Last Post About Living Room

We got the furniture moved back into the living room tonight. I'm going to put my computer in there so the kids will have more room to play in here. Their beds are in the computer room. But I am NOT going to let them play in the living room. When I get the floors done in here, I guess I'll have to move them upstairs. Anyway, as usual, the pictures:

Finally Finished!!!

Okay, it took a long time but the floor is finally finished. Now I have to wait 3 days before I can move any furniture back in. Here are the final pictures (be ready for ALOT of pictures).
This is my dining room right now:



Breakfast room:

Computer room:

Think I don't have a mess to clean up?
Here's the floor after the final mopping before varnishing (not quite dry):



Varnishing the edges (I did all the varnishing):

Edges done (1st time):


Putting first coat of varnish on rest of floor:

After first coat done:

After second coat on:


Finished product!:


I'm ready to do the computer room now! It's worth all the hard work just to see the finished product. Anybody who scratches my floor will die a slow, painful death! LOL!Now, to get everything dusted before we move stuff back. The living room is the only clean room in my house at this time. Now, maybe I can blog about something else for a change. But I'm just proud of all the hard work and results. Have a good day!

Starting Over

We started over on the floor. I didn't make pictures of when we first started sanding and stripping. We finished stripping it last night. We were both so stoned we couldn't walk straight (I hope that won't make a drug test show up positive, because I have to take one for school). I decided that the varnish remover smells like the gas used to put people to sleep when they have surgery. We both passed out when we went to bed. This morning Doug finished sanding (except what we have to sand by hand). Too bad we can't leave the floors raw wood. I think they look prettier that way. The varnish makes it look darker. Here's some pics I've made so far:
While we were still sanding the last time(notice the difference in the color of the 2 rooms):




Doug taking a well deserved break:

More sanding:

Floor after sanding completed:

This job has been one big pain in the butt! I never want to do it again, but we'll have to due to the difference in the floors of the living room and computer room. HOPEFULLY we'll do better in the computer room and it won't take so long. We still have almost a week before the living room is done. My house is a DISASTER! I don't think I'll ever get it clean again.

Never Believe the Associates at Home Depot

As previously posted, Doug and I had redone our hardwood floors. They looked great until they dried. The associate at Home Depot told Doug that he needed "this" tool to put down the varnish with. This "special tool" left all kinds of bubbles in the varnish and left it very rough. Now we have to strip the floors and start all over with the varnish. And just regular stripper won't take it off. We have to rent yet another machine to take off the varnish and then start over. GRRRRRRRRR! I have to go back to work tomorrow so hopefully the rental place will be closed the weekend and we can keep the machine all weekend and take it back Monday for the price of one day. So now my chair, shelves and tv are in the dining room (not hooked up), my entertainment center is is the computer room, and my house is basicly a mess. I will never believe an associate telling me I need a special tool for something again. I'll just buy a book on how to do it. Oh well...live and learn...I guess.

My New Line of Work

Doug and I decided to take up the carpet in the living room because it was so stained, every time we cleaned it, the stains would be right back in a couple of days. So we took it up and were we disappointed! Our beautiful hardwood floors were ruined! The people who put the carpet down (Lowe's employees) had used really big nails to put the carpet tack strips down and had put the nails about 1" apart. So my floor was full of holes on the edges and looked awful where we had cleaned the carpet so much trying to get all the stains out, the floor looked awful. SO...we decided to sand the floor and re-varnish it. Remember, we've never done anything like this before. It took us almost 2 days to get it sanded. It wasn't the sanding that was so hard. It was the edges. We rented an edger but it still didn't get all the way to the edges. So we burnt up one of Doug's sanders, almost burnt up 2 more, and finally had to go buy a new one and Doug got the edges looking good. I couldn't have done that. I don't have that much patience. But I filled all the nail holes and did alot of the sanding. (So if it looks like ocean waves, blame me! LOL) We had to take out the gas fireplace and do half the room at a time because we couldn't get the couch out. It took 2 days for 2 coats of varnish to dry on the first half. Now the 2nd half has one coat on it. Doug did the first, I did the last. So now I think we'll go into the floor refinishing business. As soon as we learn to get the varnish down evenly. Here's my "new" floor (without the fireplace and only one cushion on the couch, and quite a bit of varnish on the bottom of the couch):

So...what do you think? Think I could make a good living out of this?

Full Moon

Tonight there is a beautiful moon up in the sky. I thought it was full last night but compared to tonight it wasn't. I haven't posted a picture in a while so I made a picture of it to post:

Pools Are Too Much Work!!

This weekend the grandkids were here. I didn't have to worry about Billy and Shelly. They never want to get in the pool. But Rebecca and Nicholas do. The water was so cloudy you couldn't even see the leaves on the bottom of the pool. YUK! So...I did the only thing I could to clear it up. I shot holes in it! (not really) There is a chemical called floculant you can put in it. I put a bottle of floc in it, let it circulate for an hour, then shut the pool down for 24 hours. At the end of the 24 hours, the floc has taken all the gunk out of the water and it is lying on the bottom of the pool in a cloud like substance (this is the floc after it's done it's job). But the water is clear! Then comes the vacuuming! The pool has to be really full in order to vacuum this stuff out. Cause it takes forever, and as you vacuum, some of the stuff gets displaced and goes up into the water. Well, I was almost done with the first vacuuming and the water got too low. So I had water going in the pool until it started getting dark. It still doesn't have enough water so I'll start it back up in the morning and vacuum some more. What really irks me is that the pool doesn't get used that much. I'd still have to do all this even if no one used it. The only time it's ever used is when the grandkids come up and when Bucky, Mary, the kids, Sandy and Robert come up. I get in it occasionally but it's not fun when you're in there by yourself. So I don't get in it much. So if I know you, and you're reading this, PLEASE come swimming in my pool. And Mary and Sandy, you all and the rest of the family are welcome here any time. And Lilly, I hope you come too. I love you guys. It should be ready to swim in tomorrow after I vacuum it again (hint, hint!).

Gasoline Prices

I have a problem with the rising cost of gasoline due to the Alaskan pipeline being shut down. This week on Nightline, I obtained the following information:
In Texas, there was an explosion at the BP facility killing 15 and injuring 107. This company holds the record for the most fatalities of any oil company in the nation. They have paid over $25,000,000 in fines to OSHA and other safety organizations for safety and marketing problems. Criminal charges were filed against them 1 month ago for energy tade regulations. They have been skipping out on their maintainence because they say they are a "Low federal priority" in the oil industry. The BP company has some of the biggest profits in the nation. Much of the pipeline (over 19 miles) is being shutdown due to pipes being so corroded, so thin, and so leaky that they do not even meet the minimum safety requirements. They found 16 anomolies in 12 separate locations where the thickness was over 70% worn down. There has been a pipe rupture in the past spilling 200,000 gallons of oil. This could have been prevented if periodic inspections had been done. They have not inspected their pipes since 1999. All they had to do was send a device called a "Smart Pig" through the pipes. The Pig measures the thickness of the walls of the pipes. And yet all they are doing for the public is making a "public apology". This problem was due to their negligence and I think they should absorb the cost of rising gas prices as punishment for what they have caused, on top of any fines they have to pay. I won't go in a BP station to even buy a piece of bubble gum. I urge everyone to do the same. If they start losing money on sales, maybe they'll learn to take safety and inspections more seriously.