Homework, 2/2: Misery Loves Company

The adhesive removing continues. The Seantractor worked on it some this week. I spent eight hours yesterday on it. Here's basically how the day went:

1. Spread adhesive remover over an area.
2. Ran to Home Depot for two more jugs of adhesive remover.
3. Scraped adhesive up for a half hour, spread more on another area.
4. Ran to Chipotle to get lunch for myself and my helper, Sarah R.
5. Scraped adhesive up for a half hour, spread more on another area.
6. Went outside to work on breaking up the ice on the sidewalk for a half hour.
7. Scraped adhesive up for a half hour, spread more on another area.
8. More salting and breaking up ice outside. Met some neighbors: Patty, the block club leader, and her son Callum.
9. More scraping and spreading.
10. More sidewalk clearing.
11. More scraping and spreading.
12. Started putting the legs on the IKEA bench.
13. Finally had to go home because my lungs were hurting.
    

I still have a corner of the room to finish, and then probably need to go back a third time and spot check with the remover, especially around the edges and in the closet. I should do it today, because it's not fun to do it at night after work at all. Even though Sarah was in the basement working on staining the window trim, it was better knowing I had company.

Surprises:

• There's never enough adhesive remover. I think I've gone through four or five gallons of the stuff, and I'll probably still have to go buy another one to finish the job.
• I thought I'd only have to varnish the window trim in the basement bedroom, but it turns out the bathroom door and the trim around it are also unfinished.
  

Accomplishments:

• Sarah filled all the nail holes with putty, sanded, and started varnishing the basement window trim, bathroom door, and door frame.
• More progress on removing the carpet adhesive. Still not done, though.
• Lots of ice removed from sidewalks.

(unpaid) People Hours Invested: 14
To Date: 202

Trips to Hudson's Ace Hardware & Home Depot: 1
To Date: 14

Tears: None.
Tears to Date: Twice.

Progress:

This is the stuff that comes up. On day one it was more orange and looked like pumpkin guts. On the second pass, it started looking like slimy egg drop soup. Now it just looks gross.