Chemical Warfare

Sanding Day 2 looked like it was also going to be a complete disaster. We woke up early, went to an 8am mass (we're seeking all the help we can get), returned Sander #2 to the local hardware store, and started sanding with Sander #4. However, since we did hit that late movie (which was wonderful), my eyelids were having a hard time staying open. When Andrew started sanding, I started naptime, since there wasn't a whole lot I could get done anyway. When I woke up, Andrew told me that there was no way he'd be able to geo cache with ESA. Since I'd been slacking on the job already, I decided that it probably wasn't very supportive to go without him, so I didn't go either.

When I came inside from making that phone call, I found Andrew sitting on the floor in our guest room looking pretty dejected. I disagree with him that he wasn't making progress, but it really wasn't enough progress for there to be an end in sight to this project. I sat down with him and we decided that we simply needed to be open to a new plan. 

There were three main issues that seemed to be at odds with each other:

1) The sanding wasn't working. Each time we sanded, the discs would come up full of this melted, dark brown gunk, and then the gunk kept on getting redistributed around the room.

2) We'd more or less blown our budget.

3) On Monday evening, we need to pick up the cats.

We could just start staining the floor, but it would look like hell. We could get another sander or find a pro, but there's the cash issue. We were starting to think of stripping the varnish from the floors, but since we'd already done that on the woodwork, we knew that the chemicals are very abrasive and we need to pick up the cats and bring them home at some point.

Being a mature, independent adult, I recognized that there was a surefire way to solve our problem: I dialed my dad and asked what the heck we should do.

With the help of a little search engine called Google, Dad found a non-toxic, environmentally friendly paint stripper: Mostenbocker's Lift Off. Better Homes and Gardens likes it, and that was a good enough endorsement for us. Sadly, we could only find it at Lowe's (where we are now politically opposed to shopping), so off we went, leaving our integrity at our doorstep. At least this time we had our sense of humor back. We happily said hello to the whole Lowe's crew: the guy who sold us the awful lock, the guy who sold us the sander that didn't work, the girl who gave us the world's biggest paint stirrers, and we even made a new friend at customer service when we made our umpteenth return for a bunch of items we didn't use, including the cute little hand sander I found. We also added in a side trip to Walmart (where we are also politically opposed to shopping) on the way home because although Andrew told me he read the instructions on the bottle, he failed to mention that we needed paint brushes and alcohol. It was a glorious bout of shopping.

It was around 5pm when our test patch of this stuff was set and ready. We were simply shocked that this stuff actually works. It's not a magic product, but it's bringing up more than enough of the varnish goo (which we've gotten really descriptive about - Andrew says it looks like poo, I say it looks like fudge, and my Grandma described it over the phone as looking like molasses - Grandma wins).

We plan to wage the chemical warfare on the hallway tonight as it's the only place we can't really restrict the kitties when we bring them home tomorrow night, and see how far we get this week. Next Saturday will be Sander Rental #5, but at least we'll be going straight to Menard's this time and getting the help of our new favorite person - a wonderful woman named Tuesday. My guess is her parents really liked the Moody Blues. After all, who can resist such lovely hippie poetry?:

I'm just beginning to see

Now I'm on my way

It doesn't matter to me

Chasing the clouds away