Week 4

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There definitely was a Zen experience to sanding the floor for so long. The urge to quit and say "ah, that's good enough" is overpowered by the realization that you're going to polyurethane over whatever's there and for the rest of my natural life this floor is going to be saying: "So, this is Kyle's attention to detail." So, the fridge is going to stay in the living room for a little while longer and I'll be back at work with a random orbit palm sander for a few hours a night fixing things up.

It takes 20% of the time to do 90% of the work and that last 10% is the kind of stuff you don't wish upon high school bullies. It involves lots of sitting in the exact same spot for hours while nothing happens. You gauge your progress by looking at your watch only on the hour and thinking "yes! it is a slight shade lighter!"

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I decided to see if I could sand out the rough spots with a random orbit sander. It was slow going so I read a newspaper. Hours passed. The random orbit sander had no effect on the pencil lines. So I decided to get freaky and try a belt sander. Ten minutes with a belt sander showed an appreciable difference. But it was getting late and I only had 120 grit belts.

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So it was back to the belt sander after a trip to Monarch Hardware the next morning. I used 3 grits, 50, 80, and 120. Sanding for two hours the floor mostly came clean. The pencil marks were extremely difficult to get up. I cut into the floor nearly an 8th of an inch but much of them remained.

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The dust collection system on the belt sander wasn't nearly as good as on the floor buffer. or perhaps more dust was being produced. after 15 minutes of sanding, a run with the shop vac was necessary. On the whole the floor looked good. I'm not sure how dark a stain I will have to use in order to cover the remains of the pencil markings and the discoloration of some of the boards (possibly old water seepage under the tiling.) The area by the radiator was one of the most difficult. I spent a lot of time here. I think a radiator cover is the only remaining option.

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In about 10 minutes the top of the stairs came clean. This is an area in which the floor sander showed no effect at all and the circular sander left a series of half moons burnt into the floor. The overall scalloping of the floor (uneven areas) bothered me at first. But I ran the random orbit sander over all of those areas and while they are uneven, they are at least smooth. Next problem was electrical. There had never been any power on the brick side of the kitchen. So I ran a line from the basement.

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If I were a better neighbor, I'd worry that I was keeping people awake with all this drilling, sanding, and hammering. They must think I'm building an ark or something. I don't even know my neighbors names. That's life in the city though. Everybody shoved close together and so far apart. When my friend Joe moved into his new house in the burbs, his neighbors rushed from their houses to help move sofas and furniture. Then they snuck into his yard the first night and put 50 pink plastic flamingos in the lawn with a "welcome to our neighborhood" sign. It was a lot like Stepford. But it seems kind of nice.

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Up through the floor in the kitchen and put a power outlet on the floor behind the radiator. I ran a line from that outlet then, up the wall, through much heavier electrical conduit than I should have used. I installed a dimmer switch which will control recessed lights in a sofit (which Amy is building) over the brick wall.

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