Let's Paint!

[Thorondor]

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, for Zombie will come around to make it go!

 

Good thing you got into the nuts and bolts of it all and you even had adequate spray paints to properly cover the rusted portions. Complementarily, as seen in the first pic, you even have a sack of Professional Ice Melter with Platinum Defrost as backup to further cover your bases. Talk about not leaving anything to chance.

 

Small snowblower status update: fully operational!

[Zombie]

So I've been busy at work due to Valentine's Day, figured you guys might want a glimpse of what it's like to process 2000+ roses:

 

 

You have to remove all the leaves which will fall below the waterline or else it might cause bacteria to start growing in the pail, so that's the reason for the ginormous pile of leaves and rubber bands. There are a number of ways to remove them (even commercial mechanical "strippers" which have a motor and little rubber fingers which pull the leaves off but cost a fair chunk of coin) but what we've been using (since forever it seems) is the lowly potato masher:

 

 

We pulled the loops apart a little on our masher to facilitate thicker stemmed "Lincoln Logs" roses. You just rake the masher through the bunch of 25 stems and it pulls off most of the leaves and breaks off any thorns hopefully. Whatever is left you gotta pull them off by hand (even the leaves have little thorns). This isn't a job for babies as you will get poked too many times to count. It's annoying and sometimes painful but necessary. Once the raking is done then you cut off the ends with the flower guillotine, dip the ends in a hydrating liquid for a second (that's the low plastic container with a strainer in it) and then directly into a pail with flower food. Let that steep for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and directly into the cooler to finish. Easy peasy!

 

Okay the tenant in the lower flat across the alleyway has just moved out this week. We have a new tenant coming in at the end of February so that leaves only a few weeks to get that prepared. I did a walkthrough this afternoon and snapped some pics to remind me what I need to work on.

 

 

There's a spot on the floor where the fridge used to be which has some peeled off paint. And other than a couple loose screws on a cabinet door there isn't much to work on there. The bedroom I fixed and painted this summer is still perfect. The living room has a couple small holes in the wall which need to be patched and there are a few spots on the baseboard with chipped off paint but that's understandable.

 

In the front hallway there are dark spots where something was rubbed against the wall, but it's just the lower part of the wall and should be easy to fix with some paint (luckily I have some left).

 

 

I checked all the lights on the ceiling and they are functional, the faucets and sinks work in the kitchen and bathroom and the toilet flushes. Other than a few fixes and a little paint and a good floor cleaning it should be good to go. I'll be starting on this directly after Valentines Day so stay tuned!

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Low tech solutions are the most reliable... Improvisations often turn out the best ones.

 

Are you sure cleaning the floor will do the trick? It seems as it needs proper sanding and lacquer. Otherwise it will be completely ruined soonish.

[Thorondor]

An Account Of The Slightly Thorny Issue Of Over 2000 Roses - by Zombie Publishing.

 

Quite the task but the outcome of all that pain (how characteristic) is indeed lovely. I don't suppose the culled leaves can be used for any other purpose, but they strike me as potential fertilizer if left to decay under the right conditions. Minus the rubber bands of course.

 

As for the lower flat "prep for new tenant" work, the kitchen floor bit seems to be the most glaring to the eye so that's a good starting point.

 

The floorboards on other rooms do evidence wear as well but I'm thinking a good waxing with a couple of gallons of liquid floor wax would improve the general feel/perception of things (and make it smell nice in there too).

 

All in all, small fries job to deal with for you, as will soon become apparent.

[Zombie]

I wholeheartedly agree that the wood floor could use some help. What needs to be done is a sanding down to the bare wood and about 10 coats of water based poly on top. Sanding creates a ton of dust and it would take me a week of cleaning to get rid of it all. Plus it's noisy. And 10 coats of poly takes some time to dry and cure properly. I have a little over a week to get this place ready for the new tenant, that's not enough time to get all that work done anyway. I'm just going to wash the thing and that's it. Blame it on the boss wanting to rent the thing out ASAP. I do the best I can in the time I have. You have to pick your fights and a refinishing isn't in the cards.

 

- Zombie

[Zombie]

Time to get going on the apartment! First things first, I want to address the rough area of the floor in the kitchen going into the bathroom. I fixed this the last time with that Webpatch floor leveling compound which did a good job but couldn't handle the weight and constant movement of the old tenant. Still had some of that stuff left (a little lumpy but mixed in fine) so I applied that carefully to the floor. It was mixed a little on the dry side to facilitate quicker curing.

 

 

It was drying good so I can probably get that sanded smooth tomorrow if I have time. Another issue which I missed in my walk through was the doorknob to the kitchen door smashed a hole in the wall. The door is always open which hid the damage. Patching it is. Same as the last time, you have to remove all the loose material from the hole and also scratch off the paint and joint compound from the wall to get down to bare material.

 

 

There's still some paint on there, but it's sticking good so it doesn't make sense to scratch that off too. Then it was fiberglass mesh to bridge the hole and finally joint compound was pressed into the mesh and smoothed out as best I could.

 

 

I had trouble getting the old joint compound to dry the last time so I put a fan on it overnight and cranked the heat up. Hopefully that in conjunction with the low humidity will speed up the dry time. Not sure if I'll put some texture on it, I still have some of that stuff left so maybe. It all depends on how quickly stuff dries.

 

I fixed the hinge on the cabinet door in the kitchen as the screws were loose. Drove in some longer screws and it was better. The door wasn't latching properly so I sanded the frame and the door to make some room and adjusted the latching mechanism. It helped, but I think what I need to do is raise the latch to the middle shelf where the handle is. That way when you push the door shut with the handle it'll put more pressure on the latch causing it to catch properly. There were some 12" self adhesive carpet tiles stuck to the floor in the kitchen previously. Those are gone but the stickiness remains. Paint thinner to the rescue!

 

While waiting for that stuff to dry I figured I'd start painting in the living room. There were some nail holes and dents that needed to be filled first. Then I taped up the floor underneath the baseboard and painted the baseboards and spots on the wall.

 

 

I consider the living room complete now except for that spot on the wall in the first picture which needs to be touched up. Looks like new again!

 

I think I can whack out the front hall tomorrow. Just needs a little painting on the lower parts of the wall and that should be it except for touching up the front door. Not sure if I'll have time to touch up the peeled spots on the kitchen floor tomorrow too, it all depends how long I'm allowed to work on it I guess.

 

So it's a decent start at least.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

The area where you've used that Webpatch floor leveling compound does need a healthy bit of sanding on a couple of places, Zombie. One can see little "waves" rippling in the upper mid section of the pic and slightly to the right.

 

Very nicely done on the doorknob "disaster area" coverage though. Excellent outcome on the first go.

 

The living room walls mostly look the part now, though I still have to decry not having the opportunity to properly tend to that flooring as I think it would make a significant difference regarding the overall perceived state of things.

 

But that's them apples and, as reported, you've got plenty of fish to fry in the flat as it is, so rock on!

[Zombie]

I worked on the apartment a little bit on Saturday before I left. I sanded the floor by the bathroom door some more and also sprayed some texture on the doorknob hole I patched. After sanding that down a little bit, this is what it looked like today:

 

 

Not a perfect match but it's close enough in my book. Used up the last of that can so it felt good that I kept it. I sanded the floor by the door a little more today again and this it what it looks like:

 

 

It's mostly flat now. The only area which is ripply is by the door frame. Can't really fix that right now as the floor itself is messed up. At least the holes are filled. While down there sanding I was looking at the sad shape of the baseboards and decided to repaint about half of them. The crack between the quarter round molding and the baseboard was never caulked before so I did that to make the transition look smooth. Here's the area behind the door into the kitchen:

 

 

This was painted after the pic was taken as I was waiting for the caulk to skin over first. You can see the patch on the wall in the upper right of the pic and this area has been painted too. Here's what the baseboard looks like next to the bathroom door all complete:

 

 

The paint was still wet so that's why it looks so glossy and shiny. The color is close to the frame around the door - a tad lighter than I'd like but I'm hoping it'll dry darker and will not be too noticeable in the gloomy shadows of the kitchen. I did touch up those marks on the wall in the front hall since I had the paint out and I also repainted the backsplash above the kitchen countertop too since that was showing some wear.

 

There was a crack in between two walls in the other bedroom off the living room which was bothering me so I poked around on that to remove any loose paint and old caulk, then recaulked it:

 

 

That has been touched up with paint too. Tomorrow I want to work on the floor in the kitchen by painting the patched area and the spots that were peeled off and probably the kitchen counter top again. Then I need to remove the tape from the floor in the living room and kitchen and wash the wood floors properly. I want to try to remove as much grime and marks as I can because... well, I'll leave it for that right now. More on that later.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Doorknob hole: no more and it doesn't even look like a sore spot, Zombie.

 

The floor by the bathroom door is now far more even and, as evidenced by what followed, you have a generous streak with respect to never looking the other way when another issue presents itself: baseboard could use some caulking, why not - done deal. Then bring on the paint for nothing to stay faint. Marks on the wall require touching up? Nothing too dire, yet par for the course.

 

No crack left untouched. Who's keeping track? Well, we are. High five!

[Zombie]

First thing I did today was empty the living room of everything and then I swept the floors and washed them thoroughly. The washwater was pretty dark so that meant I pulled some of the dirt off. After drying I applied a coat of wax to the entrance, the main bedroom and the living room.

 

 

Happy now? Well, hold that thought for a bit, I'm going to apply another coat yet as I didn't get complete coverage. Far from perfect I realize, but it looks better than before. The reason I did the floor first was because I would be "painting myself into a corner" so to speak as I'd end up in the kitchen. With the wax taking 30+ minutes to dry I need to have something to do so I painted the countertop first:

 

 

Much better. Might as well paint the area I patched by the bathroom door.

 

 

Can't even tell I patched anything there now. And of course the spot on the floor in front of where the refrigerator was had some peeling paint. Not anymore:

 

 

Any discoloration on the floor is dirt or marks. I didn't want to wash the floor in the kitchen yet as I need to clean and sanitize the inside of the refrigerator as it's pretty gross and those juices will undoubtedly end up on the floor anyway.

 

Took a peek inside the pantry in the kitchen and it looked like a can of something exploded in there and oozed down the wall on to the floor. Soaps barely made a dent in that mess so I ended up bleaching it off. Looks clean in there now except the floor needs paint.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Interesting choice of wallpaper for the main bedroom, Zombie. When do you intend to bring in the waterbed?

 

First waxing a definite plus there. Obviously not going to make miracles as there's so much wear but bonus cookie points shall apply.

 

The kitchen countertop came out fine (you probably even dared to freehand it, tape-free) and so did the floor paint job - worked out seamlessly and just about pitch perfect in tone match. Didn't expect any less but well done!

 

What's with all the "exploding" containers/cans/buckets? A certain one with paint comes back to mind.

 

Pantry mess mostly dealt with, refrigerator mess coming up.

[Space Voyager]

Are you using the same stuff for the countertop and the floor? The wooden tiling looks better already and I wonder what the second coating will do. Might turn out just fine, considering your constraints.

[Zombie]

The kitchen countertop came out fine (you probably even dared to freehand it, tape-free) and so did the floor paint job - worked out seamlessly and just about pitch perfect in tone match. Didn't expect any less but well done!

 

You know me - I just cut in with the brush carefully. Figured I didn't need to waste time taping. I did get a little polyurethane on the newly painted backsplash, but that stuff cleans up so easily with paint thinner on a paper towel.

 

Are you using the same stuff for the countertop and the floor?

 

Yes, same stuff: gray polyurethane enamel. Works great for just about everything.. especially in rental units and high use areas where if something gets scratched you can just paint right over it and it looks new again.

 

So I only had a few ounces of that old wax left which wasn't enough to do the whole floor again which meant it was hardware store time. Picked up a gallon (~4L) of high traffic, high gloss wax because it had the most amount of solids of any of the other waxes (20%). Got it back to the apartment and was reading the directions for use and it specifically mentioned NOT to use it on wood floors. Crap. Well, I'm not going back - it's going on the floor one way or the other. Besides, I already have a coat of wax on there which sealed everything in. Probably isn't an issue. Applied one coat and since I painted myself into the kitchen I decided to clean the refrigerator.

 

Why was it so dirty and moldy? Well, when the previous tenant left he unplugged the fridge/freezer combo and didn't raise a flap on the drip pan to "funnel" the meltwater into the pan. Instead, part of that water dripped between the back wall of the fridge and the drip pan. And because the door was closed all that moisture grew mold on everything. I didn't take a before pic because it looked so gross. Had to take everything out piece-by-piece and bleach them off and rinse them with clear water. Found two sticks of butter in the butter compartment so I tossed those out too. Here's what it looks like cleaned out:

 

 

Quite spectacular if you ask me. Could pass for brand new... from 10 feet away.

 

Had some more time so I applied another coat of wax again (2 coats today + 1 yesterday = 3 total). Yesterday I applied the wax with a sponge on my hands and knees and I was sore. When I was at the hardware store I was looking for some sort of applicator to make it easier but couldn't find anything. When I was back at the shop I found a 6 inch staining pad and decided to give that a go. It had a foam "core" and a felt-like covering over that and let me tell you that's the way to go. Screw that on to a normal painters extension pole and you can apply the wax standing up. I'll show you the setup tomorrow in case anyone is considering waxing a floor soon. Here's what the floor looks like:

 

 

Probably could use a couple more coats but it's pretty darn good right now. At least the floor looks clean!

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

That refridgerator looks like it just got a fresh, new lease on life, Zombie.

 

Does give me some pause as to the potential effects of having stayed moist as long as it did. Water, ever the instigator of life, but can well be the cause of the untimely death of some appliances.

 

Staining pad - noted. Easily a vast improvement over that on all fours "wax on, wax off" business you endured through. No more punishment of the ol' joints and the outcome deserves a thumbs-up.

 

Cheating on the wax or not you clearly came out on top.

[Zombie]

Here's that waxing setup I was talking about yesterday:

 

 

So the pad painting frame and pad attached to an extension pole. The thing has an adjustment to move the handle up by about 30 degrees but that's it (with a lockout tab to prevent it from springing back to flat). I wish it would go to 45 or 60 degrees as you wouldn't have to crouch to get full contact with the floor but it's fine. I didn't use a paint tray for the liquid wax as that only has a small area at the deep end to dip the applicator in. I opted for a used tray which had 4-5 chicken breasts in it as it has a larger flat area to dip the pad in.

 

The two floors I waxed (main bedroom and living room) turned out nice so I decided not to add anymore coats, Instead, I moved everything out of the other two bedrooms into the living room. I painted the baseboard and touched up areas on the wall in the bedroom straight ahead when you walk in and after that dried applied a coat of wax.

 

 

I'd really like to repaint the walls and trim around the windows too, but I'm plum out of time as the next tenant is probably moving in this weekend. It's going to have to wait but at least it looks presentable now. The smaller bedroom I worked on this summer didn't need any touchup painting so I just gave it a coat of wax.

 

 

Can't get the futon out of there as it's too heavy and wide for one person to move so I'm waxing around it. Not ideal, but it'll look better as long as that futon isn't moved. I'm probably going to give those two rooms another couple coats of wax today so that it blends in with the other areas. Since the bedrooms needed time to dry I painted the kitchen floor:

 

 

There, looks good again and another room complete. The agenda for today is to get another couple coats of wax on the two bedroom floors. Then move all the stuff we are keeping from the living room into the bedroom straight ahead. There are some things from the previous tenant which are cluttering up the place so I want to dump that. Finally I need to move out all of my painting/fixing stuff and the place should be ready to go.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You're doing a better job than the TV Shopper channel at selling that pad, Zombie. Even framing the thing with international captions on your snap.

 

And speaking of picture perfect material - that baseboard coverage does it. Really makes things come together to deliver a better impression upon room entry.

 

The flooring on the small bedroom barely passes off as "presentable" because there are just so many specks and blemishes on it. Still, absolutely can't be helped and I know you're doing your best in the time available, which is all anyone can ask.

 

To end with the great, gotta love that mirror finish on the kitchen floor. Could eat right off it one might say.

[Space Voyager]

The flooring on the small bedroom barely passes off as "presentable" because there are just so many specks and blemishes on it. Still, absolutely can't be helped and I know you're doing your best in the time available, which is all anyone can ask.

 

Why bother writing when Thor got it covered? So, what he said.

 

But all in all, amazing job. Never would have thought it can all look usable. That said, the refrigerator... Yes, good job cleaning it up and all, but the colours definitely reveal its age! That light blue is so yesterday... or several decades ago.

[Zombie]

Ok, so you may be wondering why the hell I haven't posted an update on the apartment. It's kinda a long story, so I'll try to abbreviate it while still providing an adequate explanation. The night I posted the pics of the floor and refrig it snowed, so I was shoveling a path to the front door of the place to begin work again. When I got to the front door, the tenant met me outside and it was clear that she was already living there (bossman's fault for giving out the key before I was finished and then not touching base with her when she was planning on moving in). So I'm standing there like an idiot while she's acting pissy about the furniture still in there (apparently she thought it was all supposed to be gone). I shrugged it off and just asked when would be a good time to remove my painting stuff out of there to make it a little more livable. Saturday it was.

 

Saturday rolls around and I'm busy delivering flowers as usual and noticed the junk guy is parked outside the apt. Apparently bossman asked him to come over and remove all the old furniture and haul it away. Fine. Unbeknownst to me, the guy junked just about everything inside the apartment including my painting stuff. Canvas, gallon of grey polyurethane, gallon of paint thinner, extension pole, paint brush, pad applicator all gone. I wasn't mad about it, just really annoyed and wanted to forget about the whole thing which is why I didn't post.

 

The other day bossman comes to me and mentions that she moved out. Just up and left. So I went over there and took some pics as usual. It wasn't in bad shape or anything - understandable as she was in there for only 3 months, but she did have an infant child.

 

 

Today I went over there and started cleanup. Swept the kitchen floor, then removed the junk in the main bedroom and swept the floor in there. Emptied the living room, swept it out and tossed out the junk. The small bedroom with the alphabet mat on the floor I didn't touch as it's going to be my junk room temporarily. The last bedroom I swept out and tossed out the broken mirror but didn't get a chance to bust up the corner bench or anything. So it's coming along.

 

Supposedly the plan is to keep it off the rental market for the near future. We are going to be doing some improvements to it first to hopefully get a higher price. The windows are probably going to be replaced as they are old and leaky. The kitchen sink is old and leaky and needs to be replaced too. The floor in the kitchen should be torn up and new vinyl installed (that's the plan if the flooring isn't asbestos, if it is, we'll have a bigger issue). I'm hoping the wood floors will get sanded and properly finished. Another thing to do may be to rip down the wallpaper in the main bedroom and paint the walls in there. What actually gets done is unknown. Things change. I'm just worried the bossman will find a renter and then not go through with any improvements. We shall see. I'll let you know what happens.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

While all is in a state of flow you can always count on Zombie to once again make it glow just take care to let him know when, not just then, if you want not to eat crow.

 

Well, based on your update, things could have certainly been handled in a far more considerate way, particularly where you're concerned.

 

Resulted in the loss of perfectly usable tools and materials while leaving you in the dark about tenant arrival time, etc.

 

On the bright side, the place doesn't look too poorly treated but not knowing how much of it will actually undergo more extensive renovation is to no-one's benefit - make a plan, budget it and stick with it until done - as otherwise prospective future tenants may find scant grounds to justify the higher ask in rental cost there.

 

Gotta spend money to make money, isn't it how the saying goes? We'll just wait and see then.

[Zombie]

On the bright side, the place doesn't look too poorly treated but not knowing how much of it will actually undergo more extensive renovation is to no-one's benefit - make a plan, budget it and stick with it until done - as otherwise prospective future tenants may find scant grounds to justify the higher ask in rental cost there.

 

Gotta spend money to make money, isn't it how the saying goes? We'll just wait and see then.

 

Yeah, nothing is really set in stone yet and no plans have been made either. We are just taking it day by day. As of today I have most of the junk out of there (took one big barrel of stuff out already and have another one left). All the rooms have been swept out. The only things left are a small table and nightstand in the small bedroom I fixed up, and in the other bedroom there's the corner bench. Not sure what I'm going to do with that yet - one of the women mentioned it could be used in the store as a prop. My only issue with that is it's bulky and hard to move around and where's it gonna go when the display is changed? I'd just as soon smash it up to free up a little more room. And then there's the long table top which I'm probably going to cut it up into sections and junk it.I do know the fridge is getting picked up by that junk guy so I might just make a pile of stuff for him. Once most of the stuff is out of there then I can start work.

 

Ok, so I might as well get this next piece off my plate... one of our garbage cans outside has a lid which fell off due to a winter storm and the fall caused the top to crack. Not all the way, just a few inches. To fix that (completed in late April), I determined where the crack ended in the plastic, then drilled a hole at the end to prevent the crack from propagating. Then I sanded the top smooth and filled the crack and hole with JB Weld epoxy. Here's what the bottom looked like:

 

 

As for the top, it got sanded again to remove the excess epoxy, and a quick coat of spray paint to cover it somewhat:

 

 

Not perfect, but another coat of paint will fix that... eventually.

 

Figured I show you the aftermath of cutting the initial batch of flowers for Mother's Day on the Sunday before:

 

 

The garbage pile wasn't as big as Valentine's Day because Mom's Day isn't a huge rose holiday - it's more of a mix. And there was more flowers off to the side which I didn't catch. We got a big load in on Monday and again on Wednesday. I was getting pretty worried on Wed about all the flowers we had as I had some doubts whether we'd be able to move it all, but those thoughts dissipated by Thursday and were gone by Friday. We ended up with a full front cooler for the weekend with hardy nothing in the back (almost like a normal non-holiday weekend). The only flowers we were long on were some roses and lavender/purple daisies, those have been noted for next year (if we sub white daisies for the lav/purp we would probably be okay).

 

Next post will be about mother's day delivery and what I've learned/changed from last year. Yes, I learn, but I also adapt to changes. And I'll do things differently on a limited scale to test out if it'll work all the time. Stay tuned for that.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Some try to make a splash, Zombie does it better just by knowing what to trash.

 

Garbage can damage well contained but I do agree the top can benefit from another lick of paint as there's some visible "cratering" such an added layer may help camouflage.

 

Nice to hear business was blooming still this Mother's Day. That picture of the work done paints a good looking bouquet overall, which proved to cover many tastes rather successfully.

 

Will stay on track for your next delivery then.

[Zombie]

Neglecting this topic again I guess. Time to update!

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, we did things a little bit different for Mother's Day this year. It was mostly out of necessity, but I also changed things up too. First of all we were short one delivery driver starting on Thursday which meant it would be tough getting everything out. On Thursday the drivers were doing a really good job and we actually got caught up by noon. It didn't make sense to send any of them home as we had a pile of Friday deliveries sitting there. The trick was to take out all the nursing homes, old folks homes and hospital orders for Friday on Thursday. We also called nearly all the recipients of the regular house deliveries and anyone who said it was ok to deliver on Thurs we took that out too. That took a big chunk out of Friday's stuff. Since the heat was off, we did the same thing for Saturday's deliveries getting out whatever we could the day before.

 

As for what I changed, I tried something different with deliveries. Background - I normally sort the deliveries into three main "quadrants" of the city: North East of the store, North West, Downtown (just South of the store) and South. North East, North West and South are then broken down further into close, mid and far. North East is broken down into three areas: close is 1500 block north to approximately the 2000 block, mid is from the 2000 block north to approximately 3000 and finally far is anything north of 3000 (usually ending 4000-4500 - past that we consider them "Boonies" which would be a separate run). Say a driver comes in, the load I'll give him/her is close North East, that way they aren't driving all around the city on the North East side just a 5 city block subsection of it. The size of a load is usually about 10 deliveries (sometimes more, sometimes less depends on which area is building up the most).

 

I usually religiously follow this breakdown until the very end of the day when it's "cleanup" loads. Close North East and Mid North East will never be in the same load together no matter how many deliveries there are (only exception is if something is timed and needs to "go now"). Sometimes deliveries are oddly shaped (like a ceramic tea kettle, glass cube or a slender glass vase). That makes it difficult to set up a load as those oddballs might not be able to fit into a carrier decently as all the big partitions are already filled up for example. This Mother's Day I tried my best to get rid of these oddball sized deliveries on whatever load was closest but still within the quadrant. That actually worked out quite well as all the subsequent deliveries either fit in a vase delivery box or a black plastic mesh tray. I might continue this practice in the future depending on what the container looks like.

 

Anyhow, here's this year's chalkboard breakdown. As usual, I get dibs on church flowers on Saturday morning. And I also took out a wedding in the afternoon as everyone else was out yet.

 

 

Oh, and how about an update on the planting I made along the small garage? May 10th stuff was popping up so I cleaned out the bed from wind blown winter garbage.

 

 

To jumpstart the whole shebang, I fertilized it with some granular pellets and also some liquid. Here's what it looked like on May 26th:

 

 

Pretty impressive. I'll try and grab a pic of the thing this weekend as you aren't gonna believe what it looks like two months later.

 

Next up will be an update of the apartment across the alleyway. Mostly some heavy-duty cleanup.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

I bet there's nothing more "time-sensitive" in your workloads than delivering a bride her bouquet.

 

Your method of division by territories and subdivision by proximity within them, for more efficient load delivery, proved once again to be sound, Zombie.

 

Something that is further evidenced by how you smartly managed to fulfill deliveries scheduled for the following days ahead of time despite being short a driver.

 

Minimizing waste, maximizing efficiency that's what it's all about. This is the kind of thing that can always be optimized (depending on the circumstances of course). We've touched upon this a while ago I think and you're aware of it but factors such as traffic on a certain route at a given time of day and specific route lengths should both be weighed in to refine the formula even more and improve the outcome.

 

Just be careful not to get carried away with your own success or your efficacy may one day cost some drivers their job (having demonstrated to management you can make it so the same is accomplished with less). And I suspect you wouldn't get a raise out of it either.

 

Ah, the planting along the small garage - good to know you continued to tend to it. Given the pictures, they sure like their fertilizer so I can only imagine how much closer they've grown together since.

[Zombie]

Here's a quickie update on the apartment. This is after a good cleaning and getting rid of the stuff from the old tenant.

To minimize the impact of the stuff left (and to make cleaning easier) I just moved everything into the small bedroom. A few days later the junk guy came around and I helped him move some of the stuff out (I took apart the corner bench and kept the hardware and the seat but the rest was junked) also say goodbye to the old refrigerator!

I acquired an old plastic barrel for use as a garbage can and also a plastic tote (shoot me, I'm a sucker for garbage cans and waterproof/weather resistant items). I also took off the curtain rods and fixed all the holes in the walls and woodwork with spackling compound. And that's kinda how it stands right now. Oh, we also had a plumber come by to replace the faucet in the kitchen. First pic is before and the second one after:

The sink basin needs to be cleaned out yet and there are a couple more nail holes to be filled and of course painted. I gotta go through my stash of interior paint to see if I can use up a can on the other bedroom as the walls are in dire need of a coat of something, anything. No rush on this though, I'm waiting to do interior work when the cool fall temps arrive - besides I'm much too busy with other projects. I'll provide an update on that in my next post. Hoping to get caught up with this backlog of pics!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Pretty spick-and-span for the most part, Zombie.

The state of the small bedroom's floor still spoils the overall good impression but that is what it is.

I'll take a few seconds to mourn the junking of the old refrigerator *sniff, sniff* but that thing had to go - and to think you went to the trouble of cleaning the mess of a state it was in. What a waste of time. Well, at least you made it so there were no noxious smells spreading through the apartment in the meantime.

While on the subject of kitchen features, the shiny new faucet couldn't disagree more openly with the sink basin's condition, could it?

Below the sink, I couldn't help but notice that the top of the right door of that cabinet seems to have some wear or scuff marks that could use a little lick of paint too, so keep it in mind when you come back to do more interior work.

Details, you know what they say about 'em!