Yard Work, Bedroom Remodeling and Resting

I have been busy the last week. The weather has gotten better and the grass grows. Besides the mowing there is yard repair work to do. Two trees in the front yard were taken down late winter. The stumps have been removed leaving ugly places in the yard. I have filled these holes with good dirt tamping each layer to prevent settling. Boy, when you are a computer potato (similar to a couch potato only setting in front of a computer monitor) and a old fart such as myself, the arms get tired fast. I seem to spend more time resting than working. It sure is a bummer when the body starts to go. After filling and raking, I seeded with blue grass and covered with seed cloth. Now I have to water the newly seeded areas each day it does not rain. Then there are other ruff spots in the yard which needed a bit of fill dirt. Normally I would ignore these places but because we want to sell the house next year, these places need to be fixed this spring to look good next year.

There was a bit of water stain on the ceiling (the reason for needing the new roof) of the bedroom I am remodeling. The room had popcorn ceiling and wallpaper. Both had to be removed. Removing the popcorn ceiling was accomplished with a water spray bottle and a wide drywall tapping knife. It sure was messy. The wallpaper pulled right off leaving behind the paste. This was hard to remove. The paste was embedded into the drywall. Tried all kinds of wallpaper/paste remover but none worked any better than water, a sanding block and a sponge. In many places the top layer of paper on the wallboard come off as well much of the joint compound. The ceiling needed to be smoothed with joint compound (mud) and then sanded. Working overhead sure made my arms tired. Again I spent more time resting than working.

Three of the corners needed to be tapped and filled with joint compound. The seam between the wall and the ceiling also needed to be filled with joint compound. And am I ever bad at working with joint compound. It takes a long time and much sanding to get a seam done right. I've got the three corners done and I'm still working on the ceiling-wall seams. If I do a little bit at a time I get a better job of the mudding and that requires less sanding. So again I spent more time resting (and waiting for the joint compound to dry) than working.

And now my hot water heater is leaking. Now I need to buy and replace the hot water heater.

All this work and resting is getting in the way of blogging.