Dawn has to dust the bedroom, but I’ve yet to sand the walls after patching after Roberto & Jose. Said sanding is going to produce a lot of dust, so I need to do it before Dawn dusts anything else. So I do our bedroom. What an enormous mess.
I’m smart enough to wear eye protection, which in my case now also includes ear protection, thanks to my cool Radians. I don’t know why, but the shop vac is painfully loud to me. So the ear plugs help a lot. The shop vac is moderately successful at keeping the dust down to a minimum, as long as I hold the hose with one hand while I sand with the other. Like a dope, though, I don’t wear any sort of dust mask, even after Dawn reminds me at one point. Later I look in the mirror and see that all my nose hairs are coated white. Wonder how much dust makes it into my lungs.
In the bedroom I can still see an impression here and there of the mesh tape after everything is all smooth. I should have done three coats like you’re supposed to do. I thought I could get away with two.
I’m glad I read this post today, because I’ve got a big job ahead of me tomorrow. One side of our bedroom is now enclosed in the new screen porch. The workmen will paint it along with the new wood, but the old paint is alligatored and some of it is missing altogether, so on Saturday I’ll be doing lots of paint prep. (Otherwise, the new paint would just flake off again and look like crap.) The guy who is contracting the porch job said he’ll lend me some machine to make the job easier — it’s some kind of heavy duty sander, I suppose. I need to remember to wear not only goggles, but a mask, as well. And I need to make sure not to let the sander rest too long in any one spot. The point is to remove old paint, not to cause major divots in the wood.
I’ve worried about stuff that gets into my lungs, too. Here I’ve spent my entire life not smoking (despite inhaling way too much second-hand smoke at the 9:30 club, et al). Now every time I pour more cat litter into The Foo’s box, I wonder about the crystals that I’m inhaling. Then I wonder about stuff I’m inhaling each time I mow the lawn. We have a catcher on the back of our mower, but the bag doesn’t catch anything. More than a little dust, dirt and debris gets inhaled by yours truly. I’m gonna have to be extra careful when sanding the wooden slats.
Painting drywall isn’t bad, but prepping to paint old wooden surfaces is brutally difficult. If it’s done right, I mean. But I want it to look really good, so I’m gonna give it my best shot. Here’s hoping I won’t trip over the cord or something. King of Coordination I’m not.
Make that, the lawnmower bag doesn’t catch everything.