The Sands of the Accordion Room

Or, more properly, the sanding of the Accordion Room. We managed to get a lot of other projects done in the pursuit of procrastination: mowed the lawn (with our fancy new battery mower courtesy of Noel's parents -- it's awesome, and I will write about it when we have some drier weather), pruned trees, re-tied the rose over the front trellis, did mounds and mounds of weeding, wired a little fan into the shed so it would not be quite so tropical in there, did laundry, did our taxes... you get the picture. Eventually we had to give in and do the one job we both hate: sanding.

Fortunately for me, we only have one set of hearing protectors, so Noel got the short straw and has been doing all the work. And it has been loads of fun, let me tell you.

First, the bad news: the wood is in bad shape, which we knew going into this (you should have seen some of the wood from the living room; it was ridiculous). Lots of big nail holes and huge cracks of the sort that happen when you trim a house out in not-quite-seasoned redwood then let it sit for 130 years.

Nail holes in the window frame

Let's be honest: we knew the wood was bad, and we're not expecting much of it. Our plan now is to repaint it. Because paint covers a lot of sins, including that area near the door where Noel found chunks of asphalt roofing filling a gap.

For the task, Noel has been using a little palm sander to take off the gummy remains of the first level of wood treatment, then a random orbit sander attached to the shopvac to do the fine sanding. The shopvac pretty much keeps the dust under control, although it definitely adds to the noise.

Halfway through the sanding

But now the good news: where the trim is not damaged, it looks pretty nice. And I think this will paint up very nicely, indeed. We have a few more hours of work on the sanding before I go in with a bucket of TSP substitute and wash the ceiling and walls, and then we can prime this place up.

Partly sanded trim