(no subject)

[katallison]

Spent the weekend out in Small Town Not Too Far From Here, helping the fantabulous heresluck get her new house ready for Tuesday's move-in (as described in her entry).

Various significant life lessons learned over the weekend:

--Do not ever, EVER put latex paint over oil-based paint without doing extensive preliminary surface prep first (this lesson courtesy of previous owner).

--If you're in the situation of having to repaint a room wherein someone once put latex paint on over oil-based paint without doing surface prep, wait for a nice steamy July day, and significant portions of the old latex will turn all pliable and rubbery and peel right off in little strips.

--Peeling off strips of old paint is deeply gratifying to the inner ten-year-old in one's soul who used to delight in peeling off sunburns.

--One can, however, also use the duct-tape paint-removal treatment described by heresluck, and imparted to her by the wonderfully wise hardware-store lady.

--I have an *amazing* incapacity to get a length of tape ripped off the roll without getting it stuck to itself in the process.

--Grey is practically the bestest color EVER. (*pauses for happy remembering of heresluck's lovely grey living and dining room walls*)

--heresluck is not only brilliant and funny, but she also has her values in the right place, which is to say she gets it that (a) the world is tragically undersupplied with grey chino pants cut to fit women, and (b) freezer-on-the-BOTTOM should be the default for refrigerators. Also, she has superb taste in music and in wall colors.

--I am a whole freaking lot less flexible and physically resilient than I used to be. This whole thing about the body deteriorating with age? Sadly, pathetically true.

--Be wary of older homes previously owned by do-it-yourselfers. Especially those DIY'ers who believe they're entirely capable of building and installing a wallful of kitchen cabinets themselves (by cracky, you don't need to pay good money to some damn professional carpenter for a little thing like that).

--A weekend of hard physical work, with excellent company and good music, is a truly wonderful escape for anyone whose recent life has mostly been spent locked up in the forebrain, stressing about work crap.

Comments

[rhi]

::grins:: Real friends help you move and do major house projects. I should know -- I've had some good friends. Go, you!

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I note from my own experience that yoga can return a portion of flexibility to one's older years. And I've heard the same claimed for tai chi....

Overreaching DIYers are indeed to be feared. -- signed, removed two water-impermeable layers of wallpaper from unsized 1900 horsehair plaster.....

[heresluck]

You are the BEST EVER.

And that paint-peeling really was shockingly, disgustingly fun. *g*

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I love my freezer-on-the-bottom refrigerator. The freezer is even a drawer rather than a door, so it's so, so easy to open it up and get stuff out.

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

Duct tape was designed to stick better to itself than to anything else. S'truth. I myself have trouble ripping a piece off without utterly mangling it -- I always have to resort to scissors, which then get all duct-tape-y and sticky, which makes me say GRAR.

(Most DIYers DI while drunk, or so it would seem.)