Grit matters...

Because my back porch floor looked like this...

...I decided that I could not put off its restoration any longer.

This made for hours and hours and hours of scraping 27 pounds of paint off of my porch.

It looks better to me.  But it is not ready for sealing.

I thought that I was doing a fair job on the sanding.

Man, was I ever wrong.  You see, when it comes to sanding, grit matters.

I happen to think that my back porch floor is going to be stunning.  Eventually.  Maybe by July.  Hopefully.  I have 12 full boards and 4 half boards of my 56 boards completed.  Sanding by hand takes forever and ever and ever.

Since the sides of the dresser appear to be a different sort of wood than the top, we changed plans.  Sanding them was a breeze and I went to town on the top so that it is closer to the sides.

The edges of the top are not going to be as good as the rest and there will be a thin line of pink just up against the top board on both sides.  However, those part of the dresser are ready for some stain.

Half-joking, I asked Marie if she would rather just keep the drawers pink. We could call it The Painted Drawer Dresser.  Mostly, I asked because I am lazy and the work to get the drawer faces clear of paint was going to be far more than I wished to do.  Drawer faces are always laborious.  Tedious.  Misery.  However, my half-joke question turned into a new plan.  We actually are going to leave them painted, but painted a rather beautiful GREEN that will compliment the bedding in her room.  Later, we will look for a fabric swath to drape across the top that will coordinate with both bedding and the new GREEN drawers.

We went to Lowe's and fetched the paint and chose a stain that will also match the bedding.  We have also been searching for some knobs that will complete the Conversation Piece dresser.  So, all I have to do is finish the facing pieces to ready them for stain.  Easy-peasy, eh?

This side of the dresser is MOCKING me ... TAUNTING me that I shall never, ever have victory over it.  As you can see, after an hour of work, all I managed to do was one horizontal side, one vertical slat, the top edge, and bits of the rest.  We will not discuss how much sandpaper the front is taking verses the rest of it.

Because I really am lazy, I plan to leave the top of each of the divider slats pink.  Or, maybe, I will prime and paint them.  I shall not get them ready for stain since no visitor shall ever see them.

I very much wish for the front facing to be completed so that I can move the dresser back inside.  I plan to stain and paint in the arctic zone of my home whilst sitting in a comfortable chair.  I wanted to be able to surprise Marie with the completed dresser (sans knobs) when she comes home from her conference this weekend, but I am not going to be able to make such a deadline.  That darned front!!

The lattice of the back porch has been rather discouraging to me. I just cannot see how I will be able to scrape it all off and repaint it.  Firewood Man, rather casually, asked why don't I just replace it.  Huh?  For someone who has done a significant amount of home improvement projects, I was stupid enough to assume that the walls of the back porch were load-bearing and, thus, not replaceable without serious construction work.  Happily, such is not the case.  We will not discuss the GREAT BIG GUFFAWS emanating from Tim when I protested that we couldn't just blithely replace load-bearing walls.

I loathe the idea of pulling out more retirement money, but I rather quickly agreed to Tim's plan to replace all the lattice with vinyl lattice.  As in ... NEVER PAINT AGAIN lattice.  We will need boatloads of quarter round, since that is how the lattice is held in place by the mere three 4x4 posts and at the house wall.  What kind we have not worked out.  Surprisingly, there is also vinyl quarter round.  He is going to price raw, primed, painted, and vinyl quarter round and see which we can get the most economically, if adding paint to the overall cost.  That means I shall only need to scrape and sand the 4x4s, the mid-boards, and the baseboards.  I will admit that a part of me is interested in just starting with all fresh materials in the mid-boards and baseboards, too.  However I do not like waste and raiding retirement should only be necessary expenses.  Surely no one will argue with me regarding the necessity of my not killing myself over the next year trying to scrape all of that paint off the old lattice, right??

That will only leave the garage issue.
Man, do I ever wish I could just get it sided.
At least only three sides need scrapped and painted.
Eventually.

Tim is not an effusive person at all, but he was rather surprised at the properly sanded portion of the porch when he came to mow today.  Unprompted, he noted that it is going to look beautiful by the time I am done.  He very much warmed the cockles of my heart when he started pointing out lovely bits in the grain here and there as he studied the boards I had completed.

Whilst waiting on Amos last night to conduct his business, I noted that I can no longer ignore the fact that the ornamental magnolia tree needs pruning on the bottom.  Lowe's has been out of those brown paper lawn waste bags for a long while.  I finally tracked some down today, when fetching a new medication after my doctor visit.

Even though my diet is now primarily homemade food (with more vegetables and protein than carbohydrates) and I have given up Dr Pepper and I have started drinking 48 ounces of water a day, I am still gaining weight from approximately 1,000 calories a day (cooking Friday's excepted).  My doctor believes that the autoimmune disease, coupled with the two years of digestion problems, has completely messed up my metabolism.  So, now that the erythromycin has helped my innards function somewhat normally (save for that blasted vegus nerve), she wants me to try probiotics again.

I laughed when my doctor said that I am all messed up inside.
What an understatement.

The good news is that 5-day trial of the erythromycin extended-release pills went well, after the transition.  The bad news is that the cost of the medication is now $320 a month.  There is simply no amount of saving and skimping I can do to find the $227 price difference between the solution and the pills each month.  I think a part of me was almost hoping that the medication will not work.  However, the two days of transition were enough misery for me.

I am actually going to take the final two bottles of erythromycin solution since that is a savings of $168 and then start the pills on the 27th.  As my friend Mary would say, perhaps Jesus will come again before then.  But would He be coming for me??

The probiotics, even in generic form, are not economical.  The part of me that does not like my ever-increasing girth would like them to work.  The budget part of me would like them to be a failure.  I forgot to ask how long I should try them, but I see her again in 8 weeks, so perhaps that should be my trial period.  I am starting to loathe the scale.

Keeping on the innards front, we talked about how the lack of motility is now rearing its ugly head in my lower intestines. I find that rather annoying and a bit discomfiting.  When it comes to that issue, there are several avenues of treatment.  After some trial and error, I learned that the avenue of treatment I need is a stimulant.  Basically, if I drink a Dr Pepper, I am fine.  [Yes, my Dr Pepper drinking was therapeutic!!!]  I do not want to go back to that addiction, rather saving the cans in my abode for cooking and for treats and for dire emergencies.  Since I care not for coffee in any way, shape, or form, what is left is caffeine pills, because even black tea is not enough caffeine to stimulate my too-quiet intestines.  However, my doctor would prefer those to be an avenue of last resort since I react so strongly to different additives and such and who knows how the rest of the pill would affect me.  So, I am in search of a way to consume enough coffee for about 100 milligrams of caffeine in a form that is even remotely palatable to me.  UGH.

The final discussion with my doctor was the increase in swelling in my legs, despite my diligence in wearing the compression stockings (knee-high).  She measured my legs and noted (as I have) that the left is larger.  I am rather disgusted by their un-shapeliness, so I avoid looking at them.  My doctor wants me to jump up to a stronger compression ... one that is prescription level and non-economical.  This after rather recently buying new 15-20 stockings.  SIGH.

My friend Celia (who is stinking smart) applied her very fine problem-solving skills and searched the recesses of her nursing knowledge to discover that you can layer compression stockings to get the same effect.  So, I am going to try that first.  IF I can get two pairs on at the same time.  Yes, I did not try yet tonight.

So, this was a day of poking & prodding, prescriptions, plans, problem-solving, purchases, and progress.