Tis Monday...again. Did you get everything done over the weekend that you wanted to? Me either. I mean, I got stuff done that I was forced to do, not what I actually wanted to do and that's not fun. "The Room" is rebounding on me saying "yeah, you're not done." Last week was not great for sleeping. I seemed to wake at 4:30 am every morning with no hope of getting back to sleep because of the gagging from the off gassing of God knows what in the room. During my middle o' the night wee Thursday, I could swear I smelled vinyl pretty bad after we had used the fireplace. (Not super strong but when I put my nose against the mural, I could actually faintly smell it which is hit or miss but I feel like after 2 months, it shouldn't still be doing that.
Some groggy panic Googling showed peel and stick wallpaper is pretty full of pure toxic crap that will off gas forever. I initially found a decorators varnish that looked to be the solution I needed but all it took was one person's review of them applying it to their mural and it dried white and totally ruined it and that was all I needed to cancel the order. Welp, ordering a vat of low VOC wax was going to be my hail Mary or have to consider taking it down.
Ugh, I thought I was done with you when I did the wood wall. Clearly not. Saturday I popped on some LMP and got to work. I knew there was the possibility of slight color change but it was fine.
It just gave it a little more depth. I made sure I got the seams and edges really well and then the entire thing. I did one coat Saturday afternoon and the second coat Sunday morning before even heading downstairs. It was tedious, made me sore in places I didn't know I had and all around sucked. It will take 2 weeks to cure so I will give it the ol' sniffer test then to see if I need to waste two more days putting on two more coats which I think will have to happen so baseboard free is the life for me on that wall for a bit.
In the meantime, I had sniffed the boards behind the bed and despite two cured coats of wax, it still faintly smells of stain. Well, faintly x22 boards including the shelf sitting directly behind your head as you sleep and you waking up with your lungs coated and hacking out well, not pleasant things every morning basically tells you that you have more work to do. I remembered I had an extra stained board in the garage so I had the Mr bring that in to let the Eau de Stain aroma build indoors. I had a free sample of Ecos paints Air Purifying Varnish and I wanted to test it to see if it blocked the odor but wasn't optimistic aesthetic wise because it was a satin finish and I do not want to add SHINY to the list of things I don't like about those boards.
After two coats over 5 hours, it was confirmed. It blocks the smell.
Shit. 😑
Okay, so poking around the interwebs, I go. All I know is Ecos doesn't make matte in their clear coats so I needed to look at green building sites to see what was out there. I found a matte varnish with low voc's when wet and totally odorless then dry. It was half the cost of the other stuff so I ordered it before knowing if sealing the mural was the problem. By Sunday morning, I knew it was the wood and hopefully that stuff will ship out today. Am I happy that I'm going to have to clear under the bed AGAIN, move everything away from the wall and do two more coats on that bastard wall? No but it's the difference between deeming the room uninhabitable and tearing it out or a day or two of inconvenience. I literally feel like the room is poisoning me because after 2 hours with the door shut, it's enough to gag you out much less 7-8 hours. Just a little giggle from the universe. This stuff not working isn't an option so I just want it done. I'm ready to move the hell on!!
Saturday night we were bored so I just threw on the new J Lo movie Shotgun Wedding on Amazon Prime. While I had zero expectations, it was pretty dang funny. Jennifer Coolidge, Josh Duhamel, Cheech Marin and Lenny Kravitz surprisingly are in it. The Mr and I both give it a thumbs up if you're looking for a change of pace. I know we're tired of watching the same crap.
Heads up to any of you who follow me on Facebook, the algorithm has changed AGAIN. Reach has dropped significantly and I can't afford to pay for 'boosts' ($14 per post). So if you're wanting to still be notified of new posts over there, just make sure to like a post at least once a week. I saw it's even affecting larger accounts like some of the Beachbody instructors I follow. I also may post here other than M-W-Fri like I did last week so bookmark the page and swing by on the daily when you're scrolling on the toilet. I am still trying to find a free solution to replace Feedburner for notifications through email but much like every single business out there, they all want your money and no one does anything out of the goodness of their hearts anymore. So I don't know. I am going to be potentially replacing Hump Day Polls with a new feature. Those aren't really engaging and I don't know if what might step in from time to time will be either but I'm trying to shake it up a little where I can.
How was your weekend?
Follow me on Bloglovin. Some posts may contain affiliate links that help keep this blog running at no cost to you. See the Disclaimer page for more info.
I hope the stuff you ordered works out even if it means some extra work. It's just not good having you feel like that every morning. We'll do what we have to do.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. I can already smell that ONE board on the dining table sitting 6' away from me so add another 21 onto that 1" from my head and it's no wonder I'm dying every morning.
DeleteI'm so sorry the room is still giving you terrible fits. I sooooooo hope that this new stuff really does the trick and you notice a difference quickly and can forge ahead and cover the whole thing because you know there will be relief at the end of it. I've got a keen sense of smell, so I'm hyper aware of anything that smells "off" while the hubs can't smell much of anything. So I feel for you because it feels like you're contaminating your lungs when you're just trying to sleep!
ReplyDeleteWeekend was intense with the storm. 80-car pile up just over the boarder about 15 minutes from here, 27 people to the hospital. All because of white-out conditions before the heaviest of the snow came down. Things were a mess here and there was no going anywhere because the roads took a long time to be cleared do to the gale-force winds causing drifts every time an area got cleared. Walking the dog through drifts up to our knees is not easy for the little fella or us, and now it's bitterly cold so it's quite uncomfortable opening your door. It took 40 minutes for me to clear the deck and I measured the middle part (that I conveniently ignored the night before so I could just clear a path to the little stairs) and it was over a foot. The winds got a kick out of my attempts to shovel because it just blew everything around. Not much else got done other than laundry and crock pot cooking. LOL
Par for the course these days. *rolling eyes* LOL...the Mr is the same! He smells something but it's not overwhelming for him. For me? I spend an hour hacking my lungs up every morning and can't smell for an hour or so. I will be SOOO glad when it's done!
DeleteWOW!! That is horrible. I didn't know you guys were getting that kind of weather madness. Stay inside and cozy with the pup and read a book. Perfect weather for it.