Monday- Andrew and Bryna joined me for left over Luau Meat Balls, paint stripping and floor scraping.  (we also went through a bottle of wine)

There has been a trend that every time I go to the house I find one more thing that I want to remove from the walls.

Tuesday- The plaster guys (or at least one of them) was at the house!  Bryna and John joined me for more luau meat balls, scrapping stairway wood work clean, picking loose paint off the dining room and a large dose of lead paint. 

Wednesday- more plaster work done! Scrapped some more paint, ate some more meat balls, I wore my respirator as much as possible, I was not feeling so great after the night before.  I had been doing really well at keep my beer above where I was scrapping, but at one point my ADD caused me to jump around surfaces and I was scrapping the  post in the stairway and I looked down and there was my beer, right in the path of the falling lead particles.  Figuring I have inhaled enough lead in the last few days I got rid of that beer.

Friday- At lunch Diane and I went to Menards and look at PAINT COLORS!

Winter room- blue gray with white trim

Living Room- tan

Dining room- same tan on top as living room, darker on the bottom between the trim

Stairway- Orange, like burnt orange, think fall colors

Denail room- I think this is going to be mine, blue with wood trim

Bedroom 2- tan

Bedroom 3- tan

My father pulled up to the apartment 30 seconds before I got home on Friday. We picked up Rachel and Nik from the airport just before 9pm and then they got the house tour.

Saturday- the plan was to remove trim around the window then insulate with foam and eat chili for lunch.  The first part of this plan was ended due to two reasons:

1.       The plaster guys were finishing the wall prep for texture, which Scott said could be done early the next week…

2.       I was expecting to find a gap in the plaster to fill with foam like around the doors but there wasn’t one

Now the development pushed the time line ahead of schedule but it still through me for a loop because it ruined my carefully made plans. So when we went to eat chili and it was a frozen brick I forced everyone to wait while it was defrosted in the microwave because I couldn’t handle more changes to the plan.

Rachel and I made a trip to the home depot where we picked up pink foam board (for some insulation in the basement) but it obviously did not fit in the Rav and I didn’t have a knife on me so in the parking lot I used a key to cut it into pieces that would fit into my car.

But with Scott being ready to texture we had to tape (everything). We laid paper on the floor and covered things for the rest of the day. 

  

Sunday- started with the four of us taking on the dirtiest jobs possible.  Dad and Nik climbed into the attic to flip insulation so the vapor barrier was on the right side.

While Rachel and I scrubbed the basement floor in the laundry room, then taping, taping and more taping… after lunch (at Outpost) Peggy and Les joined us.  Les worked to finish the attic box (see picture) while Peggy and Rachel teamed up to tape windows and closets.  Now taping is really un-fun because it is prep work and prep work is not the most fun.  So Peggy and Rachel took a break from the taping to go paint the walls in the laundry room white with this thick basement wall paint that had the consistency of elemer’s glue. A gallon barely covered the tiny room.

John and Bryna joined us for dinner. After dinner Rachel suggested that we etch the floor in the basement (I think she really wanted to paint it on Monday) and she took Dad home.  So Bryna and I played with chemicals while Nik and John taped.

  

Monday- I took the day off because Rachel and Nik didn’t fly out until 7pm, and it worked out that the attic insulation guys could come that day, so we had to be there very early!  We stuck to basement projects which involved insulating and painting the walls with a second coat.  Rachel and Dad made a run to Menard’s to get paint and came back with a utility sink and faucet as well (sweet!)  The pictures are of the hose for the blown in insulation, and a before and after of the attic.

We did another coat of paint on the walls before lunch while dad and Nik worked on the basement insulation project. We had a big lunch at the gyro place.  Then the final tapings had to happen, the front door, the built in, the hand rail, etc.  I gave Scott the confirmation that I was ready for texture and we returned to the basement projects.  After some more touch up on the walls we did the final clean and then painted and sprinkled fakes on to the floor in the laundry room. Dad and Nik ran out of spray foam so Rachel and I made a trip to the store while they cut out more pieces.  We wrapped up the evening with the insulation a few minutes later than what we had planned on leaving.  And then it was a quick trip to the apartment to get changed then dad was on his way home to Green Bay  and Rachel and Nik were on their way back to Montana!

Before (scrubbed)

Painted Walls

Painted Floor