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While Georg is in Vegas, I'm doing some work on the house to surprise him. (I'm writing this on Saturday night but I won't post it until he gets back on Tuesday so as not to spoil the surprise.) Before you say anything, yes this is kind of like that show. Except that I don't have a TV designer installing a lame "design" that features shoddy workmanship and lots of MDF. Or leaves glued to construction paper and called art. Or TV cameras following everyone around. Or an army of PAs doing the real work. OK, actually the only thing in common with the TV show is that I'm doing one room, it's a surprise, and it has to happen very fast.

When we moved in to this house, every room had that horrible fake wood paneling. Room by room we've been slowly removing it, and the bedroom is the last room left. That's what I'm doing this weekend: pulling down the paneling, repairing the plaster, and painting. I dropped Georg off at the airport at 8:30 this morning and got to work as soon as I got home.

I couldn't get all that done by myself in four days, but lucky for me I have the help of some amazing friends. Lisa came early this morning, just after I had gotten started, and stayed until almost 4. Together we got tons done, way more than I had expected. We pulled out all the paneling, trim and baseboards, scraped off all the glue, and even had time for a nice lunch at the Q Shack.

The glue came off much easier than it had in the other rooms. In some places we didn't even need the heat gun; it came off with just a scraper. After a while we realized that the reason it was coming off so easily was that the paint underneath was so fragile, it was peeling away from the wall. We were concerned about moisture damage messing up the paint. But eventually it became clear that previous residents had painted latex over oil, without bothering to prime.

I don't begin to understand the people who last decorated this house. What were they thinking? "Oops! We screwed up and the paint is peeling. Let's slap on some fake wood paneling instead of fixing it! And there's a hole in the middle of the floor. Let's patch it with wood that doesn't match and then cover it with cheap wall to wall carpet! Now let's install a built-in a bookshelf. No need to trim the carpet, we'll just put the bookshelf right on top of it!" Lisa and I discovered today that the carpet in one place runs under drywall. Most of the walls are plaster, but at some point a pantry was added to the kitchen, the walls of which (made of drywall) jut into the bedroom. Instead of trimming the carpet, they just put the drywall on top of it. We had to cut the carpet away, because it couldn't be pulled out from under there.

After Lisa left I kept working until about 8. I sanded the two walls with peeling paint (why did only two walls only have this problem? Like I said, I don't begin to understand) and started patching the plaster. The sanding was harder than I remembered, but that might be because I was already tired from a full day's work. Got the plaster entirely patched on one wall, but the wall with the most gaps (2 doors) so I'm less than 25% done.

Then I quit for the night. At which point I discovered that when we unloaded the bedroom furniture and piled it up in the study, I had neglected to keep my dresser drawers where I could reach them. But I was able to climb over everything and get to some clean clothes. I somehow managed to convince myself that cooking would take less energy than driving to Bojangles, so I even ate relatively healthy. It's 10 pm now, and I'm exhausted. I'm going to be sleeping on the air mattress in the living room because the bed is with the rest of the bedroom furniture in the study. I'm watching The Maltese Falcon but I probably won't make it all the way through the movie.