I have been busy.
With the floors potentially going in starting this Saturday, I needed to gut the last two rooms upstairs. That meant emptying, removing carpet and painting.
Removing carpet in this house doesn't generally go easy. No problem cutting the carpet in small sections and roll. No problem in removing all the boards with nails. No problem in rolling up the underlay. The fun is where you have to SCRAPE off the underlay. It's so old and deteriorated, most remains. But this isn't new to me. Every carpet so far in this house has required the same treatment of removal. Let's just say, I'm glad I did the rest of the house 3 years ago because doing two rooms in two days was quite enough.
When I removed the carpet in the main living area awhile back, my jaw dropped. I didn't know what to make out of what was stuck to the plywood. I thought it was mold, so I recovered the works and called in specialized guys that know all about the wonderful world of mold. Luckily they didn't think it was that at all, and told me to go ahead and scrape it off. So I did. And I remember it being oily and greasy. Just like the last two days.
With me being so so busy in those two rooms over this weekend, Cody has been happily playing alot with his buddy Alex. Cody goes there one day, then Alex comes here on another. I'm very grateful that Cody has such a good friend to spend time with.
But I did get Cody to help me with one bedroom yesterday. Apparently the rotten underlay 'made him feel sick', so I got him to drill in the screws into the plywood floors to prep for the hardwood. (I couldn't find my camera) He thought that was fun! But apparently that was very hard work and he needed a break after only a few minutes. Yeah... well... don't we all. I coached him on how everyone is working very hard on this house and his help was needed and appreciated too, so he finished his section. And did a very good job I might add!
When we knew Alex was coming for a visit today, I took a large piece of carpet I had just removed and rolled up, and laid it down in the living room for a cozier cleaner place for the boys to play. (still couldn't find my camera) Cody came in the room and squealed, "It's MY carpet mom! I love it!" and promptly showed his appreciation by dumping his toys in a huge pile right in the middle of it and the two happily played. All that happy from a chunk of old crappy carpet?!? I'll have to remember that happy little tip for future purposes.
So while they played, I tackled Cody's bedroom. He had a hodgepodge of three different furniture pieces in different colours. I painted them all black to match his headboard, so that should make his room come together abit nicer. And NOW is the time. Paint right in the room as is before new floors arrive so I don't have to move the furniture. Doesn't get much easier than that. And I also touched up his walls here and there. Looking good!
The third bedroom is Cody's playroom. This is the room where Ikea is present, with floor to ceiling toy storage in shelves and bins. I called this room the Pepto Bismal room for it's thick deep pink tone when we moved in. The walls will now reveal the same warm fresh shade of taupe as throughout the rest of the house. I may do some colour blocking or funky treatment at a later date, but for now, it's deadline time. And I am delighted to report, painting the ceiling was easy in this room for it use to wear a nasty shade of 'yellowed teeth beige.' White sure looks white! Much better!
There was only one incident today worth reporting. I'm still shaking my head in wonderment on this one. The playroom closet is temporarily holding all my clothes. And naturally, the bifold doors were removed to prepare for the new floors. And here I am painting a ceiling right above the exposed clothes. Honestly, the setup sounds most obvious, but I didn't think of it at the time. I was beating the clock, trying to be ultra productive in between hungry boy requests, so I went about my way.
This massive shelving structure took up the entire width of the room and was pushed in the center so I could paint the walls, so I had to walk WAAAAYYY around it on either end to get to the other side of the room. I loaded my roller to continue the ceiling while walking past the closet and SPLAT. I laughed at first because, well, most of my clothes are paint clothes anyway so what's the diff... until I viewed what was hit.
I don't buy clothes, don't really enjoy the search and find so what I have is kinda valuable as I don't want to have to go to the mall of all places just to do something I don't enjoy. But what got hit, I was already planning a shopping day. It was the only dress I owned. And I had only worn it twice. My sleeveless little black dress that can be worn anywhere, funeral, wedding, meaning, I don't have to shop! But now I do...
Thinking fast, I yanked the dress off the hanger and hightailed it into the kitchen and washed the paint down with warm water thinking, what's the point! What's done is done. I was sloppy and this is the cost. And then I looked down. I couldn't believe it. This fabric was WEIRD. Water was repelling off the dress and the paint was GONE. In seconds. Woa. GONE!
What a picture I was, covered in head to toe paint, and this perfectly pitch black dress I shouldn't have been closer than 10 miles away from didn't have a spot on it. Anywhere. Ok, so I am now in love with 100% polyester and Cloverdale's gel ceiling paint. They do not stick together apparently. Yet another useless tidbit of info I can share with the masses.
After all the painting was done, I found my camera but was too tired to care to report the efforts on film today. Perhaps tomorrow. When I find the batteries. Apparently Wii controls take alot of batteries and anything that housed that appropriate battery size got seized.
So it was a productive last few days with few mishaps luckily. Cody ended up happy which made me feel much less guilty being so busy. The bedrooms will be ready for the weekend. I found my camera and I saved my dress! And Cody and I even escaped to see Madagascar 2. We also went to Dan's to continue the mantel. It was a great weekend!
And the very best outcome of all? I still don't have to go to the mall anytime soon. YES!!
