First of all, the last major project is/was supposed to be the floor. It was going to be slate, as I mentioned. Then I found the original wood floor. About the same time I found the 2000-3000 brad nails. It took me six and a half days of exhasting work to remove them all. And only then could I start on the tar. (As I expected, the tar was horrible, but it paled in comparison to the brad nails.) After I had stripped the tar, the floor was still covered with a filthy muck.
Enter the random orbital sander. Not the little palm ones you can buy for $50 - the giant walk-behind one that you rent for about that much.
I have never seen so much sawdust in my life.
After that sanding, I was supposed to get out my palm sander, touch up the spots that remained, patch two spots on the floor with new floorboards, stain the floor, varnish it, and put up the baseboard. Little of that has happened (I have patched the larger of the two spots. And I bought the baseboard. Does that count?). Because I have spent most of the intervening time cleaning sawdust out of, and off of, everything in the kitchen. It also escaped to other areas (despite a strategically hung drop-cloth), but my DH has done the most work on those. I have literally washed every dish we own, and every piece of flatware. The last of the pots and pans are in the dishwasher now. I suspect that we will be finding little traces of sawdust months from now. And it's not nice, clean sawdust from brand-new wood. It's gross demolition sawdust.
On the other hand:
On yet a third hand...my remaining to-do list:
- remove rotten boards by radiator
- fit and attach replacement boards
- stain floor
- varnish floor
- install baseboard
- finish painting beadboard
- finish painting walls
- finish staining stool tops
- varnish stool tops
- paint stool bases [yes, I'm using two finishes per stool. Why make life easy?]
- adjust pull-chain on light
- paint window and door frames
- fix filter on vent hood
- find dry sink
- paint dry sink
- unpack vases
- re-fit doors on cabinet #4
- install final base cabinet
- add hardware to final base cabinet
- find seller for soapstone countertop for final base cabinet
- build and paint face frame for sink cabinet
- build and paint door for sink cabinet
- attach sink cabinet door and hardware
- adjust faucet
- finish caulking around sink
- adjust stove feet
- find missing burner caps for stove
- fix broiler??
- find and add decorative corbels for small countertop
