Frustrated Incorporated Weekend Recap

Good Monday morning to you all!  I hope you are hungover with bliss in how awesome your weekend was because that's what normal people's weekends are, right?  Jam packed with awesome?  At least that's how we assume it is because ours are usually the opposite and the taint slide into the weekend was no exception.

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I spent last week essentially busting my booty to attempt to get out what smoke smell I could.  From baking soda to vinegar to clear coating to wiping down everything, it was quite exhausting.  I subsisted on easy lunches like Cheerios and strawberries or cottage cheese and grapes because I had nothing more in me to make sure I had lunch.  I spent Thursday with the blow dryer and heat gun detaching around 65 cork squares I put up in vain in 2020 in attempts to deaden sound in cabinets.  Spoiler alert:  It didn't work.  What it did do is absorb a goodly amount of smoke.  That cabinet contained everything from cookbooks to tea bags in a now ruined bamboo tea box to canisters of flour, sugar, etc.  All had to be either thrown out or stuff like the sealed outer tea bags were put into a big sealable bag with baking soda boxes that seemed to be helping.  The only thing on that cabinet to not sustain smoke damage was my Grandma's cookbook which was directly above the fire.  I know what we think on that subject and anyone that doesn't believe someone was protecting that definitively would if you'd smelled that cupboard and everything in it.  My arms absolutely KILLED me Friday into Saturday on the bottom where I had to rest them on the edge of the bottom of the cabinet as I worked each cork square off.  The smoke smell is maybe 50% better but the reclaimed wood ceiling is holding the rest of it and it is hard to be in the kitchen.  After some research, dewaxed shellac is literally the only option we have so we were going to have to make a trip for that since that particular one is apparently hard to find.  Obviously.

Thursday was also the day the drywall dude came.  He seemed knowledgeable and we thought he understood how we wanted the green glue applied but it became apparent he didn't so we had to go through a big spiel about it.  He was going to see if his drywall distributor could get us the soundproof drywall which we know is much more expensive but we're desperate even if he claimed it does nothing.  Look pal, it does more than regular drywall according to most reviews and you add green glue to that and it should be MUCH quieter for us.  He did actual measurements and stuff; something the original guy a week or two ago did not do nor did he listen to anything we asked and that is the top rated drywaller in town.  He said he would get back to us with pricing that day or the next and then get the contract together if we want to go forward.  He actually either checked or went to his drywaller supplier and they were saying to use these one sound panels underneath.  A quick search showed those panels along with the 5/8" drywall were going to be too much for that area.  Not to mention he had the idea of building a furring strip wall which would be an inch deep and determined that would be too thick.  Well the panels his distributor was suggesting were only 1/4" less than that.  Plus they required screws to attach.  NOPE.  We do not need MORE points of vibration for that d-bag to have.  The Mr had to finally put his foot down on it and he dropped it.  He gave us kind of random pricing of things separate.  Basically $3500 for the labor and the materials were going to be about $1500 (which is actually less than we thought because he couldn't find the QuietRock 530 we wanted but we told him SoundBreak was fine too and that is $40 less per sheet of drywall.)  The way he was talking about the pricing was kind of weird in his texts and the Mr gave him the okay on Friday to send over a contract for us to look at but as of today we haven't gotten it yet.  I swear to God if this guy flakes on us, I'm going to lose my shizz.

Then came the loveliness of the microwave install.  The Mr checked the new microwave and it was the exact same size and used the exact same template.  The microwave was taken down for them, washers in place and bolts in the holes they needed to go in.  It literally could not be an easier job for these guys.  The install took 5 minutes and appeared to be good to go.  Then came Sunday.  The Mr checked in the cabinet.  Not only did they not use the large metal washers we provided (because it looks like swiss cheese up there from drilling for previous microwaves past) but the right side was not even screwed into the damn microwave!!

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We paid Best Buy for installation and the subs didn't even install it right.  The screw was in cockeyed and not even holding it up.  So we had to take the frigging thing down for the most part, get a new metal washer for the right side because the effer was too lazy to drill a 1/4" back to line things up when he literally had nothing else he had to do or grunt about and reinstall the thing ourselves.  If you think we're paying for install when the Mr had to reinstall, you are new here.  So the Mr chatted with a condescending AI chat that I would not have put up with before having to call to see if the local store could help us.  Of course they weren't going to give us our money back but a gift card.  Oy.  Whatever.  I'm sure something else will blow up soon we can put it toward.  Unfortunately they don't carry hot water tanks there since every time it runs it sounds like an explosion waiting to happen.  Dealing with all of the crap meant by the time we were done eating brunch, we were bushed for the day which sucked because their was still much to do with zero motivation left from the soul crush that has become the daily grind around here.  

I decided to see if I could get the closet done as far as the soundproofing stuff.  I pulled the baseboards off and saw this loveliness against Chez Douche's wall:

Sure...no sound can get through that huge gap as well as the one hiding under the front piece.  😒  I immediately put acoustic caulk back there then covered the plywood with the sound deadening mats like I did the bottom part.  I had some brain farts and mixed up a few pieces of trim but ask me if I care at this point.  It's a closet and not a walk in so I have zero interest in how polished it looks right now.  I still need to sand the back wall then paint over the patches from the insulation install but that wasn't happening yesterday given it was getting late at that point and we still had leg day to do with Joel Freeman.  I felt like a rag doll after that and had no interest in doing more than I needed to food wise (see a trend?) so I chucked some shrimp and crab ravioli in boiling water while I made an arugula salad with radishes and red cabbage then threw on a little alfredo sauce and called it done.

I told the Mr the to do list is endless.  Like even once we get the drywall done (if that ever happens), we have to get the other side done, paint the walls and ceilings again and reattach every baseboard which means caulking and repainting.  Eventually do the stairs which we thought last year would be our early 2023 project until the universe chuckled, the bathroom floor needs replaced because since doing the hardwoods upstairs the gray LVP now looks like hillbillies live here.  The garage needs to be drywalled and green glued because if you think we hear the neighbor well inside, in the garage we hear every single word because there is clearly ZERO insulation in there.  So we're likely going to get mineral wool insulation and open up each cavity and shove that crap in there and see what it does before committing to doing out there what we're doing in here (attempting at this point).  The basement is in full disarray again and I want to throw it all out.  Is there ever a day as a homeowner where everything is in it's place, every project is done and you can sit down and breathe for like a week?

Somewhere in all of that insanity we binged White Lotus season two since we have HBOMax for another week or so.  My God that was awful.  I was expecting better than the first season which I wasn't overly impressed with to begin with but it was actually slower, more boring and made us want to rage for wasting 3 hours over the weekend.  I know we were late to the party but UGH.

Then we settled in for some Chateau to unwind and that about shot us in the butt for the night.

Anything fun on your end this weekend?  Would love to hear it!

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