Handywoman in Training

If you know me, you know that I LOVE doing home improvement projects. I like to think that this has origins in college dorm living when one of my roommates, Alexis, and I loved to take up "casual" activities like "casual plumbing" and "casual carpentry". I still like to take up "casual" activities for the heck of it. So when I found a draft/some holes (thank you previous renters) in our bedroom wall, it was time to spring into action!

I had never actually tried filling holes before, but found a product at Walmart that helped tremendously. It allows you to pump it into the holes, let it dry, sand it down, then stain it to match the wood paneling! Now, if this had been a hole in drywall, it would've been a completely different story, plaster and all.

Above are the two holes I focused on. The one of the left is right below our bedroom window and appears to be caused by a swelling of the wood paneling from moisture damage. As for the hole on the right, I have not the foggiest idea how they put a hole into the closet wall, but then again there are a lot of damages to our house that make no sense. 

Since the left hand hole was in fact causing a cold draft from the outside, Mr. Batten stuffed it temporarily with newspaper to seal it until we were able to fill it in. I guess there's a purpose for keeping old Bulletin Board ads after all. =P 

His (temporary) masterpiece!

After work I headed to the local (and insane) Walmart and scoped out the draft repair section. Frankly, it was overwhelming. There were multiple types of putty, spray foam, draft sealer, pastes, glues. Anything you could think of. Finally I went with this product because it was a reasonable price and looked simple enough to use. Unlike some of the other products, it also looked like it was able to be used more than once (some of the spray foams were labeled as one time use). Below is a picture of it, as applied to the area below our window. I have to say, it was incredibly easy to use! You cut the tip of the bottle to the size you needed. I was also able to fill the other hole, which somehow looks like a dragon? You'll have to judge that one for your self though!

The next step, which is coming soon, was sanding. The WoodFiller had to set for at least 8 hours for larger holes, so I had filled the holes before work so they'd be fine before the next time that we went to bed. Being the slow-poke that I am, it was actually a few days before I got around to sanding.

[to be continued]