tools but keep them in the crappo plastic molded boxes they came in – especially for socket and wrench sets – instead of a decent toolbox with organizers, not only is your man card revoked, you must start carrying a girl card.

    BTW, +1 on the oscillating saw; wasn’t sure I needed one until I used one, and not only did it cut the job time by 80%, it does things I can’t do with any other tool, or even by hand if I wanted to. The Fein is the Rolls-Royce (all of their stuff is really top notch), but all of their stuff is also much spendy; got the Bosch version as an Amazon gold box deal, mostly because HD and Lowe’s carry blades for it.

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