The four of us got up and had breakfast in time for church – a great accomplishment compared to the past two lazy mornings. After church we had lunch at one of my new favorite restaurants – Claim Jumper. Karen wanted a rematch in Spades and we never turn down a game. Then we decided to round out the afternoon with a little more Mario Kart (Karen kicks everyone’s butt).
Today we had some fun. We spent yesterday playing Mario Kart and today we decided to race real go karts – the fast kind. We drove almost to Chicago and had two races. Good luck on guessing who is who with our suits and helmets on.
Then we returned home, loaded Karen up with caffeine, and played Spades.
I finished up all the things on my list yesterday so tonight we get a nice relaxing evening before Daniel and Karen arrive. Wade made a fire and we spent most of the evening in front of it.
I always have a large list of things to get done before we have visitors. Daniel and Karen arrive tonight and the list included painting Wade’s office, painting the nursery door, and rehanging the nursery door. (Not to mention the cleaning, ironing, grocery shopping, etc.) It was late, but I got it all done. The door to the nursery is painted and hung. Wade’s office has painted trim, touched up wall paint, and a painted ceiling. The doors will have to wait for another day.
Before:
After:
Wade and I have slowly been accumulating new (and sometimes old) furniture. Today I found a downside. I no longer have a place to sit in my paint clothes. I used to be able to take a break at the kitchen table without changing clothes or worrying about the paint touching furniture. I was working on the trim in Wade’s office and as I looked around I couldn’t find a single chair (or coffee table) that I wouldn’t mind a touch of paint on. It’s a good thing I am almost done with this painting stuff.
And a new goal for getting my painting done – before my stomach outgrows my paint jeans. At 24 weeks I can still wear them, and I only have one more entire room to go….
I think Madison is a little embarrassed by her new favorite toy – a pink elephant. She doesn’t often play with toys and rarely seems attached to one in particular. A few weeks ago she was bored inside and I wouldn’t let her out because of the rain. I tried to entertain her with a new toy – a pink elephant that squeaks. She loves it and often carries it around, but she immediately drops it if I pick up a camera. The only thing I can figure is she is embarrassed.
We turned on the heat in the house a few weeks ago, but my office is still cold. A room full of single paned windows and no radiator is not good in Milwaukee. Wade had been hunting for a radiator but couldn’t find one to match our existing ones. Then he had the great idea of moving a radiator in the upstairs hall to the sunroom. The upstairs is always warmer than the downstairs and we are rarely up there except to sleep. We moved the radiator in to my office, but when Wade was installing it he stripped the threads on the piping. He was stumped so we called in a professional. After a week of waiting and a second visit, the man got it installed. I am now sitting in my nice warm office typing away. I love heat.
I love the snow! I knew today’s high was around 32 and snow was predicted, but I didn’t really think it would snow. We saw flurries on the way to church and they continued all day. Nothing stuck to the ground, but it still put a big smile on my face!
There are some projects I just can’t seem to start. Wade completed the closet doors and my only job was to remove the paint that had ended up on the windows. Normally this takes a straight razor blade and a few minutes. The kicker is the glass is textured and the paint was down in the grooves. Thank goodness the paint was latex and Judy told me Krud Kutter would remove latex paint. I did enough experimenting to verify it would work and then still couldn’t seem to finish. Well I did it – finally! It took three hours, a toothbursh, sponge, and dental pick, but the windows look great.
The only thing left is the top piece of molding around the door baseboards. Wade found a local place to reproduce the trim, but we haven’t installed it yet.
It seems that every house requires different tools, even if I am basically doing the same job. At the last house I was painting everything -walls, trim, ceiling, etc. My favorite tools were a heat gun and a belt sander. In this house, my favorite tools are my heat gun and an orbital sander. I think the type of sander has more to do with whether the trim was painted before (yes in the old house; no in the current house). The bad news is I am evidently hard on orbital sanders.
In the last few months I have managed to break all three of the sanders we owned – 2 porter cables and one Milwaukee. Granted we “acquired” them all used and they had already been fixed by Wade at least once before. Wade finally had enough and bought me a new Ridgid random orbital sander. I used it to finish up the sunroom and was quite pleased with how it worked. Wade picked it up to finish a door and it wouldn’t work. I claimed innocence – it was fine when I used it. He said history showed otherwise. We’d only had it a week so he returned it to Depot and got a new one, but I’m beginning to wonder if I am just bad luck.
Now for a trick to painting stained trim. I have mentioned in the past the trouble I have had with painting. No where on the internet or the local stores could I find a solution to both the stain showing through and the cracking. My best option had been to use the orbital sander with 60 grit sandpaper to try and remove all the varnish/shlack and then use Zinser BIN to seal the stain. If cracking occurred I would sand some more and apply a second coat. It was a messy, tedious process. Then by accident I discovered that my heat gun will remove the varnish/shlack. In fact, it works easier on varnish/shlack than paint. Then I can do a quick sand and paint – with no sanding in between coats or additional coats of Zinser. Too bad I realized this towards the end of my painting. Another quick fact – spackle actually works on the cracking wonderfully – especially for those areas that are almost impossible to sand.