Small Task Journal - 10/22/12

After spending the past couple of weeks painting and touching up painting mistakes, I've finally done something on the room that feels like I amounted to something. I took the day off today for a Doctor's Appointment (one of my sinuses needs a makeover) and decided to spend the rest of time I wasn't at that doctor's office working on the living room.

What does one do when one has a sinus condition? Clearly, the answer is "Sand a floor with rented machinery!"

This morning I opened up the container of putty I had in the basement since last year to start filling in holes left by the carpet. Once that was done, I picked up the Drum Sander and in the late afternoon got to work sanding down the living room. That went surprisingly fast and I was able to return the drum sander and pick up the edge sander before they closed up shop (for some reason, I was completely refunded the rental on the drum sander, not sure why). I brought the edge sander home and finished off the heavy parts of the room (I'll still need to go in and sand some spots by hand tomorrow).

While at Home Depot getting the edge sander, the cashier kindly informed me I was using all the wrong grits for the sand paper. Not wanting to go through the rental and effort again, he suggested I use a satin finish on the floors instead of something glossy. This will make the Living Room the odd-man-out compared to the rest of the house but I don't think I mind that too much considering I'd rather have fewer reflective/shiny surfaces in the room anyway.

Tomorrow I will be touching up spots by hand, vacuuming and cleaning the room and either Wednesday or Thursday I'll be laying down the base coat.

At this point, I've separated the remaining efforts for the room into Must-Have and Would-Be-Nice categories. The floor is really the only remaining Must-Have. Trim on the top of the heater and molding on the ceiling are Would-Be-Nice. I also need to pick up some blinds for the room - I am thinking of going with some bamboo Roman shades. Home Depot had some nice options. I also need to install the new track light (easy) and find something to at least cover the scone boxes on either side of the fire place (maybe the lighting store in Franklin will decide to be open during hours other than my work hours?).

As for additional work on the room, I still need to figure out what to do for curtains. Sadly, the Curtain Store (that's its name) was not open today. I want to get some nice shelving for the room and possibly a bar and liquor cabinet but I don't need either of those for the end of the month.