Sunday, September 20, 2009

Progress on the homefront

The past few weeks have been crazy. Last weekend was a rough one, as I decided my puppy was not working out and took her back. It was a tough and emotional decision, but if the demeanor of the rest of the mafia is any indication it was the right choice. But I was far too emotional and drained to work on the Dog Room last weekend. This weekend I've actually made some progress.

Yesterday was the Walk From Obesity, and I took Tuesday and Map to the walk. After, I went to lunch with WLS pals Missy and Kenny. Home renovation and carpet removal was a topic that came up, and Kenny revealed that he has used a solvent readily available at big box stores designed to remove carpet pad glue. HUH?

My internet searches basically resulted in "elbow grease." Awwww, man. Seriously? I hadn't had a chance to search in person at Lowe's or Home Depot for anything like that yet and thought there probably wasn't anything out there. If The Internet says elbow grease, then who am I to argue?

But Kenny said there was. I was very happy.

I dropped the girls off at home after lunch, then headed out to Lowe's. Sure enough, in the cleaning aisle there were things like Goo-Gone, mineral spirits, and other solvents. And then there was Solu-Strip. There was much rejoicing!

Well, except for the fact the stuff cost $26 a gallon. Meh. But $26 is a small price to pay compared to having your arms fall off from weeks of scraping. Or letting the project come to a screeching halt for a few months because I don't want to deal with it.

Today, I got in there and started the work. I had most of the glued down pad to remove and then the glue to tackle.

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Having only removed that one strip, I got out the hoe-thingie I broke last week and went back to scraping.

Once I cleared off a space, I was excited to jump into the de-gooification, so I started with the zone by the window. I was a good girl and wore goggles, had the window open with two fans going and wore gloves. But my defiant side showed and I refused to wear close toed shoes. What, am I at work for God's sake? Screw you and your close toed shoes!

I poured out the stuff, which was a nice gel. Ooh. I rolled it out, then covered it with plastic per the directions. I wandered off and played some bejeweled on FaceBook while it incubated and did its thing. 20 minutes later, I came back and dove right in with my scraper.

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I was expecting it to take a lot of effort, but OMG, it just wiped off! I LOVE YOU KENNY! In a platonic, handyman kind of way. I was so excited, I couldn't wait to get to the next section.

I took my time, did it in small sections, played games on FaceBook and enjoyed the afternoon. And the fumes, ha ha! I have one teeny spot next to the door and a few spots to touch up, then I'm done!

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Right now I'm waiting for the solvent to dry and for the room to air out. I'll use some chalk to mark the spots I need to touch up and then deal with that one night this week. I have a few more nails to pry up (I affectionately refer to the perimeter nails and tack strip as Tetanus Central as they are rusty from the flood of Aught Three), the little spots to re-treat and then the floor will be ready for a coat of primer, then the tiles! Yippeeee, yahoo!

Dear Diary--I might finish this project in a somewhat timely fashion! Finish a project? Huh? I must be feverish.



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