Saturday, August 18, 2012

Gerta and I Come to Blows

Today, I decided to battle Gerta- and mostly won.

We've been here two years now, and one of the niggling irritations I've lived with has been our bathroom tub.

After years of being an outfitter's house with lunking, hulking hunters and then a ranch house, our tub has had a permanent haze of dirty-ish ickyness that has stubbornly refused to disappear.

I've tried everything- bleach, ZaBoom, borax, Mr. Clean magic erasers, CLR, blah, blah, blah; you name it, I've tried it.  No dice.

I'm sure Gerta, who loves being a dirty beige ranch, has been delighted with my frustration.

Today, I got down and dirty myself.  After hours ruminating on possible ideas, I took Bar Keeper's Friend (yes, I'd tried this in the past as well), made a paste with water, got Dan's electric sander with a softer sanding pad, and let loose on the walls and tub.

I spent a good hour sanding away, spraying white, gooey paste all over me, the walls, the tub, and the floor.  Dan said I sounded quite industrial.  I imagined a good stiff upper cut to Gerta, and dreamed of it being a knock-out punch.

Ha!  It worked.  The built-in grime slowly erased (as well as likely parts of the finish).  While not perfect, the damn tub finally resembled what a good tub should look like.  Victory was mine!

Then, in retaliation, Gerta punched me back.  The do-hickey that keeps the water coming in shower form versus tub flowing form broke.  That meant we didn't have a functional shower, which is all we ever use.  Panic was in my eyes......

Gerta can be a bitch at times, and thought she had me down.

But not all was lost; I called the Ranch Manager.  He came down and saved my day- after much clumping and thumping, he got the shower option working again.  Take that, Gerta!

My next project?  I just bought vinyl floor stripper for the kitchen.  Half the marks and 'dirt' are permanent... I'm hoping I can strip them away.

We'll see what Gerta has to say about that...

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