Dining room, attic hall, and bathroom floors have been stripped, sanded, and sealed; that's a nice step in the right direction, and they look one heck of a lot better than they probably have in the 100 years of their lives to date. Having gotten that far, and being heartily sick and tired of re-finishing floors, I decided that the old kitchen and the new kitchen are getting linoleum.
The new kitchen's walls are also primed (okay, I admit I still have a little detail work and one little corner to do, but for the most part they are done!) so now I can get on with figuring out exactly what I want to DO with them.
Shelving units are built and more planned. Some are for artwork display; some are for books.
I've begun collecting more materials for the roofing and for ramping. The roofing will be time-consuming, what with having to remove two layers of cedar shakes (all those NAILS!!), but I'll dodder along as best I can. As soon as I have the scaffolding (next on my purchase list) and the weather is nice enough, I can get on with it! I have plenty of everything I need to get a good beginning.
One thing I discovered today is that my little pickup is a great little work pony! I hauled almost half a ton of materials and that little old truck performed like a trooper, which is a huge relief. This time it was mainly concrete blocks and rolls of roofing stuff; next it will be more rolls and lots of shingles, which aren't exactly feather-weight.
Moving right along ... in order to do the dining room floor I had to of course empty the room. Once the floor was double sealed I decided I really like the space in there when it isn't all filled up with a big dining room table, the accompanying chairs, couch, easy chair, and whatever the heck else I had taking up all the room. Since it's just me and Duke here, I made an arbitrary decision to dispense with most of all that stuff. I'll have my small antique table, a couple of chairs, the counter for electronics, and my recliner and that's it. Out with the rest!
For a few days the couch sat in the middle of my studio work room, taking up all THAT space. Then I heaved a heavy sigh and went ahead and dismantled the day bed in the morning room to make room for the couch in there for the time being. The day bed, dismantled, I just added to the rapidly filling front porch. Some of the clutter out there consists of dump-bound junk; some of it I want to keep (if I can ever get to it); a large portion will sit there until the people who want it are ready to have it (which will hopefully be in this decade). Once that re-distribution happens this old house will have a look that I will sincerely appreciate.
One of my 'between-work' projects in the next couple of days is going to be constructing the framing to use in building Duke's stone doghouse. It's a practice run for the bigger projects I have in mind. I'll also have to go rock-hunting, which will probably be the most fun of the whole project. Other than that, I just have to get some concrete mix and a five gallon pail. Well yeah, then I have to DO the project!
Oh, an explanation of the term 'between-work': I'm a CNA at a local medical facility and work the 3-11 shift. When I have a bunch of work days in a row, my daily schedule is getting up and moving around nine or ten, eating, bathing, spending a little time on line or fiddling with either planning or working on something or other; then, because I'm OLD (and because my job is physically and emotionally demanding), I'll usually try to get some rest from noon until two when it's time for me to get ready for work, leave for work at two-thirty so as to get there on time, work from three to eleven, get home shortly before midnight, wind down until one or two in the morning, and do it all over again. So the 'between-work' time consists of maybe an hour in the late morning.
Anyway ...
The gal I 'sold' my other house to told me that she's going to pay me a little more on it, so I'm hoping to be able to go shopping again on my next weekend off, for those roofing materials and hopefully the linoleum for the kitchens.
In between now and then I'll have one day 'off' from work and according to the extended forecast it's supposed to rain that day so I reckon maybe I can use that day to do something creative for a change.
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