more work, different day

This is a scene of "I give up", for I did, then Diane did. We quit working on the tiles for it would only end it us slamming the pieces on the ground in bitter anger.

Thank you again Jeff for helping when we needed it. Jeff delivered the drywall to us in our late hour.
He later told us that he had to load the five sheets himself for the dummies at Menards didn't even process that they might be a bit awkward for just one person to load.

Here, Jeff talks to Jenny across the open space between the kitchen and the living room, aka the blue room.
Still in this post, you can see the open space removed.

Again, looking at the downstairs you see the new insulation. The brown sections are the new insulation put where the insulation was missing.

As noted on a previous post, the studs were not 24" on center in the basement nor in the kitchen/blue room. Each drywall piece had to be cut custom. What a joy.Note the larger sections needed on the (North) East wall?

This is the finalized wall complete fairly quickly by Mike Fey and Dustin.

Mike Fey and Dustin at work. They were more liberal with the mud use than were we. It likely made it more secure, since he found that the studs were not 24" on center, so this patch area has support in more locations that every 24".

There was a problem area by the front door, so Mike fixed this also.

This large of a section clearly demands a whole new repaint of the room. Diane has not yet decided on a color.

Diane is picking up the pieces of tape from taping the drywall before mudding. Lilly was a big help again by grabbing the loose paper and running around with it, chewing it, begging for more, regardless whether there was a lot on the ground. The dust on the ground later coated a few of her toys with white. Joy.
She is behaving a bit odd, and it is likely that she is starting to go into heat again. Now that is great timing, right?

I was out with a friends in morning and part of the afternoon, so Diane was left solo for a while working on the walls. Shamefully of me, I know. Under the cabinets the mud had to be thicker and there was less airflow, so it stayed wet longer.

This just adds to my "allure" with millions of ruddy freckles and now millions of blanco freckles.

The ceiling has a better shine and sheen now. It isn't perfect, but it is much better. It was unclear last night whether Diane planned to do another coat on the ceiling or not. This section was done entirely with the power painter.+

Although it looks patchy, the darker areas are the wetter areas. It won't be quite clear how we did until today with it being as dry as it is going to be.

+ This is the power painter.
If you ever choose a power painter I suggest these few ideas:
It requires experience to do a good job with it. It had burst/pulse settings as well as a flow regulator.
There is a specific ratio of water to paint (lowering viscosity); these ratios are not in print
Diagnostics on flow and suction difficulties are also not plain.
There are many small parts, so cleaning should be done where you don't lose any.
Cleaning take times, soaking, tools, cleaner

We were using the power painter to paint the ceiling. Rather than use the included paint can, we drew paint from a can of paint that was mixed with water. Again, getting the ratios was tough. The thinner, watery test spraying that we did coated the walls a bit, letting water run down over the drywall paint. Oh, fudge (or some other more applicable profane word)!
After some work, we got it working. It was a learning experience figuring the settings to get a mostly even flow and the speed at which to move up and down in lines keeping a mostly 90 degree 'stroke'. I needed the ladder, for my shortness, on the sections near the windows. The areas there were prone to mildew and weathering.
Diane was therefore tethered to me, like a person on oxygen, hoses ran from me to the paint can the Diane held. I wanted her to experience the "delight" of using the damned thing, so we switched. As it stands to reason with her crappy luck, that it started to sputter more with her using it.

It had stopped once. I had to pull the end attached to the hose (suction end lying in paint) and completely flush it with water. Thereafter it worked for a short while, but would cough and sputter. After some more attempts we stopped like the painter.

Diane got a call from Jessica. Zane, her boyfriend, acquired a puppy (shetland-spaniel mix) and took it to Pet(not-s0)Smart. The puppy got its shots at 2pm, but was having breathing trouble by 7pm. Diane called two vets and asked them, best guesses with what data she had. They predicted allergic reaction to the shots. Petsmart's vet isn't around at 7pm. Nope, that would be convenient. Whereas FW has a bit of a dumbskullary to it, there is but one 24-hour emergency clinic.

Diane suggested that they, Zane, Jessica, and puppy Lexie go there. It is NE whereas Diane is SW. Diane doubted that Zane had the $150 for the bill, as he is a teen. Fair enough. Diane asked if I wanted to go with them, I chose to stay and paint so that something was done.


I painted what I could, patching the popcorn ceiling with a bush. Rollers tend to pull away the ceiling. I cleaned out the roller that I used on the stairwell walls. There came the frustration. The first hose I chose (one leading to the garden), didn't have enough pressure to peeve an ant, let alone clean.

I grabbed the new hose, but it was missing the washer. I pulled the washer off the other hose. Then I noticed that each step I took, left a white shoe print on the deck. Wonderful! I started cleaning and it was just a watery stinking mess. I would have done better not wearing shoes. By the end of the night they were still swampy so I drove home barefoot. Lilly was outside, which she liked much for she was in too much. I called out to her when I couldn't see her. She has been known to chase after birds and cats. She also torments a dog with an electric fence collar. That's just plain unfair.

She came to me when I called, thankfully she was still in the yard.
--note: here I was a little miffed with Jenny, for I haven't seen her participate in the work at the house, so I thought helping with the dog would have been nice, but she didn't. This didn't improve my mood. --

The hoses were "fun" to clean and Lilly wanted to play with the water "fountain". I played a bit with her, though I really just wanted to clean and call it done. She was about as wet coming in as she might have been swimming. It took a while to dry off her thick fur.

I finished cleaning the small parts in the sink. Diane called and was on her way. She bought Taco Hades, which sadly wasn't on the way back. Damn my pickiness! I don't eat McDonald's and there isn't anything at Wendy's I eat, so I am a tough guy.

She got back and then needed two things from the over-packed garage attic. I found her the cage, thankfully and that was done. The carrying case was on the floor of the garage. The presented quite a puzzle to Lilly for it smelled much of her, her mom, airport and the like. She was disturbed by it, longing to smell it, get in it, yet was frightened. She was five times too large to fit.

Diane's engine light came on in her car. Since it was fixed recently, it is a wonder what the issue is now.

Diane also had other problems. She went to the bank to get tax records, but they gave her some runaround with "not on this computer". OK dummies, it isn't on the server? Bull***t! Idiots! Diane has to go get them tomorrow. Indiana government showed its best with the driver tester for Jessica. He signed the form in red ink -- not legally binding, then failed to communicate with the department about the situation. Jessica has to wait yet another day with red tape from red ink. Bloody wonderful, eh?

With the **it hitting the fan, Diane postponed the carpet installation, which makes the inspection later, which will likely make the closing and refinancing later. It was a middle finger flicking a series of dominoes.