Saturday, September 18, 2010

A Darcy Day

For a day that started off pretty shaky, it has ended very well.  I haven't done a single one of my normal chores, but I've made a lot of headway on some of the things I've had to put off. 

The last two weekends we were away from home, and that always makes me a little stressed out.  The weekends are when I menu plan, grocery shop, do the laundry, and do the majority of the housecleaning- so whenever we're away- I have to try to pack all those things into a much more condensed time frame, which makes for a very cranky Erin.

However, this weekend I said to hell with clean floors and clean bathrooms and made Jason promise to do the laundry, as long as I will fold and put it away.  Now, this might come back to bite me in the butt later- my parents are flying in on Thursday night and I would like the house to be clean for them.  However, Jason has agreed to let me HIRE A BI-WEEKLY HOUSEKEEPER to help out with the chores.  Hooray, hooray! I just need to get someone in before Thursday or my parents will have to deal with my slovenliness (is that a word Dad?).

I got a great start to my morning by going over to my grandparents house to spend some time sewing with my grandmother.  She worked on a baby quilt for one of my cousins and I borrowed her machine to start sewing crib sheets for Darcy.  Man, I underestimated how long that would take me- but I got one done (minus elastic).  I also managed to iron all the material I have for Darcy things prior to going over there- so progress is being made. Now if she shows up early she has a sheet, if nothing else.

In the afternoon the boys took a nice long nap which allowed me time to finish sanding Darcy's dresser and learn how to use my new paint sprayer- the Graco Spray Station 2900.

I'm still getting used to it, but so far I am pleased.  The spray is a little thinner than I anticipated, so I will have to do more coats that I had planned (I usually do primer + 2 coats).  However, it took me about a half an hour from can opening to finishing cleaning up to prime a six-drawer dresser and all the drawer fronts.  Did I mention cleaning up is so EASY!  I hate cleaning rollers, so this may be the best $99 I ever spent.

Right now it is coming out a bit speckly, but I have a feeling that is more user-error than anything else.  I'm still trying to find the right flow volume and distance for that professional spray. But, I will just give it a light sanding between coats and I should still finish in record time.  Tomorrow, I hope to put 2 more coats on (and hope that that is all it needs) so I can start the polyacrylic process as well.

In the evening I managed to get the trim in Darcy's room sanded and a first coat of paint on the dresser.  Jason and I would have hung the closet doors in Dominic's room, but my drill ran out battery (for the first time ever).  My good friend Sheena is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help me paint, so I am hoping to get the trim in Darcy room at least primed and first-coated.  I doubt that I'll get her room painted prior to my parents arrival, but I'll be happy with the trim done.

We ended the day with a late dinner at Texas Roadhouse and Dominic behaved better than he has ever behaved while we're out.  He ate the dinner we ordered him, including veggies, and colored during all the waiting times.  Now, after a nice hot shower and a chance to blog, I'm ready to crawl into bed and see if I can get 5 pages into my new book prior to zonking out.  I just hope when I wake up tomorrow too stiff to move, I'm still as gung-ho about the day's plans as I am now.

1 comment:

  1. Erin, how are you feeling about the Graco Spray Station 2900 a few more weeks down the road? We moved into a new house earlier this year and promptly replaced all of the interior doors. So I've got 15 or so pre-primed doors that need to be painted (both sides!).

    I wouldn't mind using a paint roller except that the panels of the doors would still require a lot of brush work to complete. But even more, I'm concerned that rollers would leave a texture, which is something I'd rather avoid.

    So, would you recommend the Spray Station or is it just trading one set of problems for another, with having to thin the paint and such?

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