Stuff Shuffle

A couple weeks ago we decided to finish the back bedroom. Since we got more cats this year (we're up to FOUR, which is, yes, ridiculous), Noel's allergies have been not great and the bedroom was the one room in the house with carpet. Also, the aforementioned cats have been getting into the stuff Noel uses to work his electronics magic for me, so we decided to move that table into the Accordion Room and the couch and TV into the front bedroom. At the same time as we moved most of the contents of the back bedroom into the front bedroom and the upstairs hall.

The front bedroom is a little crowded right now.

But it has nothing on the Accordion Room, though admittedly this is not a fair photo because I took it right after we moved all the stuff in and before it got put away.

And then we had the back bedroom cleared out for work. (Well, mostly.)

The first stage of the work is to strip the terrible mastic off the wainscoating. That's heat gun and scraper, then sander. (We already had the mastic tested for asbestos and it came out negative.)

Then I'll come through and finish the plaster repairs and washing the old chalky paint off the walls. That should be pretty fast, since most of the work is done.

Then we can paint! Then we can take up the carpet and spend a month refinishing the floor! And we have a deadline for this, because we're going on a trip in the fall and a housesitter is coming to stay here with the many many pets, so the room has to be done by then. And I just spent a week on a retreat and came back determined to (among other things) get rid of half my stuff, so I'm kind of starting that project at the same time. So the next few weeks should be interesting.

Noel actually did some work on the room last week while I was away, so I just need to find those photos and I can show you how it's coming along.

posted by ayse on 08/16/10