Thread: Some home improvements

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I dread the sanding portion too. I'd like to find a guy like that to save me some time for sure.

Amen to that brother. Sanding to little.. or sanding to much. Both problems I've committed multiple times I'm afraid. LOL

I've done a fair amount of sanding and this last round I put a bag in the shop vac and used one of those vacuum sanders to keep the dust at bay. It was amazing, very little dust in the house and I did a 16x16 room, walls and ceiling and never had to clean the vacuum one time. It weighed 800 pounds but it was still sucking great. Your house looks great by the way.

Originally Posted by 34_40

A friend of ours can use a spray bottle and the spreading tool and level the mud so there's no need to sand after.

I tried something similar a few years ago. I took a 1x4 and wrapped a layer of terry cloth around it. I soaked this in a bucket and used it like a long board sander to smooth the mud after it was pretty much dry. Worked ok and kept the sanding to a minimum.

I've been told that rock can be finished with a big sponge and a bucket of water.

I gave it a try in a closet, but the results were less than perfect. Maybe it takes some practice.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

I've been told that rock can be finished with a big sponge and a bucket of water.

I gave it a try in a closet, but the results were less than perfect. Maybe it takes some practice.

I've tried that also, like you it didn't turn out well.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

I've done a fair amount of sanding and this last round I put a bag in the shop vac and used one of those vacuum sanders to keep the dust at bay. It was amazing, very little dust in the house and I did a 16x16 room, walls and ceiling and never had to clean the vacuum one time. It weighed 800 pounds but it was still sucking great. Your house looks great by the way.

I might see about picking one of those up. the shop vac is already up there.

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

I tried something similar a few years ago. I took a 1x4 and wrapped a layer of terry cloth around it. I soaked this in a bucket and used it like a long board sander to smooth the mud after it was pretty much dry. Worked ok and kept the sanding to a minimum.

I'll try this too, thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

I've tried that also, like you it didn't turn out well.

I have tried that too and it didn't work great for me either. Just made more of a mess.

I didn't get to work on the room today. Last night after I got home from work, we were eating dinner. (At 2am) We heard some scratching above us..... We looked at each other and my wife was like WTF is that? I went upstairs to find nothing. I couldn't hear anything either. Great. I went back down stairs and about 15min later we heard what ever it was go across the ceiling from her side to mine and then headed across the opposite side of the room. I banged on the wall a few times, it would stop then went a little more, then just stopped. So we went to bed.

When I got up this morning I played CSI. I went up tot he attic as I was sure I'd find some signs there. Nope. No tracks in the dust on the floor, no droppings, no torn up insulation, no holes in the eves. While I was up there I went ahead and sprayed for bugs/spiders as I try to do it every 3 months and I haven't done it for a while. After that I went outside and sprayed and walked the entire house looking for entry signs. Once again, no holes, no scratch marks or signs of chewed up wood leading into the exterior walls. I then checked in the basement and saw nothing obvious there.

Our attic is not finished and is rather large. It has a stair case that goes to it. It isn't a full height walk way but dang near. I can stand in the center of it and I'm 6'2" to give you an idea. There is nothing up there except some old green shag carpet. The area the noise was coming from is one of the walls going up the stair way and there are a couple of small open areas in the attic to that wall. I was certain that was how the critter got in the wall cavity. Everything looked undisturbed though. I couldn't really tell what this creature is but the sounds didn't sound like a mouse. One of my friends thinks it could be a raccoon. I really hope not and have a hard time thinking one of them got in without an entry hole?

My neighbor feeds the squirrels like Obama fed the welfare recipients so this could be a possibility too. Any of you have any weird deals like this?

In April my grandson was home on leave to attend his best friend's wedding. Had his Mustang in the garage when we heard some strange noises. Over in the corner at the top of the walls, the walls and ceiling are not finished, were 4 beady eyes staring at us.
I went back into the house and got my 22 rifle and deadeye, my grandson shot expert in bootcamp, hit one between the eyes and grazed the other. It ran to the other end of the garage and when it looked up again my grandson nailed it. Two pretty good sized raccoons and they got in where the electrical service goes through the roof.
Good luck in getting rid of whatever your critter is.

The last time I had a remodel with an open outside, we had Bats make their way in the house. Does that bother you?

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

The last time I had a remodel with an open outside, we had Bats make their way in the house. Does that bother you?

It doesn't bother me as much as it would my wife. I thought maybe it could have gotten in when we had the last window out the other day. But were no big openings in the floor area except one. So, that is a possibility something got in that way?

What type of rodent poison kills them but allows them not to stink to high heaven when it dies in said ceiling cavity? None probably? Haha

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

It doesn't bother me as much as it would my wife. I thought maybe it could have gotten in when we had the last window out the other day. But were no big openings in the floor area except one. So, that is a possibility something got in that way?

What type of rodent poison kills them but allows them not to stink to high heaven when it dies in said ceiling cavity? None probably? Haha

This is the only way when their in the house my friend, and it will usually be about 1-2 o'clock in the morning if their in the house. We would usually hear the scratching in the walls about 9 at night when they were moving to get outside. I was told they will fit though a nickle size hole.

Yeah, the buck shot or bird shot would not fair well indoors. We didn't hear anything last night and my wife said she never heard anymore at all yesterday. Time to place traps. Haha

I have no rodent or critter to show pics of. It's like the sob or sob's just left. We haven't heard them since. (We made a heck of a racket up stairs this weekend, so I would have thought we would have rattled them out)

We didn't get any mudding or tapping done in baby Ivvy's room this weekend. I don't know if I shared this yet. When we were working on Ivvy's room 2 weeks ago, my son made us some more work...... He was trying to get his sister's ceramic elephant off her dresser for her. (Which isn't supposed to be played with, so I believe sissy set him up) While trying to get it down, he knocked a gallon can of pain off the dresser, and on to the carpet, spilling it's PINK contents all over the light tan carpet. My wife told me then we'd never get it out. My brother was there and got some on him after helping Clint into the bath tub. We did get all the pink paint out of their clothes, but the carpet was toast.

We ripped out the carpet so the paint wouldn't bleed through to the floor. I didn't think it would, but it sure was working it's way to it. That brings me to what we did this weekend.

Allyson decided she wanted to redo the hard wood floors. This shocked me because any of these wood working projects we do, she never wants to leave the wood exposed or refinished. We always painted the stuff for the most part. Of course, nothing went all that well. The sticky stuff from the pad didn't want to come off the floor, but we got it. Then we finally found a place that had a sander we could rent. We get it home and started sanding and the stuff that was on the floor, (sch-lack, or laquer?), kept balling up and making a mess of the paper. Plus it would be stuck to the wood too. We opted to go get some stripper and we stripped the top layer off the floor. We had to rent the sander another day. Finally at 10pm last night we put the stain on the floor. This morning I sanded the floor in Ivvy's room and had enough time to take the sander back before I had to come in to work.

I know, she shouldn't be near any of this stuff but you tell her that. I know nothing.

My knees did not approve of this job at all. Now to get the polyurethane put on it so I can put Izzy's refurbished bed in her newly outfitted room.