Learning to Love My Heat Gun

So, I started in on the floors again. After eleven months of inactivity, it started again. Who can say why exactly? Fear? Loathing? Voodoo? Boredom? Hell, does it matter?

First, as the tumbleweed photo below indicated, I had to do a thorough cleaning to find the bloody floor. And move furniture. And this was just to finish the dining room floor, which is supposed to be finished for Thanksgiving. 2007. Just saying.

Really, I'm embarrassed at how quickly this went. I mean, I could have had this finished last year.

Here is the before picture of the unfinished portion of the dining room floor.


I finally put the old pine plugs Gary sent to good use. Thank you Gary!

Here is a gripping photo of a round plug in a round hole!

And a puttied round plug in a round hole!

And here is the money shot: the dining room floor with all of its sanding prep completed.

Of course, I missed a few spots. Details.

Since things were moving along, I decided to start on the living room floor. The wood putty I use is filled with all the marvels of modern science: carcinogens, toxic solvent, and other sixteen syllable compounds. I quickly deduced that mystery finish on the living room floor was shellac. The acetone and ethanol alcohol in the wood putty quickly reactivated it. Shellac is a lot better than lead based paint. Since I knew that it was shellac that I was dealing with, I could benefit from everyone else's houseblogging experiences. For once, I knew what to do. I dragged out my heat gun, near virginal in condition, and went to work on the shellac. Sure, I could have used the drum sander on it, but I'd be changing the paper every minute or two as the shellac gummed it up. At a dollar a roll for the sand paper, this will add up quick. I guestimate that stripping the shellac may not save me time in the long-run, but it's probably saving me $20-$30.

The shellac came right up. There appears to be three coats of it. The first is a light cherry color, the next layer is darker with an amber hue, and the final coat is a fugly poo-brown that is so dark that I originally thought it may have been paint. One wonderful thing is that they didn't shellac under the rugs, they just did the rooms perimeter. I guess they had different sized rugs over the years. The rugs seem to have gotten larger over time. This is how I can see all the different layers. Here is a picture.

Here is the next problem area. This corner is going to suck. Even after I strip the shellac, most of this section will have to be hand sanded since this corner is too small for a drum sander. Feel the pain.

Anyhow, more to come.

The Underappreciated Fiscal Benefits of Cleaning House

A couple of weeks ago Scarlet and I watched the movie, Stranger Than Fiction. Most people who have seen it that I have talked to thought it was a so-so movie. Scarlet and I really enjoyed it. Maybe it something to tell us at this particular time in our lives? Who knows?

In any case, one of those background details that I noticed about most of the homes in this movie was how Spartan the furnishings were. Even the flat Emma Thompson's character lived in with its high ceilings and fancy moldings, was furnished with very little. I liked the look.

One, it makes the spaces seem bigger and more dignified. Two, your eye is really drawn to what is there. It makes it stand out. It also makes you wonder why that particular piece of furniture, book, et cetera is there. The lack of other things makes you consider what is important about that piece, why it was chosen while so many others were not.

I have since unleashed my inner-minimalist and been steadily cleaning out everything from the Devil Queen. A couple of hours of cleaning can easily produce four sacks of trash, an large box of items ready to be donated to Marva, and a small pile of items to be sold on eBay. The actual number of things which are really worth keeping is astoundingly small. To think, I've spent years hauling and storing all of this stuff just so I could dispose of it now. Genius.

Aside from the general sense of being unburdened, there have been some other underappreciated fringe benefits. The other night amid all the detritus of a thousand years, I found two un-opened cans of wood putty and a tube of tub & tile caulk for the seam around the hot tub. This find is easily worth $35-$40 which is pretty exciting since I already spent the money on it.

See, less is more.

Goodwill Industries, Suck My ----

As part of our ever on-going effort to find the floor, we took a truckload of old clothes, kitchen wares, et cetera to Goodwill in Russellville last Saturday.

We pull up at the drop-off door in back of the store. A very puckered lady steps out and scowls at our truck load of stuff. I can't tell if a hard-life has soured her or if a lifetime of nasty thoughts and deeds has stained her with a black, indelible mark.

"We don't take furniture." The two bar stools are the only furniture in the truck.

"What about the rest of it?"

"We can't take it, it's not boxed right so we can send it to Little Rock. And we don't take furniture." What? We've been bringing stuff here for years. This has never been a problem.

A rat of a man comes out and joins us. "We can't take any of this. Sorry, we don' take furniture."

"Well, is there anywhere that we can take it?" I try not to sound too exasperated. I mean I don't usually take donations to charities as a pretense for picking a fight.

The puckered prune sneers, "You can take it to MARVA, they'll take it."

Right.

I climb back into the truck. Scarlet says, "You'd think we pulled up with a truckload of shit they way they looked at it."

"Yeah, and what the fuck was their deal about the furniture? You'd think that’s all we'd brought. Assholes."

I drove down to MARVA. They were the nicest people. And, they took everything. We're going to take them another load next week or so.

Clean-Up

When I say I’ve been extremely busy, I’m not lying. However, it did occur to me that it isn’t the only reason why I haven’t been rushing to get on with working on the Devil Queen. I am sick of working on this bloody whore. Really. I apparently burned up lot of energy and motivation during those few months leading up to the appraisal. And, I know that I’ve whined about motivation et cetera before, but, at this point, I don’t care. If this doesn’t change soon, it will become a problem.

Today we spent six hours hauling lumber we salvaged from the Devil Queen’s roof and porches three years ago. It has been in storage at Scarlet’s grandparents house since then, and they asked us to come and get it since they are trying to sell their house now. We hauled it all to Liz’s as payment for all the painting she did on the Queen this year. She’s scavenging building materials for a small cabin she’d like to build on her property up in the hills north of Atkins. Pretty land.

We have impeccable timing. Today was the first day in weeks that it didn’t rain. It was also the hottest day of the year to date. I think it was nearly 100 degrees out. Good timing, no?

You'd think that after hauling off four huge truckloads of lumber that we’d be finished, but we are not. We still have one truckload of rocks and three or four loads of bricks; this is going to the Devil Queen for the retaining wall, patios, and walks. I don’t know when we’ll get around to that.

And, my camera has been in Bentonville for the last two weeks, so no photos for you all. I have couple interesting bits I’d like to share, but I guess that will have to wait too. Bugger.