So here I sit after having spent a full weekend painting the new house that I am renting after an arduous summer moving and making some hard decisions. It is funny how true it is that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Specifically to this house we are renting; it was chosen by Tricia, my significant other, as being “a means to an end”, and although quite dated and of cheaper construction - it has the 3 bedrooms we need, a large kitchen and yard, and even a dedicated office space for me!
I wish this was a bit more turnkey and less stressful, but even this stress and the things we have had to do to make this house a home allow me to escape the bonds of work and this desk, and use my computer for a stereo instead of email while I break a sweat.
I am sure you will enjoy the details of this one…
This house is great, but it has shown its age and history during our time here. Do not get me wrong. It is owned by the local Methodist church and they take good care of the place and us, and is really close to amenities - but it been giving us a bit of a hard time. Unfortunately the first and most noticeable was the previous tenants of 6 years had two big dogs… needless to say that the local carpet store had a 3 week install backlog which our que has now come and gone.
During that 4-week wait, after having pulled the carpet, the sewer line clogged…
Now this was actually a relatively fun experience. The plumber guy happened to own the shop and was a salty dog. He rolled up and decided to use the fun stuff to get it done fast because he was working for one of his guys who called in sick was not supposed to be working. He got right to work, whipped out the waterproof camera-snake and took a looksie - ROOTS! This camera gear is like $5,000 (cheap one) and was a real time-saver and pretty cool. Apparently this clog had happened the year before and the old retired guys form the church replaced a stretch of line, but where the old iron pipe and new conduit came together there was a problem with the bond.
The quick way to fix this was to fill up the tanker trailer on the plumber’s van and shoot 4000psi (yea, four-thousand) of water through a snake hose with a special head. This was really cool. I could actually feel the ground vibrate from where this thing was shooting. Like a hot knife in butter it cut away the roots with no problem and the clog opened right up! The plumber the proceeded to tell us about how he had seen a guy use this type of machine in a regular city/drain sewer before, and he was up to his knees in water and did not know where it was aiming. He shot himself in the leg with that 4000psi and it went through his tissues and cut his bone. Not a hole in his jeans or skin, but he was bleeding internally. Whoa.
Now mind you this was after I had six 70-year old retired church guys here removing all of the carpet in the house.
This was funny - I think old men are my favorite kind of people to hang around. They always have something to say and are funny as hell talking to each other with little accents, hearing aids, and back talking in good humor. We were really mad because in the living room is hardwood, like in the dining, and we hoped to save it and refinish it. But all for not - it was a total loss. Worse yet (aside pulling up every staple in the floor) was a black foam-type substance stuck to the floor in the hallway. It needed to be removed and they were on their knees scraping. I helped as I could through the carpet removal and scraping between working. I then spent a few days cleaning all of the floors (old tiles underneath everything), making sure that enzyme and other cleaning treatments were administered.
But did I tell you about the colors in the house?
The kitchen was like a Sprite logo exploded; lemon yellow in the dining area and lime-green in the kitchen itself - whoa! How about the light blue and pale yellow “castle” style paint decoration in a bedroom - that was not evenly measured from the floor or itself. The purple master bed? The sky-blue office? Luckily for my primer bucket the 4th bedroom is uncolored. Oh sorry, I forgot about the real wood paneling on 3 of 4 walls in the living room - the fourth wall is drywall painted beige. I would feel alot better about all of this work if I actually owned the joint!
And ultimately this brings me for the reason that I decided to write a new blog entry after so much time. We now have an entire house of new carpet, flooring, sewer line, and now we are painting. Painting is tough and expensive work and takes alot of time to do right; dusting, taping, priming, and taking time, multiple coats and colors.
Now all I really need is some reveal light bulbs…
BUT! After sitting behind a desk all day getting stressed about work and life, I must admit that painting and home improvement is a most excellent release. To me it is almost like a hobby; you get to be creative and expressful, then actually create it with your own hands (dirt under fingernails and all), then sit back and enjoy and have others enjoy and compliment on it. Although a full weekend of painting has come and gone and I am still only ~50% done, I feel good as I look into the living room and see a well-selected melody of colors that are relaxing and comforting. I look forward to seeing the concepts find fruition in the other rooms, and I am excited to continue working towards this goal.
It will be slow going though as now we are entering a workweek and so Tricia and my efforts will be limited to evenings and possibly some early mornings. And to further complicate the issue she has 3 kids and activities to take them to/from, she’s 18 weeks pregnant, and I am leaving again at the end of this week for Sahara. Honestly, I will be surprised if I get all of the painting done, but I am aiming for ~90% because if I get things taped and all of the hard work done, she can finish or get the church guys to help.
So I like this and people should do this more. I wish I was able to get outdoors more often and this summer I had planned on it, but sometimes putting forth some energy into your own home or something close to you feels really good - and it’s a great way to relieve stress, even if it’s somewhat stressful itself.
Until next time…
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