Pork Rinds and Diet 7-UP

Another busy and successful weekend as we tackled, and happy to say, conquered our worst nightmare in this whole house-rehab project....we scraped every inch of the walls and ceilings in both the breakfast nook and the dreaded living room from hell. The walls are the easy part...it's the ceiling that's the bear. All the ceilings are covered with this thick, wavy texture that is very difficult to remove. It takes sharp scrapers, sandpaper, a spritz of water, ladders, and lots of elbow grease to get rid of it. The living room is the largest room in the house and it was a daunting task, but we got it done. We were both covered head-to-toe with dust and debris from removing texture, and it will surely be a laundry problem down the line.

After we finished scraping the breakfast nook, Lawrence decided to get some joint compound and cover the entire ceiling with it, making a very nice, smooth surface that we will soon texture and paint. The ceiling in the living room is very high and might not need joint compound. We think just a good coat of texture and paint will cover very well.

If you remember from earlier posts, there was one wall in the living room that was covered by a hideous wallpaper mural which I successfully removed in three days time, so we both decided to go back over it with sandpaper to make sure all the little bits of leftover goop were removed. The wall looks great and it too is now ready for texture and paint.

Also in the living room, I decided to take down the existing ceiling fan since we bought a newer and nicer one that will soon take it's place. On the ceiling above the fan was a prominent accumulation of dust and dirt slung up there by the rotating blades, but not until I went up the ladder to remove the fan did I realize just how bad it was. The dust and dirt on the blades was so thick, you couldn't actually see the blade surfaces themselves. As I've been saying all along, I don't think the previous tenants cleaned anything, much less the ceilings or the fans attached to them. It was disgusting.

I have figured out that rehabbing a house is a lot like traveling across country. Meaning of course that you don't always eat right. There's a Whataburger close by for quick and yummy meals. There is also a Valero Corner Store down the street for quick purchases of beef jerky, pork rinds and diet 7-UP. Just what the weary traveler/house fixer needs, but not the waistline.

We are definitely going to need to have an electrician come out and fix a few things. The main electrical box needs replacing, and a number of wall outlets in various parts of the house don't work. Thankfully, the air conditioner works well, and we're going to need it as we get closer to the warmer months.

On one of our many trips to Home Depot, we decided to start buying, and hoarding, attic insulation rolls. We are buying a few at a time and storing them in the garage until we are ready to roll them out sometime before it gets too hot. There are some areas of the attic that have little or no insulation on them at all, but we need to run some wires across the attic for television and computer networks first.

Since we had so much rain this weekend we decided not to bring Rusty with us. The backyard was a lake, and he doesn't like to get his feet wet. He's such a diva.