Premature Speculation

Well, of course I spoke too soon-I'm down with Covid. But because of the industrial strength vaccine I got working in the ICU, I haven't felt much of anything. I tested because I had a horrible migraine headache I couldn't get rid of and was up literally all night Thursday and into Friday morning-last time I checked the clock it was 4:38am. I tested myself and let my supervisor know, but because of where I work, I have to be off for 5 days before I can come back.

😷 But I feel fine. 😑

So, I decided to use my time wisely. I started by finishing up all my classwork for the next week and a half and made sure all the housework was caught up on Friday. I didn't want a single excuse in the following few days to have to stop working, alternately if the virus was going to kick my ass in the next few days I wanted to make sure I was ready. 

Friday night, I asked DH to take the paint I bought back to Ace and have it shaken again. I opened the off-white (Silos White) a week earlier and started to work with it, but quickly noticed there was chunks of dried paint or possibly the pigments settled out of it. DH took it back to Ace and told me the guys behind the counter gave him a hard time about shaking it because it had been opened, but he was able to get someone to shake it for him and brought home strainers and two paint cups as well. 

Saturday I worked on some more classwork to make sure I was caught up in both classes for a while, then spent time with the kiddos. I went out later on in the evening, set up my lights, and cleaned out the shower. 

DH had fixed the water in the camper, so I was able to finally clean the shower out. It has been sitting for months now, so it's time. My first job was to pick up all the junk that was in the shower-an old brillo pad, a drain cleaner, chips of old bar soap, and for some reason a few neon page flags for documents. Yep, I was confused about that as well. 

I gathered my cleaning supplies-a new non-scratch scrub sponge, Bar Keeper's Friend powder, and a scraper. I turned the water on....and almost puked.

The water that came out of the shower head was pinkish-black and smelled like sewage. That mixed with the sludge of slime mold, hair and body grease in the corners of the tub was almost enough to make me retch. Fortunately, the water cleared up fairly quickly, so I rinsed the walls down and shut it off. I sprinkled my powder cleaner and scrubbed away. 

I noticed fairly quickly the drain wasn't draining well. Or at all. 😬

I didn't want to put anything caustic like Drain-o down the pipe, simply because I didn't want that sitting in the gray tank or being dumped in the yard if we had to flush the gray tank out. 

I went inside and gathered baking soda, vinegar, Dawn dish soap, and put a full kettle of water on to boil. 

I unscrewed the drain strainer and pulled it out of the standing water, which dissipated down the drain quicker with that obstacle out of the way. The strainer was full of hair and sludge, so I set it aside. I poured about 3/4 cup of baking soda down and around the drain, then opened my 1/2 gallon of vinegar and poured liberally several times until it stopped fizzing. 

I went back inside and retrieved my boiling kettle of water and returned to the RV shower. I poured Dawn dish soap in and around the drain, then slowly poured the entire kettle of scalding water down the drain. All the buildup was removed and the drain was flowing freely again. 😉 I finished cleaning what I could in the shower and shut the site down for the night.

Sunday morning I was in no rush to start, tbh I was still overwhelmed at the thought of painting. I cleaned my work area and swept, triaging the remainder of the work in the living area. I decided a third coat was needed on the Silos White walls, and I still needed to trim all those areas in.

I opened the Silos White used gallon and stirred it with a paint stick before pouring some in a strainer over the paint cup. The strainer strained about half of the paint, which was a little over a cup, and I carefully poured the strained paint into the paint tray then set the strainer back in the cup to strain the rest. I painted as much as I could with the scant amount of paint I got, then went back to the strainer and cup to pour some more in the tray. The strainer was completely clogged with paint chunks. 

I stuck the stir stick down in the paint and scraped the bottom, pulling the stick out of the paint and watching chunks of paint slide down the stick. I closed the lid, grabbed the new can I hadn't used, and stirred it with another stick. There was a giant clump in the bottom of the paint I could feel with the stick, I scraped it with the stick and pulled it out of the paint.

 A huge glob of dried paint was stuck to the end of the stick and slid off into the paint. I closed the lid and grabbed the darker white I had mixed the same day, "Southern Grown". 

The paint was uniform but had a layer of oil across the top, totally normal for paint that has sat for a month and a half. I took a clean stick and stirred the paint, it was a beautiful color, it sheered off the paint stick in a creamy manner, and was a perfect batch of paint. No clumps in the bottom that I could feel.

DH took the clumpy paint back to Ace and explained. They gave him a little trouble, but he was able to exchange them for the exact same paint at no charge. 

I hate complaining, but I also expect to get what I pay for, especially as much as paint costs now! I couldn't believe the budget friendly stuff was nearly $40/gallon now. 😖

While DH was out, he picked up something I had purchased on Facebook Marketplace. I had been browsing stuff for sale when I saw it and it caught my eye. It lived rent free in my mind for two days before I made an offer on it and I'm so glad I did!!

I am obsessed with this thing! It was actually a store prop for Southern Marsh clothing, but the piece as a whole is gorgeous. Fleur de lis are my absolute favorite symbol of all time. I don't have any idea why, but I think it may be because when I was a kid I read a lot of Anne Rice novels-most of them set in New Orleans. 

I'm planning on putting it here.

Once DH delivered my paint to me, I started working on finishing up the Silos White sections and cutting them in. It seemed to take a lot of paint to cover these areas, even though the walls were beige I was having to do three and four coats. 😠 

I moved the mattress from the kitchen area to the large slide so I could finish painting above the kitchen slide out. Getting on top of the hanging cabinet was a bit tricky, but with some kindergarten monkey-bar skill, I was able to climb on the counter and paint it. 

I was on the fence about how to paint the old TV area cabinet. Originally, I had planned to paint the whole thing green like the rest of the cabinets and put a fireplace in the TV area, but now that I was looking at it, if I painted that green and the kitchen cabinets are green, it would start to feel really closed in when you come in the door staring at all dark hunter green. So I decided to paint the wall facing the entrance Silos White to keep the entryway feeling open. I painted and cut it all in, and by that time it was getting dark so I shut everything down, put my roller in a Ziploc bag, and rinsed out my brush. 

Today (Monday), I opened up my workspace and looked at the cabinet wall I had previously painted Silos White the night before. I scratched it with my fingernail and to my disgust, the paint scraped right off. 

I knew I should have sanded it first. Might as well do it now and do it right, save myself a headache later on.

I grabbed the sander Dad let me borrow and an 80 grit pad, plugged it in and got to sanding. Halfway up the wall as I'm coated in a snowflake flurry of dried white paint, the base of the orbital sander broke free from the sander itself and flew off into oblivion. 😒 Because of course it did. 

Woosah. 

I found it on the floor and sighed. Setting it aside, I swept the portion of the wall I sanded and then swept the crispy paint flakes off the floor. I will find something else to do. 

I taped the floor off in the back of the camper and assessed the hole I still needed to fill where it had leaked previously. I grabbed my tube of wood putty, but quickly realized it wasn't going to be able to fill the whole area. Well, that would be another thing I'd have to add to the shopping list, a tub of wood putty I could smear into place. The tube I had was more or less for small nail and screw holes. 

Once I cut in by the floor in the back, I moseyed back to the door of the RV. I was not a fan of the trim around the door, so I did what I always do-I unscrewed it and threw it out the door. 👍 It was better off gone anyway, it was pressboard trim and it had previously gotten wet, so the bottom near the floor was puffed up. 

I then painted the area where the trim had been. 

Finally, after what felt like a million coats of paint, I was DONE with the Silos White. I'm sure there will be pieces I'll have to touch up later on, but for the majority, it's done. 

I rinsed out my brush and got a fresh roller and paint tray. It was time to get the darker white out and do the slide walls.

One swipe with the roller and I was in love. This color is amazing. 

It's a soft wheat color, but when it dries it has a hint of olive green in it so it pairs nicely with the cabinets. 

Also, I've decided against using the shiplap wallpaper behind the stove. Not because I don't love it, because I do, but because I think it would be harder to clean. I've decided to do pressed copper façade instead on the backsplash which I feel will be easier to clean and will accentuate the kitchen area well.

And that's been the last few days! Lots of work has gotten done in the last 3 days, I have 2 more days until I'm able to go back to work, so I anticipate I'll be done with the living area and be mostly done with the bathroom, but that's to be seen. 

Tonight I'll leave you with a picture of the beautiful dusk sky I captured behind the house as I finished washing up my brushes and cleaning my workspace. 💖 It was too good to pass up.