Where did it all go wrong?
When was that blackout? Was it yesterday or the day before? Did you participate? The mind is mush. We’ve been in a tizzy for a day or two.
My office is still a mess. We WERE in the home stretch. We thought. The walls were painted; the carpet was clean. All that was left to do was hang a new shade on the window and a few black & white photos on the wall behind the desk.
The black & white photos… that’s where the trouble began. I bought a couple of those inexpensive black frames with the white matting, and I got some photos of the kids and grandkids developed for a couple of pennies. We prepared to hang them. That’s when the trouble began.
Our furniture is this old, metal junk that was left in H’s home office when he retired from AT&T. I painted it years ago with some fantastic, highly toxic, black paint that was created especially for metal. It did a marvelous job. I think I got it at Duron if you’re interested.
A few days ago, we put all the furniture back in place after cleaning the carpet. My desk is nothing more than a door (with a sheet of glass on top) that sits on top of two filing cabinets.
When we were ready to hang the black & whites behind the desk, we had to move the filing cabinets away from the wall. OH, NO! There were two perfect rectangles of rust on the carpet. I had neglected to paint the bottom of the file cabinets. Who knew? It was years ago. The wet carpet had caused them to rust. We worked and worked with spot remover and did the best we could. There is significant improvement but I’m afraid the cake was left out too long in the rain and “I’ll never have that recipe again.” What can you do?
We drove down to see Dad yesterday. It was a nice trip and he seemed well. He was pretty animated about some family gossip. He does love gossip. The other topic of conversation was about a duck my brother had cooked for him. He was still licking his lips.
We will try to get the office back in shape today. The carpet is completely dry this time. Then we’ll begin packing. We’re flying out to see our newest granddaughter on Monday morning. We’re pretty excited about that.
That’s all the news around here.
Now, about Wikipedia. Where’s the light? Oh, somebody found it. Whew!
I am in the midst of changing this office too. Moving out my “desk” which is a white board sitting on two filing cabinets, and putting all my computer stuff on Fred’s desk–the wall behind his desk has to be washed down–I cannot paint with my bac back–probably take me three days just to wash the wall. No carpet cleaning until this spring. It is a small room so it is hard to get it all moved. Have a wonderful trip–grand babies are just the best thing ever invented!!!!!
Aren’t you the busy one. It feels good to get things in order though. Wish I lived close enough to help you. You know we love projects.
I can unconfuse you just a little. The gal who commented on my blog about it being “blacked out” was referring to my place over on weather underground. I put up the WordPress “stop censorship banner”, but that was it. And it was on Wednesday. I had to stop and think about it. This is Friday. Guess I still have to go to work.
Here’s one thing you can do about that rust on the carpet. It isn’t 100% guaranteed, but it works sometimes. Try it in a little spot when/IF you’re inclined. Make a paste of barkeeper’s friend, put in on the rust and let it do its thing. It’s got a little oxalic acid in it, so it will take off rust. I use it to take rust off stainless steel on the boats, and discovered it will work on fabrics, too. Sometimes – but not always – it will lighten up the surrounding area. Hence, the little test patch. If you ever decide to try it, let me know and I’ll add some other tips.
Hooray for the trip to see the new baby. Of course there will be photos – yes?
Shore,
Thank you much for the tip. I wish I’d posted about this before we started working on it. We’re probably going to just put the file cabinets back on it for now because I want to get things back together in here, but if/when we move we’ll try your suggestion and see if we can improve it a little more. It isn’t too bad now, but I hate to leave it if we can improve it. I will keep this in mind for future incidents. I do love a good tip. No kidding.
You two are so industrious! I’m jealous, I want MY office painted!
Glad you had a nice visit with your Dad and, lucky you, you get to see the new grandbaby!
Didn’t know about painting the bottom of filing cabinets…thanks for the tip! And congratulations on the new granddaughter!
Good to know about Linda’s Barkeeper’s Friend suggestion — I seem to buy it by the gross for my pans! I was going to recommend this carpet solution we got at Home Depot but I can’t recall the name. I’m sure I still have some (had the same problem from a metal lamp) and I’ll email you the name. It took out the rust from the lamp and the carpet looked OK after! Good luck!
I need to try Linda’s suggestion in a few places. But first I need to find out what barkeeper’s friend is (I sort of know:)).
Have fun with the new grandbaby! And maybe post a picture of her when you get back? At that age she would still be pretty anonymous…
It’s in the grocery stores with the Comet and such – powdered cleansers. It’s not expensive – last time I bought some it was $1.75. I use it all the time for my stainless steel sinks, too. That’s how it got its name, of course – made for barkeepers who always were having to polish something.
When I told H about your suggestion, he told me that we have some in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Who knew? It’s good to know I have it on hand. When I googled it, I found many testimonies to its versatility. It’s supposed to be great at getting your old shower glass to turn “crystal clear” again. I could use that. It warned about leaving it on anything too long… including your hands.
Barkeepers Friend is indeed a friendly product. I’ve used it for lots of things around the house over the years.
Your industry around the house puts me to shame – especially today when I’m just curled in my reading chair admiring that pretty white snow outside
Enjoy the visit with the new baby – and with the “old” grandkids, too!
Thank you, Becca. I’ve been trying to make myself content to look at photos, but I’m very excited to meet her in person.