FINALLY! I found a handyman to come start some of the work

[Warpy]

on this dump, putting new putty into most of the windows. The price is fair and he does good work.

He's a conspicuous Christian, but whaddya gonna do? He seems like one of the honest ones and he's from Noo Yawk so he sounds like home.

He also gave me a line on a contractor to do the rest of the work here, one I hadn't considered yet.

I haven't got any "before" pictures because I'm still decluttering and hauling stuff to the thrift shop as well as getting trucks in for furniture I'm replacing. Yesterday the Axminster went to the high end Oriental carpet place for a good cleaning. Had a great political chat with the owner, who travels throughout the middle east getting carpets and who agrees with my assessment about the damage Stupid has done regarding the moderation of the Iranian regime.

All in all, it's nice to be productive.

And it's RAINING again.....

[NMDemDist2]

1. Great! congrats and I hope he does super work for you! we are painting

today

We read the furnance manual and put a door on it that works great to quiet it down so we're painting that and the one wall in the guest room that had a big tear in the wall paper. Mr K has spent the week on and off mudding the expansion joints and we did the final sand today

we are using the white we brought from PHX as a base coat then I'm gonna add some white to the green we used in the kitchen for the final coat. it should look nice with the dark cherry wood floors in there

:bounce:

can't wait for the before pics. you bad mouth that house so bad LOL

[Warpy]

2. I should have mentioned the great thing I found for drywall finish

work. I discovered one of those synthetic fibre grill cleaners dipped in a little water wet finishes it beautifully. The final dry sanding is then minimal, and it realy cuts down on the plaster dust everywhere.

Suggest it to Mr. Ketchup, see what he thinks about it.

[NMDemDist2]

3. synthetic fiber grill cleaner?

I'm not sure what you are talking about. is it one of those grill brick looking things?

[Warpy]

4. No, it comes mounted on a square with a handle up top

it's about four inches by six inches and the fibrous plastic cleaning pad looks sort of like the hairy green stuff they used to pack electronic equipment in back in the 70s.

Any store that sells grills and grilling equipment will have them. Some supermarkets sell them, too, but they're seasonal items.

[eleny]

9. i think warpy means this

[Warpy]

11. That's the one, only mine was white

It did a remarkably good job of wet finishing all the seams when I taped the wall boards in my trailer.

I just wish I'd discovered it when I was learning how to plaster in one slum apartment after another in Boston.

[TygrBright]

5. Oh, congratulations!

I am mourning the (I hope temporary) loss of my handyperson as his "day job" has increased his hours... Nice for him, as that's where he piles up vacation, gets partial subsidy of health care, 401(k) etc, (he's a union meatcutter,) but tough on me, I have a long list and am dancing with impatience to get onto some of it.

frustratedly,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

6. next time he's there, ask if you can watch

and maybe learn?

encouragingly,

NMDD2










:evilgrin:

[Warpy]

7. I know how to do it, I've done it all before

but rheumatoid arthritis since I was 14 has taken its toll. Plus, my eyesight is very poor and will remain so until I get the stitches from the corneal transplant out.

[NMDemDist2]

8. not you, Dear Warpy. I know you could! I'm trying to encourage

Ms Bright

:evilgrin:

[TygrBright]

14. The *knowledge* is sort of there...

...since my stepfather was an electrician and, later, general contractor. I used to be a pretty good drywaller, 30 years ago. The problem isn't "knowing how" as much as it's "being able" or even "having the knack." When my handyguy paints, it looks beautiful. When I paint, it's a disaster. When my handyguy hangs a fixture, it's always perfectly aligned, there for good, tidy and neat. When I hang a fixture, it ends up a bit skew-gee, sometimes it's a tad on the precarious side, and there's generally a horrific mess to clean up.

I have great respect for people who have the meticulous patience and skill to do handy stuff. I can hang a picture, sort of. I can change a faucet washer. I can swap out a light switch, I can patch cracked or pitted drywall if it's not too bad. I can touch-up paint if it's not trim or dainty stuff. But I know my limitations. My skills lie in other directions.

And a lot of stuff on the current list requires sheer muscle and endurance I don't have, like shifting the pallet of leftover rock and bags of lanscaping supplies to the other end of the yard, re-sheet-mulching over the sheetmulched bits (I can do that but too slowly, it's a two-person job on the scale it needs to be done.) Stuff like that.

However, the good news is I just heard from my handyguy and he's got some time next week. So I am prioritizing The List.

anticipatorially,
Bright

[eleny]

10. good luck with everything!

nice that you're getting started.

you're from new york? i didn't know! i'm from brooklyn/queens.

[Warpy]

12. No, Boston

but anybody from back east sounds like home folks to me now.

[eleny]

13. that's so true!

[wildeyed]

15. Come to find out, the handymen who worked on my house

were all born again. Maybe it is a cult or something. But whatever, they did good work and I got along with everyone great. Except when one of them mentioned that they were all "brothers in christ". Then I kind of clammed up. I was afraid he would start ranting about activist judges or something, which is a big buzz kill.

The guy who did some of the tile work in the bathroom, he was a different story. Listened to Rush the entire time, and hoo boy did his work stink.