Earlier this week, I was burnt out on painting. Today, I'm burnt out on sanding. I have spent the last two evenings, and I mean evenings that ticked to 2 a.m., sanding down my hardwood floors to remove decades-old stains and assorted scuffs and scratches.
It's no minor league undertaking, this sanding of floors. Nay, it's a fairly involved process which includes both large and small machines. On the large end of things, I had to use an agressive floor attacking sander that ripped away my precious oak floors like a ravenous dog. And, if you let your guard down with that floor attacking menace, it would literally run away from you. That only happened once, thankfully, although it's kind of humbling to have to chase after a sanding machine that doesn't care which direction it's going.
After finishing with the sanding machine, I spent last night going along the perimeter of the floor where the big sander couldn't reach, meticulously going over the floor with a little hand sander that squealed loud enough to be heard in Utah. It took me from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. to get everything nice and sanded down and ready for today's application of stain and, eventually, varnish, which will all hopefully bring the floors back to their original brilliance. I'll just be happy if I can walk on them.
But, oh, the dust. So much dust. Dust everywhere. I woke up this morning and ran an exploratory finger up my right nostril, and what emerged was the biggest dust encrusted booger ever to form within a nose. It was gigant-huge! I bet you all wanted to know that.
Anyway, floor clean up and staining is on the agenda for tonight, and tomorrow I'm off to San Antonio to cover a tech convention there. I'll try to blog when I can from the great state of Texas. Last time I was in Texas, I was in Dallas, and it snowed. SNOWED! I bring Minnesota with me wherever I go.
Posted by Ryan at April 30, 2004 10:22 AMYou have heard of these crazy things called dust masks, right?
Serves you right to have sawdust boogers. But then, I had dirt boogers last weekend from working on the yard debris but my excuse was that a mask would have been waaaay too hot. I sweat through my clothes as it was.
Have fun in San Antonio! I make a point of avoiding Texas altogether.
Posted by: Johnny Huh? at April 30, 2004 12:56 PMIf you make it snow in Houston this weekend, I hope the sanding-machine gods wreak havoc on your floors!!
Try to take one of the Riverwalk boat rides. They are somewhat cheesy, but you get to see alot and absorb some history along the way. The last one I went on, we picked the order of the bras we were going to when we got off the boat.
Posted by: Mandy at April 30, 2004 03:38 PMI know you meant "bars," Mandy, but I just had to laugh.
Posted by: Rob @ L&R at April 30, 2004 06:35 PMAnd that shows just how in the gutter my mind is. I thought she really had picked out the order of bras, and then left out "wear." And, I was left thinking, jeez, how fucking weird is that? Bars makes a lot more sense, for sure.
Posted by: Ryan at May 1, 2004 12:46 AMIt was the attack of my amazing typing ability! I will admit, however, that the removal of BRAS happens b/c of the BARS on the Riverwalk, at least it happened that way for me!
Posted by: Mandy at May 5, 2004 09:23 AM
Stumble It!
