Gaining Ground

The paint monster is being subdued and I feel like I'm gaining a foothold on the renovation mountain. Amazon purchases are on a hiatus right now, simply because my couch is full of new things that are being staged for the remodel but can't go in until I finally put the paint away. 

It looks like a hoarder beginner kit, and I hate it. I hate clutter. It makes me feel disorganized and stressed, but it won't be there much longer.

Today started slowly but became progressively more productive. I couldn't sleep last night, so I was up late looking for things on Amazon that I won't buy yet.

I puttered out to the camper at about 11am, the sun was bright but there was a bite of cold in the air-almost to nippy to wear the shorts and tank top I had on. I knew once I got to work I'd get hot and sweaty though, so it was best to just get to work and warm up. 

As is my nature, I started by sweeping up the floor and surveying what remained to be done. At this point, I was essentially ready to start painting in the upper level where the bathroom/shower area and bedroom are. 

Colors started rolling around in my head, the darker or lighter white? Where should I put the green? What about the doors?

Whoa Kemosabe. 

Let's start with the ceiling and work our way down. 

I started by removing the a/c vents, speakers, and hole covers blocking the old satellite and antenna holes. In the bathroom, I removed the vent fan insert, knowing like in the living area, I'd paint it too. I taped off the overhead bedroom a/c unit, took the filters out of it, and then taped off the new shower skylight. I removed all of the light fixtures and finally realized how many of those stupid things there are. 

I started adding up in my head, and at $50 a fixture, that's gonna be a LOT of funds tied up in fixtures for the new look. I decided to simplify a little bit and save a few of these slide lights, paint the exteriors gloss black, and use them as the undercabinet lighting for a few of the areas. I felt like they would fit in well with the hunter green cabinets and not be as noticeable.

I swept the ceiling and readied my ceiling paint, which to my chagrin I found to be in the beginning stages of drying out. The 2 1/2 gallons that were left in the 5-gallon bucket were starting to get more viscous, letting me know it was time to get this party started and finish up the ceiling. 

I did a coat and cut in around all the edges.

In the shower as I had the roller around the skylight, I felt something tickle my nose. I reached up with my free hand and wiped my sweaty face, expecting to see a paint flake or a dust ball.

It was a pubic hair. A pube. It was not mine...or one that I recognized.

Standing in the shower with a heavy, paint-laden roller in one hand and a phantom pube on the other hand, all I could do was sigh. 😒

Remodel a camper they said! It will be fun, they said! 

Well maybe not that last part. 'Interesting' may be the word I'm thinking of. 

After the initial coat of ceiling paint, I took my ceiling paint leftovers downstairs and checked for oopsies or touchups that needed to be done.

I realized halfway through painting the ceiling I was clenching my jaw again. I unclenched and forced my mouth open, my jaws have been so sore the last few days and I have to wonder if this is where the headaches are coming from. When I do something that requires a lot of balance and arm strength (painting, climbing ladders), I tend to clench my jaws as hard as I can-to the point my teeth start to grind. I'm trying to stop doing that....but it's a work in progress.

DH received the part he needed to repair the hydraulic pump when the mail was delivered at around noon. The reservoir for the hydraulic fluid on the old pump was leaking and made a huge mess everywhere, not to mention it was not able to pull the slides in and push them out without someone standing by adding fluid as it was puking it out the bottom of the tank.

DH installed the cleaned pump with the new reservoir and asked me to help him bleed the lines and test the slides. After a few false starts due to low voltage, he got the pump working, eventually the air worked itself out of the lines and the slides jolted into motion. I was inside watching the flooring and paint to ensure it didn't completely wreck the work we had done in the last few weeks. 

It worked perfectly and everything slid into place. 👍

DH told me he needed to go to Ace Hardware to pick up a few things, so I gave him a list. Once he returned with all my goodies, I got to work spray painting fixtures with either gloss black or gloss white, depending on what they were. 

I have an idea. I've been thinking about what to do with the doors in the camper and I'm not keen on painting them with the latex paint. I scratched at the sliding door that's laying on the bed frame right now and realized it's a plasticky veneer over pressed wood shell. My idea is to sand them down slightly to remove some of the outer coating, then stain them a dark coffee tone. I can add false hardware to make them look like sliding barn doors, staying with my theme and doing what I originally intended to the doors. 

I have been looking at false hardware on Amazon today, and this is what I've found so far. It's mostly been garage door decor, honestly. I want the doors to look like they're hanging from heavy iron hinges, but in reality they'll still be on the rollers from the factory. 

Back from that tangent, the next item on the agenda was filling the large hole in the back wall with wood putty, or as my Dad calls it-Bondo for the camper. 😂 DH had previously filled it with spray foam just to get it where I could finish the hole with 'Bondo.'

I spackled it up good and left it alone to dry. 

It was time for me to stop dragging my feet and do a second coat on the ceiling. I noticed a few spots I had missed initially, it's hard to paint white over white and get all the spots. I did the dreaded second coat and slapped some paint on the cut in areas too. Finito with the celito. 

Next up, winders. Or windows if you want to be proper about it. I finagled the screen out of one of the back windows and opened the window up after spraying some dry lubricant on the latches and slides. 

When I'm telling you the windows were dirty, I don't mean like a film of dirt. I don't even mean a pile of dust. I mean full on, curtains-never-been-opened-since-2006, dog-having, ceiling-fan-on-high, no-dehumidifier, caked on filth in the frames. It's something I've been dreading since I took the curtains down. 

I found my gallon ice cream bucket I used for cleaning out the fridge drain and filled it with water from the hose with a bit of Dawn dish soap and a splash of bleach and grabbed the old rag I'd been using to wash various items outside. I got my gloves from the house because, well, bleach water, and brought a scrub brush, a toothbrush, a squeegee, and a new roll of paper towels. 

After wiping down the crusties off one window, Buggins appeared. She's a pretty good helper and always wants to pick up and organize, so I felt okay letting her use the scrub brush with gloves on to help me clean the windows. She did a fantastic job.

DH walks in and sees us working.

"Look who wandered out here! What are you doing?"
"I'm helping Mommy with the scrub brush, we're cleaning up the windows," Buggins said. 

"Wow....I actually thought these windows were black, not white..." DH stared at the clean frames. 😬

One and a half windows later, Buggins asked if we could take a break. Now I know why as a kid when I would say "I need a break" the adults would answer "You haven't done anything yet, what you need a break from?!" But then I have to remember she just turned 9 years old so a good bit of scrubbing goes a long way, and her older sister would not clean her own mess to save her life, so I cut her some slack and told her to take a break. She scampered off into the house and the next thing I saw through the back kitchen window of the house was a kid on the couch with her car bankie watching SpongeBob. So that wound that up. 

I continued scrubbing windows, changing out water and cleaning my brushes and rags periodically, and scrubbing screens. 

I took a short break from scrubbing to pull up tape from prior paint areas being that touch ups and green paint were all that was left to do in the living area. I scrubbed the floors with a Magic Eraser under the tape just to make sure I got the accidental 'boops' from the roller cleaned up. 

Some tape came off well, some tape did not. 

I finished the evening by fussing at DH to stop using the YouTube because it was booting me off my playlist, then finished setting screens into place on clean windows. 

I attached the air conditioner vents and blank hole covers back to the dry ceiling in the upper level, cleaned the tiny bathroom window, returned the freshly painted vent fan insert to its area, and proceeded to clean up my tools and throw away the garbage I had collected upstairs. 

I don't clean the entire workspace after I'm done for the day, but I DO pick up, put my tools in a central location, and usually sweep before I disconnect power and close up the camper, I then wash my brushes, rags, and buckets, and close up the shop. It's how I was taught to do things and it always makes it easier the next day when the workday is ready to start instead of searching for tools and trying to clean up old messes. 

I absolutely despise having anyone come in to work behind me and move my things around. At least if you move the damned thing, put it back in the location where you found it so I don't spend 45 minutes playing Where's Waldo. And for God's sake, clean up after yourself!

Well, that's been my day. We're battening down the hatches here expecting some nasty weather overnight, so I made sure to put everything away in the camper, close the hatches, and make sure all the windows were closed. 

Hopefully tomorrow won't be bad weather like they've predicted, but if so I can just work on stuff inside the camper and listen to the rain. 😊