Today we continued to sand the wallpaper walls. The orbital sander is working well, except that the entire house is now covered in sanding dust. Tomorrow I’m going to decide if we continue to sand or go back to scraping. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but we are running short on time so the walls need to get finished one way or another.
We are hoping to start painting on Monday which means the drywall needs to be finished up by the weekend.
A few of you asked about the orbital sander.
It is a Bosch 3725DEVS 3.3 Amp 5-Inch Random Orbit Variable Speed Sander with Dust Canister
. Specs are below.
- Powerful 3.3 amp motor handles the toughest applications
- 4,500 to 12,000 orbits per minute; removalable auxillary handle for close-quarter work
- Micro filter collects up to 120% more dust than conventional dust bags
- Hook-and-loop pad for quick sandpaper changes
It works very well, but the dust bag is not really adequate for the job we are doing. If I was to buy a sander for a big job I would get one with a dust bag that had a round tube instead of an oval. With a round tube you can attach it to your shop vac and really minimize the dust. For a job as big as ours the small canister can’t keep up, but for smaller projects it works great.
We are hiring someone to help with the drywall repair since there is so much of it and we aren’t really experts at drywall. But we started closing up a few walls in the bedrooms.
I also tried to take down this mirror from a hall closet door today. All our doors are being painted and so we needed to remove it. Unfortunately, it had been painted along the edges so when we pulled it off it shattered. Thankfully no one was hurt, but I was bummed because I really wanted to reuse the mirror in my closet.
We have an electrician (and good friend) coming tomorrow to help with the kitchen which is a hot mess of wires. (Pun intended)
We have the holes drilled for the ceiling lights (the big light box is coming out) but we might decide to put in more lights once we get the first set in.
We also have a small (ha ha) issue with this box which use to be hidden by the soffit. Since we demo’d the soffit this box has nowhere to go which is a big-ish problem.
We have a few ideas, but hopefully our electrician friend will help us figure it all out tomorrow.
While I was gone this weekend I realized I haven’t shown you much of the house that we aren’t tearing up right now.
I absolutely LOVE this iron gate on the side of the house. It isn’t in the best shape, but it has so much character it is awesome. One of the reasons we decided to buy this house is that it is on a street where every house is very different. I’d love to show you all the different styles on our street, but that might not be the best way to make friends with the neighbors.
I really like that every house seems to have a story and history to it and I feel like this gate is just part of our story.
See this lonely little green fruit? It is hanging from this pitiful little tree. I think the tree might be dead, due to the fact that it only has 3 leaves and one sad little fruit. But I’d love to save it if possible.
Do you know what kind of tree this is? Any ideas on how to “save” it?
Tomorrow should be a big day with the electrician coming and a day closer to moving in!
This is part of our ongoing renovation project for our new home in Florida. Our goal is to be done by Thanksgiving or else. Follow the daily accounts of our real life during this DIY renovation process here.
Kristy says
That free looks similar to the lemon tree in our backyard (although our tree is full and lush). When we saw our house the first time, we thought it was a lime tree because the green fruit were small and round. However, we found out it is actually a lemon tree. It can take up to a year for the fruit to ripen and turn yellow.
Toni Anderson says
I agree! We had a lemon tree in our Jacksonville house and it did look similar, except it had leaves and lemons. We’ll see what happens with this one. I’m going to get rid of it anytime soon. 🙂