The week that was!

[rowie]

Well, if we truly look at it, I guess it is more like the past 2 weeks or so.

As some of you may know, we have been going through a bit of a long needed renovation to the inside of our humble abode, without a doubt it has been hard slog.

We had 5 rooms and the hallway with wallpaper to remove, all of it over 40 years old and rather hideous to boot! The worst by far was the main living room, the "Art-Deco" wallpaper was totally waterproof and covered in this stuff called Floc, a fluffy stuff similar to velvet I guess, we tried everything to remove this stuff, from the sublime to the totally ridiculous!

1/ Hired a wallpaper steamer, didn't even touch it!
2/ Wire brush, to break the surface + Steamer, total waste of time and energy!
3/ Peel off the top layer, yeah right!
4/ 6" air sander + Steamer, spent hours on this, only God knows why!
5/ cracked out the 12" sander + steamer, more effective and actually helped in a small useless way.
6/ Industrial belt sander + Steamer, removed the Floc and paper enough to the point where the steamer would actually work.

At this point any small successes were seen as huge victories, but at a huge cost. The damage to the drywall was frightening!
So far, 48 hours spent and managed to remove ONLY 3 sheets of this wallpaper from hell.

Had these people actually used Stupid glue to hang this crap or something! OMG!

Now for the BUG GUNS!

7/ 12" grinder, serious paper removal, MAJOR wall damage! The last of the power tool attempts.
8/ Acids and gels, at first we thought this was the winner to beat them all, and at first it was very effective. But that was only the first sheet we worked on, after that it was back to the drawing board.
9/ FIRE, I have had this! my back is killing me, I can't lift my arms and I am so tired. You may have guessed already but this was a pointless exercise and only managed to remove some frustration for a short while.

10/ This is the #1 all time winner!
Head to your hardware store and buy a paper tiger or 2, perforates the crap out of the paper with minimal damage to the wall, flood the walls with steaming hot water and stand back, watch the paper fall from the walls by it's own weight!

Anyway, this was followed by many days and nights of filling holes, sanding said holes and painting all these rooms. We finished painting 2am Thursday morning!

Things were starting to get back on track, or so it seamed. Our new window coverings were going to be installed on the Thursday with the new carpet going in on the Friday, all ready for the Sunday party.

FRIDAY; The downfall begins.

Friday morning Kath had to go to the funeral of her Uncle that passed the previous Saturday, unexpected and her fathers last remaining kin.
Friday afternoon, Kath gets the first call about the blinds, the material is damaged and there is no more available, so not getting installed and Kath must choose what she wants all over again. OMG!
The following call is a good one also, the carpeting has been water damaged, no delivery until next year! how wonderful!

So we have Tears, Tantrums, anger, ect.

But Sunday draws ever closer and still so much to do!

[rustynuts]

Dang rowie, that doesn't sound like the lighter side of anything! What plans do you have now, or are you regrouping to try again? Talk about being pressed for time....

[rowie]

Saturday!

It has been a very long night trying to sort out what went wrong and how to fix things.

Eventually we sorted out the curtains, and in the grand scheme of things we can wait for the carpeting, we were running out of time fast!

Spent all of Saturday night painting Tee's and cooking heaps of food.

Sunday morning, still painting tee's, setting up tarps, tables, more food, even more food and painting tee's.

10am, Time to fire up the BBQ again to cook the pork, I love working at the BBQ, almost as much as I love painting.

Still so damn tired and sore!

10:30am, the BBQ is all warmed up and good to go, the pork is seasoned and on the spit, starting to cook over the rocks very nicely, so far the old girl has cooked 3 chooks, 2 turkeys and a leg of lamb, now for the big finale!

Note to self, check the roast every 5 mins! check!

11:30, just finished checking the roast, all going well. Headed back into the shop to paint.
11:32, People screaming, people running, madness everywhere! The damn pigs are on fire, BIG FIRE, I wish I could have filmed it, the flames were huge and brilliant, but oh so destructive!

This was followed by glasses being dropped, kids fighting and arguing, adults doing the same!

My BBQ is a melted mess of it's former self, and by the gods we are so relieved that it's all over!

For another 12 months anyway!

[rustynuts]

Oh, I thought you were talking about next Sunday be "THE" day. Sounds like you pulled it off anyway and had a good time doing it!

[rowie]

The biggest high beside seeing my parents was watching all the kids (some in their late 20's) open the little parcels that contained the tee's.

That for me was the turning point where I could smile again!

[rustynuts]

I hear ya there. It's great when your work is appreciated.

One of my nieces just found out this week that I'd picked up the airbrush again and now I've got a list of what she wants for Christmas (not going to happen this year, sorry to say), birthday, Easter, etc. She was always my biggest fan and all she ever wants for any gift is something that I'd done. It didn't matter what it was.....

Congratulations on your great day!

[KDSilverBrush]

aww Rowie, I don't mean to be cruel, but your posts did have me gigleing a bit. don't get me wrong here, I did feel for ya, still do, I know how the construction biz can be, and sometimes it's just a matter of what time and day THEY can, I know ya know what I mean. I pray all goes much better for you and wife in the new year, Blessings to ya .

[Neder/Brit]

Seeing how you couldn,t film it how about a painting. Pork alla true flames.

[Kaiilla]

Rowie

Dude, you gotta do a shirt to commemorate the day!

Wear it next year!