Empty computer room- waiting to have the floors re-finished. I'm pretty sure the dogs are wondering 'where the hell did I put the couch?'
The 'empty-furniture-less' hall- with it's million of scratches.
What seems too good to be true- usually is just that: 'seems'. A simple project- never remains simple, in this home. I'm sure in every house- actually.
The floors, which we had refinished in 2005, are in horrid shape- in the main run: hall, computer room kitchen. Mainly- due to 230lbs of dog[s] who will race each other to the front door, whenever they suspect someone/something may be on the other side. All kinds of things qualitfy here: squirrels, noices, wind, mail lady, get the picture. Being the floors are old... and super soft pine, well- they now look like shit. Heard about Mr. Sandless- [again- too good to be true] had them out for a consultation, seemed great- set it up. When the re-finishers came out [this is after clearing all 3 area's of all funiture- including Mr. Mac, so i'm on Alex's laptop- which I don't do well typing on laptops- and it seems really dumb to close windows with the red X on the right side. I've really have gotten use to using a mac] Re-finishers asked if the consultant- we'll call him: Dan, because that's his name.. If Dan did this water-test. The chemicals they use are water based vs. old-fashion oil-based. No- of coarse Dan didn't do the water test- or write 'satain finish' on the order form, because since when has someone actually have totally and competently completed something correctly when it comes to me: trying to conduct business, to have a project worked on in this house?
If there is one thing I hate most about the human race and human workfoce in this world it would have to be: laziness and stupidness. They seem to go hand-in-hand. I get really pissed off about Human error, as well. I'm the last to admitt I'm perfect, but when you have a simple job- with a friggin' check-list, how can you forget anything? I've worked 9-5er's.. that would classify any type of 'shift-work'... you work 9-5, 8-4, 1-5, etc.. Come- greet your work at the door, get a little lunch break, clock hits 'finishing time' [with the fred flinstone whistle sounding in the backgroud] and you leave your job, at the door. These are kind-of no-brainers. You go, do your work, leave. So- bitching about that crap- ??? = lazy. All through my marriage, I've been accustomed to the : job that follows you, even on vacation. You have to acutally WORK to make $$$, to get $$$, to be paid $$$. Sometimes you're done work at 5:30, sometimes you have to work until 11pm. Ok- just realized I got a bit off subject here... ...
The point- If Dan would have done his job correctly, we could have found out that Mr. Sandless, water-based products would not work well on our floors. We could have found this all out BEFORE we cleared 3 rooms of furniture. Now that we have these empty rooms, with the shitty-looking floors we were thinking: 'when's the next time we'll really want to move all this furniture out of here again???' Which brought on the : 'we'll do the floors ourselves.'. Why I thought I'd be able to pay someone $600, to come, complete my floors in one days time, everything look perfect and furniture back, etc... Well- I have no clue why I thought such a crazy thing.
With us renting the stuff- [as we have], buying the special polyurethane, etc.. and such- well- naturally $600 would have been a sweet dream come true. minwax- at your local home depot- only has a voc of 350. The stuff that is currently on our floors [Harco] has a voc of 450, we need that, there goes the easiness of the home depot trip. Thankfully a distrubtor is going to sell it to us- since we're not professional floor re-finishers. Although- I'll claim to be one, when this is all done. But Harco does make a 'gym coat' product, with even a higher voc. We'll inquire about that- so this may all end up being good and worth it- and the floors will be better than last time:) It's just this is the last thing that I really thought we'd be doing again. and now. and whatnot.
obviously~ I'm just bitchy. I need to hit the treadmill and I'm going to work on the hall ceiling. A small area that was done in 'popcorn style' yay!no. I've been removing it: via hot water, bucket and rag. I just want to get the inside finished. This would include this hall ceiling and painting the hall/stairwell to the attic. Really- it's not a TON of work- just some work the requires some skim-coating, and Larry's help with the ladder. I frankly have no effin' clue how I'm going to work in this certain area, how to postion the ladder. Yeah- it's a bendy one and all that. It's just hard to explain. The ceiling on the landing, itself, is 12 ft. high. But I have a landing- to put the ladder on. Just not a huge one- so this sucks, because you're very 'straight-up' when you're working. The acutally 'stairs' part, I need to figure out. Downstairs- we had floor, to lean the ladder across and such--- here, no flood to the side, just more steps going down. I mean- it had wallpaper there- so it can be done. It's just figuring it all out, w/out renting scaffeling equipment. Again-= ranting, bitching, complaining..
I"m acutally going to run tonight- shower now. Hall- work on it, figure it out. School work stuff... When Larry gets home [work] the floor nightmare will begin/continue. By next week- I hope to have great floors, in those 3 rooms. I still have yard work I'd like to finish up. I still love you house:) You still facinate me and make me smile:) it's all good...
So- this is the home gym- aka: mudroom, aka: sports area: aka: hats/scarfs/mittens area, aka: place to store dog leases, bird food, Anna's scooter. Get the picture. It's actually one of my most favorite rooms in the house, solely based on 'feeling' vs. 'function'. Don't get me wrong, it's totally a functional room- it's a 6.5 foot wide x 15 foot long spot to house all kinds of things, stuff, hockey sticks, sidewalk chalk, bird food, muddy garden boots, umbrellas, and so on. BUT- the room has this very calm and relaxing feeling to it. The walls are a soft cream [philadelphia cream, to be exact!] with a bright white for trim, windows and doors. The ceiling- is a color I used in the upstairs bathroom= that I love. It's called Seaspray, and it reminds you just of that. The sea. I always mix it up- and call it: Sea Glass, because somehow this seems more fitting. Once- after a treadmill mishap- as I was laying on my back, on the floor- after being catapulted from the treadmill- just laying there.... partly in shock, partly in pain....this is when I noticed how super calming this room was. It was all about the ceiling. Just staring up, admiring wide plank wood, the calming color, hoping the light wasn't going to come crashing down on me next. It was a pretty magical moment in time. Clearly- the only thing that would make the mudroom/home gym a million times better would be the Nordic Track C2500 Treadmill!!! Yes- this would greatly improve the whole room, the atmosphere, the look-feel of the place:) Oh well... I picture us buying a log-splitter before a new treadmill were to ever come about. Mine still rolls, just doesn't keep track of speed, time or distance. There could be worst things in life, this I know- but a girl can still dream about the lovely treadmill that is i-pod happy:) and has speakers and a fan : ahhhhhh!!!! 
