popcorn, cottage cheese, or salsa?

Kasmira over at Cininnati Cape Cod has submitted for our consideration - a proposal to keep the popcorn ceilings. I'm pretty sure her post was triggered by the re-appearance of my blog.

I was fortunate at my last house which still had its original plaster finish in all rooms but the kitchen. Not so at this one. Not a plaster wall to be found and textured ceilings in every room. The low ceilings made the pointy edges of the droopy cottage cheese feel as if it could suffocate you. (I bought the neighborhood, not the house.)

At only 7.5 feet high, the ceiling glitter is decidedly un-diamond-like. In fact, the glitter is gold. It looks more like they stuck on sparkles from a child's craft set as an afterthought than anything that could have been incorporated into the texturizer. They only used the glitter in certain rooms. Maybe they couldn't find enough children to steal craft sets from.

Thanks for the health warning, Kasmira, but most of it is long gone. If you're in the mood for a freak show, I should dig up those pics and re-post them. Did I mention the texture on the living room ceiling had wallpaper underneath? (!) The remaining cottage cheese ceilings have holes all over them and will be completely removed and re-drywalled at some point in the future.

Four day wrap-up

Where does the time go? That's what makes the name of this blog so appropriate. Each Sunday evening, that's what I'm left wondering.

Thursday was my last day at the corporate gig (yays! all 'round), so some of the work gang and I met up at a midtown watering hole after work. By the time I got home, I'd had one too many to have the required motivation or motor skills to do anything on the house. So I worked on my taxes instead. Judicious choice? Probably not.

I spent my day off Friday finishing and filing taxes, waxing the car, and started painting the trim in the bedroom. I know some of you are fretting. My step-dad is one of those people. "Bare wood should never be painted," he'd say. I disagree. I love the look of crisp white trim against colored walls. It makes me giddy. There is nothing historic nor interesting here to worry about covering up. There will not be someone here in 30++++ years wishing they had a silent paint remover. So, RELAX. Will post some pics in the next day or two of the finished office in all its white-trim-glory.

Most of Saturday was spent on a trek for a desk. Up until now (and, well, even now in fact), my "desk" has been a Scandinavian-style dining table shoved up against the wall of what should be the dining room. Now that the proper office is completed, I get to spend some fun money! Right? Maybe not. First stop was Nebraska Furniture Mart. Hmmm. What can I say? Well, um, it's really big. That's about it.

Made rounds of the city looking at various places with no luck. Not only am I picky on the function and style, the space I have available is right in the middle of "standard" desk lengths. 48" will easily fit, but I don't think it will be big enough. 60" will be too long. Should I have shopped for desks before building walls? Perhaps.

On the way to stop for some yummy Chinese food at Bolings, I remembered I had seen a desk online that would do just fine. I had held off buying it because of the price, but after looking around, it seemed like a bargain. Plus, it's dimensions are perfect for the available space. Ordered that as soon as I returned home. Hopefully it will be here in a couple of days since it only has to travel the width of Missouri.

I also did some painting on Saturday. Managed to get the first coat of paint finished on all trim/woodwork in the bedroom.

Sunday brought more trim painting. It never ends! Finished the door, built-in "cavities", and the windows.....which meant I got to clean, clean, clean the windows and put in the screens! It's amazing what difference it makes to simply clean all the dust and grime away. The cats are thrilled that the dust is clearing away and happily go upstairs to perch on the sills of the open windows.

I'm baaaack

Well, friends, it seems I've resurrected posting on the house progress. For those of you who have been around for a while, you may have seen/heard from me as kimmatt.com. This is the latest incarnation of the blog. I'm not the type to ever be very settled. Perhaps I'll stop moving this thing around someday. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyway, reasons for the return are many-fold:

- People keep asking me, "Are you done yet?"
- There is now actual visible progress that people might be interested in.
- Such simple things seem to take soooo much time. (It went so much faster at my old place!) Maybe posting what I'm doing everyday will help me (or a reader) figure out a way to speed things along.
- I really HAVE been working on the house literally every day for the past several months (with the exception of sick days). No more slacker nights off.
- I hang out on HouseBlogs.net a LOT, so I will feel less like a stalker if I'm posting as well.
- I'm thinking my new job (starting Monday!) will allow more time for such luxuries as blogging.


Given that, tonight I:

attempted to finish sanding the trim/woodwork in the bedroom. All I had left was the dormer window and the built-ins. I worked for a couple of hours and managed to get the dormer window sanded, both built-in "cavities", and got started on the built-in doors and shelves. Despite not finishing, I'm definitely liking the '3X' sandpaper that I bought this time. It really does work much faster.

There is a nasty side-effect of so much sanding, other than loads of sawdust in my lungs. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night because my hands were so dry! Without returning to full consciousness, I wrung my hands, rolled over, rubbed in two pumps of lotion, and went right back to sleep. I hope that doesn't happen again tonight. I've already slathered twice and will try for twice more before my head hits the pillow.