Gregory Szorc's blog

Ahhh... the Joys of Remodeling

So Ben and I decided to upgrade rooms in the house for next semester. We are moving from our two room double to a three room double. The old tenant didn't use the room to its social potential, so we figured we would move in and fix things a bit...

So Ben and I decided that we should fix up the rooms because, quite honestly, they suck. The first room is painted blue and yellow and has an ass-ugly 15 year old carpet that probably has every type of alcohol and body fluid stain possible. The second room has no lighting and a very dull paint scheme. The same goes for the third room, except it has lighting. We decided that we were going to repaint all the rooms and tear out the carpet.

First thing is first, the carpet had to go. We literally ripped the carpet off the floor. I had never seen so much dust in my life. It was utterly disgusting. After removing the carpet, the good news was it was gone, the bad news is we now saw why the carpet had been put there. The solid wood floor beneath the carpet was in abismal condition. There were water stains and some of the boards were warped from wear and tear. Half the floor was covered in paint stains. It was not pretty at all. The rest of that night was spent moving all of the furniture in those three rooms to other places in the house. It is hard to believe, but that was a day long job!

Unfortunately, Ben had to leave the next day, so I was left alone to start working on the rooms. I finished cleaning up the rooms (there was so much trash!) and started to wipe down the walls and such for dust as well as sweep and vacuum. When I was done, it was obvious the floor needed special treatment. Somewhere along the line I got the crazy idea to sand down the floor completely. Initially, I was eager to do this with just a power hand sander and countless hours of work. After using a small hand sander, it was obvious that the physical labor involved simply was just not worth it. So, off to Home Depot I went. I came back with a rented drum sander and a whole bunch of sand paper. I plugged the baby in and literally watched as the floor changed colors. It had gone from dull dark brown to a bright, natural oak color. The wood grain was easily visible and the floor was so smooth. Of course, this didn't instantly happen (I must have spent about six hours operating the machine in the 24 hours I had it).

Anyway, now the floor is almost completely sanded down to bare wood. It is amazing the 80 year old wood looks brand new! I just have to sand the places where they drum sander couldn't reach, fill in some small knicks and cracks, and clean before I start putting on the protective finish. I spent a lot of time today sanding down the areas by the walls in the two bedrooms. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am confident I can get at least one coat of polyurethane on the two bedrooms by tomorrow evening. Sanding by hand is painfully slow. It also doesn't help that I am a perfectionist when it comes to these type of things. I will hold off putting poly on until I am confident the floor is perfect.

So that has been my life since finals were over. Remodeling the new room is going to cut deeper into break when I come back a full week early to complete the project. Hopefully Ben and I can manage to complete the polyurethane coatings, paint the rooms and move all of our stuff in before people start complaining about all the furniture scattered about the house. There is so much more to be done. I'd like to install track lighting in two of the rooms, but I'm not sure when I'll find the time. Oh well. I will manage, somehow.

Anyways, I will try to get some pictures of the rooms posted as soon as possible. All but three brothers are in the house now. Sunday night, I think I will be the only one in the house. Hopefully I won't kill myself by accident. Anyway, I should be headed home sometime on Monday afternoon. I guess Jessica wants to see the new Lord of the Rings movie, so I will probably be doing that immediately after I unload my car at home. On Tuesday, I will start and hopefully finish my Christmas shopping. Nothing like waiting until the week of Christmas to buy gifts. I find it amusing to see the malls packed with men on December 23rd every year. Tip for women: men in malls on December 23rd are lazy and laid-back, so you could easily dominate a relationship with one of them. Of course, the relationship would never last because he would undoubtedly forget your birthday/anniversary/Valentine's Day and you would blow things off. Of course, if the man in the mall is in college, then he was literally too busy to shop at school and is hoping to purchase his presents with his parent's credit cards because he blew all of his money on room improvement, car stereos, etc (*HINT HINT*). Fortunately, this broke college student will hopefully be working on his college campus in the spring. College guys love the $10/hr "jobs" that pay you for doing your homework.

So, in recap, new room undergoing drastic renovation, I'll be home on Monday night. Happy Christmas. Happy new year. Happy 21st Neil. Pass out here Neil. Drive back to Cleveland on the 6th (or so). Paint, paint, paint. Start school. Start spring rush. Study. Get a good pledge class. Get straight A's.

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