Responsibility calls and I’ve had to put my hooking aside for a while. I’ve been renovating two apartments that need a complete overhaul after surviving long term tenants. I like this kind of work, it’s virtually mindless and rewarding in that it comes with instant gratification. There’s something to be said about working with your hands, the hard labour stuff, it’s invigorating even though every bone in my body aches.
I haven’t renovated for years and hubby and I swore we’ve seen the last of our hammer wielding days, but maybe I miss it more than I realized. Getting back in the trenches with the bruises, skinned knuckles, mud dust and paint fumes I’m feeling pretty nostalgic. I’ve started thinking crazy thoughts like updates needed in my own kitchen and flooring....if hubby is reading this, it's the devil fumes making me do it!
As I clean and scour with a toothbrush in all those hard to reach places it doesn’t bother me that I am removing years of someone else’s dirt. I forge ahead and leave a shine behind me that could blind the sun. The crow in me likes sparkle and when I finally shut the door on the apartment for the last time, the floors twinkled, the facets gleamed and you could see yourself in the tub. I’m sure the new tenant will appreciate this spit and polish start to his new life and home.
I have one complaint though. Let’s call it advice for those of you who rent but it's also useful a useful tidbit in your own home office. Do a landlord and yourself a favour and please buy a thin carpet to put under your desk chair. All the caster action of rolling in and out eats away at the flooring. Whether its hard or soft wood or vinyl flooring it leaves its mark from the constant abuse of a weighted chair on hard wheels. The other apartment floor I'm tackling now has gouges that will be impossible to smooth out. The best I’ll be able to do is knock off the roughness and slap a few coats of Varathane on it. I’m surprised the chap didn’t think to put protection down, especially after the wheels were cutting into the floor and his chair was lowering. When his chin hit the desk he must have realized he was digging himself into a hole. Beautiful, antique patina wood floors ruined. Hopefully the new tenant has a rug to throw down to hide the imperfection.
And don’t buy one of those hard plastic floor protectors either, they only work on carpet. If you put them on wood of any kind, small granules of dirt get under it and etch the entire area covered by the so called protecting plastic. As you roll back and forth you grind that dirt into the floor, the heavier you may be, the more damage. I’ve fixed enough floors that I’m going to write this condition into the lease, buy a protective carpet!
In the upstairs apartment flooring I had to hand sand the area by the entrance door with a palm sander. That’s work for someone half my age! My hands were almost numb and my fingers ballooned up like boiled wieners making holding a paint brush even more uncomfortable when I Varathaned over the weekend. The kitchen area is as long as a bowling alley that runs to the entrance door with rooms off to the side; a lot of square footage to cover. It was grueling on my knees, butt and the sides of my legs as I shifted position constantly. Sometimes I had to stand when backed into a corner, bending over in a U shape was a strain on my poor back, but hey, it wasn't any good to complain when I didn't have an audience. You just suck it up and do what you have to do to get the job done.
So the day after I’m a bit sore but not as much as I thought I’d be. My fingers are swollen from gripping the brush, they’ve been spoiled with simple rug hooking, a gentle tool to hold. Shane came by to paint the bedroom and asked why I was using such a small brush to do the floor and I told him that a larger one would be too heavy for my hand and I didn’t want to risk ruining my wrist. I'm a rug hooker and need my hands!
Even with the overhead fan and the windows open the fumes were nasty. It must have absorbed into my pores because I can still smell it. I tried doing what the dogs do when sniffing a new smell. They keep sniffing and then blow it out. I stood outside under the night sky and inhaled as deeply as possible and then blew it out my nose to expel the fumes settled at the bottom of my lungs. I have more floors to finish in the next unit and I will be happy that’s over. Painting walls are more fun, the paint is odorless these days. The floor might off gas for a few days but in the meantime it smells clean and fresh, like a new car.
I haven’t renovated for years and hubby and I swore we’ve seen the last of our hammer wielding days, but maybe I miss it more than I realized. Getting back in the trenches with the bruises, skinned knuckles, mud dust and paint fumes I’m feeling pretty nostalgic. I’ve started thinking crazy thoughts like updates needed in my own kitchen and flooring....if hubby is reading this, it's the devil fumes making me do it!
As I clean and scour with a toothbrush in all those hard to reach places it doesn’t bother me that I am removing years of someone else’s dirt. I forge ahead and leave a shine behind me that could blind the sun. The crow in me likes sparkle and when I finally shut the door on the apartment for the last time, the floors twinkled, the facets gleamed and you could see yourself in the tub. I’m sure the new tenant will appreciate this spit and polish start to his new life and home.
I have one complaint though. Let’s call it advice for those of you who rent but it's also useful a useful tidbit in your own home office. Do a landlord and yourself a favour and please buy a thin carpet to put under your desk chair. All the caster action of rolling in and out eats away at the flooring. Whether its hard or soft wood or vinyl flooring it leaves its mark from the constant abuse of a weighted chair on hard wheels. The other apartment floor I'm tackling now has gouges that will be impossible to smooth out. The best I’ll be able to do is knock off the roughness and slap a few coats of Varathane on it. I’m surprised the chap didn’t think to put protection down, especially after the wheels were cutting into the floor and his chair was lowering. When his chin hit the desk he must have realized he was digging himself into a hole. Beautiful, antique patina wood floors ruined. Hopefully the new tenant has a rug to throw down to hide the imperfection.
And don’t buy one of those hard plastic floor protectors either, they only work on carpet. If you put them on wood of any kind, small granules of dirt get under it and etch the entire area covered by the so called protecting plastic. As you roll back and forth you grind that dirt into the floor, the heavier you may be, the more damage. I’ve fixed enough floors that I’m going to write this condition into the lease, buy a protective carpet!
In the upstairs apartment flooring I had to hand sand the area by the entrance door with a palm sander. That’s work for someone half my age! My hands were almost numb and my fingers ballooned up like boiled wieners making holding a paint brush even more uncomfortable when I Varathaned over the weekend. The kitchen area is as long as a bowling alley that runs to the entrance door with rooms off to the side; a lot of square footage to cover. It was grueling on my knees, butt and the sides of my legs as I shifted position constantly. Sometimes I had to stand when backed into a corner, bending over in a U shape was a strain on my poor back, but hey, it wasn't any good to complain when I didn't have an audience. You just suck it up and do what you have to do to get the job done.
So the day after I’m a bit sore but not as much as I thought I’d be. My fingers are swollen from gripping the brush, they’ve been spoiled with simple rug hooking, a gentle tool to hold. Shane came by to paint the bedroom and asked why I was using such a small brush to do the floor and I told him that a larger one would be too heavy for my hand and I didn’t want to risk ruining my wrist. I'm a rug hooker and need my hands!
Even with the overhead fan and the windows open the fumes were nasty. It must have absorbed into my pores because I can still smell it. I tried doing what the dogs do when sniffing a new smell. They keep sniffing and then blow it out. I stood outside under the night sky and inhaled as deeply as possible and then blew it out my nose to expel the fumes settled at the bottom of my lungs. I have more floors to finish in the next unit and I will be happy that’s over. Painting walls are more fun, the paint is odorless these days. The floor might off gas for a few days but in the meantime it smells clean and fresh, like a new car.
RSS Feed
