![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Home improvement project from hell
A while back, my mother decided to strip the tacky wallpaper out of our kitchen (it was installed in the mid 80s, and it showed - fushia and aquamarine were involved, and that should be all you need to know). The actual stripping took quite a bit of time and effort, because the walls underneath had never even been primed, and the paper had sort of bonded to the drywall.
As the paper was coming down a few inches at a time, we started to notice what a shoddy job the builders had done of evening out the walls. They were awful! And they had been spread with plaster compound in places to make them seem flat, but the plaster all fell down when we peeled the paper off it. It was a nightmare.
Mom spent the last few days plastering the walls and smoothing them out. Then yesterday, she decided she'd done all she could do and it was time to start sanding it all down. She started doing it by hand and then went for the power sander.
OMG I wish I had better pictures. I got home from work yesterday to find several inches of white dust coating EVERYTHING in the house, even the upstairs rooms which had been shut tight. It looked like it had snowed indoors, and my mom looked like she was wearing geisha paint.
So, spent all day today vacuuming chandeliers and the like. >.< Not fun at all. The dust even got up into closed cupboards and curio cabinets. It was all in our glassware. My sister's laptop was buried. We vacuumed the dog. Twice. Had to take all the houseplants outside and wash them. There's a ficus in the living room we can't quite figure out how to deal with. My mother forgot to close her bedroom door - or her walk in closet. All her clothes need washing.
I normally hate our old rainbow vacuum because I hate dealing with the disgusting sludge in the reservoir, but I don't know what we would have done without it today. We kept having to dump the water and refill, though, as it kept turning back into liquid plaster. A traditional bag vacuum would not have worked AT ALL. The house mostly looks normal now. Well, if we normally let it get really dusty.
ETA: Went to type "wallpaper" in tags, in cause I have to update the saga (at this rate, I probably will). IE tried to guess what I was typing and fill in the blank for me, and it said "wallsex." I hope my mother has not been searching for wallpaper related info on this computer. Or that if she has, she won't trace that particular cookie back to me ^_^;)
As the paper was coming down a few inches at a time, we started to notice what a shoddy job the builders had done of evening out the walls. They were awful! And they had been spread with plaster compound in places to make them seem flat, but the plaster all fell down when we peeled the paper off it. It was a nightmare.
Mom spent the last few days plastering the walls and smoothing them out. Then yesterday, she decided she'd done all she could do and it was time to start sanding it all down. She started doing it by hand and then went for the power sander.
OMG I wish I had better pictures. I got home from work yesterday to find several inches of white dust coating EVERYTHING in the house, even the upstairs rooms which had been shut tight. It looked like it had snowed indoors, and my mom looked like she was wearing geisha paint.
So, spent all day today vacuuming chandeliers and the like. >.< Not fun at all. The dust even got up into closed cupboards and curio cabinets. It was all in our glassware. My sister's laptop was buried. We vacuumed the dog. Twice. Had to take all the houseplants outside and wash them. There's a ficus in the living room we can't quite figure out how to deal with. My mother forgot to close her bedroom door - or her walk in closet. All her clothes need washing.
I normally hate our old rainbow vacuum because I hate dealing with the disgusting sludge in the reservoir, but I don't know what we would have done without it today. We kept having to dump the water and refill, though, as it kept turning back into liquid plaster. A traditional bag vacuum would not have worked AT ALL. The house mostly looks normal now. Well, if we normally let it get really dusty.
ETA: Went to type "wallpaper" in tags, in cause I have to update the saga (at this rate, I probably will). IE tried to guess what I was typing and fill in the blank for me, and it said "wallsex." I hope my mother has not been searching for wallpaper related info on this computer. Or that if she has, she won't trace that particular cookie back to me ^_^;)
no subject
no subject
But I bet that wasn't much fun to do. Sucks to be covered in white powder that can turn into sludge if wet, ain't it? My dad used to pour concrete at the house and guess who had to help ? ^_~
I'm sure you'll all be great. Even with all the dust.^^