Post Hurricane Update

Hurricane Irene stayed on the coast, but it left us a present.  A major branch of one of the trees in the front yard broke off.  The tree isn't in too bad of shape, but I'll have to cut the branch the rest of the way off tomorrow after it stops raining.

Yesterday, after getting home, I also finished laying out the patio blocks that I had on hand.  Now that I've finished that chore, I can see I need about 30 more blocks or so.  Next week.

Not much progress on the home front...

(8/25/11) OK, blame hurricane Irene.  There was a certain concern, as of a couple of days ago, that the hurricane would be hitting Raleigh dead center.  It's since veered more easterly, and while we will be getting a good soaking, it is unlikely that we'll see enough wind to do any damage.

The thing is, I've spent the last little bit of time focused on battening down the hatches, to use a weatherly expression.  Thinking in terms of being able to park the truck in the garage (which it hasn't seen in months), I spent the afternoon yesterday cleaning the garage, taking everything remotely identifiable as "yard and garden" like out to the new shed.  Also swept up the dust and scrap lumber. This freed up enough room to rearrange the remaining tools and stuff so that both vehicles can fit.  Just in case.  Since I had planned this reorganization for the next week or two anyway, it wasn't that much of a hit to the overall plan.

Other than that, about the only thing that we've accomplished in the last couple of days is moving furniture and masking in the living room.  Tonight I expect to pain the remaining walls.  The remainder of the patio will have to wait until after the hurricane passes.

Addendum (8/26/11):  Last night, I did manage to paint the remaining living room walls.  This afternoon I'll look it over and see if it needs a second coat.  Either way, we should be wrapping up painting once and for all in the next few days.

More sand sir!

Yesterday, we got out and bought some more paint, as well as a dozen sacks of sand and thirty patio paving blocks.  I spent a few hours this morning laying out the blocks.  As you can see here, there are a few that will have to be trimmed to fit within the limit of the patio.  I've got another 10 pavers that I picked up today, but now I'm out of sand.  I figure about 20 more bags of sand, and another 20 or so pavers will get the job done.


 
Meanwhile, Pam is painting the trim in the Guest Bathroom, Foyer, and Living Room.  Hoping to get that chore done today as well.  Still have to move some furniture around to allow us to paint another wall out there, but that is for tomorrow.

Progress... slow but sure

Put several hours into painting again last night.

Finished in the guest bathroom, putting a second coat of paint on the patch I'd made at the wall fixture, and later putting the lighter paint on as splatter.  [Reviewing previous posts, I see my commentary about shoddy construction somehow didn't make it into the blog.  Remounting light fixture in bathroom after supposedly finishing painting proved that the electrical box behind the sheet rock hadn't been properly mounted... it was hanging loose.  Had to break out enough of the sheet rock to jury rig it solid, using a shim from the nearby 2x4 and some epoxy, the space being to tight to use nails or screws.  Then patched, sand, and repaint, leading to this post.]

In the living room/foyer/hallway, did all the necessary touch-ups on the previously painted surface, and also painted all the sections of wall that I hadn't done earlier.  There is about 200 square feet of wall yet to be painted in the living room, but I have to move furniture/bookshelves to get at it, and that will have to wait until we finish painting the trim (later this week/weekend).

Oh yeah, need another gallon of paint.

Halfway there...

and another gallon needed.

 A little difficult to see here, but when I originally applied my touch up paint (see previous posts), I was only able to reach up to about the height of the light on the wall.  Today, I applied the tape you see at the top of the picture, and repainted the entire wall from that line down.

I finished the entire wall you see here, as well as the alcove/hallway you see at the left of the picture.  This is about 2/3 of what I've got taped and ready, but I've used up more than 2/3 of the paint, so its back to Lowes tomorrow to get another gallon (and some more painter's tape).  While I probably won't paint tomorrow (I've got a Toastmaster's meeting), Wednesday is another day.  Its going to also involve moving furniture (another reason I wasn't eager to continue tonight.

Grumble grumble paint doesn't match...

Yes, the paint color we used to touch up the living room was just a slight shade darker than the original paint.  So.... I'll be painting even more than I originally intended.  In the places where the ceiling is normal height (hallway), this is no big deal.  Otherwise, I'm going to have to mask a break line about 8' up, and paint with the new color up to there, leaving the higher wall the original color.  It will still look odd... but not as bad as it could be with a jagged paint line... 

Words of Advice

If, dear reader, you ever have an inclination to do some "touch-up" painting on a few spots in any room of your living space, be it a house, an apartment, or a classy card-board box in an alley, you will find that by providing clean paint in the dirty spot, that every so-so place adjacent to the formerly filthy place will by default become the new dirty spot, and immediately beg to be similarly painted.

Such is the case to us today.  I purchased a quart of paint in the proper color to touch up a short length of hallway adjacent to the living room.  Should have been plenty.  But when that area was painted, Pam decided that we just had to touch up one more space.... and then one more....  you get the idea.

Needless to say, a quart is no longer enough.  I'm heading out the door to get a gallon more.  Much more than we need, but there's always touch up to do somewhere.

Bathroom Painting Done

Last night, we finished painting in the Guest Bath Room.  Ok, it was weird, but my wife wanted to use a "splatter" pattern to add high-lights in light blue over the dark blue background.  It is certainly... different.

I was hoping to also put a coat of fresh paint in the hallway between the bathroom and the living room, to cover up years of paw-prints from the kids (and grownups).  I didn't know that we didn't have any usable paint of that color... the remainder of the one can left had dried out some time back.  I hope to get over the the hardware store some time to have them match the color with a (small) fresh can.

Next project:  Back Yard Patio (flag stone).

How Blue I Am

Actually, the guest bathroom is what's blue. 

First, I had to finish prepping the room. This included removing the light fixture from the wall over the sink, and removing the toilet tank.  That second one was NOT a fun job, but it only took a few minutes.  If any of you need to do it, make sure you have a towel preplaced on the floor under the tank, because you will have water coming out of the water line, and out of the screw holes in the bottom of the tank, no matter how well you pre-drain the tank.

Painting was almost an minor chore, except for the fact that it was hard to get into the corners above the toilet and sink, since there was no way to get the step ladder close to those corners.  The corners over the tub weren't bad, since I could set one side of the ladder in the tub.

Need to throw on the second coat this evening, and Pam wants to put some highlights using the lighter blue, but we'll probably knock that out in the a.m.

Shed Complete

Hear Ye, Hear Ye...   Let it be known that the work on the shed is complete!

Cut and placed the last bits of plywood scrap as shelving.  Not much of any size left now.  Also finished moving gardening tools & supplies into the shed.  Even have a reasonable supply of bugs and spiders.

I am looking at my to-do list.  Net project:  Paining the Guest Bathroom, and getting the pad in the back yard ready to put down patio bricks.  Then its on to the boat! (But that's a different blog.)

Put it on a shelf

I can do that now!

Yesterday afternoon, I started knocking out some shelves inside the shed.  Mostly using leftover lumber and scrap plywood from the project, I threw up three quick shelves, based on two 2x4's nailed along one side of the shed, topped with various plywood scrap leftover from the siding and roofing.  Got all the shelf framing up, and about 1/2 of the plywood.  Ran out of time, so I'll cut the remaining ply this afternoon (as long as the plywood holds out).

Also put up the pegboard on the opposite side of the shed, and got the kid to use a bunch of the little hooks designed to hold up tools.  Some of the hooks were designed for slightly larger holes than this pegboard had (worked in the Garage), but there's enough to at least get started on hanging up the various tools.

Moved some (not all) of the gardening tools & junk into the shed.  After I finish working on the shelves, we'll continue this trend, hopefully allowing me to clean out the garage this weekend.