April 24, 2012

Suck up and bust!

HUH?, what the hell is "suck up and bust"? 

I have a dear old friend from Tennessee, who speaks with a rathah difficult to understand Southern drawl. "Suck up and bust" was always one of her favorite sayings. A translation would be... buck up and get over it, move on, and work harder. 

We are at eight weeks and counting before our note term runs out and we must be refinanced. We have a list a mile long of walls to be plastered, floors to be finished, doors to be hung, bathroom fixtures to locate and install, door hardware, a temporary railing for the deck, priming and painting of trim, baseboards and doorjambs for the third floor hall.... the list goes on and on, so...

Suck up and bust!

We are living and working in a huge mess as we continue to plaster ceilings and walls, at times it is more than we can stand but we manage. That is until my meltdown last Thursday when our house keeper called to say he was sick and would not be here on Friday, I grabbed the sides of my head and shouted, "noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

I consequently took Friday off and spent the day putting the house in some sort of order, but when you are faced with the mess in pictures below it is hard to know where to begin.

Plaster work in the Master Bathroom, very inviting don't you think?








Plaster staging in guest bedroom 2, lovely!

We have plastered the Master Bathroom, and the ceiling in guest bathroom number two.

Basecoat being applied to the Master Bathroom
Guest Bath 2 wood all primed and sanded ready for paint, and the ceiling complete

At the same time we tackled the Master Bedroom. Of course that meant moving out of the room and into guest bedroom number one. We now know what it is like to spend the night with us. Not bad actually, I was afraid it would be noisy as the guest rooms are on the front of the house, of course I would never have told that to anyone visiting us. It took a couple of hours to move the furniture out of the master bedroom, and an entire day of sorting, dusting, and purging to empty the master closet. Who would have thought that so much crap could be shoved into one closet in just a single year.
With the space empty, and the floors covered the fun began.

Seams taped and the ceiling basecoat applied



We finished the ceilings in a white color coat and then moved onto the walls, basecoat and then color. As with all color integrated plaster we grabbed the dice and rolled, when they landed we had...

SMURF BLUE!

Well not exactly, as it has calmed down quite a bit to the soft blue grey we had hoped for, but at first it was alarming to say the least.

Working along the walls with the color coat
Phillip working over the door
Blue walls and bare wood floor
ready for trim paint
Trust me, the color is much more ALIVE in real life

We spent two weeks in the front bedroom while we worked our way through the Master bedroom. We made the decision to go ahead and finish the floors while we were moved out of it, along with the dining room. Although I have yet to take pictures of the Master Bedroom floor, I did grab a couple of shots of the Dining Room. Three days of fuming hell and we have exactly what we were hoping for. Black walnut with the soft glow of tongue oil. Best part of this finish is the upkeep, if we get a wear spot or traffic pattern we can simply wipe more finish on.

The light patch is the sun shining in the window behind me
Yes, the table legs are vintage radiators

I have to get myself upstairs and get to work. But a parting shot today is a new arrival. We purchased it out of a house up the street because it was in really fine shape, came with all of the hardware, and is only five feet long, which is exactly what we needed. Of course a four hundred plus pound bathtub is not very fun to move. Next Saturday we are renting an articulating fork lift to raise it up to the door above the front porch, as I put my foot down on the concept of carrying it up the front staircase, all that work could be ruined in the blink of an eye.

Cute little thing, it of course has claw feet and a shower surround

So I promise to get some pictures of our second flying bathtub this coming weekend.
:)
#bobvila