I tend to bite off more than I can chew.

A LOT!

I have no idea why I decide I can do certain things that are beyond most women physically, but I jump right in and then find out I’m in over my head.

For the last few weeks I’ve blogged about my journey with doing a DIY pea gravel patio. I’m to the point of waiting on crushed run to be delivered… and it has rained… and rained… and rained…. so the truck can’t get in where we need it to come.

I decided in the meantime to tackle another project.

Did I mention the garden needs to be weeded and finish planting it? Or that I picked up a snake in some straw I was placing on my watermelon bed without knowing it and deposited him in my wheelbarrow? I called my husband for that one. Snakes make me sick and I want someone else to kill them. He thought it was a copperhead. So I left the garden temporarily.

And went on to a new project. Remember the blogposts on the cats? We now have four cats that I have grown to love. But—I’m allergic to cats, plus I have grandchildren with tons of allergies… so I’m always trying to rid my surroundings of allergens.

Several years ago, I put down indoor/outdoor carpeting on the front porch. I feel pretty stupid about that decision right now. A few weeks ago, I vacuumed 2 and a half canisters of cat hair off that porch. I’ve had to use my inhalers more than ever recently, and I don’t want my grandchildren dealing with runny noses from the carpet, so I decided to take it off.

I used several chemicals for glue removal to get started. It was a very slow start.

The top layer of carpet came off, leaving the carpet backing stuck in the now gooey glue.

Here is the backing in the glue. I added more chemicals and was able to pull it out using every ounce of strength I had. That’s some good glue.

And this is what I’m left with. Some of the porch is beginning to show through the now dried glue. It has been painted several times over the years. I ordered a 4 inch scraper that takes off about an inch at a time. The tall scraper you see in the middle of the porch is not sharp enough to get under the edge of the glue, so it doesn’t work.

I called Lowes and they have an electric scraper for jobs like this. It is my last resort. And I’m praying it works.

Here are my lessons— learned the hard way:

1. Before you begin a project, think of all the consequences that can make it be the wrong choice down the road.
2. If you’ve already made a bad decision, study up on how to fix it before you start.
3. There is always an answer to every problem. You may not know it right now, but don’t stop until you do.
4. You will never have anything good, unless you keep working at it.

Okay… so we rented a machine from Lowes and after three hours of intensive labor today, this is as far as I got.

I got rid of a few more layers of glue, but it is still a long way off from being ready to paint.

A closer view.

The machine that we rented from Lowes weighs 25 pounds. You have to hold it up at a 45 degree angle to even gouge into the glue and push it off. The whole thing vibrates as you’re doing this. It takes a lot of muscle to use, and I was getting no where fast.

Now it’s back to the drawing broad. I’ve spent the evening looking for another solution. Tomorrow we plan to try renting a bigger machine that sits on wheels on the floor but does the same action. I’ll keep you posted… just in case…sometime… you have a project like this.

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither though goest.” – Ecclesiastes 9:10