Despite the four-day weekend - we just didn't get a lot done on our projects. It's always disappointing when Monday morning comes and we can't claim to have actually finished anything. However, we did have a good 4th with the kids and I can't say that making some holiday memories wasn't worth putting off home improvement stuff for a few more days. It's been three years... What's another week or two anyway?
Saturday afternoon we started removing the old carpet in William's room. I think Dave was ecstatic - he's been waiting for months for the carpet to go. All I have to say is: I HATE CARPET TACK.
We finally got all of the baseboards painted too. They look terrible. I'll admit it. Our decision to bring them all up to the room and paint them so near the dirty carpet floor was a bad one. What were we thinking? Dog hair... carpet fuzz... grit.... Oh... and brush marks. Of course we can't blame the carpet for the brush marks. The plan now is to install the poorly painted baseboards and give them a corrective coat of paint when they're in place. (Plan B is to install the poorly painted baseboards and just hope no one notices how poorly painted they really are....)
It took a lot longer than we expected to pull up the carpet and tack. We never got around to actually installing baseboards this weekend.... A big surprise though was the amount of water-staining on this upstairs subfloor - especially near the walls throughout the east side of the room (facing exterior). We can only hope that the new roof will take care of whatever problem was there before.
Just replacing the carpet in this room would have probably been enough of an improvement.... But that's never enough for me. The entire house has changed so much that it's hard to settle for minor changes in the rest of the room.What's most frustrating to me this morning is that a year ago... Even a few months ago... I know we could have finished this particular project in a matter of weeks. But now... We're tired. We've done so much for so long... We're lacking the drive we had in the beginning -- if you can call over 1000 days merely 'the beginning'. While we were chipping up carpet tack Saturday night Dave wondered out loud why it was so hard taking up tack from a wood subfloor in a 200 square foot room.... How we ever managed to take up the tack for almost 2000 square feet of concrete subfloor downstairs during a period in which we were still sleeping on a wet mattress on the floor. Adrenaline? Desperation? Desire? Hope?
Maybe we were taking advantage of survival mode... And maybe as we finally shift out of survival into a desire to actually live again - we've lost our super-human strength and endurance. Superhero powers really did come in handy. In any event - I have no desire to call up the associated feelings again.
We could have spent our holiday as we had spent so many others... locked away with power tools and paint brushes - slaving to finish the house... Feverish with the belief that we had to finish so we could live again. But we didn't. And I'm glad.
7 comments:
This was like reliving a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago, except that we'd only been driving ourselves to the brink for a matter of 9 or 10 months.
Still, life gets in the way and you can't ignore it. I'm hoping the "time off" will make us happier and more productive. There's just too much left to do! You guys got much more productive things done than we did this weekend, I have to admit...I'd say your lag isn't so bad at all.
Thanks, Amalie.. That makes me feel better. :) I suppose burn-out happens to all of us eventually. I'm just so torn between actually having it all done - and GETTING it all done. Wouldn't it be lovely to just wake up to a completed house one morning? POOF.
You're right... maybe taking it easy for a bit will aid with happiness and productivity. As Dave has said to me on occasion - it's not going to do us a lot of good to have a great house if getting it kills us in the process. :P
We've had 3 cans of primer/stain for the back deck that have been sitting for 1.5 months already and you're feeling bad?!! I think you guys deserve a medal or at least a daiquiri or something. When you're out of inspiration you might just need a change of scenery. And regarding our deck, we only have another 2.5 months before the weather turns and then we are SOL to (re)finish our deck. And baseboards? The only person that will notice will be yourself, I'm sure.
Adrenaline definitely can make you do some crazy things...like start pushing a baby's feet out of your hoo-haah in my case. You all are such an amazing family to have this much determination and will.
If you don't take time for yourselves, you will end up hating the house. And that would be a shame. Glad you got to take some very much needed time for some fun!
Are you having to be careful of the floor underneath when you remove those tack strips? Fortunately I don't have to where I am ripping carpet out if my house, so I don't care if I put little dings in it, which makes it much easier. I use the big pry bar to get the staples out also.
Everybody has their tetanus shots, right :-)
LOL Yeah KA - most of us got our tetanus boosters right after Katrina out of pure necessity so we have a few more years of peace of mind when jabbing ourselves with rusty nails. :)
Actually - we don't have to be careful with our subfloor either... We NEEEEEDED a good crowbar but well.. didn't have one. At some point in my life I had one (or 5) - but with all the hired help coming and going many tools end up in the wrong tool boxes... So we tortured ourselves and took the tack up with chisels and hammers. But it's GONE NOW.
Uh.. but I'm buying a crowbar before we rip out George's carpet.
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