I went back over to my old house today to do some more cleaning and work.
It was darnstupidfreezingasscold out there. Like a high today of 10F or similar. Whatever it was, it was ridiculously cold out. Like tears freezing on my eyelashes cold. Nonetheless, by the time I hit 12th & Paseo (a little over halfway through my ride) my blood was moving enough that it didn’t feel that awful, except for my fingers which always get cold, no matter how bulky of gloves I wear.
I chose to scrape wallpaper today, because that’s pretty vigorous activity, and I figured that would help keep me warm. It’s also a chore that I loathe, so I figured it was best to get that out of the way early on anyhow. It worked out pretty well. I got the first layer of wallpaper down in my old sewing room and got a good start on the second layer. Should be able to finish stripping that out the next time I’m over.
I also went down to the basement and finished consolidating and toting out the random junk down there. While I was down, I did another pass with the spray bottle of bleach along all of the walls. After I get a new job, I am going to invest in a dehumidifier for that basement. It’s not that it leaks, per se but it’s just kind of dank all the time, and the walls get mildewy in the corners.
I must say that I am fully pleased with my new asthma preventative, Flovent. It’s an inhaled steroid which is used to treat mild to moderate asthma. My doctor recommended it over Advair, which he said would be a bit of overkill for my condition. So far, so good, is what I’m saying. I was in a musty, moldy basement, spraying bleach around, in a dusty attic hauling out cobwebby boxes, then scraping decades-old wallpaper off the walls, and not the faintest wheeze nor the slightest shortness of breath. I had my Albuterol rescue inhaler with me for “just in case,” but I had absolutely no need of it.
Wow, breathing like a normal person is AWESOME. I highly recommend it for everyone.
Anyway, I’m pretty stoked about the progress I’m making over at the old house. I figure a few more days of hitting it pretty hard, and I’ll have most of what I can do on my own done. I’ve got a freelance gig tomorrow, so I’ll be doing that, but I figure I’ll get back at it either on Saturday morning, or early next week.
I need to borrow Joel’s truck one day and make a trip to the landfill since the KCMO trash collectors are so chintzy about what they’ll pick up. I put out two bags yesterday, as today was trash collection day for my old neighborhood, but they didn’t collect them; apparently because my old house is now technically vacant, it’s not eligible for trash pickup anymore. I had a suspicion that might happen. Anyway, I’ll just take those two, and the other three, plus the random rubbish from the basement out to the city dump one of these days, and then it will no longer be an issue.
Congrats on getting started on getting re-started on your house! Today was definitely a real treat to bike in, wasn’t it? I’ll be starting my commute home in 20 minutes.