The spackling of the Living Room is finally complete! The room is beginning to look like a “real” room now. I have to sand it and perhaps do a few touchups. The primer/sealer and the paint (interior flat! something you could never use on old plaster walls!) is purchased. I am very, very eager to get to the painting stage.
My sweet husband told me he wanted to rent a drum sander for the floor. I was quite happy to use the little Black & Decker Sandstorm handsander, but he thought it would be too tedious and would take me too long. Use a drum sander for the big area, and my Sandstorm for the edging. And he volunteered to operate the drum sander! Sweet! So today, before calling the rental company, I thought I’d give my Sandstorm a try, to see how it would do.
I sanded a small area to practice. I was surprised to find dark green paint underneath the dark brown paint. I had thought the brown paint was original. Little red flags went up when I saw the green paint. It looked like very old porch paint. Better check it, I thought. I made a quick trip to Home Depot to buy one of those small lead testers. They are very handy– you crush two small tubes, shake the implement, and squirt a bit of yellow liquid out to moisten a swab. You rub the swab on the painted area, and if it remains yellow, you’re clear; if the swab turns pink, you’ve got lead. My swab turned dark red, almost purple. My heart sank.
I have to cover the floor. There is no way I can sand this stuff. Time for Plan B: laminate flooring. My husband agreed, so we are shelling out the bucks for laminate flooring. Home Depot has been having a clearance on the stuff, at 88 cents a square foot, so I can’t complain… I just didn’t want to spend any more money on this! Oh well, I do like laminate. But P.S. I spent $400 on materials for flooring, and then I had to pay $36 for TAX. Talk about theft!
Pictures to come. Tomorrow is sanding day, then I prime and paint for the rest of the week! The end is near!
:) I’m a married mom of four teenage children. We live in Upstate New York. We bought an old 1855 home and acre property, over 10 years ago. We've been in the slow, agonizing process of living in the home while (trying) to renovate it. When I'm not renovating, I'm a freelance writer and blogger.
We've learned to dig a French drain, plant huge flower and vegetable gardens, wire a circuit panel, install furnace ducting, understand the enigmatic complexities of the plumbing system, and more. It's been *quite* the adventure.
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August 28, 2007
interior work