Finishing the Floor

Here we go - Chris has the camera, so photos later, but I am cleaning the floors for the umpteenth time (the cleaner they are the nicer the finish will look - see the footprints post). I tested the waterbased top coat last night and it looks good. We were worried that the cabernet red oil based stain might not be dry enough, but I think it is. Yes, I know, Oil and Water don't mix! In the modern wood finishes world they've made really good progress with water based finishes. As long as the oil is dry, the waterbased Varathane will look great. Wish me luck.

Footprints in the floor

Rats! despite all our best efforts at shoes off and clean feet there are some subtle footprints in the finish. Sigh. I think I know who's feet they are and I'll do a Cinderella type event at the kitchen party. It is heartwarming in a way to know that our friends will always be with us.

Some Progress At Last

After basically being held captive by an overly busy tradesmen, we have taken over the reigns of the floor refinishing and worked hard (Dad especially, Chris Sarah and Darrin also) for several days. We just could not wait any longer.

We are appreciative that Frederic has agreed to focus on finishing the backsplash and the stair tiles and has not taken offense at our taking over the floor refinishing. Sarah and Chris spent the day yesterday with oil induced headaches and managed to paint our way into a corner (sorry no pics of that one;-)

Bruce has gone with our friends Eric and Angela to Haines for a well deserved break to try his hands at Sockeye fishing and a little celebrating at the Haines Southeast Alasks State Fair.

Chris is heading to fish camp on Saturday to visit with his Grandma May (also a well deserved break). Sarah is going to have some Sarah time and look after cats. Perhaps she will start the Varathane coats on Sunday.

Frederic has some more to go on the backsplash and we hope that will be complete soon.

Another week goes by

Another week goes by and we are still living in the Kleenex box in the front yard. I try very hard to live by that classic addage; "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". It's been hampering my blog posts. We are still waiting for the floors to be refinished. I beleive it is fair to say that we are all tired of waiting. Today we all pitched in on the sanding. Even our super neighbour Darrin who is building his own home pitched in. It was good to get something accomplished. We are still left with quite a few bits and pieces to finish before the project is done. In addition to the flooring, there's the baseboards, door trim, painting, backsplash, and of course the ultimate clean.

Floors and other tiny steps

A start has been made on refinishing the upstairs floors. Today we moved in our new fridge, which was rather filthy due to it's time in the garage. I spent an hour cleaning it an it almost looks new. Sigh. I even managed to find the kick place for the bottom so it looks pretty good. I also installed the kick plate on the dishwasher. That looks pretty finished now too. Chris fixed one of the pieces of trim around the new window because it had bowed out. We sat in the love shack and conemplated the lay out of things. We made a list of all the things left to do. Really I'd have rather made a list of the things done. Another big sigh. As my Nana would always close her letters; "at least we've got our health".

Its been a week

Well, its been a week with not much action. There's been a slow down. We spent the weekend at the Atlin Arts and Music Festival that was a great time. The love shack is looking good. Its got the house wrap and a couple windows.

Decisions & Repercussions

It is amazing to me how small choices at one stage can result in big problems at others. Maybe not big problems, but problems. At the very biginning of this project Chris and I knew that there would be a problem finishing the end of the wall that supports our lovley new granite bar. We talked about it and considered a variety of options. In the end we elected to cover it with wood that matches our cabinetry. Our wonderful cabinet maker Mark has executed a lovely wood cap for the space. That's what's pictured here. What we didn't consider is the air return. With forced air heating (very common here out west) not only do you have the vents providing warm air, but you have other vents that 'return' the air to the furnace system. As I understand it the purpose is to keep the air circulating throughtout the house. Anyway, in the wall we took out there was an air return. When we shortened the wall part of that air return duct ended up in the floor. We did not forsee just how difficult it would be to deal with it. Pictured here is the lovely grate made by our metal working wizard of an ex-neighbour Joe. Tada!

Also today the plumbing got finished.