Sunday, January 16, 2011

Project Home Repair, Part II


Home Repair
Originally uploaded by Kristin Brenemen
I think I lost my mind yesterday. It started with a simple can of Gap Filler and a couple of hours to use up before dinner was ready.

I started looking at the gaps that I'd need to fill. In my house, I mean. With the furnace on, I put my hand over light sockets and outlets. By door mouldings and windows. Yep, yep; yep, yep. All of 'em needed some work.

And then I went to the basement.

I knew, from my government Energy Audit, that there were some problems down there. But I had to find them first. I'll tell you: basements -- especially ones from the 1840s -- have a lot of nooks and crannies. A lot of dust and cobwebs. A lot of dark spaces where you don't really want to stick an unprotected hand.

But I did it anyway.

It meant that I had to first clean up the basement. Uh-huh. I know what you're thinking: amateur! It quickly became a big project. rearranging, putting away, organizing, "dusting" (by that I mean sweeping up huge piles of debris), and more rearranging. In the process, I put away my Christmas decorations -- since I had the box out anyway and was organizing and rearranging.

And I found holes as big as my hand, or bigger, that I had to fix before I fill just a "gap". I found all sorts of interesting stuff.

And suddenly I was also working on another project: my bathroom vanity. The hinge on one door had come loose. I took the opportunity to not only wood-fill all the extra holes, but also to prep for the new latches I'd bought AND prep for the new paint job -- the paint for which I hand-mixed out of left-over paints in my basement.

So now I'm off to Home Depot. To exchange the hinge I bought and get some adhesive for the big hole in the basement.

And tonight, I'll fix, fill, finish and crash exhaustedly into bed, satisfied because I'm a home repair goddess.

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