Latest house project...

House projects around here have really slowed down, a lot. Our main living areas are decent now, and so I've tried to restrain myself from doing much right now so we can pay off our furnace and a/c. Even though there is SO MUCH I want to do, I can be patient. Sort of. I was getting a terrible itch to start another project, so I decided why not work on a basement room? My sister is coming to visit in a month or so for a couple of weeks, and I want her to have a room to stay in that is clean, fresh, and...well, just not completely gross. Right now, I'm sorry to say, the room she will be in is completely gross. I think I can make a HUGE difference in it with just some paint and a lot of elbow grease. Of course, that probably won't get rid of the spiders, but it might help at least a little bit...

Some of the previous owners decided that the fake wood paneling in one of the basement bedrooms was just too light, I guess, so they did a lovely nearly-black varnish type stain on it. It was super, super shiny, so nothing we could just paint right over. So, I put on my trusty dust mask and got to sanding.

I must admit I was not expecting to get that dirty. I thought it would be like...well, sanding. You know. You get a bit dusty. This was beyond that and so gross. Comparable to sanding our living room ceiling, actually, except at least that dust was white and fluffy, not dark brown and sticky. Can I just say I'm glad I was wearing a mask? Although, after I got about 3 layers of dust on it, I don't know how helpful it was.

Later, we washed the walls three times, but it's STILL a bit dirty so I think I'll have to do it just one more time and then I'll be ready to fill the holes, reattach the pieces of paneling that are loose, prime it and then paint it. Can't wait!