Training Your Labrador To Be A REmodeler And A REtriever

Well, it's summer and I am unemployed, so of course I must be put to work.
If you search back through this blog, you'll find that every summer has meant some home improvement/remodeling project.

It's not a big house, you'd think we would have run out of rooms by now ...

This year, it's a redo of the living room.
Some background ...

1. Our house is small by modern standards and tres cabinesque.
2. We still think of it as our new house ... it is 19 years old.
3. Our children are old enough now that we think it is safe to patch up all the damage they caused when they were young wild things.
4. The living room used to be bigger ... longer actually. Once it opened into a dining room through a T-shaped semi wall, but we closed that off to create a bedroom for Junior.
5. While I do okay for a nimrod in most construction areas, my drywall skills stink, so we have lived with an ugly T-shaped patch in the living room for 2 years. I'm showing it to you in these before pics so you can ooohhhh and aaahhhhh when I make it beautiful.
   

The standard operating procedure is that everyone leaves to go to work or fun summer stuff and I come up here to the second story bedroom where I write and blog before beginning the remodeling job du jour.

Last night, I put the first coat of fresh paint on the ceiling at around 10:30 pm. Before that, it was the boring prepwork that must be done before paint can be applied.

They never show you that on those "quick as a flash" home improvement shows, but you have to do it and it's no fun ... UNLESS YOU HAVE LABRADOR REMODELER PUPS TO HELP YOU!

My helpers and I started by cleaning the pine floors.


After mopping the floors to take care of dust bunnies that might fly up into my paint, it was necessary to clean and patch the walls.

(I'm using Formula 409 because the world isn't ready for Formula 410.)

If you look behind my egret-like skinny legs, you'll see the long wall ding caused by small children running and jumping into the couch. That is all patched now and I'll be sanding and priming that wall today. When I'm done, the living room walls will be wainscoted and chair railed like the entry hall in the background.

I'll be framing that doorway also.

Above, you can see the pine floors which I really want to refinish, but with 2 new pups in the house, I may have shot myself in the foot on that one.

You can also see the ugly T-shaped drywall patch (Laura and Rick, where were you when I needed you?) that will soon disappear through the magic of tongue and groove pine paneling.

This picture answers that age old question, "What DO science teachers do with 200 science fair display boards left behind in their classroom at the end of the year?"

Those science fair display boards not only do great duty as floor drop cloths, but they make a very effective PED ... (Pup Exclusion Device) when you DON'T need the help of your Labrador Remodelers. (Note the vertical one in the doorway)

Painting the ceiling while your ankles are being gnawed on may sound like fun, but really, it's not.

I've pulled off the baseboards, patched the wall damage, taped and covered the ceiling fan, lights, etc, so I guess I don't get to delay any longer. It's time for me to go downstairs and put a second coat on the ceiling and then prime those walls for what ever color Mrs. FC has picked out.

She's keeping me in the dark on that.

I'm pretty used to that.

Before I go, here's one more dog training video. Any job like this creates a mess and it's important to clean yourself, your tools, and your area when you are done for the day.

Training your Labrador Remodeler pup to assist will make this job go alot faster.



See, nothing to it!