Let's Paint!

[Thorondor]

Step by step you're getting there, Zombie.

 

I do notice some "smudging" or darker patches/smears on the door in a zone to the left of the leftmost upper panel (upwards from the middle of the pannel). You'll probably spot it quite easily in person if I can sort of make it out from your pic.

 

But, overall, there's no question it looks far more than just a shade better!

[Space Voyager]

I could have probably thinned the paint out with water to make a kind of "white wash" but that seemed a little extreme. In the end I decided on brushing it on with a 4" wide brush (got the big guns out for this project) using a "dry brush" technique.

 

Sorry, not sure I understood this part - were you doing "dry brush" to save some paint or to make it look weathered?

 

Great work on textures, BTW, and the door looks brand new...

[Zombie]

I do notice some "smudging" or darker patches/smears on the door in a zone to the left of the leftmost upper panel (upwards from the middle of the pannel). You'll probably spot it quite easily in person if I can sort of make it out from your pic

 

Yeah, I see it too. Don't know what that was, maybe a shadow? I'll have to check when I get back over there. The doors are probably going to get another coat anyway as they naturally get the most wear.

 

Sorry, not sure I understood this part - were you doing "dry brush" to save some paint or to make it look weathered?

 

Mostly to save paint, but also I don't really need the first coat to be perfectly uniform. The final coat's color is between the light first coat and the dark color that was on there. If you make the first coat too heavy, light streaks might show in the final. I'm aiming for the final color to only require one coat. Not sure if that will be possible, I'll know more when I start rolling it on.

 

So I sanded down that small vent cover and sprayed a couple more light coats of black spray paint on it. Took a pic, hopefully you can see it's a lot better. Not perfect, but better.

 

 

Don't know if Ill be able to roll out the room tomorrow as I have to re-key the deadbolt on the front door to the place. That shouldn't take too long though so it possible...

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

 

So look at me now I'm just makin' my play

Don't try to push your luck just get out of my way

Cause I'm back

Yes I'm back

Well I'm back

Yes I'm back

Well I'm back back

Well I'm back in black

Yes I'm back in black

- AC/DC

 

Approved!

[Zombie]

I do notice some "smudging" or darker patches/smears on the door in a zone to the left of the leftmost upper panel (upwards from the middle of the pannel). You'll probably spot it quite easily in person if I can sort of make it out from your pic.

 

I had a closer look at the door in the area you pointed out. Turns out it was some drywall compound the previous tenant used to cover up blemishes. It looked different because the paint soaked into the drywall compound. I'm not about to go sanding it down though, besides it's on the back side of the door hardly anybody will see.

 

Well, I got the room all rolled out today! Before I continue with the obligatory pictures, I'd just like to apologize for the first two as I took them without the flash so the colors are "off". I had plenty of light in the room, but apparently not the right type of light.

 

 

Any haziness or discoloration on the walls is simply due to the paint being somewhat wet when the picture was taken. Yeah, I know there are spots on the ceiling, but I'm not touching those as then I would have to do the entire ceiling too. If it was my place, you better believe I'd be scrubbing at those spots until they were gone, then priming and repainting. Alas, this is a rental so nobody is going to scrutinize the ceiling for spots in certain light conditions.

 

There were quite a few skins and blobs in the paint unfortunately which made the application annoying. Luckily skins ending up going on imperfect textured walls just blends into the background. The blobs are a bit bothersome as they are darker in color inside. When you press those on to the wall with the roller the blobs pop spilling their guts and creating spots. Easily fixed though by going over it again with a wet roller. Anyhow I have no idea how well the paint is going to dry so we'll have to play it by ear if the walls need another coat.

 

The two doors are obviously getting another coat yet, the baseboards, frames and trim seem good to go. After the painting in the room is complete, then I can remove the tape, replace the electrical receptacles, reinstall the vent covers and switch plates and wash the floor. Then it's touchup on the front doors, touchup on the kitchen floor with the gray polyurethane and maybe paint the entrance.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Ever considered a career as a construction/reconstruction contractor? You have plenty of pics to make a huge library of your past work, and that would have to be enough to persuade just about anyone. It might pay more than flowers.

[Thorondor]

With Zombie it's show, don't tell and yet he does it so well!

 

You're quite literally rocking and rolling here and things are really shaping up. Blobs or no blobs in the mix you came through with the goods.

 

I will say that, looking at the two pictures you took with flash, there are at least a couple of areas showing some need for a little extra coating (i.e. in pic 3, to the right of the window frame, just above midway up, whiteish specks?).

 

With the walls looking this refreshed that ceiling is truly risking becoming the unsightly elephant in the room. Well, people don't like craning their neck anyway, right?

[Zombie]

I will say that, looking at the two pictures you took with flash, there are at least a couple of areas showing some need for a little extra coating (i.e. in pic 3, to the right of the window frame, just above midway up, whiteish specks?).

 

After investigation it was just some high spots from the spray texture which I forgot to sand down in conjunction with wet paint in the pic. I had to pile on a nice thick coat around the frame to hide any stray whitish paint and it was taking forever to dry without the fans on. I do have to say that looking at the room today it's really quite pretty. I couldn't keep my hands off the walls.

 

So I was trying to pull the room back together and had the light on and noticed there wasn't much light coming from the fixture and it seemed awfully "white" in color... almost like an LED. Took the glass globe off and sure enough a single LED 9W bulb was in there (the fixture can take two). I checked out the other ceiling light fixtures in the rooms and half were not even functional (most still have incandescent bulbs too). So I told bossman to pick me up about a dozen more 9W LED bulbs and I'll change out everything. That should keep the place nice and bright and save the tenant some cash on electricity usage. Win-win.

 

For the bedroom I just painted I'm going to change out the two plug outlets in the wall as one is broken and the other is caked with paint (not by me). Outlets are cheap enough to swap out and at least the newer ones are easier to wire up. When I was in the entrance to the apartment I noticed the switchplate for the light is broken so I'm going to replace that too for safety reasons. While I was there I had to take some pics of the condition. In back of the door (the brown spots are caulk as there were holes in the wall).

 

 

In the second pic you can see more areas I caulked along with the (now) missing switchplate and the newly installed silver deadbolt above the gold handle on the door. The beveled glass window is also loose in the frame which I need to fix yet.

 

 

The door itself is in rough shape too with dirt marks around the handle and lock as well as cracks in the paint and the usual scuffs and dings.

 

 

Needless to say, I might as well roll out this room as well. Most of the prep work is done already, the only thing I need to do is tape up the floor around the perimeter of the quarter round molding and the door handle and lock and caulk the space between the quarter round and baseboard. That'll spruce up the entrance and with the new LED light it will be even brighter.

 

Oh my work never ends.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

If you find yourself in a tight spot leave it to Zombie to recover the lot.

 

Looks pretty cramped. To work in the short space between those two doors with materials and all one probably has to have one open at all times.

 

And, man, that door in the final pic sure needs some loving. Frame and everything.

[Zombie]

Looks pretty cramped. To work in the short space between those two doors with materials and all one probably has to have one open at all times.

 

Indeed, I keep the inner door open so I can move the canvas and ladder in and out as needed. It's just barely wide enough to fit the ladder in there so that's handy.

 

And, man, that door in the final pic sure needs some loving. Frame and everything.

 

Front doors always get beat up, especially if it's the primary entrance as it is in this case.

 

So bossman picked up a 10-pack of LED bulbs for me to use in the apartment.

 

 

We've been using this brand of LED's for a while now and they seem to be pretty good quality. I wouldn't skimp and get Chinesium-grade LED's for this application as the electronics inside have a bad tendency to fry with any little spike in voltage. Just a word to the wise. So I took down the light "globes" in the bedroom, living room, kitchen and hallway and cleaned them out (they all had dust and insects inside). Then I took out the old lights and replaced them with the new LED's (I left them on for the afternoon to "burn" them in). Finally I reinstalled the globes and away we go:

 

 

Looks a little dark in the pic, but they put out a lot of light. Considering the incandescent bulbs in there before were 75W each (150W total), the two new LED's consume 10W each (20W total) that's an 87% reduction of power. The tenant should see savings almost instantly. I didn't switch out the bulbs in the spare room as they were still functional nor did I do the main bedroom (gotta ask the tenant if he wants it brighter in there).

 

I didn't do much actual painting after the bulb switchout, but I was able to tape up the entrance and caulk the areas I mentioned in my previous post. You can see what I did with the white color caulk. Here I'm in the process of scratching all the old caulk out around each panel. Check out how bright it is with the new LED installed:

 

 

The door is going to need to be primed in spots so there's another use for that explosive primer (it's almost gone now)! And that black weather stripping under the door? Yeah, I'm going to remove that and replace it with a new sweep. It's really not doing much good in the condition it's in anyway.

 

I futzed around with that inner door too today (sorry, no pics of this). It was not closing properly anymore so I scraped all the paint off the hinge side of the door jamb and then heavily sanded the door itself where it meets the jamb. This created enough space to allow the door to latch again. I have to lightly prime and paint those areas with the raw wood yet. Pics will be forthcoming if I remember. So I'm really close to being complete with the prep work for the entrance now. I painted the inner door frame before the tenant moved in so that's still in decent shape yet but as with frames there are some areas I need to touch up on it.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

He he he, heavy coating of lacquer caused me a problem or two before, too. And then you sand away all the hard work you've put into it.

[Zombie]

Yesterday I was able to roll out the entrance and paint the baseboards+trim.

 

 

Yup, very nice again. I also spot primed the front door which turned out to be most of it anyway.

 

 

That explosive primer still works. Smells a little funky now , but not bad (I think it helped I added some latex paint conditioner too). The inside of the front door will probably be the dark color when I get to that.

 

I didn't notice any skips in the paint job but there are a few dark spots from blobs which I need to touch up. And then I also shlupped some dark paint on the ceiling by accident when I got scared from the strong storm that rolled through. Other than that, it's coming together nicely. I need to change the outlets in the bedroom yet and reinstall the switch plates and outlet plates and try to figure out how to install the black vent covers (longer screws aren't the answer, I guess I need to fill in the holes first).

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Walls are looking the part alright, Zombie. Entrance door still needs some more TLC.

 

Probably not your concern but, starting with the first pic, I just couldn't overlook the discoloration / smudging in the wooden flooring, which is very apparent.

 

And, given the way the front door opens, that's bound to be a bit of an eyesore upon entry.

[Zombie]

Probably not your concern but, starting with the first pic, I just couldn't overlook the discoloration / smudging in the wooden flooring, which is very apparent.

 

And, given the way the front door opens, that's bound to be a bit of an eyesore upon entry.

 

I'm planning on washing the floor after I get done, but I highly doubt I'll be able to remove most of the discoloration/smudging. It's pretty much ground into the wood I imagine. Sanding and refinishing is the only option, but here again, I don't have the funds for that as I'm doing this on the cheap. Maybe eventually.

 

Yesterday I was able to paint the back of the door to the bedroom, the closet door and inside of the front door. Plus I installed the new electrical outlets and cover plates. Talking about paint, I also repainted the door going to the basement in the kitchen. So a very productive day.

 

Today I decided to work on the front door. I mentioned that the beveled glass window in the door was loose so it rattled pretty bad when you opened or closed the door. Not good, as that rattling could eventually cause the glass to crack and fail. Need I say that trying to buy a beveled glass replacement window would probably cost an arm and a leg even if you could somehow find the exact size. Repair it is.

 

When doing window work, you usually use glazing compound between the glass and the frame/molding. I had issues with glazing compound in the past and in a door where it will see vibrations from opening/closing the glazing probably would crack as it dries out. So I'm going to use caulk. It's at least flexible even years later. It's also a hell of a lot cleaner/easier/faster to apply than glazing. (An added benefit is that caulk will be easier to remove if the window needs to be reglazed in the future). First step is to very, very carefully remove the molding (muntin bar) holding the window in place. After that you gotta get the window itself out. I scraped around the now-revealed frame to remove as much of the old glazing as possible then got my putty knife between the glass and outside frame and carefully worked it left to right. Eventually the glass will detach from the frame.

 

 

Next comes the real work, you have to remove all the old glazing from the frame, muntin bars and window itself. Best way is to scrape as much of that off as you can, and on the wood you can sand it with really rough sandpaper. Here's the window in progress:

 

 

I removed the Radio Shack security system sticker as it's very old and who even owns a Radio Shack security system anymore? The September 11, 2001 cling comes off as well... nearly 20 years ago now and I still remember how terrified I was that day. Anyway, here are the muntin bars all cleaned up and sanded:

 

 

You can't just go gung-ho and start installing the window again. No sir, you have to first prime the wood. I used some of that explosive primer and put the fans on full-blast to get it to dry quicker. Same thing with the muntin bars. While waiting for that I vacuumed up the messes I made scraping and sanding. For re installation you just work your way backwards by applying caulk to the frame nice and heavy so that when you "seat" the window in it'll squeeze out. Then you add some more caulk around the window glass and press the muntin bars into the caulk to "seat" it on the inside. You finish it off by pounding some small brads (or wire nails) through the bars into the frame.

 

For some reason, the top and bottom bars only had two nails while the side bars had three (I don't think the window was ever worked on in it's century old existence as there were no extra nail holes in the bars). That could have been part of the problem why the glass was loose. I put in 5 nails on the top and bottom and 6 on the sides - that should hold it in place better. I like to let the caulk "set" a bit before I start addressing the squeeze-out. Once it skinned over I scraped the excess caulk off and wiped the glass with a wet rag. Outside of the door and finally inside:

 

 

Yeah, the outside of the door is in pretty rough shape. With all the cracking and checking you would think the paint would be easy to scrape off, but it's not (you can probably see my test scrape area). I'm not going to start a rant about who decided (and why) to paint a beautiful century old solid wood door in the first place - it's always been painted as long as I remember from the late 80's. So I'm probably going to chemically strip the old paint off and then repaint. If I had the time (and an unlimited budget, and if was my own place) I'd sand it down to bare wood after stripping and then apply 5-6 coats of spar polyurethane (marine poly). I'll leave that for the next guy.

 

Here's the status of the bedroom:

 

 

Looks good! I need to install the black air vent covers yet, remove the tape and wash the floor, but other than that it's ready to go. Still on the list is to touch up the kitchen floor with the grey polyurethane, touch up the inside of the front door, remove the tape and wash the floor in there.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Pretty gutsy window work you've endeavoured there, Zombie.

 

Breakage of the glass and/or eventual cracking of the surrounding wooden framing is inescapably on the back of one's mind throughout. But you did say "very, very carefully" - using Elmer Fudd intonation no doubt.

 

Fortunately all turned out great and likely ready for another century of quiet transparency.

 

Moving to the bedroom, well, that got outright rejuvenated and things are looking up for completion in short order there (provided we don't look up).

 

Now, speaking of the outside of the front door, hopefully the cracking we see is only restricted to the paint layers and no deeper. Otherwise you might end up having to do some extra sanding regardless.

[Zombie]

Pretty gutsy window work you've endeavoured there, Zombie.

 

Breakage of the glass and/or eventual cracking of the surrounding wooden framing is inescapably on the back of one's mind throughout. But you did say "very, very carefully" - using Elmer Fudd intonation no doubt.

 

Fortunately all turned out great and likely ready for another century of quiet transparency.

 

You got it! Yeah, my biggest worry when doing a reglazing job is breaking the muntin bars and/or cracking the glass. The muntin bars because it's hard to nearly impossible to fabricate a new piece (some of them can be quite intricate and unique). The glass, because of the wasted time getting a new piece and the cost of replacement is going to be high no matter what. You just have to take it slow and make all your movements methodical so you don't get careless or make a mistake.

 

Now, speaking of the outside of the front door, hopefully the cracking we see is only restricted to the paint layers and no deeper. Otherwise you might end up having to do some extra sanding regardless.

 

It's just the paint that's cracking. I think the issue was that someone painted over the lacquered door and it didn't stick properly to the glossy surface. You either have to sand the door or use a no-sand surface prep to dull the glossiness. They probably didn't use a decent primer either as those will "etch" into the finish and allow the final paint color to adhere to something. So a multitude of mistakes were made. Dunno if/when I'll be able to do the outside of the door though.

 

Well, I'm kinda wrapping things up over at the apartment. Yesterday I removed the tape and scraped the floor in the bedroom and front "hall" to remove all the little drips of paint previous painters left, then swept, vacuumed and washed the floors. I also attached the vent covers (finally)! Today I pulled together the bedroom refurnishing it with some of our furniture.

 

 

In one of the little bedside tables drawer was a partial bottle of coconut oil. I just wonder if this was the mysterious oily substance on the ceiling and door? You can see the bottle on the black mesh rack. I also put another coat of paint on the inside of the front door making sure to fill in the nail holes in the muntin bars.

 

 

I'll see about getting a better pic of it sometime. Today was so sunny and bright it washed out almost all my pics (probably wasn't a good idea to take pics at 4pm when the sun was low in the sky too). Anyhow started work on the kitchen floor first by scraping anything loose and then sweeping.

 

 

Then I touched up the spots with the gray polyurethane paint.

 

 

I'm probably going to have to roll on a final coat as you'll still be able to see the spots but it looks better at least. (Don't even ask how much work it took me yesterday to see the floor again as there was garbage all over).

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Vent covers in place at last - check.

 

You sure put in the effort, Zombie, but the bedroom floor is still unforgivingly showing its age. I doubt even resorting to a machine would make much of a difference though.

 

Your paint job is the real juice here. Pretty much aced it there, as usual.

 

Great transformation in the kitchen - from mess to success!

 

I'm getting store back cooler vibes from this.

[Zombie]

You sure put in the effort, Zombie, but the bedroom floor is still unforgivingly showing its age. I doubt even resorting to a machine would make much of a difference though.

 

What kind of machine though? I think if you got a floor sander and sanded the whole thing the result would be pretty good. If not, you could always put on a coat of stain to make any imperfections less noticeable, then a few coats of sealer. I've seen far worse floors which came out like brand new after refinishing efforts. These stains on the bedroom floor look like bleaching stains from something like lye (sodium hydroxide) or most likely ammonia (NH3). I'm almost positive those could be sanded out, especially on a hardwood like maple (which these are).

 

Great transformation in the kitchen - from mess to success!

 

It's better, still needs another coat sometime. At least I'm keeping it from getting worse. But you can see how well this paint wears... two years of heavy use and just a few scratches (some from moving in the refrigerator and stove). That's not that bad.

 

I'm getting store back cooler vibes from this.

 

Me too. It's on my list of things to do but the back cooler is currently running (for the first time in a few months) due to funerals and now some weddings. It would have to be off for at least a week before I could touch up the spots and a week and a half for a top coat. And then if I did that I'd want to paint the table in the backroom again too (I've just been touching up the chips and scratches for the time being). And then if I did the backroom table I'd want to do the tabletop in the front which I replaced a couple years ago (never did the base of it though). There's always more.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Well, I stand corrected, Zombie.

 

I wasn't thinking about something as harsh as sanding. I suppose the quality of the wood means it would withstand it without ruining the grain.

 

In any case you've now provided enough insight into a potential solution that I better understand the further possibilities on the table to really obfuscate / remove the damage.

 

Beyond that, your cascade of "If I do this, I'd also do that, then that" just makes me real glad you're not the other kind of "Serial Cleaner".

[Zombie]

More work completed today. I had to take care of some store related maintenance in the morning along with a couple projects from my to-do list. Sometimes you just can't prolong a project too long otherwise you'll never get caught up. When I popped over at the apartment I noticed that one of the kitchen cabinet doors was loose. I investigated and found that the two screws holding in the lower hinge were missing. That'll do it. Had a rumble through my collection of hardware and found some suitable replacement screws and it's now fixed. Tried to use some paint thinner to remove the old adhesive from the Radio Shack sticker on the front door window but it didn't help. Lacquer thinner did though.

 

One issue which was bothering me was that just inside the bedroom there were two 12" square peel-n-stick carpet tiles on the floor which I tore off but the adhesive still remained. Then the adhesive picked up all the sanding dust and dirt from me working in there too. I tried scraping it off, but it was a no-go... too sticky. Just for giggles, I splashed on some paint thinner to see if that would remove it. By golly, it actually verked!

 

 

I used that nylon brush to scrub but found that as long as the adhesive was wet with thinner I could scrape it up with a putty knife. After removing the stuff I cleaned the area with some more paint thinner and blasted the fan on the floor as it stunk to high heaven. Sorry I don't have a before pic but you can see the stuff in the last pic I posted on August 11 to the left of the pic by the door.

 

Time to work on the kitchen floor again. I painted ("cut in") along the perimeter of the room with a brush then rolled on a coat of polyurethane with a foam roller cover.

 

 

You can probably see that the floor in the kitchen has some of those black peel-n-stick 12" carpet tiles affixed to the floor. These are the same type as in the bedroom. I didn't remove them from the floor in the kitchen as they are mostly sticking good yet. Since I had some paint left in the roller pan I might as well do the long table in the backroom and the two rolling tables by the back cooler.

 

 

I put up a wet paint sign above the rolling tables just in case someone got excited and tried to put a vase of flowers on them. I wasn't too worried about having a sign for the backroom table as I moved a rolling cart in front of it along with a fan on top to circulate the air. Should get the hint. Murphy's Law of Technology:

 

Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.

 

Replace the masculine with feminine in this particular case if you catch my drift. Anyhow, a little more to do over at the apartment yet. Gotta move in the table and chairs into the kitchen along with a cabinet. Have to start moving some of my stuff back to the store like the ladder, vacuum and paint. I need to replace some ceiling lights with LEDs in two rooms yet. And of course clean the floor in the living room and clean the front door window.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

No filth or dirt will stick around where Zombie's skills with solvents you've found!

 

Nastiness removed alright. But I can only imagine the fumes. That sort of thing tends to go to the back of your throat and sometimes lingers even afterwards.

 

Thumbs up on the kitchen floor - another right fine, literally shining example of that polyurethane finish. Ready to go for another decade of clumsy cooking at the very least!

 

As for the tables, you have to understand, the work is so good that, at waist level - and therefore within easy reach of the hand - it's virtually irresistible to the mesmerised female staff. You are their doom!

[Zombie]

No filth or dirt will stick around where Zombie's skills with solvents you've found!

 

Nastiness removed alright. But I can only imagine the fumes. That sort of thing tends to go to the back of your throat and sometimes lingers even afterwards.

 

The issue for me was that I'm using a different brand of paint thinner than I normally use. I purchased this All Pro stuff at the paint store because the price was the same and I was right there. But it's a stronger smelling mix. Probably fine for thinning paints but not for solvent use. BTW, the brand I normally use is Sunnyside - been using that for years and years, I could almost drink the stuff.

 

Thumbs up on the kitchen floor - another right fine, literally shining example of that polyurethane finish. Ready to go for another decade of clumsy cooking at the very least!

 

Maybe not a decade, but at least a few years assuming nothing heavy is moved around in there. Looks pretty though, the shine really adds to the clean.

 

As for the tables, you have to understand, the work is so good that, at waist level - and therefore within easy reach of the hand - it's virtually irresistible to the mesmerised female staff. You are their doom!

 

Good one!

 

So I kinda finished things up over at the apartment today. Finally! Changed out all the light bulbs to LED except for the outdoor porch light which I swapped over to incandescent. Why? Well, I have about 4 bulbs from the inside and don't want to throw them out. It's easy to get at the light outside anyway so it's a quick change. Plus the outside light is never on very long so it doesn't suck too much power. If these all burn out I'll change back to LED or whatever is the newest low energy light. Moved all the furniture back into the kitchen... very carefully to prevent scratching that beautiful finish. I didn't wash the living room floor as I ran out of time, but I swept it out at least. The window in the front door can be cleaned at a later date.

 

Besides a possible repaint job on the front door, the screen door needs some help too. Not so much in the paint department, but the screens are shot and need to be replaced. I don't have a spline rolling tool though so I'll have to buy that as well as some fiberglass screen. I'm hoping the spline itself is fine and doesn't need to be replaced. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

As for what's next, who knows. there are painting projects left to do inside but I normally wait to do those when the temps get a little lower so I can open the doors to get some air circulation. As you could see from my last post, I had all the doors open in the back to keep the smell down when I did the tables. I normally have the doors open anyway though, especially now with COVID and the heat.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.

 

:D Sooo true.

 

Insanely great work, Z. If this insanity is caused by the virus (I mean directly, not indirectly by Covid ), I'd like to hang out with you and get infected.

[Zombie]

So yesterday the downstairs tenant called me at work and asked me to meet him in the parking lot. Ok, no problem he occasionally does this. I figured he was going to personally hand me the rent check for the month like he does sometimes. Nope, he needed help moving in a new microwave and griddle for the kitchen (he's slightly disabled so he has trouble lifting things). Did that and he stops me dead in my tracks and starts gushing how beautiful the apartment looked. My pleasure of course, I know what it's like to be a tenant where the landlord rarely does anything to spruce up apartments. In this case, my reward from him was two six packs of beer with more supposedly on the way. So yeah, a happy ending for both parties is always a win.

 

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Great to see a recognition of your work! Also, beer is always welcome.