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August 07, 2006

The Big Reveal

And then, Bob and Seiko returned.
The last they heard, matthew had finished insulating, and we were trying to get wallboard but were unsuccessful. We told them that it was impossible to get ahold of the wallboard guys, but that hopefully we would have the wallboard in time for us to get started wallboarding ourselves upon dad's return. They had no idea that we decided it would be well worth it to shell out the cash to have someone who knew what the heck they were doing (and could walk on stilts, even!) do the work. You see, we were being sneaky.

There was all kinds of logistical hoo-hah on how we would get matthew home for when we showed the more-than-just-insulated space to mom and dad. He has been so busy at work that he's had to work at home every night, and didn't think he was going to be able to make it on a Tuesday evening. But, he just couldn't stand to miss it and drove over just for The Big Reveal. I was taking the movie with my camera and Sarah got pix on hers. But, we have to wait for those until she sends us copies. Sorry. But they're worth seeing. Seiko can put on a good "Holy Shit!" face when she needs to.

And then matthew had to turn around and go back to Baltimore. But, he says the trip was well worth it. It's not often that Bob is impressed. And even less so, Seiko. All around, we felt that it really pays to be sneaky.

The next big project is going to be the floors, so there were certain things that needed to be done before that happened. First, we had to put the second coat of paint on. There has been lots of debate as to when certain things happen at what stage and why, but ultimately, we took the electrician Calvin's advice, with the caveat that if we didn't get it done, well, we could then follow someone else's advice.

After dad was home for less than a day, I had him doing the crappy trim stuff that I usually get stuck doing, and took over the gratifying roller work. Sometimes it's nice to have a beat-down and world-weary dad who is tired of arguing with his uppity kids.

Once again, I underestimated how long this would take. It seems like slopping a second coat on should take no time at all, but it took nearly all day. But wow, when it was done, it was a major improvement.

Dad did a remarkable job painting the edges. Sometimes slow and steady really does win the race. And if there's anything that dad is, it's slow. And if there's another thing that dad is, it's steady. Actually, he's not really steady. Just slow. But a darn good edge painter. Thank you, dad - doesn't it look mighty fine? (and, btw, ceilings are "magnolia white" to our "provence cream" walls - apparently, we're all about the south, on either side of the Pond.)

Next we had to make sure that the floor was ready for sanding. That means no nails or staples sticking up out of it, gluing down splinters and cleaning cleaning cleaning to make sure nothing awful goes under the sander. While I was painting the ceiling, I had set the foot of the ladder on a board in the trap door that evidently had no support beneath it, and it cracked and sort of caved in. Luckily, the trap door was not nailed shut, as we had previously thought, it was just really heavy. Between the two of us, we were able to open it and see if we could remedy the damage. A few screws and a piece of scrap board we found who knows where did the trick. It turns out that the trap door doesn't actually go anywhere, and has been insulated in from below, but in the event that we decide to put a fire pole in someday we didn't nail it shut. Plus, that would mean all that many more nails to countersink to spare the sandpaper. Matthew insisted via cell phone that I take a picture of the open trap door, since he might never again see it that way (until we install the fire pole, of course).

In the meantime, Iggy was throwing back the vodka and tonics,
and needed a pretty big burf pail by the time we were done.

Posted by ribbu at August 7, 2006 06:04 PM

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