I have a house full of sleeping boys. Walker scored four free tickets to a water park, about a two hour drive from here. So early Saturday morning, Walker and Bro picked up the nephews and off they went. Diva was disappointed to be left at home, but I told her it was important for the boys to have time with their daddy on Father's Day weekend, and Walker went along to help out. I also promised her a back to school shopping trip to the Mall of America, which I was planning to do with her anyway. I was hoping to be at my goal weight by then, but the diet has been a struggle this time around. I think I need to work on my head as well as the rest of me. But that's a story for another day.
Anyway, I decided to make the most of a full day without boys, and I started two projects that I have had on my list since I bought this house nearly six years ago. First up, I patched a hole in the living room ceiling where we had moved a light fixture. The hole itself had been patched, but it needed to be textured to match the rest of the ceiling, then primed and painted. I got the texture part done, but with the high humidity it didn't dry in time for me to paint it. No worries: I have more painting in my future anyway. I can easily add that one-foot-square project to the list.
The other project was bigger. We have a "window wall" in the living room that sorely needed to be scraped, sanded, and painted. There are six panes of glass, and together they make a window that goes just about floor to ceiling and nearly the entire length of the wall. Each pane has TEN surfaces to paint on each side. Yep, forty surfaces per window. See why I put it off? But every other wall, every ceiling, and every bit of trim that isn't varnished has been painted, except this window. We have crisp white trim all over the house, except this window, which was done in antique white that was going to yellow after all these years.
The window was painted with oil based paint that had started peeling. We had to sand off the old paint, prime the wood, and paint it fresh. I started the project after work on Saturday morning, early, but realized pretty fast that I would never finish if I didn't have some help. So, at 5am I was in the hardware department at Walmart buying a Dremel and a palm sander. Holy crow, I am so, so glad I did. Diva scraped the peely stuff while I sanded, then we vacuumed up the chunks and wiped all the dust off. One coat of primer, and we were off to the community pool while it dried. After swimming we did a second coat of primer, then we cleaned up the living room and watched a Project Runway marathon until the boys came home. I still have to paint, but that should go fairly quickly since everything is taped off already. Even with just the primer coat, it looks a thousand percent better.
The boys came home exhausted and all of them - even the big boys - went to bed shortly after they got home. Diva is spending the night with Grandma, so it's just me and Ernie hanging out together now. Around midnight a storm rolled in, complete with thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. I was walking past the open front door when I noticed the rain coming down like a sheet over the roof, and I knew that meant the gutters were full. The linden tree is blooming, and shedding petals, so I should have realized the gutters needed to be looked at, but I didn't think about it until I saw the front yard flooding with runoff from the roof. The last thing I wanted to deal with was more water in the basement, so.....yep, I cleaned the gutters. In the rain, at 1am. Yep, I know how dumb that was. But the lightning had stopped, and I certainly won't melt. It didn't take too long, as the gutters always clog in the same two spots. As soon as I cleared them, the water poured out of the downspout away from the house and all was well again. Really, the way the yard was filling with standing water I have no doubt we would have had seepage in the basement if I had left the gutters alone. I did cut my hand reaching up there, but I had a tetanus shot before my last surgery so I'm not too concerned. And hey - Walker won't be asked to clean the gutters on Father's Day. It's a win-win!
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