You Can't Always Get What You Want ...

When you got all your ducks in a row, who guarantees none is dropping out? But first, let's do the numbers:

one kitchen floor sealed
two second floor window sashes installed (resulting in two sets of window sashes for renewal)
one window sash renewal started
one piece of blueboard test-plastered (still drying, let's see how it looks)
one pizza dough made (only to be not eaten today)
one pitcher of sangria made (to make up for the non-eaten pizza, and to simply drown this day)

Today was somewhat on the disappointing side. Granted we got things accomplished, but there were setbacks, minor and less minor.

I was playing with plaster today (while waiting for paint to dry, which ended up being washed away by the rain, and now is drying again after reapplication), which we would like to have our walls covered with. Plastering is expensive, if you hire the big guns, and I don't want to give up on the idea of plastered walls yet. I can do this. Anyhow, I read in a construction manual online about a product called Keene's Cement, which would create stronger plaster. So I called around my usual suppliers (after a year and a half of remodeling you know whom to call), but all I got was the acoustic equivalent of a dropping jaw. Fortunately I found a manufacturer, who carries the product in their line, so I requested a sample.

The bigger disappointment came when our favorite steel meister Tom stopped by, only to tell us that he could not do the beam job in the bar. That is really unfortunate, because we really like him. We have three other bids, but we would have liked to throw it his way (we like to support small businesses). We'll get it done, one way or another.

Dirk