davemclain.com

Obligatory: That’s what she said. I’m glad I’m done with this project because it was impossible to talk about it without getting those comments. I’m also glad because it looks freaking awesome.

The craziest thing about this project is I wasn’t planning on doing it in the first place. I just had so much leftover wood that I couldn’t not do it. (yes, TWSS) I wanted to have that point at the edge of the living room be the boundary between public and private and have a wood to carpet boundary, but I guess since the guest bathroom is public this makes more sense. Of course, I still have extra flooring and no more floor to cover, but I think I’ll live.

Oh and here’s a side-by-side before and after:

Today, I (finally) laid some tile in the guest bathroom. Multi-colored slate in a basic grid pattern. There’s a part of me that wishes I had gone diagonal or used some smaller tiles, but my sister Susan pointed out to me that it’s already very visually interesting with the different colors and textures.

I owe a great debt to the following people:

• Michael
• Dylan
• Jeff
• John
• Brett

They made my living room look like 4 times better by helping me install hardwood floors.

Over a span of 9 wall clock hours, roughly 40 man hours laid nearly 600 square feet of hardwood. Snap together is the only way to go. Seriously.

Here are the pictures of the painted interior.

I’ve put in three more days of effort into operation chicken little, but that’s rather pathetic given the nearly month long period that has transpired since day 2. Day 3 was the third bedroom. I was joined by Jeremy for Day 4 when we took down the entire living room in one go.

Day 5 was the entryway and “dining room”. Special thanks to Dylan and Dorothy for bringing burgers and beer. Now, I’ve got my parents coming in a week from today, but I’m not entirely sure what projects will be worth doing at that point.

I have vanquished the sky in bedroom 2 (the north-west one, for some reason I think of this as Swanson’s room, even thought that has not been discussed).

Lessons learned:
8 feet 4 inches is plenty wide when it comes to 2 mil plastic sheeting
Use more masking tape when attaching the plastic sheeting to the walls, it’s worth it
Never, ever paint over popcorn ceilings, it’s like kicking a puppy, except over a much longer time horizon
Use more water. I know you’re afraid of messing up the sheetrock, it’ll be fine.
When you use more water the mess you make is much more satisfying

This evening saw the beginning of improvements to the house. I’m typing this post on the iPhone because I do not yet have Internet. Those of you who read my not so clever titles already know that the project that I began was the removal of the acoustic ceiling (the sky is falling) I chose the master bath as I’ve already discovered that the shower doesn’t work properly so I can just use the other one for now. It took longer than I hoped because I am an optimistic estimator and it turns out the ceiling in there had been painted

I don’t know who could possibly be reading my blog that doesn’t already know about this, but I’m on my way to property ownership. Today, I countersigned the final item on a contract to purchase the house located at 5105 Split Cedar Drive, Austin, TX 78735.

I’ve set up a page, http://davemclain.com/the-house?, that has pictures of the exterior of the house and its unreasonably awesome backyard. Also, be sure to visit the realtor’s site to see interior pics. The next time I’m out there with somebody who can get me inside I’ll be taking extensive interior shots as well, since the current pictures don’t include any of the bedrooms.
There’s a whole mess of stuff from here that can lead to us not making it all the way to closing:

• Financing falls through
• Inspection turns up something that we can’t come to an agreement about
• Austin decides that the blue carpet is home to endangered dust mites
• I freak out and don’t go through with it (this one is less likely than the dust mite thing)

Basically the stuff that is left isn’t o much stuff that’s dependent on me, as it is stuff that’s out of my hands, so given my apparent propensity to worry I try not to think about it and instead think about stuff like how quickly can I tear the carpet out of the bathrooms and can I afford hardwood floors in the living room or should I go with something cheaper?

I’ve been looking for roommates already, and I think at least one guy (Michael Swanson) is basically in, but I am now fairly confident in everything going through, so if you’ve got recommendations or are looking for a place, drop me a line.

Also, I have no taste when it comes to color. The closest thing I’ve ever done to decorating was when I bought some posters my freshman year, but ever since that year I’ve lived in white rooms with bare walls. Heck, one summer, while working for Microsoft in Redmond, I was so ambivalent to my living situation that I didn’t even have a bed, I just slept on the ground for a month before finally buying a sleeping pad from Target, which I used for the rest of the summer. If anything in the preceding paragraph depressed you and you are excited by the prospect of decorating a place, I’m going to have a budget, and if somebody else doesn’t spend it, it’ll just go to waste on Dominican Joe’s chai tea and Mexican food.
ps, as you may have noticed from the pictures this house has no white picket fence. I don’t think the style of the area would be particularly conducive for a white picket fence, nor am I enamored with the style. I apologize for the deception.