My eight day/one day project

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post.  What a week.  It was my idea to tackle one room in my house a week until Christmas.  The thought was one DAY a week in one room.  No one fully explained to me that as a retiree things just take longer, I think because you have the time, so you take the time.  This has been the week from hell because of one small guest bathroom and the wallpaper I foolishly hung there about ten years ago.  This was the week (day?) that I was going to remove the wallpaper and paint the room in a "spa-like" light green.  As this blog is chronicling retirement, this post will chronicle this small project:

Friday (October 19).  Got up early.  Organized the equipment - thingamajig that creates perforations, spray bottle of hot water and vinegar and scraper.  Removed accessories like towel rod, TP rod, and shower rod.  By 0900 I was perforating, spraying and removing wallpaper.  It was going really well until I hit the wall that seemed to have more layers of paper than I had hung ten years ago.  Yeah, I remember, I decided NOT to remove all of the paper then because it was so time consuming.  Oh well, I have the time now and I WILL do this the right way.  1700 (or 5:00 PM) - STILL removing wallpaper, but unfortunately also removing the top layer of the drywall.  Two walls look pretty good, but the other two look like a battleground - pock marks, tears, holes and rough patches abound.

Saturday/Sunday  Hubby's friend spends five hours on Saturday and another 3 on Sunday resurfacing the walls.  This also involves removing the toilet and pedestal sink --- of course, more wall paper behind.  Nothing can be finished because the walls need to dry thoroughly and then lightly sanded.  I focused on the word lightly.

Monday.  Up early and ready to sand.  Gathered my 120 grit sandpaper and a tool I found in hubby's junk that I think is used to sand drywall.  I optimistically noted that the drywall compound that we used said that it minimized dust.  This was going to be a walk in the park, and I'd be finished painting before lunch.  YAH.  Do things right!!  

1400 - still sanding and touching up places where I thought it was still too rough.  Also trying to scrape off the paint from the shower flange (?) and other assorted pipes from several previous paint jobs.  This time, there would be NO paint where it did not belong.  

1700 - I think I'm finished, but waiting for the great perfectionist to get home to give me the final word.  I still need to prime the walls, but surely painting will occur tomorrow.  

Tuesday  Primed the walls, painted the lovely soothing spa-like green --- surely it will dry a soothing color?  Wet it looks a bit like glow in the dark paint.

Wednesday  Glanced at the dry and still a bit glow in the dark paint job.  Not bad, but now I need to put back all of the accessories and I am AFRAID to drill holes for the mechanisms that hold stuff up.  Will wait until the weekend when my friend Motorbike comes with her tools and her confidence.  Took the day off for a destination walk with Friend to the Eastern Market.

Thursday.  Since I can't do anything in the bathroom, why don't I just remove the accessories in the master bath and start spray painting them Oiled Bronze using Rustoleum's Primer and Paint in metallic?  I won't take off the faucets or light fixture, I'll wait until Motorbike comes on Saturday.  SUCCESS:  the outlet covers, toilet paper holder, towel rack and etc... look fantastic!  Thank you internet and thank you lady with the blog who gave me this idea!

Friday.  Surely I can put these sprayed accessories back where they belong.  No drilling holes because the fixtures are still attached to the wall.  WHO IN THE WORLD INVENTED THESE DAMNED "HIDDEN" SCREWS THAT ATTACH THE SOAP DISH TO THE GIZMO ON THE WALL?!!!  It took me almost two hours to go through all of our tools to find the little L-shaped mechanisms that screw the really tiny screws into the gizmos (I bet these tools have a name, but I don't know it.)  Once I found the correct tool, one of the towel rack holder's screw appeared to be stripped....I could not turn it at all.  Bottom Line - I did not get one thing attached, called Motorbike, cried a bit and got her assurance that all would be right the next day.

Saturday (October 27).  Motorbike, her tools and her confidence arrived.  Using these great toggle bolts from the Container Store she was able to reconnect the gizmos on the wall, and then replace the accessories.  She disconnected the light fixture and the faucets!  By 2:00 we had replaced the master bathroom fixtures, and had installed the towel rack and robe hook in the guest bathroom.  As soon as hubby re-installs the sink and toilet in the guest bathroom, I'll be able to hang the rest of the accessories.  So eight (8) days later, I've almost finished my one day project.  

I'm taking the next week off!  I'll post some photos when everything is done.

At least I have my laugh for the day.