20 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

It’s Caturday here in Happy Larryville (and presumably elsewhere across teh vast GN).

Maaaaan…I’m just a tich achy today; I’m sure it had nothing to do with recent home improvement activities. Not even wrestling (and transporting) a 125# floor sander.

For the record, sanding with 20 grit -- to get the floor “flat” (i.e., smooth the slight differences between board thicknesses) did take a relatively long time, the passes with 60 and 100 grit went relatively quickly. (Also helped to have an adept and energetic SiL; thanks again K!)

Plan to wait until Monday to condition and stain as I’m really not up several hours of crawling around with brushes and rags. And then Tuesday…urethane!!1! Followed by installation of crown and base mouldings, paint touch-up and then…move-in. Wo0t!

John the Baptist
Editor
11 years ago

Howdy Ho, Good GN Neighbors!

Driving by on a beautiful Saturday morning, before driving to the Place of Fear and True Evil (aka Costco).

Upon checking out Fatwa’s homemaking travails, I was reminded of this:

Fatwa's Couch Issues

Y’all have a great day, because Jerry sure will!

JtB

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Heya, JtB!

Hope you complete your journey through the Valley of the Shadows of Pallet Racks unscathed.

StillNewBrideK and I chuckled over your pic…despite the truism that the couch pictured therein is at least two orders of magnitude less fugly than the cabbage rose couch and loveseat were.

*Shudders involuntarily*

I suspect that ChipPerkyK is gleefully anticipating that my (allegedly) light-sucking black leather armchair will soon be relocated from its awkward place in the living room to teh new Tidy Cave™. (Doubly-so the matching couch, which is currently on-end in a corner of our upstairs hallway just outside the master bedroom…lurking…lurking…)

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

Good morning, folks, and Happy Easter weekend!

You’re working hard, Fatwa; you’ll need to post some pictures once you are all done.

Been clearing brush and such the last few days. Working on steep slopes-well, I aint as young as I use to be.

Today too, making a traditional Bohemian meatloaf-sekanice. Veal, pork, lots of eggs and bread.

Other than that, got nuthin.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist
Reply to  Just Sven

G’morning, Sven!

That meatloaf sounds nommy!

Brush-clearing at teh Mountain Redoubt has got to be a PITA, given how steep much of your lot is.

I’ll be delighted to share some pics of the office when it’s done; still another couple of weeks before I’ll be moved-in.

I’ll also take some of the library, now that almost all of the bookcase trim is completed…after all of the office-related odds-and-ends are cleared-out. (We’ve had to use it as a “staging area” for the office project. Sometimes I feel like this home improvement stuff is similar to a sliding tile puzzle.)

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

Watched a Netflix documentary on Rory Gallagher last night-Ghost Blues. Wasn’t bad, but wished for more concert footage. Towards the end, they had an interview with Slash with him talking about Gallagher’s last show at the Roxy back in 1992 or so when Slash joined him onstage. That was cool, cuz me and my BiL were at that show.

Got me thinking about guitarists and how many of my favorites are dead. Never saw John Campbell, but one fine blues guitarist.

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

OK, the hill awaits. That brush, due to the sequester, won’t clear itself!

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
11 years ago

Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven! Happy brush clearing! (Man, I don’t even want to think about the effort that takes at Sven’s!)
Good morning, Fatwa! How many coats of urethane are you going to apply? What color are you going for? Will you know what to do with yourself once all these projects are done?

Good morning, JtB! How’s TRD?

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

That brush, due to the sequester, won’t clear itself!

Dang it…that’s seriously farked-up, Sven.

I suppose a controlled burn is our of teh question. 😉

Paddy --

Got Minwax “Red Mahogany” stain, as well as their conditioner. Intend to do a little experimentation on the closet floor -- probably tomorrow -- re timing and number of coats.

I’ll be putting on a total of three coats of semi-gloss urethane with a very light fine sanding before teh third coat (per manufacturer’s directions).

Off to teh garage to “refresh” more paint on teh large IKEA shelving unit…

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
11 years ago

I like that red mahogany from Minwax. The results should be stunning.

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

Agree with the red mahogany-good color. Now will the base board and other trim be of the same stain or contrasted with some other color?

I bet your knees, Fatwa, are more bruised up than Paris Hilton’s!!!!

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

Break time. Off to the hardware store for some stuff and then I’ll get serious with the cooking. Then back to the hillside.

As Miss Harper would say, poof!

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Just finished “repainting” the rest of the pieces of the IKEA unit which will be installed in the office. (Only painted the areas which will actually be exposed after I unpack my LPs, CDs and some more books and load that puppy up.)

If teh floor staining goes well, it oughta turn out purty.

When I stained the library floor/foyer/small hallway -- which is Minwax “Red Oak” -- I didn’t use a conditioner, plus we’d used a different sander and it came out a bit blotchy. (OTOH, there were no lap marks and the urethane came out fine; we plan on refinishing the library when we install the flooring in the living room and dining area.)

Office walls -- after several “color FAILS” -- are a nice, warm (and neutral) beige. Office baseboards, crown and trim will be Behr “Creamy White”, which is the “official trim color” for CasaK. 😉

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

“Creamy White” Yeah, you guys are in the south…..

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

The sequester-is there nothing it can’t do?

“Were California’s state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits.”

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/03/state-auditor-california-net-worth-at-negative-127-billion.html#mi_rss=Latest%20News

My state is sooooooooo f*cked.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

“Were California’s state government a business…”

The libruls would be screaming for executives’ heads, without the benefit of a gummint investigation. It’s curious that the same folks who wanted to lynch Ken Lay. et. al. haven’t shown the same outrage toward the folks who ran Solyndra, A123 Systems, Fisker Automotive or teh Golden State into taxpayer-funded insolvency.

“Creamy White” Yeah, you guys are in the south….

Hey! It’s not like the wall color I went with was called “Sausage Gravy”. Or that the darkish red I considered for an accent wall was named “Smokey Hickory BBQ Sauce”. 😉 (In fact, the wall color is “Sand Trap”; as previously expressed, I wonder how the hell one gets a marketing job coming up with paint color monickers.)

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
11 years ago

Mrs. Paddy and I went out to dinner last night at a little place she found out about through work. It’s one of those trendy little spots that makes food like you’d see on Top Chef. The idea is that they serve small plates to share, so you can get a bunch of different things to try. They have a nice selection of wines and craft beers to go along with it. Here’s the thing, though -- some of the plates aren’t all that small and the prices are really reasonable. We started off with dates wrapped in bacon, served with mascarpone. Then had a spinach salad with bacon, candied pecans, gorgonzola, and red onion that came heaped high in a bowl large enough to serve spaghetti to a family of eight. We followed that with sweet potato fries with a bacon and chive aoli (the best I’ve ever had, even reheated for lunch today) and a PB BLT -- a pork belly, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with bacon aoili, where the lettuce was replaced with watercress and the bread was a fresh-baked crusty roll -- served with a homemade jalapeno-dill pickle. A nice bottle of Pinot Noir and a red velvet cake served warm, in a bowl, sans frosting, with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream rounded out the meal. We took half the PB BLT and some of the sweet potato fries home and were thoroughly stuffed.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

That sounds great, Paddy. Hope they’re able to stay in business for a while so you can enjoy their kitchen some more.

Just Sven
Editor
11 years ago

Zigs?

OK, rube that I am, I had to look up “mascarpone”.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist
Reply to  Just Sven

Zigs?

Somewhat sad “heh”.