In which I learn valuable lessons about hanging chandeliers while on Percoset.

Since I finished the kitchen hallway, I've mostly been hitting the books with my feline sidekick. (Please don't eat him, you know who you are.)

 

My photo stream has been a bit cranky, so I haven't really posted any updates on the few small projects I've worked on. Mostly right now I'm working on returning decorations to the living/dining rooms and painting trim and whatnot.

 

I did repaint the red wall in the living room, it had a few holes in it from moving furniture, and it was a slightly different red than the floor. 

 

 

I used some of the left over red porch paint. The colour change isn't significant, you can see it beloe at the top edge. It did take me two coats to cover the old red.

 

 

It probably could have used three, but its been hot and I was tired of painting. The supervisor contributed in his usual fashion: by eating. He managed to tear up the masking tape.

 

 

Once the red was revised, it was time to hang the world's most prideful chandelier. And put up pictures. The pictures part took a few weeks because I was trying to decide where to put everything before I put new holes in the walls. I think it's mostly under control now, but I may still switch things up a bit.

 

 

I also masked and painted trim pieces in both the kitchen and living room. Both of the horizontal pieces were the ugly orangey colour of most of the trim in the house, so this is an improvement to me.

 

I did, however, learn why masking tape is best removed when the paint is still wet, since I accidentally took off a bunch of paint with it. Learn from my mistakes, people!



Sometime between when I painted the trim and the present date I managed to aggravate an old neck injury at the gym. As a result, I've been put on high doses of Oxycodone and ordered to rest. I can't really sit up for very long, so I'm mostly stuck in bed, flat on my back.  Painkillers don't do anything to further my comprehension when studying, so I am mostly watching tv and trying not to scream at the pain. I got bored with this pretty quickly and wanted to work on the house. I decided I should hang my other chandelier, but this time I wanted it over Dracula's Dinette, and not in the living room. This necessitated a trip to home despot for a chandelier hook. I managed to get a friend to stop there on the way to a doctors appointment and decided to try to put it in today.

This was a poor decision. The hook was too big for the drywall anchor I had planned to use with it. I probably wouldn't even have tried had my judgment not been impaired.  What I managed to do was put a large hole in the ceiling, which is not coincidentally about the size of a drywall anchor.

 

I also got the anchor stuck to the screwy part of the hook. At this point I gave up and went back to bed for a while. After another dose I decided to try again. I spent a few minutes trying to get the anchor off of the screw, but it was way beyond my motor skills and grip right now (I'm having to do everything with my left hand, which is not optimal). I wound up with this, which is not helpful at all:

 

 

The hook had actually come with a toggle bolt, which I don't like to use because you have to drill 3/4" holes to put them in. As it turned out, I already had a hole of that variety, so I decided to give it ago. It took about an hour for me to figure out, but now the chandelier is hung!

 

My vision for this space is to make it a spooky little dinette set to match the floor. I may paint and re-reupholster the chairs to that end. Maybe I'll make a vision board while I'm in bed, that seems productive. The moral is: no more home improvements on drugs, it only leads to stripped screws and holes in the ceiling.