Striptease

Ever since move-in day, I've yearned to strip off the wallpaper in the kitchen. It's not hideously ugly, but it does look (a) dated, (b) "countryish", and (c) dingy. There were several edges that had come up off the wall surface, and I knew I could just give a tug and the whole sheet would come right off. It was all I could do to keep from pulling it all down, but we had already spent enough time redoing the other downstairs rooms and the nursery upstairs.

Well, we decided we can't take it anymore, and that we'd paint the kitchen in the next week or two. So yesterday I pulled off several sheets. There will be a few spots that need some work, but most of it will come off easily. It was hard to rein myself in, but I had to prep for class.

We're going to try to paint this weekend, and then the house will finally be done. Although...the walls in BR 1 & 2 are starting to look bad in comparison. And then there's the bathroom.

Must...stop...redecorating!

Got to...avoid...becoming...HGTV cliche!

How Do I Put This on my Goodreads List?

Say what you like about Wikipedia, but I often find myself sucked in by it, bouncing from one link to another as the time flies by. Yes, it's probably not a suitable reference for an academic paper, but it's still great for introducing you to new things.

Today, I saw the entry for the World's Largest Book. From the entry: "It has 730 leaves and 1460 pages; each page is three and a half feet wide, five feet tall and five inches thick." It should go without saying that I won't find it at my local library.

I have no desire to read it--Buddhism has always put me to sleep--but it looks like it's worth seeing in person. Unfortunately, travel to Myanmar isn't in the cards for me anytime soon, for a host of reasons.

Netflix without Watoosa

Two days after moving in, Watoosa left for Florida to attend her sister's wedding. So until last night, I had the house to myself. It was a little odd. If I hadn't spent the previous two weeks here working I would have felt like I was house-sitting or squatting.

I used the time to watch Netflix movies that she wouldn't be interested in seeing. It was a pretty interesting mix, this time. The first was an epic samurai flick whose title sounds like a Tolkien rip-off: The Sword of Doom. The second was a famous documentary about French collaboration and resistance during World War II. The third was Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

The Metallica movie was OK. It was interesting--almost comical--to see the uber-heavy metal group try to solve their personal issues through psychotherapeutic hokiness. Megadeth's Dave Mustaine, who was kicked out of Metallica right before they got big, makes an appearance and comes off as a total whiner. Suffice to say, these guys don't exactly come off looking hardcore. To their credit, though, they released the film, anyway.

The best part, for me, was realizing during one scene that the band has stocked their studio with the stoneware that Watoosa and I use: Denby Energy. They even have the same salt and pepper shakers. Yep, James Hetfield gripes about his feelings and how he never can trust people whilst slurping coffee out of the same cup that I use.

The similarites, I can assure you, end there.

Aaaaaaaaaaand...We're In

We are now officially moved into our new house. Actually, it's been a week and a day, now, but I've been too busy to post an update.

All the work on the house was actually enjoyable, but it's great to know that it's behind us and we can focus on settling in. The carpet is now installed, and just about everything is unpacked, but we still need to hang a few things on the walls and organize the books in the cases.

This remodeling/redecorating stuff is addictive. When I sit in our living room, which has been repainted, I can see the den and dining room, and part of the kitchen. The contrast between the first two (both of which have been repainted) with the dingy, 1980s kitchen becomes unbearable. I have to exert all my willpower to keep from ripping the wallpaper off the walls. We've decided to paint them, but later this month, and we might even do the countertops. Why not?

Whoops

Somehow, when I posted an update on the work at the new house, it got posted on Watoosa's blog. So here's what I wrote:

"Our House is a Sorta, Sorta, Sorta Fine House"

For now at least. We made a pretty good mess of the interior by stripping off wallpaper, scraping old paint, sanding, sanding, sweeping, and more sanding. Yes, I'm tired of sanding.

But the end is in sight--yesterday we actually began putting up primer on walls in two of the rooms. It's a relief, since we've been doing prep work since we closed. I've never seen so much dust apart from the time that our house in Santa Barbara was beset by fallout from a huge forest fire.

We also incurred our first damage to the house. While trying to drive a nail, I split a stair step. But my friend Jason managed to fix it, and now it's even stronger than all the others. He and his wife Amber helped us prep and prime this weekend (extra large size thanks to you guys for that).

Today my mother and sister arrive, God and the airlines willing. Hopefully we can get all the painting done this week. Moving day is Saturday.

Homeowners

Today, Watoosa and I closed on the house. We now actually have two residences--an apartment (for the next 16 days) and a house.

We met the sellers last night when we did the final walk-through. They've lived there for 34 years--longer than Watoosa has been alive. It was easy to see how emotionally attached they were to their house. They even camped out on the floor last night to sleep in the house one more time. At one point during closing, I thought the husband was going to call the whole thing off. It lasted only a couple seconds, but those were a tense couple of seconds for us! But they told us that knowing a "nice" couple are moving in would make it easier for them to leave.

It was great seeing the house again. I was wondering if it would lose its luster since we first looked at it, but last night I was reminded all over again how much there is to like about the place. As we finished the walk-through, the carillon in the church behind the house began ringing out hymns. I take that as a good sign.

The house is in great shape, but we do need to redecorate. That will involve stripping wallpaper, painting five rooms (including a stairway), and installing carpet in one room and on the stairs. We are hoping to get it all done by move-in day (4/26). So we tackled the first chore today. I now see why people tell horror stories about removing wallpaper. In most of the rooms, we didn't need to use any chemicals--we just tugged and it popped right off. But in the room that will be the nursery, we had to scrape. And scrape. And scrape. And scrape some more. Thankfully, that part is now done. Next step: sanding the walls to get them ready for painting.

I'm actually looking forward to doing all the work. The physical labor is a nice change of pace from my egghead job, although I've never had a student that was anywhere near as recalcitrant as that wallpaper.

Self-Refutation of the Year

From a student's paper: "The good thing about philosophy is that you can't be wrong."

Oh, he's so very, very wrong.

Alternative explanations:

1. He's subscribed to the Nick Naylor school of philosophy (see the 1:30 mark).

2. The term "you" refers specifically to me, in which case the statement is analytically true.