Sorry for the quite sporadic posts of late; our internets have been down since Saturday, and I've been spending the majority of my time painting the basement. What a massive pain in the butt that job's turned out to be. Based on our hands-on findings after painting 13 rooms of our house, I budgeted about four full days for this project, including moving all the stuff away from the walls, and back again. It's turned into about twice that many -- and twice as much paint as I'd hoped, too. I'm up to ten gallons of Drylok, and God help me, I don't think that's going to be enough. I'll be really glad when it's all over.
The good news is that once it's done I'll be able to move a bunch of crap out of our vestibule and out of plain sight, and we'll also (hopefully) be rid of our Oubliette. Okay, okay, it's an old coal bin, but I swear to you, when we were being shown the house, our real estate agent actually referred to it as the place where "It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." (If you're wondering, that was also the precise moment we knew we'd picked the right real estate agent.) So, with that gone and the cinderblock hauled away, we'll have an additional ten feet of wall space. If we need to dispose of any bodies, we'll have to use one of the two cisterns out back. I suspect that method will smell much better, besides... nothing's worse than tipping your murderous hand to the neighbors thanks to a foul odor.
Other updates: Still looking for work. Still doing lots of catching up. Not much else to report.
Uhhh ohhh...sinking feeling...how big is the area you're painting? That's a looming project for me as well. I'm starting to suspect severe under-estimation of the amount of "Keeps Out Moisture!" goo that will be needed.
Oh, that's no fun on the painting. I had a project like that. I was painting the mobile home. The living room took 4 coats of one coat paint AFTER primer. I wasn't absolutley sure I shouldn't put another coat on either, but by that time I was DONE.
Don't let the paint fumes get to you!
13 rooms plus a basement ??????
You can start a hotel in that place and still have rooms to get lost.
As an alternative for moving all junk into the basement, try a yard sale or even the local dump.
Paul
(jealous, cause he only has 2 rooms)
Steph: Yeah, that stuff's so thick it goes on more like frosting than paint. I had to use a four-inch brush most of the time -- it wouldn't cling to a roller, and you had to use the hand-brush to work it into the cracks and holes, anyway. The basement's about... oh... 30 x 30 feet, with about 8-foot walls, so we're looking at... Jeez Laweeze, 7200 square feet. No wonder my bingo wings have shrunk.
Karen: Yow. I think I'm good to quit after two coats; it doesn't look like the mildewy places are coming through. You totally have my sympathy.
Paul: I know, the place is huge -- but the tradeoff is that the neighborhood's not the hottest, and there're very few jobs to be found. So you can get a big cheap old house for next to nothing, but good luck finding work once you're here. As for the junk -- I know exactly what you mean! I downsized a ton of crap during the last few moves and have been very strict about keeping junk since then. A lot of what's left are our graphic novels! The rest is useful things like mason jars that get filled in fall and emptied throughout the year. the treadmill, etc. I lived for years in a 400-square-foot apartment, so I totally understand small places. I'd live in less room by choice -- keeping up a place this big is a pain -- but this place allows both Paul and I to have our own studios and room to store our backstock, which is a huuuuuge benefit.