Monday, September 17, 2012

Beige Again

No, not really.  For a little while, only.

Frieda* came over Saturday afternoon and helped me hang manila-paper blankstock in the living room.  Top strips only, the 12' ones that needed two ladders and four hands, because she had to leave by 7:00.  I worked till after 2:00 in the morning and finished blankstocking the three walls we started, and it really does look better already.

Even if the stuff is beige.

I'd hoped to get the fourth wall, the one with the fireplace, done this evening, but my feet hurt so badly when I got home from teaching that I lay down and um, rested a little.  Actually, I fell asleep.  For two hours, until Frieda* woke me up calling to find out how much more I'd gotten done on Saturday.

When I did get to the blankstocking this evening, I discovered the paperhanger guy is right-- if you're not going to finish up your mixed wheat paste all at once, splash some Clorox into it.  I didn't, and it was starting to smell.

Didn't feel like mixing up a new batch, so I've left it for later.  I've cut and labelled all the blankstock pieces for the fireplace wall.  That's enough for this evening.

Meanwhile, yesterday was nice out so I demounted the back door (again!), took it out to the sawhorses on the porch, and this time I got the old shellac finish off it.  It wasn't as difficult as I'd expected to dig the white filler out of the gouges (dog claws?) at the bottom of the stile on the lock side.  It was just spackle, and scrubbed out with a toothbrush and liquid remover.  Filled those and other major flaws with wood filler, and laid on a second coat of it this evening where the depressions were still apparent.

So what shall I do tomorrow?  Sand down the back door or hang blankstock?  Something to contemplate when I need to distract myself from the trials of teaching 7th grade algebra in the morning.

2 comments:

Sharon Kwilter said...

If you decide to sand, we'll both be sanding woodwork... =)

Kate H. said...

Ah. Well, as it turned out, it was too chilly and wet outside to have the doorway wide open, so I'm trying to complete the blankstocking instead. Hopefully tomorrow will be nicer.

I'll have to pop over to your place (virtually, of course) and see how your sanding is coming along.