Sunday, July 8, 2012

Patching and pulling

Currently on the project list: refinishing the second floor's floors.

Before we can do that, however, we have a list of things that need(ed) to be accomplished.

1) Remove the rest of the railing and spindles. These stairs are officially super scary now -  no railing. Use them at your own risk, and please take care to fall toward the window if you must fall.


2) Pull about a zillion nails, staples, and screws out of the floors. I guess someone wanted to make sure the old carpet wouldn't move - ever.

This is me in action, with Daisy the construction mascot. Pulling the nails meant hours of being on the floor, vacuuming up drywall dust so I could see the surface, with a headlamp in the hopes that the nails would shine enough to be visible. Dirty, hard, back aching work.


And this is what the floor looks like close up. Purty.  Note how many holes are in just one board.


2) Patch the holes. There are a number of places where there's been some water damage that was never actually repaired. Some holes need to be patched, and some need to be cut open and then patched. This is also dirty, dusty, hard work.

Before (after the rotten stuff was cut away):



After:
 
Before:

After:

Two weekends ago, we also took some time to patch our siding. It doesn't match exactly, but it looks a heck of a lot better than the plywood covered in plastic that we used to have in this spot:

 

And Mike rebuilt an old bike. Caliente!


Other than that, we've been doing a fair amount of weekend visiting of family and friends. And my garden is kicking total ass right now. I'll post pics of it next time.

Next up, finish the patching and rent a big floor sander!

No comments: