I Guess We're Doing This Weekend Recap

Monday.  I figure saying happy Monday is kind of like "ha ha...yeah, right" so why patronize you?  I hope you had a good weekend and it went nice and slow for you.

Us?

We did a thing.

Remember how we thought we got all of the green glue out of our stair carpet?  

Well, we just couldn't get that crap to budge and we were going to have someone come out and steam clean it with whatever magic potions they have available for super tough stains.  Then it was like 'well, then what do we do if that doesn't work?'  We originally wanted to take off the carpet on the stairs, stain (paint) and put bullnose treads like these on them.  But we figured with Sir Slams A Lot next door, there was very little chance of us being able to do that because we'd lose the padding that provided some (little) sound dampening from him.  After some discussion Thursday and knowing I needed to paint the stringer and I could only do that with the carpet off unlike how I did it 10 years ago which was with putting painters tape at the edge of the stairs.

So here's the before and during:

Now that sounds easy.  Twas not and not without barf worthy moments.  Imagine a 1/2" layer of  "Us Dust" over 28 years raining down on the Mr with every tug.  

28 years of us mixed with our pup, my mom, friends for gatherings, countless inept contractors, one mediocre ex of a friends doing several projects and the like all mixing together under the padding just waiting to reemerge.  There was lots of dry heaving by both of us.  We were left with the sad padding.

Then it was time to peel that off (with more 'debris') and pull staples out.  We know that a lot of the cost is labor of pulling that crap out and rightfully so.  But we wanted the opportunity to see and correct what was under there.  There was a lot.  The first step was basically held together with carpet.  Nails were sticking out.  There were gaps that were unsettling.  I think back to when we were 494 and 455 and wonder how the hell those things held us.  The Mr reattached the bottom riser that ripped off with one of the tugs since they only had one nail that hit and the rest all missed.  He reminded me that was a last minute change.  (We had the place built so we watched it go from the only thing north of the nearest intersection to the urban sprawltropolis it is now.)  There was obviously a code change so we went from just slab to a piece of 1x3's nailed through so the gap would be smaller.  

I thought of all of the people I love who walked on those stairs.  Mom, our dog, his dad, friends, grandparents.  I thought about when my whole family and his parents came over to help us with sweat equity which took $3600 off our cost by painting the inside, something I doubt they do now.  It was kind of like the house our families built too and now most of them are gone.  I thought of the atrocious job his dad did brushing paint around our original towel rack in the bathroom and my mom pulling me aside and saying "uh, his dad is doing a horrible job on painting up there in the bathroom, you're not going to be happy."  She was right.  That was the last original flooring in the house so lots of emotions for me.  We grabbed some dinner and watched an abysmal Hawaii game.  Sigh.  C'mon Chang, reign your kane (men) in on the penalties.

Sunday was a new day with new crap ahead to work on.  I have two more vein appointments Monday and Wednesday (no idea what I'm having done) so I know I'll be right back to pain just as it was subsiding from last weeks vascular adventures.  The Mr picked up groceries and I got to scraping the harder edges around where I painted before.  Unfortunately, the old blonde paint is there so I'd need to prime for sure because I assume the pile of the new carpet will be shorter.   If that was going to be the case, we would need sustenance and nope, I wasn't cooking so we got a kiddie pancake meal before getting to the more irritating order of the day.  While the Mr was grabbing that, I started on the caulking of the gaps I wanted to do.  

I found a super stretchy caulk which shouldn't crack over time so I started getting to the gaps around the stairs on the stringer until he got home.  The hope is that it can give that last bit of vibration dampening against the mook.  I doubt it will do much but then we can say we truly did everything.  Lord knows sound dampening sheetrock and Green Glue hasn't done shit for any of it.  Once I got that done after we shimmed as many stairs as we could to help with any rocking on a few.  One step has been wonky after the friend's ex slipped down the stairs 13 years ago so it was nice to at least see the tread was still in the slot and no permanent damage seems to have been done.  I caulked the gaps under the risers too in hopes we could get any possible sound dampening/reinforcement possible since the last time these saw the light of day was in early 1996 a few months before we were married.  The Mr kindly sanded the stringer for me and tack clothed the remainder since I had to prime.  Then it was time to contort and use the 4" and cute little 2" rollers that were a God send in tight spots to prime the stringer.  After that, I was too pooped to pop and we had dinner, watched some tube and settled in for the night.

On a side note, it's been 20 years today since the Mr's dad passed which seems utterly unfathomable.  He was the only one in the family who treated me well and was a gem of a man.  I'm so honored the Mr shared him with me for the 12 years I knew him.

How was your weekend?  What did you get into?

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