Getting Ready for the next step

I had the long weekend for a leisurely transition between insulation installation and floor sanding. You'd think there would be nothing to it, since the furniture was already cleared out of the main room for the insulation, right? But no, there were two overlapping areas involved. For the insulation job I piled all the furniture into the paneled gable on the north side. That was pretty easy because you could just slide the furniture - no maneuvering through doorways or lifting things onto that stupid 2-level floor in the back. But now we need to get everything out of the front room entirely to do the floor, so more moving and lifting and carrying. Before I got around to emptying the room I had the rest of the weekend for things like this:  assembling my first new storage shelf in the back room (before it filled up with banished furniture).

This is a Gladiator EZ-Connect shelving set, 6' x 3' x 18"  It is perfect. I was able to assemble it all by myself with only my trusty rubber mallet. The rubber mallet IS essential however - otherwise I don't see how anybody could get all the pieces to seat completely. So the "no tools" promise is not quite true, but almost. The nifty wooden back panel is not part of the shelf. I had a bunch of old pine paneling that I think came from Barb Jensen's attic many years ago that I keep intending to use to cover the walls back here. This chunk (an old door, I think) just happened to be the same size as the shelf. I nailed it to the attic studs and set the shelf up in front of it. 

Great. Now that doesn't work either. WTF??

 Since I couldn't find any decent way to transfer pictures from my computer to a Dreamwidth post I have been relying on this awkward method of posting pictures via email and then editing them online to add text. Yesterday that silently quit working. The last two entries I tried to make that way just didn't happen. The email was sent and didn't bounce, just no post.

WTF, Dreamwidth???

Attic Floor Drama

The Floor sanders are here, but having trouble with their equipment. They have a giant sander that needs 220V. Of course most homeowners don't have 220V outlets, so they opened up the circuit box and somehow hooked a giant extension cord to it in a way that gives them 220V (?) . I showed them where they could drag their cable up the clothes chute to get it closer to the attic. So far  so good (other than some good-natured grumbling about the number of stairs involved). Then they turned on the sander and the gremlins hit. Their little electrical meter said they had the electricity right, but the sander wouldn't start, so they sent one guy back to the shop to get another sander. Then they plugged their giant vacuum into the same big cable and the motor burned out. Hmmm. Think there might be something wrong with that cable hookup?  Turns out they can actually plug the vacuum into a regular 110 outlet, they just didn't trust the wiring in the attic. As it happens, there are three 20-amp circuits DEDICATED to the attic! (maybe they should have asked). So when the guy gets back with the new vacuum, they can plug it in to the circuit with the brown outlet covers, and use the white circuit for the small sander. But I think they are on their own for that big sander. Chad assured me that they can get it figured out and started work with the edge sander. I hope he's right.

Here's a Before picture of the floor. It is Douglas Fir tongue and groove that looks like it was last refinished in the 1940's with some kind of hideous orange varnish. It is now worn down to the point where you get splinters if you come up here without shoes. I have visions of it sanded and smooth, finished with 3 coats of high-gloss varnish, looking like a dance studio floor. Except not maple, of course. I decided to go with the slightly less durable water-based polyurethane because the guy says that oil-based would darken the wood more. He seemed surprised that I wanted high gloss - apparently nobody chooses that these days. Everybody wants that mellow, golden glow, like we have in the oak floors downstairs. But I have a different vision for this room, and want maximum light.