Finished the yukky window and while I was at it the front door, too. The fireplace corner is painted and ready for furniture. Rockwell multi tool made short work of sanding. Wore a mask and goggles for the lead dust; can’t afford anymore memory loss.

Benjamin Moore latex enamel is great paint. Pricey, but probably worth it. That woodwork was gray with soot, oil from the fur of dogs and cats, fingerprints and general filth. It took two coats plus a coat of Bin on the bare spots.

I do love to get finished, clean up, and then just look at the job. Even a tiny one like that. I got a cup of tea and sat in the corner, on the floor, the same corner where my filthy ex-tenant had fenced off a shitting dog. There’s no trace of those piggy Satanists left in that corner of the room. I have scrubbed, sanded and painted them away.

Tomorrow morning, back to the brick house to sleep and student ghetto to work. Funds are low for materials needed in that crappy apartment, but I can afford a couple of cartons of ceiling tiles and at least finish the first-floor ceiling. And I can afford a gallon of paint for the bathroom. And there are plenty of tasks in that place that are just labor — cleaning and demolition tasks.

Never did find the right match for the Armstrong VCT tiles on that floor. Who knew there could be so many variations of white?

There was one lucky break in the heat tape job — once I cut through the cabinet base I found the hole in the subfloor was already large enough. I didn’t have to cut through an inch of oak floor and subfloor to get into the hole.

I have nothing else to say that is positive. Wait, I have one: my new Rockwell oscillating multi tool was a pleasure to use and did a great job. Other than that, it was a horrible, frustrating and painful task and I’m glad I’m a girl because I cried through the whole thing.

In order to get far enough into that dark, cold space through a 12-inch hole, I reached in with one arm up to my shoulder, then turned 90 degrees and worked in the other shoulder. In that position I could just about reach in as far as I had to with the fingertips of one hand. Attempts to insulate in the past meant the hole was full of shredded fiberglass along with the dirt, mud and mouse shit where my face was pressed for a good four hours as I attached the tapes, wrapped them with fiberglass, wrapped the fiberglass with plastic strips and then rebuilt the cabinet base with luan. Despite plans to lie on a throw rug and kneel on a foam pad, most of those hours were hips and knees on that lovely tile floor, cold as a glacier. Took me two days to stand up straight again.

I’m being brief because it was three days ago and it was so hellish I haven’t been able to write about it until now. The job is done and I think it’s adequate. It better be because I cannot do it again.

Big project today — the bathroom sink on the first floor of the stone house has been freezing in cold weather since the bathroom was installed in the 1980s. That room was the kitchen when I was a kid, but before that it was a porch. It’s outside the foundation and there’s nothing under it but about 18 inches of air and then dirt. You’d think I would have done something last year when the room was ripped up and before a gorgeous ceramic tile floor was installed in that room, but no, of course not.
So today is the day — gonna open up the base of the sink cabinet, cut into the subfloor which is half inch solid oak boards and probably the old porch deck under that, reach down in there and install heat tapes, wrap them with fiberglass and then rebuild the cabinet floor with plywood.
At least, that’s the plan. Success with this project involves many firsts, including the first time I’ll use some new power tools.
Thankfully I was farsighted enough to have the electrician install an outlet under that sink when the bathroom was rewired last year. Wish I were an electrician, I’d put in a toe-kick heater at the base of that cabinet while I was at it. The uninsulated crawl space also makes the tile floor cold. A little heater would be cozy on the feet after a shower.
One thing at a time.

OK, so I put a saw blade on my new Rockwell oscillating multi tool and made a few trial cuts in a scrap board. It’s a gradual, precision cut and I feel a lot more confident now about that part of the job. It’s just gonna take awhile to get through everything.
Now it seems like getting down in the hole and doing the wrapping will be the hard part.
Take the dog for a walk first, then start.

Just occured to me it would be a good idea to cut the power to that outlet under the sink, since I don’t know where the wire goes. Would be bad if I cut it with the saw — and even if I didn’t get hurt, I owe the electrician money so I can’t call him.
So I’m heading for the basement first to flip the breaker. Lifting that massive cellar door gets harder every time. One of these times I’m not gonna be able to.

By mutual agreement a tenant vacated the first-floor bedroom/ bathroom suite at the stone house. Nice guy when he’s sober, but let’s just say he had a personality too big to get along in a rooming house environment.
He made an effort to tidy up on his way out, but hadn’t cleaned much in his 10 months here. As a result, it’s gross. Cobwebs, dust bunnies, mold and soap scum in the shower stall, dirty fingerprints on the mini fridge and god knows what running down the outside of the toilet and onto the floor.
As I plan to occupy this space myself until I find a new tenant — who wouldn’t? it’s got its own bathroom — I’m gonna put other duties aside for a couple of hours and clean.

Did I say a couple of hours? Worked almost four hours and just got the bathroom clean; still have the bedroom to tackle tomorrow. Blew out everything else I had planned for today. Still have to touch up the paint, tenant attached cardboard to the windows with duct tape and splattered hair dye on the wall.